EPTIf someone asked me which quality every StarCraft 2 player should possess, I would immediately answer resilience. Aside from everything StarCraft like watching live streams, VODs, following tournaments, playing the game and reading articles about it, I also follow sports... real, physical, actual sports. Even though I am a very wimpy geek who can’t play sports and who continue to insist that progaming is a sport, I am a fan of the NBA (Steve Nash), the NFL (New York Jets baby!) and tennis (Vamos Rafa!). One spectacle that always amazes me is when a team or an athlete goes back from a huge deficit to win the game. I’ve seen this feat so many times and one question always pops in my head all the time: “How does he/How do they do that?”
I played StarCraft 2 casually ever since it came out, and started playing the game more the past couple of weeks. Being a little bit emotional, I find myself almost throwing my mouse every time I lose. Whether losing to cheese like a cannon rush or a proxy Barracks in my base, or just getting outlasted in a 15-25 macro match, I have this urge to throw a punch to my computer monitors. My focus is not as on point going to a new game especially if I have been losing game after game. I break down and start deviating from the things I know would win me the game. My confidence decreases and I’m inclined to just cheese the next few games and it would be worse because more losses would come my way because of it. With these thoughts in my mind, I started to wonder. If I break down like this in the comforts of my own room after every defeat, how do StarCraft 2 progamers rally from a huge deficit to win their matches, especially in a stage where thousands of individuals watch?
TSL 3 Finals, it was Naniwa v Thorzain on an epic 7-game series. I was watching this live in the comforts of my room from TL.net, and never did I expect Thorzain to pull out the victory. With the memory of Naniwa tearing the open bracket and only dropping 2 games in the entire tournament to win the MLG Dallas 2011 Championship fresh from my mind, I knew Naniwa had it in the bag when he won 3 straight games after dropping the first game to Thorzain. The skill level between the two competitors looked like miles apart. But the Swede Terran chose to differ, pulling out all the stops and never allowing Naniwa to completely close out the deal as he took the TSL3 Title.
MLG Columbus 2011 opening, Idra beat MC 2-0. In an amazing turn out of events from which the Overmind and Aiur may have blessed, MC has destroyed opponent after opponent to crawl his way to a rematch with one of the top foreign Zergs in the world. The son of Aiur even taunted Idra after he took out Thorzain on his path to rematch, doing a throat-slash motion in front of him to which Idra responded by giving him his middle finger. It wasn't easy for MC though, as Moon and Naniwa blocked his path to vengeance. Obamatoss was just too much for them though, beating them 2-1 and 2-0 respectively. In what everyone expected to be a back and forth match and had a good chance to get to a 7th game, MC made it look like they were in two different worlds as he took 4 straight games from Idra to knock him out of the tournament.
I have a couple more examples of great StarCraft 2 comebacks in my head but I’m not going to waste more of your time since I can make my point with just these. The only difference between Thorzain and MC’s comebacks is probably just their mindset. Thorzain was stuck in his match-up with Naniwa and knew that he can never make a mistake or it’s all over. MC on the other hand was more than confident and had an intense desire to exercise his revenge on Idra. The reason these guys are winners is because they can stay focused. Even after they experience defeat, they can keep themselves together to pull out a good rally and take the victory. You might say that this is just a generic advice or a cliché even, but never pull yourself away from the methods you know will win you a game, no matter how long of a slump you’ve been in. Remember that StarCraft 2 is a very dynamic game, that even if you have a perfect build order or you hard-counter your opponent, you can still lose the game. Staying focused and great execution is what makes winners. Brush off the losses and be resilient and I assure you, you’ll win more games than before.
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