Analyzing a replay ?

On December 30 2011 16:43 CrazyF1r3f0x wrote:
Ah, well when I analyze replays I go through a process that I came up with:
1.) go over the replay on x4(try to never slow it down or pay attention to minute details, because in this stage we are only looking for large, general mistakes), pay attention to how many workers you have, how well you are spending your money, and how you move your army around. A lot of the time if you find any major mistakes here, they are the ones that likely contributed to your loss the most.
2.) The purpose of stage one is to determine if your loss was the result of bad mechanics, but mechanics are not always the issue, the second highest reason for losses is bad decision making (at least in my opinion)--go to any point in the game that you suspect contributed to your loss and look at it more closely. One of these moments could be as simple as you making a silly mistake like move commanding your mutas into a batch of marines you didn't see and losing too many. Or something more complicated (for example I lost a game because a Zerg counter attacked a base and I lost more probes then I had suspected, so my macro fell behind and I slowly lost the game from there).
3.) if you are still confused on why you lost at this point, you will need to be more thorough in your analysis. Start by scrutinizing your opening, and the first ten or so minutes of the game--then go and look at every single interaction between you and your opponent, try your best to mark down what you and your opponent had going in, and what you and your opponent had going out; and what things occurred because of that interaction (for example, in a game I did a warp prism drop against a zerg players third, and was able to force 30 lings, sadly I could have killed the hatchery but I made the mistake of fighting the Zerglings rather than focusing the hatch, which I could have killed if I did, this of course is and easy mistake to spot and rectify)
4.) if at this point you still are not sure why you lost; open Notepad and start to draft a TL strategy forum post for help--write down all of the things you spotted while doing the above steps--most of the time you may find that while writing about the match and all of the things in step 1-3, you realize your mistake and the problem in your play, thus you won't even have to post it! You'd be surprised at how effective writing down all that information and your own personal assessment can clear things up.

Hope this helps!
This is the first time I've written this process down so I hope it is clear.

On December 30 2011 16:43 CrazyF1r3f0x wrote:
Ah, well when I analyze replays I go through a process that I came up with:
1.) go over the replay on x4(try to never slow it down or pay attention to minute details, because in this stage we are only looking for large, general mistakes), pay attention to how many workers you have, how well you are spending your money, and how you move your army around. A lot of the time if you find any major mistakes here, they are the ones that likely contributed to your loss the most.
2.) The purpose of stage one is to determine if your loss was the result of bad mechanics, but mechanics are not always the issue, the second highest reason for losses is bad decision making (at least in my opinion)--go to any point in the game that you suspect contributed to your loss and look at it more closely. One of these moments could be as simple as you making a silly mistake like move commanding your mutas into a batch of marines you didn't see and losing too many. Or something more complicated (for example I lost a game because a Zerg counter attacked a base and I lost more probes then I had suspected, so my macro fell behind and I slowly lost the game from there).
3.) if you are still confused on why you lost at this point, you will need to be more thorough in your analysis. Start by scrutinizing your opening, and the first ten or so minutes of the game--then go and look at every single interaction between you and your opponent, try your best to mark down what you and your opponent had going in, and what you and your opponent had going out; and what things occurred because of that interaction (for example, in a game I did a warp prism drop against a zerg players third, and was able to force 30 lings, sadly I could have killed the hatchery but I made the mistake of fighting the Zerglings rather than focusing the hatch, which I could have killed if I did, this of course is and easy mistake to spot and rectify)
4.) if at this point you still are not sure why you lost; open Notepad and start to draft a TL strategy forum post for help--write down all of the things you spotted while doing the above steps--most of the time you may find that while writing about the match and all of the things in step 1-3, you realize your mistake and the problem in your play, thus you won't even have to post it! You'd be surprised at how effective writing down all that information and your own personal assessment can clear things up.

Hope this helps!
This is the first time I've written this process down so I hope it is clear.

On December 31 2011 00:25 Humanfails wrote:
It also helps (and is confidence boosting) to watch replays where you won. Seeing what you did wrong is only half the story. Scientists attempt to recreate from successes, not failures. See what works in a replay, and analyze why. You can't get to the truth with only one side of the story. If you accidentally succeed, you've got a shortcut ticket to success in that replay. If you fail, then look at what not to do, and then fail again , and repeat ad nauseum, you get to the "right" solution a lot slower. Always check your successes. They'll tell you whats good.

As an additional note. New players should take replay saves from the moment they start bronze to the moment they hit master/GM. The effect of seeing yourself and what you used to do vs what you do now can be amazing. Luckily even though I wiped all my saves I have some from lower leagues on the net somewhere.

Just remember to put a time/date stamp on your replays every time you do it.