Starcraft 2 Journey to Diamond League Wk9

By Mohammad Abubakr, OnRPG JournalistIf you missed any of the previous weeks in my journey to diamond league, check out the Starcraft II review section. (http://www.onrpg.com/MMO/Starcraft-II/reviews)Games played: 10Initial Rank: Silver - 38Final Rank: Silver - 31Win/Loss: 5/5Facing a Zerg on the map Tal'darim Altar made me think I would be safe from early aggression and free to drone because of the map size. I scouted a large amount of Zerglings in my opponent’s base but continued to drone until my baneling nest was complete.I was hoping that my banelings would be ready by the time the attack came as just two to three banelings should have been enough to fend off the attack. Unfortunately the attack came sooner than expected and one spine crawler with four zerglings were not able to stop the attack. I was forced to concede upon losing all of my drones.After reflecting upon that match I felt that I was being much too greedy. I expanded and continued to drone even after I saw a large amount of zerglings. My initial thought was that he produced a large force of zerglings just for defensive purposes but I was wrong. If my opponent wanted to simply defend a small amount of zerglings with one or two banelings would have sufficed. I need to work on my reactions.The following game was my second time going up against drop play on the ladder. I only had experience with drops a couple weeks ago when an opponent used it against me for the very first time, other than that the only time I had seen it was while watching tournaments. My opponent was a Terran player that spawned close by air on the map Shattered Temple. He continued to apply pressure with marine and marauder drops in my main base denying mining time and forcing cancels on the spire. After losing the spire I should have morphed it outside of my main to avoid getting it denied as mutalisks would have allowed me to easily fend off drops.I had overlords to spot incoming drops but my reaction time was not quick enough. He would drop in front of mineral patches so that my Zerglings were unable to attack his units from all sides. This gave him the advantage because his ranged units could continue to attack while my melee units had to get close.The third drop finished the game as I had no chance of making a comeback upon losing my lair. I am quite good at focusing on the mini map in MOBA games but I have difficulty keeping track of it in SCII. This is probably because I have a lot more things I need to focus on, while in MOBA games I only need to worry about positioning for one unit.I played the following game against a Terran on Typhon Peaks very passively and only produced units when defending. Since we were spawned close by ground, the Xel Naga tower helped to warn me about any incoming attacks. I only produced an army when I saw an attack coming and continued to drone otherwise.This helped me to build up my economy and make good use of my limited larvae. His attacks were with small armies composed of marine, marauder and siege tanks. Therefore I morphed zerglings, banelings and mutalisks and with the help of spine crawlers I was able to fend off attacks with ease.After setting up my third base, I morphed a large army and overran his base. While he might have been able to defend, I made sure to kill all of his workers with my banelings. He was smart to leave the game.The next game my Protoss opponent four gated me. I was able to hold off the aggression but since he had walled himself in, I had no scouting information. I forgot about my overlord and did not use it to scout. Turns out he also had hidden starports and was aiming to follow up the four gate with a void ray and phoenix attack. My spire was not complete when his air army showed up and was forced to concede because I had nothing to fight his air army. Once again I have lost a game due to a lack of vision. It might take some time getting used to continuously scouting and gaining information but I feel after I learn to scout effectively these cheese and all-in plays will not be very effective against me as they are meant to surprise opponents.Although I did not play a lot of SCII games this week because of limited time, I think I am making progress. By the end of the week some of my opponents were gold league players. Hopefully I'll be able to join them soon.If there are any suggestions or feedback about this series, please let me know on the OnRPG forums (http://www.onrpg.com/boards/) @ Abubakr (http://www.onrpg.com/boards/member-abubakr.html). Alternatively you may message me in Starcraft II (Abubakr, 109).