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Hey TL. I'm looking for help with my mentality. I love playing and I want to get better, but I run into a roadblock. I'm a platinum zerg and I feel like I can play pretty well for where I'm at, but I can't really improve. I have a huge problem with laddering and I can't figure out how to beat it.
Here's my problem. I can play really well some days. I will be playing way faster, making better decisions than my opponents, have great macro, etc. Then, a little while later I will just not be able to do shit. I'll make godawful decisions, my mechanics will fall by the side, I won't be able to concentrate, and I'll lose to stuff I beat all the time. It can be the next day, it can be two games later that this change takes place. Sometimes the transition will be a really frustrating game where my opponent does something pretty weird or bad that takes me off guard or is really frustrating (2 rax marine pulls, 3 gate dt/archon allins, etc), sometimes it seems to be nothing. But at some point I will just start losing.
I literally have days where I go 15-1 then lose like 20+ games in a row. I thought it was I was just running into better people and they were better than me, but I have went on these streaks when I was playing all low platinum players and when I'm playing well I have won 70+% versus high diamond low masters players. I can look at the games and know what I did wrong, but just can't fix it. I feel most of the players I play against are just doing builds with a lot less units than they should or make really bad decisions, so when I am playing well, I'm just bashing people down without much struggle and I'm not learning anything, but I can't really reach the players I need to that will challenge me because of these sick losing streaks.
Is there anyone who's overcame something like this. I feel like most people will say take a break, but that just doesn't help me. I've played really well for days and really shitty for days. I like to play starcraft in my free time, I could stop playing for days at a time, but I really don't want to.
Thanks for any help. Peace out.
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A mixture of WANTING to win really badly, focusing on the current game infront of you not the past ones, taking breaks between playing (a minute or two between games, no longer), not playing tired, and trying to be constantly critical of errors in your play: Try to focus more on your own play then whether or not you beat your opponent. Think "Ok I won this game... but to be honest past 5:00 I didn't inject/mule/chronoboost at all! I will work on this in my next 10 games".
Also always seeking to understand better. Always follow the same build for each matchup and learn your reactions to every possible set of circumstances!
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Before you play do something relaxing for however long it takea for you to get relaxes. You will get faster with practice so sont worry if now it takes an hour to get relaxxed, later it will take 5 minutea and you can ladder with full concentration.
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There is no way to fix having down days, at least no sureway of fixing them. It would seem like trying to stay physically healthy and getting plenty of sleep should make your performance more stable, but there's no way of guaranteeing good sleep at least for some people. The way i see it, you just have to raise your level high enough that you can beat these guys even on off days, and if you are speaking true about you seeing what you are doing wrong but not being able to fix it just means you got into one of these plateaus that will require a lot of time and dedication to get out of.
Another possible explanation is that you are trying to work on minor hard to fix flaws in your game blinding yourself from the bigger ones.
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This is something that I deal with as well.. From my understanding these issues come from taking the game to seriously to early on in your skill level. I am literally exactly the same I am an inconsistent diamond player and on my best days I can compete with very high level players but those are few are far between.. I am trying to take the game seriously and really want to get as good as I can but the issue being is that when you do that before your already fairly decent and consistent you are always looking to play your best, when in reality your best may be very good but that's not what is actually going to help you improve. All those games you play where you play shitty are the games that allow you to reach your best more often the more problems you fix. It's not an issue of something blocking you on playing your best, it's just you aren't at a level yet where you can constantly play somewhat near your top level.
So if you take it seriously your going to see more often than not, not your best play out of yourself. This happens to be all the time. And this will frustrate you because you think your not getting anywhere because you are unable to play your best. Losing to dumb strats and what not is part of improving, it's something I think a lot of us go through around plat/diamond and even into masters and above im sure. You must continue to play a ton of games so you are constantly up against those strats and other random things people do and are able to adapt. You can't expect yourself to react and play your best under all circumstances at this level. Instead you should look at them saying to yourself at least I am now more familiar with how I should react in this circumstance should I ever find myself in it again. And the more and more you are able to make those connections with what you did wrong the more consistent you will be, and the more ladder games you will be able to play in a row. Don't strive to play 60 games a day, I did and it just frustrated me because I was going about it the wrong way.
You don't play 60 games a day and it mean anything until you have dissected replay after replay after replay of your games and and look at your mistakes.And eventually you have to concentrate less on many aspects of the game and only are focusing on what your working on. It takes game experience and this is something im learning recently as well. You just can't expect yourself to play at your best constantly. This is ladder, the point of it is to work out inconsistencies in your play. If you play on being competitive then this should ring so much truer to you. If not, then it's still true.
Just keep playing with the mindset that every game your playing your getting closer to being more consistent. Even if you crap out and lose horribly to random stuff, as long as you note your mistakes, your improving and getting closer and closer to reaching the level of consistency your looking for.. Anything with starcraft takes a lot of time and does not happen overnight or even sometimes in a month or two. You just have to keep a calm attitude and keep at it. I've been working on this a lot over the past 2 months and i'm seeing improvements in my mentality, and my gameplay. Even though I don't see them every single game, or every daily ladder session, they are there.
just keep your chin up and keep working at it.
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Good players practice until they can get it right, great players practice until they can't get it wrong.
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On April 03 2012 14:56 PiGStarcraft wrote:
A mixture of WANTING to win really badly, focusing on the current game infront of you not the past ones, taking breaks between playing (a minute or two between games, no longer), not playing tired, and trying to be constantly critical of errors in your play: Try to focus more on your own play then whether or not you beat your opponent. Think "Ok I won this game... but to be honest past 5:00 I didn't inject/mule/chronoboost at all! I will work on this in my next 10 games".
Also always seeking to understand better. Always follow the same build for each matchup and learn your reactions to every possible set of circumstances!
I do use the same build every game, I do focus on my play, look at replays etc. I know how to play better, but when I'm on one of these streaks, I literally can not play better. Here's a game of me versus a protoss using my standard build on a good day (rep 1) and on a bad day (rep 2)
http://drop.sc/143532
http://drop.sc/150970
I can look at that second game and say exactly what I need to do different, and as you can see by the first day, I can do those things to a fair proficiency, but I just won't do it for whatever reason, I can't concentrate, I play slower, etc.
Just to get this off my chest, here's some of my match history.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/DsuGe.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/meWEE.jpg)
A good day, against diamond/low masters players
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/4ohXO.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Vo3K8.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/zFWTP.jpg)
A bad day versus gold/low platinum players
I know a persons rank doesn't mean that much, but I shouldn't be winning 15-5 versus people around low masters and losing 6-14 versus gold/low platinum players. The range between when I'm playing well and poorly is so wildly different and it seems there's nothing I can do/say/think to make myself play well. I'm currently on a 3-22 (not counting free wins to auto drops) losing streak and I just lost to a silver player. I just don't know what to do anymore, I don't know how it's possible that my range would be that extreme :/
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On April 03 2012 16:12 dronefarm wrote:Show nested quote +On April 03 2012 14:56 PiGStarcraft wrote:
A mixture of WANTING to win really badly, focusing on the current game infront of you not the past ones, taking breaks between playing (a minute or two between games, no longer), not playing tired, and trying to be constantly critical of errors in your play: Try to focus more on your own play then whether or not you beat your opponent. Think "Ok I won this game... but to be honest past 5:00 I didn't inject/mule/chronoboost at all! I will work on this in my next 10 games".
Also always seeking to understand better. Always follow the same build for each matchup and learn your reactions to every possible set of circumstances!
I do use the same build every game, I do focus on my play, look at replays etc. I know how to play better, but when I'm on one of these streaks, I literally can not play better. Here's a game of me versus a protoss using my standard build on a good day (rep 1) and on a bad day (rep 2) http://drop.sc/143532http://drop.sc/150970I can look at that second game and say exactly what I need to do different, and as you can see by the first day, I can do those things to a fair proficiency, but I just won't do it for whatever reason, I can't concentrate, I play slower, etc. Just to get this off my chest, here's some of my match history. A good day, against diamond/low masters players A bad day versus gold/low platinum players I know a persons rank doesn't mean that much, but I shouldn't be winning 15-5 versus people around low masters and losing 6-14 versus gold/low platinum players. The range between when I'm playing well and poorly is so wildly different and it seems there's nothing I can do/say/think to make myself play well. I'm currently on a 3-22 (not counting free wins to auto drops) losing streak and I just lost to a silver player. I just don't know what to do anymore, I don't know how it's possible that my range would be that extreme :/
Sounds like you have the right approach to learning then. It's most likely a psychological thing. Are you playing to avoid homework/other committments on your losing streaks? Or are you perhaps already sitting at home all day? Maybe mixing in some exercise can help you. I used to be really unfit when I first got into sc2 but after a while it became apparent that your brain shuts down the more inactive you are physically! Once I started going to the gym again my play really picked up and I was able to focus a lot better!
Just suggestions obviously I don't know your circumstances, but I think step outside the game and look at your personal condition and ways you can improve it on these "off" days.
Hope this helps at least a little!
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I have had the same problem when i played CS. Some days... well it was like i was cheating and some days.. eh I was pretty terrible. I always seem to do better in high stress situations though. Are you challenging yourself enough? After winning X games do you start to take short-cuts and rely on your superiority to carry the day?
That was my problem, when things become easy i find myself adjusting down to that level instead of continuing to improve. Then it becomes a mental thing. I am thinking i'm better than this and getting crushed by people i knew i could beat.
When i play my best, I dunno, im not even really trying i am just immersing myself in the world and letting gameplay flow naturally and in that process i'm cleaner more efficent it seemed my brain was just clicking on a different level working harder but it felt easier.
Different games different skill sets but i think we had the same issue. Practice and ambliviance gradually brought me more consistancy but it is something i've struggled with throughout life.
It is trying to stay in the "zone" and it can be an incredible barrier. There is a reason for Flash's ruler. Find what your doing on your upswings and try to recreate it...good luck man.
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EPT
