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So my friend is in bronze and has played ~600 games. Recently we discovered why this was, he has an actual and effective apm of 35. I think for him to further improve his skill he should raise the amount of action he does per minute.
Many people would argue that apm has nothing to do with skill and that one does not equate to the other. I would tend to agree with this statement. For starcraft 2, ive always felt that there is a minimum require for actions per minute to play this game effectively (ive always thought this was anywhere between 70 and 150) and be able to execute certain builds or maneuvers.
So the purpose of this blog is to keep the world posted and as a log of how the rate of improvement out of bronze is going. For this week I had the bright idea of starting him on just spamming hotkeys, cycling through the control groups he has assigned to buildings and units. I think that this will serve as a mental queue to macro effectively. I feel that the next logical step once he has hit the average sustained apm of 70 is to then transition that raw actions into effective actions per minute.
If anyone has any suggestions to help get out of bronze, please leave a comment. We've already tried watching streams, attempting simple and solid build orders etc. none of that has had any effect which is why i think that strategy is not the reason why there has been no promotion out of bronze.
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Well I dont play SC2 competitively as much as I did back in SC1.
But what changed my gameplay dramatically was watching First Person VODs.
I guess it's like watching streams except you also get to see their keyboard and how the pros play it.
After watching that, I was just more 'efficient' I guess.
With the whole build order thing, just keep practicing till you get sick of it. What else can you do? lol . ... I guess you can make your own ^^... People will always bash you for that because it's not what the pros are doing... but hey.. back in SC1, some guy named V-Gundam did his own thing and people were riding his dick for a while until other people figured out how to counter it.
Anyway, what I'm saying is, do your best, forget the rest.
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I have been playing RTS for roughly 13 years now, and I have done quite a bit of training/assisting of newer players. There are many things that can help, such as replays, streams, knowing build orders, but there is one really important thing that goes beyond that which many people overlook: "How much should my brain be hurting while I play?". Players should be playing as fast as possible while still maintaining clear and reasonable thought. If this Bronze friend of yours is able to play 4 games in a row and not feel a bit mentally taxed, he's not trying hard enough, and as a result, is not improving as much as he could be.
I have a friend who went from gold to master league over about 2 months, and he would always complain about how his brain felt fried and overworked. But its what indicated he was playing with intensity necessary to continue to improve. Being able to do things like monitoring your minimap 24/7, building units during fights, quick micro moves...You need to FORCE yourself to just TRY it. You'll fuck it up, but you'll improve rapidly. Many newer players don't let themselves feel "sore" after games.
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35 apm is MORE than enough to get out of bronze.
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On March 26 2011 04:52 jjun212 wrote:
Well I dont play SC2 competitively as much as I did back in SC1.
But what changed my gameplay dramatically was watching First Person VODs.
I guess it's like watching streams except you also get to see their keyboard and how the pros play it.
After watching that, I was just more 'efficient' I guess.
With the whole build order thing, just keep practicing till you get sick of it. What else can you do? lol . ... I guess you can make your own ^^... People will always bash you for that because it's not what the pros are doing... but hey.. back in SC1, some guy named V-Gundam did his own thing and people were riding his dick for a while until other people figured out how to counter it.
Anyway, what I'm saying is, do your best, forget the rest.
This man brings useful advice, go watch an fpvod of a pro korean bw player. Try to keep up, and understand every action he makes, watch the vod several times if you have to.
Do your best to play like him. This is going to instill a feeling of unease anytime your apm is low, and will make you realise what you lack in terms of efficiency (until control, control groups, production, sim city, etc.)
Also, make sure you can perform your build order in your sleep. So practice it for whatever amount of time it takes for you to reach this level.
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First of all : If he has never played an RTS in a competitive way before, it could easily be the case that he tries to play it layed back like he would play Civ or something and doesn´t even know HOW fast you can be at this game... so yeah, a fpvod or something like that would probably help just to get him the idea that yes, you can play SC2 faster than with 35 apm.
Edit says : If he doesn´t get promoted now, isn´t that just because of the ladder break / the upcoming season 2 ? Your MMR can still rise or fall, but you cannot be demoted or promoted right now.
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Have you guys checked out Day9's dailies on mechanics? There are a lot of good tips on how to improve your control. I'd imagine it's a pretty good basis to build off of. Good luck.
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Hello everyone, im new to SC2, my friend gave me his SC2 account because it had bad stats and he didnt like it. I am looking for someone to play with and improve with. People also say this is a great place to meet friends and im looking to meet some :D
You can contact me by SC2
LazySundays
Char Code: 428
Skype: Blake_Schaab
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On March 26 2011 06:42 LazySundays wrote:
Hello everyone, im new to SC2, my friend gave me his SC2 account because it had bad stats and he didnt like it. I am looking for someone to play with and improve with. People also say this is a great place to meet friends and im looking to meet some :D
You can contact me by SC2
LazySundays
Char Code: 428
Skype: Blake_Schaab
Welcome to TL. Your friend was right, this is a great place. But like every great place in the world, this one has its rules. If you want to ask, say or start a discussion about something, please do it in the right forum and, in case it exists, in an already existing thread. The search function is your friend.
You'll stumble onto this thread:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=139384¤tpage=302
There you go. Have fun on our site.
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And @ op: I find myself disagreeing with you. I started playing SC2 the demo on a laptop, so I used trackpad and keyboard only. I didn't actually plan to buy the game eventually, so I just played 5-6 games a week, mastered the first 3 campaign missions on brutal on second try, and then started practicing 1v1 against insane AI, which I finally could beat consistently (>95%). That's when I decided to buy a mouse and SC2.
So from my experience, basic mechanics don't need huge physical speed. I used a few hotkeys, and the trackpad was a pain in the ass, but I found out that I didn't need more than decent timings, some scouting and an eye on the minimap to beat the insane AI. And since insane AI is clearly superior to bronze and most silver players (maybe even gold, it's hard to compare since they have different strengths), I can't explain how your friend can't come out of bronze with 600 games when I could reach the needed level of play within 20-30 games.
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On March 26 2011 07:44 Spekulatius wrote:
And @ op: I find myself disagreeing with you. I started playing SC2 the demo on a laptop, so I used trackpad and keyboard only. I didn't actually plan to buy the game eventually, so I just played 5-6 games a week, mastered the first 3 campaign missions on brutal on second try, and then started practicing 1v1 against insane AI, which I finally could beat consistently (>95%). That's when I decided to buy a mouse and SC2.
So from my experience, basic mechanics don't need huge physical speed. I used a few hotkeys, and the trackpad was a pain in the ass, but I found out that I didn't need more than decent timings, some scouting and an eye on the minimap to beat the insane AI. And since insane AI is clearly superior to bronze and most silver players (maybe even gold, it's hard to compare since they have different strengths), I can't explain how your friend can't come out of bronze with 600 games when I could reach the needed level of play within 20-30 games.
we cant explain it either, thats why i turned to the TL community for help.
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EPT
