Eu/Am/Kor FREE COACHING Sign Up Here

-STUDENT-
What is your Skype/Teamliquid/Bnet account name (and code)?
What leauge are you in and are hoping to become?
Favorite pro player for each race?
What do you want to get out of lessons? 
If we could achieve something in the first lesson that would make you say ‘I am 100% happy with how that lesson went’ what would it be?
About how many hours a week can you dedicate to Sc2?
How many total 1v1 games have you played?
What are your goals in sc2?
What is your biggest weakness in your gameplay?
What is you biggest strength in your gameplay?
What other hobbies do you have/sports/games do you play etc.?

Do not PM anyother student in this thread unless they state you can. I will add the basic information of all users into this thread (by using spoilers) starting on Wednesday. You may use any method to teach but students please behave and dont leave your coach stranded after making an appointment. TL STAFF: feel free to apply as well

Disclaimer/s:
Some parts of this thread are a layout submitted by 'FireZerg' in GoSu coaching who has let me use it. I do not and will not take responsability for a coach/student wasting your time by not showing up or disrespecting you apart from (maybe) removing them from this thread. 

My goals as a coach are to help you with specific problems you might have, ranging from mechanical to strategic, but, more importantly, to help you learn how to learn the game efficiently on your own between lessons. Everyone is busy with either school, sports, girlfriends, jobs, what have you, and I believe that learning how to use your time online efficiently is the key to being successful in SC2, as well as keeping everything in balance with the rest of your busy life. 

Everything in my lessons is geared for the long-term learner, to slow, steady, but consistent improvement over long periods of time: I strongly believe that in this game there are very few quick fixes and shortcuts.
With over a year of coaching experience now in SC2--- dealing with over 220 unique students--- the method of coaching that I’ve found most effective is to try and equip you with tools that you can use in your own time (for example, how to get the most out of watching replays, how to take good notes to speed up your learning, how to come up with and implement a good routine for SC2 practice to get the most out of your time online, etc.), and make sure that you are connected with all the resources that you will need to improve.
I’ve been helping players to learn Starcraft ever since I first started playing competitively, and have always been fascinated with the steep and supremely frustrating learning curve of the game. 

From what I’ve learned from over 3 years of experience with competitive play and practice, I will teach my students how to maintain a good mindset, and always practice with purpose in terms of both mechanics and strategy. Ideally, if I do my job right, as my student you’ll go into every practice game-- or ladder game, or custom game with friends-- with a clear goal to work towards either mechanically (multitasking, hand speed and ‘clean’ play) or in terms of strategy (unit positioning, timings, unit control, etc.).
With Skype/teamspeak I hope to be able to help all of you climb to the top of your division, be promoted to the next level, and bring your play up to where you‘ve always wanted it to be--- ultimately, and most importantly however, I hope to be able to ameliorate your appreciation and enjoyment of the game! I look forward to working with you all!

Who am I? I am a talented random player who is top masters (800+ pts in KOR) and was GM in Na server (highest at number 40) in Season 5. I like to keep all my accounts secretive as i am trying to get into GM in the KOR server and dont want people on team liquid to know about my playstyle/builds as i think they are still inovative and unique. I have not played in any tournaments. My background is i am from London, UK. Dad is Turkish and I "work" for him here in Istanbul. My timezone is GMT+2 and i started this thread to provide a free coaching service for the TL community and staff so I could give back to my fellow TL'ers.  

1. You can play a games (against a friend, on your stream on ladder or however you’d like) and I can watch you play and sort of give you my thoughts as you play. I see this a lot on streams of people who stream lessons--- although I don’t do a heck of a lot of this when I’m left to my own devices, I’ll be more than happy to give this kind of lesson. It’s fun, relaxing and refreshingly simple! (Another idea would be to actually just play against me, that way I can give you the perspective of your opponent in real time, however, probably best to limit that to zvz.)

2. We can watch replays.

2a. We can watch replays of your games, and I can give you my two cents as we go. In my opinion this is superior to me giving a running commentary of a game while you play it, since we can stop and look into the game more in-depth rather than having things sort of fly by us as you play. However It sounds reasonable to me to play a game and have me comment on it, then watch the replay right after.

2b. We can watch pro replays. Have you ever been watching replays of top players, and ended up with a ton of questions about how and when and why they did what they did? I can give provide you with some valuable insight, and sometimes can also provide you with more replays from my own collection to help illustrate a point.

3. We can talk, without replays or a game. I wouldn’t recommend a whole lesson of this of course, but mindset is extremely important in playing and learning this game. Talking about broader concepts that underlie the theory of the game, or theories with regards to learning in general can often be very beneficial.

4. We can go over builds. I outline my methodology for approaching builds below. If you’re interested in talking about it, or going through any of the steps in a lesson, I’d love to!

5. Some combination of the above. For example: we start out by talking about how you did last week in SC2, very briefly, you show me some replays, I’ll give you some notes on the replays and answer any questions you might have, then we jump into games with a friend that you brought, and I’ll talk about trying to implement some of the ideas we discussed in the replays into your play.

6. Whatever you want! I’m always open to suggestions, and most important of all this is your lesson! As a coach, I’m always eager to learn and try new things.

The most important thing to talk about in your approach to learning to SC2 is your mindset in approaching the ladder. For the majority of people, this is their only access to practice and their only real point of contact with the world of competitive SC2. I strongly believe that the correct approach to laddering (also the one least subscribed to) is that the ladder is a tool for the improvement of the player. For the vast majority of ladder-goers, however, laddering is about WINNING. This can lead to all sort of problems with improving your play, and more importantly, can lead to a lot of frustration and bad times all around. This also affects goal-setting. SC2 players, especially the ones motivated enough to seek out lessons, are very driven and goal-oriented people, for the most part, and so this is a common trap to fall into: ask yourself what your goals are with SC2, where do you see yourself in a month, say? Most likely you said something like “I want to be first in my master’s league division” which would seem perfectly natural, however all that this goal requires that you to do, is win and get ladder points (which , in addition, is exactly what everyone else on the ladder is already thinking anyways). To improve significantly in SC2 you need to lose, and you need to be ok with losing. Your goals, also have to reflect a more advanced mindset than ‘win as much as possible; gain points’.

Having a good, well thought out, well practiced, well timed, efficient build is a prerequisite to discussing strategy. Period. To argue my point ad absurdum, imagine you’re teaching a friend to play SC2 for the first time, and he has a very reasonable question for you regarding strategy: “What is a good reaction to scouting a 1wg expand from protoss on Shattered Temple?” he asks. His build, however, is 6pool into fast queen into extractor, then 3 more drones, then lair, then hive immediately after until super fast 1 ultralisk at the 8:00 mark off of 6 drones. Even the most perfectly articulated explanation of zerg responses to 1wg expand wont help your friend: he needs to work on his build first.
I strongly believe, however, that it’s counter-productive for me to try and force students to play certain ‘builds’ or even to recommend them, unless asked. (note: even the definition of what a ‘build’ is, is highly subjective) instead I offer the following method to develop your own sort of metric with which to define and asses builds for yourself, and further, for finding and learning them:
We first assume that progamers are the authority. Using this method, we always compare ourselves (and by extension, our builds) to the best of the best. Next, download a shitzillion replays (replay packs are preferable) and grab some popcorn and get watching (keep two criteria in mind: late point of contact, and something inspires you). After awhile, you should have a few good replays at your disposal for each matchup. Once you do, you’re ready to start taking notes:

1. Supply Timings: the first few items in a build. For example: 9scout 9overlord 14pool 14extractor 15overlord. (You typically don’t want to go any further with these kinds of timings than this.)

2. Relative Timings: we now figure out what the important elements of our builds are, and time them against each other. As we do this, we create a flexible mental network, and often, as a fortunate by-product, a hierarchical system. For example: I start my second queen when my second hatchery finishes, I start my first extractor when that queen is half way done. Ling speed on first 100 gas, pull 2 from gas, put 1 back on at ½ LS, then lair and 2nd ext on 2nd 100 gas. ETC.

3. Benchmarks: finally, you want to take down some benchmarks to make sure you’ve kept yourself on track, a benchmark is just a rough description of what you see at the current time in any given replay. An example of a benchmark: 8:00 - supply 74/76 handful of roach/ling, 42 drones, 2 queens, lair ¼ done 3rd hatch ½ done, income of 1400/360.
Once you have these notes complete, you should first memorize the exact and relative timings, to the point where you can say them without reading off of a list (like rehearsing the lines of a play). Now, give it a shot against a very easy computer, using the benchmarks to evaluate your performance.
This by no means seeks to solve all of the problems in your play, but only to put in place the fundamental framework off of which you can build.

This is something I get a lot of: people will ask a question that goes something like “My opponent made colossi, what is the counter to colossi?” I can’t answer this question for a number of reasons (more on that in a sec) but the inclusion of the word ‘counter’ exacerbates the problem. Please don’t ask me what thing counters another thing =]! I will, however, say that hydras are terrible and every unit counters them, so don’t ever make them. (jokes… kind of).

Returning to our example of “My opponent made colossi, what is the counter to colossi?” and why this is an unanswerable question: I don’t have anywhere near enough information. So, questions that now come to mind for me after being asked this:

1. What map was this on? Are you playing Metalopolis? Is it MLG Metalopolis or the old Metalopolis? In either case, which positions were you guys? Was it Agria Valley?

2. How did you open? For that matter, how did your opponent open? 15hatch vs. 2gate? 11pool vs. FE?

3. How efficient were you? Remember when I said ‘Having a good, well thought out, well practiced, well timed, efficient build is a prerequisite to discussing strategy’ if I can’t assess those things, I can’t even come close to answering your question.

4. What other shenanigans might have gone on in this game that you might have skimmed over and I might find extremely relevant?

5. Time is important! Was this 10:00 into the game off of 1 base, 15:00 minute off of 2? Did you lose an epic hour long game to a big colossus push? Wait did you even lose this game?
In short, you’re almost always going to need to show me a replay to get a helpful, concise, meaningful answer, otherwise I just don’t have enough information =[. An example of a good question, however, would be: ‘I lost a game ‘cross map on Shakuras Plateau, I opened 14p16h and he FE’d and did nexus before forge, I responded with a fast 3rd and was generally ahead in supply until he did a 2base colossus push around 13:45 and I couldn’t hold it.’ although, even here, I’m being provided with a rough crayon sketch of the game compared with the precise and perfectly representative blueprint that is a replay.

Ladder is not very good practice. You can point to quite a few good players who seem to have popped up from nowhere, played nothing but ladder, and won bunch of tournaments. However, I would argue that that is because this game is young, and two or three years down the road, those people wont be around any longer, and there’s a reason for that. You need practice partners to improve efficiently. One reason for that, among many, is that ladder is far too varying to allow for deep practice. 

Some variables ladder confronts you with (and bear in mind these stack on top of one another): maps (7-10), position relative to opponent (1-3), race of opponent (3), build of the opponent (let’s say 5), your build (again, let’s say 5). Using this very rough model, you can see the sheer number of games you have to play before you run into 2 games which look similar. Given that we learn through repetition, this is bad. Practice partners can also help keep you motivated to play, can help you watch over and discuss your replays with you and, most importantly, can help you enjoy the game more.

Quite often people will ask me if I think they are talented, or if they have potential. I have honestly never seen a talented or untalented SC2 player. People progress at different speeds mostly due to motivation, previous experience with Starcraft (RTS, or in the very least PC games), work ethic and discipline, quality and number of practice partners and friends, mindset, methodology, and, most importantly, time devoted to playing.

What is your Skype/Teamliquid/Bnet account name (and code)?
Skype:Alex-Berker TL:DeluXe1337 Bnet acoount ill coach on:DeluXePXL.902

What time (GMT) you will be able to coach?
Weekdays: 18:00-02-00
Weekends: 10-00-02-00

Will you coach on all serevers?
Yes but i can only coach ingame in the european server. I can still review replays and give feedback as well as discuss build orders and strategies.