The Struggle of getting into 1v1 playing!

I guess the most basic thing even relates back to how you were raised. For example, if you had a brother close to your age with whom you competed all the time, i think you have much more comfort when going into a 1v1 sport or game. I think an expert psychologist could write like 10 blogposts on this particular topic alone, but at this point i'll just leave it at the statement, that there are some people who naturally can handle duel-situation better than others. I myself have to assign myself to latter ones it seems.

For me this is the main aspect without a doubt. It begins with:

1.1) Overcoming laziness/lethargy
If you had a rough day or something, it's so easy to convice yourself that you are too exhausted to play and rather chill out. But if you have like 3 or 4 teammates who are waiting for you and rely on you, it's much much easier to rise from the sofa and get to the practice.

1.2) Pre-game preperation and practice
When you're in a team, before you begin to play, you can discuss what you want to try to work on this time, what went bad last time and so on. If you're playing on your own, this step happens in your own head and in my case it often done rather shallow.

1.3) Communication and Motivation
This is probably what i miss most, when playing 1v1s. I loved to talk to my team while playing, motivating each other and encourage if the situations looked tough. Too often i just think in 1v1 games "nah, this is over. gg" and leave, while in teamgames i am mostly the one that goes like "come on guys, we can still do it!!!". Same thing with just strategy talk during a game. In a Quake3 CTF match we would discuss switching positions and stuff during a game all the time, in 1v1 this is just all in your own head. I also miss the plain and simple joking around while playing.

Another big thing is the emotional aspect when you play 1v1 instead of team games. This is where people might call you a "wussy", but i don't give a shit about that With emotional aspects i mean:

2.1) Dealing with nervousness/pressure
I have read many threads on TL where people state, that they are inable to play ladder, because they are too nervous. I don't have that problem too much, but i can understand what causes this tension. Its that you are going to go head-to-head with a stranger for (on average) 15minute game where, if you lose, the only one to blame is yourself. You get like a direct feedback that you are either better or worse than the other guy. In teamgames however, this feedback is distributed over all teammembers and thus is less drastic for the individual. Furthermore if you have very high expectations on yourself (e.g. "i should steamroll that dude easy") you might get even more nervous. Apparently some people are so afraid of this kind of direct feedback, that they are completely inable to ladder at all. Thank god it's not that fatal for me.

2.2) Dealing with frustration
But even when you are able to overcome the anxiety, you find yourself in the situation, where you are up against a complete stranger and for the next 15 minutes (again on average), and it totally comes down to your own ability to play this game. Every mistake you make might result in a loss. I can totally see why this can be stressful and lead to frustration. In teamgames your mates rely on your abilities also, but if you make a mistake you always have the chance that you get some backup help from your buddy that saves your ass. Its kind of similar to the direct feedback in opposite to the buffered feedback i talked about earlier. Its relieving to know that there are buddies who can jump in.

2.3) Sense of community
I haven't been on a sc2 team/clan yet, so i am lacking some knowledge here, but another big thing you don't get when you ladder by yourself is the sense of beeing part of team. I think most of the people who have played teamgames with the same people for a long period of time can confirm that sooner or later you'll get something like a family feeling. I really miss that, but then again i haven't been on a sc2 team yet.

2.4) Sharing Successes/Defeats
A huge problem for me is also the inability to share successes or defeats. I just don't like rageing all by myself when i lost because of some stupid mistake i made as well as i don't like to party by myself when i owned some dude. Sure i can tell my buddies "DUDE, i went 10-0 on the ladder today" and they will be like "ye, good job", but thats nothing compared to the feeling when you win together. I especially miss celebrating the little things. When i played Quake we would celebrate every cool shot or move, but when you play 1v1 without any observers literally no one sees it, when you pull off something wicked cool. Sure you can upload the replay and brag about it in forums, but thats just not the same. That is another thing that really bugs me with 1v1.

Last but not least there are some stratetic aspects i really miss in 1v1. With that i mean:

3.1) Combining different Characters and Strength/Weaknesses
In every team you have different personalities, different levels of skill and so on. To melt these together to a team, that then tries to achieve a common goal is something i find highly exciting. Its about distributing responsibilites, for example in CTF you need to arrange who is defense and who is offense, who takes what items and so on. All the strategic discussion happens in a dialogue, where in sc2 1on1 you think through you build orders you wanna play and then you do it.