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It's been about a month since my last (and first) TL post, my intro to TL. It's hard not to get excited about the TL community as a whole, even if some of the SC2 features (really I should say Battle.net 2.0 features) are less than exciting. At least there's one decent place to hang with others who have a similar interest in SC.
I started out my ladder rankings in Bronze league (this was when there was still Copper). I was batting about .500 playing Protoss. I felt fairly good about this except when I'd get rolled. Stopping rushes was hard, and I still really felt like I was just getting the hang of the game. Part of me just wanted to slow down a bit and try new things, not get rushed after 4 mins and win or lose because of an all in. How was I supposed to get better in the later game?
A friend of mine joined and we started taking Day9's advice to heart with having a practice buddy. We tried to rush each other (well as best we could, he ended up in Copper) until we could successfully defend it. This helped quite a bit in the long run and also gave me the time to try out real builds, and not just 4 minute builds.
When the rankings were reset and Bronze became the lowest bracket, I purposefully lost all my placement games (just gg'd as soon as the match started). I did this for 2 reasons. One, I wanted to see the difference between Bronze and Silver in terms of play. And two, I wanted to test to see how fast I could get into Silver from Bronze. Knowing I was a Silver player, would the ladder know this after several games as well?
I never made it to Silver. Over half my games have been against people doing placement matches and thus I will get rolled. These still end up counting against me on the ladder, which seems a bit odd. When I do play Bronze players, the skill level fluctuates drastically. Certain people obviously haven't played SC before, many complain about always being killed. I feel bad for these folks, but I try to give constructive feedback when possible. Others seem to actually have some skill, and I will at times get owned by them. Perhaps they are one trick ponies that I fail against? Or perhaps I have the first 4 minutes of my build down and nothing else. I dunno, but I'm still stuck in Bronze.
The game has become more fun over time. b.net has become more boring over time. Coming from other games (even old school games like MUDs I was playing in the early 90's), b.net 2.0 feels so...lonely. Yes I can see that there are 30,000 people now playing games, but I wouldn't know it. For all I know that's just a made up number because I see nobody anywhere, or any semblance of any other human playing the game. It's pretty disappointing really.
To give back to TL, I've been helping with the wiki when I have time. I have a lot of experience writing and editing articles for wikipedia and given my game journalism background I thought I could lend a hand. If I'm going to be part of a community, I need to do my part, we all do. Pissing and moaning doesn't make a community better, listening, helping and contributing does. So that's what I'm doing.
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cool add me on bnet. i need practice playing against rushes too. i try to always say "gl hf" and "gg" but i usually end up rage quitting after i lose to cheese.
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I was one of those Gold players who purposely lost to play in Bronze...
I just find it better to spam games at lower brackets because I get to repeat the same build without any interruptions.
Of course in 5-10 games I'll get placed in Silver and thats where I am right now. 
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Belgium9949 Posts
You certainly have a nice attitude towards all this.
Have you been watching replays btw? It's still one of the best ways to improve. Maybe watch some live user streams of people playing 1v1 while commentating?
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A belated welcome, and know that many people will appreciate your attitude here (towards SC2 and towards to community).
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On June 01 2010 00:32 vesicular wrote:
The game has become more fun over time. b.net has become more boring over time. Coming from other games (even old school games like MUDs I was playing in the early 90's), b.net 2.0 feels so...lonely. Yes I can see that there are 30,000 people now playing games, but I wouldn't know it. For all I know that's just a made up number because I see nobody anywhere, or any semblance of any other human playing the game. It's pretty disappointing really.
Agree with you here, I don't really understand how i'm supposed to make friends on the new battle.net when I cant talk to people apart from trying to talk WHILE in a game. Absolutely ridicilous.
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without implementing chat channels and voice channels ( like a ventrillo server for example) b.net is going to feel very lonely indeed.
Fortunately for me I always look outside the game for clans to join. I try to get a sense of what I'm getting into from their website/forums before jumping in.
Unfortunately there just isn't a big clan scene yet as I've google searched as well as asked around here... Hopefully that will change when the game comes out. Starcraft is very Team oriented at the pro level, but nothing for the minor guys yet.
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On June 01 2010 00:58 RaGe wrote:
You certainly have a nice attitude towards all this.
Have you been watching replays btw? It's still one of the best ways to improve. Maybe watch some live user streams of people playing 1v1 while commentating?
I've certainly watched Day9's casts, which have been very helpful because a) he's positive, which I think is important and b) he's all about learning from mistakes, not getting upset over them.
I haven't watched many actual replays in-game. This is probably something I should do more, especially Toss reps. You're right that it would help.
As for the good attitude, well, I'm too old at this point to get bitter over a video game, especially one I enjoy. I also know how hard it is to grow and maintain a community website. I'm willing to give back a little something if I get some benefit. It's only fair.
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Hope you enjoy your 2nd month just at much!
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Dude, he will enjoy his 10th year as much as he did the first month!
true story
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EPT
