The halfway point. It seems crazy that it has gone by so quickly. And yet, I feel like I’ve been playing Starcraft II for a looooong time. My head is packed full of timings, builds, pro games, names, tournaments, and lore. It has truly become a part of me. There are very few people in my life to whom I have not mentioned SC2. Some probably roll their eyes when I bring it up, but I don’t really care. It feels great to finally have a “thing”, a hobby, a passion. It is a nightly struggle to turn off GSL, knowing I have to be up for work in eight hours. My “day off” has turned into a night I look forward to, not to get away from Starcraft, but to be able to watch State of the Game live and in its entirety. I have participated in tournaments (even won a game or two), had coaches, made friends, and been entertained and educated for countless hours (somewhere around 400 I guess). It’s been great and I’m looking forward to the next six months. Back to Platinum and beyond (-_-).

It’s been awhile since my last update (I suck, I know), but I’ve been going at it pretty steadily the past week or so, after my vacation. I have become a bit more addicted to streams and watching games rather than playing them. It was something I was warned about many times when I started, and I guess it took me a while to finally appreciate the warnings. I feel like I’m at that point where I can see the differences between great play and my own play. Rather than getting disgusted at my own games, I watch the pros and higher level players do it all correctly. I’m attempting to remedy it, playing more games each night, and just letting the streaming take over more of my free time instead of my prescribed playing time. There has honestly not been a day since I returned where I haven’t watched and played at least 3 hours, usually more. Take now, for instance. I have played a couple hours and am getting ready to watch the Blizzard Cup Finals (Awards show is okay, but when are the matches?!?!). Like I said, I’m loving all of it.

Game wise, I have been feeling a lot better in all of the match-ups, especially ZvZ. It feels like I’m on my way up, hopefully in this next season. Once again, I’m trying to focus on droning, with the addition of trying not to spend so much time microing, which was hurting my macro. It is still hard for me to do many things at the same time and, while I am getting better, it is one of the biggest blocks I have in moving up. I believe I’ve said this before, but it really is a weird kind of limit I’ve reached on splitting my focus. I’ve been told it’s something that comes with time and I am better now than I used to be. It’s just a kind of strange thing I worry I can’t do. I’ve actually been trying to speed up my play consciously for the last few days and it seems to be working for the most part. I guess those are the three things I’m keeping at the top of my TO DO list this week: drone, focus and speed.

Goodnight and GLHR.