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I finally reached masters league today after shamefully becoming the top ranked diamond random player on NA. Shamefully because this means I lost all of my previous placement matches.
First what do you need to "legitimately" reaching masters (not cheesing your way there). I have only played random and opponents play slightly different vs. random players, but I think there are only just a few things that you need be able to do to make your way up through the leagues.
What do you need?
Solid Macro - This doesn't mean having the perfect number of barracks/gateways, or not occasionally missing pylons/overlords/supply depots. It means you are willing to expand and learn how to at least somewhat manage 3+ bases. There are some games that just can't be won from 1 or 2 bases. (Use your races special abilities to the max: creep/larva inject, mules/scans/PF, cronoboost)
Mirror Matchups - The mirror matchups are the easiest to get a handle on and are much less complex at lower levels then all the other matchups. If you focus and become confident in the mirror matchup (or all 3 if you play random) it will help your confidence immensely in all the other matchups. In ZvZ at lower levels simply keeping an eye on the drones (# of new drones and gas or not), watching for lair timing, and counting evo chambers is all the information you need. In PvP learn how to 4 gate. There are some voidray, dt, 3 gate robo, and fast collosus builds that can be better depending on the map, but 90% of PvP's are 4 gate vs. 4 gate. TvT learn how to play the marine/tank style. Not only is it extremely stable in TvT, but will help a ton with TvZ.
Avoid Blind Builds ("cheap"/cheesy wins) - Never start a game with the idea of going DT's, or Cloaked/2 port Banshee, or Roach Rush/6-8pool. Yes you may have a high win rate, but this will not help you get better. If you scout something that would make one of these builds effective by all means use them, but start with the mentality of winning by less risky methods.
Upgrades- Work on getting upgrades. How soon can I get them? If you haven't started upgrades before building your third expansion something is wrong. In most matchups upgrades probably should begin shortly after the first expansion. They are even more important in mirror matchups.
Counters - A general idea of what counters what. Spend very very little time trying to figure this out. In matches like PvT "Counters" really are hard to pin down. Unit composition is probably a much better way to think about it.
What Don't You Need?
APM - My APM usually averages out at about 90.
Micro - At the moment Micro should never outweigh macro. Most of the time it is better to spend your time doing macro during a battle then to get a very small advantage doing micro. As your opponents get better and better the game is much less likely to be won after a single battle and your builds probably shouldn't hinge on having to win in a single battle.
Map Control - I personally spend very very little time worrying about map control. I do get caught off guard quite often, but if your build is solid, and you get an idea as to when they are expanding you should be ready for pretty much anything.
Control Groups I do my very own style of 1a (Simply a). I do not hotkey any army units. I hotkey unit producing structures on separate hotkeys, but prior to making it into masters I have yet to use hotkeys to control my army units. Because of this I rarely have 2 spell casting units at the same time which isn't the optimal way to play, but there are other unit combinations out there.
I plan to take a break from the ladder and begin to develop these bottom skills now, but I think it is quite interesting that I was able make it to masters as a random player (meaning I have less experience then other players of my skill level in each matchup) with quite low apm, very little micro, almost no map control, and without using control groups.
 
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I think the general consensus is that you just need to make a lot of units to get Master league. Or all-in every game, which'll get you there faster and easier, sadly.
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lollolol is this a troll thread making fun of sc2 or are u srs. lol
he ninja edited, used to only have "non perfect macro" on his list.
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Well if you cheese to get there...its only a matter of time before your strategies become obsolete. At that point you probably won't be competent in standard play and you will lose a lot because of it. Your late game will also be bad.
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I accidentally posted before finishing the blog. The previous responders only saw a very small portion of the post.
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On February 04 2011 12:00 Entertaining wrote:
lollolol is this a troll thread making fun of sc2 or are u srs. lol
The above poster's spelling ability succinctly represents the awesomeness of the OP.
But really, are you serious? Then again, this is blogs, where you don't need map control, micro, control groups, etc. to reach Master League.
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On February 04 2011 12:26 ArbAttack wrote:Show nested quote +On February 04 2011 12:00 Entertaining wrote:
lollolol is this a troll thread making fun of sc2 or are u srs. lol The above poster's spelling ability succinctly represents the awesomeness of the OP. But really, are you serious? Then again, this is blogs, where you don't need map control, micro, control groups, etc. to reach Master League.
My thoughts exactly. Not inclined to trust OP without evidence. One control group? No micro? Macromanagement is very streamlined in SC2; there's no excuse for a Masters player to have bad control.
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On February 04 2011 12:29 The_Piper42 wrote:Show nested quote +On February 04 2011 12:26 ArbAttack wrote:On February 04 2011 12:00 Entertaining wrote:
lollolol is this a troll thread making fun of sc2 or are u srs. lol The above poster's spelling ability succinctly represents the awesomeness of the OP. But really, are you serious? Then again, this is blogs, where you don't need map control, micro, control groups, etc. to reach Master League. My thoughts exactly. Not inclined to trust OP without evidence. One control group? No micro? Macromanagement is very streamlined in SC2; there's no excuse for a Masters player to have bad control.
He actually said zero control groups and he does use A move so there is micro.
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You say that you shouldn't cheese yet you say that you can have a high winrate. The whole point of this thread (I thought) was how to get to Master's? So if all-ins work, then you should say that you can do them. Or else you should rename it to: how I think u can get better.
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"First what do you need to "legitimately" reaching masters (not cheesing your way there). I have only played random and opponents play slightly different vs. random players, but I think there are only just a few things that you need be able to do to make your way up through the leagues."
I think I covered that ^^
As for control groups there are 2 exceptions. I do hotkey mutalisks, and I do hotkey the intial units that were built prior to warp gates finishing in a warp gate rush. I really don't think I could make it much farther without control groups, but you can make it to masters without them.
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Id say if you were solid D- or above in brood war you stand a good chance.
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On February 04 2011 13:43 funnybananaman wrote:
Id say if you were solid D- or above in brood war you stand a good chance.
deserve a ban IMO
+ Show Spoiler +would u like to fuck off?
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Why do protoss need power grids to use their structures, when all their robotic units can run of of psi enrgy?
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On February 04 2011 15:27 ShaSKiRa wrote:Show nested quote +On February 04 2011 13:43 funnybananaman wrote:
Id say if you were solid D- or above in brood war you stand a good chance. deserve a ban IMO + Show Spoiler +would u like to fuck off?
lol why such hate? His comment is basically correct, maybe slightly exaggerated (its more like solid D or above) but that is no reason to go crazy.
Anyway, I find it silly how multitasking is completely ignored on this list. If you have passable macro and solid multitask you can wreck players at lower levels.
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On February 04 2011 15:27 ShaSKiRa wrote:Show nested quote +On February 04 2011 13:43 funnybananaman wrote:
Id say if you were solid D- or above in brood war you stand a good chance. deserve a ban IMO + Show Spoiler +would u like to fuck off?
Oh look, your join date is after beta started. Good to see your amazing contribution.
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Using Join date against people is unfair bro. Although that doesn't change the fact that it was a dumb comment.
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On February 04 2011 16:45 Sadistx wrote:Show nested quote +On February 04 2011 15:27 ShaSKiRa wrote:On February 04 2011 13:43 funnybananaman wrote:
Id say if you were solid D- or above in brood war you stand a good chance. deserve a ban IMO + Show Spoiler +would u like to fuck off? Oh look, your join date is after beta started. Good to see your amazing contribution.
Your contribution is just as bad (even worse Id say).
And to actually contribute it seems like you just picked the things you were good at and because you were masters said you needed them to get into masters. While the things you suck at (reall? no army control groups?) are not needed, clearly some people will suck at mirror matchups (me) and excel at something else and still be masters..
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On February 04 2011 17:08 Megaliskuu wrote:
Using Join date against people is unfair bro. Although that doesn't change the fact that it was a dumb comment.
I'd say you're one of a few exceptions to using join date to judge people Megalisk. And a fair share of TL knows your story 
On topic: If the OP claims this is enough to get into Masters from self experience then he has a valid point.
Being able to think and react to strategy while doing what he's doing at a decent/good level should make him a solid player (regardless of how limited it may seem).
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So basically all you need to do is have some degree of macro, decision making which isn't completely retarded, and not cheese?
Skill right here.
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im in masters league and i dont think op is trolling. its true, the things he mentions u dont need but would be very helpful. but u can make it woithout them.
i never felt it was actually that hard to reach it. for my part, since the beta started have always been high platin / diamond and now masters( tho a little lower, granted :-)
ive played bw extensively as well and anyone who had a semi-basic grasp of professional play in bw should at least be mid to high diamond. its just that you can make do without a lot of things if you have a very good game sense, know the timings and when to do what and how to react to things.
in addition, sc2 has enabled people who would be about f- ( y i know) in bw to become at leas diamond players due to the simpler interface/interaction with your own units. i still have problems telling total noobs from semi-proficient players sometimes just by watching their replays. over the time it becomes apparent sure but what i wanted to say is that people who wouldnt stand a chance in bw can now beat other players way above their league due to the whole way sc2 works now.
so yeah,maybe op is a bad player but plays quite a lot, maybe hes got a very good game sense and knows his stuff due to having played bw or similar rts before. dk but its definitely possible to get into masters that way. i actually never felt of it as quite such an achievement just because of the occasional really bad player i meet online or sometimes my own shortcomings. that said i do feel like masters players are above most of the rest skillwise but that doesnt mean a lot if most of the leagues below that have a lot of bad players.
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EPT
