• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 18:01
CEST 00:01
KST 07:01
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
TL.net Map Contest #21: Voting7[ASL20] Ro4 Preview: Descent11Team TLMC #5: Winners Announced!3[ASL20] Ro8 Preview Pt2: Holding On9Maestros of the Game: Live Finals Preview (RO4)5
Community News
Weekly Cups (Oct 6-12): Four star herO65.0.15 Patch Balance Hotfix (2025-10-8)79Weekly Cups (Sept 29-Oct 5): MaxPax triples up3PartinG joins SteamerZone, returns to SC2 competition325.0.15 Balance Patch Notes (Live version)119
StarCraft 2
General
Revisiting the game after10 years and wow it's bad 5.0.15 Patch Balance Hotfix (2025-10-8) TL.net Map Contest #21: Voting How to Block Australia, Brazil, Singapore Servers The New Patch Killed Mech!
Tourneys
SC4ALL $6,000 Open LAN in Philadelphia Crank Gathers Season 2: SC II Pro Teams LiuLi Cup - September 2025 Tournaments Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Master Swan Open (Global Bronze-Master 2)
Strategy
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 495 Rest In Peace Mutation # 494 Unstable Environment Mutation # 493 Quick Killers Mutation # 492 Get Out More
Brood War
General
BW General Discussion [Interview] Grrrr... 2024 Question regarding recent ASL Bisu vs Larva game BW caster Sayle Map with fog of war removed for one player?
Tourneys
[ASL20] Semifinal B [ASL20] Semifinal A SC4ALL $1,500 Open Bracket LAN [Megathread] Daily Proleagues
Strategy
Relatively freeroll strategies Current Meta BW - ajfirecracker Strategy & Training Siegecraft - a new perspective
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Dawn of War IV Nintendo Switch Thread ZeroSpace Megathread Path of Exile
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion LiquidDota to reintegrate into TL.net
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
SPIRED by.ASL Mafia {211640} TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Men's Fashion Thread Sex and weight loss
Fan Clubs
The herO Fan Club! The Happy Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece Series you have seen recently... Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion!
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion MLB/Baseball 2023 NBA General Discussion TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
SC2 Client Relocalization [Change SC2 Language] Linksys AE2500 USB WIFI keeps disconnecting Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
Inbreeding: Why Do We Do It…
Peanutsc
From Tilt to Ragequit:The Ps…
TrAiDoS
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1292 users

SC ICCUP Built-up in 6 months: Setup

Blogs > ionize
Post a Reply
ionize
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
Ireland399 Posts
June 26 2010 15:13 GMT
#1
Ok, a lot of people gave me some nice advice and I thank you for that.

This one was backed up by several people and reflects my idea how I should work my way around this:

On June 26 2010 23:20 NuKedUFirst wrote:
Show nested quote +
On June 26 2010 23:15 ionize wrote:
Hey there, it's me again and today I got one simple question: If a player, who just knows the basic of SCBW, decides to go for ICCUP and learn the game within 6 months, what would be your advice? Or do you even have some kind of step by step plan in mind?

Cheers
ionize

-Mass games-
-Watch your replays, see your mistakes
-Don't play if you are getting tired
-Learn buildorders


Current situation
- I haven't played proper SC for almost 10 years and back then it was only LAN, you can guess at what level I am. :D
- I attend university and got to cope with my schedule and workload besides gaming. So I have to get a gaming schedule I think.
- I also play amateur Unreal Tournament still (there is no professional UT anymore, but amateur is not to be taken lightly). This way I also have to keep in shape by playing at least 2h per day.

Immediate plans
- I will follow these four simple rules, starting tomorrow morning
- Depending on my workload/schedule/2h UT I will mass as many games as possible and reflect upon them individually
- I will conclude every game(s) session with watching some particularly striking games to figure out what I did wrong and work on that
- I will post a daily review as long as I spent some time playing SCBW that day. This way I hope to get feedback, advice and encouragement.

I hope this works out, as I know that I can be a damn bi**h when I don't want to do things. So I have to get myself super motivated to keep going. At the moment I am motivated as I like to take a challenge. Let's see how far I can get. You'll here more from me tomorrow.

Cheers
ionize

I just love video games, what's your excuse?
Lightwip
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States5497 Posts
June 26 2010 15:28 GMT
#2
Good luck. You'll probably lose at least 30 games before you actually get wins.
If you are not Bisu, chances are I hate you.
aeroH
Profile Blog Joined February 2009
United States1034 Posts
June 26 2010 15:33 GMT
#3
keep a water bottle next to you, and drink always after every game. you get more tired then you'd imagine
Misrah
Profile Blog Joined February 2008
United States1695 Posts
June 26 2010 15:34 GMT
#4
i would stop mass gaming, and attempt to learn a few thing first. sounds like you don't know anything about competitive bw- and frankly going on icup will discourage you quite quickly. What i would suggest would be looking at liquidpedia. Learn and memorize the 'standard' build order for each of your 3 match ups. play against a computer opponent and make sure that you drill each build into your head. You need to memorize this build, and make sure that you can follow it to the letter.

Going on iccup before you have some builds memorized, or at leas have some grasp on how a match up is going to work is simply going to be counter productive. You have not played the game long enough or have enough understanding to 'look back on your games.' that will come with time, and frankly this is the wrong time.

What is going to be holding you back the most is simply mechanics. You will probably play around 40-60 apm- and this is nowhere near where you need to be. Mechanics will come with muscle memory and time. Once again i would like to suggest that you start off your SC career by playing the computer, and perfect a build order order for each match up. I feel that this type of environment is the most conducive for learning, and is the best way to improve. If you would like i can always play a few games with you. Just give me a PM and i can help you out with any zerg match. pvz, zvp, zvt, tvz, zvz.

Anyway gl, hf, gg, and don't get discouraged when you fall to e rank on icup- and have a record of 0-12341234.
A thread vaguely bashing SC2? SWARM ON, LOW POST COUNT BRETHREN! DEFEND THE GLORIOUS GAME THAT IS OUR LIVELIHOOD
wrags
Profile Blog Joined April 2008
United States379 Posts
June 26 2010 15:38 GMT
#5
try to form a small "hypothesis" before you go into watching replays. often times your suspicions will be confirmed, but since you were looking for that anyway you'll catch something that you would have missed otherwise.
Diamond
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
United States10796 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-06-26 16:29:02
June 26 2010 15:48 GMT
#6
This is how I started (mind you I had a working knowledge of BW, just not of the competitive type):

1: Watched ALOT of pro games
2: Read Liquipedia
3: Picked ONE build to learn first (10/15 Gate)
4: Picked ONE map to learn that build on (Neo Medusa)
5: Played about 20-25 games vs the comp until I was sure I had it memorized.
6: Started on iCCup
7: ???
8: Profit
Ballistix Gaming Global Gaming/Esports Marketing Manager - twitter.com/esvdiamond
KasPra
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
Estonia983 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-06-26 16:04:54
June 26 2010 16:02 GMT
#7
If you want to get better fast just play one matchup and one build order over and on only one map over again for days and days. Also, you have to play a lot and always try to play correctly, people tend to overvalue learning and watching starcraft because actually all the skill comes from mass gaming. Also, watching your replays helps a lot but only the ones you lose. Sometimes you may get the feeling that you dont need to watch the replay because you know what you did wrong but watching it still clears up a lot and helps you analyze your mistakes.

Its harder to do it like this but at least you will get D+ and even C- quite fast so you dont have to be a part of the "i have been following sc for years and im still D in iccup" dudes.
Count9
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
China10928 Posts
June 26 2010 17:34 GMT
#8
Change don't play when you're feeling tired to, get up out of your chair and run around a bit to get blood flowing every 3+ games and keep playing.

Or you can just make lurkers.
CheAse
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
Canada919 Posts
June 26 2010 19:01 GMT
#9
You should consider playing by your self before to get the basic build orders down. Once you have it locked down you can get some real practice in.
SCV good to go sir
Sadistx
Profile Blog Joined February 2009
Zimbabwe5568 Posts
June 26 2010 19:39 GMT
#10
On June 27 2010 00:28 Lightwip wrote:
Good luck. You'll probably lose at least 30 games before you actually get wins.

Not if he plays protoss.
FyRe_DragOn
Profile Blog Joined November 2006
Canada2056 Posts
June 26 2010 19:47 GMT
#11
i suggest you watch progamer vods (or even better, replays) when you need a break, and before playing, in addition to those 4 other things on your list. This will help you learn faster and give you more motivation as well. GL
aka DragOn[NaS]
ms291052
Profile Joined April 2008
United States24 Posts
June 26 2010 20:33 GMT
#12
On June 27 2010 00:13 ionize wrote:
you can guess at what level I am. :D


I see what you did there
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 12h 59m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
SpeCial 133
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 14389
Calm 2563
EffOrt 418
Larva 417
UpATreeSC 123
Artosis 31
Dota 2
Pyrionflax211
Counter-Strike
Foxcn354
PGG 56
Other Games
Grubby3206
ScreaM1710
shahzam566
C9.Mang0178
ViBE66
PPMD25
Liquid`Ken2
Organizations
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 18 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• musti20045 41
• davetesta27
• IndyKCrew
• sooper7s
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• Migwel
• intothetv
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Kozan
StarCraft: Brood War
• blackmanpl 20
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
League of Legends
• Doublelift4698
Other Games
• imaqtpie2206
• Scarra428
• WagamamaTV315
• Shiphtur271
Upcoming Events
Wardi Open
12h 59m
CranKy Ducklings
1d 11h
Safe House 2
1d 18h
Sparkling Tuna Cup
2 days
Safe House 2
2 days
Tenacious Turtle Tussle
6 days
The PondCast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Acropolis #4 - TS2
WardiTV TLMC #15
HCC Europe

Ongoing

BSL 21 Points
ASL Season 20
CSL 2025 AUTUMN (S18)
C-Race Season 1
IPSL Winter 2025-26
EC S1
Thunderpick World Champ.
CS Asia Championships 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025

Upcoming

SC4ALL: Brood War
BSL Season 21
BSL 21 Team A
RSL Offline Finals
RSL Revival: Season 3
Stellar Fest
SC4ALL: StarCraft II
CranK Gathers Season 2: SC II Pro Teams
eXTREMESLAND 2025
ESL Impact League Season 8
SL Budapest Major 2025
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.