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NOTE: I am discontinuing the Improvement Log in its current format for the following reasons:
- Felt very bothersome to write synopses on games I had lost. I felt like I was spending far less time practicing than I was writing epic tales of my ladder losses.
- Analysing every single game in inticrate detail was overkill, especially when after a while, I was too proud to realise that my problems were most definitely macro related.
- I made no attempt at even structuring practice and making it as efficient as possible.
- My access to practice partners was limited, mainly because I just posted my own details on the official thread (the seasons 2 and 3 one) that barely got updated as it was.
- University. I won't lie, my workload at the moment is off the charts.
- There was no standard on when I needed to update
What will ensue instead is "Improvement Week" a new series of posts on a weekly basis where I spend around 2 to 3 weeks total improving various parts of my play, and attempt to hit as high a league as I possibly can.on the third week which will be devoted to laddering.
Currently Gold League on EU server, teetering on the edge of dropping down to Silver. While people have in the past theorised that you can hit Master League using nothing but your ability to macro, I tend to disagree and think it requires a lot more than just macro to hit the top 2% of active players on your region.
I also think that while efficient practice can help, hereditary skill does matter to a greater extent. Hence, this will be more of an experiment to prove or disprove my point.
My weekly outline will be as follows:
- Week 1 - Macro. I will efficiently practice the execution of 3 builds, one for each matchup. This would be determined at a later date.
- Week 2 - Non-ranked practice. I will seek practice partners for this on the official TL thread but if anybody wants to practice, just respond by Week 1 and state your league and char code.
- Week 3 - Ranked practice/laddering. I will dedicate this week to playing at least 8 ladder games per day.
- (start of) Week 4 - I will enter an open tournament appropriate to my resulting league (i.e. z33k or Playhem) and see how far I can go.
Also, I will only publish a brief outline of how it went, maybe some screenshots and maybe 2 or 3 replays of results before and after the practice. The final format of the posts I cannot make guarantees on, and I will elaborate more on the details as time progresses.
I will NOT be streaming practice or ladder stints, sorry for the 1 or 2 people who may have been interested in seeing this.
Poll: Predictions: What league will I hit?Bronze (5) 36% Gold (3) 21% Platinum (3) 21% Diamond (3) 21% Silver (0) 0% Master (0) 0% Grandmaster (haha gl with that) (0) 0% 14 total votes Your vote: Predictions: What league will I hit? (Vote): Bronze
(Vote): Silver
(Vote): Gold
(Vote): Platinum
(Vote): Diamond
(Vote): Master
(Vote): Grandmaster (haha gl with that)
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I voted Diamond. There is no such thing as hereditary skill. Nobody is born with the knowledge of how to play this game. In addition, I started bronze and worked to master just watching Day[9] and reading Ver's article on "How to Improve."
Just follow those two and you should be golden 
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On November 23 2011 12:39 reikai wrote:I voted Diamond. There is no such thing as hereditary skill. Nobody is born with the knowledge of how to play this game. In addition, I started bronze and worked to master just watching Day[9] and reading Ver's article on "How to Improve." Just follow those two and you should be golden
A bit modest of you, but I think there is some sort of genetic gap.
Nothing else can explain why players like Stephano can practice significantly less than even the Korean pros yet still hold his own against them in major events. And Stephano has won IPL3 and ESWC too, hardly minor tournaments.
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On November 23 2011 13:44 Clbull wrote:Show nested quote +On November 23 2011 12:39 reikai wrote:I voted Diamond. There is no such thing as hereditary skill. Nobody is born with the knowledge of how to play this game. In addition, I started bronze and worked to master just watching Day[9] and reading Ver's article on "How to Improve." Just follow those two and you should be golden A bit modest of you, but I think there is some sort of genetic gap. Nothing else can explain why players like Stephano can practice significantly less than even the Korean pros yet still hold his own against them in major events. And Stephano has won IPL3 and ESWC too, hardly minor tournaments.
I don't think there is anything genetic about it. I think that people just say that to make them feel better that they aren't in a higher league.
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I voted Gold. This was my personal experience, playing about 15-20 hours a week:
1. Placed into Bronze
2. Bronze to Silver to Gold in 1 month
3. Gold to Plat in 1 month
4. Plat to Diamond in 2 months
5. I've been in Diamond for about 3 months now, but I am playing mostly low masters players. So I expect to be promoted in the next month or two. That would make it 4-5 months.
For me, Bronze to Gold was indeed all about macro. It didn't matter what I made as long as I made a lot of stuff. I didn't need to scout; it didn't matter what my opponent was making. Because even if it was the direct counter, I'd overwhelm with a larger amount of stuff and bigger economy. I won so many games by just massing marine or getting out a really fast banshee with cloak.
Gold to Plat was all about learning how to expand safely. At one point my TvP was abysmal at around 20% win rate because I simply could not defend against 3-4 gate pushes unless I either one-based myself, or techhed up before I expanded. After forcing myself to FE and lose a gazillion times, eventually I just kinda "got it", and overnight I went on a crazy 21-3 winning streak which promoted me to Plat.
Plat to Diamond was all about getting good at the mid-late game. I found that if I could crush the opponents 1 base push (2 in the case of Zerg) I could trust my superior macro (compared to my opponent) to win me the mid-lategame. I won most of my games here by macroing up using hidden expansions (because everyone in Plat still sucked at scouting, myself included)
Diamond to Masters is where I am right now. Its only in this last stage that I've discovered the importance of scouting. In lower leagues scouting didn't matter that much because everyone was terrible.
For example, I specifically remember losing to a really bad DT rush in Plat because it looked like I was getting 4 gated. Instead it turned out the guy was just bad at using chrono, and he wasn't getting his gas as quickly as he needed. The DTs came out 2 minutes later than they should've, but I never thought to get detection because I was certain I was facing something completely different.
But now that I'm playing masters level players, when I scout 1 gas and chrono saving on the Nexus, I instantly know a 3-4 gate push is coming my way. And when I'm talking about scouting, I'm not just talking about scouting build orders. It also applies to scouting stuff like counterattacks, drops, proxies, hidden expos, etc.
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Another thing, because you're Gold I would recommend actually narrowing things down further than 1 build per matchup. I stuck with just 1 build for all 3 matchups all the way up to low diamond and it really helped.
When you're low level, you want to be focusing on stuff like macro and mechanics. You don't want to waste time worrying about stuff like "How am I going to defend against this timing attack with this build" or "How can I stage a comeback with this build" or "How do I adapt this build when I'm under early pressure". You want to focus on whats most important, macro and mechanics. Answering those other questions is really fun, but its only useful later when you're facing better opponents.
Personally I've found that the best way to learn a new build is to first grind it out 10-15 games vs very easy AI to make it as macro as possible. And then go on the ladder and lose about 10-15 games in order to learn how to adapt it to different situations.
I think spending a week macroing vs AI and then a week with practice partners is really a waste of time at your level. That stuff that comes much later. At lower levels there is no substitute to just mass laddering.
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I'll share my experiences. I started about 6 months ago in Bronze. Played here and there, I'd say around 2 hours a week. I got promoted every 50 wins or so, hitting Diamond at around 240 wins. The lower leagues are nothing but execution, if you execute a build on time you're going to win the game. Plat/Diamond is where you actually learn to play the game, scouting is everything. You should focus on nothing but macro, which is a pain because opponents are often so bad even though you want to macro sometimes you should just go kill them.
There is nothing genetic, there's little genetics or "born with it" or "talent" in anything...you get out what you put in. I improved way faster than most people with a lot less effort because I knew the game inside out, I just didn't play it much, so all I did was work on mechanics. In my experience, Diamond is where you realise how terrible you are. I'm in Diamond now and I'm so goddamn awful it's disgusting. I can pick apart a million things wrong whereas before I felt like I was doing okay. Masters, to me, is the point where I've actually kinda learned how to play this game. For now...still horrible.
You didn't say what race you were, but as Protoss what made me good was nexus first/1gate expand every matchup. You are forced to have crisp execution and good control or you die, and it sets you up perfectly to macro and work on your mechanics when you're most surely ahead.
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EPT
