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Note: The following details my personal experience with SC2 and views regarding Bronze and its players resulting from that. Any thoughts people may have on the what I have to say are welcome. I would be very interested to hear what other people think on this subject 
A New World
It surprises me to think back only a few months to a point where Starcraft as a concept was little more than a footnote in the gaming history books to me. I never played Starcraft 1, or Brood War, and I'd shunned Starcraft 2 since its launch due to Activision's charging more for it than for all other PC games over here in the UK - which I essentially viewed as price fixing and refused to support at the time of the game's launch. So Starcraft had passed me by almost completely, until one Saturday evening earlier this year when I was passed a link to a 'gaming tournament' - which I later learned was TLS3 in the Round of 16 - and, assumedly for lack of anything better to do, I decided it wouldn't hurt to watch some of it.
So I spent a couple of hours watching that evening and was left fairly intrigued. I wouldn't say that there was an instant moment of "WOW! What have I been missing???" - far from it - but I was certainly intrigued enough to ask for a link the next time the tournament happened to be on, which happened to be the next night.
From there, things began to gradually snowball. I don't think I missed a game from the remainder of TSL3, and have followed many of the tournaments that have taken place since that I have been able to (MLGs, Dreamhack, HSC, etc). Whilst as a gamer I'd obviously been aware of eSports as a concept before TSL3, it had never really been anything more than exactly that - a concept. It was quite an eye opener to see how well people played a game in order to game professionally, and it was sometimes mindboggling to hear the amount of money that was thrown around at tournaments. It was, in effect, somewhat of a new world for me that I was thoroughly enjoying exploring - and still am.
Branching Beyond The Streams
About three or four months ago though (when I was still incredibly green at all things TL), I decided that I'd like to actually play the game I was spending so much of my time watching, and so after checking to ensure that the price was what I'd consider acceptable (still refused to pay over the odds) I bought a copy of Starcraft 2 and signed up for a Battle.NET account - once I'd read some synopses of the plots of SC1/BW that is, so that I'd feel comfortable landing in the universe.
I'm very much a story person in games, so when I started I didn't really have any plans to do anything other than play Single Player. I played through the SP campaign and really enjoyed it, to the point where I did a quick replay on Hard to get all the achievements that I could, though looking back now I'm not entirely sure how I managed to beat the game on Hard. Marine/Medic/Firebat was the order of the day generally, because that was the first thing I found that worked. And of course, if something is working there's no need to do anything differently, right? Or such was my train of thought.
Finally though, having had enough of Raynor and his gang for the time being, I decided to give MP a go. I'm not sure how I thought I'd do really, but I know I was somewhat pleased when I got sorted into Bronze having chosen Protoss as my race (1 win, 4 losses in my qualifiers) until I logged out and found out that Bronze was the lowest rung. That brought me down to earth a little bit. But no big deal, I figured. Most of my league were sat on 0 points, so I gave myself the aim of reaching Silver as quickly as possible.
The Bottom Rung
Of course, it rarely turns out to be that easy as I'm sure many of you know - but it did start off well. I set myself a target of playing 3 games a day after I finished work in the evenings in hope that I'd be able to take advantage of those lingering on 0 points. For the first few days I won 1 of my 3 games a day if that, but I didn't get downhearted. I was still learning exactly what all the Protoss units did and how to obtain those magical abilities that the pros used (best not mention the fact that it took me about a week to get Blink in a game despite going Stalker heavy most matches).
So I was still hovering around 0 points, and beginning to be introduced to the bane of Bronze - the rush. It took me quite a while to learn that the best response to this tactic was actually to block your ramp rather than try and get units out quicker - as terrible as that may sound. But most of the time that didn't help much either - my wall was carefully erected, my Zealot in place in the gap, a few Stalkers behind it (at the time I was loath to spend what I considered an obscene amount of gas for Sentries), but whether it was mass Marine, mass Roach or mass Stalker, the Zealot continually fell very quickly allowing my main to be sacked.
I racked my brain a lot as to what I could do to solve the problem, getting very frustrated as I did, and finally came up with the idea of a complete wall in that I could then eventually circumnavigate - either with Blink or via Air. Whilst this proved better defensively, leaving me able to hold my main long enough to get into the mid-game, it left me with two key problems:
1) Being walled into my base so completely left me basically unable to take (and defend) an expansion of any kind.
2) By the time I'd built an army I was happy to move out with, I couldn't get the vast majority of them out of the base - despite my Blink-based idea.
Proxy expansions from my scouting Probe proved a fairly easy and generally effective solution to the first issue, but the second stumped me for a while. Unless I started destroying the production facilities I'd used to wall myself in with, which I didn't want to do, I didn't really have any way to get the vast majority of any army outside of my base. Eventually, for one reason or another, it hit me that Air would get around this issue entirely.
I knew that the only time that Bronze players tended to scout beyond confirming positions was if they were about to cannon rush you, so I determined that I could easily get away with going Air All In if I was careful with my rally points and constructed a facade at the ramp. So it was that I began the infamous mass Voidray strategy using proxy expansions to fund it, building just enough Zealots and Stalkers behind my ramp-wall to make sure that anyone poking up my ramp would get the impression that I was favouring ground units. And it worked quite well for a time too.
I managed to get myself up to 7th in my league with that strategy, which I was hugely proud of, before I started to meet opponents who weren't quite as susceptible to my cunning plan. Whether it was rushing regardless of my walled off ramp before I had enough Voidrays to attack, shutting down my proxy expansions ensuring that I couldn't keep up production and thus leaving me vulnerable for a large window, or just a higher level of skill, I started to get shut down and ended up losing many games. I didn't win a game for about two weeks, which left me frustrated to the point where I stopped playing for a while and stuck to watching tournaments. I probably shouldn't have taken it so hard looking back, but it was quite depressing knowing that my target of Silver was so close thanks to what I thought was a winning strategy only to have it pulled away again as I slipped back down the league table thanks to my badly exposed flaws.
Addressing The Bronze Question
Since quitting at that time, I've gone back to MP again and have worked my way back up to 13th in a 'better' fashion. I don't Voidray all in any more, and am instead trying to apply more conventional strategy (including using Sentries to defend my ramp rather than just production facilities!). I still hold deep flaws in my play though which are proving very hard to correct, ranging from a general lack of scouting (the same problem many in Bronze have to be fair) to the fact that I tend to panic and all in when my strategies fail rather than transitioning into something else. My tendency to favour proxy expansions is also often just as much of a hindrance as it is a help.
So I would like to think that I'm slowly improving, but I suppose many of you are reading this wondering why I've written this out (and I'm wondering why some of you may have spent time reading it ). The answer is that I think that sometimes too much is analysed and suggested that relates to the higher leagues, and not enough thought is given to those of us languishing in Bronze. I think it's sometimes easy for those in Gold, Masters, etc, to look down and say "yes, well all that ever happens in Bronze is rushing", and maybe they're right. From my experience that IS pretty much all that happens in Bronze, but over time it's become increasingly apparent to me that whilst many can adapt to that and move beyond it relatively easily, for some of us it's a real challenge.
There's a lot of help out there, that's true. From my own personal experience though, whether it be watching how the pros use units in tournaments and trying to take on board the concepts (the power of Charge being something I'm working to incorporate atm), reading the TL SC2 Strategy forum, or watching the Day9 Daily, a lot of that help tends to be aimed higher - at situations beyond Bronze where the game operates in a somewhat more normal manner. "Scout more" is something I commonly see, for example, but as I mentioned earlier people in Bronze rarely do it at all. Why? At least in my case, it's because I struggle greatly to divide my attention. If I'm scouting with my probe, I'm falling behind in constructing my production facilities. That's a problem that's...not the easiest to solve - especially when all anyone does is rush, meaning that if you're too slow you end up dead.
I'm not saying that Bronze players are beyond help, and I'm not saying that TL as a whole doesn't cater to them. That's just not the case - else I'd still be stuck running Voidray all-ins and getting frustrated. But I do feel that Bronze is almost a unique experience compared to everything above it and players can't really be advised in the same way as a result. Whilst the advice may be good and suitable for higher leagues/players, a lot of it doesn't apply in quite the same way due to the circumstances around Bronze as a league and the way the game is played there (some of which comes down to the limitations of the players - including myself).
My aim with this blog was really to try and put that suggestion out there, and possibly try and shed some light on the question of why Bronze is the way it is. Bronze is often fairly characterised as the place where little skill reigns, but there are reasons behind that which are rarely debated in the manner that they perhaps should be. The question I feel we need to ask ourselves is why Bronze is the way it is, and why its players are the way they are. From my experience I think there's a deeper answer than simply 'lack of skill', or at the very least there are contribuating factors that almost act as a barrier to players developing their skills.
Of course, the question following on from that is how players can break through that barrier and improve. Bad habits are hard to break, and investing more time in watching better players, reading advice, or simply practicing is no guarantee as to success. I've 'read up' enough on transitioning to know that I should do it, but when you've just seen your army brutalised emotions can overtake common sense far too easily.
Are such things limited to Bronze? No. I think everyone suffers through them every now and again. But I think that they are perhaps more prevalent in Bronze players, who have for whatever reason been unable to move past them - those that aren't content to simply rush every game that is. Am I being unrealistic because Bronze is all I have known? What do people think? Is Bronze a special case as I believe it to be? Thoughts are welcome
 
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Ive had a couple of friends that were in bronze league and they have had similar remarks to yours and i think the problem with most bronze leaguers is a combination of both mental and physical mistakes. Here are some things that i would do i was you.
1. Dont sweat the scouting to much. Beyond looking for some sort of proxy or 6 pool any other information you get will probally be useless. Bronze leaguers do things in very un optimal ways and you probally just get extremely confused by what you see since you watch a lot of pro streams.
2. Just do a safe build. A friend of mine was in bronze league and his build would be diffrent every time because he would be so afraid of what he scouted and end up getting rolled because he would build so much diffrent stuff. I would do some sort of 3 gate robo with a fast observer. Youll have detection and a good amount of units.
3. I know you probally have heard it a lot and probally hate to hear it but...
M A C R O
i will watch replays of low league players and they always have questions like how do i deal with this or how do i hold this and when you check their resources they will have well over 1000/1000 banked. I cant say for sure if that macro will hold some of the rushs you were talking about but i do know that better macro wont hurt.
4. Play the game. When i first started out chilling in my gold league i would play like 2 or 3 games with my 60 apm i would over analyze my replays and worry about so many diffrent things when i should have just been grinding out games. You have to play a lot to get better you need to build that base of mechanics before worrying about all the other crap. Hell you could just probally 4 gate as it will help you on building units and pylons. It seems you read a lot of guides and watch a lot of streams but for you get better you need to play better and you can only do that by playing.
Good luck
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cool writeup, i did actually manage to read and enjoy all of it
im not quite sure about the real problem bronze players have, but i know a lot of ppl that are struggling with the game on different levels of skill who oftenly ask me out to teach them. Though, im not the best coach and often times im not sure of what to address primarily when i try to help my friends (who are btw all above bronze) so to be honest i didnt have a clue about whats generally happening in bronze league until i read this. Seems to be a hard fight down there but never surrender, the game is awesome and even though you might sometimes lose motivation remember its worth it to continue! you will improve!
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This is probably the most legitimate thing written by someone in the lower leagues. I was getting sick and tired of reading stuff like "bronze players can give good strategy advice to higher leaguers too!!!!"
The reason cheese is prevalent in bronze is because people aren't experienced enough and it's just easier to execute a cheese than to learn how to defend (which requires good scouting and game sense) and macro (requiring good mechanics) at the same time.
Anyways... when I first started playing sc2, I placed in bronze. I think I might be able to relate to your experience even more, since I am a zerg player so I got cheesed every game back then.
I got to diamond league in like 2 months by just mass gaming and practicing only one build per matchup: 15 hatch vs terran, 14pool 14 gas vs zerg and protoss. Everytime I got cheesed or all in'd and lost, I would still go into the next game and use the same build, thereby forcing me to get good at defending them with macro builds. By this method, when I got to diamond league, I was in the perfect position to work only on my macro, seeing as how I was really experienced in defending early rushes.
I think it's true that a lot of advice is for higher leaguers and that they aren't so great for people in bronze. So rather than analyzing my games and looking up advice, I would just mass game until I am not getting cheesed anymore. In the process, you'll pick up micro skills and good scouting skills (both of which are necessary to block cheese).
Currently, I am a mid-high masters. I say this not to brag, but to show you that it's possible for anyone in bronze to get that far.
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From what I have seen cheese is a part of the game at all levels, but just gets even more tough to hold the higher level you get.
I think for the early game you really have to have decided before hand what your responses are going to be to whatever you scout. So after your probe puts down the 9 pylon and scouts, you would already know how you are going to defend if you see obvious cheese like 6 pool/2gate.
If i don't see a cheese and everything looks normal then i like to get a fast robo and chrono boost out an observer. In masters league this might be a bad build order, but at my level it doesn't lose me the game, and the information I get will allow me to counter exactly what my opponent is doing. Information is so important. I find low level players often want to try and get an easy win using DTs or mass air or something like that, so if you know it is coming you can prepare and get an easy win.
As long as you do this you won't lose to a build order loss and you can concentrate on making pylons and probes.
This is just my advice as a fellow low level player.
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Bronze is the way it is because most people there simply don't care about doing stuff that actually works, lol. I started playing SCII a week or so ago, got placed in bronze after I fucked PMs up horribly. However, I think my win rate there was like 90-95% and I pretty much immediately went to top 8 and was rank 1 for my last 15 or so matches. The reason? Unlike everyone else, I actually bothered learning an economical and relatively safe opening (from Liquipedia/TL Strategy Forum/pro replays) and just kept trying it over and over again. Of course I just rolled over most bronze leaguers because all they do is sit on one base, make funky unit compositions and maybe move out at 20 minute mark.. well, at that time I had twice as much shit as they did. All my losses were against people who actually learned themselves a BO, usually it was some sort of a stim push or 4gate, since I didn't really have enough experience to deal with this cheesy stuff.. but hey, I've learned that bronze leaguer's cheese is actually pretty easy to stop if you use a safe opening and now I'm pretty sure I'm a better player than these guys who'll just stay in bronze, cheesing all over the "what-is-strategy" and "why-would-i-need-2nd-base" guys but never advancing further because anyone who's not totally horrible and can learn from his mistakes, will rape them ez pz.
Anyway, that's my advice on moving out of bronze.. stop trying to be creative, get some decent, macro-oriented (so not only you win games, but you can also improve your mechanics) BOs and stick to them. Don't let their fancy (and idiotic) build orders and strategies confuse you, just play it safe and never make the same mistake twice. You might lose first few games before you learn how to adjust your BO, but after that, you'll just shit all over everyone in bronze.
Just my 0.02$. Good luck.
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On September 09 2011 21:53 Lordanubis wrote:
1).but over time it's become increasingly apparent to me that whilst many can adapt to that and move beyond it relatively easily, for some of us it's a real challenge.
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2). At least in my case, it's because I struggle greatly to divide my attention.
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3). I'm not saying that Bronze players are beyond help, and I'm not saying that TL as a whole doesn't cater to them.....But I do feel that Bronze is almost a unique experience compared to everything above it and players can't really be advised in the same way as a result.
4). Whilst the advice may be good and suitable for higher leagues/players, a lot of it doesn't apply in quite the same way due to the circumstances around Bronze as a league and the way the game is played there (some of which comes down to the limitations of the players - including myself).
Wow...really good writeup! I'll take a stab at addressing some of your concerns.
1). Players adapt to what the other player is doing through trial and error. I play zerg and used to lose to 3-5 rax marine all-ins all the time. So I started trying little adjustments. I paid close attention to scouting triggers: scouting drone sees no gas and 1-2 rax, scouting ling sees a higher marine count at the ramp, other lings and ovies stationed around the base and at xel naga towers sees if he moves out. It sounds like a lot, but once you practice it the effort takes a couple seconds and you're back to your base. You see a lot of weird strategies in bronze, but the more you play the more you add to the breadth of your experiences. This happens over time. If you're truly stumped post some replays in the strategy section!
2). Multitasking also comes with practice, but this time with your own strategy. The traditional approach is to find a style of play you enjoy, practice the hell out of it, and profit. Day9's "stealing a build order" dailies are QUITE helpful in showing you a logical way to copy and practice a strategy. While you can play your own strategies, you're better off in the long run emulating the pros (until you're way up in masters/gm).
Anyway, the more you practice your strategy the better you get. You will find that you can spare a few seconds to send off a scout and not mess up your strategy. Some people can multitask naturally from previous gaming or life experience. Others need work. Put in the effort and you won't be disappointed!
3). A lot of times I get the feeling that TL caters more to masters/gm than lower leagues. Advice like "macro and you'll hit diamond in no time" with little else flies around so much it makes you feel like no one cares. I'm sorry to pick on one of your responders (because I don't think his heart is in the wrong place) but...
On September 09 2011 23:00 Darkdeath3 wrote:
3. I know you probally have heard it a lot and probally hate to hear it but...
M A C R O
i will watch replays of low league players and they always have questions like how do i deal with this or how do i hold this and when you check their resources they will have well over 1000/1000 banked. I cant say for sure if that macro will hold some of the rushs you were talking about but i do know that better macro wont hurt.
This does almost nothing to help a lower league player. "Macro" is a loaded term. The community as a whole needs to be more specific (i.e. constantly making workers, not getting supply capped, building units before, during, and after a battle, adding unit producing structures when you have the workers to afford it, expanding, splitting your work force for optimal mining between multiple bases, etc.).
Bronze IS a unique experience. This is where you're learning HOW to play the game. This is one of the most difficult parts! Almost everyone in bronze is at this step, but just because you're not in bronze doesn't mean you know what you're doing. My BW mechanics got me into plat, but I was soon demoted to gold and stayed there for months while I learned everything you're learning. Many new players think they know what they're doing because they placed above silver, but in reality they need time to learn. I feel this is the reason we see so many posts from gold and plat players complaining about the ladder, but lacking in game knowledge wrought from experience.
4). You're right, a lot of advice on "what to do" is different just because a lot of the strategies are so strange. It's been mentioned already, but practice a "safe" strategy, preferably one stolen from a pro. The adage for BW was "the best response to nonstandard play is to play standard". SC2 doesn't have a "standard", per se, but you don't have to watch many pro replays to see similarities that will probably become a standard. Yes, you are limited, but effective and mindful practice will go a LONG way in increasing your boundaries. I've mentioned "practice" a lot. If you're looking for a square-one approach follow Day9's stealing a build routine, and in the process spend time working on one specific aspect of your play (preferably something macro-related - not missing workers and supply caps are a great place to start). We're always here when you need more help 
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Great article! i'm frustrated as well atm, playing since 3 weeks and been placed in bronze as i jumped immediately into MP with Protoss with no experience (obviously).
Now i'm always in the top 10 and find it strange that in between sessions i drop around 3-4 places, think because ppl below me play more and now the top 20 it's all in 50 points difference.
What i'm finding useful is to scout, i agree that most ppl don't and that's where your edge is! if you have decent knowledge of units you'll know if and when to switch production to counter the opponent, and if you see early expand and you have some units go for it.
Thats why almost always i try to get a robo fast and don't go for a standard 4 gate as i think leaves me vulnerable to early pressure (especially terran) and with poor scouting.
Another thing is that i now spread pylons as to give me more vision and see early attacks coming, although i always forget to watch the mini map, it's useful.
I now win almost every game and have 55% win ratio, why? CHEESE (hate it, think it's a cheap win), now i stop it most of the time, don't be afraid to throw in your workers and don't tell to yourself "my soon coming zealot will stop that cannon" won't happen.
What i find annoying is CHEESE (as mentioned), i don't think its correct and if you pay attention ppl doing that will mostly have no manners as well, coincidence?
But you know what? work on that and will be the most satisfying win, "in your face" some shout, and i mean work on that as i believe it's the only way to get out of bronze.
Still hopeful to get where i'll have some good games besides of being terrorized of cheese and chasing a last orbital command around the map for an hour...
ah, last thing i'm finding it difficult to build units whilst doing something else, especially because with warp gates you need to see where you drop units and click few times, i find it very distracting, any good idea about that?
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I'm afraid that's one of the bad point about warp gate you need to deal with.
A lot of time you staring at the battlefield won't do anything to the outcome (after all your positioning, storm, forcefield) you are free to go back to macro for a few seconds aleast.
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EPT
