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Created 24th February 2007 21:50
As Alsvidh and Arvak finish their daily lapse across the sky, another day in the life of men ceases, and the land is covered in darkness. What could readily be described as "just another day", actually has a meaning for me - Today is the day that I, with a mixed set of emotions, announce my retirement from the game we all so thoroughly enjoy. So many people has questioned my reasons behind such am unfathomable decision; and in reality it's not a simple question to answer, while my love for the game is still unquestionably strong - the rupture and bedazzlement I found ever so enchanting, has been replaced with deep down feelings of indifference and a huge lack of commitment. I've found myself questioning my motivations for quite awhile, and honestly, I no longer have the drive, determination or interest in the many hours of practice needed to atleast partially succeed as a brood war player. I came back just recently, and everything started going well for me. I joined uT after a small break from bw, and the immense support and faith shown in me from day 1 surely helped me to do things I would've never dreamed for, I've pretty much been a part of any clanwar I wanted; and even when I lost they never questioned my abilities - And let me tell you, in terms of bw there is nothing as "heartwarming" as unconditional support from ones team, which is why I'd like to extend a very big thank you to Arjiann, Hugo and Deto for being the best admins I've ever had the pleasure of meeting, Thank you! While all is said and done, please don't misunderstand me - I know I'm not a super good bw player; I'm not a self-proclaimed gosu at all. In fact I have often felt deep down feeling of inadequacy when it comes to playing Starcraft - but I've learned to cope, and so should everyone else. So I guess this is it; until I someday retrieve the magic feeling that once was, I bid you all farewell - And remember that winning and losing is side effects of life; you can never be a complete person unless you've experienced both. | ||||||||||||||||||
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Created 24th December 2006 18:00
Hi everyone, It's time once again, another week has passed and another set of games played - This week my team uT, faced off with the current #1 in bwcl premier, the Templars of Twillight! A fierce opponant any and all team would have a hard time against. My initial thoughts going into this match as our #1 (in the draw, not best player etc), was that I had to play mondi testie or sen, all of whom I consider the leaders of foreign BW in terms of skill. Obviously I was expecting a 0-2 loss, I know I'm not as good as any of them, during the week I had mostly practiced tvz - but I was just not content with how it had gone, I lost to a lot of "bad" opponants that I shouldn't and I had pretty much lost all confidence in that matchup, especially since I didn't have a lot of time to practice (Due to draw being launched quite early, and my set of games being played the 20th (just 4 days after my game vs [a2]). My opponant is the well known Taiwanese player SEn, a player who I have always looked up to honestly, his zvt is just..incredibly good, by far his best matchup imo - Not that his other matchups are bad, just his zvt is THAT good. It didn't require a lot of thinking for me to realized that everything looked quite grave - I had to play the best zvt outside of korea, and my tvz training games had resulted in me getting completely annihilated by people I generally beat. I was in trouble, I knew I had to do something, anything, and after having my brain stuck in a perpetual "problem-solving" mode, I came up with a quick fix - I decided it was time to re-locate my testicles and play ZvZ. Unfortunately for me, I hadn't played zvz on an even remotely serious level since the 6th of December, 2005 (Americup game vs Octobzerg which I lost horribly). We decided to play the games on hamachi, which I think was wonderful - Starcraft is just that much more enjoyable playing on udp settings, and mutalisks are 10 times more useful in every matchup (My opinion, hate me for it all you want!). The starting map was Blitz, a map I had never even thought about playing zvz on, and a map I consistantly lost tvz on, so ..well, I'd lie if I said I liked it. 5...4..3..2..1.. Game starts, I wasn't really sure what to go for in term of game play and build orders, so I opted to safeplay some, going 11 pool 12 hatch (at expand), SEn had opted for a similar bo, except he started his gas right before his exp hatch. I realized my lair was behind, and I was low on gas..so I opted for some lings, which made him waste eco on 2 sunkens - I was pretty content as I just switched to drones and took my nat gas faster than him - He had maybe 2-4 lings less than me, so was no real threat, but also had 2 sunkens which meant I was either slightly ahead in eco, or about even. Of course I messed up badly as I decided to completely neglect my two scouting overlords, positioned at his main and at his nat - Lost both to his mutas, and my own were delayed greatly - He used this to try and get some early kills with his units, but luckily my zvz senses weren't too rusty and I used all newly hatched units to defend with only a few drone losses. He kept on being aggresive, and I had no choice but to defend for awhile - which I didn't mind, but still wish I hadn't fucked up the two overlords ! We basically just both powered mutas and scourges, and after a few skirmishes I was ahead in muta count - he did what any zerg that finds himself behind should, tech to hive. Unfortunately for him, I caught him after he had spent gas on both a queens nest and his started hive upgrade, my mutas outnumbered his greatly and he taped out - GG. I was in a state of denial - had I actually won a game vs SEn, the zerg player I had always adored? Incredible, and it wasn't luck or cheese based - amazing. I must admit, I did rush online on my second pc to report my 1-0 lead to fellow uT members (Yes, my little victory meant that much to me!). After listing the map pool for him, he picked Arkanoid 1.0 as our next battleground - I felt it was an odd pick, but I like the map so no complaints from me. 5..4..3..2..1.. Game starts, I hastly send my drones to mine as I come up with a gameplan - A quick assessment based on map, the expand location etc I decided to opt for a 12 hatch close to one of my nat gasses, so I could get both the gas and 2-3 drones on the minerals for an early income. My idea was to adapt to his build from there, if he had opted for an equal bo, I would get a third hatch above my second nat's gas, and if he had gone for fast mutas I would opt for some spore colonies. Luckily I scouted him first location, and saw he had gone an OL->9pool->gas build, obviously going for some fast mutas and a fast carapace upgrade. I was pretty relived, because I realize my choice of build order would put me ahead, especially as I laid down 3 spores so his initial muta harrass was completely fruitless - so to speak. On a positive note I did remember to save my overlords this time, so I got mutas/scourges in time and won a small battle close to my second nat. I was ahead and started being a bit careless - I went to attack with all my mutas, and after a muta/scourge (him) vs pure mutas(me) clash, I realized I had to flee as his carapace upgrade had kicked in. I thought to myself "oh no, now I'm behind" - I figured the best way to get back in the game was to just amass mutas, and 4-6 scourges and timing my attack with my own carapace upgrade. After 30-45 seconds of waiting and producing units, I went for it.. caught his mutas somewhat offguard and cloned 5-6 scourges to 1 muta each - he ran with his mutas as I started killing the drones at his main - He panicked and struggled to get some scourges up to defend, but to no avail.. some fancy muta micro from me, 6 scourges dead, and an empty main still occupied by my mutas SEn said gg and thanked me for the games. I had won, 2-0 - and it vs the player that I had always thought of as a "personal favourite" in the foreign(non-korean) community. I was a bit overwhelmed honestly, the victory was really something special to me - any sign of progress, whether in the form of victories, or good matches played, really makes me happy - especially seeing that is why I play Brood war in the first place. I would like to thank SEn for being really good mannered, and I know that he is a better player than me - but I don't think it's wrong of me to be happy about winning :). Next week we're playing S2, one of the best Russian clans - the start map is Azalea, a map I never really practiced as Denmark never had WCG (Unfortunately T.T). I'll probably lose.. but we'll see. Until then I wish you all a merry christmas! Replays are here: http://www.team-ut.com/replay.php?to=all | ||||||||||||||||||
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Created 16th December 2006 22:56
Okay, so I wrote a blog last week, and it seems like a few people enjoyed reading it - I know it helped myself a bit, so I'm going to turn this into a weekly thing for the bwcl premier (since it's the most "important" event I'm participating in). If you think I suck, or if I am horrible at writing blogs - feel free to not comment and just keep your negativity to yourself. I woke up around 15:45, I had only slept for 3 hours, although I had prepared for today and really wanted to win after the loss last week, I couldn't help but feel sceptic as I struggled to even keep my eyes open, We (uT) had to play a2, a good team that is underrated by many. I had practiced the openening map Forte a fair bit in the last week, but I'd be a liar if I said I felt even remotely confident playing it - Especially knowing a2's lineup, as they have a lot of (good) terran users. During practice I really lost a lot of zvt games on forte to people I normally don't lose to. Not sure if the map is really "imbalanced"; or if it just doesn't suit my zvt style. We met up in a2vsuT, I was glad to see both teams having lots of people on, and the draw was made quickly (thank you a2 for great organization and super manners!), I had to play Gladiator[a2], not terribly suprising a terran player as I had expected (luckily I dodged overdrive, I think he's really /really/ good and his performance during wcg was not very suprising to me, he IS that good). So we start game 1, I spawned as chosen Z at the 7 o'clock main, while he started commanding his scv's around at the 11 o'clock main. During practice I had been bunker rushed so many times that I felt a 12 pool was the safest, of course he chooses to play it normally and do a supply rack rack build on his main plateau. He scouts me first location, and delays my 2nd hatch greatly (I got up to 550 mins T.T) and as such I started my second hatch (at choke) and third hatch (at expand) about the same time.. scared of a rine/scv rush I felt the need to turn all 3 larvaes into lings. After killing his pesky scouting scv I went to guard his choke eagerly awaiting his build, as my overlord had not been successful in finding anything. After about 5 mins he moves out with a small marine, medic and firebat army, obviously just looking to stim past my sunks or clearing my lings so he can start his expansion. I warped in two more sunks just for safety and kept on drone whoring as planned. I saw the newly started CC on his expansion right away with my overlord, so my gameplan was simple, mutas -> lurks while controlling map. I noticed his lack of turrets at his nat, so I was cheering for my spire to finish faster, in the mean time I started a hydra den for the followup lurkers, I prefer getting the hydra den relatively early compared to most zergs nowadays (savior et al.) because I feel the faster I get lurks, the sooner I can secure more expands. My plan worked perfectly this far, I hadn't really lost any units and my mutas killed 5-6 sc'v, a turret and some marines.. and bought me time enough to get 5 lurkers out on the map. From here I started playing a bit sloppy, my macro wasn't very good, mostly due to the fact that I was tired and hadn't played any warmup games - But I'm the only person to blame for that, so it's not a good excuse at all! I actually managed to secure both gas expands at the bottom of the map, bringing my gas count to a total of 4, which should be enough for any zergs to play against a somewhat late FE'ing (due to academy before cc build) terran. Unfortunately my opponant had marines / turrets placed so I couldn't scout his build, which unfortunately forced me to guess - Which is never ever a good thing. Needless to say I of course expected 2 stargate vessels and sk-style terran, but my opponant opted for early 2 fact mass tanks. I killed a few minor mm armies without big loses, at this point I had honestly thought to myself "I've won", but it's never ever over till the fat lady sings - so to speak. My poor macro actually left me over 2.5k minerals and 900 gas at some points, totally unacceptable as I had even made 3 additional hatches. My opponant saw his chance and decided to push JUST as my macro was at it's worst.. I was in the midst of switching to guards and getting my defiler tech, but I was too slow, too late.. I lose my main and my nat, looking at my building and units fall while having 3k minerasl and 2k gas just sitting in the top right corner... I tried to stay in game by making ultra/ling from my expands.. but it was over, I was outgraded and soon out-eco'd. After game 1 I felt really stupid, I should've closed the game and won it pretty easily (no offense to my opponent, but I was ahead in tech, eco and unit count for quite awhile). Luckily it served as a wakeup call for me, facing another possible 0-2, I felt ready, because I just couldn't let that happen again. Obvious advice is..KEEP MACROING and NEVER EVER think you've won a game until your opponent has left the game. I didn't want to worry about a possible third match for now, so I picked arcadia for the re - a map I feel quite confident on, and I find it very balanced zvt (despite the stats going from 11-1 for z, to 18-18 in progames). Game begins in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... I start as Z at the 5 o'clock main, while my opponent spawns as t at the 11 o'clock main. My thoughts going into this game were rather simple - I wanted to win, and the only way I was going to archive it was outplaying my opponent in a straight up safe manner. I opted for a 9 pool build, which I think is a really strong opening build on arcadia, due to the many 8 rack / 14 CC builds, 9 pool doesn't hurt your eco "that" much if facing a normal build imo. Anyways, he goes for the exact same build, supply rack rack fast gas to academy. My 6 lings killed a few scv's and and rines on his ramp, but unfortunately I couldn't save any of them - having drone whored in the mean time I felt obliged to get a sunken at my choke ASAP, which meant I suddenly had a very weakly positioned sunken wall. A minute later, a moment of paying zero attention and I see my opponent stimming his marine/medic/firebats through my sunken line, I panicked, I saw it all fade away at that moment - I honestly thought the game was over at this point. I quickly picked up my drones from my nat to somewhat block his attempt, I managed to get one of the medics and 2 marines killed, but that still left him 5 rines, 2 bats and a medic.. it was a disaster, I warped in a sunken at my main while trying to get lings from all of my hatcheries. Luckily he overstimmed as he went for my main, losing 2 rines to the sunken, and the rest of his army was at low health and the medic out of mana, I saw a chance to kill it all with lings and smiled as I had successfully defended the attack that should have pretty much ended the game. Knowing well I was still behind and my opponent had fast expanded, I sent my lings to attack him - unfortunately they arrived too late to do any damage, and pretty much died killing a firebat or two. I put down 2 more hatches because my eco needed a serious kick, and I sent a drone to the 1 o'clock nat, and the 6 o'clock gas expand. At this point I had a spire, lurker tech almost done and 6-7 mutas flying around winning time and killing scouting scv's. I saw him opting for the exact same build as first game (2fact 1 port). I just massed lings / lurks from my 5 hatches at the main, expecting his push. He moved out half a minute later, sieging up at my choke, firing away at my sunkens. Good thing is that I had expected this sort of "early" offense push, and had left a few lurkers on the map to better flank his push as it reached my choke. after warping the last few lurkers, I decided to push out - it was very successful, I didn't lose a lot of units and killed all of his, after this I knew I had to power some drones for my finished 6 o'clock and 1 o'clock nat expands. At this point my hive was about ready, I knew he would have another massive tank army ready soon so I tried to adjust my build this game to have earlier guards. I saw him moving out from his choke as my greater spire was close to done - I flew my 6 surviving mutas to the ramp above the 1 o'clock main and morphed them to guards, expecting him to go for my expand there. I was right again, and I decimated his army with very few casualities, while having finished both my defiler mound and consume ability in the mean time. Fortunately my opponent had put too much concern in my greater spire and had amassed wraiths from 3 ports. Only seconds later my army was at his choke, 2 defilers with full energy thickens the air with some decently placed swarms. I felt very relieved as my opponent typed out, but knew I had to keep focus if I wanted to win on his map pick - I think losing first game to a Terran player in this tourney is very very hard to come back from for a Zerg, there's just so many extremely imbalanced maps to choose from - ala 815 and estrella. Luckily my opponent went with luna as his map pick after some arguing about the map pool (admin had told me last week that map pool = the maps listed as start maps for bwcl premier, as they repeat themselves towards the end, and it wouldn't make sense to use one map twice (luna, gaia) if you had other un-used starting maps). Going into third game, I realized it was now or never - I wanted to win quite badly, after disappointing in the last two cw's (loss vs mym, loss vs italy). 3... 2... 1... I spawned at the 11 o'clock position, and my terran opponent at 7 o'clock. At this point I figured to just expect the same bo from him (since his two first games had been practically identical in bo) so I went for a 12 hatch 11pool build, wanting to play it safe. I had sent my overlord in the right position, and kept it close to the small path leading up to my from him via the mineral only at 9 o'clock. I saw him move out with quite a few scv's and some rines - I went into panic mode, seeing as how I had only saved one larvae for lings and my exp hatch hadn't even finished yet - I cancelled my third hatch and sent 9 drones and rallied both main and nat to my choke and frantically pressed sz to get some zerglings - luckily I realized my opponent was trying to bunker rush me with a 10/11'ish build and not a 8 rack. A big battle ensued right at my nat hatch, 7-8 scv's and 3 rines vs 4 lings and 8'ish drones, I managed to survive with almost zero casualities. I literally smiled to myself thinking "I'm ahead, I'm ahead" - but with the experience from game 1 lurking in the back of my head, I would NOT let it slip again - I saw him scan my just started spire - and went into 'creative thinking' mode as I threw up a hydra den and started teching for lurkers. I also started ling speed which I usually only get that early if I'm afraid of any "cheese" builds like stim rush, fast tank push etc. I saved up 3 larvaes on each of my 3 hatches to make it look real, my overlord hovering over his nat saw him massing turrets everywhere and I decded it was a golden oppertunity - I started 9 hydras, rallied them to a spot inside my main where I assumed he would not scan, and started warping them to lurkers. I sent a few lings around the map to scout for scv's and armies, because I had also sent a drone to start an expansion at the 1 o'clock main. I saw a small mm army outside my choke and quickly grouped my 20'ish lings and 8 lurkers. I moved out swiftly and surrounded the small group and watched as subterranean spines annihilated the marine and medics. I quickly got my lurkers back up and headed directly for his choke, rallying all my hatcheries there aswell producing zerglings. My opponent had gone into panic-mode, and thrown up 3 bunkers - but it was too late, 8 lurkers and a sea of lings streamed into his nat, and sooner his main, my strategy had worked, my mind games had kept him constantly pressured, and on his toes, never getting a chance to restore balance in his play. So I won 2-1, I'm very happy about this, despite the somewhat bad maps in this league, I had prevailed against an excellent terran opponent and gotten my team another 1v1 win. Next week we're playing one of the strongest (if not THE strongest) teams outside of korea - Templars of twillight. I'm going to prepare as much as I can, my tvz is nowhere near competant level - but I'd rather try and fail, than to give up beforehand. So until then, thanks for reading (if anyone is going to) and feel free to leave feedback - while also keeping in mind that English is NOT my primary language. THE REPLAYS ARE HERE: http://www.speedyshare.com/993790549.html p.s. This has gotten awfully long - I'm terribly sorry to whoever is going to try deciphering it - I had no idea I'd end up writting an essay T_T. | ||||||||||||||||||
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Created 9th December 2006 18:53
I just now noticed there's a blog feature here, I reckon it to be a good place to reflect on my brood war games. Sadfully I feel like an Emo-kid even writing a blog, but that's my struggle ! Today uT played versus MyM, after a bit of a wait (bad organization from mym honestly), we managed to get a draw ready. I had to play vs mym.sarens, a very good French terran player - my initial thought after seeing the draw was something close to "Goddamnit!", I felt really nervous for unknown reasons (not like I'm playing a starleague:P) and although I've been practicing 815 just for this, I couldn't really think straight or remember half of what I had learnt in the previous week. First game on 815 I used a 12 hatch 11 pool buildorder, wanted to play standard and get some fast lurks on low ground to secure an expo or two more while getting a spire for air control and drops for more expansions later, unfortunately I never got enough time, army, eco or map control to do so. Basically I felt pressure from the start, his scouting scv delayed my expand hatch some, and his 8 rack(guessing) bunk rush forced me into very low eco, from there on he just expanded and ran me over with upgraded marine medics (1.5 gas lurker < many marine medics with good micro). Game 2 I picked Gaia (I think it's a dumb map, but I really don't feel confident on any of the other maps, so it was more of a "lesser evil" decision). Again I played completely crappy, I don't know why, and it's not an excuse - but I had zero feel, timing, micro or map control - he played somewhat standard like I've played vs thousands of times, but I kept losing battles (or winning with close to zero forces left) and never secured a fourth gas.. so I ended up with ling/lurk/defiler armies that got owned by mass vesslels (despite me killing about 10? vessels over the course of the game). I lost 0-2, and I am not really upset over losing it, Sarens is a better player than me - but I can't help but feel disappointed in my own performance, I know I can play better than what I did (not saying I would've won, but I might not have lost as badly). Next week we're playing [a2] and I hope I get to play, and if so I also hope I win. The start map is going to be Forte, a map I never really liked or played, I feel it's insanely hard both zvt and zvp - But hopefully I can make up for that with enough practice and preparation. Until next week.... | ||||||||||||||||||
Denmark 
Zerg
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nothing you?
Mati why so secksi?
hey noob ! ! !
Don't be mean. :(
fede dyr. Jeg elsker dig.
Hva satan! En god dansk SC spiller xD jamen dog!
Vil du ikke spille nogen pracc kampe med mig og give mig nogen tips on how to improve? xD
Vil du ikke spille nogen pracc kampe med mig og give mig nogen tips on how to improve? xD
Sure am! :)
No, you're adorable
I sure do! <3
What about me?! :(