Training with a Master: Religiously

Author's Note: Please know that I have Jogeta's approval to write this article and consulted with him about several points to ensure accuracy.

A few months ago I got into a ladder match (PvP) and lost. I don’t mean a little. I mean I was crushed. UchihaJogeta, my opponent, who requests to be described as "The Most Handsomely Handsome Gamer, who is also very handsome," crushed me in the first big battle we had. He then told me the unit composition he was going for and allowed me time to build an army to counter.  He then crushed me again. As it turns out he’s a former Masters’ League player who had returned to ladder for fun.  Even better, we get along well and he's taken to training me in SC2, which is all kinds of handy. 

Of note, he's read through some of my articles, particularly my one on Macro/Micro, and expressed dismay as to how I can understand something and then utterly fail to demonstrate that understanding in game (Note: I'm not bad at it- he has extremely high standards).

So, how does a former Master train someone in SC2?   We started by connecting on Skype and playing several games with no instruction and then watching the replays. Jogeta pointed out mistakes in my methods and errors in my thought processes, forcing me to acknowledge the thousand extremely minor flaws which I committed as a player, most of which I was aware of but wrote off as "not being that big of a deal." 

Turns out if you fix all of those you can mass carriers on three bases in a relatively short amount of time. Ask me how I know that. Go on.

One of the first things he asked me was "Are you good at using Chronoboost?" To which I replied that I used it 'religiously.'

Mistake.

During the replay he took malicious glee, as if he were some demon charged with punishing exaggerating Gamers in whatever circle of hell they're sentenced to(I assume it is 00111000), in pointing out that my version of 'religiously' is like attending Church at Christmas and Easter only.  To be fair, that's about how often I attend Church.

So we played several games, with him winning easily each time, and reviewing my mistakes afterwards. Fortunately, I'm more open than average to criticism and, as he sometimes puts it, have "enormous potential." --Hey, if I'm going to write about how much I suck at the game for most of this piece I have to salve my ego somehow. Don't judge me.

Jogeta then taught me how to properly do a Nexus First opening, something I’d played around with before, and made me repeat it from memory until I got it right. The opening is fairly simple; build Probes, 9 Pylon, 15 Nexus, 15 Pylon, 16 Gateway, and go from there. As part of that I was lectured on how to place Probes, starting with mineral piles closest to the base, ensuring each has one, then the farther away ones, and then rallying each Probe as it is made so the closer ones have two, then the farther ones.  If that sounds tedious and distracting, well, it is. However, it provides a slight income advantage in the opening and is, therefore, well worth it.

From there he made me Scout him as he played a variety of race/opening combinations and made me guess what was going to be built. I discovered I was right when the first battle took place, or I was crushed. Sometimes both.

I am a big advocate of Scouting (see my article on Cheese), so it’s no surprise that this was one of the less difficult to learn lessons. In short, ALWAYS SCOUT!  Remember, the motto of Scouting is “Be Prepared,” and you cannot Be Prepared without SCOUTING! I’ll give a very brief quick summary of what to look for below, and likely expand on this in the future.

If playing against Protoss, no gas means either fast expansion or cheese, while one gas means early aggression and two gases mean tech.

Against Zerg, look for an early Pool (if it’s done when you arrive, or nearly done, it’s Cheese) , and early gas, which can indicate Speedlings are likely.

Against Terran, if they go gas before barracks a reaper harass is probably on the way.

Against anything a lack of buildings in the main/no expansion means you are going to be cheesed via proxy. Good luck!

After covering those fundamentals we moved into army compositions and counters.  This involved a variety of different battles where I played with restricted unit choices, usually forcing me to master, or rather, become competent at, various combinations.

The first thing Jogeta took advantage of is that I, rather embarrassingly, did not build Sentries very often…. or ever. After losing several games due to my inability to Forcefield the ramp I finally got the message.  Hey, I like to tech fast and Sentries cost tons of gas!

Another fun scenario was when I was allowed to build Zealots, Phoenixes, Sentries, and Warp Prisms only. I ended up playing like a Terran- lots of drops, harassment, and hit-and-run attacks. When I played Protoss as Terran in an effort to keep the game fun, in my article For Love of the Game, helped a great deal and I did not lose so quickly that time.

One time I was told to build ONLY air units. Now, I thought to myself that it meant he'd only be building air units.

Mistake.

So when we restarted the match I went for mass Oracles, and almost defeated him. After that, I started to really focus more on my efforts, playing not just against his army, but against him. I realized he'd become complacent in victory, and that I'd continued to play the same few ways over and over again, justifying his complacency.

I decided to change it up, so I 4-gated, then, after he scouted my 4-gate, I expanded, then expanded again, as quickly as I could, building up a huge economic base before he realized what happened, and attacking with a massive, overwhelming force. I had forgotten that while he focuses on Macro play he's still good enough to be in Masters' League and thus his Micro is far superior to mine, making his smaller force more effective. I was defeated.   

So a few games later, I massed Zealots and attacked early, hitting him with 10 Zealots.... Remember how I used to not play with Sentries? He does. Religiously. 

 

Next Time: Advanced Training with Jogeta- The devil is in the details, More humiliating defeats, and a few wins. Feel free to comment here or on Reddit, or message me, with comments, questions or requests. Or whatever.