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SC2 is my first "real RTS", meaning I've played the likes of C&C, Warcraft 1-2-3, Starcraft+Broodwar etc, but only played through their singleplayer campaigns when they were released. I'm 29 years old, and I got into SC2 late. I picked up the game at release and played through the singleplayer campaign, but it wasn't until halfways through season 3 that I reinstalled the game and started playing multiplayer. I played my placement matches instantly and ofcourse ended up losing all of them, and got placed into bronze. I really had no idea what I was doing at the time, and I lost a *lot* before I started mixing in some wins.
I quickly realized I really enjoyed the game however, and started watching day9, streams, tournament vods and what have you, something a lot of my friends had already been doing for some time (that was the reason I decided to try the game out again) and also found these forums. As I studied up on builds and practised them to get the timings better I improved a lot, and quickly rose from bottom of bronze to silver. In silver I got to the top of my group quickly, and then s3 was over. During the lock my MMR rose to where I was playing 90% against platinum players, and at this point I started getting ladderfright slightly for the first time - because I now didn't want to lose my #1 spot in my division before s3 was over.
Season 4 got started, and I got placed into gold (was expecting platinum but atleast it was a promotion). I won my first 4-5 games against other gold players, and since then I have again only been playing vs platinums, and even some diamonds. I'm topping my league and I feel I'm playing better and better. Yet I'm finding it harder and harder to log in to play, not because I don't want to, but because my hands start shaking and I feel "cold" whenever I do so. I get nervous for no reason, since I really know it is more about learning at my level than about winning. When I was in bronze league I never felt this, it is something that started as I got more and more successful - which is why I find it even more odd.
Prior to my laddering in SC2, the only type of game I've played alot online is MMO's (from Ultima Online back in 96 to Rift recently with tons of games inbetween, mostly at high-competitive raiding level), where my experience was the complete opposite. As I was new to games, I felt "groupfright" in that I didn't want to join pugs (pickup-groups) because I felt worried about not contributing enough or messing up. As I got better, I had no problems venturing outside guild/friend-groups into playing with randoms. But in SC2, I've gone from having no problems whatsoever with making myself look like a fool during my initial laddering in bronze to this point where I play maybe 2-3 games a day, sometimes more, sometimes less, simply because I get too nervous even if I win them all.
I assume I'm not the only one that has felt like this, and if you have, do you have any tips other than just "man up and play anyway"?
Sorry for any grammatical/spelling errors, it's 7am and english is not my first language. 
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Yeah I stopped playing all together because of it. I rather watch the pros play their game over me trying to emulate and get as good as they are. You could be fearing the inevitable plateau that many people hit. Just keep using the ladder as a practice tool and not worry about rank. Reinforce playing X amount of games per day and focus on improving certain aspects of your play and you'll eventually get over it.
There is a good guide on liquipedia: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Dealing_with_anxiety
Gl with the anxiety and don't let it get the best of you. I personally wear a hoody like HuK and it keeps me warm when the adrenaline kicks in.
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I think laddering on iccup is much more worst than the one's in sc2 ladder , because everytime I get an opponent join in my game I am guessing is this a C rank guy smurfing as a D ? That's already one thing that made me frighten of laddering in iccup as a D- protoss previously terran because I can't TvT , I decided to make a switch and with that . Anxiety does happen to me a lot of times mostly when I don't know what is my opponent is doing , what trickery and planning is he trying to kill me with. But than I guess in order to be a good starcraft player all these has to been confronted and deal with there is no other choice.
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Thanks alot for that link Demonace, actually managed to miss that one before! Should prove helpful methinks
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My opinion:
Your problem is in your assessment that you have become nervous due to becoming better; I believe this is untrue. Being that Gold/Platinum is the middle of the road, with Bronze/Silver being lower and Diamond/Master/Grandmaster being higher, I believe you are anxious now because you know enough to know you don't know what you need to know.
In an MMO, you learn your class/role in a party and there isn't much else to trouble you. You quickly run out of 'unknowns' to worry about (what will I do in this situation? what if I mess up because I don't know how to deal with x?) With SC2, you have lots of different things which can potentially be unknown (what build is he going to use, what build should I use, should I attack now, what army composition should I have, what properly counters this, what is best on this map, etc.).
So, in Bronze, you didn't know anything, which also meant you didn't know about all the different evil possibilties of things you might not know how to respond to. Now you have improved and reached Gold, you have learned just how many possibilities of messing up there are, and it makes you anxious because you don't feel you have the knowledge to reliably win. Playing more and experiencing these situations, and subsequently learning to overcome them, should take care of the problem on its own, so try to just keep joining new games no matter how anxious it feels.
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Been stuck in Plat for ages, but Gold is difficult. I got the worst ladder fear in gold, and it's not so bad now. You are just starting to understand the game, and I completely agree with Beagle23 above. I think it's difficult if you try to emulate pro players - I often make the mistake of thinking the minor advantages/disadvantages are "huge" like they are in pro games, and my knowledge of timings etc isn't good enough to capitalise on such small advantages as killing a scouting stalker or two, or forcing a few extra lings. I notice the difference between playing against Terran (my race) and P/Z, as in TvT I know more about what's annoying, what someone might be thinking.
I am scruffeh#866 if you want to play some custom games to improve your confidence on the ladder. I'm on EU, which I guess you are too
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Beagle23: I believe you are right, I get more anxious because I know I don't know enough - very well put. Never actually considered it that way before however and I feel this puts thing in another perspective, and together with some of the tips from the link on dealing with anxiety I think this should help me quite a bit.
I also agree about what you say about MMOs, while there's always minor things that can push you those few extra % above other players even in such games, there is a LOT less to learn when compared to SC2.
scruffeh: Yes, I am indeed on EU aswell, will add you later on. I'm Vond#247.
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I had this exact problem back when I played Go online (chinese board game). My way to get rid of it was to get a smurf to get back that feeling that meh I don't care it's not my main account I can just farm the ladder without any fear of my actual results. After a while I just got used to laddering and I didn't fear to play on my main again.
The problem on SC2 is that it's harder to get a smurf so if you can't get one my best advice is : do not care about your stats because anyone between bronze to high master has 50% winrate anyway and if you get below that ratio don't worry you'll be matched against weaker opponent and destroy them to earn back your points !
Go smash dat "PLAY" button bro !
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Everyone seems to get ladderfright out of nowhere at some point. It happened to me shortly before my promotion to masters. I knew I was playing a lot better opponents when I started getting matched against Masters players, and because I really wanted the promotion I started getting nervous before games. Even to the point where I wouldn't play when I wanted because I didn't feel like I was in good shape right then.
In the end I got promoted but still felt that ladder fright because I didn't want to lose my rank in my division or get demoted to Diamond again (was still low masters), so I went out and bought another account. The thought behind this was that I could ladder on my main account up until a point where I would get nervous and not want to play, then switch to the other account and ladder on that one until I got higher ranked than on my main account. When I was higher rank there, my main accounts rank didn't matter, so I could start playing there until that rank got higher and so on.
After a while I just realized that rank doesn't matter at all, except when it comes to showing off to friends. Just play to have fun and improve, not to win. This will make your ladder experience a lot more enjoyable. See every loss as a win because you learned something, instead of a game that will bring your rank down.
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Snaiil I definitely know what you mean by wanting to play but "not feeling in shape", I have that daily, sadly. And yes, I think SOME of my anxiety (not all) comes from the fact that I know I'm close to getting promotion in that I play top-platinum players mixed with a few diamonds if I get on a winning streak. Anyway I just played 4 games before ASUS Stars Invite started and went 1-3 without feeling all too bad about it (won the last one so ended good atleast), and while I was anxious through all games it felt a little bit better than it has the past week or two.
About getting a 2nd account, it is something I've been considering. Maybe I should look into getting a NA account so I can convince myself the money is a little better spent compared to getting a 2nd EU account. Playing to have fun and improve rather than to win is what I try to convince myself to do, and I think a 2nd account to use for that reason while too nervous to play on my main might help with keeping that up.
Again, thanks everyone for the advice given here, appreciated!
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Took the advice and got a 2nd account, so now got one for EU and one for NA. Went 5-0 in my placement matches and got placed into platinum, so already higher than what I am on EU on my "main account", which actually feels quite good since that makes playing on EU feel a bit better than previously.
Funny thing though, hadn't met a single terran on EU for over a week... on NA I've played 5 terrans in a row.
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EPT
