Season 6 Looking Good

I haven’t actually played much so far in season 6, but after getting promoted to platinum, I feel that everything has become much easier. I think this is a misconception and I have just gotten better, but maybe it is too early to tell.

The matchup I feel most confident about is ZvP and that is the one with the lowest win rate. Maybe my improvement in ZvT can be explained by the nerf to ghosts, but it seems to me that I have figured out how to drone harder in the beginning of a ZvT game. This has given me some wins I didn’t get two months ago.

ZvZ is just a mystery. Easier opponents in Platinum compared to Gold. That is the way it feels.

Season 5 Status

This is just a short update of the recently finalized season 5. I ended up playing exactly 100 games (somehow I lost one replay in the process). I had clear impression that I did reasonably well in ZvP, but terribly in the two other matchups. The numbers, however, tells a different story.

Apparently I did okay vs. terran and only really had problems in ZvZ. I guess I had a lot of fairly quick wins vs. terran that I just forgot about and only remembered the long drawn out games that didn’t end so well for me.

Anyways, I played roughly half my games vs. platinum players and the other half vs. gold players. With a 50% win rate I hoped for a promotion to platinum. That I didn’t get in season 5 (it came 5 games into season 6 though).

Merry Christmas

I just wanted to post a little Christmas greeting and to get everybody in the holiday mood I’ll include the farewell message from my last opponent, before I head out for our family gathering.

Here is to hoping our present tonight will be the skills to get promoted to Grand Master league soon!

SQ Insight

I’ve just read the interesting article about SQ ratings on teamliquid and simply had to see if there was anything in this number that I could learn from. In order to do that I calculated the SQ ratings based on the last 8 games that I, Bartokaj and Sethos have played in 1v1. Bartokaj and Sethos being two of my friends.

I’m gold looking to advance to platinum, Sethos is a solid Diamond player and Bartokaj is in Silver. According to the article, there is a an expectation that the difference in SQ rating are reflected more or less in league. Bronze: 45’ish, Silver: 45-50, Gold: 50-55, Platinum: 55-60, Diamond: 60-70, Master: 70-80 and Grand Master: 80 and above.

	Me	Bartokaj	Sethos
1	66	55	72
2	60	47	75
3	55	62	73
4	65	48	50
5	63	43	55
6	66	58	53
7	54	77	65
8	63	60	49
Average	62	56	62

I don’t know whether the expected values are because the data for the original analysis is from the North American ladder or what. I don’t think the values I found in my own small study reflects the expected levels very well.

However, looking at my own numbers, I wonder why I have so high an unspent average as I do. Right now I play Zerg, and as a Zerg you are often limited by the number of larva and I am often not so concerned about how much money I have in the bank. Holding my money there allows me to instantly make 25 supply worth of what ever I need. Had I already spent the money, my options would be more limited.

In the early game I can see that I could work more on having enough larva available. I’ve already started working on that recently by getting my third hatchery quite early compared to a month ago.

Anyways, it is really interesting to compare your gameplay via a analysis like this and look at what you can easily do to improve this aspect of your game.

Back to Basics: I Still Suck at this Game

I suddenly realized that I have been living in a gaming illusion for the last year. When the beta came out, I found myself in Diamond even though I never made it higher than C- on iCCup. I told myself that I was only good and high ranked in comparison to all the new players on battle.net, but despite that the feeling that I belonged in the top was so easy to get used to.

I guess that the two times I have dropped down to Bronze to make my way up was a way of feeling good about my skills. But right now I have a hard time making it higher than platinum. That is embarrassing.

I guess I will have to take some time to recalibrate my expectations. That sounds tough.

BarCraft in Nørrebro

Check this photo album out! I went to BarCraft Copenhagen for the MLG Providence Final. It felt like an odd experience, but kinda cool too. I wish I could have stayed longer than I could, but unfortunately I only got to see about 10 games at the bar.

Getting Predictable

Most games goes like this:

1. Drone and scout
2. Expand
3. Tech to Lair
4. Expand
5. Get Spire
6. Tech to Hive
7. Double Expand
8. Get Greater Spire
9. Max
10. Attack

The steps are basically just interrupted by making exactly enough units to survive what ever my opponent has and maybe some harassing as well. But the predictable thing is that everything revolves around the target for a greater spire.

The two reasons this is so single-track like is the need for air defense coupled with how hard the Ultralisk blows. A 1-1-1 from a Terran requires Mutalisks or extreme luck. Anything that includes either Void Rays or Collosi requires air units too. Hydralisks are nice as a supplement, but they are fragile and slow.

Even Zerg, which for the longest time was just roach/infestor battles have turned more and more towards Muta/ling battles. Not quite the same as the two other matchups, but close enough for it to feel a little stale.