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Blazinghand
United States25561 Posts
On forums, especially better organized ones like these, we try to contextualize what we say by noting our skill levels, or at least, what leagues we are in. When a Terran player tells you TvP is broken because of a specific Protoss cheese, your response is (and should be) very different depending on whether they're a rank 30 GM player or a rank 30 Silver player. Most people gladly provide their ranking information to help provide an idea of where they're coming from. When I post in the Sc2 Strategy forum, I tend to begin by saying that I'm a Diamond league Terran-- if someone decides they only want advice from Masters+ players (a very reasonable decision, given the range of skill in Diamond league) they can skip right over my post only spending a few seconds on the first sentence.
In this respect, I am like many posters. However, there is a notable group of posters who, defying all reasonable expectation, begin their post with a sentence describing their league and proceed to describe absolutely nothing at all. Here are some examples, just from what I've seen today:
I'm a high diamond/low masters Terran I'm a gold/plat zerg I haven't actually played the game, but my brother is in diamond league...
Okay, that last one I made up. But, look at the first one. How are you high diamond SLASH low masters? You're either in Diamond League or you're in Master League; there's no gray area here, no matter how much you wish it to be so. Due to the way MMR / league promotion works, if you got promoted or demoted recently, you have to be pretty far into the MMR range of the league you were moved into. If you're rank 1 Diamond? Sorry, you're not "Diamond/Master's" you're "Diamond", at least for now.
This sounds a little harsh, but in reality, it's actually clarifying. Although I'd certainly love to call myself a "High Diamond / Low Master" player (even typing it here makes me feel good. "yeah," I think to myself, "I'm basically on par with the people at the bottom of master league. I might as well type that." It's a seductive little turn of phrase, and I see how once you start, you can't stop), I'm a Diamond League player, and until I get demoted or promoted, that's how I'll represent myself. It's an important distinction, I think.
 
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i haven't actually played the game, but i was c- on iccup, therefore i am a better authority on sc2 than anybody who isn't masters.
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Blazinghand
United States25561 Posts
Yeah, I know 
But maybe it'll convince someone of something. I don't even know if the general Sc2 Strat rabble even pays attention to blogs ((
I also forgot one notable "type" of waffling, where they don't' even say they're "high diamond / low master" they'll just say "I'm a Diamond/Master Terran"... I'll add that in.
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I write that because i am both diamond and masters, depending on the account. I thought that was why most people wrote it that way?
Either way it doesnt matter, he could say he was GM and you wouldnt know if it was actually true. I actually trust people who say "gold/silver" more than people who just say "i'm high masters", because anyone can say that they're high masters or GM.
But yea, i dont really mind, and in some cases people really are both bronze and silver or whatever.
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Well I only play customs but I won against a silver leaguer in a bo3 once, I can beat gold players every time with ease because they play standard, but I usually lose to people in bronze because they cheese so much. Oh, and my sister is platinum and I watch her play all the time, so I figure I'm at least high plat/low diamond.
jk, I'm sry :/
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As a high masters player I don't see this happening. Everyone has an ego. Best way to deal it it is just ignore it.
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Blazinghand
United States25561 Posts
On June 30 2011 01:49 danl9rm wrote:
Well I only play customs but I won against a silver leaguer in a bo3 once, I can beat gold players every time with ease because they play standard, but I usually lose to people in bronze because they cheese so much. Oh, and my sister is platinum and I watch her play all the time, so I figure I'm at least high plat/low diamond.
jk, I'm sry :/
I think what you're failing to take into account is that, as a guy who hangs out with a gold/platinum / diamond / master league zerg player that basically makes me a master/diamond league terran player.
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I don't see a huge problem with it. Yeah, some of it is just people exaggerating their skill, believing that they have the potential to play in a higher league but aren't for whatever reason. And yeah, that's lame.
But in some cases, it's warranted. What about that diamond guy who hasn't laddered for months, but consistently keeps pace with his masters friends in custom 1v1s? What about that guy who is in masters, but switched race and guesses he's probably playing at diamond level?
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Just assume the lower rank. Problem solved.
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As a mid-to-high-gold-ranked-but-I've-been-playing-against-some-rank-30-or-40-plat-opponents level player, I can tell you that those distinctions actually quite important. Addressing your example, it's common knowledge that there is a fundamental difference between the high-platinum-to-mid-diamond and high-diamond-to-low-masters metagames. It's almost impossible to play a true macro game at the high-plat-to-mid-diamond level, everyone there is so cheesy, but the high-diamond-to-low-masters level is a grand utopia of hour-long macro games, full of intense standoffs decided only by minute differences in unit positioning and micromanagement, a vortex of strategy unparalleled in its glory.
[/sarcasm]
But seriously, I would just do your best to ignore it, it's a way for people to tell themselves that they are better than their ladder ranking says, or that they've been improving.
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On June 30 2011 01:56 Cofo wrote:
I don't see a huge problem with it. Yeah, some of it is just people exaggerating their skill, believing that they have the potential to play in a higher league but aren't for whatever reason. And yeah, that's lame.
But in some cases, it's warranted. What about that diamond guy who hasn't laddered for months, but consistently keeps pace with his masters friends in custom 1v1s? What about that guy who is in masters, but switched race and guesses he's probably playing at diamond level?
Heh, I got a friend like that. Was like D+/C- in BW plus has played a fair amount of customs so hes pretty good. But he doesnt ladder so hes unranked this season and low platinum last season. Just to make it worse, he plays a different race in team games than 1v1s so the "most played race" thing in his profile is not really right.
Me and him play 1v1 play/obs sometimes and its always funny as shit when some masters guy dies to the seemingly offracing platinum guy! :D
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Papua New Guinea1059 Posts
People just do that to either boost their ego or they feel they're actually higher in skill than their league is showing because of playing customs etc. And it won't stop for sure.
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haha I especially love the "well I've been playing a lot of X players recently and winning ~90%, still waiting for the promotion since 5 months ago."
Really, the community wouldn't be the same without these players that aspire to be greater.
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heh, yeah I've noticed a lot of this as well... sadly it wont change just assume the lower one is their actual division and it's normally how it works. You'll never see somebody IN masters actually say "I'm high diamond/low masters" it would be incredibly silly of them. So the people who did that aren't really fooling anybody =p
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Well I'm Masters on my main Protoss account and Diamond on my secondary one. What now?
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On June 30 2011 02:28 Snaiil wrote:
Well I'm Masters on my main Protoss account and Diamond on my secondary one. What now?
You're only as strong as your weakest account.
Sup?
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On June 30 2011 01:45 Caller wrote:
i haven't actually played the game, but i was c- on iccup, therefore i am a better authority on sc2 than anybody who isn't masters Grandmasters.
Seriously though, this bugs me too. On iccup it was acceptable since you would fluctuate between ranks pretty often if your skill happened to be lying on a border, but in sc2 it's ridiculous.
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Yeah, I imagine people feel better about themselves and think that maybe they will leave the impression that their level is a bit higher. I find it a bit pathetic...
There's also the "i'm high platinum/gold/silver" that for me falls in the same category... who give a... where on the platinum division you are? High diamond is relevant because it means you're close to Master and where you are in Master/Grandmaster is relevant because of how hard it is to further refine your play at that level. Nobody is impressed that you massed points in bronze and you are first in you division, you are still bad at the game.
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Blazinghand
United States25561 Posts
On June 30 2011 02:47 VaultDweller wrote:
Yeah, I imagine people feel better about themselves and think that maybe they will leave the impression that their level is a bit higher. I find it a bit pathetic...
There's also the "i'm high platinum/gold/silver" that for me falls in the same category... who give a... where on the platinum division you are? High diamond is relevant because it means you're close to Master and where you are in Master/Grandmaster is relevant because of how hard it is to further refine your play at that level. Nobody is impressed that you massed points in bronze and you are first in you division, you are still bad at the game.
Actually, being at the top of your bronze division might as well be a mark of shame-- you've played hundreds of games but have not improved to silver level...
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EPT
