EPT1. Love the community!
Pretty simple, if you're here to love the game and discuss with other people, then stay and have some coffee. If you're here to make a living out of this game, by all means stay and the best of luck to you.
However, if you're here with the intent to hinder or mess with the community then heres some advice:
Get out before you get burnt
This community is pretty forgiving if you have nice intentions but we definitely remember names and aren't afraid to say what we think.
ROOTKitty leaves ROOT
CombetEX is back...
2. Know your place
This one should be obvious, but it took me ages to learn this one myself. SC2 was my first RTS and it took me 9 months to get into Platinum. Each time I advanced I had this idea that I was amazing and getting even better and would soon be unstoppable. After getting some coaching from Pro's, practicing with a few different practice partners I've learned how big the skill gap is.
If you're a lower level player, being humble is definitely key, I found once I could scrutinize myself and look at my play and say 'God I'm fucking terrible' because of all the mistakes I would make in each game.
The best possible way to get better as a lowbie player is to watch alot of VOD's, Replays and just try and figure out tweaks.
There are plenty of really nice players at all levels, try and find people from a step above you to practice with or scab replays off, where you can see their difference in controlling, macro etc. (depending on your level I wouldn't recommend stealing build orders however).
One of many coaches who streams coaching daily for free
3. Love your posting habits
Whether you are a LR hero, an occasional lurker who posts or just generally a steady poster, love your posting. If you care even a little about what your typed, whether it was re-reading it a few times to make sure it didn't come across badly, or spellchecking the crap out of it if you are a bad speller or have English as your second language.
Its not really a case of elitism with grammar and spelling, but respect for the medium.
The heavy moderating in this forum and basically the goal of this website is to be a high-quality Forum for Starcraft lovers, if you want to post shit go somewhere else, every site has their own advantages whether its Freedom of Speech, humour/casual awesomeness (Sc2 Reddit is great for a good laugh all the time) or High-quality posting.
4. Pick your favourite's
There is so much content with Sc2 getting so big nowadays, its amazing. There is NASL and GSL pretty much daily, TSL on the weekends and IPL (which is amazing) throughout the week. These are only some of many weekly/daily tournaments alongside all of the usual seasonal tournaments like MLG, IEM and Dreamhack.
But whats more is player streams, from the entertaining like Spanishwa or Destiny, to coaching streams like iNcontroL's or Day[9]'s various shows to just the plain awesome players streams such as HuK and Idra's, where you can just sit and watch the best of the best play.
Choose your favourites, and watch them as reguarly as possible. Make a ritual out of it, like watching your weekly TV shows.
Just a few of my favourite things at the moment:
Spanishiwa's stream!
Starcrack Podcast!
State of the Game Podcast
TSL VOD Thread
5. Make friends
Lurk in the LR threads, join the teamliquid channel on Starcraft 2 or just hang out in irc! There are so many people on Tl.net alone that there are so many friends and practice partners to be found.
Its an amazing experience to be able to practice with people who have almost identical playing habits, passions/hobbies or just love of Starcraft shared by the both of you.
Its different when you're laddering and you're vs'ing somebody who has no idea of TL.net or any respect for the game
Who just cheeses, turtles or [insert annoying playstyle here] and BM's the shit out of you the whole time because he doesn't know any of the above 5 things.
This happens to me frequently and leaves a sour taste in my mouth, however if I jump in IRC and say my league, race and name LF practice it usually feels (with a few exceptions) great and I always seem to learn something from it.
Practice Partner thread
Thank you to everyone for reading, I absolutely love you all even if I'm only 500 posts in and a 1 year old poster.
If theres anything you feel I've missed, or you just want to post feedback then reply in the thread below.
