• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 06:31
CEST 12:31
KST 19:31
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy8[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Rough Waters10[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Siren's Call8[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Summer's End9
Community News
Weekly Cups (Sep 13-20): herO scores triple1BSL Season 235Weekly Cups (Sep 7-12): SHIN, ByuN, MaxPax double down1StarCraft open world shooter announced at BlizzCon101Weekly Cups (Aug 30-Sep 7): herO thrives amid growing schism10
StarCraft 2
General
Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16) How do you feel about the StarCraft shooter announcement at BlizzCon 2026? Blizzard Classic Cup @ BlizzCon 2026 - $100k prize pool The Death of Cheese: From a Professional Cheeser Weekly Cups (Sep 13-20): herO scores triple
Tourneys
Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament 2026 GSTL Announcement RSL Revival: Season 6 - Qualifiers and Main Event RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-22 SC2 AI Tournament 2026 Fall
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
Nexus Wars 2021 GUIDE [M] (2) Industrial Park
External Content
Mutation # 544 Double Trouble The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 543 Enhanced Defenses Mutation # 542 The Ascended
Brood War
General
Guide To Watching Ancient Brood War Replays screpdb: new Starcraft reporting tool Bot on ladder [ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy Oldest replay file.
Tourneys
[ASL22] Ro8 Day 2 [ASL22] Ro16 Group D [ASL22] Ro8 Day 1 [IPSL] IPSL is Back With Winter 26-27!
Strategy
Cliff Jump Revisited (1 in a 1000 strategy) Replay Review Process - What do you do? Simple Questions, Simple Answers Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation
Other Games
General Games
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread EVE Corporation Diablo IV
Dota 2
Dota 2 Champions League Season 3 Begins April 25! Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Artificial Intelligence Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine All you football fans (soccer)! Russo-Ukrainian War Thread
Fan Clubs
MarineLorD Fan Club The Creator Fan Club The ShoWTimE Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Diablo Animated Series on Netflix
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
Gaming Intensity, Problemati…
TrAiDoS
38 yo Retired SWE loo…
PurE)Rabbit-SF
Can Bots Beat Pros?? Starcr…
namkraft
[meme] I finally understa…
LUCKY_NOOB
Regacy Esports:Our Goa…
regacyesports
Dreaming of BW patches (mod…
c3rberUs
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 8975 users

Is it ladder fear?

Blogs > Ariion
Post a Reply
Ariion
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
Poland50 Posts
April 18 2012 16:14 GMT
#1
I have a dilemma!

I have some kind of stages in my SC2 career (lol bronze->gold career) where I'm willing to play nonstop and after this enthusiasm comes a moment of "booooooring" and I stop playing for ~2 months. After that I'm watching Day9, talking with friends about SC2, watch their streams and start playing again.

But I'm 100% sure cycle will start again.

I feel it as ladder anexity, but not "OMG I DON'T WANT TO LOSE" it's much more I like to play customs versus friends/people from chat channels. I don't care about the rank, I "like" losing to diamonds (I've played mostly against plat-dia people which I really thank, it helped me so much!). So what's my problem? I don't know
Also I tend to take breaks when I feel that I've reached my maximum potential. When I come back I have "surge of skill" and rank up, but again hit my maximum.

I decided I'm going to skip current season and maybe with new MMR I will have more luck.
But is it good idea?
It won't make me a better player, but maybe I will be able to fight my placements to platinum? What if it won't change anything at all? Should I maybe just play and stop having "dreams" of better MMR after skipping a season?

I can't play SC2 everyday, that's the reason I've stopped playing in tournaments. I know I can't play at my 100% while having raids in WoW 4 days/week.

But there is one thing.

I want to be better.

Moxi
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
708 Posts
April 18 2012 16:15 GMT
#2
Maybe stop wasting time in WoW?
IAMFAPMAN
Profile Joined March 2012
60 Posts
April 18 2012 16:30 GMT
#3
i have the some problem .. i am hyped for 1-2 weeks and im playing 100+ games a week and then it starts to get rly boring .. i never had that problem with bw for expample =/
JingleHell
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United States11308 Posts
April 18 2012 16:40 GMT
#4
It's not ladder anxiety, it's ladder ambivalence. At least for me. I'll play a few games here and there, then not play for a couple months or more.
SOyuncastor
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
Mexico40 Posts
April 18 2012 16:56 GMT
#5
yeah that's the same problem for me. I guess it has to be the way bnet is designed... it reminds me an arid, lonely place where I have to go looking for water going out from my crib. Not really a comforting place to be out there. I see anything worth playing and instead of looking an amusement park filled with childrens and cotton candy I see a desolated town fair with trash and only 1 clown holding a knife at 4 am looking directly at me and my untied shoes.
There is always someone younger and better than you.
Th1rdEye
Profile Blog Joined December 2006
United States1074 Posts
April 18 2012 17:10 GMT
#6
It's the moon cycle and astrology
from the days of: TheMarine [NC]...YellOw [H.O.T.]-Forever99 OgOgO [_MuMyung_] ChRh PlayGrrrr.... SlayerS_`BoxeR` [Oops]Reach [ReD]NaDa [DF]zergboy..!! Pusan[S.G] Nal_rA GARIMTO SSamJJang ChoJJa JinSu Silent_Control iloveoov H_PauL_WII JulyZerg [DaK]JoYo
Cycle
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United States300 Posts
April 18 2012 18:12 GMT
#7
I'm vicious and coming to get you.
| chKCycle.551 | NA | Master League Random | Checkmate Gaming |
Strykemard
Profile Joined April 2012
168 Posts
April 18 2012 19:08 GMT
#8
From what I have seen, the people who actually do well are the ones who don't play with the rating in mind. They play to win. They believe they are the best. Thats what it takes. I heard this really good way of thinking which helps me.

MMR is like a currency. If you lose, you are paying your opponent for a lesson. If you win, your opponent just paid you for a lesson.

So, in either case you gain something or the other. Just keep playing to win, and make sure you take away something from that game. Thats about it.
Ariion
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
Poland50 Posts
April 19 2012 06:05 GMT
#9
Maybe stop wasting time in WoW?

As much as I like this idea, I still like playing WoW and I will get bored with SC2 after a while so I like to have another game.

@IAMFAPMAN, JingleHell and SOuncastor
Yup, its just "lets play lets play moar" and after some games I'm like "no more please" :<

From what I have seen, the people who actually do well are the ones who don't play with the rating in mind. They play to win. They believe they are the best. Thats what it takes. I heard this really good way of thinking which helps me.

I don't care about losing, because every lose is a lesson. Sometimes those lessons are full of pain, but I can learn from it. But there is something more with my SC2 problem and it's probably that SC2 bores me, but after some time without it I come back to it.

Thanks guys for Your help
ShadowDrgn
Profile Blog Joined July 2007
United States2497 Posts
April 19 2012 07:25 GMT
#10
If you like playing customs with friends but can't bring yourself to click Find Match, that's ladder fear. A major reason is the fear of the unknown. When you play with friends, you know how good they are, what race they play, what map you're going to play on, what strategies they're probably going to use, etc. All of those things are unknowns when you search for a ladder game, and that can be unsettling, even if you aren't afraid to lose.

Skipping a season to let your MMR reset isn't going to help because unless you're master+, bnet is going to get your MMR pretty close and put you in the right league after 5 games. Your problems are that you don't play every day and you take months-long breaks. Everyone that has cured themselves of ladder fear says the same thing: just play lots of ladder games. After you've played every matchup on every map 10 times and been cheesed every way possible 10 times, your fear of the unknown will be gone.
Of course, you only live one life, and you make all your mistakes, and learn what not to do, and that’s the end of you.
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Afreeca Starleague
10:00
Ro8 Match 2
Light vs EffOrt
Afreeca ASL 11520
StarCastTV_EN261
Liquipedia
Sparkling Tuna Cup
10:00
Weekly #147 (SHIN Mod Edition)
ByuN178
CranKy Ducklings72
SHIN 25
CranKy Ducklings SOOP14
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Lowko302
ByuN 178
SHIN 25
StarCraft: Brood War
Bisu 6535
Jaedong 4982
Soulkey 1714
Rain 1439
BeSt 794
Zeus 280
Hyuk 265
Larva 208
Rush 204
ggaemo 190
[ Show more ]
Stork 174
Leta 171
Barracks 136
hero 131
Killer 74
ToSsGirL 58
Sexy 54
Shinee 44
soO 31
Shine 29
Hm[arnc] 19
sorry 15
scan(afreeca) 12
SilentControl 10
Noble 9
JulyZerg 8
Dota 2
Gorgc4089
XaKoH 472
Pyrionflax108
Counter-Strike
shoxiejesuss1371
markeloff60
kRYSTAL_50
Heroes of the Storm
Trikslyr29
Other Games
olofmeister1358
singsing1353
ceh9594
XBOCT394
B2W.Neo255
Mew2King55
amsayoshi31
crisheroes0
Organizations
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Main Stream6197
PGL Dota 2 - Secondary Stream2046
Other Games
gamesdonequick521
StarCraft: Brood War
UltimateBattle 215
[ Show 10 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• mYiSmile14
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Other Games
• WagamamaTV122
Upcoming Events
OSC
1h 29m
PiGosaur Cup
13h 29m
Kung Fu Cup
1d
The PondCast
1d 23h
Replay Cast
2 days
Korean StarCraft League
3 days
CranKy Ducklings
3 days
GSL
4 days
Yamato Cup
5 days
Replay Cast
5 days
[ Show More ]
Afreeca Starleague
5 days
WardiTV Weekly
6 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
6 days
Afreeca Starleague
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Super Anchor Qualifying S3
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Big Dog Cup 2026 Div 1

Ongoing

ASL Season 22
CSL 2026 AUTUMN (S22)
Acropolis #5
Acropolis #5 - GSA
Calamity Invitational
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026

Upcoming

Acropolis #5 - GSB
Acropolis #5 - GSC
BSL Season 23
SC4ALL II: Brood War
BSL 23: Non-Korean Championship
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
Copium Cup
PGL Major Singapore 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.