So, to my surprise, I’ve been able to maintain myself as a Gold 4v4 random player. I played 9 matches with my bro XSVBEEF ( excessive beef, because yes, he has a ludicrous amount of beef; and bro because he is in fact my brother). We won the minority, four of nine, but they were big wins, so we both ended up ahead in the world of points. A little added padding. One of those loses was plagued by what other players are calling cheese. Meaning something cheesy or cheap. I can’t think of anything more cheesy than what we fell victim to, and I feel like a bit of a douche for losing. It’s easy to blame my teammates in this case as one of them left as soon as he lost his workers. Way too many people seem to do that in 4v4. The other didn’t defend himself with the units he had, even though the only units he had were his worker probes. This cheese play was the instant worker rush. One guy rushed in with all 6 of his probes and started taking people out. This is easy to prevent with some micro (you remember what micro is right?), and a little assistance from increased numbers. By the time they could begin to rebuild, our bases were overrun with the other 3 opponent’s forces, and XSVBEEF and I were unable to hold them off and counter. It was sad indeed. It didn’t help that one of them had the communication skills of the average Halo player living in his mother’s basement and popping his face.

So I still have some gold. On the 1v1 ladder I’m feeling pretty good. I played 2 matches tonight, against scary “slightly favored” opponents, and won both of them! Basically both walled themselves in on their base, and I starved them. I never got the super satisfying CRUSH of their base, but dealt with everything they had well. Watching the replays I have noticed a lot of things I need to work on, even though I have won three 1v1 games in a row. I have been watching a lot of Day[9] Dailies and trying to absorb all of this advice. I have decided to begin focusing on a few things at a time. These things are:

  • Keeping my minerals and gas low, and putting them to use on the map.
  • Choosing easy damage, meaning I should choose a battle I know I can win, with little sacrifice or risk of my own.
  • Watch the mini-map! I had a match last night in which I chose to rush, and passed the opponents rush force in the middle. This left my base undefended for a critical duration of time.
  • Scout. This is insanely important in 1v1. Knowing what your opponent is up to is invaluable.
  • When making a push, try to expand. Forcing your opponent on the defensive, and doing some damage, will leave them no option but to repair their base. This time window is perfect for improving your own economy.
  • A game-play altering upgrade is a great time to push. This creates a timing window where you will have an advantage.
  • Strategically placing rally points. Reinforcing your army quickly is very important. Hell, you can tell your forces to go to a specific unit.
  • SMOOTH! An adjective that I feel encompasses macro very well coined by day[9].  Executing a build order in line with your resource collection feels so good. Everything just flows. I spent some time tonight working on build orders and multitasking. That damn multitasking trainer is a pain in the ass, but I need to work on that intensely.

These are the things I’m going to be focusing on. Anything else that I can come up with that is eminently important will be brought up as I figure some more stuff out. I would like to get some visual examples to assist in my quest. I’ll make this a goal, because hell… it’s just more interesting, and pretty!

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