My vacation is over: I just played 5 ladder games. Admittedly, they were just 2v2s with Julie, but they, on the whole, went very well. We managed to go 4-1 in placement and are a platinum-level 2v2 team! Here’s the rundown and replays:

1. (replay) These guys were idiots. They both floated to the gold, and with just a few zerglings, they were out of the game.
2. (replay) Sadly, the only game we lost. We had a pretty big advantage with a good engagement at the beginning, but a few mutas took out a bunch
3. (replay) Also idiots. They were double zerg, so I went 10 pool to be safe, but then they went infestors and nydus. They had no chance.
4. (replay) The best played game of the bunch. They (double terran) had an early contain on us, but we managed to break it. I tried to muta harass, but they had a ton of turrets everywhere. Fortunately, we managed to put together a really good composition of banelings and the protoss deathball, kept them on 2-3 bases, and eventually won.
5. (replay) I’m not tremendously proud of this game, but we did a roach/4 gate all-in, and it worked. Had I gone lings, we would’ve been in trouble, but fortunately, one guy was teching to templar, and the other had a bunch of hellions. Pretty simply done.

Personally, my play wasn’t great. I wasn’t macroing well, missing creep spread, didn’t have my tech going, etc. I think there’s a lot to work on. One nice thing that did come out of it, though, is that I’ve realized I’m more comfortable with 1s now instead of multiplayer games. What I think that means is that I’ve finally developed enough of an understanding of strategy that I know how to react and how to play through a 1v1, instead of just mucking around in big games.

Regardless, I’m happy we got into platinum and very proud of how Julie played. I guess the vs. A.I. days are behind us now, as we ladder and keep progressing that way.