I work at a restaurant and when it's not busy, everyone just chills at the back near the bar/empty dining lounge and just talks. A popular topic lately has been getting smashed and going to bars. I'm 19 and all my co-workers are older then me, so they feel obligated to tell me their own opinions of things and give me advice; I guess they think they are wise because of their age compared to mine.
So eventually they asked me about going to a bar to get smashed since I had just turned 19 a little while ago, (June 1) and I told them that I didn't drink. Then they asked if I smoked and I said no, and they acted as if this was the oddest thing they had ever heard and for the first time in my life, they actually criticised me for not drinking or smoking.
I'd like to point out that I put, 'actually criticised me' for not smoking or drinking; not because I think it's a better choice, but you can't really make a valid argument that's it's a bad choice. It's obviously healthier and I accept the fact that there are some things I miss out on. Just pointing this out so I don't receive comments about preaching how drinking and smoking are bad; because I could care less if anyone does really, it's their choice.
So basically, I was criticised by these people for the rest of the night about not drinking and one of the owners made the argument that I should be drinking; if for no other reason because everyone else where I work does and I wouldn't want to feel left out.
From then on, every night I work they bust my balls about not drinking with them. I've been thinking of some things to say to them about it, but the best I have come up with is:
"Your thirty-five with no education making as much as I do at nineteen, why would I take your life advice?"
Harsh, but rather factual. If your in your thirties making as much money as your nineteen your old co-worker, perhaps you should refrain by giving life advice and telling people how to better yourself. I don't want to turn into 'that guy' from work who everyone thinks is a dick, so I am curious if anyone has some good ideas about what to do. Two options I won't do:
1 ) Go drinking with them. 2 ) Let them bust my balls about this for the duration of my working tenure their.
So if anyone has any ideas, post away; or if you have a story or something that correlates to this, i'd like to hear it also.
All the people who said I'm a fool and I'm retarded I challenge to write their own blogs with their views on the subject of God and the conclusions they have.
TechniQ.UK wrote a blog post about how he found God and how it changed his life. The blog is still being replied to and it's up to a thousand or so views already. He was caughting a lot of flak for what he posted, because there are a few paragraphs where depending on how you read it, it sounds a lot like preaching and he says some shit about feeling sorry for non-christians and how we haven't been found; or something like that.
Anyways, so he challenged people who called him retarded or a fool to make their on blog about their views on God. I didn't call him a retard or anything, but I got nothing else to do, so whatever.
I grew up with very religious grandparents and I went to a Catholic school and went to Church rather regularly. I don't if most people legitimately think a lot about Christ, God and the bible when they are little, but I never did. Church was just like this place I had to go, where I had to sit, stand, sing songs from a book, occasionally kneel, sit quietly as the adults received the consecrated bread & wine and then I got to go home, which was the best part.
When I was 11, I switched to a public school because my parents didn't like the way the Catholic school board ran things and then slowly we just stopped going to Church and obviously I never had any more religion classes. I never asked my parents why we stopped going, and I didn't really care because I never liked going anyways.
So I like to think I have am rather qualified to give my opinion on religion. What i mean by that is; I have gone to Church for a long time, I know the stories and at one time, I could recite the prayers. (though not anymore, I just mumble after a few verses) Whenever I think about whether there is probably a God or whether they probably isn't, the one thing I cannot get over is religions track record. For a long time before the bible, people held their book and stories as the word of God or Gods and structured their lives by that. Ancient Greece is a great example because we now read their books and stories are literature, and I often think how funny it is that people believed some of it; yet they did.
However, I know a lot of people that say they were saved by God and Jesus Christ when they accepted a religion into their life and they are better people. They have better values, morals and structure in their lives now; I just don't buy their claim that it was due to anythng other then a strong community with a good hook
I am curious why this time we got it right with religion, as opposed to before when it's known now that some people made up tales to tell to their people. I'm not really trying to accomplish anything with this blog or convert people; (if that were my goal, I did a really shit job of giving reasons to doubt religion) just to throw my own opinion out there.
Edit: Oh, and the title for this blog I got was from was a youtube video with Kevin Smith talking about his experience with religion. He basically reiterates the same thing (older religious books & stories being fictional literature that we read in school) I was always hung up on when I was little.
As a warning, this WILL contain spoilers. I will try to keep them to a minimum, but it wouldn't be possible for someone to read this and not deduce some conclusions that could possibly ruin parts of the movie. Basically; read this if you have already seen the movie, or don't really care about spoiling some things for yourself.
I am writing this as I just get back from seeing the movie. The theatre was completely packed. I showed up at 10:00 for the 10:30 show and I wound up wisely picking up a ticket for the 10:45 show so I could get better seats.
I will go over the characters and what I did and did not like about this movie.
I'l start with Batman. It's ironic that this is a story revolving around Batman, but you really get the impression that he takes a backseat in this. The focus is almost entirely on the villain(s) (Why villain(s)? More on that later). Christian Bale portrays the exact same character as the first, and overall I just didn't care too much about him. Batman's entire three-way love triangle with Rachel Dawes and Harvey Dent just didn't do it for me. There was a sub-plot about Bruce Wayne wanting to give up the persona of Batman so he could be with Rachel, but you know the whole time it's not going to happen, so in my opinion it's hard to care.
Speaking of Rachel Dawes, I felt the same with her as I did with Batman. I think this is a good way to think about it: While watching the movie, I didn't even notice or care that another actress was portraying her. I think that speaks volumes for how much I cared about her character. She was more or less a catalyst in this movie. A reason for things to happen. Harvey Dent loves her; Bruce Wayne loves her; things happen and it leads to exciting moments.
Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent/ Two-Face was a lot better then I thought. For all of you who don't read the comics or... somehow managed to avoid the information, Harvey Dent becomes Two-Face. I didn't really expect much from Eckhart playing the part of Harvey. I more or less expected him to do a reasonable job of playing the district attorney, then get to see what hes made of when he becomes Two-Face. The whole story with Harvey Dent is that he is the face of justice for Gotham. Batman is the vigilante who helps the police with getting information and informants and then Dent makes the charges stick. Basically, Dent scares the mobsters and criminals legitimately without hiding under a mask, which Batman respects and envys. (or at least that was my interpretation)
Heath Ledger as the Joker was not what I expected. Ledger plays a totally original incarnation of the Joker and it's really surprising. The first thing I noticed was that although his name is The Joker, he doesn't crack black humor jokes or even laugh a lot. His character is more of a psychopath who doesn't take himself anything seriously. There is a great bit when he tells another character that he isn't a schemer and doesn't really have a plan, he just does. He has a goal, but the consequences of his actions and the way he gets there isn't really of any concern to him. Overall, I really liked the Joker in this and it's too fucking bad what happened to Ledger because I would have to loved to seen this Joker again, he definately didn't wear out his welcome and he took over every scene he was in.
My Dislikes and Likes.
Usually I would start with likes and end with dislikes, but I really liked this movie and want to end it on a high note. That being said, there are a few things that really irritated me.
Why does Batman have to growl everytime he fucking talks. At first I thought it was because he has to mask his voice so no one recognises it's Bruce Wayne. Or maybe it's because he has to be intimidating at all time. However, all of that is complete bullshit because there is a scene where Batman is talking with Lucius Fox played by Morgan Freeman, and he growls at him the entire time. Theres a scene with Joker/Batman near the end of the film where Batman's annoying way of speaking is very, very apparent. Stop growling at everyone, it's not necessary.
There are some cliche moments in this movie that were just awful. They don't ruin the movie, but it could have been changed or done without for the better. For example, Two-Face's entire gimmick is his fathers lucky coin, which is pristine on the one side and scarred/burnt on the other. Dent uses this coin to judge his victims fate. I think anyone who knows the character of Two-Face knows this, but in every scene after Dent becomes Two-Face, he flips the fucking coin. He has a coin, he flips it and acts accordingly; I fucking get it. We don't need to see it in every scene. Not only that, but he flips it so damn high that he takes his eyes off his victim to stare at it, making it pretty fucking predictable and when hes going to get taken out.
My biggest gripe about this film was how they shit all over Two-Face at the end. I don't know if Christopher Nolan (the Director) thought it would be too safe to have both Joker & Two-Face go to Arkham Asylum, but the way they ended this movie made no sense to me. Assuming the real life facts. which is that Heath Ledger is dead, so unless you recast the Joker; that ship has sailed. You would think they would keep their only surviving villain alive, but they don't. They totally shut off any possibility of future Two-Face (and IMO Joker usage), which then begs the question, if there is a third movie, who will be the villain? I just felt like they didn't realise the potential of the Two-Face character and a lot more could have been done.
Talking about what I liked is always harder because it's hard to pinpoint what exactly made this movie really good. Ledgers performance was really good and original and Morgan Freeman/ Michael Caine really nail their respective roles. The action sequences, although impossible to spatially keep track of, are really entertaining.
In conclusion, I would give this movie a nine out of ten. Most importantly, that score doesn't reflect being held up against other superhero movies, or else it would be an easy, easy ten. I am giving it a nine while being held up against some of my favourite movies. It's really entertaining and ceases to be just an entertaining movie and because an excellent film.
I am going to be changing the days on which I do new blogs on my P ---> Z blogs. I usually do one everyday, but I am going to change that to every two days.
There are a couple reasons, but most importantly:
1 ) I like making the blogs so far, but it does take about an hour to do. I have to get the pics from a game, put them in paint (lol, paint) to edit, than I upload them and than I write it and format it. It's not really a hassle, but it takes a bit of time. The point I am making is that I don't want it to turn into a chore if there is a day I don't want to do one, or where I have little time as is.
2 ) I play quite a few games, but if I have something going on, I don't really want to recap a crappy game. Day Six's game was interesting and pretty funny in itself, so every two days I should be able to play a game that is a good canditidate for review.
Only question is, what can I call the blog? The next one tomorrow can't be, "Day Seven" because than it's day eight. Just put Day Eight, than Day Ten? Seems kind of dumb.
P.S Only posting this so no one wonders where todays is, it will be tomorrow and the quality of games will still be good, unlike if I had done one today; because I have no interesting games at this point.
I have a pretty funny game to do a recap of. Right now I have Ahzz, who you may know as writing that like.. 15,000 word guide Zerg. I've improved quite a bit in the last day, I think I am over the hump and now I can start working on mechanics. However, this game took place before everything kind of clicked.
Onto the recap game.
Recap game:
I start off with the build I have been using ZvP. I do 9pool and skip the speed. Like I said last blog, I have no intention of doing a runby or trying to kill his cannons outright, so I may as well get a faster hatchery, while still forcing him to make cannons before the nexus.
Pretty solid build I think
The game doesn't start off too well as I scout him last (it's tau, so second choice I scout him) and I somehow miss his second gateway..
Yeah, fuck.
Now because I didn't see this, I thought he would just one gate tech as normal, but obviously he didn't and had I know about the second gate I would have made more lings right off the bat.
So, he attacks and I didn't even see that until halfway. Damnit.
So far, not so good.
I see that he sent zeals when he is about halfway and I decide to throw down a sunk... but he just runs by it.
Stupid fucking zealots
Fortunately I put another sunk in my base and he just runs away from that one too. By this time I had made a handful of lings and I clean up his harass? Can we even call it that, it was more like his zealots were just chillin' in my base. Regardless.
Zealots are just chilling but my zerglings were having none of it
Now this is where Protoss has been annoying me lately. They will open with usually go one to three corsairs and than stop me from getting a third because I have slow ovies at this point. This game was yesterday and I have since fixed that little problem of mine, but for the time being, this DT was annoying and gave me a lot of hassle. Much like Atrioc.
Whatta' bitch
Now because the Atrioc DT is not letting me expand, I don't have anything to spend money on and I start to work up a surplus.
Seriously, I am on like two base with four hatcheries and I have 1200 minerals? How is that possible. I dare anyone to have worse macro than me. Actually nvm, I don't wish that upon anyone.
I finally get a lurker out at least I put that at his choke...
The dreaded one lurker contain. PH33R THE BEAST!
At this point he has a few dark templar roaming around and hes basically stopped me from expanding anywhere and I am waiting for my ovie speed to finish. So like an idiot he sends his DTs to one of the only places I actually have detection.
Thanks..?
Finally I get a third base up, time it took to do so?
lmao, wowwwwwwwwwww
In the meantime I setup a pretty contain...
Sexy, yes?
Until his units just walk right by half of it!
Awwwwww, wtf!
So because he didn't have to fight like half my contain, he rolls down to my base where I frantically try to throw up sunkens.
Morph, morph, morph!!!
Thankfully I survive his attack due to:
1 ) I had so much surplus I could morph a lot of units 2 ) Since I barely expanded, all my hatcheries were at my base and really close. 3 ) He didn't send reinforcements... which I sound found out.
So I beat back his army, go to counter his third base which he just had completed...
Looks promising, lot's of lings, doesn't look like many units from here either
...
He barely loses anything in my attack. His reinforcements flanked and owned me. Damn.
LUCKILY, I HAVE A STROKE OF GENIUS!
Throw all my money into imbalisks! Meanwhile, while I am teching imbalisks, he is ruining my economy, which if you know, is poor already.
Ma' drones!
And...does it again...
My economy was almost non-existant at this point
I have a plan that I think can win me the game at this point. I know his main and natural are mined out, so I bring some units to the top right, near his 3rd base. If I can lead away his army, my cracklings can go and take out his only mining base, crippling him. Genius, right?
My distraction
My sneaky zergling squadron about to win me the game!
Go Zlings go! Do my bidding!
Son of a bitch!
Ok so epic fail. I thought he was as dumb as perhaps Atrioc is, but he was more crafty. He only send what he needed to send (I know a lot of P, even some good one get crazy with the 1a2a3a4a5a) and kept the rest to defend. Hmmm...
Meanwhile his shuttle keeps dropping and crushing my drones.
Yeah, what he said!
Finally I decide that I will just wait until he THINKS he is safe to move out, than I will counter his third, he'll return, but by than it's too late and I'l have the econ advantage. Genius, right?
GoGoGoGo!
Genius, WRONG! Things do not go as planned. First let's start with my attack. The screen says it all.
...
and now his army is like, fuck my base, I don't need that. I 'l just go crush his defenseless base.
NoNoNoNoNo!
That WAS where other army was. I kept it there in case he countered. I say _WAS_ there, because that force failed me so badly.
His base on the other hand...
Neither of us is mining at this point, so he is using every spare unit he has to try to keep me out of his base.
Basically, this game turned into a race for who could kill the other one first. My Imbaliks & some zerglings versus his monster army of pain.
Yeah... army of pain
So I bust through his army of probes, which surprisingly suck versus 6 armor ultralisks, and I start razing his base. However he is also killing mine and I have about 10 buildings left, he has about 20 or so.
He rapes the last building in my main, but what's this? I am not dead...
I could forsee this happening, so I had snuck out a drone earlier and made a hatchery at the top of the map.
Realising if I kill his main, hes dead, he starts to rush back to his main
Than... an epic standoff begins. It's the final countdown as his army of pain is making it's way around the bend, I don't have much time if I want to kill him. All that remains in my way of victory is one gateway, but an army of six zealots and one archon stand in my way as well. I had two swarms still going from earlier. It's now or never.
The battle begins.
One ultra, one gateway, 10 seconds until his army returns
Hurry you slow son of a bitch, they are seconds away!
Almost dead, fatty archons having trouble rounding the bend!
Celebrate good times, cmon!
At this time, I slightly outnumber his builds.. literally.
Thus concludes the recap
General matchup feeling:
ZvP: Getting a whole lot better. I realised more about expandind now. I was worried before about overextending myself too much, but I think I have got the hang of it. I was beating a couple D+ players today, I so I think I can start to work on macro and micro and get better that way. I got Ahzz's guide if I need it.
ZvT: The same as above really, I played a game earlier where I had so much surplus that I expanded four times to different spots, more of a joke, since I thought i was dead. However, he took so long finding and killing them that by the time he had killed two, the other two were up and running and I was reaping the benefits.
ZvZ: Still unsure about this one. I have a better build that I am using,b ut I might a well flip a coin, because that's my chances.
General mood: Pretty good. Like I said, I think I am over the hump. Took six days, but I think I can start to work on macro/micro more.
Today I want to talk about cheesing as a Zerg. Especially at lower ranks, like D, D+, C- and maybe even C; it's usually not too hard to cheese. You can do a build that catches them totally off guard and because they aren't very good, they usually don't know the correct counters and whatnot.
So basically, I think that cheesing as a Zerg is really easy, at least ATM. I could most likely play like a total ass all the way to C- or C. That won't make me a better Zerg though, I'l just be that guy that you call a faggot to your friends. So i've been unsure whether it's worthwhile to even do a build like 9pool speedlings. If there is an opening to use it and I do. I didn't really learn anything. I am not playing to get sexy stats (although that would be nice) I am doing this to get better in general. Basically i've been unsure whether it's worth my time to take an opportunity like that when I know it's not really helping me.
Yet, I digress. Onto the recap game.
Recap game:
In keeping with todays theme:
I blanked out a letter in his name to keep him anonymous. There is no way you can guess what his name was. Don't even try.. not possible.
This guy starts off the game by doing one of the most annoying and arrogant things players can do... being cute. I absolutely hate it. This isn't the first time a guy has done this to me, but it really gets on my nerves. I should probably explain that there are a few things I look for when deciding whether or not I am going to play really gay or cheese. If the player is obviously much better I might do it, if hes talked shit somewhere I might also, but above all else; if they act cute in a game with me, oh man, I am going to cheese you bad.
What he is doing right here is hitting my drone, than dancing away like an idiot. I hate stuff like that, it's ranks a 10 on my 'scale of annoying-ness'. It shares a spot with Atrioc.
Now because I was thinking about how I am going to gay the hell out of this guy, I wasn't really paying attention and this happens.
I am actually surprised this happened because in a ZvT I usually send my overlord to scout, but I don't send it to a corner, I send it so it will scout along the cliff or ridge. I guess I fucked up. Whoooooops.
So after raping my overlord, I am sure this guy came to a couple of conclusions: 1 ) His opponent might be an idiot 2 ) The game is five minutes in, and hes already over his supply
Based on that, he decides to move out with eight or so marines an SCV that in fearlessly leading the charge.
I've already decided that I am just going to mass the hell out of speedlings though and try to run him over.
Operation Attack Move was a complete success
So I bust up his attack, run all the way to his base and because I have like nine drones, my macro is fucking perfect. When I get in his base, hes thrown up a bunker.
Only a complete fucking idiot would attack that.
Yep.. only a fucking idiot..
Son of a bitch
Now I am thinking this guy concluded another thing: Yep hes an idiot.
Fortunately for myself, I am sneaky and I hide some zerglings in a corner
The plush-doll Ninja speaks for itself.
Meanwhile at home, I have achieved what I like to call the cheesers economy..
Seriously though, those two drones were working their ass off
So I am wayyyy behind, but I am fortunate enough that he moves in a position that is literally perfect for my ninja-zergling-squadron to flank. You may notice that I have been rather lucky this whole game. Theres a saying though, 'I'd rather be lucky than good.'
Operation Attack Move 2.0 was a complete success
Finally...
I slightly outnumber him
General matchup feeling:
ZvP: Fuck this matchup. I hate it so much lol. I thought I would be kicking ass but I am so good at throwing games. If you think you know someone who is better than I am at this, I challenge you to bring them to me. I have played a few games where my army micro was so bad that although I outnumbered him by ratios of 2:1, I wind up losing.
I definately blame the Protoss race for this. I have had the luxury of being able to attack move with great success for far too long. That's ironic considering my major attacks in the recap game were attack moves as well, but if I take that into account, I can't blame the Protoss race. And I really, really want to blame them, so I am.
ZvT: Getting better at this matchup. I have finally figured out how to successfully attack and I have better buildorders that I have been using. I still don't feel confident enought versus decent players, but the people I've lost to were pretty good so far and I put up a fight.
ZvZ: This matchup is bizarre. It's like rock paper scissors, but with a random chance of losing for almost no reason. Sometimes I think I have countered his build perfectly, and I wind up losing anyways. So than next game I copy that and my opponent does what I did last game and rapes me. It's like a big fuck you, right in my face. Not cool. Still fun though.
General mood: I think I've got my build orders and general play style down, I just need more experience and than I can start to see some results. I am about D+ level and I guess that isn't too bad.
I mean, if I was playing RTS all the time and I started with Zerg, but my friend just switched to it and started beating the hell out of me in ZvZ's, THAN perhaps I would be mad, but it's not like thats happening. What do you think Atrioc? Ya' big ass.
Not too good, not too bad. I definately thought I'd be doing better, but I learned a lot of things today and I guess that's what counts. What I did encounter today is what I call a lesson game. It's a game where someone happens and I usually notice, "Ohhhh, I am supposed to do _______ instead of ______" and it like totally alters the way I play.
That is the recap I bring to you today.
Recap game:
It's a ZvP and I decide to open with the best build ever: 9 pool speedlings. Oh yeah, the gayness.
When I played P, after scouting this I would usually mutter, 'fuck', because I hated it.
One of the things I like so far is I make six lings, than I kill the probe to make him think I may perhaps go for the rush and I send out a squadron of two zerglings to kill scout probes and I leave the other four at my main to stop ninja-esque probes that may already be on the way, but going another route.
Spartan line 2.0.
A successful probe kill. No scouting for you, haha!
However...
Fuck. My Spartan lines are imcompetent, much like Atrioc.
I make a rather large error here and put my third hatchery at the wrong spot. It's supposed to go to my second natural, not in my main.
Whoops!
Now is a good time explain the build I was trying to do. It was a simple 9pool speedling into three bases and than teching lurkers. This is where I start to learn a lesson...
I have my lurkers burrowed and his army is out and I know his has no detection. I am happy.
Unfortunately...
He fucking dodges me. I am confused. I am sad.
As you can see from the screenshot below, I am the teal army, he is the blue. His army is closer to my base than my own. This is not the ideal situation.
I call this screenshot, "Non I'deal". It means not ideal. I think it's French.
The next screenshots are all taken in a matter of few seconds. All this is simultaneous.
He slightly outnumbers me.
After I shed a tear, I went back to watch the xiaozi replay and I see that what he actually does is only sends a couple lurkers to contain and do damage to the gateway/forge if they are in front, and leaves the rest of the lurkers at home. Next time I won't make this mistake, so nameless Protoss... I thank you. Your still an ass for beating me senseless, but I thank you for it.
General matchup feeling:
ZvP: I feel better about this now, I am starting to feel like I am playing actual ZvP's. I am losing, but it's getting better.
ZvT: I haven't looked at this matchup much, whenever I play, I kind of just do my own thing and it either works or it doesn't. I have to watch some reps first and write down some builds. I am not a big fan of muta really. Maybe I'l be one of those dudes who does lurker builds instead? Is that even viable? idk.
ZvZ: I tried to copy xiaozi in the way he plays. He often makes an early expansion and gets late speed + a lot of zerglings. What this results in is usually a later spire. I tried it once on Python and I lost so badly that I wasn't even mad, just surprised as hell. I need to do some work on this. Anyone have some advice for ZvZ builds?
General mood: Starting to see some progress. Feeling pretty good.
It doesn't look like I gamed much, but I actually did. First, a bit of good news. Canada B leader decided that even though my Zerg isn't very good at all right now, I could stay play nation wars as a 2x2 team. I'm not going to speculate how good I am 2x2, but I can follow orders and I am willing to play and for us, I think that's enough. So 50Cal.Angel & I won the 2x2's 2-1.
The bad news is that I went down in rank about 100 points and today I just basically lost over and over. I haven't got discouraged in any way though since a lot of the games I think I just made careless errors.
Since I only won one game, I figured I would do a recap of that, since it's the single single bright spot in my overall dark iCCup day.
My single iCCup win of the day
Things start off pretty good as I overpool into speedlings and trap his probe
Gangbang.
I think I am being smart by making this ling so I can deny scouting:
My Spartan line of zerglings.
However, I underestimate how incompetent I can be and I let him scout my lurker tech:
Shortly after this, I fired those Zerglings. They were about as competent as Atrioc. (Note: That is pathetically incompetent)
I also overestimate my opponent. Apparently he just scouted my tech to see whether he was fucked or not. He had no intention of doing anything about it.
Maybe his zealot forgot to relay the message? I am giving him the benefit of the doubt. I had shoddy zerglings, maybe he had incompetent zealots too.
^_^
His upgrades were lacking in a way.. can't quite put my finger on it.
I slightly outnumber him.
General matchup information:
ZvZ: Probably my best matchup, I feel I have a good chance when this happens. I am been tweaking my build a lot and I think I have a winner now. I basically do overpool into three zerglings, than a drone than another hat. I keep drones on gas and make a lair, than I add up to two sunkens while making drones depending on what he does. I did this in a game I lost, but I made only one sunken and a really crappy placed spire. I have yet to thoroughly test it, we shall see.
ZvP: Don't really feel confident, unless I do all in type builds. I seriously think I could get a good record versus Protoss by just 9pool speedling and psyching him out, but I don't think that it makes me a better player, just a cheesy one. I have tried to do mass +1/+1 zerglings, but I was too slow teching into lurkers and I wound up losing to high templar/archon/zealot mass. Boo.
ZvT: The midgame ball of units just run over me. I need to learn the best time to flank and attack, right now I take too much damage while trying to slow him down and my macro is pretty poor.
Overall thoughts; I don't know if I am being too hard on myself, expecting more than what I have achieved so far. I don't know what level I should be at now, but considering my interest I really hoped I would be getting C- with out a lot of trouble. I think I underestimated the difficulty of playing Zerg. The games are still fun atm, even though I am often being bent over and taking advantage over. Hopefully it gets better. Three days in, not much progress though. :S
Current iCCup stats: 1x1 1850 10-9-0 2x2 1641 7-5-0
I figured I should give some information about myself since I am pretty much making this blog a daily thing for as long as I feel like it.
I've had the game since 1998 or 1999, don't quite remember. Until two and a half years ago I just played UMS and Fastest, I started as Terran, got owned by Protoss and than I switched to that and I have more or less stayed a Protoss ever since. My highest rank was B- on iCCup not last season, but the one prior to that and got on to Can B. I played in TSL and sucked miserably and than I lost interest in Protoss. I didn't really enjoy playing anymore, so I tried DOTA, than I tried WCIII melee, which was awful and now I am back, but playing as the swarm.
With THAT out of the way, onto what went on today.
This is a rundown of one of my few wins today.
So I am playing a Terran and we are both doing our thing, than I accidently let this happen:
This marine is an ass. From now he is referred to as the Atrioc marine.
With my scouting ovie dead thanks to Atrioc, I don't see this happen:
There goes the line of marines. Bastards.
Thanks to my awesome attack-move skills, I kill his force in fashionable fashion. Atrioc unfortunately, didn't come for this slaughter, I think he left him where my overlord died. For a little backstory, this guy at the beginning of the game would harass a drone than cutely dance it away. I decided than that I would do something gay to try to kill him. I hold grudges like that.
I pretty much mass up lings for the next two minutes and scout that hes just chilling with no defense more or less. Than I rush in and I see Atrioc; as you can see, he had no chance.
His time had come.
Lastly, as you can see, I have a slight unit advantage:
I slightly outnumber him at this point.
Now you may be thinking, this guy was obviously bad, why brag about it? Considering the amount of wins I have, I consider this a pretty sweet win. Let me have my moments.
In general though...
I played quite a bit of games, not all on iCCUp. I am mostly in a phase of learning the BO's and trying them all out, seeing which ones I like and fit my style better. I like getting fast overlord speed for some reason and I have decent muta micro atm. Current MUs for me are like this.
ZvP: I thought I would be bending over Protoss players left and right and giving them a thorough thrusting, but it's often been the other way around. It's funny playing as a Zerg and trying to do the things you used to hate as Protoss and realising how hard it is. Anyways, beating the ball of units that is Protoss is harder than I thought and I am leaning towards a mass zergling quick +1/+1 type style into Lurkers. I thought mutas were awesome, until I used them in a few games and got handled like a bitch. Not cool.
ZvZ: I was spanking ass the other day ZvZ, now I am a mere 50% it seems. I've been just trying to find a build I like and one I can deal with and I haven't decided yet but, 1hat lair -> muta certainly isn't it. I've been spanked three times in a row trying to do that. Maybe I just suck at it, or maybe it sucks in general but seriously; fuck that build.
ZvT: This matchup is pissing me off. The ball that the Terran comes out with pretty much rapes me everytime, that being said, I have played Zerg for like three days, but still, it's annoying. I don't really like mutas, so I have been doing a lurker build which I can do correctly, but I seem to suck at microing the lings and lurkers properly during flanks. There was one game where I got swarm though and than it was laughably (is that a word? idk or really care actually) easy. Fast tech to swarm is looking rather badass.
I've been doing 2v2 with Superiorwolf, we are an okay team as ZZv??. We basically copy old Mondi/Testie ZZ 2v2 reps. Pretty sick, but we are only 7-5.
If anyone has some tips for the problems I mentioned, that would be pretty helpful. Otherwise, if you like the blog or think it's shit, tell me what you would think is more interesting.
Alright, so I recently made a blog post about switching to Zerg. I got quite a few comments, mostly saying goodluck, some saying I was traitor and I think Chill likened it to playing in a windtunnel. Awesome.
So today was the first day on iCCup and I went 4-3. That is not bad I suppose. Though I learned a few things right away:
1 ) Wholly shit is it a lot harder to macro. The first game I would put my extra hats at random bases, so my layout was a lot like: main - 3 hat, natural - 2 hat, 2nd natural - 2 hat and so on. It would be the same as a Protoss making their gateways two at a time and in random locations. Hard to get used to, but now I just put all my extra hats in my main. Brainpower.
2 ) Besides macroing, there is easily four to five times as many things to do as a Zerg than a Protoss. I don't spam at all, so as a Protoss, I just start the game and just kind of chill for the first two minutes. It's not like i'm wigging out now that I am playing Z, but I am definately finding it harder to keep track of everything past the ~5minute mark. Oh the humanity.
3 ) Muta micro is hard. I'l be honest, when Zerg's would complain about battle.net latency and hype up LAN latency, I would usually just call them bitches and end it at that, but there is such a difference I feel like such a tool now. I would apologize to the Zergs I said that too, but I am a manly man, so no can do.
4 ) It's really fun annoying the hell out of Protoss. As a Protoss player before, I would cleverly call these players faggots, but now I realise how fun it is to go 9pool and follow up with some really fast mutalisk or something. Just anything to piss them off. I also experienced the joy of having a guy cuss me out after I made sunk lurk spore and smartly suicided into it. Great fun.
It's only been one day, so I don't have much else to say. Expect more tomorrow.
Celebrate good times, cmon!
To Bolt is to Boxer
