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| Lessons in Choking | | | Author: | | | IP: | 199.94.7XXXX | | Date: | 02/16/00 10:02 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 6, Min: 6
Lifetime Rating for Sharandar: 7.8750 |  | Once again, because I have the HTML skills of a orangutan and teh graphics skills of a very lage rat, this will be an all text report.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present:
Lessons in how to choke.
Last night, I played three games, the first two against FLS prozerran and Afk-x, with Dyslexic_Zealot as my partner. The third was against two other A-X memebers, (sorry, gentlemen, I can't recall your names).
GAME ONE:
Setup:
Map: Dark Temple
-=Hobbes=- (me): Protss, 3oclock position.
Dyslexic_Zealot: Protoss, 9oclock position.
Fls Prozerran: Terran, 12 oclock position
Afk-X: Zerg, 6 oclock position
This game started off fairly well, despite my "OMG we are so dead" pessimism. I completely screwed up my probe micro, putting me abit behind Zealot, but we decided that a doubleground offensive would be best--eliminate one opponent, then contain the other and tech to the point where it would be no contest. Well, that was the plan--but unfortunately for us, Afk-X and Prozerran aren't exactly a couple of tools.
After some preliminary scouting, we discoverd that Afk-X had not opted for an early expansion--instead, he gone with the more conservative build of a hatch at his choke. Prozerran, as far as I could tell, was massing infantry.
The first move came from our opponents. Zerglings, marines and medics rallied outside of Zealot's base, and then attempted to roll over his defenses. Zealot had his zeals and goons placed fairly well on the ramp and pretty much owned the attack.
CHOKE #1:
Seeing that he had matters in hand, at least for the moment, I decided to make a foray in the terran's camp. Let me note something here--I HATE Terrans. For one reason or another, I always have far more frustration dealing with them than with any other race.
I failed miserably. FLS had a fairly small number of marines and firebats against my mass of gons and zeals, and I am fairly sure that if I couldn't have won this fight, I at least should've donea good deal of dmamage to the forces he had there. But I completely lost control of my forces. I couldn't think, and for one reason or another I couldn't figure out where to start with micro. So, while I was paralyzed by indecision, FLS handily gunned down most of my forces. Seeing that I was completely unable to manage the attack, I withdrew, trying to recollect my thoughts and get ready for another attack.
The next enemy attack was again at Zealot's main. This time, though, he was in trouble. I sent a force of about 5 zeals and 5 goons to assist, and together we pretty well destroyed the attack. At this point, we combined our forces and decided it was time to make a real offensive. I wanted to be rid of the terran, but we knew at this point that Afk-X had expanded to his natural. That could not be allowed if we were to hold the advantage. We marched a force of dragoons, templar and zealots down to the expansion and completely annihilated it. Instead of pressing ino the main, we pulled back--a decision which I later learned gave FLS time to send a few tanks to aid in the defense of the Zerg base.
CHOKE #2:
At this point, Zealot and I had at least decent control of the land area of the map--we both had our naturals, and we knew that at least Afk-x had nothing outside of his main. What we didn't know was that Prozerran was pretty much allowing us to think that way. This choke was a less obvious one (from my POV, I'm sur ethe obs saw this one though) because the effects were not evident immediately. I simply failed to tech to anything air related. Once again, I couldn't think, couldn't figure out what to do. I had no plan as for how we were going to mount an attack, or how we were even supposed to gain control of anything. As I put it to Zealot midway through, "now what?"
There were a few attacks in between these early periods and the late game, which had moderate success against me--FLS destroyed my expansion nexus when it first came up, but I quickly rebuilt it, and lost very few units in the process. Another time, Afk-x managed to sneak a few hydra to my probe line and get off a few kills. BOth of these worked because my forces were elsewhere and I was unable to ge tthem to where they needed to be. But really, these attacks didn''t hurt me all that much, because in the end, they lost a large standing for each time (or moderately sized force, anyway) while my armies remained relatively intact throughout.
But then the deathblow came. And what a sad, pathetic deathblow it was. The cliff drop. I had taken no precautions against it, had no air of any sort, and, worst of all, my macro had been so bad thatI ahd about 1500/1500 in the bank that I could've spent on those very forces. Instead, I pulled my probes as lurker spines tore through the ground at my expansion. At the same time, Zealot's cliff was fortified by terran troops.
From here on it was downhill. We made an attempt to take Afk's main, and managed to lose about ten unis to his one before retreating. I had 2 templar, and didn't get a single storm off. It appeared that my micro was shot to hell not just for that one move, but for the game. A little formula appeared in my mind...
No macro + no micro + no plan + skilled opponents = I'm screwed.
And screwed I was. I managed to stop the cliff drop, temporarily, but it wasn't enough. Afk-x never became a huge threat, as he was about the same as us, or slightly worse off, for most of the game. But in our attempts to destroy Afk-x, we had allowed FLS to consume the entire north western portion of the map, and when he finally broke out, it was quite obvious that nothing would be left standing.
GAME #2:
As always, Zealot opted for a rematch...I wasn't feeling to good about my game, but I figured I'd play anyway. This time, things wouldn't be too much different. In fact, the game took fairly the same route.
SETUP:
MAP: Dire Straits
-=Hobbes=- (me): Zerg, Lower Left
Dyslexic_Zealot: Zerg, Upper Right
FLS Prozerran: Protoss, Lower Right
Afk-X: Terran, Upper Left
Once again the same race, zeal and I both decided on the same strat--hydras. I was a bit behind him, since I was paranoid of corsairs and had taken the time to build a pair of spore colonies at my main. Unlike anyhting else I did this game, those paid off as FLS's first corsair flew overhead, then swiftly fled after being pelted by a couple of spores. I was expecting a massive corsair rush at this point--instead, a few moments later, I found a reaver knocking on my back door. Once again, I was pretty damn happy I had but up the spore colonies--the forced FLS to land a good distance off, where he could do little damage to my drones. After destroyed one colony (which I would rebuild later) one drone and a few hdyras, his reaver was destroyed but his two zealots began running around my base, trying to find anyhting they could to do some damage.
At this point zealot asked if I neded help--FLS was not attacking my drones, and I had six eggs morphing into hydras. I told him to counter. I was trying to micro my way around those two zealots, and only caught a glimpse of Zealot's drop on FLS--but I did manage to see it get owned rather badly. Two more reavers, a few corsairs and zealot...FLS, if he was screwing up his micro a bit (I ran one of his zealots around my entire base) he was definitely making up for it in unit production. As it turned out, he would've had to have payed the worst game of his lfie for us to have won.
At this point, I wanted to expand. Figuring that FLS would have most of his forces protecting his main, I attempted to take the lower middle island--only to find a nexus warping in, and a reaver for protection. A pack or corsairs attacked the lone overlord I had sent, and, to ensure a safe landing, I sent that overlord back to the island from the south, then retreated. FLS took the bait and followed the overlord fromthe base while sixteen of my hydras descended on it fom the north. When the corsairs arrived, the hydras had landed and the reaver was gone. FLS withdrew from the base.
CHOKE #1::
We had made the idiotic and ultimately colossal mistake of not bothering to even look at Afk-x. At one point, Zealot had dropped his main and taken out a decent number of his probes (I didn't actually see this, so I'm not certain how much damage was done), but by and large, he was left to do his thing. In his first show of strength, he dropped a strike force on my now-morphing expansion on the southern-middle island. I only managed to do moderate damage before being destroyed, taking out a tank and a few marines. At this point, i could only watch as FLS landed a few more probes and began his expansion there...again.
For the second time in a night I got that paralyzed feeling. If Afk-x had more forces like that, I knew I'd need lurkers or guardians, but I had only a single base and no means to expand. Afk-x had taken the base to my north, and had aided FLS in fortifying the island to my east. I was effectively cornered. Instead of coming up with a way to break out, I simply typed to Zealot "Unless you can break me out of here, I'm dead." I mostly just sat and waited at that point.
After numerous unsuccessful or moderately successful drops, zealto finally landed a strike force on FLS that tore apart his defenses. I had a couple of guardians at this point, pecking away at FLS's expansion, and decied to unload ALL of my forces on FLS's main with Zeal. Zealot had only three hydras left, and if FLS was able to build any units, he could potentially survive the asault. Together, we razed the base to the ground. Not that it mattered at this point. Afk-X had already won, we just didn't know it yet.
CHOKE #2:
Because I have no brain, apparently, I sent my ovies home after they dropped that cargo on FLS's main. A couple of minutes later, I began to realize that I would have to go pick them up. Doh. Meanwhile, a pair of SV's irradited my two guardians, and it started to become clear exactly what was going on--Afk-x had had all the time he needed to tech up fully, and since h had remained unmolested nearly the entire game probably had a large standing force as well. At this point, we decided to finish of FLS. Afk-x had destroyed Zealot's only expansion, but both of our forces were closer to FLS's remaining bases. We loaded up and moved in.
The first island went down, and tehn we found he had a nexus on the left center island. Another drop finished off what little remained of FLS. After this point, he had only a few token units at Afk-x's main. I double expanded, using the last of my resources to build two hatcheries, one on the left center island, one on the south middle.
On the other hand, AFK had established expansions on both the western island and the north middle. Zealot also expanded, to the right middle island. We had map control, but it was flimsy at best and neither of us had the income to back up our forces. So when the tanks, marines, medics and science vessels of Afk-x came from the north, it was as though a storm has ravaged the zerg bases. The terrans met little resistance on their own level, and my nine minerals were not nearly enough to bring any sort of defenses to meet him. Zealot was ina similar position.
While I did somewhat better this game than the previous, there were still windows that I missed. I ignored Afk-x, I failed to do any amount of recon, I made logistical errors that cost me huge amounts of time. And, of course, Ark-x and FLS prozerran are pretty damned good--they could've beaten me on one of my good days anyway, so it made these losses all the more pathetic.
THIRD GAME:
At this point I just wanted to win a game. I jsut wanted to walk away secure that no, I wasn't THAT bad. But, for last night at least, I was. I msged ::nobody:: and got him to be my partner in a 2v2 on Snowbound. I don't remember the names of the two A-X guys who I played against, and I apologise.
SETUP:
MAP: Snowbound
-=Hobbes=- (me): Protoss, Left Side
::nobody:: : Protoss, Bottom Side
A-X one: Zerg, Top Side
A-X two: Terran, Right side
This should've been fairly simple, but in fact thsi was the worst game I played all night. I was playing my best race on one of my best maps. At the outset, I was going for ground domination while ::nobody:: was building corsairs. Our first strike, while not as effective as I had hoped, was at least a success. I drop a reaver and a dragoon behind the mineral line of the zerg, while ::nobody::'s corsairs moved up to kill the overlords and any mutas. Most of the drones retreated, but ::nobody:: managed to wipe out the mutas and get a few overlords. A couple of tanks ended our incursion, but we had dealt a good amount of damage to the zerg. Why we didn't follow this strike up and finish him is anyone's guess.
Instead, I expanded and urged ::nobody:: to do the same. With the zerg damaged, we should have been able to gain map control on the mainland. At first, we did. I had the bottom left exp, ::nobody:: took the top left. I had four gateways, two forges, two robotics facilities, and a templar archives. But there was a problem.
THE BIG CHOKE:
I wasn't building anything. I had 1500 fof each resource in the bank, and couldn;t seem to spend it. I couldn't find my shuttles and could never seem to get my forces to hte mainland. When I did, my micro was so bad that I kept getting ripped apart by smaller zerg forces. To make maters worse, I kept forgetting to build reavers to counter the numberless zerglings that kept trying to break out across teh mainland. We had destroyed the terran's expansion at least once, we had scouted and should have been able to destroy the zerg expansion, and the game should have been in the bag. I had the means to produce an army three times the size of what I had. But simply couldn't seem to keep production going, and when I did get units, I couldn't find any of my shuttles to transport them. By the time I got through all that, the enemy forces were at least equal to my own.
I could only watch in horror as this game that we had won so handily fell apart before me. I had choked about as badly as a player can. And then the formula came back to me.
No macro + no micro + no plan = I'm screwed.
LESSONS LEARNED:
--It's all about focus, and all about maintaining a plan for how you are going to take down your enemy. If you don't have a plan in mind as to how you're going to destroy him, you'll end up being put on the defensive no matter how much of an advantage you have.
--Some days, you're jsut going to be bad. And it's going to be frustrating, because you KNOW you're capable of doing at least somewhat better.
--If you choke, don't give up--try to regain your focus. I never did, and lsot badly because of it.
--Good micro wins the battle, good macro wins the game...in most cases.
--If you're choking, don't play an A-X, take on a pubbie--then, at least, you'll win. |
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