• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 16:25
CET 21:25
KST 05:25
  • 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
Team Liquid Map Contest #22 - Presented by Monster Energy5ByuL: The Forgotten Master of ZvT30Behind the Blue - Team Liquid History Book19Clem wins HomeStory Cup 289HomeStory Cup 28 - Info & Preview13
Community News
Blizzard Classic Cup @ BlizzCon 2026 - $100k prize pool30Weekly Cups (March 9-15): herO, Clem, ByuN win42026 KungFu Cup Announcement6BGE Stara Zagora 2026 cancelled12Blizzard Classic Cup - Tastosis announced as captains18
StarCraft 2
General
Weekly Cups (March 9-15): herO, Clem, ByuN win Blizzard Classic Cup @ BlizzCon 2026 - $100k prize pool Team Liquid Map Contest #22 - Presented by Monster Energy Serral: 24’ EWC form was hurt by military service Weekly Cups (August 25-31): Clem's Last Straw?
Tourneys
RSL Season 4 announced for March-April Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament WardiTV Team League Season 10 KSL Week 87 [GSL CK] #2: Team Classic vs. Team Solar
Strategy
Custom Maps
Publishing has been re-enabled! [Feb 24th 2026] Map Editor closed ?
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 517 Distant Threat Mutation # 516 Specter of Death Mutation # 515 Together Forever
Brood War
General
Buy weed dexies in Australia (WhatsApp 0480852135) BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ ASL21 General Discussion Gypsy to Korea JaeDong's form before ASL
Tourneys
[BSL22] Open Qualifiers & Ladder Tours [Megathread] Daily Proleagues Small VOD Thread 2.0 IPSL Spring 2026 is here!
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Soma's 9 hatch build from ASL Game 2 Fighting Spirit mining rates
Other Games
General Games
General RTS Discussion Thread Nintendo Switch Thread Path of Exile Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Dawn of War IV
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion The Story of Wings Gaming
League of Legends
G2 just beat GenG in First stand
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Five o'clock TL Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas Vanilla Mini Mafia TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine US Politics Mega-thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Mexico's Drug War
Fan Clubs
The IdrA Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books [Manga] One Piece
Sports
Formula 1 Discussion 2024 - 2026 Football Thread Tokyo Olympics 2021 Thread General nutrition recommendations Cricket [SPORT]
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Laptop capable of using Photoshop Lightroom?
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Funny Nicknames
LUCKY_NOOB
Money Laundering In Video Ga…
TrAiDoS
Iranian anarchists: organize…
XenOsky
FS++
Kraekkling
Shocked by a laser…
Spydermine0240
Unintentional protectionism…
Uldridge
ASL S21 English Commentary…
namkraft
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1989 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
BSL
20:00
S22 - Ladder Tour #2
LiquipediaDiscussion
LAN Event
16:30
StarCraft Madness
Airneanach138
Liquipedia
PSISTORM Gaming Misc
15:55
FSL semifinals: PTB vs ASH
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
elazer 283
JuggernautJason91
Nathanias 58
UpATreeSC 48
CosmosSc2 45
Ketroc 44
Vindicta 32
StarCraft: Brood War
EffOrt 575
Horang2 470
Shuttle 242
ggaemo 155
hero 102
Free 76
Dewaltoss 73
ZZZero.O 46
Hm[arnc] 24
ivOry 11
[ Show more ]
SilentControl 9
Dota 2
monkeys_forever315
LuMiX1
Counter-Strike
fl0m5881
shoxiejesuss605
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor688
Liquid`Hasu401
Trikslyr83
MindelVK19
Other Games
Grubby3218
FrodaN2006
JimRising 474
byalli419
ToD152
Hui .72
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick864
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Main Stream123
Other Games
BasetradeTV29
StarCraft 2
angryscii 25
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 22 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• printf 30
• Adnapsc2 23
• LUISG 10
• Reevou 5
• Kozan
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• IndyKCrew
• intothetv
• Migwel
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• 80smullet 16
• Azhi_Dahaki8
• Michael_bg 4
• Pr0nogo 3
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• masondota21182
• WagamamaTV866
Other Games
• imaqtpie1136
• Shiphtur249
Upcoming Events
RSL Revival
13h 35m
herO vs MaxPax
Rogue vs TriGGeR
BSL
23h 35m
Replay Cast
1d 3h
Replay Cast
1d 12h
Afreeca Starleague
1d 13h
Sharp vs Scan
Rain vs Mong
Wardi Open
1d 15h
Monday Night Weeklies
1d 20h
Sparkling Tuna Cup
2 days
Afreeca Starleague
2 days
Soulkey vs Ample
JyJ vs sSak
Replay Cast
3 days
[ Show More ]
Afreeca Starleague
3 days
hero vs YSC
Larva vs Shine
Kung Fu Cup
3 days
Replay Cast
4 days
KCM Race Survival
4 days
The PondCast
4 days
WardiTV Team League
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
WardiTV Team League
5 days
RSL Revival
6 days
Cure vs Zoun
WardiTV Team League
6 days
BSL
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-03-20
WardiTV Winter 2026
Underdog Cup #3

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 1
Jeongseon Sooper Cup
BSL Season 22
CSL Elite League 2026
RSL Revival: Season 4
Nations Cup 2026
NationLESS Cup
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League S23 Finals
ESL Pro League S23 Stage 1&2
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual

Upcoming

ASL Season 21
Acropolis #4 - TS6
2026 Changsha Offline CUP
CSL 2026 SPRING (S20)
CSL Season 20: Qualifier 1
Acropolis #4
IPSL Spring 2026
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
CCT Season 3 Global Finals
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 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.