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I was reflecting through my 1.5 years of playing sc2 (since release) and then it hit me. In the first season, I rapidly climbed from silver to diamond in exactly 1.5 months.
And then I stopped. I have now been in diamond every fucking season since release. I was briefly placed in masters during the beginning of season 4 (I was tearing mid/low masters at the end of season 3), but I took a 10 day break around the time when the zergs were switching into ling infestor builds (during the heydays of the buffed infestor), and so I went to low diamond very quickly due to having a roughly 7% winrate vs infestor builds (numbers from sc2gears). Since then I have slowly worked on my PvZ and I have been having some decent results along with infestor nerfs, so I am back to where I was...high diamond. Just like every other season.
And now I got myself a Dota 2 invite. I used to play Dota 1 quiet a bit back during 2004-2007, so Dota 2 seems to come almost naturally to me. Also my SC2 fundamentals (Control groups, watching the minimap, awareness) seem to transition into Dota 2 quiet seamlessly. I just need to relearn some of the relative strengths and weaknesses of heroes and some item builds, and I think I should be able to improve very quickly.
But I want to get good at SC2. I've been trying really hard every season. I watch my own replays, try to correct my mistakes, try out new builds. But its like every game throws up a new situation which totally blows my mind. I see stuff on the ladder that I don't see in replays, and it completely throws me off. Most of the time, I know what my mistakes are, but correcting them seems an almost impossible task to me. Even when I end up improving some aspects of my play, I generally find that people around me are improving as well, so I end up being on par with the rest of the players at my skill level. I mean my builds and gameplay are miles above what they were in season 2/3, but everyone around me is improving as well, so a promotion doesnt even seem close.
I have read all the self improvement guides (cecilsunkure, and the one by that slayers guy on TL forum), but in the end, I end up stagnating back at my old skill level.
Need some tips to improve and motivate myself again.
P.S -
An informal offer : I don't have an additional invite to the Dota 2 beta YET. But if someone is willing to take my word and coach me to masters/above, I will gladly share the first invite that I get with you. Of course, this is purely informal so you don't have anything else to go by except my solemn word, but I am a stand up guy, and you can have faith in me :D.
P.P.S - The offer is only for 800+ point masters please. I usually face a lot of low/500 pt masters on the ladder and beat them regularly.
 
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I can think of two things off the top of my head.
#1 You cannot get better faster than the others without practicing more than you are now. This is bad because, well, you're capped out. Even worse, you're capped out at diamond.
#2 (I think this is more likely) You've hit the OK plateau. The OK plateau is a phenomenon where you stop improving after becoming, to your perception at least, OK. This primarily comes from your brain changing the way it acts from actively thinking in order to perform an action to doing it without thinking (touch-typing, driving, etc, are good examples). Other factors sometimes emerge. For instance, I hit an OK plateau in silver league when I blamed balance/hacking when I lost a lot of the time, stunting my growth as a player.
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So did you overcome your OK plateau? If so, how did you do it?
Edit: I just read up a bit about the OK plateau, but it seems like that doesnt really fit my current state of mind. I am not even a little bit satisfied with where I am, so obviously it cant be right. The fact that I'm posting this blog, and trying to get help to reach masters should indicate that I am actively trying to improve myself (though my methods may not be optimal).
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On February 08 2012 05:50 Piledriver wrote:
So did you overcome your OK plateau? If so, how did you do it?
I do it by repeatedly telling myself that I'm fucking godawful and need to get better. Worked for me :D
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Have your heard of the Kobe System? lolol jkjk Sorry to hear about this man same thing happened to me at low masters. Pretty much stopped playing cause I got so angry that i wasn't getting better and now im playing hon again. Wish I had a answer also : )
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That OK Plateau idea is very interesting. I know for sure that I hit one when I reached master league (I went straight from mid-high diamond to mid master in three days, not bad by my standards) and quickly ended up stagnating and then getting much, much worse. It's a deadly thing... I really just wanna be master league again so I can feel good about myself T_T
My standards are sad.
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On February 08 2012 05:50 Piledriver wrote:
So did you overcome your OK plateau? If so, how did you do it?
Edit: I just read up a bit about the OK plateau, but it seems like that doesnt really fit my current state of mind. I am not even a little bit satisfied with where I am, so obviously it cant be right. The fact that I'm posting this blog, and trying to get help to reach masters should indicate that I am actively trying to improve myself (though my methods may not be optimal).
You might not want to dismiss the possibility entirely. Back in silver league I knew I was terrible, but I still kept up a subconscious illusion that I was at least ok.
That's the tricky part about it. You aren't consciously telling yourself that you're ok.
I got over my OK plateau by revamping my thought process entirely. For example, I refused to accept imbalance in any way, shape or form. I just threw that out the window entirely even as a possibility and worked on solving the problems that were set before me.
If you're absolutely sure that you don't have to worry about an OK plateau, maybe you should revamp your practice methods? I've heard a lot about how bronze through diamond or so is just getting better as a player and after that you need to start working on your strategy. It's a totally different practice beast.
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EPT
