While I'm relatively new to SC2 (began playing it heavily around December 2011), I have noticed a common theme among fans of the game when it comes to laddering.
Intimidation.
It's a very scary idea, putting yourself out there and playing against a faceless, anonymous opponent. I've often found myself logging into battle.net asking countless questions; these questions tend to have a similar theme of self-doubt.
"Is this guy really a Masters player just smurfing an account?" "What if I get supply blocked early like I did last night?" "Will he bunker rush me? That thing owns me every time!"
This self-doubt creeps in and clouds your thinking as you are about to search for a match. Sometimes you try to brush it off and are fine. Other times, you want to run, hide and pull up that Day9 daily you missed the day before. Maybe you just run here to TL and look up strategies, thinking that if you looked at that Zerg Help Me Thread that you'd be Code S level. Maybe after reading up on the Ice Fisher build for a 4th time, you'd finally put it all together.
For a great deal of time, I had no idea how to handle this feeling of intimidation and self-doubt. But recently, I have taken to thinking of a quote from The Hustler (one of my favorite movies ever, Paul Newman was a BOSS).
"I've gotta hunch it's me from here-on in...I mean, did that ever happen to you? When all of a sudden, you feel like you can't miss? 'Cause I dreamed about this game, Fat Man. And I dreamed about this game every night on the road...You know, this is my table, man, I own it..."
I always say now "this is my game" before starting a match. Is it cocky? Sure. A little corny? Absolutely. But it has worked for me, and that's what I care about right now.
The question I'd like to pose to you all is one that I'm sure has been asked by other TL users far more articulate than me: What do you use to motivate, inspire, reassure, or calm yourself before laddering?
It is not scary. Don't care about your fucking rank. Play the game to get better at it, not to get a better rank. Later on by being better you will rank better.
Simple like that, just don't be a pussy. If someone has ladder fear, then that someone is a coward ass.
I log in to battle.net, I click on mutliplayer, and hit find match. Cmon enough of these "ladder fear" threads already, being scared to play a video game is probably the saddest thing I've ever heard. Don't think about all thse dumb things like smurfs, cheese, and assholes on ladder. If any of that happens FUCK IT, just leave the game, hit find match and go again!
I prepare myself by clicking "Find Match". Not only does this put me in the right mental state, clear my head, improve awareness and create world peace, it also tells B.net to start a game for me to play. It's super effective!
On a more serious note, I'm not entirely sure where this "ladder fear" comes from, but I don't have it. There are no consequences to a single ladder match, other than a few points on a ranking. No reason to get anxious about that.
There will be no bad stuff that will happen to you if you lose, except your ladder points. So unless you are being bullied at school because you are not top 8 silver then you just press the button... ;p
I understand if you were playing in a tourney or something but if you are just sitting alone playing its not like anything bad is going to happen to you...
As a matter of fact, my life isn't very boring. I work, intern, commute to school and live happily with my girlfriend while helping non-profits and going to concerts. : )
I'd like to help you, but really all I do to prepare for ladder is click the Find Match button and make sure I have my builds handy. Then I put my hands on the keyboard and mouse, get into focus mode, and wait. I don't fear the ladder. In a way, it helps that Blizzard's MMR system is terrible. I don't care about losing points, though I don't like losing MMR...but I can't see my MMR, so all I know is it's up or down, probably. So, the only ladder stuff you can see? Meaningless. Except your league, which is a rough indication of your MMR range. So don't fear losing, since you can't see how it affects you
On April 17 2012 00:15 Megaliskuu wrote: I log in to battle.net, I click on mutliplayer, and hit find match. Cmon enough of these "ladder fear" threads already, being scared to play a video game is probably the saddest thing I've ever heard.
Yes, thank you. Too many people are too scared of losing. Somewhere along the line rank and division got tied into some greater sense of e-ego. Honestly who cares if you drop rank, as long as you are having fun. And if not, then stop playing. Simple as that.
Wow, the moment you quoted that text I recognized the scene and remembered seeing the hustler even though I wasn't quite sure I had seen it when you referenced it. Going to have to rewatch that one; the scene must've been good for me to remember it like that.
Anyways, gogo fighting. You'll never be as good as a bw programer and you'll most likely loose 50% of your games. Knowing that you have to expect to loose right? hehe. Even though you should always say you're going to own the game up. It's a good mentality to have. Frankly, the moment I feel like I have no chance of doing so, I usually just gg.
Had to fight it and there were times I wouldn't play online for weeks and just practice a few builds offline.
One day I made myself a promise to always play a single ladder game a day ~ at least. Every since then all the problems stopped, yeah it was that easy. I'm already accomplishing my goal when I join a game.
Whether I win or lose is suddenly not important, I'm playing the game because I enjoy it and at the same time it's very unlikely I would be getting worse by playing daily.
These threads make me sad, mostly because of the ignorant people being judgemental and smug concerning problems they haven't encountered themselves. To those people, maybe if you don't have anxiety issues or problems laddering when you feel like it, then maybe you don't have ladder anxiety? So maybe you don't have that problem and actually have no idea what makes it a problem and what causes it? Maybe pretending ladder anxiety doesn't exist or portraying how silly you think it is, maybe that isn't really helping the people who DO have these problems for some reason?
Maybe just accept that other's people's brains and bodies work differently from ours and that if someone showcases difficulties in certain areas that we don't, then maybe it's because of that and not because they're just plain silly people. Maybe just post a helpful tip if you have one, maybe show some sympathy for having an annoying problem you don't have, or maybe just don't post at all if your only thoughts convey into "it shouldn't be a problem".
Maybe we need a neo-evolution of acceptance here, but it's like telling gay people not to be gay, it's just not really that helpful.
What helps me is always remember that your level is shit anyway. Whether you advance or fall down doesn't even matter, nobody cares about you. Such anxiety is only justified and should require further psychological efforts when/if you get to the real pro levels.
On April 17 2012 00:21 0ne wrote: People with ladder fear must have pretty boring lifes
...well there are other things to do in life other than laddering in SC2, I'm sure they make it somehow...
My point is if you have a normal life you have to do a lot of stuff way harder than pushing the ladder button. There's no reason to not be confident enough to play a videogame
On April 17 2012 00:21 0ne wrote: People with ladder fear must have pretty boring lifes
...well there are other things to do in life other than laddering in SC2, I'm sure they make it somehow...
That's actually an even better reason not to have ladder fear. Once you get out into the real world (read: once you get out of school) there's never enough time to do the things you want to; who wants to waste time being afraid of losing? I'm just happy when I can get some time to play games, period.
lt's silly because people are getting scared of playing a game that has absolutley no bearing on anything really consequencle. It's just a game. You aren't going to win $100 for beating a random on ladder. It's not about whether or not people's minds work differently, it just is a fear of losing, a fear that will go away after you realize that losing is a part of winning. And to many who have competed in competitions (academic, sports, music, etc) outside of video games, ladder fear seems a bit overdone. Ladder is like practice scrimmage matches. It's practice.
So OP. Relax. Make the act of click find match muscle memory and don't even think about it. Just play. Focus on gettin. Better, and not winning.
Once you accept the fact that this is a video game, it's pretty easy. There's people who defend ladder anxiety on here, but honestly, I feel like that hurts more than it helps. It's like saying, don't worry, the fact that you can't even play the game that you watch and read about all the time is no problem. It's normal, keep on being scared and try to take little baby steps, maybe one day you'll play a match that no one will remember in a week. Having pressure from people who tell you that you're stupid for not being able to click the button helps. Because seriously, just click the damn button and play the damn game. I always imagined talking about my day to my friends who know I like starcraft. "so how were your games today, I remember yesterday you said you were going to play a ton" "I... didn't" "Why not?" "I get scared." "over a video game? You're not a pro, no one else is watching" "I know.." and that's when you realize you need to man the **** up.
Get a drink of water. Start laddering. If I get really frustrated by a loss I usually stop playing wash my face or take a shower (my face and ears heat up).
Laddering is tough, but so is everything else in life, whether it's applying to that dream job or asking out that dream girl. You just gotta go for it. Be result independent.
I personally have a pretty baller playlist full of kpop, video game music, and montage music to pump me up during my ladder sessions.
check under my bed for tasteless cannons check my blood pressure write it down on a sheet then i smoke 3 cigs out my window then i do a shot of jack daniels to take the edge off THEN i can start to prepare myself to ladder i sit in a chair on a huk ass pillow such that i sit 2.45 inches offset from my mousepad and the invisible line between the widow's peak i don't have and the top of my monitor makes a 95º angle with the invisible perpendicular. then i stfu and snatch up some ladder points nbd
Gotta go all the way if you want to pretend to be him
And as for playing ladder, to me that's the easy part. Not punching through every walls or jump off of a cliff after the ladder session is the hard part.
in my first play before laddering, i know that i'm gonna loose for sure...because i haven't warm up at all, but liike naniwa said "Loosing the first round is my trade to win the other two" kinda
The trick is to extricate your rank from your ego. If the absolute best I can do in SC2 is reach Silver league, that doesn't mean I'm an inferior person, it means I'm not so good at SC2. I would wager that Einstein, were he to have lived in our time and played StarCraft, would've sucked at it (at least at first.) Einstein probably would've been bronze league when he began. Does that make Einstein a worthless person? No. It makes him bad at SC2 without having anything to say about anything else that is Einstein.
You never know until you hit that button. You have to face that you are not DongReaGu, youre not MC, you're not MarineKingPrime. But you can be you and that itself has endless possibilities if you try and learn. They just didn't wake up one day and become a pro. It takes time, blood, and rage tears. I used to be scared of not preforming my best but I noticed I play so much better when I'm tired. I thought about it and its because I'm apathetic to everything but the game and myself. So I didn't overthink everything. I concentrated on Injects and creep, on drones rather than all the what ifs because who cares. You cant win all you games anyways, no one does. Not even the god Flash.
On April 17 2012 05:53 GlintFox wrote: You never know until you hit that button. You have to face that you are not DongReaGu, youre not MC, you're not MarineKingPrime. But you can be you and that itself has endless possibilities if you try and learn. They just didn't wake up one day and become a pro. It takes time, blood, and rage tears. I used to be scared of not preforming my best but I noticed I play so much better when I'm tired. I thought about it and its because I'm apathetic to everything but the game and myself. So I didn't overthink everything. I concentrated on Injects and creep, on drones rather than all the what ifs because who cares. You cant win all you games anyways, no one does. Not even the god Flash.
Great explanation. I think people get ladder fear sometimes because they feel like they can't improve at a good pace or feel lost or can't figure out a build that ALWAYS gets them. But knowing that nearly everyone else playing has these same kinds of flaws is a reassuring thing.
I'm glad to hear some people are actually answering the question in a thoughtful manner and not simply going "herp derp just press the button and play the game, what are you bro, a loser? herp derp".
Mentally prepare? I do nothing. I honestly don't understand "ladder fear." I've decided not to ladder sometimes not because of anxiety/fear but because I've been on a losing streak and I just want to take a break. Other than that, its a game against a faceless individual - I mean if it wasn't for any chat you could be playing the AI for all you know. However, I do play a couple of customs to get in the groove and get any stupid mistakes out of the way [supply blocking myself before 10 min etc.]
I don't know if this counts as "mentally" preparing, but before I ladder I always:
1. Play a single custom game. Doesn't matter what level my opponent is, because I just want to warm up. My computer also kinda sucks so every time I build my first sentry after I've shut it down, I get a weird fps hiccup (I know, it is weird, I don't get it).
2. I always have music playing. I cycle through different playlists, but I won't ladder without music.
3. I warm up my arms/hands. This is usually just stretching mixed with light exercises like shadow boxing and quick hand movements on the mouse/keyboard.
Gotta go all the way if you want to pretend to be him
And as for playing ladder, to me that's the easy part. Not punching through every walls or jump off of a cliff after the ladder session is the hard part.
It's his intro song, no music is more Flash at the moment.
EPT
