Life in the Middle 01/04/2012

Last week I never got around to writing a piece as it was the last week of term as I had a lot of work to get done and came down with a serious case of man-flu. Having overcome this most debilitating of illnesses and with no uni I should have a lot more time to play this week. Also, as most of the students have gone home my internet will be usable in the evenings when i am most likely to play. However, I do have my last ever exams at university coming up, so I should probably start preparing for them too. I have fallen a bit in my league as I haven't been able to play as much but I am still playing with high Platinum/ Diamond opponents.

This guy scared me saying how easy Zerg was, you just go double Starport Banshee obviously; he didn't like losing.

Now that I fast expand in every match-up is it still fast expanding? In TvT I've been going pure bio until quite late in the game, and whilst I have quite a high win-rate, I am finding it really tough. Splitting to prepare for Siege Tanks and during engagements is a lot of effort, which your opponent is not expending, so I think I will start to get out siege tanks in the mid-game. I am finding Reaper openings to be really useful for scouting and for killing a few SCVs; I used to think Reapers were useless but now I see that they have their place.

Three kills, a view of the base and then expansion checking; worth it.

At the moment I am really enjoying going up against Protoss. I go for a 1 Rax fast expand into a 3 Rax, with a quick reactored Starport for Medivacs and Vikings. I like this build as it allows me to get past forcefields if I see that my opponent is quickly teching and I want to apply pressure. This build also allows you to get out fast Vikings if you suspect Colossus are coming. With this build you can easily start up pressure before the opponent gets both High Templar and Colossus, at which point I find Protoss pretty unassailable. I've also gotten pretty good and splitting and pre-splitting, to avoid the worst of storms or Colossus.

If you rush to Colossus you should prepare better for Vikings.

Zerg is the only opponent I am struggling against at the moment; it seems that no matter how much economic damage I do they can always tech faster than I can keep up with. At the moment my fear of going up against a Zerg is stopping me from playing as much as I would like. In team games I have started to incorporate Ghosts more, which is something that I need to include more in my play as I nearly always lose when my opponent goes for Infestors. A good Zerg can spread creep so quickly and I find it really hard to deal with and it always puts me off attacking head on. I think I need to start using Siege Tanks more for area denial.

Fungals are so devestating, even when I try to prepare for them.

I am playing in a tournament with some friends, where I have so far managed to get to the grand final through the winners bracket. I had to beat a Silver Terran, a Platinum Zerg and a Diamond Zerg to get there; winning three out of the four Zerg games I played was a great confidence booster. Thank you for reading, you can follow this blog from the pane to the right and find me on Twitter (@RobinTerran) if you so desire.