EPTDid 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!
