EPTAs a result of this understanding, I want to also stop wasting time on SC2. My 8 hours on the computer, is probably the equivalent of 2-3 hours of any pro gamer. But rather than making myself get 8 hours of progamer time, I want to simply get 2-3 hours of progamer time and get better grades in school. I finished the 2011/2012 school year with an 82% average, and am redoing precalc 11 and physics 11 this summer to even hope to get to a university.
On to the starcraft side of shit, which is what this website is about:
I suck at Starcraft. Well, maybe not. I represent the top 1% of North America in skill. I can take down GMs and top masters. But I’ve been in mid masters for 5 season now. Perhaps I suck at improving?
This is a question I pursued for a day, first beginning in the realm of Starcraft, then later in my life. Answering this question for myself, I felt I had to analyze how I was learning in the low leagues, and break those tendencies, habits, down into comprehensible statements, and I wanted to recall if there was anything in my history I could learn from. Understanding the foundation to build a pyramid if you will. For anyone who plays in a woodwind band, orchestra, symphony what have you, remember when you started and the director would always explain how the band is like a pyramid with the bass instruments on the bottom and alto on the top.
To tackle the question at hand. How was I improving at SC2? At the time I picked up the game....
Here is where it gets hazy, as I do not think I have made a proper analysis of this, ever. So I do not know whether I am looking at the right things, in the correct way, so I will just hope that what I do come up with, some of it is good.
In bronze league, I learned what the units did. And how to make them. I would abuse the powers and weaknesses of these units. For example, my composition was marine to expand, then viking to kill their air and land in their mineral lines, then battlecruiser to seal the deal. In my low level mind, I knew the role of my units at each time of the game, what I wanted to do with them, what my opponents are doing and how it relates to what I am doing. So that is how I got top 8 bronze.
Into silver, all the way to diamond, I still didn’t know of a pro scene, but I did know that there were build order guides on the internet. I attribute my success in these stages completely to knowing what a build order is, and executing it. I got into top 8 diamond with an average of 20-30 apm in all my games.
That can’t be it though. One thing can’t be the difference between a silver player and a masters player.
I spent so little time in gold and platinum, that I feel it is not even worth analysing my thoughts during those days. I will skip ahead to diamond.
In diamond, I would think about the game more. My thoughts were outside of the game though. My nooby little mind began to formulate more complicated, and effective compositions, and build orders to effectively get to that stage. I began to analyse positioning in starcraft. At this point, I will bring out my mighty diamond e-Penis at the time and say with confidence, I probably had the best diamond macro on the server. However, this macro meant nothing when you still played at 20-30 apm and your camera was in your base for 95% of the game. My solution was not to play faster, but rather to move smarter. I would move my tanks along ridges, rather than open ground. I would drop once, then dash forward to get an aggressive siege position. I would eventually stop walking on to creep with my army.
I also discovered a pro scene. I’m not quite sure about the chronology, but I distinctly remember the great reign of the blue flame hellion. I didn’t like the hellion, so against terrans I began to play a marauder, tank, viking composition and that worked fine.
I also had a network of 6 high diamond players, from all walks of life, and we would play and talk with each other a lot. I was the youngest, but they didn’t seem to notice and I would fit in fine. In fact, they were shocked at how young I am and something that stuck with me was ‘I wouldn’t know you are so young until you invited your real life friends to the skype call.’
The last step between me and masters, was to flesh out my own unique build orders. I still distinctly remember that time, the map pool, my builds, and the sheer number of games. I gave myself an ultimatum ‘I’m going on vacation for 2 months, and there will be no computers, you’re getting masters.’ And for 4 days, I grinded 30 games a day and got masters.
Throughout this period, I think I have identified three major things that defined who I was growing into.
First, I must figure out shit on my own, and it is good that I didn’t know of a pro scene to copy. My understanding of my units, and how they relate to the opponent was a completely personal experience, and without a doubt, anyone doing the same thing would end up with their own perspective of the game, and it would certainly be different than mine.
Second, I learned how to make more complicated compositions, and efficient ways to get towards them. This again, was me figuring out the game for myself, and is a completely unique experience to anyone who would do the same,
Third, I began to think about the game, outside of the game. This just went from understanding individual units, and mixing them together, to understanding a composition’s properties, not the pieces of the composition, and how to effectively use it as a whole.
Then come the smaller, yet significantly bigger (oh the oxymoron!) learning experiences within masters.
The one I always think of, and none other seem to come, is TvZ.
This is where I discovered how complicated gameplans were, and especially how extremely difficult it was to execute them.
I was doing the empire.Kas 2 base, 3 tank, ~30 marine timing at 9 minutes.
To execute this strategy, you open with reactor hellion expand, 2 hellions, and basically get to 3 rax, a techlab factory, and two gas. I still remember the build order, but no longer think it is very good.
There were so many small moments, in this rather big moment of a build order:
I learned to watch my minimap, because you only have two hellions. I learned early game multitasking, because you only have two hellions. I learned how good hellions were... Such a little things, with so much behind it.
My APM went from 20 to 60-80 in these times.
I went from a crude understanding of positioning, and how to tank push in TvZ, to fucking knowing how to tank push.
I took a crude understanding of build orders, and began to refine it to such a point that is is actually optimal (for the desired outcome.) I also began to identify stages of the games, styles of zerg and how to deal with them, how to expand, how to make static defences with depots and bunkers, so many things....
I learned defence timings above all. With Terran, attack timings are bloody simple to understand. An upgrade finishes, you attack. However, now I knew when allins can come, when 2 base baneling busts or roach allins can come, when runbys begin to happen, what time mutas can be at my base, when his third goes up and how it relates to all of this.
This period was defined by conversation with my zerg practice partner, which I hope I will never forget for as long as I play this game. (FGMagic, I still appreciate you and Eulogy being the only ones to be kind to me.) Having analysis come from two people, and talking to each other made for many realizations about my play and I learned a lot.
Now that team must have decided as a whole to shake off the parasites who are hanging out in their channel, so I went to the prodigy gaming channel.
Here I learned some strictly better TvT builds with REQRookie, and I grew to understand TvP with Orchid. Rookie was a high master, but Orchid was a grandmaster korean, and she, in one fell swoop, gave me enough understanding of TvP to take it from 14% winrate, to my current highest winrate of ~70%. All the principles learned there, I still keep and use in my TvPs.
After, I have only had one practice partner, as teams abandoned me as even a hopeful recruit, in ronaldrage. With him, I was just working on mechanics.
Eventually, after lots of lonely laddering, which was essentially wasted time in terms of practice, I saw a reddit post of Team exioN recruiting. I gave it a shot, and I think I blew them away with my TvZ, but was caught way off against a very defensive gateway/templar Protoss, and gave a pretty good showing of my TvT.
I was tentatively accepted to the team.
However, the issue of lonely practice continued. This time I got more ideas to try out on the ladder, but it is still very similar to what I was doing before.
I got to participate in clanwars, which I think are great team bonding activities. But not learning/improving experiences. Because everyone is in vent critiquing you while you play, but you’re in the muted channel so that you are blindly playing.
I sort of derailed my own train of thought. I went from recounting my learning experiences earlier on, to circle jerking myself to memories.
There are two things, now that they are written, that I can say are two very important things for my own improvement. Theory outside of the game, and conversation with others.
So for my own improvements sake. I am going to outline 3 goals:
Spend some time thinking about your play, and what you can do better.
Spend some time with practice partners talking.
Lastly, and the most difficult as I have never done it before: be mindful DURING the games. Maintain a distinct awareness of all of the metagame talk (outside of the game talk)
One thing at a time though, I will probably figure out mindfulness eventually. I know it is a weakness because I can not even make myself spam hotkeys to artificially increase my APM past the build order stage.
I was going to try to relate all of this to my learning experiences in music, but at this point I just no longer feel like it. The important things is that in music, learning is similar to starcraft, and that I tend to learn in bursts rather than a gradual experience.
Fourth thing to work on, improve my writing, as I always feel as though what I write doesn't make sense to other humans.
