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Hm, how to get a better mindset?

Blogs > IMoperator
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IMoperator
Profile Joined October 2011
4476 Posts
March 02 2012 07:09 GMT
#1
I have a real problem when playing SC2, that when I go on losing streaks of more than 1 game, I get really mad and stop playing (I also bm quite a bit lol). I want to be able to play for long periods of time without getting frustrated, but I cannot get into the mindset that I'm playing to improve, no matter how hard I try. I start out going "this is a great day to ladder, can't wait to improve!" and then it always ends like "fuck you protoss noob gay shit fuck" etc. I really want to get over this kind of stuff, but my old mindset always seems to override anything else. I get way too angry and emotional over the game instead of analytic. It's just so much easier to blame the game, or the opponent and not blame myself. I'm wondering how do the pros do it? I mean, they bm sometimes but they are also able to grind out mass amounts of games in a row without flinching. I can't play more than like 5 a day, and it's pretty detrimental to my improvement. Do you guys have any strategies/tips to not get angry over a loss?

*
Dmn
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Norway101 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-03-02 07:16:58
March 02 2012 07:14 GMT
#2
You are playing for the wrong reason. Play for fun (if you enjoy it), not to improve. If you have fun you will play alot and improve as a result. And if you get frustrated over losses you are taking the game too seriously.

So ye, chill and have fun, and if you cant do that, quit.
aggu
Profile Blog Joined May 2011
38 Posts
March 02 2012 07:21 GMT
#3

After you win games, the opponents become harder so you are sure to lose. One way to fix this is after winning games you can experiment something crazy for the next 5-10 games where nothing is at stake, like 2 x expo before 1st rax or build only cannons, or anything you think that you definitely cannot win but is useful to experiment anyway, and just to have total fun with that. The you win again of course, because your MMR tanks. Overall, your rank and MMR stays the same but you learn by playing more and its more fun and not too serious or doesn't feel like hard work, which is better than not playing and not enjoying it.
Gheed
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States972 Posts
March 02 2012 07:23 GMT
#4
Instead of "I'm going to win the game" or "I'm going to improve," make your goal "I'm going to try to execute x strategy and see how it goes." Then, it can either work or if it doesn't you can say to yourself "Hm, I could have done y thing better."
L_Master
Profile Blog Joined April 2009
United States8017 Posts
March 02 2012 07:25 GMT
#5
I know in my case if I lose it's my fault if I lost. If I died to 2 gate proxy I should have scouted/microed better, if I lose to a hidden base..same thing, if my opponent does a crappy allin and I die to it...sounds like I sucked pretty hard myself.

I see people raging all the time about things like omg TvP so much harder for me I played so much better than the protoss and deserved to win the game. My response is: why does it matter one bit how much "better" or "more" you need to do to beat a player. Why? So, you had to play "better" to win, but I honestly don't understand why it matters.

All these ladder raging things strike me as either ego issues (my ego can't handle the fact that I lost so I have to justify the loss), or people who just straight up care WAY to much about winning and get mad and find the game to be not fun when they fail to do so.

In my opinion the key is remembering why your playing. Is the goal to improve? If yes then stop caring about whether you have to dramatically "outplay" your opponent to win or his stupid, crappy, allin. None of it has anything do with your skill as a gamer. Instead, focus internally on your own gameplay. Know what it is that you want to work on and improve. If you play a game and successfully do an excellent job of your desired areas of focus then you should be satisfied: win, lose, or draw.

It's not at all uncommon for me to be more pissed after a win than I am after many losses because even though I won that wasn't the goal. The goal was to not miss pylons, or to do a better job constantly scouting the map. When I fail to focus on what I intend to focus on...THAT is when I rage, and of course it is rage directed at myself for playing poorly.
EffOrt and Soulkey Hwaiting!
affinity
Profile Blog Joined October 2007
United States266 Posts
March 02 2012 07:37 GMT
#6
Is there a specific thing that you're trying to improve? Perhaps, instead of focusing on winning/losing, focus on improving a single aspect, like SQ [which is a nice metric btw] or making sure your positioning every fight is good.
phiinix
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
United States1169 Posts
March 02 2012 07:42 GMT
#7
You seem to know why pros and other players don't flip out over games, but you just can't do it yourself. Strange.Once most people understand that they can't expect to get better without losing, they're fine.

Instead of asking how other people stay positive, try asking yourself why you're so negative. You mentioned that you start out good and then end up cursing out another race, but why? Why does it make you upset to lose, both in general and to protoss? Judging by your post, you're not a top tier pro, so you can afford to switch races to protoss if they're imba to you. If it's not the imba argument but it's more of simple frustration, go through the why-because analysis with yourself. "Why do I hate losing? Because x. Why? because. Why? Because." Hopefully by the end of the exercise you'll be able to weed out the reason for your frustration and it won't bother you as much.
AC3
Profile Joined April 2006
Canada337 Posts
March 02 2012 07:58 GMT
#8
When I played mostly team games for a few seasons to help out some newcomer friends of mine, I found I had some of the same problems when I went back to grinding out 1v1 ladder this season. Losing to stupid all-ins and all the builds I stomp when I'm on my game really got to me, and more so if the opponent would harass me during or after the game.

Personally, I've found my ideal solution is to immediately hit F11 after my worker split and to click the chat bubble at the bottom to instantly block communication with my opponent. You can still wish them luck to have fun, and gg at the end (or BM I suppose...) and you never need to deal with actual humans on BNET. Removing as much of the human component from the game has really helped me to take the losses less personally, which seems to be something you struggle with too. Not worrying or having to pay attention to the random people you come across on the ladder has really helped me fall back in love with 1v1 and improve a lot already this season.

If you get real frustrated playing, or on a bad losing streak and your points are spiralling downward , FORCE yourself to stop and do something else for a while or stop altogether for the day. Tyler went over this pretty in depth on SOTG, about his practice rule of 3 bad losses in a row equals a break. Go running, watch TV, anything to decompress so you can approach the game from a fresh perspective. You should go listen to the episode (60.5 or 61 I think, it was from this year) as Tyler has some pretty valuable insights on the mentality you need as a pro player to stay motivated and improve. Reading your OP and seeing "this is a great day to ladder, can't wait to improve!", I know just the feeling you are talking about it, and nothing is worse than that day ending in rage and upset after a few games and nothing productive.

GL with the laddering, hopefully something someone says sticks and you can start improving your game and your mindset!! PS maybe have a rage pillow or punching bag as an immediate stress reliever beside your computer. Or else you might end up like me: with a hole in the wall beside my computer. :/
"The idea is to try to give all of the information to help others to judge the value of your contribution; not just the information that leads to judgment in one particular direction or another" -- Richard Feynman
Destructicon
Profile Blog Joined September 2011
4713 Posts
March 02 2012 08:18 GMT
#9
The poster above me hit the nail on the head, but I'd like to expand upon it.

First, you must embrace the fact that you suck. That isn't bad at all, we all suck to some degree and even the best of the best SC2 players now, where quite bad when they first started off. Now by accepting this you realize you are a clean slate on which greatness can be built.

Secondly, there is no "cheese". Early attacks, timing attacks and all-ins have their place even at the highest level of SC2, the pros use them to become unpredictable, to keep their enemies off balance and to keep them honest, it is just another way to play the game and you need to accept it as a legitimate strategy.

Thirdly, you need to go into each and every game with the goal to improve. To do this you need to set yourself smaller goals like, never missing larva inject, or chrono or mule's, never getting supply blocked, building stuff at the right time etc.

Now to achieve goal 3, you need to copy some build orders from the pro players, this will give you something to measure your macro against, it will only hamper your ability to improve if you don't do this and it will affect your mindset because, you don't really know what you are doing wrong if you are just devising a build on the fly, you also don't know how to improve it as well as possible.

Also you need to realize that, until you hit something like high master or GM level, winning is meaningless, ladder is wins are almost meaningless, there is no pressure from losing since nothing bad is going to happen to you. The only thing that really matters is if you improve, your goal from then on is not to win in the same sense you think now, your goal is to perfect the execution of your build, you win by macro-ing perfectly, doing great multi-tasking and super army control and micro. Winning the ladder game is just a bonus, winning your macro is your real reward.

If you lost the game, but where never supply blocked, build everything at the right time, trained units constantly, kept your money low then you did good, it doesn't matter that your enemy was dropping you in two different locations + attacking your 3rd, you probably don't have the multi-tasking now to handle it, but no one was born with it, you develop that by playing more. Your macro was good, you had the army to handle it but you just didn't know how to split it up properly to defend or couldn't do it fast enough, if you are put in 10 more situations like that and focus you'll get better.

Likewise, if you won a game, but where supply blocked multiple times, missed your timing window by 1 min, had 2-3 SCV's idle, then the opponent just played terribly and you haven't improved at all, you've just gained a false sense of strength.

Lastly, you need to vent. There was a thread on the general SC2 section about players whining and race switching, a couple posted in there, most notably Jinro, and said they do sometimes whine about racial balance, but they don't actually mean it or believe it, they use it as a way to release frustration.
Playing a particularly intense game can also lead to a release of adrenaline, while this can sometimes help you, if you lose the game, you'll feel shittier and much, much more frustrated then usual. This is when you actually do stop laddering and take a break, this is that key moment when you absolutely need to calm down.

Now, I've told you all that has worked for me. I did all of the above, and when Iaddered I found that I was much more relaxed, much more detached and way, way friendlier. I hope it helps.
WriterNever give up, never surrender! https://www.youtube.com/user/DestructiconSC
Tobberoth
Profile Joined August 2010
Sweden6375 Posts
March 02 2012 08:30 GMT
#10
I'm in the same boat (I don't BM and I don't really get mad, but I do get frustrated and disappointed in my abilties when I lose several times in a row) and I'm trying out many different things. Here's a few things which help so some degree:

* Play music which mellows you out in the background, keeps you calm. No need to use hard dubstep to raise your APM if it makes you rage like crazy.
* Focus on what you need to improve and go in with the mindset that it's perfectly fine if you lose as long as you do that one thing well. It could be trying a new build, improving SQ, never getting supplyblocked... force your ladder games into training sessions instead of competition.
* Go in with the mindset to lose. Try a build you have no confidence in just for the sake of trying it, losing doesn't sting when you're expecting it.
* Be ready for your reaction. If you notice your hands shaking as you get stressed and then massive frustration when you see a big push or such, be ready so that when it happens you go "lol, now I reacted like this again". It sure helps.
* Force yourself to be manner. No matter how mad you are, just write gg and leave. BMing will just make the opponent respond which will make you feel even worse. Writing "You're so bad" and getting "Yeah, but I beat you so that makes you terrible" doesn't make you rage any less.
Cortza
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
South Africa328 Posts
March 02 2012 10:23 GMT
#11
I think that you should have a mindset that says "no matter how good I get at this game I will always be willing to ask for help". And not just help from the best, but from nearly anyone.

Winning on ladder can validate your ego which feels nice but is equally irritating when you lose.
Divinek
Profile Blog Joined November 2006
Canada4045 Posts
March 02 2012 10:25 GMT
#12
It helps to accept that you're inevitably quite terrible at the game and only aim to improve instead of to win. Chances are there's thousands of people out there that can stomp you and it's nothing to do with the map/game/race
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
Oh goodness me, FOX tv where do you get your sight? Can't you keep track, the puck is black. That's why the ice is white.
HungrySC2
Profile Blog Joined September 2011
United States191 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-03-02 13:40:14
March 02 2012 13:38 GMT
#13
There is a huge difference between playing a ton, and playing to improve.

To some (most) people playing to improve just isn't fun because you have to constantly force yourself to do something you aren't used to. Whether its learning to use hotkeys when you never did before, forcing yourself to look at the minimap all the time, or leaving games if your money gets over 500.

It's uncomfortable, unnatural, hard, and sometimes frustrating to play with an "improve" mindset. Every game is going to be a "failure", if you keep looking at the whole picture instead of narrowing it down. As long as you are determined NOT to fail at the thing you are focusing on you will improve. Eventually "that thing" will become something you do naturally and your game will have improved overall.

Then pick something else to work on.

And be prepared to rework on things you've worked on before. You don't shoot 10,000 free throws and then never practice them again.
"First say to yourself what you would be; And then do what you have to do. (Epictetus)
HornyHerring
Profile Joined March 2011
Papua New Guinea1059 Posts
March 02 2012 15:58 GMT
#14
On March 02 2012 16:09 IMoperator wrote:
I have a real problem when playing SC2, that when I go on losing streaks of more than 1 game, I get really mad and stop playing (I also bm quite a bit lol). I want to be able to play for long periods of time without getting frustrated, but I cannot get into the mindset that I'm playing to improve, no matter how hard I try. I start out going "this is a great day to ladder, can't wait to improve!" and then it always ends like "fuck you protoss noob gay shit fuck" etc. I really want to get over this kind of stuff, but my old mindset always seems to override anything else. I get way too angry and emotional over the game instead of analytic. It's just so much easier to blame the game, or the opponent and not blame myself. I'm wondering how do the pros do it? I mean, they bm sometimes but they are also able to grind out mass amounts of games in a row without flinching. I can't play more than like 5 a day, and it's pretty detrimental to my improvement. Do you guys have any strategies/tips to not get angry over a loss?

Take this game less serious and you wont get angry. But it's generally all about what kind of a person you are, if you're a raging teen rebel you gonne get angry no matter what. I've got no problems with loosing whatsoever, even if I loose 10 games in a row and demote.
oh, hai
Kalingingsong
Profile Joined September 2009
Canada633 Posts
March 02 2012 17:22 GMT
#15
say "serenity now" 10 times after you lose a game.
Dess.JadeFalcon
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