“But am I actually hurting my macro without noticing it, because I do this [simple army splitting micro] in Gold league?”
Let me answer my own question here: Yes! At my current skill level it definitely hurts my macro if I add the smallest amount of micro to my game. I noticed this in both macro games where I am left alone and also games with aggressive opponents either all-inning or constantly harassing me. In macro games I was so distracted by minimal micro (and then watching fights… yeah, I know this was the real killer) that opponents who were also focusing on macro (with styles looking very similar to ViBE’s B2GM) were able to re-max way faster and could in the end just run me over. In games with aggressive opponents I had the impression I just had to micro to survive, but while watching my replays I noticed that this was actually the reason my macro slipped - which in the end made me lose.
Game plan
- Deal with cheese
- ViBE’s B2GM (‘21) style “Gold” build: Max before 9:45 if uninterrupted
- Active creep spread as only distraction from macro
- Static defense (1 Spore Crawler, 2 Spine Crawler) to manage harass
- A-move armies through newest expansions from alternating directions
- Re-max during A-move push, but don’t reinforce dying army - push again with full force