EPTLadder is great practice, It's quick to find matches, You get to play vs many different people and many different styles, you get rewarded cool portraits and points when you win, and it gives you a good bench mark on your improvement overtime, but I know a lot of people that take ladder to seriously and they get frustrated at loses, Go on tilt, Lose more, and get more frustrated. It's a dangerous circle that everyone goes through. You won't be able to play 100% every game, You're going to lose and you're going to get upset. Getting upset is a very common feeling when "failing" at something you're trying so hard to improve at. The biggest thing to keep control of, Is how you direct these feelings. It's very easy to call your opponent and stupid scrub all inning cheeser, but that just makes you feel worse, you don't make any friends, and you can't improve off your mistakes. The biggest mistake anyone can make is blame the game. It will get you NO WHERE. I can't stress this enough! Losing a game, and going into a chat room calling zerg imba because those infestors will not help you improve. It's an easy out to a loss, but losing doesn't matter! It's the BEST way to improve! If you lose, Say GG WP and leave and watch the replay. Figure out what YOU did wrong, Not what is broken in the game. If you're stumped and didn't leave the game furiously calling your opponent names, I'm sure they'll be more than willing to give you tips if you ask.
If you find yourself so frustrated that you can't contain it. Step away, Clear your head, and come back. Just remember, No matter what happens, just say GG and leave the game. If a player is calling you bad and trying to irritate you don't let him. Once you have an out burst he's already won. Ignore the trolls and focus on your goal, Improving. Ladder rankings are taken way to seriously in this scene. It's understandable since without winning tournaments or beating top pros it's hard to properly regulate where each individual stands as far as skill, but don't look to far into ladder rankings. I'll use myself as an example. My account on NA is mid masters, but I regularly take games off high GM players in practice games, with straight up macro skill based games. The problem with ladder is that everyone is so focused on points, they'll do anything to win. Wether that's 4gate every protoss, Cannon rush every zerg, Proxy DT every terran. As long as they win, they're happy. Those are the worst players! They're not improving they're simply using a gimmick to inflate their actual ranking which people will look at and assume that player has actual skill. Never go into a game thinking "how can I win easily?" Always try to work on yourself. Use every game as a stepping stone towards bettering your mechanics. When you lose watch the replay and try to pin point your mistakes to improve on. It's a great tool to improve if you don't abuse it, Or let the abusers get under your skin.
So in a nut shell. Don't let your anger get in way of your progress. Ladder is a great tool to practice with, but it's not a big deal so don't treat it as one! Ladder ranking doesn't mean anything.
Thanks for reading. I hope it helped a little bit =]
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