Last week was not good for my ego. I took loss, after loss, after loss but with each loss came a determination to get another win. Determination is good and all but determinedly trying to lift a car with your mind is only going to give you a headache if you ain't got the midi-chlorians.
So instead of gritting my teeth and diving head long once more into my next match, I have realized that taking some time to stop and watch the replay of the game I have just played might be a good idea. It might give me a chance to settle down and see just where I went wrong and the other guy or gal went right. Doing this I might discover that going 14 pool isn't such a great idea in a Zerg vs Zerg (ZvZ) on Xel'naga caverns with its close base proximity.
I faced a lot of cheesy 6 and 9 pool rushes last week that left me feeling frustrated and cheated and I need to look into how I can beat those back comfortably. Whether it is just a question of going for an earlier pool or better drone micro to kill it off.
One thing I have discovered from my games so far is that my Zerg vs Terran or ZvT, is by far my weakest match up. I don't know what it is about Terran but I never feel in control in those match ups. If I'm not losing my expo to a bunker rush then I'm living in fear of a fast banshee rush or blue flame hellion drop. The ability they have to wall up with supply depots and Tanks whilst simultaneously making multiple medi-vac drops leaves me running round in circles trying desperately to defend whilst unable to effectively attack. Always ending in the same way as the Terran's brutal death machine gets slowly bigger and bigger until their unstoppable army comes to my base and squashes my army like the insects the Zerg are. But the Zerg are not insects! We are the Swarm, the bringer of death and darkness and we shall flow over the Terran and devour them until nothing is left but ash and dust. After that I feel like an evil laugh is needed: Muh ha ha ha ha.
But how to bring about this grizzly end for the Terran? Well to start with I will read and try to understand SieGe’s excellent ZvT guide found over at Team Liquid. Understanding theory craft and what to look out for and how to play against Terran is essential if I am to get anywhere higher than Gold league.
Despite the losses I was happy with how I have started to rally Overlords away from my base. It felt clumsy at first having to mentally think: don't build that Overlord yet, deselect the Larva you have just started to morph and reselect them, then build only Overlords then manually rally them somewhere else. The end result however was a much easier time finding my units at my rally points and not losing loose Overlords to counter attacks at my front. Hopefully after another week of doing this it will become second nature.
One final thing that I need to do in all my match ups is to aggressively expand. My friend Coma Devil watched one of my streams and told me I needed to expand more. I was like I just got my natural going I'm good. Of course I was wrong. After losing a number of games because I failed to secure a 3rd or 4th and falling onto one base as my main dried up, I realized he was right. Watching some replays and the pros at the North American Star League opened my eyes to just how much Zerg expand. Win a fight? Expand. Terran is building a command center? Expand Got 600 minerals? Expand. Expand. Expand. Expand. This way not only does Zerg get a massive economical boost, they gain access to loads of Larva with which to build units and can control more territory making your main more secure.
Coma Devil told me that Zerg must always have one base more than their opponent to stay on even terms with them. Well if you think about it, that makes perfect sense. As Zerg one Hatchery spawns 3 larva plus 4 more for every time the Queen uses the Spawn Larva ability and vomits extra all larva all over it. This means that from this building you are building both your economic units and your military might. So generally you must choose to either build an army or build Drones and beef up your economy.
Terran and Protoss can build both at the same time giving them an immediate advantage. So in order to catch up you need to build twice as many hatchery's so you can build both army and economy at the same time. A simple concept, yet one I have failed to observe so far.
So this week besides playing more, I have a few objectives:
- Watch replays of games I have played
- Rally overlords out of the way
- Expand. Expand. Expand.
- Read up on ZvT theory
- Don't loose to any more 6 pools
Let's Rock!
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