EPTThere are many things that I NEED to change about how I play SC2. The problem is I like many others face the idea of becoming a worse player in order to improve. This personally doesn't bother me. What does bother me is how drastic these changes are and that I NEED to change them ALL AT THE SAME TIME.
What do I need to change on?
Builds
Sure I can pull 14 different builds out of the air for each matchup, but to be honest the variety of different builds I'm doing feels like it immediately makes it 100x harder to make an improvement in another part of my game. Learning is a lot like performing an experiment. If I want to improve work on one aspect of my game at a time. If I want to perform an experiment only change 1 variable at a time.
To be honest I'd like to think I have 1 solid build for each match-up that I can pull out and know all the in's and outs. The truth is. I don't. And that needs to be fixed before I can even begin to think about my mechanics.
Conclusion: Learn 1 SOLID build for each matchup. Once I can pound it out repeatedly flawlessly at a moments notice while UNDER PRESSURE then I can learn another one. My build in each game SHOULD be something that calms my nerves. Instead of something that adds to them.
Mechanics
Macro - I have "decent" macro. It is the ONE thing that got me into masters season 1 and 2 playing random. But it is not perfect. I still have supply blocks, idle production, qued up production, high minerals no gas. High gas no minerals. I might say to myself... work on your macro geez... but to be honest this stems from the lack of knowing the ins and outs of a single build. If I don't do a build cleanly I will have high gas or high minerals. I won't know when to build supply depots and suddenly a little bit of indecision and guess work turns otherwise semi-solid macro into a 2k trust fund or 4 units qued up in each barracks.
Conclusion: I believe my macro WILL get better just by having a better understanding of a build. AND performing it over and over again. I can only make changes and improvements to my macro AFTER I know a solid build completely and still have macro issues. Then my mistakes/weaknesses should become blindingly apparent. (though not necessarily easy to fix)
Micro - I personally think I have horrible mouse speed and accuracy. This is probably a good indication that i need to work on it. I can't get units to do what you want them to do. If I can't click where I need to when I need to.
Conclusion: Avoid boxing as much as possible. Only box if it cannot be done by clicking or using control groups. (ex ctrl click to select a bunch of units) In the end it will be worth it. Do micro wars with people that are willing to grind it out. Do independent mouse accuracy and speed exercises.
Hotkeys
I absolutely need to get to know these things. That 1a2a3a thing that everyone keeps talking about is a hell of a lot harder than it looks. I have never used 1a2a3a EVER before and to be honest trying to box and control everything in a battle is near impossible. This is the ceiling for me in TvP. I simply cannot control ghost, M & M, and vikings well enough all at once without hotkeys to win games in the matchup consistently. I also need to use location hotkeys (F1, F2 etc...) I DO macro with hotkeys and I consider this to be the only "semi-natural" part of sc2 mechanics for me currently.
F1 = Main
F2 = Natural
F3 = 3rd
F4 = Production Rally
F5 = 4th
F6 = 5th etc
1 = Raven
2 = Ghost
3 = Tank/viking
4 = MMM (not sure if and how I want to split MMM into hotkeys)
5 = CC's
6 = Rax
7 = Factory
8 = Starport
9 = Depots/Armories
0 = Ebays
Conclusion: Just Do IT. It may take longer to control units. Add units to hotkeys. Move from location to location. For Now. In time it will become so much faster and SO worth it. Decision making rather than just execution will be your skill ceiling.
Eyes
Lazy Eyes: I don't look exactly where I am clicking. I look in the general area where I'm clicking. This is extremely problematic and eventually it makes tasks take much much longer to complete than they should. It's like any ball and racket (or bat) sport. The likely hood of you hitting the ball AND hitting it where you want to is so much higher when you "keep your eye on the ball" or "keep your head down". This is extremely crucial in any sport from bowling to table tennis. Starcraft is no exception.
Minimap, Money, and Supply: Ask yourself. Do you know how much money you have right now? Do you know how much free supply you have? Do you know what you can see on the minimap? The answer for me is almost always no. This means I'm not looking at the most crucial parts of the screen nearly enough.
Conclusion: I see no way to learn how to do this than to mentally force myself to do this. Batting practice doesn't help you see the ball better. It gives you more opportunities to force yourself to see the ball better. Eventually there may be a day when this is an unconscious activity. Today, my friend, is not that day. Looking at these 3 things will indicate to myself obvious areas where i can improve my play.
Nerves and Tilt
I would like to think that I don't have tilt or nerves... but that isn't the case. You DO tilt and you have BAD nerves. Do I play worse because of nerves? or is it because i actually pay attention to my mistakes and find out that i can't do anything about them in a tournament? Does part of my brain just turn off? I really really hate losing, especially when you out played someone and lose because your forget how to macro. I can handle stomach nerves, but honestly cold sweats every single competitive game I play? I'm supposed to play with my hands. It's kind of hard if my body moves all the blood away from my hands and head to my core.
Conclusion: This is the most confusing part. I will say I do not have enough confidence and that this contributes greatly to how I react before and during pressure games. So I ask you. How can i build confidence? And ways to deal with unhealthy nerves? How to turn unhealthy nerves into positive?
What do to do?
There are many other things I need to improve on, but these are the ones I need to change today. So how do I do it? Where?
If I were making a change to one aspect of my play I could see practicing them on the ladder, but there is no way that I'm going to be able to practice this in a competitive setting. And successfully completely change all my habits.
My only idea I have is to create custom games on lower speeds and simply pound out hundreds of games with myself until I get them down. Then crank up the speed a bit at a time etc. etc.
I am going to do this. However I would like the journey to be a little less lonely and hopefully sap some motivation from some other players.
So here is what I request.
1. Any and all suggestions on how i could train (dragon ball z references automatically get bonus points) that would either be more effective or slightly less solitary. Any suggestions for any of the sections above?
2. A support group of some kind (or team/clan). If there are any other players who Seriously want to make overhauls or improvements to how they play, or want to donate some time to help "coach" or practice with players who are dedicated to improving. Please contact me. Hopefully we can set something up and help each other out.
On a side note is there any way I can get a stream up even though I haven't been a member for 30 days?
