• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 21:22
CEST 03:22
KST 10:22
  • 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
Maestros of the Game: Week 1/Play-in Preview9[ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt2: Take-Off7[ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt1: Runway132v2 & SC: Evo Complete: Weekend Double Feature4Team Liquid Map Contest #21 - Presented by Monster Energy9
Community News
Weekly Cups (August 25-31): Clem's Last Straw?24Weekly Cups (Aug 18-24): herO dethrones MaxPax6Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris46Weekly Cups (Aug 11-17): MaxPax triples again!15Weekly Cups (Aug 4-10): MaxPax wins a triple6
StarCraft 2
General
Weekly Cups (August 25-31): Clem's Last Straw? Geoff 'iNcontroL' Robinson has passed away #1: Maru - Greatest Players of All Time Maestros of the Game: Week 1/Play-in Preview Weekly Cups (Aug 11-17): MaxPax triples again!
Tourneys
Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris Monday Nights Weeklies LiuLi Cup - September 2025 Tournaments 🏆 GTL Season 2 – StarCraft II Team League
Strategy
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 489 Bannable Offense Mutation # 488 What Goes Around Mutation # 487 Think Fast Mutation # 486 Watch the Skies
Brood War
General
BW General Discussion ASL20 General Discussion BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ No Rain in ASL20? Starcraft at lower levels TvP
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues Is there English video for group selection for ASL [ASL20] Ro24 Group F [IPSL] CSLAN Review and CSLPRO Reimagined!
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Muta micro map competition Fighting Spirit mining rates [G] Mineral Boosting
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Mechabellum Teeworlds - online game General RTS Discussion Thread
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread YouTube Thread
Fan Clubs
The Happy Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece [\m/] Heavy Metal Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread High temperatures on bridge(s) Gtx660 graphics card replacement
TL Community
The Automated Ban List TeamLiquid Team Shirt On Sale
Blogs
A very expensive lesson on ma…
Garnet
hello world
radishsoup
Lemme tell you a thing o…
JoinTheRain
How Culture and Conflict Imp…
TrAiDoS
RTS Design in Hypercoven
a11
Evil Gacha Games and the…
ffswowsucks
INDEPENDIENTE LA CTM
XenOsky
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 614 users

Timing

Blogs > oBlade
Post a Reply
oBlade
Profile Blog Joined December 2008
United States5629 Posts
January 01 2011 18:34 GMT
#1
When I played SC before finding TL, I played a lot of average zombie UMS maps and sometimes melee, but always in a bastardized form like trash maps, money maps, or just on BGH. A lot of vsing computers with buddies on maps like Dire Straits or anything in the Blizzard folder. Sometimes FFAs and team games when internet friend groups intersected. When it came down to it, the real man inside even a newbie knows that you have to take it to low money to be serious. And there are no maps lower-money than Blizzard maps. Natural expansions with 5 mineral patches and no gas. Mains within a vulture's grenade throw of each other. The best player in the group being the only one who is skilled enough to play Z, and even then he plays like H.O.T-Forever in 2000.

This brings me to something. I think each of us wishes we had found out about TL and about Korean SC earlier in our life than we did - maybe with the exception of GTR. We think this may have made a difference. It's like a time traveler's fallacy. We know what SC is now and we think if we found TL earlier, we'd catch a wave to OGN Sparkyz or Hexatron. Just look at how bad the players were, right?

So actually, that's not what happens. If we started earlier, we'd still not have access to information about the future. We couldn't transplant 5 hatch hydra to 2003, for instance. And we'd still be ourselves in that our work ethic, our attitude, and our principles would mostly be the same. Yet since we were younger, they would be even less developed. Is that what you want to go back to? I'll cite Tapestry as explaining why the past should be left alone.

After I came to TL, I understood that there was a hierarchy to being good at SC. A real hierarchy, instead of the primitive trashtalking anarchy where people believe that a 1-0 into perpetual dodging against a superior player means that you're actually better than him. Extend this and the only way to decide whose skill was superior was always one 1v1 set. (Preferably on Lost Temple since what map could be more pro?)

The ropes of SC looked like finding pro guides and using their builds or copying the builds of Proleague games. Guides mention what's good against what, and I took that to mean you could win games by doing builds that are good against what your opponent is doing. And if you're winning games, that must mean you're good. In the process of assimilating to TL SC in place of my old SC habits, I therefore took a huge hit because I stopped thinking about what my units could do.

Timing is different than following a guide. Timing is just about thinking. Rather, it's a skill you learn from experience. It's a specific intuition. It's different from multitasking, which is basically control; timing is basically decision making. It's something you build from experiencing the same situation enough times to apply it to any new situation. It's like approximating any statistical distribution with the standard normal distribution. Thinking this way is how you try to go into the future of a game. Copying a build won't get you any farther than the highest supply you know in the build unless you do it hundreds upon hundreds of times. A game isn't just opening siege expand or doing a 4fact push or going to three bases with two armories. There's always another situation on the horizon. Every game can go from an opening to a midgame to a lategame to an endgame. If you're good, you'll be able to manage yourself in every stage of the game even if something radical happens that you didn't expect when you joined the match. Every situation is possible. If you're better than your opponent, you can just put him into a situation his decision making can't make heads or tails of. Put him into a situation where his control can't keep up with yours. But don't be too proud of your 1-0. Tomorrow you'll both be better than you were yesterday, and now he might be your superior.

It turns out life works the same way, except it's a really long game, and it's the only set you get to play. But since it's so long, you have a chance to learn by seeing what billions of other people have done and are doing with theirs. But you can't copy their opener without thinking about what you're doing.

The man next to me is singing some Korean tune while eating a baguette and playing Go online. He must be some kind of ancient, stoic Go master just playing for the sake of playing. Meeting him online would be like meeting Nal_ra's smurf on battle.net, I imagine. And here I am, some lowly SC scrub taking up space. I'm not worthy of breathing the air he farts. No wonder, now he's going to the bathroom. Let me take a peek at his score.

Oh, he's a scrub, too. In fact, maybe he's me.

****
"I read it. You know how to read, you ignorant fuck?" - Andy Dufresne
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
PiGosaur Monday
00:00
#47
SteadfastSC208
CranKy Ducklings152
rockletztv 46
EnkiAlexander 25
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
SteadfastSC 208
Nina 93
StarCraft: Brood War
Artosis 933
sSak 179
NaDa 27
Purpose 12
Icarus 5
yabsab 4
Dota 2
monkeys_forever1088
League of Legends
Cuddl3bear1
Counter-Strike
Fnx 1196
taco 290
Super Smash Bros
hungrybox397
Other Games
summit1g6295
tarik_tv4446
shahzam573
C9.Mang0440
ViBE225
Maynarde204
Trikslyr88
Mew2King65
JuggernautJason13
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick788
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 15 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Kozan
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• sooper7s
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• blackmanpl 24
• HerbMon 10
• sM.Zik 2
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Other Games
• Scarra1376
• imaqtpie1061
Upcoming Events
LiuLi Cup
9h 38m
Replay Cast
22h 38m
The PondCast
1d 8h
RSL Revival
1d 8h
Maru vs SHIN
MaNa vs MaxPax
Maestros of the Game
1d 15h
OSC
2 days
MaNa vs SHIN
SKillous vs ShoWTimE
Bunny vs TBD
Cham vs TBD
RSL Revival
2 days
Reynor vs Astrea
Classic vs sOs
Maestros of the Game
2 days
BSL Team Wars
2 days
Team Bonyth vs Team Dewalt
CranKy Ducklings
3 days
[ Show More ]
RSL Revival
3 days
GuMiho vs Cham
ByuN vs TriGGeR
Cosmonarchy
3 days
TriGGeR vs YoungYakov
YoungYakov vs HonMonO
HonMonO vs TriGGeR
Maestros of the Game
3 days
[BSL 2025] Weekly
3 days
RSL Revival
4 days
Cure vs Bunny
Creator vs Zoun
Maestros of the Game
4 days
BSL Team Wars
4 days
Team Hawk vs Team Sziky
Sparkling Tuna Cup
5 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSL Season 18: Qualifier 2
SEL Season 2 Championship
HCC Europe

Ongoing

Copa Latinoamericana 4
BSL 20 Team Wars
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 3
BSL 21 Qualifiers
ASL Season 20
CSL 2025 AUTUMN (S18)
Maestros of the Game
Sisters' Call Cup
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025

Upcoming

LASL Season 20
2025 Chongqing Offline CUP
BSL Season 21
BSL 21 Team A
Chzzk MurlocKing SC1 vs SC2 Cup #2
RSL Revival: Season 2
EC S1
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
Skyesports Masters 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
Thunderpick World Champ.
MESA Nomadic Masters Fall
CS Asia Championships 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 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.