EPTno, I'm not gonna have an entire speech about something that annoyed me. Not even about something that happend outside of my 'Starcraftlife'. I'm going to talk about something that I found enjoyable. Something I discovered and something I want to keep on doing.
There is this thing that has to be done if you want to become better at something. It's repeating the same action, trying to improve something. In one simple word: 'training'. Now, as you all know, becoming better at Starcraft requires a lot of effort. Training is hard, doing the same thing over and over, be sharp, try to figure out your own mistakes. What I've found during my trainingsessions is that is can become boring. And not just boring, but very boring. I mean, sure the music helps, but sometimes I come to a point of me saying: 'blegh, I don't want to do this anymore'. Best thing to do at that moment is simply quit. You won't improve when you feel like that, it has to be fun. However, I did find a solution.
Play and train with a buddy or even someone you met on ladder. As I told you guys before, I have a buddy, my Orange League mate Ration who plays with me a lot. But, we can't always play together due to the job and study stuff. I recently played a ZvP on Daybreak. Now, ZvP used to be my best match-up, espescially the way the Protoss player play at my level, they all do the same thing more or less. However, playing this ZvP, I litteraly got destroyed in a matter of minutes. I mean, it wasn't even close. It was horrible. I felt really, really, really bad. Instead of directing my anger at my opponent or myself (both are unacceptable for me btw, especially the first) I started to chat with my opponent after and during the game. He turned out to be a nice guy. There was one thing wrong though, he was playing on a friends account and it turned out he actually was a high master level Protoss.. No wonder my ass got kicked right? Again, I decided to overlook this fact and to talk to him about the game. He turned out to be a really nice guy and when I asked him for advice, he gave it. We now play together on a regular basis, and it helps me out a lot. Like having my own coach.
Next to this guy, who shall remain nameless due to his 'playing on a friends account' action.., I met someone in class who was a high master level Terran and Protoss and high diamond Zerg. Three races! Playing with someone like that opend up so many oppurtunities. For instance, when I get destroyed by a build, he can easily copy that build or already knows it. He knows the weakpoints, has the experience to see them and help me create and practice my builds. This makes it so much more fun. And I met this guy, because I wasn't afraid to talk about what interested me. I have a f*ck the prejudice mindset, and that helps me out a lot too. I guess what I'm saying is, don't be afraid of other people when it comes to this competitive game we all love so much and espescially don't hide the things you really love and what you are passionate for. As the TL community has proven, we can help eachother out a lot most of the times. You all probably realised/ know this already, but I still wanted to put it out there once more. Don't be afraid of other people!
Love and warm greetings,
Thomas
