Breaking even and the TSL

Terrans are back to being the bane of my game right now.  My promotion to Platinum has exposed me to a new level of timing pushes and all ins.  The delay on stim is a huge help, but it hasn't stop Terrans from building all the marines and marauders and smashing them into my face.  The worst part is watching the replays.  Against Protoss and Zerg players, I can win a game against a solid platinum level player more than 50% of the time.  Terrans, on the other hand, I lost to high level gold players or worse.  

I have switched my play in response.  I only do one build per match up now.  I am beyond the point where I can just do what feels right and hope it works.  I need efficiency to beat the people I'm up against and I need to refine.  The only way to do that is to pick a build and master it.  It seems boring, but when your builds become automated, it gives you a better ability to scout, react and handle all the little things the game requires.  The only way to do that is to practice.

So I also watch a ton of pro-starcraft, as I detailed in my last post.   This weekend, it will be the epic sage of the TeamLiquid Star League. Its an invitational tournament run by TeamLiquid.net, which is the go to place for all things Starcraft.  

A few of my favorites are playing this weekend, including LiquidTyler.  He is the angry looking man(though he is very "chill" in real life) in the promotional shot above and is a beast who loves safe, long term play.  Each player has their own style of play, some take risks and others like to wear their opponent down.  Sometimes a player will try to end a game quickly if they don't think they can take their opponent is a drawn out game.  The commentators even have buzz words to describe each players skills.  Great control, excellent decision making, game sense, macro, micro, crisis management, and more.

Somewhere in all of these games, I might find time to practice.