Let's Rock! - Week 4

Today is a good day. For today it is 1 month since I set out to drastically improve my 1v1 prowess. So I guess the question is, has any progress been made? Well simply put, yes. Lots of progress.

The first thing I talked about was the fear of playing or rather the fear of losing. Now while I still have a slight anxiety I find myself almost enjoying and even looking forward to playing 1v1. I have learnt that getting my ass kicked is all part of the learning process. With each loss I can learn something new, see a new build order or strategy that has to be countered and overcome.

I didn't work this out at first, with each loss making me feel like I didn't know anything about Starcraft 2 and that I could never improve. But its amazing how a few wins can improve your out look on life. I have come up against some tough opponents and played some close games but playing and even loosing these games has forced me to re-evaluate my game style and change my fundamental mechanics.

Thanks to these losses and having Comadevil watch me play and tell me where I am going wrong, I have learnt to play a very different Zerg game then I did before. Gone are the days when I would try to win the game by fighting off of 2 bases or doing some sort of crazy banneling rush. Now its all about the economic powerhouse. Its all about holding back and expanding, waiting until the last possible second to build an army once my economy is in overdrive.

I can already see that my games are progressing along the 'standard' play as Day9 would call it. This is exactly what I need if I ever want to survive outside of the gold league.

Aside from big game changing fundamentals that have been learnt, I am slowly improving lots of little things. I am now using my overlords more effectively, scouting the back of the enemy base, keeping one over my expansion so I can spot any cheesy cannon or bunker rush and lining the route to enemy Zerg base with Overlords so I can see whenever they move out. I have even re-arranged my control groups to give me more flexibility with my army and to more easily find my Queens so I can get those larvae spawning quicker.

I think If I went back and played myself from a month ago, I would kick my ass.

Although I have been playing much, much more then before (well its not hard to play more than zero), I am still not playing as much as I would like. I need to play more, I need to get those 5 games a day in. When season 3 starts I have a new goal: to keep my bonus pool at zero. That means never letting it build up, playing every single day. Only by doing this will I get anywhere.

Its been a great start and I feel more confident than ever in my 1v1 ability but there is a long way to go yet. Rome wasn't built in a day and a noob cannot be turned into a master in a month. I'm looking forward to seeing where I will stand in 4 weeks time, so here's to the next month!

Let's Rock!