Hello! First of all I want to apologise having you made wait so long to continue my blog. Sadly I still am by nature a procrastinator, as much as I hate that part about me ...
So here's my update on how things are going, what has changed and how I feel: Overall I'm pretty happy about my current situation (except I still don't have proper internet at my new flat, what a joke...) Spring is finally here and the sunny weather is giving me a lot of additional strength that I was lacking during Winter. Thanks to my new schedule I'm doing more sport than at any point in my adult life and probably even exercise more than I set out to. I haven't been following my routine hour for hour but it's proven to be a very good guideline to my training overall. I'm not someone who works that well following a schedule exactly as it is on paper, the most important is doing all the segments of it to me.
As long as I start the day properly. This shouldn't be toyed around with I think. A good balanced breakfast is extremely important to me. It usually consists of scrambled eggs or an omelet, yogurt with muesli and fruits, and bread plus ham or something similar. I notice I do much better all day when I actually take the time to prepare and eat my breakfast rather than just having a sandwich or rush it.
I'm capable of playing longer sessions without feeling uncomfortable. Even when I notice that I am getting tense I usually manage to relax again and any stress or pain related to that is gone in less than 5 minutes. My mind is more focused and I think I can bring my A-game to the table more often than in the past. However, I noticed that most of the time I have 1 outstandingly good session compared to the rest. I need to find out why I do better in that 1 session than in the others and recreate that environment for the other 1-2 sessions in order to maximize my training effort. Replacing 2-3 hours of highest focus with 6-9 can easily make my training twice as effective without actually playing more. A big point to help with that will be my diet, making it more regular and avoiding big meals that make me tired. I'll also try to have healthy snacks more often at my desk, which I can keep eating while playing in order to constantly replenish my energy levels.
One thing I am increasingly happy about is that my subconscious has been affected by my new gained confidence. When I was much younger I often literally dreamed about winning WCG, play the last game of the finals and miraculously defeat my much stronger opponent, that feeling screaming from the top of my lungs as I execute the winning move... opening the door of the booth and hearing the cheers of thousands of people. I don't know how it really is when you win that big, not yet. But in my dreams it's the most overpowering emotion known to me and it's addicting. When that happens and I open my eyes it fuels me for the rest of day.
I used to hate myself for being a very emotional guy because it makes my skill and behaviour very erratic, small things could pull me down, while just taking a walk through the forest on a sunny day can lift me up to happiness that can't be described as anything but bliss. I realize now that I can use all of my emotions to my advantage. I'm melancholic. I like being sad sometimes, very sad even, but that's cool. One doesn't need a constant stream of elation in one's life to reflect on it and be happy. For me it's important to have strong emotions so I can mold them into motivation. My career as a progamer made me laugh, smile and gave me the best moments of my life, but it also made me scream in desperation and cry from disappointment. But most of all it has given me a sense of purpose and that dedication usually comes to light when I feel the most, no matter in what way. That's when I can see it all makes sense and lines up and I understand what I need to do and why.
Anger, especially, has often made me play faster and more focused, a friend of mine is even playing with the idea of finding ways to make me mad at tournaments, though, we're not sure yet if that would be productive or could backfire if it's done artificially. One of my favorite quotes is very relevant here: ''Anger is like gasoline. If you spray it around somebody lights a match, you've got an inferno. But if we can put our anger inside an engine, it can drive us forward." - Scillia Elworthy (one of my favourite TED Talks by a remarkable woman: http://www.ted.com/talks/scilla_elworthy_fighting_with_non_violence.html )
I'm very excited for Dreamhack Stockholm and WCS. It'll be extremely crucial to use the coming week as much as I can to polish my game, but even more important to create a perfect situation for myself on the days of the tournaments, have the right kind of food ready, do some sport and get into a positive competitive mindset. The goal is to feel more confident and comfortable than anyone else in the tournament. Let me elaborate on that: basically, how I see it, being at a tournament gives players a modifier. Some people manage to play at 120% of the normal skill while others will plummet to 80%. I want to get that number as high as possible. I used to get really sick at tournaments from being nervous, I learned that this is because of adrenaline not being properly pumped through my system. In nature there was no situation in which we wouldn't be in a very physical situation when adrenaline is released into our system. Our civilisation has created scenarios in which that is the case though: Exams, job interviews, presentations, fast driving, chess, SC2 tournaments and countless other situations. It's extremely important to take deep breaths and, if you have the opportunity, get your heart pumping. Get physical, go for a short run if you can, you'll feel so much better and now you can make use of that extra focus, strength, speed and increased reaction times.
All in all my biggest points to work on: • Diet, avoid big meals that feel you sluggish and impair your ability to train • increase amounts of sc2 while not cutting into any other activities that are important and crucial to my well-being • Decrease procrastination on the Internet (it's not as bad as it once was, but there are a good amount of hours that I can free up for more useful and satisfying activities • most importantly, become more analytic about my games, I'm an intuitive player but watching more replays won't hurt at all. Just watching 2-3 a day will only cost 15 minutes but could help a lot!
I've been posting decent results online, doing well in the ladder and won a bunch of showmatches, KOTH and online cups. So that's good and definitely progress, keeping my results, which are not yet impressive but at least consistent. The next challenges await and I honestly can't wait for the upcoming big tournaments! That's it from me and see you at Dreamhack!
Your stream is constantly good, and introduces me to great music (stephano and you are similar in this). AND your mods played a clan war... which is sick cool ^^
Your mentality is so inspiring. Your methodological way of approaching problems that at first glance seem out of our control offer a constant stream of progress. Thanks for being so awesome! Cheers!
I like how you are trying to find ways for practicing more productively, and yes it does fall down into a mix of time management, motivation, and maintaining a healthy body.
For foods, I suggest fruits and veggies as snacks. As long as you have the extra cash to pay for it because its generally more expensive than processed foods like chips. Also there is no substitute to water!
As for your anger experiment, I think you should try to recreate the feelings that being angry create and if you are aware of how you feel when you are angry, it will be a lot easier to pick out the traits of that emotion that help you excel in your games
I remember when I played WCGs. I never did very good because something was always wrong. Chairs were too low, monitors too bright, mouse had different sensitivity at home. I had very little practice for the last few days before tournament, or different things that killed my mindset.I always played different than in practice. I can understand how mindset, in tournament is super important and everything needs to go right. I recall, I was playing a game vs Stork and I lost like 10 mutas to a single archon. My hands were shaking so much and I just could not split them. This would never happened in practice. Never!!! Well, I am a big fan of your creative play-style.I wish you steady hands, and solid mindset. Good Luck!
I like what you said about breakfast and using anger as fuel, I am pretty emotional aswell and feeling sad and being ok with it is something to try.
Still, watching you play is horrific, as you said, you are an intuitive player, but sometimes that leads to strategical mistakes that gold league players would laugh about. I hope you do well, I think you need to learn how to play, instead of feel how to play, at least if you keep playing zerg.
Nice blog, glad to hear you're doing well one thing that I saw in your blog is that you're trying to recreate the environment of your best practice session so you can improve your practice. That is cool, but you need to make sure it's a mental environment and not a physical environment thing, because as said in day[9] daily 100, where day[9] tells his life story, he talks about how Froz always practiced in different environments, like different chair height, cold vs hot, etc, and that made him able to focus in any situation. Make sure you don't get too comfortable in your current physical playing environment, and focus more on having a better mental focus while you're playing
On April 21 2013 03:56 Archile wrote: Nice blog, glad to hear you're doing well one thing that I saw in your blog is that you're trying to recreate the environment of your best practice session so you can improve your practice. That is cool, but you need to make sure it's a mental environment and not a physical environment thing, because as said in day[9] daily 100, where day[9] tells his life story, he talks about how Froz always practiced in different environments, like different chair height, cold vs hot, etc, and that made him able to focus in any situation. Make sure you don't get too comfortable in your current physical playing environment, and focus more on having a better mental focus while you're playing
good luck, Archile
It's good to be adaptive and it's something I work on as well. You can create triggers that make you feel at home at tournaments. Like always eating the same food as in practice, do the same exercises and listen to your favourite music. A Physical and mental environment is extremely connected one relates to the other. The whole separation of ''mental'' and ''physical'' is dangerous. They are different aspects of the same thing.
What really matters a lot though is to make your physical environment, as you say, a transportable flexible bubble that you can take with you anywhere you, which doesn't burst if things around you change. But that it just takes a slightly new shape that works just as well
Great blog TLO. These really give me an insight to your daily life and how you prepare for your events. There is some good advice in here that could apply to a lot of people. Just eating a good breakfast everyday has done wonders for me.
Great job and keep it up! Good luck at your upcoming tournaments! :D
Such a good read, great blog TLO! Cheered you on in the very first zotac cups as random in the beta, will continue to cheer you and the rest of TL on! ^_^ Fighting~
I swore I read some research years ago about concentration and how it's not possible to be at "peak" levels consistently for more than about 3-4 hour blocks, which is why effective training tends to be done in shorter blocks instead of 6-7 hours but I'm having a hell of a time finding it.
I'd be really interested in a blog from you dedicated to how you see your physical state affecting your mental state when competing, and what exercise and diet you do to help yourself in that regard. Thanks for an awesome and unique update.
A tip for staying focused is to eat a tiny bit of something every 10 minutes like a raisin, seed or mint. It tells the brain you are getting constant energy. If u don't eat for a while the brain will try to conserve. Studies show this works for things like tests where you need to focus for a length of time.
On April 20 2013 22:33 Liquid`TLO wrote: I used to get really sick at tournaments from being nervous, I learned that this is because of adrenaline not being properly pumped through my system. In nature there was no situation in which we wouldn't be in a very physical situation when adrenaline is released into our system. Our civilisation has created scenarios in which that is the case though: Exams, job interviews, presentations, fast driving, chess, SC2 tournaments and countless other situations. It's extremely important to take deep breaths and, if you have the opportunity, get your heart pumping. Get physical, go for a short run if you can, you'll feel so much better and now you can make use of that extra focus, strength, speed and increased reaction times.
On April 20 2013 22:33 Liquid`TLO wrote: • most importantly, become more analytic about my games, I'm an intuitive player but watching more replays won't hurt at all. Just watching 2-3 a day will only cost 15 minutes but could help a lot!
Yeah thats a good idea, I watch your stream a lot and never see you watch any replays at all...
I also watch DeMuslim a lot, and he analyzes his replays all the time, and just look at his improvements lately.. I'm not saying there is a direct correlation, but it is very obvious that it helps, like you said... So yeah, good idea!
good blog as well, like following your progress its fun !
Anger leads to the darkside, TLO, duh. But aggression...I think that can be very good for competition (not from a playstyle perspective, more of a mindset. Like channeling aggression into apm/whatever in a way similar to how you described anger).
Im guessing being a pro is so wierd when you practise. Like practising very minute mechanics... ohhh looks so boring to me... but then again, thats were biggest improvements could be. (dunno ofc. but i assume pro's train really different than amateurs).
It is always awesome to read something about your current life being a pro-gamer and turning up your recent results just like the Kaspersky Arena or different online cups. I believe that everyone who practices so hard for his goals will once archieve them - no matter what. I just wish you the best for your future.
Just one thing left - the passion you have in playing sc2. I got the same "passion" about playing Basketball all the time or just watch someone play it. As much as i want to train hard and focus and my personal goals in sports it is so important to just sometimes relax about the thing you love and not just see it as "work to do". In Basketball we play little shooting games like horse or just some pick up games where we play hard but are goofing around very much. Maybe it will help you with sc2 when from time to time you just have one evening were you play with guys from the chat (monobattles or something) or anything else so that you don`t have that much competitive nature in those games itself.
Always interesting to read such insight; and it's even better that it truly reveals part of yourself. Also, nothing bad about being emotional guy; heck, there are way too many emotionless people in the scene, even if it's just the image they want to project, it sucks & I personally prefer people who can enjoy and SHOW it, that they are happy, that they won an important match or a competition. That shows the real passion and love for the game, after all.
I saw a bit lot of myself, remembering Dreamhack Summer last year, when you mentioned getting really sick from feeling nervous. I can relate to that, it's not even funny how much I can relate to that, heh. Wish I knew how to deal with that!
Anyways, thank you for sharing these, keep loving that StarCraft & best of luck at Dreamhack
On April 20 2013 22:33 Liquid`TLO wrote: When I was much younger I often literally dreamed about winning WCG, play the last game of the finals and miraculously defeat my much stronger opponent, that feeling screaming from the top of my lungs as I execute the winning move... opening the door of the booth and hearing the cheers of thousands of people.
The bolded part is the only 'problem' you have. Even your nick points to it. TheLittleOne. Why is it that you must be 'the weak one' who has to overcome all possible shits to win? I remember seeing you play vs MC at some tournament ~1 year ago. Homestory? or something.. You were shaking and trying to compose yourself to be able to beat this 'much stronger opponent'.
If you can allow yourself to be TheBigOne, allow yourself the mindset that it's completely fine to be strong and powerful and crush people in games - you will reach a new level of your game.
Some role models you should look up to (replace your old ones): - Michael Jordan - Kobe Bryant - Michael Schumacher - Muhammad Ali - Mike Tyson - Klitchko brothers
They are 'killers', yet they don't actually hurt anyone. They're just letting their power shine totally, and they don't hold back or hide.
Imo this step is what's keeping you from becoming a much much better player.
On April 20 2013 22:33 Liquid`TLO wrote: When I was much younger I often literally dreamed about winning WCG, play the last game of the finals and miraculously defeat my much stronger opponent, that feeling screaming from the top of my lungs as I execute the winning move... opening the door of the booth and hearing the cheers of thousands of people.
The bolded part is the only 'problem' you have. Even your nick points to it. TheLittleOne. Why is it that you must be 'the weak one' who has to overcome all possible shits to win? I remember seeing you play vs MC at some tournament ~1 year ago. Homestory? or something.. You were shaking and trying to compose yourself to be able to beat this 'much stronger opponent'.
If you can allow yourself to be TheBigOne, allow yourself the mindset that it's completely fine to be strong and powerful and crush people in games - you will reach a new level of your game.
Some role models you should look up to (replace your old ones): - Michael Jordan - Kobe Bryant - Michael Schumacher - Muhammad Ali - Mike Tyson - Klitchko brothers
They are 'killers', yet they don't actually hurt anyone. They're just letting their power shine totally, and they don't hold back or hide.
Imo this step is what's keeping you from becoming a much much better player.
oh that was when I was a kid, I don't dream it that way anymore! My mind has changed a lot over the past year, I'm gaining confidence and manage to see myself as someone fit to win tournaments. It's still something In need to work on a lot though! Often I think to myself that I need that 1 big breakout win to really get to that level, but I can work on it before already, that's for sure. Thanks for your input!
Questions for TLO: (1) when they introduced the resume game from replay option you reacted extremely enthusiastic about its impact for training. Atm though, you hardly seem to make use of it. Did you change your mind about it or is it more due to the training preferences of other players? (2) you are probably the pro with the biggest streaming time atm. Don`t you sometimes think that this makes you like an open book for other pros? Personally I`m kinda divided on that issue. On the one hand you are as you said more of an intuitive player that varies his builds a lot. Nevertheless I think it`s fait to say that if someone watches you regulary it`s easy for him to figure out typical patterns (e.g. when you opt for mutas in zvp). Maybe you should think about cutting your streaming times more when there are important matches on the table (and as an avid viewer I don`t say that to my own benefit ;-) ).
Best of luck and grats on your recent improvement.
Well done! Glad to see you progress especially that you can see your own progress if that makes sense.
Its hard for me to see my own progress at anything even if people tell me "that was very good", im myself feel not satisfied with the result, cause i know i could have done it better, its a stupid mind block.
whatever enjoying watching your stream while im working
and if you feel grabbing a beer here in finally sunny Berlin pm me
EPT
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