EPTI haven’t had much time for playing SC2 since it came out (in fact, I didn’t even purchase it for over a month after it was released). I don’t ladder much, but I’m currently somewhere around 1600 diamond, with about 800 pts in my bonus pool. I’ve played a good number of custom games vs some better ranked players (a few are sitting around 2700 pts currently), and I’m generally at a 50% win rate vs that level of player. And I generally face players with a much higher ranking on the ladder than myself anyways, so having a 55% win rate on the ladder isn’t too bad. So I’m probably around that level myself. I dunno where for sure, but somewhere there. Although, this probably doesn't help much.....
And, imo, I’m still awful at the game.
![[image loading]](http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/643/ss21r.jpg)
I've improved, but to look back and think I actually lost that game is embarrassing.....
I regularly get supply blocked, I often expand either too early or too late, my macro slips pretty constantly, my micro can be absolutely horrendous, my unit composition choices are less than optimal, etc.
But, in the past, I was able to make a massive jump in my skill level, in a relatively short period of time. I went from a struggling D player to a solid C- player, able to take games off of some C or higher players.
For anyone not familiar with the ICCUP ladder system, that jump is a massive skill change. But it still means that I have much to improve on.
I’m still at that point now, in SC2, obviously. If I was to put some effort into improving, I’m sure I could. But there are other things that are much more important to me at the moment, and I’m choosing to spend my time on them.
Some things really helped my gameplay when I actually put some effort into improving in the past. I discovered Day[9]’s podcasts and his early BW Dailies, and other sources of info, and my knowledge of the game, and strategy in general, increased dramatically. <3 Day[9].
Since Day[9] is so well-known now, I feel the need to bring up an additional influential source of information that I came across; it was the Zerg strategy guide by Tsunami. Tsunami was a really, really good BW player who was around before my time. However, his strategy guide was still relevant at the time, and is still relevant now. The main reason was that the concepts he preached were very general concepts that are useful in most RTS games, as well as the other races in BW. If you haven’t seen it, you need to check it out. It can be found here. It’s currently in an archive, so, copy it just in case.
Note – this was from 2002. BW strategies and tricks were not fully developed yet (they probably still aren’t, however, the level of play has definitely increased since then). I discovered the guide in 2009, and to say that I learned a lot from this guide is a massive understatement. If you are a struggling BW or SC2 player, you should definitely check it out. Take your time, because it comes out to over 50 pages….. It is far too much to sit down and comprehend in a single sitting.
Starcraft 2 seems to be in the stages that BW was in when Tsunami wrote his guide. From my understanding, rush strategies were very popular at that stage in BW history, yet Tsunami advocated winning in later stages of the game. He advised using units in different ways than most. He also advocated scouting well, denying scouting, defending well, utilizing your units to their best potential, and use of trickery, distraction, harassment, etc. In the most basic sense, he advocated playing better than your opponent, both mechanically and strategically.
The same types of rush strategies are currently popular in SC2 as well. Many high-level players are also attempting to mastering the late-game. They’ll chip away with small advantages over a long period of time, to ensure that they win at the end. Because of that, this guide is still relevant for the majority of SC2 players, even though the game is different. While there are changes in the game, like the fact that you can’t ensnare with Queens anymore, the broad concepts are still the same. It is a beautiful guide, and, imo, needs to be brought into the light again.
So, for my 2k post, I wanna give props to Tsunami.
