[Editor’s note: This was a little project I started in December of 2011. Oh well…]
The Spawning Pool
Hi. My name is Puck, and I’m a casual gamer.
angsty, no?
For a while, I’ve been pretty convinced that I could choose one of two paths in the gaming world:
1) Game socially, have a life, and forever suck
2) Game seriously, have it be my One Thing, and get good… maybe
Well, I’m now putting that assumption to the test. Wish me luck!
-Puck
P.S. – any advice for me would be extremely welcome. I’ll be scouring the internets for advice and training regimens, but I’ll take any and all criticisms; I have no delusions or ego about my skills.
About Me
I’m in my late 20s and have been into PC games since my mom threw away our NES and we discovered Q-Bert. I have a wife and a little ‘ling on the way. I work 50-60 hours a week here, and have a side business or two. And now I’m an aspiring StarCraft II gamer.
I have two objectives:
Main: Discover if it’s possible to become a formidable gamer whilst balancing adult responsibilities
I have a life – a pretty busy life. But I still want to game. More specifically, I want to be able to play StarCraft II alone and with my buddies and not suck at it. This will be an experiment to see if it’s possible for me to get good at Starcraft II without dedicating so much time that it pisses off my wife. I want to see if gaming can be a lifestyle (as opposed to a phase or an obsession).
Note: I have no idea what “good” means. I know – great goal-setting, right? Does it mean getting to Diamond? Masters? Impressing my gaming buddies? Winning 51% of my games? I don’t know, but I’m open to suggestions.
Note: I have no intentions of becoming a professional gamer. That would be contrary to the spirit of this Main Objective.
Secondary: Create a template for n00bs like me to use in training
I love nerds. I’ve either been one of them or associated with them since I’ve been able to speak. But let’s face it – nerds have serious inferiority complexes. To compensate, we elevate the complexity of our interests and hobbies to such a level that it creates an intimidating barrier to entry for ‘lesser mortals.’ I want to see if I can create a basic algorithm for a n00b to become Advanced.
Note: there is a distinction between difficulty and complexity. Mastery of Starcraft II is plenty difficult without us adding in complexity.
Note: I don’t know if the scope of this goal will end up including overcoming the socio-cultural barriers around SC2 and the Pro Gaming world. Time will tell.
I will be my own guinea pig. I’m starting out at the bottom of the Bronze ladder (well, almost the bottom. My initial placement was 99th), so this is really going to be an exploration into the full life-cycle of mastering StarCraft II (assuming someone’s played through some of the campaign).
Play two 1v1 games per day… against a human
No more, no fewer (Dec 4, 2011)
Note: If I’m jonesing for more than 2 games, I will watch replays.
Note: Social gaming situations (like our weekly game night at work) are an exception.
Other than the Pledge, I have no idea how I’m going to achieve my objectives (see my Secondary Objective).
At this point, I don’t know what I don’t know. As I learn, I’ll be creating (and updating) the following curriculum to include things that I need to learn to become good.
Monkey Do
- General
- Becoming OK with losing
- Learning how to effectively use replays
- Macro
- Worker production
- Creep spread
- Micro
- Pick a build & work it
- Strategy
- How to scout cheese
- How to counter cheese
- Create general mapping/algorithm for first 5 minutes
Monkey See
- Videos
- Reading
- Zerg tech/unit/building tree
Larva
Game A
v Zerg (UNICORN)
Loss
What went wrong?
- This was my first game against a human in 7 months, and it showed. I saw that I was playing ZvZ, so I figured I’d get my RDA of cheese with a six pool. It was scouted early on, so I was basically done.
- My scout didn’t find my opponent’s base until I was basically already done. Big map + bad luck.
What went right?
- Ummm… I started playing again. Does that count?
Today’s thoughts
Why did I try cheese? It’s counter to the whole spirit of this venture. It’s all about sacrificing learning in exchange for a W. I won’t be trying that crap until my micro, macro, and strategy are all much more elevated.
Really, today’s game spawned this whole project.
Game A
v Terran (arthanis)
Loss
What went wrong?
- Didn’t start my harass until 12 minutes in!
- Only used mutas & lings; didn’t counter based on what I’d scouted
- Tried too many expansions
What went right?
- Had some creep spread (also, I learned that you don’t need a Queen to create a creep tumor)
- Good muta sniping of supply line
- Had the right(-ish) number of expansions
Game B
v Zerg (GameTime)
Loss
What went wrong?
- Only built lings
- Didn’t expand… ever
What went right?
- First harass was early enough
- Decent scouting
- My harass was relatively constant (if ineffective)
Today’s thoughts
I’m not at the point yet where I’ll be making goals based on my daily game-play. My play isn’t consistent enough to be tweaked.
Instead, I did a bunch of reading today. You’d be surprised how little there is out there in the way general guidelines for improvement at SC2. I’m starting to get a picture of what needs to be worked on at a high-level though. I’ll be adding what I learn to my Curriculum.
Day 2 – Qualifiers
Game A
v Terran (Darkbane)
Win
What went wrong?
- opponent left for no reason at 4:30
What went right?
- Had a lucky scout with my Overlord
Game B
v Terran (redninja)
Win
What went wrong?
- Opponent disappeared for a few minutes late game, so it wasn’t a ‘real’ win. (However, even if opponent hadn’t disappeared, had counters prepared.)
- Minerals got way high way fast
What went right?
- Solid scouting
- Decent creep spread
- Read & countered bio push
- Decent muta sniping of supply line
Today’s thoughts
I’m starting to realize how important watching my own replays are. Here’s how I think I’ll watch replays:
- Watch from opponent’s camera
- Watch from omnipotent camera
- Take notes
I think there’s some direction out there (Day[9], if I recall correctly) as to how to effectively watch replays. Once I do a bit of research, I’m sure my replay ritual will adapt accordingly.
Game A
v Protoss (MsSlick)
Win
What went wrong?
- Very wasteful of forces (poor micro)
- Delayed expansion to 3rd
- Forgot about creep spread for a while
What went right?
- (Luck) Last scouted
- Opponent overspent on static defenses (didn’t build offensive unit until 11 minutes)
- Moderately early harass
- Decent block/delay of opponent’s natural
- Kept up on tech through mid-game
- Decent muta micro toward the end
Game B
v Protoss (SteelXL)
Loss
What went wrong?
- Didn’t pay attention to scouting (proxy pylon didn’t register; didn’t realize significance of 3 gates… wouldn’t’ve known how to counter even if I had)
- Was too cautious to harass
What went right?
- Good job of hiding my scout (for a while), but didn’t capitalize
- Produced lings acceptably early
Today’s thoughts
I’m starting to process some of the info that is out there on the internets – mostly digging through various forums (Team Liquid, Battle.net, SC2 Armory, etc.). I’ll be updating the Curriculum as I go.
Game A
v Zerg (Dehumanize)
Loss
What went wrong?
- Was slow to react (build pool) after scout left
- Very late expansion
- Threw away lings in harrass (bad micro)
- Poor use of banelings (against buildings, and not the big bio-ball?!!)
- Just… seriously out-macro-ed
What went right?
- Can’t think of a damn thing… after building the pool, I have no idea what to do.
- Thought to play a mind game (even though it backfired)
Game B
v Terran (DataRobot)
Win
What went wrong?
- Micro (didn’t pay attention to first harass wave; lost mutas due to inattention; later banelings)
- Apparently, I really only use lings/bane and mutas, don’t I?
What went right?
- Decent harass timing (first wave @ 6:45; mutas @ 15)
- Lucked out that opponent didn’t scout or push
- Countered decently (bio -> bane; siege -> muta; banshees -> spore colonies)
- Didn’t let up on expanding
- OK muta micro vs. Vikings
Today’s thoughts
I definitely need to learn to diversify units. Of course, that means that I need to really familiarize myself with the Zerg tech tree and building requirements.
Also: creating a website about one’s new StarCraft journey takes a lot longer than I’d thought.
Game A
v Protoss (Rustle)
Loss
What went wrong?
- No scouting (wouldnt’ve known what it meant even if I had. Protoss are still very much a mystery to me.)
- Harass: too little, not persistent enough
- Didn’t expand quickly enough
- Didn’t adapt to info given (when faced with clear tech (guardian + zealot), just created more lings)
- Didn’t build any spore colonies (observer just camped out at my base since halfway through)
- Just… awful muta micro
What went right?
- Decent harass timing (@ 6 min)
- Held Xel’naga watch towers – gave me lots of good early warnings
Game B
v Protoss (WalkerT)
Loss
What went wrong?
- Got cheezed (canon rush in my base); need better scouting on huge maps, I guess
- Too much money – macro thrown off by surprises (“hidden” drone dying; discovering cannon rush)
- Gave up instead of countering canon rush (is that even possible?)
What went right?
- Had lings ready at 4:45
- Superior worker count & army count (but that’s not a great achievement when playing against cheese, is it?)
Today’s thoughts
Can you emerge from Bronze without filthying yourself in the river of cheese? It seems to me that every third game I play is gimmicky. Oh well.
Also, I finished setting up the website!
Game A
v Terran (Greg)
Win
What went wrong?
- Forgot about creep expansion (which was very useful, btw) around 21:00
- Frequently supply-blocked in mid-to-late game
- Built a 4th and didn’t do a damn thing with it
What went right?
- Solid scouting & countering (neutralized 2 SCVs with scout; countered bio rush as soon as scouted with lings)
- Decent micro (pulling back mutas during scan; saving most drones & queen at drop; waiting for dropships to reload before attacking with mutas; 27:00 muta pull-back, bane advance, muta clean-up)
- Executed build relatively well (first 5 min)
- Decent creep spread (though forgotten about for a while in the middle)
- Didn’t forget to expand
- (Luck) Opponent didn’t attack (drop) until 18:45
- (Luck) Opponent tried one-base push; did a good job of repeatedly blocking expansions with lings; didn’t get first expansion until late game (23:30)
- (Luck) Opponent didn’t really counter (built vikings, but still stuck with bio-ball after having scouted my bane-ball)
- (Luck) Opponent didn’t scout
Game B
v Terran (dim)
Loss
What went wrong?
- Didn’t spot the bunker rush (did I mention my feelings on bronze cheese?)
- Overreacted to cheese (threw units away instead of regrouping)
What went right?
- Decent macro (stuck to build; healthy economy)
Today’s thoughts
Really, all of my successes are due to my enemies making serious mistakes… not to my own prowess. I fall apart under pressure.
Game A
v Terran (Agamentium)
Win
What went wrong?
- Ugly mciro (left first wave in middle of map to be killed; don’t even know WHAT happened with my mutas in the first & second counters)
- Not prepared at all for 2nd wave (stim); should have started a good 20 seconds earlier
- Completely forgot about creep expand after natural expansion was destroyed
- Still only using lings, bane, & muta
What went right?
- (Lucky) was scouted last
- Countered well after repelling 2nd attack
- Eventually figured out that he was staying bio & built bane (but it took me long enough!)
- Effective job of continually harassing; put Opponent on the defensive kept expanding
Game B
v Protoss (Zeurkon)
Win
What went wrong?
- didn’t scout through mid- & late-game – would’ve spotted some of Opponent’s expansions sooner
- Still only used 3 units
- Neglected 3rd & 4th expansions
- Didn’t just finish him off; took the “gg” for granted
What went right?
- Good micro when zealot rushed by base (sacrificed queen, saved drones, spawned lings)
- Steady early harassment put Opponent on defensive – overspent on cannons
- Kept my cool when I saw that Opponent’s army outgunned mine (built adequate defenses; researched lings; started path to Spire)
- Moderate creep spread
Today’s thoughts
I was grateful to have a cheese-less day.
Ooo! I also found Day[9]‘s Newbie Tuesday playlist. That should keep me busy for a while.
Game A
v Terran (OneToTheHead)
Win
What went wrong?
- 3rd base late
- 4th base late
- Hoarded my overloads instead of scouting
- Still stuck to the only 3 units I know
- Neglected my 2nd wave of bane on final bane-muta-bane combo
What went right?
- Quick reaction when scouting proxy barracks
- Relatively constant scouting (best use of 6 lings ever)
- (Luck) Enemy was REALLY determined on dropping
- (Luck) Bane hit when most of army was in medivacs
- Timing of bane-muta combo
- Decent muta micro
Game B
v Zerg (Revo)
Loss
What went wrong?
- Out-macro-ed
- Didn’t expand quickly enough
- Didn’t counter roaches well
- Threw away mutas on hopeless head-to-heads
What went right?
- Didn’t give up even after first big loss
Today’s thoughts
- Watched a few Day[9] Newbie Tuesdays. Lots of stuff to learn! I’m starting to see trends in my play so, hopefully soon, I’ll start having some tangible items to work on. (Although I will admit that just trying to improve “in general” is refreshing.)
- Also, I treated myself today and spent a few hours going through the perusing the campaign on normal and achievement sniping. Good times.