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I'm tired of being terribronze.
I consider myself a casual gamer, in that I don't really have aspirations of playing professionally at any point. I don't want the game to become a job. And as envious as I am of the likes of Day[9] and TotalBiscuit who've managed to make gaming the central focus of their lives without the fun getting sucked out of actually playing said games, I do not have the financial freedom or liberty from obligations to make that drastic a career change. I'm pushing it as it is trying to find enough time to write in the space between seconds every day.
So why do I care about the arbitrary ranking I have in a online strategy game?
I guess it comes down to a measure of pride. Not the most noble of intentions, but there you have it. I fancy myself a bit of a smarty-pants. I got teased about it a lot in school. I was never good at physical activities, sports or even dancing, save for choreographed bits on-stage. I did all right in fencing, tennis and judo in college but it's been a long time since then and my skills are rusty as hell. My brain, though? Sharp as ever. At least I'd like to think so.
Gaming's a place where your physical prowess means nothing. It's all about what's going on upstairs. Strategy games are one of the ultimate expressions of this, and if it's happening in real time? Even better. You need not only the capacity to plan and execute complex tactics but the timing and presence of mind to do so quickly and under pressure. It takes discipline and tenacity.
That's the big, overarching thought, at least. I'm also not fond of losing to cheese and I'd like to think it happens less often in higher leagues.
The mere act of playing more often seems to help. Just a few days after the opening of the season and I'm already maintaining a position in the top 8. Granted, it's among 100 players as terribronze as myself, but it's better than nothing.
Protoss continue to be my biggest stumbling block. Even at Bronze level many Protoss players seem to pump out Stalkers a lot more quickly than I can produce Marauders. While my timing is improving, with initial pushes happening closer to 7 minutes than 8, it still seems to be not quite fast enough to keep up with Protoss. I'm also struggling with tech switches in the mid and late game. It could be because in TvP I opt for Vikings first instead of building additional 'rax and going Ghost. I may try switching that around.
TvZ remains my strongest matchup, and my TvT is improving. Those matches still lean towards the long side of things, but aiming for an air-based mid and late game rather than engaging in dull tank duels seems to help. As for TvZ, I worry that my current success in that matchup is due more to the mechanics of the race at this low level of play than anything I'm doing right, and getting into higher levels will see me getting swarmed a lot more often until I can shave my timing down even further.
Even so, I seem to be winning more than I'm losing. I just have to keep it up. Because at the very least, it's keeping my brain in shape. And I don't even have to pay a monthly fee to do it.
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Don't let something like a ladder ranking bring you down. I have a friend who stopped playing SC2 a while ago because he was tired of being rank 1 bronze. He enjoyed the game, but stopped playing because he was frustrated. His friends were all masters and he was upset because he wasn't. That's not the purpose of playing the game and enabling yourself to think strategically and analytically. May you walk on warm sands.
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United Kingdom20301 Posts
I know you are probably tired of hearing, but it is best to just focus on macro and mechanics. When a friend wanted me to get him some wins in gold, i went 12-0 with 15 nexus and not a single game was close, simply because at sub-masters people are generally not spending their money well or hitting dangerous timings in the correct way. If you post some replays i could help you a bit with that and im sure others would too 
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That is such a great phrase, "May you walk on warm sands".
The nature of ladder is such that no one is really satisfied with where they are. Everyone wants to move up. If you don't care about ladder and just want to play games, you can always try customs.
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i know what you are saying i think gamers like you and me for sc2 have this problem - we like to think of ourselves as "strategic" and "smarty" but the fact is, especially in bronze/silver/gold, a lot of ladder success is about mechanics/basic physical skills and not about higher-order thinking at all.
its like the gap between having a huge intellectual knowledge of wagner's ring cycle and all the themes and characters and plots etc etc; and being able to sing Wotan. Or whatever. They are related but they are not the same thing.
So if you want to get out of lower leagues, forget the thinking part. It's misleading. It's not about thinking, its about drilling your hands and fingers.
my 2c
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On December 28 2011 22:00 chocopan wrote:
its about drilling your hands and fingers.
Agree.
Something that I've started doing, which I feel help my mechanics, is this:
Before each session, I do warmup. I have my hotkey setup with queens some heotkeys, hatcheries on some hotkey, army on some hotkey, etc. Warmup is a game where i play alone, and I will spend all game going though my macro-cycle:
1) select all larvae.
2) look at recourses and supply
3) build OLs, drone and army accordingly.
4) go through queens and inject if needed.
5) press rally point screen hotkey and add units to army, and send out OLs
6) Go to army hotkey and give a command to the army.
I dont even try to do it super-extra fast, but just at a pace that I'm comfortable with, so that I dont miss click much. I dont even care if I hit the injects with good timing or if I do the build well or anything. I just make sure to go through the cycle over and over again for muscle memory. I do this until i reach 200/200 which makes it about 10 (real) minutes warmup which is reasonable imo.
So my advice is to set up a cycle like that (i dont know, maybe something like 1) ccs, build scvs, 2) look at supply and build depots if needed. 3) go to rax, facts and starport and build stuff. 4) land mules 5) go to rally point and pick up units 6) go to army and issue a command) and spend some time before each session going through it. I hope that will help you! May you walk on warm sand.
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I started reading a recommendation from Day[9] on http://www.twitch.tv/day9tv recently and I'll pass it right onto you.
The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin.
I'm really getting into Chapter 3 at this point and it is absolutely stretching my mind with the way I approach the game. Give it a read and remember "Opening vs. Endgame."
(From a fellow Bronzie.)
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If you're in bronze it's also very likely (pretty much 100%) that your decision making is horrible. Not that you aren't smart or aren't strategic, just you are likely basing your decisions on assumptions or an incomplete understanding of the way things work. So instead of spending your time trying to make decisions just use someone else's and try to learn why they made those decisions by using it game after game and seeing why it works.
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sometimes strategic thinking really kills you. it doesn't matter that hes doing this and doing that. you just got to man up and go for it. If you think you have a chance that you can break that seige line then go try and break the seige line. Once you make mistakes like that you will eventually realize what is possible is far greater than what you think is possible. probably the worst advice ever but its my viewpoint as a masters player. Sometimes you gotta man up and go for gold. also even though you think your mechanics are great they aren't. Macroing as a player is not just about spending money. Imo macroing perfectly means that the only reason you should ever lose is because of a bo loss. which then means your bo is wrong.
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Remember that although Starcraft is a (mostly) cerebral game, not much time is allowed for pondering things in-game. The best way to approach this fact is to have a solid plan that extends all the way to the end of the game before hitting the ladder button. This means picking a build order for each race (one each should be fine for now), reading up on the build's timings, methods of scouting, reactions and transitions. This is a lot to learn and retain in the heat of things, so don't worry if you make mistakes. Remember to watch your replays, this is where the real thinking happens. Find your mistakes, compare your play to your favorite pros and continue to practice. Mechanics are big, so focus on fixing these kinds of errors early. Your execution will improve in time. Like in the sports you mentioned having played, muscle memory can only be gained through practice (ok some will say if you imagine a perfect backhand over and over it will come, but why not just get on the court?) Keep having fun and enjoy your progress, you'll be out of bronze in no time
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EPT
