Silver!

It has finally happened. I am no longer in bronze.

It happened remarkably quickly in the end. I started following the teachings of "Filter" and after a few practice games against the AI, and about 8 games in the league, I am now silver material. Apparently.

I now don't build an engineering bay until I find myself at 12+ minutes. Apparently that sort of stuff is too complicated and I should focus on SCVs and nailing my build. But as well as SCVs at 10 minutes and the timing of my natural, I also have a benchmark for getting my factory down. If all works well I should set off at 10 minutes with an army and 2 medivacs, and arrive at his base shortly after just as stim is finishing. It hasn't worked like that once, but I still get a big army together and have had good success with this new plan.

Game 3

Summary: Promoted to silver!
Result: Victory!

Date: 7/1/13
Duration: 12 mins
Map: Cloud Kingdom LE

Matchup: TvZ

Was left alone to get on with my build. The most straightforward game since implementing my new plan.

Time of expansion: 3:47
Time of factory: 6:56

SCVs at 10 minutes: 49 (A-)

Good points:
Build order went well.

Areas for improvement:
Close to the targets, but not hitting them yet.

As usual I hesitated before setting off.

Game 4

Summary: Let protoss build stuff in my base.
Result: Defeat!

Date: 7/1/13
Duration: 9 mins
Map: Cloud Kingdom LE

Matchup: TvP

Saw the probe in my base, but wanted to get on with mining. Didn't see him leave, and when I checked around, I didn't look in the right places. He stayed there until he had warp gates. I only saw him when the pylon was nearly done. Maybe good micro could have saved me, but I don't have good micro and I lost.

Time of expansion: 3:52
Time of factory: 7:10

SCVs at 10 minutes: 

Good points:
Er, stops my head getting too big?

Areas for improvement:
Should have spotted the probe hiding there.

Could have pulled SCVs to clear it up before it got out of hand.

Game 5

Summary: Fended off some early pressure, then marched on to victory.
Result: Victory!

One poorly zealot, one poorly marine and one healthy marine and  the beginnings of a bunker.
Who will win?

Date: 7/1/13

Duration: 16 mins
Map: Daybreak LE

Matchup: TvP

He came with individual zealots for a couple of minutes. I tried a little micro and barely defeated them at the choke point. He came with a bigger attack around 8 minutes. I pushed out at 10 and cleared up a pylon and some units in the middle of the map. Then regrouped for a moment and piled into his base. He had some sneaky proxy stargates which sent some voids into my main. But by that time it was all over.

Time of expansion: 3:50
Time of factory: 7:10

SCVs at 10 minutes: 43 (C)

Good points:
The build works. I had more stuff, and had enough early on to cope with his pressure.

Areas for improvement:
My benchmarks were quite a bit off, this has to be due to worrying about the incoming attacks. The idea is that with practice I can do a little micro to help with that, and not miss a beat with my build.

Season 9: Game 4

Summary: Played fairly well and got a surprisingly easy win.
Result: Victory!

Date: 1/1/13
Duration: 23 mins
Map: Ohana
Matchup: TvP

I haven't played so much lately, but I want to get back into it. I have discovered new learning materials on the web and have been trying to incorporate that into my play. In particular I now build one barracks then expand, and don't get any gas until I have at least three barracks. But more importantly I have some benchmarks that I can use to measure my play. I knew already the importance of continuously producing out of all my buildings, but since I watched the first of these videos, something has changed and my macro has improved a level. I will now be adding two new stats to my reviews: SCVs at 10 minutes, and the time I expanded. According to the video on the team liquid forum, I should have 50 SCVs at 10 minutes and expand at 3:45.

Having said that, I made plenty of mistakes in this game, but still won. As usual I got distracted by him scouting me and was delayed with a couple of early structures. Having watched the replay he didn't expand for ages and spent a lot of time not building workers. He was slightly favoured, but I would say his play wasn't very good.

The first exchange, and perhaps pivotal moment in the game. His comes into the side of my base with a surprisingly large army, but my first medivacs arrive just in time and I fend him off.

Time of expansion: 3:45 (yay!)

SCVs at 10 minutes: 47 (I will give myself a B for that)

Good points:

• Didn't panic or die when he planted a pylon in my main.

Areas for improvement:

• Supply blocked at various points. (94 and 134 - which is much much better than usual)
• Started engineering bay at 8:00. Think this was too late and I was potentially vulnerable to DTs.
• Need to be more organised about getting upgrades.
• With no pressure from my opponent I failed to set up third and fourth bases and had 30+ idle workers at 20 minutes.