My domination over the gold league continued. I believe it was my tenth win in a row before I received a promotion back into platinum. And not just mid level, they placed me in the top ten.
It does make me wonder, for the umpteenth time, about the whole secret MMR that Blizzard uses. Was my MMR really that low at the beginning of the season? Did it really jump up so high? It sure would be nice to know.
Any way, since my promotion, I've managed to lose more games than I'd care to admit. Allof those losses due to rushes.Am I just unlucky, or are people rushing more? Either way I can't really complain because, as a random player, I cheese 7 pool every time I ZvP. And I've gotten really good at it.
In other news, Blizzard removed the WarHound! I totally called it! See my post below for the proof. It's quite obvious. As many players have pointed out, WarHounds really were OP. They beat marines, and more importantly, people weren't using marauders anymore.
My next prediction is that they will reintroduce the unit, with the haywire missile as a cast spell. Probably with improved damage. What was OP to A move will be slightly more fair if it requires micro.
But the larger, more important questionis, do they need another unit? Is there really a hole in the terran unit meta game?
Ihonestly have to answer, no. The WarHound feels to me likemore of an attempt to add to the game to justify a second purchase, than a true balancing. Terran was and still is the most robust race. If Blizzard is going to make me buy the game two and three times, fine. I'll admit I'm their bitch. But as a person who doesn't even play the single player campaign, I'd prefer they didn't try so hard to add to the multiplayer just to pad their wallets. What's next, monthly fees ala WoW? Let's not give them any ideas.

Season four just started. Once again, Blizzard asked us to play a single match to determine our placement. I had been in platinum, but sadly, on a losing streak.
I hate to call my losing steaks, losing steaks, because really, they're not. They're terran streaks, my worst race. Random a few terran matches in a row, like I had done the day before, and I fall right out of the top nine.
But my terran streak was a particularly bad one. I found myself being matched against silver opponents! Smurfs,I hoped, though deep down I had a fear that my MMR had indeed dropped that low.
So I played my placement match, won, and was promptly demoted to gold.
Now at first, this was a sad moment for me. Damn you, Blizzard, I'm better than that! The least they could do was show me my MMR so that I could have seen it coming.
Then I played a few matches, and they totally redeemed themselves. Playing against gold ranked opponents is fun. It's easy fun! I makes me feel like a God! Like if Scarlett and Taeja had a love child. I started out in the middle of gold, around 50. After the most fun gaming session in memory, I was number one.
Lets not forget that Blizzard changed the way their sham ranks work. Now, supposedly, number one gold really means you're at the top of gold. Not just at the top of some intermediate, invisible tier.
But I'm also on the longest winning streak of my StarCraft career. Eight or nine wins!
So my official stance on my demotion had changed. Thank you, Blizzard. Thank you,for making me the king of my golden hill.

What's in a word? How powerful are words, anyway?
If therewas a most powerful word in the English language, there is no doubt it would be the word 'star'.
For me, personally, it would be, anyway. But I'm fairly certain I'm not the only one. Lets go down the list and review things that I like, or have liked, with the word start.
The classic video game, StarControl 1 and 2, but not 3. StarCraft 1 & 2. Star Wars 4, 5, and 6, but not 1, 2, or 3. Star Gate the film. Star Hustler, the astronomy show. Most recently, Star Jeweled, the StarCraft mod. And let’s not forget, most commonly, StarBucks, where I’m a gold member. While we’re on the subject of caffeine, I do not always drink energy drinks, but when I do I prefer RockStar.
I hate to think I'm some kind of sucker. But if there was a magic word to make me like something, it would definitely be star.
Are you reading this in total agreement? Or are you reading this thinking I must be sone kind of loon? Hit me up on twitter and let me know. @maulakai

This morning i woke up early. How often does that happen? Not sure what to do with my time, and not wanting to go to work super early, i turned to StarCraft.
Keeping in mind, i play as random. My opponent, terran. He chatted me up fairly heavily, which was my first sign he was cheesing me. I didn't recognize it at the time. I 15 hatched him, my standard against terran. No done scout, as this was cloud kingdom, i had an overlord to see if and when he was moving out.
Not like I'm a pro or anything. But i didn't have to be to spot his push. It was a big red blob on the mini map that had cheese written all over it. With i wasn't fast enough to click over on the map, but i knew from the size and timing it was an all in with scv's in front of marines. Instead if saturating my natural, i held down the Z key. More zerglings, please.
By the time he got to me, i had a done almost done, a few lings, and a few drones in position. The spine never made it, but i was quite pleased with myself to clean up his attack with my next wave of lings. I'd lost a lot of drones, but i had to remind myself that he had lost more.
But he didn't gg. Somehow I'd left three drones on gas, so i went for lair, baneling nest, and a bit later, spire. I scouted him and saw no natural. There would be another wave then. This time i had a wall of spines, for queens and banelings to deal with it. He retreated.
A minute later with mutes on the field,i flew to his mineral line to repay the favor. Imagine my surprise when i saw nothing. Meaning he was already on his way in yet another all in.
I didn't have enough lings. Once again i needed drones, queens, lings and even my mutes. He killed all of them. Another late reinforcing round of lings cleaned it all up. I looked at what i had left. Nothing. He'd killed all my queens, drones and banes. I was about to gg when I decided to send that small hand full of lings to his base. I had over a thousand minerals banked. I started making drones and queens again.
Turns out his base was even more empty then mine. All he had was three mules, which i killed before forcing his orbital to liftoff. Just then, two marines popped, but even with so few lings, they didn't stand a chance.
He typed gg and gave me the win.
Just goes to show, you should never pull an Idra and quit, even after heavy losses. Never give up, never surrender. There's a good chance he's doing worse.

With the recent release of the new HOTS Beta, it's all anyone in the StarCraft 2 scene seems to be talking about anymore.
On that note, I would like to talk about it. Specifically, the WarHound.
Word on the interwebs is that this WarHound is the new imba. In a recent steam I heard "Nobody knows how to deal with them, yet."
I was lucky enough to catch one of the IPL Casts live on twitch.tv. Kevin "CatsPajamas" Knocke (@kevinknocke) made my day when he took my request for his unit tester. I asked to see Marauders vs WarHounds.
This wasn't just a random request either. Days earlier, trolling the official StarCraft 2 forums, I heard rants to the effect of 'Why is Blizz making a new unit for vs. armored units. That's what marauders are for.' My thoughts exactly. The WarHound seems eerily similar to a superfluous ground based vs. armored unit, a role that is already being fulfilled by a unit. Which is why I asked to see them both go head to head.
First run, they simply made a bunch of each unit vs each other. The WarHounds won easily. But next I request even resources, which I consider to be a better measure of a unit than say, even supply. I believe, at even resources, the marauders won by a single, low hp unit. This was a simple, A-move test. Which means that with micro and stim, the marauders would win every time.
Why again, are WarHounds in the game, Blizzard? The one thing I'm still not sure about is the specifics of the WarHound's attack vs non-armored units. But judging from teh HOTS games I've seen livecast and on youtube, I'd say the WarHound is destined to have a nerf.
The one question I'd really liked answered (that almost certainly never will be) is: Is Blizzard making more units to sell us, or are they actually filling holes 'n new roles?

Sets of three

Do you ever wonder how the professional gamers manage to play for hours on end without hurting their wrists? I do. Of course, the short answer is that they don't. They don't not hurt their wrists. As a matter of fact, pro gamers get injuries and surgeries all the time. Was i the only one who cried a little bit inside when i saw Taeja hiding his arms behind his back during an interview? When he did flash us those wrists, they were bandaged all right.
Apparently being imba isn't free.
That's part of the reason why i usually try to take my StarCraft I'm sets of three. Whenever i sit down to play,i have it I'm my head that I'll play three games and then do something else.
At first, playing in sets made me feel like such an old man. Like, hey, I'm not 27 any more. Better give the old wrists a rest. Aside from getting more RL stuff done, from all the chores I've wound up doing in between sets, it also lets me know how i stand with victory.
Play an even number of games and you'll never know. Or rather i should say maybe you'll never know. What happens if you win half and lose half? But play three games, that magic number, and you'll know where you stand. Playing three games of StarCraft in the morning is my own personal way of reading the horoscope. If i win two of three, it's a winning day. And if i win all three, it's a sure sign that Victory is smiling down her love on me.
Also, I'm pretty sure that Victory wants me to avoid repetitive motion injuries