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Less Proficient Gamer #2 Outsiders, APM and Ladder

Blogs > cluedo
Post a Reply
cluedo
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
United Kingdom25 Posts
April 07 2011 21:38 GMT
#1
Or #2. I’m not sure, anyway:

Evening all,

The Girlfriend is not amused by the fact I play video games at all. Odd. She actually sent one of my friends a text saying ‘Do you know how it feels to find out your boyfriend is a pro gamer from someone else?’ In all honesty I found this exceptionally amusing, but it also shows just how badly ESports are recognised by anyone who doesn’t play games. I swim a lot and play in a Water Polo team; without a doubt I am more successful in that than I am in SC. But there is no way she would describe me as a ‘professional water polo player,’ that would be utterly ridiculous. So why is it that ProGamers are devalued so much, even by a generation who have grown up with games and to some extent play them themselves? I would find it rather insulting, as someone who is exceptionally good and passionate in what they do, to be compared to someone like me.

Question: How do you all think Gaming, as a sport will be recognised widely by the world in general. Obviously in Korea it’s a little different, as they seem to have wholeheartedly accepted it, but here in the UK at any rate it is scoffed at. Personally, should I make it clear that is something I enjoy doing, and be proud of it. At the moment it’s sort of seen as a dirty habit, sneaking off to do it any time I can while no one is watching. How do I get past that?

So today I was watching a replay, and I hit Control-M to check out the pretty APM graphics. It was, as far as I remember, an MLG game between InControl and SeleCT. The thing that then confused me, as a nooby, was their constant, literally constant, massive APM. I realise at the start of the game they are hammering the worker key, but when SeleCT moved out to attack with a force of around four marauders and two marines, his APM was well over 300, peaking at 480. Seeing how exceptionally good these players were I thought I would try and replicate this gameplay, moving around really fast, spamming the keys to try and get stuff done as quickly as possible. What quickly became apparent, for me however was that I wasn’t playing any better, if anything I was purely clouding my thought process and missing things that I should be noticing.

Question: What do you all think about the APM necessary to play quickly? Mine is appallingly slow, and it’s just highlighted for me the enormous difference in skill level that is otherwise more difficult to quantify. I noticed also a range in the Pro players speeds, some playing at 200, others at 300. What difference does that 100apm make? Oh, and how fast do you play?

The Day in Starcraft Land:
Played a BO3 against a RL friend TvT and beat him 2-0. That kinda made me happy but then I returned to the ladder. Oh Dear Lord

Played 3 Lost 2. I played the first game against the zerg and beat him fast with hellion marine, which is apparently ‘cheese’ in Bronze League. Really? Then I player two games against Protoss’; the first of which I got two gated and died fast, the second my failed first push and a misclick led to me being outmacroed in the first 10 mins by a 4 gate. Then I ragequit the game. This is something I’ve been having trouble with. A good player with 4 gate makes those stalkers so damn fast, what do I do against that at this low level of speed and experience?

Anyway. Hope you all enjoy spewing your opinions across the internets, I certainly do. Post back what you'd like to see, and...answer my questions!

Until next time...


EsX_Raptor
Profile Blog Joined February 2008
United States2802 Posts
April 07 2011 21:44 GMT
#2
If you're finding high APM is clouding your thought line, then that simply means you're clicking and tapping faster than you're thinking. Good players have high APM because they know exactly what they have to do and try to get it done as quickly as possible.
Navane
Profile Blog Joined February 2007
Netherlands2751 Posts
April 07 2011 21:52 GMT
#3
Yeap, those high APM guys also have high Toughts per minute. They think so much faster, they forget so much fewer. They do several things at once, rotating the actions needed for each task. Instead of waiting 0.5 second for the next thing in the task, they switch to another task to do that inbetween, and so forth. So it's not that the APM is needed per see, you need to think quick and think a lot. And putting these thoughts into actions requires high APM.
cluedo
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
United Kingdom25 Posts
April 07 2011 22:00 GMT
#4
Yeah I guess that just shows how good they really are, they are thinking like 5 times faster than your average noob. Actually probably more like 10.

I was wondering how some pro's get away with having a lower APM than normal, while still winning. Would that indicate some sort of increased efficiency on their part?
arb
Profile Blog Joined April 2008
Noobville17921 Posts
April 07 2011 22:18 GMT
#5
On April 08 2011 07:00 cluedo wrote:
Yeah I guess that just shows how good they really are, they are thinking like 5 times faster than your average noob. Actually probably more like 10.

I was wondering how some pro's get away with having a lower APM than normal, while still winning. Would that indicate some sort of increased efficiency on their part?

What it indicates is the same thing Idra and many other pros said, this isnt broodwar, you dont need to be mechanically amazing to be good at SC2, you dont need 300 apm because theres less to do and half of its automated(shift building auto mine, macro even)
Artillery spawned from the forges of Hell
cluedo
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
United Kingdom25 Posts
April 07 2011 22:24 GMT
#6
Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Marksman
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
Malaysia523 Posts
April 07 2011 23:20 GMT
#7

Answer to Q1
+ Show Spoiler +
Question: How do you all think Gaming, as a sport will be recognised widely by the world in general. Obviously in Korea it’s a little different, as they seem to have wholeheartedly accepted it, but here in the UK at any rate it is scoffed at. Personally, should I make it clear that is something I enjoy doing, and be proud of it. At the moment it’s sort of seen as a dirty habit, sneaking off to do it any time I can while no one is watching. How do I get past that?

It will be recognized in the world eventually. Its a matter of when. That when depends on a good number of factors such as country culture, infrastructure, dedication of community, money etc etc.

Well, you can make it not look like a dirty habit by just showing to people that you enjoy it. Its a different form of entertainment. So, yeah be proud of playing. PC games allows faster development of skills that would otherwise take a good amount of time for others (Keyboard proficiency and etc).


Answer to Q2
+ Show Spoiler +
Question: What do you all think about the APM necessary to play quickly? Mine is appallingly slow, and it’s just highlighted for me the enormous difference in skill level that is otherwise more difficult to quantify. I noticed also a range in the Pro players speeds, some playing at 200, others at 300. What difference does that 100apm make? Oh, and how fast do you play?

APM necessary to play to my opinion is pretty high but not as high as Brood war. Range is perhaps 250 assuming to the smallest details of control and that you fully master your hotkeys, shift techniques and MBS. I play at 240 - 270 APM but I have done games at 360 APM in multitask trainers and vs AI
I live by the LoL
qdenser
Profile Joined September 2010
Canada133 Posts
April 07 2011 23:42 GMT
#8
video games are accepted, some people are just a little slow to catch on
BW is still out there and a lots of people still watch it. SC2 is a different game and different people. Please go back to BW if you think sc2 is not suited for you - Dustin Browder
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