this is good info. no wonder why my stuff melts. im used to being able to split armies and then just jump on them.

yes roaches are always my panic button. old habit i have from zvp back in the day when stephano roach max was my go-to build.

I'm gonna be in bed but for anyone who isn't, Scarlett's GSL quarterfinal match is in about 30 minutes

Nice indeed.

Tonight after 9pm CST and much of tomorrow I'm back in the game. I've finished my existing projects and need some competition back in my recreational time.

Bnet tag is Slade#1912, feel free to add and attempt to snipe as you climb through Diamond. Ditto to anyone else ITT.

Here's how SC2 and I left things in January:



Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

GSL on at a decent time.

Dark vs zest map 1 was great.

dam man i really need to spend some time reading about counters to builds before im on ladder more. my macro is on point, my scouting is on point, but... im just guessing what units to build to counter certain comps. i really have no clue and now am losing to players i can out macro.

is there a good place to find this?

I'm not aware of any good web resources about the metagame. Just post what you're having trouble with and we can help. Also watch pro games, Dark just played Zest for all your ZvP needs!

2 base zealot/immortal/sentry/some stalkers. i know it's coming. what should i build?

Hydra/roach off 3 base?

+ remember ravagers break force fields

if i wanted to get into this game, with former RTS experience (WCIII, brood war a tiny bit) how long would it take me to familiarize myself with builds/counters to not get completely destroyed on 1v1?

I hate that I'm coming back to the game weeks/months after new maps were released. You're already behind the curve, and now you've got new terrain to learn on top of that.

I just had game that would've been a candidate for "Greatest throw in history." I muta contained this guy on 2 bases. I'm so far ahead. The large spike you see in my army value is the morphing of like 100 banelings just outside his base, ready for the LOL march of victory. The subsequent PLUMMET is him getting a Nydus off in my main, and my dumb decision to run back to defend instead of just winning the game in a base race. I lose 10k resources in about 10 seconds as my poor army control and unfortunate simcity results in 6 lurkers and ~25 hydras shredding my entire force as it filters into my main. I had tried to use the mutas to snipe the Lurkers, but he smartly target-fired my couple Overseers and it was an absolute disaster.




It demoted me to Diamond 2 with 4200 MMR after placement. I am thankful that I won't have to just lose 20 games in a row to the 4800 kids as I get back into the swing of things.

Like Karak, I also had a ZvT where I saw the double factory in plenty of time to prepare. I knew the Hellbat Cyclone was coming. But I met it with some lings, queens, and 20 more workers than he had instead of immediately throwing down a roach warren to get Ravagers when I scouted the double factory. Opponent was nice enough to spend 5 minutes after the game explaining why I lost via whispers. Thanks, friend.

Because the game is now free to play, and Blizzard is taking the aggressive approach on smurfs, you will get absolutely dicked on for the first 15-20 games while the system adjusts your hidden MMR downward.

After that, I personally think the matchmaking system is fantastic for giving you opponents of roughly equal skill to learn on. Watching some of the low level replays on YouTube channels is just adorable.

This one's for you, goofy.

Base in yo base

He opened double gateway + cyber and even probe scouted my 13/12 before the pool finished. His second gate was to the right of the one you see there, and Cyber was to the left. I killed the first 2 zealots with proper ling micro, and by the time he popped two zealots at a time from the finished gates, I drew their attention by running my existing lings into the main to work on probes/nexus. He chased with said zealots, and the reinforcement lings focused down the cyber core. When the Adepts popped, it didn't matter anymore because cyber was dead and I just brute-forced it. They were in that little picket you see with the lings under the shield battery.

LOL at my minerals.

is plat 1 the highest you can place? i went 5-0 in my matches

grats

hydra ling + run around and make him waste time and FFs while you build up enough hydras

On a new account, yeah. You'll get bumped to Diamond quickly though if you continue to wreck people.

In one of the most ****ed up build order vs build order oddities ever, I just went three hatch before pool against a Terran on Catalyst LE, and the first hatch was placed at my normal third. I haven't gone 3 hatch before pool since HOTS. His scouting SCV went a totally ass-backward way around and found my first hatch at the third.

He proceeds to Planetary Fortress rushed me. After looking at the replay, he built a quick Ebay and was pooling minerals, so this was premeditated on his part before he knew. Against literally any build but three hatch before pool, it fails miserably 100% of the time. I don't even know what to say.

I lost my natural and my main to the PF + tank pushing, but in the end, 6 mutas won the game because he had no turret back at home and I was able to just spread his attention enough to use them to pick apart the few units that could shoot up. Without any mining at home, he wasn't able to scrounge enough resources to use turrets to protect some long-distance mining SCVs with the forward fortresses

This was some gold level ****.

PF rushing was the strategy i'd do when i'd play against people like 4 leagues below me

I've decided that winning games against a lategame Terran is literally impossible. Broods. Ultras. Vipers. Doesn't matter.

Let Rogue and Dark show you the way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWaut1rLmAQ - game 2 @ 21:00, Rogue vs TY's mech
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/234163280 - game 2 @ 17:00, Dark vs Innovation's bio-tank-ghost
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7z1JYdSH3Y - game 3 @ 49:00, Dark vs TY's mech-ghost

of the 5 games ive played on ranked 1v1 today, 4 of the opponents have just straight up left as the game started

?????

couple zerg Qs:

what maps do you use your veto votes on? im not doing it on any atm.

mass carrier/void ray/mothership... can I just go hydra based against this? corrupters dont fare very well

this was a satisfying gg from my opponent

I only have Neon Violet Square vetoed just b/c I don't like it (I don't think it's imba or anything)

I don't often see void rays + carriers, but imo corruptors are way better than hydras* against pure carriers. The void ray bonus vs armored makes corruptors less attractive if P is smart enough to combine them, but I would guess the correct play in this situation is not to remove corruptors from the equation but rather to add something like infestors (fungal) or vipers (parasitic bomb) that will punish clumped voids.

*two reasons for this:
1. corruptors get +massive damage, hydras don't
2. corruptors don't have ground collision like hydras so you can focus down individual carriers without worrying about whether all units can fire at the same time or not
3. bonus third reason: corruptors have natural armor** even before considering upgrades and interceptors have low damage per attack and you should have been investing in air upgrades as soon as you scouted mass stargate

**2 armor! reduces interceptor damage by 25% compared to what they do vs hydras which are already squishy! like, running the numbers, sure corruptors are expensive but by this point in the game it's likely both players have banks - corruptors are 200 health, 2 armor (+upgrades), 14.7 dps vs carriers, compared to hydras which are 90 health, 0 armor (+upgrades), 22.4 dps

Threats of bodily harm make all the pain of playing Starcraft worth it

I was going to say none, but then I had a Backwater ZvT against Liberators. Your pocket third can be liberated with literally no way to kill them before Spire. I suppose you can just skip that expansion though and get a different one. No other map is worthy of a veto imo.

I had similar issues with the second part of your post as well a while back.

The Skytoss problem was combated by the high end zergs via Infestor/Viper support and Hydras. The reason your Corruptors are getting **** on is because of how very terrible they are vs the Void Rays. In a 200 supply carrier vs 200 supply corruptor, Zerg wins because focus fire is easier. But that's unlikely to be the case. Void Rays just destroy Corruptors. Fungal DOES work against the interceptors though, and Hydras don't need to target fire the carriers. Their DPS is high enough to win by cleaning up interceptors. If you aren't fully upgraded though, you lose.

The only real solution is to not let him turtle behind 3 bases into an unstoppable Carrier army. In the immortal words of Sean Plott: "Just go ****ing kill him."