EPTMy Starcraft notebook P2: Laddering and more on "the Protoss"
THE FOLLOWING IS STILL A DRAFT VER 1.0
I/ Laddering:
Laddering is a skill that not so many people have yet master once they step in the world of starcraft. Lets find out why?
1/ Prepare: Mass games vs 3 games a day? I would choose 3 games a day. Due to the amount of HW i have and believe it or not, i do have friends in real life to hang out with, i cant find myself time to ladder 50 games in a row just like combat-ex or monkxly in my CSL team do. Instead, i choose an odds method of training that not many people have tried: Training with AI. Each day i played at least 10 games vs medium AI to practice my mouse speed, make sure my multitasking is still smooth and my finger wont sketch out too much. It does not only help you prepare for you ladder games Physically but also mentally since you will be familiar with the maps much faster than normal people train themself on ladder. B4 laddering: 1 AI game, after a lose: review replay and try to smooth out ur mistake using AI, etc... It shocks me a lot when Day9 actually told D.apollo in Dreamhack that what am i doing right now is Liquid`Tyler aka NonY training method. Thank you Day9 for confirming that i have choosen the right path :3...
2/ Ladder: N/A ladder is a very interesting place to try out your build. Unless you are a tip top player, facing you is always a players pool contain of thousand and thousand of people who you never know who they are. This means that you only need 1 build for each match up, try to refine it as much as possible vs any type of build you see on ladder. Dont afraid to lose, it will help you learn/ understand the match up, the timing of each build therefore improve you current build and learn your next build much faster. Keywords are: "dont afraid to lose", "be manner", "it is ALWAYS YOUR FAULT! if you lose!".
3/ "it is ALWAYS YOUR FAULT! if you lose!": This is ABSOLUTELY the line to separate people who are pro/noob! After a ladder game, if you win => keep laddering. else: YOU HAVE TO POINT OUT YOUR MISTAKE FOR YOURSELF!! if you cant point it out right away in game, its ok! take your time a watch the replay to see where did thing goes wrong and how could you fix it. DO NOT BLAME IT ON THE BALANCE/CHEESY play!!! it is, once again, ALWAYS your fault if you lose a ladder game! Proof? Lets assume that you lose and everything you did was "correct" => you lose bc of imbalance => 100% players on ladder will use that strategy vs your race => 100% win rate!! but it does not happen => the assumption is wrong, you are the one who made a mistake!
4/ the fear: afraid of ladder, "too tired" to ladder? over come it by playing 4v4 games using the exact same strat you used in 1v1 if you lose, relax by blaming it on your teammates; if you win, take everything on yourself!!! Playing with AI would help too! As soon as you are playing the game and try to improve your mechanics in game, I dont think there is a problem on who you are playing against really! a human, IdrA, 4v4, easy AI => they all the same since all you care about is your mechanics!
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II/ Moar on "the Protoss":
1/ magicbox + blink stalkers = profit:
Yes, magic box DOES WORKs on blink stalkers. Since most of the high level PvP nowaday are relies on blink stalkers so much, i have went a head and do a lots of testing on it and interestingly magicbox does work vs blink stalkers. it works in a Non-perfect way which means that the formation will be change 2 pixels or so but overall its really good.
Application: you have a large group of blink stalkers and a cliff => blink down? Move stalkers to the edge and B _ left click on the other side of mini map => most of those stalkers should blunk down(unless you hv over 9000 stalkers so that the thickess of the control group over come the blinking range).
Blinking helps a lot in PvP, some what in PvZ. Did you know that even if your enemy FF the ramp, you still could blink 1 stalker into MIDDLE of the ramp to get vision and blink all of your stalkers up next? shift blink wont help on that situation since if you blink 1 by 1 = enemy auto focus fire.
to be continue...
still editing...
