Getting into the swing of things

I had a good chunk of time today after a nice brunch with some family.  The guy who is doing the lessons was on and did 1 hour of my free lesson time with me.  We talked about a lot of the things to keep in mind for PvT and PvZ but it was really hard to absorb it all and play well at the same time.  I think a little of it sunk in, but he said that next time we'll concentrate on perfecting my macro.  I think what it really comes down to is that I just need more practice.  To really train my brain it may take a while if I can only play about 1 game a day on average.

After the lesson time I knocked out 5 ladder games in a row while my son took a long nap.  I think I started at rank 37.

• Replay 1
• Replay 2
• Replay 3
• Replay 4
• Replay 5

The end result was rank 35 in my division.

Game 1 I lost to some quick mass marines.  My early build wasn't tight and I just wasn't prepared for it.  Game 2 was a good PvP.  I got a bit of an advantage after the first conflict but didn't capitalize on it, and then had a really bad second attack.  After that it was a slow downhill slide.  Game 3 was a PvT that I maybe could have won but I was stubborn about trying to win on macro alone and I built almost exclusively zealots and archons.  Eventually it slipped away from me as my opponents macro overtook mine and my inferior unit mix fell apart.

So 3 losses in a row.  I almost quit playing.  Almost.

Game 4 was against a terran who was almost as stubborn as me.  Even though he almost killed me early I managed to squeak out of it because he spent time shooting at my expansion nexus.  I went ahead and built colossus this time and also got him into a couple of unfavorable engagements.  With him only having M&M I was able to wipe out his army with the colossus.

Game 5 was I drew a zerg and when I scouted his early expansion I decided to pressure him.  Yeah, it was a 4-gate.  But not the best one since I got myself supply blocked again.  But I saw that he only had a handful of lings since he was teching a bit, so I brought out more zealots and was able to take the game quickly.

I can see now how frustrating the road to improvement could be for some people.  I think I'll need to just keep practicing away as I have the time.