• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 17:14
CEST 23:14
KST 06:14
  • 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] Finals Preview: Sweet Victory!9[ASL22] Ro4 Preview: Mirror Mirror6[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: Within Reach5[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy11[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5
Community News
[$1250] International ShieldBattery League36Weekly Cups (October 5-11): Farewell to 5.0.164Rollback Netcode in Brood War1355.0.17 Patch Notes - October 7, 202624Weekly Cups Results (Sep 28-Oct 4)0
StarCraft 2
General
No more sc2 streamers on team liquid? Server Blocker SCII needs to put more weight on strategy and tact Stellar Fest 2 Replay Pack Terran AddOns placement
Tourneys
WORTEX Challenger Series — Open SC2 LAN in Budapes RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-22 Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20) Master Swan Open (Global Bronze-Master 2)
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
[G] How to playtest arcade maps [A] Nemrods 1/4 players [M] (2) Sweltering Sands [M] (2) Frigid Storage
External Content
Mutation # 548 Shining Bright The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 547 Temple Of Terror Mutation # 546 Catch the Train
Brood War
General
Mineral gathering rate (boosted) for each patch Ziemie's Starcraft 1 Prequel Campaign NaDa's Body Rollback Netcode in Brood War BW General Discussion
Tourneys
[ASL22] Grand Finals [$1250] International ShieldBattery League [Megathread] Daily Proleagues 2v2v2v2 Tournament
Strategy
Cliff Jump Revisited (1 in a 1000 strategy) Simple Questions, Simple Answers Replay Review Process - What do you do?
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Dawn of War IV Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne General RTS Discussion Thread
Dota 2
Dota 2 Champions League Season 3 Begins April 25!
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 European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread
Fan Clubs
Serral Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece
Sports
TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 MLB/Baseball 2023 Football (Soccer) Thread
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
How Much Genes Contribute to…
TrAiDoS
ShieldBattery on Mac
Kraekkling
[ASL22] Ro4 Day1 Ticket Giv…
bITt.mAN
38 yo Retired SWE loo…
PurE)Rabbit-SF
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 10811 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
Next event in 13h 47m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
PiGStarcraft145
RuFF_SC2 102
SteadfastSC 88
Nina 61
Railgan 56
StarCraft: Brood War
Calm 1759
Dewaltoss 142
Soulkey 141
Mini 135
ProTech126
firebathero 75
sorry 29
League of Legends
Doublelift2758
Counter-Strike
Fnx 253
Super Smash Bros
PPMD40
Other Games
Grubby4918
summit1g2829
FrodaN799
shahzam381
RotterdaM246
Pyrionflax241
TKL 178
C9.Mang0175
UpATreeSC64
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• kabyraGe 217
• Hupsaiya 51
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• blackmanpl 48
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• TFBlade693
Other Games
• Shiphtur1225
• imaqtpie1129
Upcoming Events
IntoTheTV X SOOP
13h 47m
PiGosaur Cup
1d 2h
The PondCast
1d 12h
Kung Fu Cup
1d 13h
IntoTheTV X SOOP
2 days
FEL
4 days
FEL
5 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
5 days
Replay Cast
6 days
WardiTV Weekly
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

ASL Season 22
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
HCC Season 3

Ongoing

Acropolis #5
IPSL Winter 2026-27
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 4
Acropolis #5 - GSC
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026

Upcoming

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
eXTREMESLAND 2026
PGL Major Singapore 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
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.