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End of Season 1

by shinji_rarenai

They ended season 1 today. My final record as random was 421-430. I was 1st place in the Silver division. I guess I should have been happy that I maintained first place, but it was sort of anti-climactic. I was way ahead of the second place (over 300 points) so the last week of games didn't really account for much. The good news, though, is that with the beginning of season 2, the ladder's been...

They ended season 1 today. My final record as random was 421-430. I was 1st place in the Silver division. I guess I should have been happy that I maintained first place, but it was sort of anti-climactic. I was way ahead of the second place (over 300 points) so the last week of games didn't really account for much.
 
The good news, though, is that with the beginning of season 2, the ladder's been reset.
 
I played one placement game and won. The other player played Zerg and did a fast expand. I countered with pressure. I don't think I did a great 4-warpgate build, but I was able to attack with enough units to take out his expansion. He didn't scout for my proxy pylon, so I was able to reinforce rather quickly. He did manage to micro well and kill of some of my stalkers, but I basically overwhelmed him. It turned out he was a gold division player. After winning this game, I was placed in Silver division.
 
I played one more game. This time, I was Terran against a Protoss opponent. I scouted him soon after my barracks, and saw that he wasn't doing anything special. I started my "normal" build as Terran, with two barracks and going for medivacs. It's probably not the most common build, but I don't know any others that well. I usually keep getting MULEs, but this time, I used a scan to see what he was up to. I saw two stargates. It's sort of an odd build, since void rays have been nerfed by recent patches. I already had started researching stimpacks, so I switched my barracks to start producing more marines. I upgraded infantry weapons and armor, as well as started research on combat shields when the stimpack finished. After I had a pair of medivacs, I switched to making a couple of vikings. I managed okay - his first wave of void rays took out a lot of units, but I also knew they were slow to build. I threw down three more barracks and added reactors, so that I could build more marines simultaneously. I added more vikings, and moved out.
 
He attacked my base while my army was en route to his. I pulled back and fought it off, but lost my command center in the process. I was out of minerals, and I couldn't build another. Since I didn't stand a chance if I waited, I pushed with all my units, including the SCVs. I was able to walk over his photon cannons (since I had so many units, they couldn't kill all of them.) His expansion fell. I walked up his ramp and met little resistance. He couldn't build more void rays fast enough, so he lost. It turned out he was a silver player. I am now 2-0 in season 2, and 10th place in Silver division. Note, however, that the ladder isn't completely filled yet, so it's likely that my rank will be volatile until there are 100 people in the division. I also leave for vacation on Saturday, so I don't know that I'll have much chance to play.