EPT![[image loading]](http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/5522/slump.jpg)
Why to push it to the limit if it will just push you into slump?
To be honest, I really don't know what happened. After only one lose I just continued to play and started to lose, lose badly. Now I want to share some of my opinions with you, community as I heard about this problem occurring not only to me but to other StarCraft players as well. Let's dive into this problem just to make you at least think about this issue. First, what I gathered from this is that after a lose - I started to force a game. I didn't take a break to consolidate, to watch replay, to take a coffee and smoke cigarette or two. I just continued to play. Is this bad? No. But was my mindset bad? Yes, indeed it was. Problem is that after that Korean player I did in fact play some good players that won and made me act more as a robot who stare at PC and plays just to play. There was nothing productive even in long run in that set of games, I just became frustrated and wanted to make myself feel better. Problem here is that my mind and my whole spirit just enjoyed winning and destroying so much that after first lose I wanted that feel to come back so fast that I went in further games furious to get my wining streak back. Bad decision and I recommend all of you to at least think about your last game before you do same mistake as I did. We can recall my previous blogs about mind that controls your actions and heart that is sometimes with presence of your natural instinct prevents you from proper path you should take when playing RTS game like StarCraft.
Really, what I should have done is:
- Take time to watch replay and take chill-pill to settle down and make another mindset that is prepared for further gaming that is in fact quality gaming not frustrated one that will make me lose more games then I should.
- Learn something from latest lose by studying replay and contact winning player to ask for advice.
![[image loading]](http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/8818/chillf.jpg)
I just needed to take a chill pill and maybe I would fare better in future games
Question is - how progamers get around this problem? They for sure lose in their practice games but after that they just went on with it and mass game some more. In fact, this is not totally true - they often go trough last replay and try to learn from it, also it's somewhat stupid from me to make connection with people that play this game for money as they are doing it for so long and on level that I can't even imagine. I just wanted to mention them - maybe we should learn how they put their mindset in use when they confront these kind of situations? What to do? Watch a replay and forget? No, I am positive that they already have proper mindset every time they win or lose - they will play. They will not feel urge to play to win in practice time - they will play to learn, play to get better and that was my mistake. I didn't play to improve, I forced a game to feel the "wining feeling" again and that lead me to my doom. I didn't act like professional, I acted like regular casual StarCraft player who let his inner feelings control his further actions and this is the point I want to bring up to you again and again so you can think about it more.
Why to force yourself just because some thing in you want to feel better in this exact moment? I bet if I didn't rush into a game instantly after the lose that I would get better results after. But mistake I did, and from mistake I learn. No need to cry over spilled milk, but it's funny how even if I evaded to learn when I lose - I did learn it hard way - by losing 20 games in row. I say funny because in any way I did learn, just now nature of game made it for me to learn in hard way. I urge you not to learn hard way and spare yourself frustration and bad spent practice time so you can make proper decision of taking a break, thinking and start playing again. Even if you lose after this, just repeat - better then to play another game, then another, another and when you get to the point of losing streak there is no coming back - after that you are so furious that you will be playing with special stare at your monitor screen not hoping for best outcome but only to play, play, play...
![[image loading]](http://infosecurity.us/images/Medal_of_Honor.jpg)
Medal of Honor - keep it by your side even when you feel so angry and mad that you wouldn't care less about it
I call it "Wining-play" syndrome because it happens so quick and it punishes so hard. You don't even notice and you are in its claws just falling deeper and deeper into slump until you ask yourself what is the time and what were you doing all this time? It's like some sort of trance state where you don't know what are you doing or what are you doing. I know this because after that I did lose in some most ridiculous manner possible and against lesser players. For example (just to make you make connection with my situation better) after losing second game, I went berserker and even when I did scout 100% of my opponents strategy I would still lose. Why you ask? Because my concentration was very bad and my urge to win was so high I got overexcited and done some micro mistakes that would make 90year old granny won that match vs me. I just exploited myself via my mindset and my urges, not because I was lesser player (but I don't say I didn't been one in some of games before "the slump") just because I did something that was natural to all people - but remember what we promised ourselves in last article? Not to let feelings control your mind. But I have failed and that makes me only human - nothing less, nothing more. To improve I need to take step back and co-op with my human side as much as I can, not to force it but to embrace it and be like water - just adopt things and try to flow with them in more casual and natural manner. Not being madman trying to fill his homo sapiens urges that we mentioned earlier.
Just a touch or a glimpse of realism, straight thinking and consciousness would save me from hours of bad quality practice. Advice that I can give here is only to read something like this and that you don't do this kind of stuff. In fact, you can only make your brain to listen proper commands just like two or three minutes because it's hard to keep it cool after few moments, ergo, hard to make your brain think properly. So if you have this in mind before going into "berserker mode" you can be quicker then brain's reaction to the lose and make it stable before he can do the regular thing we don't want to happen. It may seem logically but in reality it can be hard nut to break and hard thing to do so you should really practice this, prepare and work on it. Discipline over everything.
Take this notice Cumo grano salis just because there are people that are not effected with this kind of things and most of the time they just either play the game too casually or it doesn't matter/means too much to them. We can't compare this to the slump that Maestro of StarCraft, Ma Jae-Yoon suffered when FireBatHero danced around him after his lose - but indeed we can compare this to our daily lifes. How many times did you overwhelmed yourself with homework/job or something else that you "burned out" and didn't do anything? How many times did this thing only set you back and you didn't improve (done the job, did learn something etc.) ? We can discuss this in theorycraft too - how many times did you wanted to do all at once in StarCraft and end up doing nothing? It's all connected. Concentration and focus on one thing only is key here, here and in everything that has to do with slump, mindset after losing and training hard to make your game benefit from it.
![[image loading]](http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/5861/gameovery.jpg)
Game is not over, it's not the end of the world and you just need to take a break, come back and be wiser and more prosperous
This situation was not only harmful for me, it was an escapade that could harm other players or to be exact their playing experience. Only thing that I was satisfied with was that I kept my honor and good mannerism so I wouldn't blame other player for my lose or be bad manner towards them. Again, we can look this from another perspective - how can we benefit from this situation? Think about it. Maybe we in fact SHOULD cause this state from time to time just to train our discipline. Discipline to act honorable in our darkest moments or in moments when we are so angry we would break anything in our path and bad manner with insulting is becoming somethign we wouldn't care for in million years.
One note to be added is that you must, and I underline this - you must know difference between starting to going into ineffective mode and just playing better players. Only by losing doesn't mean you are just forcing the game - maybe the guy is just better. You need to feel this. There are few symptoms:
- You played a game, lost and rushed in another.
- You feel you can win but it dosen't happen (second game after lose).
- You lose even if you have advantage.
- You lose even if you scout his build and read his switches. Also, you can't micro well nor macro in good and proper way.
- You are just losing game by game and you seem to be more staring at display then thinking about the game.
There are some specific-to and unique-to player from player symptoms, but these are most general ones. Keep in mind that only when two or more of them are combined then we can speak about the "slump" issue. If any of these come only as one they can be something different. Don't let this fool you into thinking you should rest or cool down and etc. It's always nice to look at replay, study it...take a coffee break - but sometimes it's best (to be honest, most of the time) to practice and to play the game.
Another thing to notice about this is not only from perspective from losing player but from a winner - how would you feel about someone who channels his own problems in manner that ruins your game? How do you feel about someone who can't understand that he in fact is playing multiplayer, against human flesh and blood and not against AI who doesn't care if you are bad manner or not.
It would be also very wise to study some books about this issue because if you only get your knowledge from experience you can make counter-effect and in some time just let the game/job/school go and it will not matter you anymore. People tend to let go things very soon and without too much effort, it's in our genes and it needs to be eliminated as much as it can. Maybe we should sometimes take break from... taking break? Yes, nullifying the break from frustration by taking break from it (that would equal just doing nothing) is great method but only when the time is right and in only proper timed intervals (both how long and when exactly). To master this, only way I can see it becoming real thing is experience, so it's of most importance that you experiment but don't slip over the margin - you need to feel some things in your natural way, but you can always take step by step approach being cautious.
All in all, this was more experience - talk about it and learn from it article then some deep mind digging and trying to be smart. I hope you will in fact understand this article in that way (other articles are meant to be understood in other way, more "think about it and apply it in real life and StarCraft" side) that you learn from my mistake and implement it's valuable knowledge into yours - so it doesn't happen to you. And if it does - keep it cool and clean, honor is something that you can still have
In the end, I would like to apologize for pretty late article, as I did mention before - currently I am very busy. Daily work and also work for GosuGamers, Cry Clan and various other websites that I do in my free time when I don't work takes very much time. Also, put feeding, sleeping, bathroom job, girlfriend and other RL routines in here and you got very little time. But I hope you enjoy my articles, sorry if grammar is not the best of the best that would some people like (including me) but schedule is very tight and I try my best to bring at least something to you, community so we can interact better together and share opinions. I hope also that my efforts are not in vain and that you will learn or maybe start thinking about things I write in my articles as that's it's main purpose. Sorry again and please, keep rating, commenting and contacting me about anything you like.
Take care,
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![[image loading]](http://www.iccup.com/upload/images/flags/hr.gif)
![[image loading]](http://www.iccup.com/upload/images/race/protoss.gif)
But not cool enough to not sometimes get flame in you that will help you win 
