• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 21:31
CET 03:31
KST 11:31
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
ByuL: The Forgotten Master of ZvT29Behind the Blue - Team Liquid History Book19Clem wins HomeStory Cup 289HomeStory Cup 28 - Info & Preview13Rongyi Cup S3 - Preview & Info8
Community News
Team Liquid Map Contest - Preparation Notice6Weekly Cups (Feb 23-Mar 1): herO doubles, 2v2 bonanza1Weekly Cups (Feb 16-22): MaxPax doubles0Weekly Cups (Feb 9-15): herO doubles up2ACS replaced by "ASL Season Open" - Starts 21/0258
StarCraft 2
General
Vitality disbanding their sc2-team How do you think the 5.0.15 balance patch (Oct 2025) for StarCraft II has affected the game? Team Liquid Map Contest - Preparation Notice ByuL: The Forgotten Master of ZvT Nexon's StarCraft game could be FPS, led by UMS maker
Tourneys
PIG STY FESTIVAL 7.0! (19 Feb - 1 Mar) RSL Season 4 announced for March-April Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament $5,000 WardiTV Winter Championship 2026 Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond)
Strategy
Custom Maps
Publishing has been re-enabled! [Feb 24th 2026] Map Editor closed ?
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 515 Together Forever Mutation # 514 Ulnar New Year Mutation # 513 Attrition Warfare
Brood War
General
BSL 22 Map Contest — Submissions OPEN to March 10 battle.net problems Are you ready for ASL 21? Hype VIDEO BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Flash's ASL S21 & Future Plans Announcement
Tourneys
ASL Season 21 Qualifiers March 7-8 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues BWCL Season 64 Announcement [BSL22] Open Qualifier #1 - Sunday 21:00 CET
Strategy
Soma's 9 hatch build from ASL Game 2 Fighting Spirit mining rates Simple Questions, Simple Answers Zealot bombing is no longer popular?
Other Games
General Games
No Man's Sky (PS4 and PC) Path of Exile PC Games Sales Thread Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion The Story of Wings Gaming
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas Vanilla Mini Mafia TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Mexico's Drug War Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine YouTube Thread
Fan Clubs
The IdrA Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
Formula 1 Discussion 2024 - 2026 Football Thread TL MMA Pick'em Pool 2013
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Laptop capable of using Photoshop Lightroom?
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
FS++
Kraekkling
Shocked by a laser…
Spydermine0240
Gaming-Related Deaths
TrAiDoS
ONE GREAT AMERICAN MARINE…
XenOsky
Unintentional protectionism…
Uldridge
ASL S21 English Commentary…
namkraft
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1707 users

Getting Rusty: Need WD-40

Blogs > Whole
Post a Reply
Whole
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States6046 Posts
August 12 2011 04:38 GMT
#1
Over the summer, I played a shit load of Starcraft. I started off really bad because I was in Diamond even though I haven't played in ages. So I nuked my rank down to Platnium, and I finally started playing people my level. I went into the game with a philosophy of taking every loss as a chance to improve and taking every win with dancing and cheering to make the game fun and keep me motivated. I was doing excellent. I had times where I would get 5 win streaks and my loss streaks would never exceed 3.

Then school came along. School is no big deal. I actually have a very easy semester, and I want to capitalize on it. But when I have work and school, I have literally 3 hours of free time assuming 6 hours of sleep. So usually, I use the free time on homework and going to bed early. Then I have random bullshit like being forced to go to religion class every other Sunday, mowing lawns, doing chores, ect. ect. On the up side, since my semester is so easy (I doubt it'll be next semester >_>), every day I have off is literally a day to myself (excluding school). The point I'm trying to get at is that my free time is inconsistent. Sometimes I have work three days in a row, sometimes I would have off 3 days in a row, sometimes work is every other day, ect.

Well due to this, I've been trying to squeeze SC2 into every ounce of free time I have. But recently, I've been kind of busy, so the 2 hours (1 of my 3 hours of time is spent for homework/facebooking/watching SC2 if anything) a night thing is kind of detrimental to my ladder rank because I would lose a few games because I'm warming up, then win back my ladder points because I'm finally "in the zone", then it'd be time to go to sleep. And it'd just feel like I wasted my time because all of my loses were from stupid mistakes. (miss a scouting timing, misplace an overlord to lose to a drop, ect.)

So I'd like to see if TL has any solutions to my [b]two major problems[b]. I need some kind of way to warm up without losing ladder points. 2v2's would seem good, but the strategies are unorthodox, sometimes completely cheesy, and I don't want to bother MonsieurGrimm everyday just to 2v2. 1v1 Practice Partners would seem good, but I don't have any, and I'll need enough to always have one on. However, the benefits outside of warming up would be extremely useful. I guess I'll go try to find some tomorrow. Lol, answering my own problem in my own help me blog. If anyone has any other ideas for my warming up problem, or would like to be my practice partner, just say so in the comments I suppose.

Now my other problem is if I should play during all of my free time or just in a few long sessions. Well I think the fewer and longer session solution is the obvious answer, but what if I get screwed one week and can't do a long session. My extended periods of free time are so random, that I might just not have enough free days to play SC2 to at least maintain my skill. My goal is to at least very slowly improve and maintain my skill from the summer. I could use holidays and stuff to improve, so as long as I have a plan to keep the skill I have when I'm busy. Would it even be possible to do such a thing since the nature of SC2 requires so much time to be even decent at? Should I lower my expectations when laddering? I'm really lost on this. I would like an answer before I would have to stop playing SC2 because I would be declining in skill instead of improving.

Anyway, thanks in advance for all of those who might help me get out of this dilemma. If anything is unclear in my blog, just ask. I wrote it in a stream of conscience style, and edited the format to ask questions instead of ranting. I'll answer tomorrow because I'm off to sleep!

*
Lmui
Profile Joined November 2010
Canada6223 Posts
August 12 2011 04:42 GMT
#2
1v1 metalopolis observer mode. It's inconsistent in terms of player quality but generally, you get to practice mechanics/builds and that's what really matters on ladder in plat/diamond.
fezvez
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
France3021 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-08-12 17:04:00
August 12 2011 17:02 GMT
#3
Honestly, I feel that there's no such thing as warming. Rather, there's a creeping fear of losing that you fight of by convincing yourself that ,yes, your level hasn't dropped. (this is indeed what "warming" is for)

The important point is that you shouldn't fear losing ladder points. Try to get this out of your head. If need be, lose 20 games in a row (you can still practice rather than disconnecting right at the beginning. Mass raven is possible option, storm drops another one, mass queen a third)

It's simply ladder fear.

+ Show Spoiler +
Though if you strictly can't do it, go on the channels "Looking for a custom game". At diamond level, there are always a bunch of players available)
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Replay Cast
00:00
LiuLi Cup Grand Finals Playoff
CranKy Ducklings117
LiquipediaDiscussion
Patches Events
23:00
Open cup capped at 5400 MMR
PiGStarcraft428
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
WinterStarcraft465
PiGStarcraft428
RuFF_SC2 156
ProTech118
SpeCial 96
ROOTCatZ 31
StarCraft: Brood War
Bisu 7083
Sea 5548
NaDa 8
Dota 2
monkeys_forever387
Super Smash Bros
hungrybox488
Mew2King46
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor153
Other Games
summit1g9631
JimRising 524
C9.Mang0288
ViBE57
Chillindude15
Organizations
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 15 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Hupsaiya 207
• davetesta67
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• RayReign 2
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Doublelift6263
Other Games
• Scarra864
Upcoming Events
Sparkling Tuna Cup
7h 30m
RSL Revival
7h 30m
Classic vs TriGGeR
Cure vs Cham
WardiTV Winter Champion…
9h 30m
OSC
10h
BSL
17h 30m
Replay Cast
21h 30m
Replay Cast
1d 6h
Monday Night Weeklies
1d 14h
OSC
1d 21h
Replay Cast
3 days
[ Show More ]
The PondCast
4 days
Replay Cast
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
CranKy Ducklings
6 days
Replay Cast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

ASL Season 21: Qualifier #1
PiG Sty Festival 7.0
Underdog Cup #3

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 1
Jeongseon Sooper Cup
Spring Cup 2026
ASL Season 21: Qualifier #2
RSL Revival: Season 4
WardiTV Winter 2026
Nations Cup 2026
ESL Pro League S23 Stage 1&2
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual

Upcoming

ASL Season 21
Acropolis #4 - TS6
Acropolis #4
IPSL Spring 2026
CSLAN 4
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Bellum Gens Elite Stara Zagora 2026
NationLESS Cup
CS Asia Championships 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
CCT Season 3 Global Finals
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League S23 Finals
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.