EPThttp://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=189601
Basically I talk about my experiences of playing SC2 so and so on and what made me improving was the mindset of "I suck, so I better try to play better" and that my race-hopping allowed me to see the multiple sides of the game from different angles. Although I never played at Masters level with any of three races, at the moment I feel like I'm getting close to a promotion to Diamond, and that means I'm just one step away from Masters league. And this time, I believe I can do it.
There are some things that have improved tremendously over past month that makes me think in this way. If you check that blog post above, one thing you'll notice is me complaining about TvZ. I used to lose to just about anyone, no matter how worse they were than me. But, I didn't know how to make it right. There is one turning point for me to understand that:
Boxer v. Sen in TSL3. That match opened my eyes. That match showed me how to beat a Zerg. Denying or pressuring a third when you can is the best way to do that. That game showed the importance of spreading marines at tank contains and in general. That game showed me that you can push with 3 Tanks, 25 marines and wreak havoc. That game showed me that I don't have to turtle!
It took a while for it to stuck in with me though. After I noticed that I kind of knew what to do, I noticed something: I didn't have the execution fr it. But I thought "Well, time will fix that, I should just try to imitate what the pros do."
After a while, I noticed other reasons on why I lost every TvZ: Engagements and Openings. While going through Youtube videos, I noticed this 1 rax 2 fact. blue flame helion into expand build. There was something great about this: Helions allowed for map control+harrassment, and I could expand behind that. Even better, This allowed me to make tanks quickly when I wanted, which opens up the way to Marine/Tank. As I followed this logic, wins started to happen. But, there was another thing that I needed to improve: How to engage
In past, when I sieged my tanks near a Zerg's third, I never cleared creep tumors. This, I noticed, helps a ton. Another thing was that you don't need to box every marine to attack a hatch. I noticed that if I spread my marines around the tanks to protect them from mutas (and banelings) I could just stim 8-10 marines to attack the hatch and retreat when ling/bling come. This was such a subtle detail and something that seems so unimportant, but it makes a world's difference. If you box all marines and attack move, mutas pick the tanks, and it gets really hard to trade efficiently with Zerg. Not so much with everything well spread.
I noticed that what allowed for my improvement past month wasn't big huge details, but small ones, like stimming a lone marine to check for expansions. This isn't huge when compared to the whole Starcraft 2 gameplay, but what it really means is that "This is a really cheap and easy alternative to a scan when the way is not obstructed." These are some details that I have never thought important before. But as I watch tourneys and streams, I noticed some of these things that really allowed the players to gain big advantage. This allowed me to see their importance.
At the moment, I am finally getting matched to players from diamond, which means the results also indicate that I've been improving a lot. Before the ladder reset, I had something like 15 loss streak and did not care about it and felt really unhappy. But lately, I felt like some switch turned on and allowed me to understand the game. Interesting part is that, most of this happened as I watched the streams and tournaments instead of playing, since I felt really desperate. But anyway, thanks for reading this far, and I hope this will help you on your way to improvement.
