The winning formula.

This is a winning formula for a weekday: 4hrs work + 4hrs Starcatft + 3hrs GSL/Food
Honestly i have had such a cool time hanging out at my lecturers house for the last three days. If you read my last post you will have seen the pics of the place, just green fields and horses all around. The best thing of all is that the Internet connection here seems to have sorted itself out so finally could get battle.net and GOMtv to work! :)
In amongst all this lovely chilling out and getting back on the Starcraft horse i also managed to finish my final major project for the Media degree i am doing. Well hang on that's wrong: the degree i have now officially finished! Woop Woop!!! Anyway i wont bore you all with any more context, lets get down to the game.

Six games on the ladder all in all. Three won and three lost. Not a bad ratio but i am not happy with myself at all! Completely failed to pull of the build orders i am trying to learn and that's what lost me the games. Two of the wins came down to just doing that 3Rax semi-all-in build order that is doing the rounds, the other two wins were pure luck. In these games i went for variations of the 1/1/1 and just got lucky. I didn't scout effectively but neither did my opponent so it came down to games like: I go fast siege tank, they go roach, I win... Boring and not games that i feel good about. Maybe I'm being hard on myself but you've got to be if you want to get better at something.
Ratings to this Protoss player i came up against by the way. Can't remember his tag off the top of my head and stupidly i didn't save the reply, which is something i need to get in the habit of! He was the only person i played today who held off the 3Rax semi-all-in and went for a crazy counter. So the game went like this:
I get to the point of pushing with the 3Rax build and go for it with about 7 SCVs set on attack command at the tip of my army. Rax are rallied and all looks good. I get to his base and see he has an expansion up, a cannon to defend and not many units on the map. But whats that tucked behind his mineral line at the expo??? A forge!
Now this guy knows his micro far better than me so i do some silly miss-clicking and lose my army. I manage to take out the expo but stupidly leave the forge. At this point i just didn't think what seeing that forge could mean for his unit composition later game.
I'm back at home with a pretty undefended expo up and hiding behind my wall like a scared rabbit in the headlights. Here it comes, his push: Just a few zealots so nothing to worry about, one or two stalkers but something seems off. Then i notice units are dieing all over the place! DTs!!! S**T!!!
Then the High Templars come, storms are going off and bang goes my defense! GG :(

After this OK but bitter feeling day session on the ladder i got to watch the MarineKing games from the GSL Super Tournament. Wicked stuff, there is so much to learn from watching him about how to exploit the strengths of Terran > I love that guys and just check out the last game in this match -->
MarineKing vs Revival
Got to be one of the best win celebrations in the history of Starcaft!

Ratings to everyone on Twitter... Would love to see more posts like this!
And also a big shout out to BitCrusher Records for the amazing free music. I urge everyone to check them out and donate a little cash if you like what you find!

Anyway. Good to see all you pretty people. see you on the ladder :)
Peace out peeps
JC

I'm back baby.... What do you mean GOMtv Super Tournament...? !!!

Hello there, it has been a long time now hasn't it!
How are you all?
Are you all still there?

Well i have had the least Starcraft 2 orientated two weeks since i first bought the game. As of Thursday i will have officially graduated from my degree course in Media Production and will finally have time to dedicate to improving SC2 skills, developing this blog and forging a place for myself in the Media Production and Services world.
Currently i am hiding out at a friends house in the New Forest and will be for a few more days while i finish up all of my work. There is barely an Internet connection to speak of and if i am honest i am loving the peace and quite. Just take a look how rural we are talking:

The only little bit of Starcraft intake i have had has been watching the amazing Like a Boss ForceSC2Strategy video that went up on his channel a few days ago. Honestly it made me wish i could freeze time and just ladder against some bronze level zergs for days on end. I have always loved scouting a fast roach opening and countering with a single siege tank with some repairing SCVs. Now i can go one step further and micro the hell out of those ugly little s**ts! :) Things like that just make me happy!
Amazed to craw out from under my rock and see that the GOMtv Super Tournament has started so that gives me a good few hours of top level play to drawl over.
So yeah... That's been be... I hope to see you all very soon on the ladder and get working on this sorry state of affairs:

The blog will be far more active i promise you and i should soon have worked out where it is going. May even send out a little eSurvey to see what people like and dislike about SC2 blogs in general. Before long there will be a proper domain, properly hosted and fully collaborative JC_Closet_Geek blog running!
So for now i wish you well.
Peace out peeps
JC

BO to counter OP girls

Hey all, no time to play today but weirdly i seem to be getting my fair fix of other Starcraft 2 orientated stuff at university anyway. I somehow have managed to bend my work around my interest in SC2, I'm a media student and have landed an opportunity to produce some materials for eSports University Team League as part of a marketing communications assignment. You may have seen the draft of the poster i put up a few days ago and i have since mocked up this leaflet designed to introduce noobs at uni to SC2:

I found making this really good fun, a great way to get myself more interested in doing coursework. If i keep up this efficiency with getting through the ever decreasing pile of assignments i will have a week to spend laddering while my classmates are stuck catching up on work. So stay in school kids ;) lol.
Oh yes and i can't not share this with you... Maybe the funniest and geekiest thing i have seen in my entire life: Ever considered what build orders are viable when up against a favoured female opponent?



















Anyway, i am staying at my lecturers house tonight and need to be up at the crack of dawn to start working on this DVD that has just reached the post-production stage.
BTW just want to plug force strategy gaming, i have loved his youtube channel ever since i started playing Starcraft online and he has just announced his new upload schedule. If you don't know of his channel and website then where have you been!?
Peace out peeps
JC

Racist Cheese

It is a sad day for me today... :(
I've been loving my productivity over the past two days. So far i have managed to get a load of coursework done, planning some work stuff and getting a good few hours a day in on the ladder. I'm perfecting the new early Marine/Marauder/SCV stimpack build. Works a treat. But now i have to disappear off to bloody University!!!
Now i know that loads of you reading this will be reaching for the nose plugs to block out the smell of stinky cheese but wait...! I love macro styles, i always played macro up until now. I just think it is important to have a few fast aggression builds in your back pocket in case you need them. Doesn't that sound like a good idea. Admittedly i have been constantly doing this build in my last 12 games, of which i won 11, but that is just so i can get it locked down against non-AI opponents. And climb the ladder a little too ;) .
I still think that Terran are the least cheese prone race of all. For me it's their amazing mech and tactical versatility that are their great assets. Like i say: my usual play style is the 1/1/1 with fast expand type of builds. Although i need to learn a few other specific openings around this theme. However i am noticing that cheesing does become a little addictive when you start winning games, it's no wonder people play Zerg right ;). Only playing, i know i have knocked Protoss before in these postings but it's all just a bit of harmless racism. LOL
Anyway, unfortunately i have to spend another hour in the hospital today getting my shoulder looked at.
Plus i will be at uni solidly for the next few days so doubt very much if i will find the time to play any SC2, but i shall try and keep this blog updated anyway.
Peace Out Peeps

Cheese and Magic

I don't know how but i have actually managed to get some good time in on the ladder over the weekend! I wish i could spend another few hours playing but i have to get on with coursework at some point. I sense that now i have won a few games my addiction will flare up once more.
So i took it under advice the other day to get back on the build orders. I have set a target of learning three BOs solidly before i start experimenting again. Today's lesson was how to pull off a 3-Rax semi-ll-in build that Force Strategy Gaming put up on his youtube channel last week. Up until now i have been focusing on macro orientated approaches to games but i thought it would be a good idea to get some early pressure under my belt too. So far today i have played 7 games on the ladder and won 6 of them! That's a pretty good sign i think!
Now i know that i have gone on in previous posts about how much i hate cheese, and i know that a 3-Rax could be considered cheese but it's a valid BO as long as it doesn't become the only thing that i do. I really want to master the 1/1/1 with fast expand build next as that has been great in previous games. The supplementing early defence for a massive economy push after about 10/12mins is SICK!

Other than that i have been out and about with mates in central London and getting electrocuted at the hospital for about an hour or so... Don't ask! Started selling off stuff on eBay so i can afford a new PC too. So far i have put up a few bits of audio equipment that should net about £300-£400 between them and now i am thinking about selling off my Magic The Gathering cards... :

It feels a bit sad to let these go but I really don't have much interest in getting back into deck building. MTG is possibly the greatest card game there is and is second only to SC2 for strategy games but it just costs way too much money and takes up far too much time. I think I'm going to invest the money in the new PC and keep some back so i can carry on playing sealed MTG tournaments - basically where you buy 6 booster packs and get 20 mins to build a deck for the tournament. Much more skill intensive than spending days and hundreds of pounds building a deck because it gives you a far broader game sense. If anyone who reads this wants to get into MTG or if they want to buy a load of cards cheap to bulk up their collection just email me. I'm thinking of selling off the cards in £25 or £50 lumps of random cards and maybe getting rid of the better rares on eBay.

Anyway, hope this finds you all well. Again big shout out to @Resivirus , @TehKrizz and @Day9tv
Peace out peeps
JC

Cool things, some won games and build orders, build orders build orders!!!

Finally after weeks of having to focus completely on coursework for my degree i managed to steal a few hours to get a hand full of games of Starcraft 2 in. I took it under advice from a guy on twitter names #Resivirus that i should start to focus more on getting a few solid build orders in my pocket before worrying too much about general game play understanding. With that in mind i have played five games today and only lost one, all against opponents that come up on the start screen as favoured. That makes me happy inside :)
The grey, rainy lining to this otherwise silver cloud is that my bonus pool still stands at a dismal 200+ points even after these last games. And by the way who on earth decided to call that points system a bonus pool in the first place!? What on earth is 'bonus' about it? A bonus kick in the teeth when you win a match and see that half your points go to reducing the pool! I am not happy about that at all!
So yeah, i have reverted back to getting two variations of the 1/1/1 build locked down and one 3Rax early pressure build. When i get some more time i really want to re-learn a 1/1/1 with fast expand build that ForceSC2Strategy has on his YouTube channel. When I'm trying to get a build order pulled off to the best of my ability i often miss expansion timings and rely on just being able to role my opponent over in the first 10 minutes. The game that i did lose today was just down to allowing my opponent to stay one base up for far too long.
My lucky mascot also arrived a few days ago and he has been watching over me while i played today. Look at him, isn't he handsome ! :

Still so happy that i managed to pick up this Raynor Noobz for a very reasonable £50 on ebay.

In other news i have been working on this poster for ukstarcraft.net over the week. I managed to bend an assignment for my degree around producing some material for UKstarcraft's UK University Team League. What do you think for a rough draft of their poster? :

As you can tell this was just thrown together to get a rough idea and my Photoshop skills are pretty limited. However the league itself is a wicked idea and I'm glad to see that there are people out there looking to expand the UK Starcraft 2 community scene.

I'm going to head off now, i have been doing coursework all day and i want to go and chill out with my girlfriend and watch some films. Somehow we ended up watching an old Kojack film yesterday and it was just something special, it felt like i was being forcibly herded through the action by a midget with a Trombone! Hopefully we will watch something a bit more quality today.

Sorry i have been so quiet for the last week or so people. I will aim to rectify that as soon as time allows it.

Peace out peeps, keep owning
JC

Starcraft at work... HAHAHA

So today I have been doing coursework since about 9am right up until I had to leave for work at about 3pm... It can be a pain in the ass being me!!! But have no fear, I will try and keep putting the odd little post up on here whenever I can find a spare 10mins or so.
I'm filming and editing most of next week and only have a total of three more weeks to get all my final work in for my degree. So just a heads up that this blog may be quieter than usual for that period. However that's not to say that Starcraft is not finding any time in busy schedual as this pic will prove :

I know it's a bit hard to see but I am doing the sound and lights for an orchestra performance in Westminster and the laptop in the center is playing the TSL matches from yesterday :) LOL
Only on match 3 right now and I'm rooting for ThorZaIN.
Anyway, I'm just going to end this post by thanking everyone who has read this blog. I'm at 400 readers and still counting!
When i finish my degree I will be setting this up as a registered domain and creating a propper website so that you can all comment without having to sign into Google first.
Peace to you all, keep laddering and DEATH TO ALL PROTOSS! sorry a bit of resentment with them right now ;)

JC