Tonight was night 3 of my Starcraft 2 ladder adventures - and I've been placed into a league!  It's Bronze, unfortunately, but whatever.  Only way to go is up...or so I thought!  More on that later.

I played a total of 5 games today - my last 3 placements and 2 regular Bronze matches.  

My first match was a ZvZ where I really should have won.  I really really really should have - but I didn't.  I had perfect map control, a few clutch baneling explosions, and he had no expansion.  I had his second and third controlled, with scouting at all the other locations with speedlords.  I tried to apply some more pressure with lings and banelings but he countered with a roach all-in and took me out just as I was making a transition to mutalisks.  I should have made that transition about 5 minutes earlier when I had map control.  I was good on expansions and droning until I started attacking, yet again, and that's when it fell apart.  I saw his raoches running into my base, and lings really don't cut it against the roaches.  So I died that game, when I should have won.  

I need to make useful transitions earlier.  I need to have a plan!  I tend to approach every game willy-nilly, doing whatever strikes my fancy.  I'm good for the first 5-10 minutes, when I'm droning up and getting some early map control, but after that I just wither away.  I was determined to not make the same mistake twice!

Next game I played a Bronze Terrain.  I opened as normal, expanded, got some early ling pressure.  I'm learning something great about the lower leagues - One-base is where it's at!  Why even expand at all when you can make a huge death ball of marines and marauders and wipe everything off the map?  Well, you can counter with a well-timed muta transition - which I did.  I killed every one of his workers, but still didn't establish control because of widow mines.  I expanded a few more times, getting enough bases to macro off of - and hide behind!!  Once I had a good number of mutas I sniped down production and command centers.  I used banelings (half of which died to a widow mine...) to bust the front door and cause more havoc.  We traded bases - he with his bioball (without medivac support - so bad on me for not being able to counter that with some banes...).  I destroyed all of his buildings and won....it was kind of a cheap win but a win nonetheless.  

That's when things started going downhill.  I played my last placement against a good opponent - and I am growing to hate the protoss.  He set up a proxy pylon and murdered me with a deathball that was warped in within seconds...nothing I could do to counter it once it got there.  I guess I just need to prevent it from getting there, but damn.  I feel like I need to be doing eight different things at once as a Zerg, where protoss can sit on one base, make a death ball of assorted units, and romp.  Enough ranting for now!  I lost that match and was placed into Bronze league.  I decided to jump right in...

Big mistake. 

 I played 2 more Bronze games and I got destroyed.  I played against a Zerg and a Protoss - and I made the mistake of expanding at all when both of them sat on one base, and balled up.  The  Zerg opponent came out on top because he went right for roaches - and some static defenses.  I couldn't do much with lings, so started teching to mutas.  Unfortunately he came in with a ball of roaches before I could do anything at all.  I guess I should just not produce any lings at all...maybe I'll try that next game...

Last game of the night was against a protoss, and the same complaints apply as last time.  I even had an army advantage, but protoss just has so many space controlling tools that my army was unable to do much even when I was inside their base.My opponent was down to only his main gathering minerals.  Stalkers could blink in and out, and force field sentries cut off advances and split up armies.  Aggravating game.  After that I expanded a few times, controlled the map a bit, and went to hydra roach.  I got a nice army - about 150 supply's worth - and then got steamrolled.  Totally steamrolled.  My opponent had a simple death ball of a few zealots, stalkers mainly, and 3 colossus.  GG there - what can a zerg army (with probably more supply!) do against that?  

It's obvious what I could have done - upgrades need to be better.  I also need to be better with creep spread and larvae injections - I was sitting on a bit of a bank and my army could have been even larger.  I also need to work on my harassment.  My opponents are humans - when I attack them their attention gets divided and they aren't as efficient at macro.  I need to start taking advantage of the mobility and replenishment ability of a zerg army.  Maybe use some swarm hosts or nydus networks to pressure various points of the map, or make a thrust at a main base.  

I was just getting aggravated that I'm so bad :-D