My time in Brood War

Improving Your Game - Mishin's Paradox

Trying to improve your StarCraft skills can be very frustrating. You can spend hours at a time (even days) playing on the ladder and still not make any progress. I can sit here and preach to you the old sayings, "practice makes perfect" or "repetition is the mother of all learning," but it won't help you at all. In fact, this advice is very misleading. I would like to share with you an experience I had on iCCup--one that lead to a very interesting discovery.

Back when I was a D-/D Protoss player just starting out on the ladder, I played a 1v1 game against a Terran player with the alias, mishin. We actually played several games, and I lost each of them. In every game, he went for a 2 Fact opening and transitioned to a 4 Fact all-in off 1 base, never letting up the pressure, and ultimately crushed me. I looked up his account on iCCup's website, and I was astonished at the thousands of games mishin played every season.

Fast-forward 6 months, and I hit C-, the golden rank, with my PvT. The following season, when the ranks reset, I ran into mishin again. This time when I played him, I won the game quite convincingly. I compared the replays--the games I played at D-/D level with the game I played at C- level--and I noticed several things. Mishin's play had been identical in every game, but my play was different in a few ways. Previously, his Vultures easily baited my Dragoons forward, and they would take many Spider Mine and Siege Tank hits: I lost many Dragoons carelessly. In the recent game, I used Hold Position a lot more and watched over my Dragoons, minimizing casualties due to negligence. Previously, he marched across the map with his army uncontested and sieged once he reached my natural. In the recent game, I slowed his advance from the time he moved out, forcing him to siege inch by inch all along the way to my natural, which bought me the time I needed to build a force. Previously, I had too few Gateways producing units, and my money remained high at around 1700 minerals. In addition, I only had 1 mining base, my main. In the recent game, I kept my money low by having enough unit-producing structures, and I expanded after I broke through his initial contain from the 2 Fact push. I continued to trade my forces with his to keep his army away from my base while my economy grew. Eventually, I took the macro advantage and was able to take a 3rd while still holding his push back. Once I had enough production, I pushed him back all the way to his base, flooded units into his main, and won.

The point I want to make with this story is that playing thousands upon thousands of games, also known as mass-gaming, has the potential to do absolutely nothing to increase your level of play. This goes completely against conventional wisdom, which says, "practice makes perfect," hence the name, Mishin's Paradox. Looking back at my games with mishin, his play had remained the same 6 months later. My play, however, was different than the way it was 6 months ago. Therefore, if you are trying to improve your StarCraft, you should be trying to change the way you play rather than trying to play the same way you always have. How do you change the way you play in order to win more, you ask?

The first step is to assume a humble attitude: Admit to yourself that the reason you lost a game was because you made mistakes, and your opponent was able to capitalize on those mistakes. The second step is to look back at the replay carefully (that is, not at x16) and identify your mistakes--make a list of them on paper. The third step is to look for solutions; think about what you can do in future games to prevent these mistakes from happening again. The fourth and final step is implementation; go about solving each of the mistakes in your list in future games. However, don't try to fix all the mistakes at once. Focus on one of them at a time. This is where practice comes in handy--in each game you play, you should have something specific you are trying to do better. Players who reach a plateau in their skill level do so because they are missing one of these four steps.

In my games with mishin, it was fairly easy to identify the mistakes I made because it was a low-level game. In general, the higher you go in terms of skill, the less obvious your mistakes in the game will be. Therefore, how much you improve will be a function of your observational prowess. It might prove beneficial to have a friend (or a coach) watch your replay with you because he or she might notice something you overlooked.

In summary, if you are looking to improve your game, then look for mistakes in the games you lose. In the following games you play, push yourself to correct those mistakes one at a time. Too often I see players who stream their games, playing one right after the other, without viewing replays of the games they lose; some only give a cursory glance at the replay at x16 speed. This will lead to a plateau in skill level with respect to time à la Mishin's Paradox.

Never Give Up

Against mishin's style of play, I discovered many things that I needed to improve upon in my PvT game. Playing other people with different styles revealed other flaws that helped me improve further. In general, you should experience many situations, experiment with your build orders, and not be afraid to mess up. Push yourself to play better and faster by playing people slightly above your level. The beauty of this training method is that if you lose, it was meant to happen, and if you win, it's because you played exceptionally well. Maintain a consistent training schedule every week, preferably with a few hours most days of the week rather than many hours a few days of the week. Being healthy, eating well, and getting enough sleep every night all do wonders for your game, needless to say. For more tips on improving your game, I highly recommend reading Ver's outstanding guide on the subject.