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Hello TL!
Many people have urged me to make some other form of update to my progress as a player.
I don't think just updating my thread will work.
If you're not familar I started the threadBronze to Masters: In my dreams?
I have gotten so much freaking AWESOME feedback!
Let me just say one thing. I used to think I knew what I was doing in terms of learning SC2. I watched a lot of dailies, I wasn't too afraid of laddering. I'd attempt to copy pro players buiilds and so forth.
Most of the advice I've gotten from the thread is very similar to what I have already been doing.
Is this a bad thing? Not at all! All it means is that I was working toward the right path on my own!
There were major fundamental flaws caused by my own lack of knowledge and understanding of not only the game, but the nature of training itself!
This blog will serve as a medium for me to get feedback, support, and I'll do my best to give back to the community.
I'll be posting replays here and I will do my darnedest to analysis them. I'll try to keep this up till I hit a master level of play 
So to begin, the biggest thing I learned in the frist two weeks of my journey: Lose games.
You're saying "wtf" right? Well you have to realize that SC2 is a game designed for you to lose. If it were the other way, you would never play harder and harder opponents.
So simply realizing this, I was able to get into the right mindset.
Sure you can four gate your way into a higher league, but eventually the other players will beat you. YOu must learn to play CORRECTLY
Here are the 5 steps to playing correctly
1) Making probes and pylons (non-stop, if you miss one cycle of probes on your nexus you lose, and you haven't mastered this skill. If all your army is dead, and your probes are dying to a drop, did you still make those last two probes on time? Yes? then you win!)
2)Making the right buildings. (only once you're probe timings are perfect can you build the correct buildings. Most builds on Liquidpedia and such are based on perfect probe and pylons creations. These are the most optimal times and most economic times to build things. After you can make probes and pylons you must see when you have just the right amount money to make a building without interfering with step 1)
3)Making units. This third step revolves around making the proper units out of the buildings that you made in step two. It must become second nature to always check that you're making probes non stop, and units non stop. This isn't making the right units, this is just making units out of all buildings at all times. If you can't make units, you have too many buildings, if you have too much money you need a buildings earlier in step 2
4)Making units Compositions. This is where you would work on scouting and figuring out what units you need to have a good army to face the enemy. This step revolves around making the right decisions all while never failing steps 1-3. Did you see the infestors by decide not to get HT? Then you fail this step.
5)Microing your units. The last step is learning to use the units that you have composed pefectly. micro is the least important aspect in the whole game Micro is the least important part of the game for lower level players. If your economy and production fail because of your micro there is no point. Yes I killed 30 probes with two dt, but you still have 10 probes more than me... Am I really ahead?
So I am currently on step one. My life relvolves around Probes and Pylons. I will not micro if it interfers with probe production, I will cancel units if I run out of money. I will not miss a pylon.
I will post some replays of this asap
Take care guys!
-Chris
*reason for edit: Mirco is for sure important, but not for lower level players. Thanks to those that pointed this out *
 
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On July 26 2011 01:36 seefernando wrote:
5)Microing your units. The last step is learning to use the units that you have composed pefectly. micro is the least important aspect in the whole game. If your economy and production fail because of your micro there is no point. Yes I killed 30 probes with two dt, but you still have 10 probes more than me... Am I really ahead?
So I am currently on step one. My life relvolves around Probes and Pylons. I will not micro if it interfers with probe production, I will cancel units if I run out of money. I will not miss a pylon.
-Chris
In my opinion this part is HIGHLY inaccurate. Micro is not the "least important aspect." The whole idea of assigning relative importance to micro vs. macro is a waste of time.
If you want to address micro and macro in your list of "5 steps to playing correctly," they should be under one section titled "Attention Management" or something along those lines. Playing correctly means finding the proper balance between micro and macro. It means knowing when and how to allocate your focus so that it produces the best results.
In other words, there are times where you may sacrifice your macro if you have identified a good opportunity to "utilize micromanagement" lol. This happens even at the professional level.
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On July 26 2011 02:22 Nairul wrote:Show nested quote +On July 26 2011 01:36 seefernando wrote:
5)Microing your units. The last step is learning to use the units that you have composed pefectly. micro is the least important aspect in the whole game. If your economy and production fail because of your micro there is no point. Yes I killed 30 probes with two dt, but you still have 10 probes more than me... Am I really ahead?
So I am currently on step one. My life relvolves around Probes and Pylons. I will not micro if it interfers with probe production, I will cancel units if I run out of money. I will not miss a pylon.
-Chris In my opinion this part is HIGHLY inaccurate. Micro is not the "least important aspect." The whole idea of assigning relative importance to micro vs. macro is a waste of time. If you want to address micro and macro in your list of "5 steps to playing correctly," they should be under one section titled "Attention Management" or something along those lines. Playing correctly means finding the proper balance between micro and macro. It means knowing when and how to allocate your focus so that it produces the best results. In other words, there are times where you may sacrifice your macro if you have identified a good opportunity to "utilize micromanagement" lol. This happens even at the professional level.
I strongly disagree with this statement. This is what you say when you're theorycrafting or when you're talking about why StarCraft is a difficult game. This is what you say when you're considering the top levels of play. At levels of play that I am sure contain nearly the entirety of master league (it does contain everything up through C- on ICCUP at least), if someone attempts to ``balance'' their attention they will spend long stretches of time microing and fall behind on macro because of it. While it might be inaccurate to say that micro is the least important aspect of the game, microing is the last aspect that you should focus on. I can say for certain that if you are in gold league or below, you will lose to anyone who has some semblance macro mechanics, nearly regardless of his army control and army composition. Whether this is true for platinum and diamond I cannot say for certain, but my guess is that someone with good micro and army composition will get stomped by someone with good macro and reasonable army composition.
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From my prospective, I don't understand the game quite enough yet.
I don't have the game experience to declare "a good opportunity"
This is mainly due to only playing bronze level players. Whom do not play correctly. Thus sensing a "good opportunity" would not be the same opportunity I'd face in masters.
Of course if my probe is still in his base at mid game and I can make a pylon to warp in DT's and win I'll do it. But not at the expense of the first 3 steps. Also would that "good opportunity" happen in masters? Highly doubt it. This only happened because the low level player didn't scout his base properly. Does that make sense?
The idea is that once I have a very solid foundation set up with the first 4 steps I can move on to understanding micro.
The idea of assigning relative importance to micro vs. macro is to emphasize that Micro should not distract you from macro.
Example: Lings in my probe line
If I try to micro and kill the lings I may forget a pylon, I may forget a warp-in and most importantly I might forget to make probes. At this point the opponent has not only killed my probes but also ruined my foundation. If he had to sacrifice macro in order to get those lings/micro those lings we are now on a even playing field.
This would create a bad habit of saying "oh my macro slipped, its ok because I was being harassed." Bad macro is equivalent in seriousness to harassment. Except you are harassing yourself.
Is my understanding of the Micro<Macro balance correct?
Thank you for the input though, and please do continue to call me out if I'm wrong. The worse thing could be for me to think I'm right when I'm completely wrong.
I will do my best to defend what I believe but hey, if i'm wrong that good too! Its a learning experience
take care
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On July 26 2011 03:24 Hamster1800 wrote:Show nested quote +On July 26 2011 02:22 Nairul wrote:On July 26 2011 01:36 seefernando wrote:
5)Microing your units. The last step is learning to use the units that you have composed pefectly. micro is the least important aspect in the whole game. If your economy and production fail because of your micro there is no point. Yes I killed 30 probes with two dt, but you still have 10 probes more than me... Am I really ahead?
So I am currently on step one. My life relvolves around Probes and Pylons. I will not micro if it interfers with probe production, I will cancel units if I run out of money. I will not miss a pylon.
-Chris In my opinion this part is HIGHLY inaccurate. Micro is not the "least important aspect." The whole idea of assigning relative importance to micro vs. macro is a waste of time. If you want to address micro and macro in your list of "5 steps to playing correctly," they should be under one section titled "Attention Management" or something along those lines. Playing correctly means finding the proper balance between micro and macro. It means knowing when and how to allocate your focus so that it produces the best results. In other words, there are times where you may sacrifice your macro if you have identified a good opportunity to "utilize micromanagement" lol. This happens even at the professional level. I strongly disagree with this statement. This is what you say when you're theorycrafting or when you're talking about why StarCraft is a difficult game. This is what you say when you're considering the top levels of play. At levels of play that I am sure contain nearly the entirety of master league (it does contain everything up through C- on ICCUP at least), if someone attempts to ``balance'' their attention they will spend long stretches of time microing and fall behind on macro because of it. While it might be inaccurate to say that micro is the least important aspect of the game, microing is the last aspect that you should focus on. I can say for certain that if you are in gold league or below, you will lose to anyone who has some semblance macro mechanics, nearly regardless of his army control and army composition. Whether this is true for platinum and diamond I cannot say for certain, but my guess is that someone with good micro and army composition will get stomped by someone with good macro and reasonable army composition.
My experience coaching Gold-level friends is that they don't know when to be looking at their army and when macro.
Countless times I've seen them accidentally engage with only half their army and not notice. Their army gets demolished and GG.
On the flipside I've seen Gold players spend too much time just watching battles to see the pretty colors and explosions when they should be macroing.
My point is that a Gold-player's micro doesn't need to be good. But it shouldn't be non-existent. Newer players need to consciously think about their immediate focus. What is most important for me right now... focusing on the battle, or doing something else?
Another note:
The whole idea behind proper army composition "assumes" the micro factor. If army compositions were decided by 1a mechanics, SC2 would look very, very different. A lesson in basic micro is a lesson in army compositions.
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EPT
