EPTWhen I play Starcraft my adrenaline surges. I can't stop shaking, and I don't think when I play. I have to plan everything beforehand because my in-game decision-making is not good. If I haven't encountered something before, it'll probably kill me. I'm thinking about transitioning back to Starcraft: Brood War where my mechanical expertise will pay greater dividends. Plus, the adrenaline is helpful too because unlike Starcraft 2, the Starcraft: Brood War interface is not streamlined. So, the additional APM from my adrenaline will help me win.
Fortunately with me, I have enough time to play that I've encountered every standard strategy, and I've even memorized pretty much every creative trick that can help me win. So when I play, I don't need to think. I can just do everything from muscle memory and try to detect what my opponent is doing. I have a good intuition which I supplement... so all I need to do is play a great mechanical game, and that gets the job done. I am good at planning my battles, building strategies and I work with a lot of other players who are happy to help me. With their help, I play very well. I'd say probably 80% of my success is from preparation and work that I do outside of ladder. When I'm laddering I just focus on execution, and although that carried me to A- in ICCUP, I find Starcraft 2 to be very challenging. Everyone in Starcraft 2 has pretty much the same mechanics, or at least the returns you get with better mechanics are a lot less. I don't think I'll ever excel in Starcraft 2 with my current mind set.
I think the expansion will make Starcraft 2 a much more strategically interesting game. Right now it seems like everyone is pretty much the same, at least at my level. Everyone's mechanics are pretty much the same, everyone uses pretty much the same strategies -- there just isn't much room to vary what you do. No one seems to have true superior tactics. I'd say that Starcraft 2 still hasn't reached the level of development of Starcraft: Brood War, yet mechanics and tactics are already maxed out, and everyone seems to execute them with the same degree of efficiency. There's still some strategic development happening, but it's definitely not what it should be.
I can't find the motivation to play because it feels like every game is the same. I'm not sure I'd say that I'm burnt out. It's more like I have the desire to play and to improve and excel, but the game is just too simple. I can't improve my mechanics, and I can't improve my tactics. We keep moving forward strategically, and yet there doesn't seem to be much room to innovate. Everything is just A-move (I'm Zerg). Even my Protoss teammates say that there's not much to it. Protoss macro is so easy that a pro can maintain his macro level with one game a day.
I am still fighting the good fight. Unfortunately I don't think I will be a top tier Starcraft 2 professional until I get the right mindset. My anxiety kills me. I make decisions that I regret and I feel like if I'll die if I don't win. I struggle to breath when I play, and my focus wanes. No matter what mindset I use when I join a game, once I've made my first Overlord, all I care about is winning. I watch all my losing replays, though, just to make sure I know what I did wrong and what I could improve.
