• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 07:00
CEST 13:00
KST 20:00
  • 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
Team TLMC #5 - Finalists & Open Tournaments0[ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt2: Turbulence6Classic Games #3: Rogue vs Serral at BlizzCon9[ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt1: Ascent10Maestros of the Game: Week 1/Play-in Preview12
Community News
Weekly Cups (Sept 8-14): herO & MaxPax split cups3WardiTV TL Team Map Contest #5 Tournaments1SC4ALL $6,000 Open LAN in Philadelphia7Weekly Cups (Sept 1-7): MaxPax rebounds & Clem saga continues29LiuLi Cup - September 2025 Tournaments3
StarCraft 2
General
Team Liquid Map Contest #21 - Presented by Monster Energy #1: Maru - Greatest Players of All Time Weekly Cups (Sept 8-14): herO & MaxPax split cups SpeCial on The Tasteless Podcast Team TLMC #5 - Finalists & Open Tournaments
Tourneys
Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament WardiTV TL Team Map Contest #5 Tournaments Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series SC4ALL $6,000 Open LAN in Philadelphia
Strategy
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 491 Night Drive Mutation # 490 Masters of Midnight Mutation # 489 Bannable Offense Mutation # 488 What Goes Around
Brood War
General
[ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt2: Turbulence Diplomacy, Cosmonarchy Edition BW General Discussion BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ ASL20 General Discussion
Tourneys
[ASL20] Ro16 Group D [Megathread] Daily Proleagues SC4ALL $1,500 Open Bracket LAN [ASL20] Ro16 Group C
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Muta micro map competition Fighting Spirit mining rates [G] Mineral Boosting
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Path of Exile General RTS Discussion Thread Nintendo Switch Thread Borderlands 3
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion LiquidDota to reintegrate into TL.net
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Canadian Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread The Big Programming Thread
Fan Clubs
The Happy Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Linksys AE2500 USB WIFI keeps disconnecting Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread High temperatures on bridge(s)
TL Community
BarCraft in Tokyo Japan for ASL Season5 Final The Automated Ban List
Blogs
The Personality of a Spender…
TrAiDoS
A very expensive lesson on ma…
Garnet
hello world
radishsoup
Lemme tell you a thing o…
JoinTheRain
RTS Design in Hypercoven
a11
Evil Gacha Games and the…
ffswowsucks
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1537 users

Practice: The importance of reps

Blogs > Chamenas
Post a Reply
Chamenas
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
96 Posts
December 15 2011 03:46 GMT
#1
Introduction
Did you think I was gone??

You won't get rid of me that easily! Ha.

I admit I haven't been keeping up with this blog or my goal as much as I should have. I could make a million excuses as to why, but, the fact is that I simply haven't done it and I need to. I'm certainly not going to reach Master's by not playing Starcraft II. Though, admittedly, that would be a curious accomplishment.

So, while life has been bugging me in other directions, I still find that the drive to finally improve in Starcraft 2 remains and, tonight, I finally got back to doing something fundamental to improvement in anything: practice. If there was one thing drilled into me from years of band it was that practice was one of the most important aspects of a good performance. It didn't matter if something happened in "just practice", if you practiced one way, then you were going to perform that way too, unless you were lucky. Yes, there's a concept of "clutch" performance (coming from behind or doing exceptionally well when it counts even if you haven't shown such ability before), but not all of us are blessed with the ability to get away with that and we shouldn't ever bank on it. Regardless, clutch performers still tend to put in plenty of work with practice too, otherwise they wouldn't be able to perform when it counts.

By the rationale of "if you do it in practice, you will do it when it counts" as expressed by my experiences in band, one can infer that if I make a mistake in my "practice" for Starcraft II, then I'm going to do it when I need to perform as well. Enter: The Ladder. Practicing on the ladder is sort of important for my goal, because the only way I can reach Master's is by beating enough people and showing a solid enough performance on the Ladder to suggest that my skill level is equatable to some of the higher levels of play in the game. The Ladder is where I'm expected to perform, but I've been doing pretty miserable in my ladder experiences thus far. 12 wins, 19 losses. It's not the worst record ever, but my large streaks of losses have revealed a fatal flaw in my fundamental play that needs to be addressed.

The Problem
So, what's my biggest stumbling block right now? Well, aside from the fact that I get distracted easily enough that I need to focus more, my largest stumbling block seems to be multi-tasking. This isn't very shocking. Most newer players have an issue with multi-tasking, and, all through the ranks multi-tasking is probably one of the, if not the, largest thing holding players back. When someone comments on lower leagues lacking macro, control, or effective harassment play, what they're really seeing is a symptom of the root problem: lower level players just don't have the multi-tasking skills to do everything that's required in a high-level game.

Now, don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying that low-level players are only suffering from a lack of multi-tasking. Some players, especially those in Bronze and thereabouts, do make mistakes that stem from a lack of knowledge of concepts such as macro. They let their minerals and gas climb up without any inkling as to how they could spend those resources. They attack-move with their armies, not understanding that with even just a little maneuvering and positioning their units can become so much more effective.

But, from where I stand, at the Gold level, I understand these basic concepts, and I suspect that the players around me do as well. So, when a player at my level misses a pylon, delays a probe, or doesn't build a building quite fast enough, it's not necessarily from a lack of understanding as much as it's a problem of trying to do multiple things at once. By Gold level we understand that we not only need to follow a tight order of timings on things like buildings and attacks, we know we must also scout. However, there's a couple of road blocks here:
1) Timings: We know what they are, but don't necessarily know them. As a result, we lack good reference points upon which to compare and improve our play. This will be important later.
2) Scouting: In order to scout effectively, one must put some focus on it. You'll want to see what buildings are going up while they're building, which can only happen if you click on it. You'll want to count things like workers, etc... and evade attacking units trying to keep you out. All of this energy spent on scouting is often diverted from the home base, which means that pylons can be missed, probes delayed, building timings go off, etc...

So, if a player at my skill-level can but improve their ability to Multi-task, one would reason that their macro, unit control, scouting and other necessities would also improve.

The Solution: Practice practice practice
I struggled for awhile trying to figure out how to improve my multi-tasking. I worried that maybe I simply wasn't physically capable, but, that didn't make any sense, I play guitar and my fingers move plenty fast when I'm really ripping out a riff. Then I wondered if maybe I didn't have the proper mindset, maybe I just couldn't focus on multiple thoughts and execute like others. But I've shown time and time again that I can juggle a number of things mentally, allowing myself to be aware of my surroundings while simultaneously conquering various tasks.

So, to my knowledge, my inability to multi-task wasn't from a lack of potential, but, if not that, then what was it? If I couldn't make excuses for why I wasn't up to par, then what could I do to improve? The answer sort of struck me quite suddenly from an unrelated thought: I had to make my builds second nature. One of the most frequent bits of advice I've heard is that, when you're starting out, you should pick one build order for each matchup and practice with it. Though one will want access to a number of build orders at higher levels, the ability to focus on one build order helps one get basic things like timings down so that the fundamentals are built upon before one gets into the tricky business of modifying and adjusting those timings just slightly, or choosing different paths in their opening.

I took this bit of advice and followed it, but I didn't understand it as fully as I should have. By practicing with one build (or one build for each matchup) one can effectively work on getting the build so tight that it becomes almost second nature, you begin to work it by reflex rather than conscious thought. Therein lies the key to multi-tasking. If I can get routine tasks down without focusing on them, my thought, attention and actions can be placed elsewhere. I can scout more effectively, which will allow me to adjust my builds more efficiently. If I'm building on reflex, I can afford that extra ounce of unit control which results in a Stalker staying alive or not taking "life" damage while I initiate pressure.

Current Task
So, my current task is to take a build order for each race and go through the reps, practicing them again and again until I've got the build order down on muscle memory. Once I'm at that point I can focus on scouting, transitions, and other useful bits of gameplay which can make a difference in the game. My hypothesis is that with this approach of intense practice on a few basic abilities that I'll see a substantial increase in the solidity of my play.

Wish me luck!

***
Keyboard Warrior
Profile Joined December 2011
United States1178 Posts
December 15 2011 04:50 GMT
#2
Looks like a good goal and attitude.
Good Luck then
Not your regular Keyboard Warrior ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Dhalphir
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
Australia1305 Posts
December 15 2011 07:59 GMT
#3
Essentially you touched on one of the core concepts of SC2 - When you watch a pro player streaming and they seem to be able to think about and focus on ten things at once - that is not what is actually happening. What they are actually doing is thinking about two things at once, and the other eight are muscle memory by this point. I don't have to think about pressing 5+E every 17 seconds to make a probe - I just do it.

Improving your multitasking is as easy (and as difficult) as practising until the things you do every game - probes, pylons, production - are automatic.
Supporting TypeII Gaming - www.typeii.net - TypeReaL, TypePhoeNix, TypeSuN, TypeDBS!!
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
2v2
11:00
TLMC $500 2v2 Open Cup
Rex54
WardiTV42
LiquipediaDiscussion
Afreeca Starleague
10:00
Ro16 Group D
Light vs Speed
Larva vs Soma
Afreeca ASL 15361
sctven
Liquipedia
Sparkling Tuna Cup
10:00
Weekly #106
NightMare vs TBD
TBD vs Nicoract
CranKy Ducklings130
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
ProTech64
Rex 54
trigger 31
StarCraft: Brood War
Calm 10503
GuemChi 6007
Flash 5390
Rain 3574
Bisu 3493
Horang2 1241
BeSt 1151
Hyuk 825
Mini 713
EffOrt 708
[ Show more ]
firebathero 434
Pusan 377
ZerO 361
Zeus 302
Hyun 292
Soulkey 139
Mind 100
Dewaltoss 81
Rush 79
Backho 59
Killer 54
JYJ49
Liquid`Ret 49
soO 43
Aegong 37
sorry 29
Sharp 23
Yoon 19
Free 17
Sacsri 16
HiyA 14
SilentControl 13
Bale 11
Hm[arnc] 6
Dota 2
singsing2650
BananaSlamJamma251
XcaliburYe180
Dendi61
febbydoto23
League of Legends
JimRising 372
Counter-Strike
olofmeister1781
x6flipin436
shoxiejesuss404
allub204
Other Games
DeMusliM405
Pyrionflax286
crisheroes269
B2W.Neo195
NeuroSwarm58
Trikslyr27
Organizations
StarCraft: Brood War
UltimateBattle 259
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 12 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• WagamamaTV297
League of Legends
• Stunt1030
Upcoming Events
OSC
2h
PiGosaur Monday
13h
LiuLi Cup
1d
RSL Revival
1d 23h
Maru vs Reynor
Cure vs TriGGeR
The PondCast
2 days
RSL Revival
2 days
Zoun vs Classic
Korean StarCraft League
3 days
BSL Open LAN 2025 - War…
3 days
RSL Revival
3 days
BSL Open LAN 2025 - War…
4 days
[ Show More ]
RSL Revival
4 days
Online Event
5 days
Wardi Open
6 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2025-09-10
Chzzk MurlocKing SC1 vs SC2 Cup #2
HCC Europe

Ongoing

BSL 20 Team Wars
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 3
BSL 21 Points
ASL Season 20
CSL 2025 AUTUMN (S18)
LASL Season 20
RSL Revival: Season 2
Maestros of the Game
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1

Upcoming

2025 Chongqing Offline CUP
BSL World Championship of Poland 2025
IPSL Winter 2025-26
BSL Season 21
SC4ALL: Brood War
BSL 21 Team A
Stellar Fest
SC4ALL: StarCraft II
EC S1
ESL Impact League Season 8
SL Budapest Major 2025
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
MESA Nomadic Masters Fall
Thunderpick World Champ.
CS Asia Championships 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
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 © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.