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.

Another Run From the Bottom

This season I’m trying to make another run from bronze and up. I still have no clue as to how a Zerg beats a good Protoss, but right now I am trying to side step that problem by working my way up and learning from the experience.

Getting my alternate account to bronze was not a problem, but I probably should have settled on silver instead. For now I have played and won about 75 games in bronze and still not really started to meet any silver players. I kinda think that the system is punishing me for intentionally getting into bronze.

In fact I think my behavior is wrong and that Blizzard should do something to prevent yoyo-ladder players. Players that one day is in a high league, then has an amazingly long losing streak followed by an equally long winning streak.

Another phenomenon I think is messing up the ladder are the portrait hunters. People in bronze that have 3000 wins and no game longer than 5 minutes. They are clearly either win-trading or something similar. I hate to think about what this does to the gaming experience of someone who really is bronze level.