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Recently several players have approached me asking about issues with them raging at the game, playing worse than usual, going on tilt for long periods and in general having trouble progressing and finding where to improve. I myself had a horrible ladder session yesterday on stream where I went through some of these same symptoms. I thought I'd grab a few of my responses to my students and throw them together into a mini article. Hopefully this will help some of you with your progression as a Starcraft player.
Focus and Mindset
When we don't perform to our expectations things can get quite frustrating. Part of this is mindset and focus. Remember to analyse your replays. Preferably at the end of a day or half a day of practice you can sit there and watch most of your losses with a notepad writing down the key turning points in the game, things you can improve in your macro and so on. Basically looking for ways to improve. You need to do this at least once every 2-3 days or you will get in the mode of just massing games. Don’t become a player that plays 10x as much as anyone else and yet their results never improve.
Staying Positive - Keeping Your Ego in Check
Also make sure you're in a positive mindset. Depending on your lifestyle and how serious you are with Starcraft there are a lot of things that can benefit your life as a whole that will also help you be faster and smarter at starcraft. Make sure you're exercising regularly, it doesn't need to be much just a long walk or a light jog a few times a week will do wonders for your average gamer-nerd.
Force yourself to gg every game, and be very critical and aware of your own mindset. Ego is the enemy. We always need to keep a careful eye on this. With each level you climb you will hit new obstacles that will reveal your weaknesses. Remember that if you ever let your ego feed on your achievements and grow bloated and fat, it will be twice as shocking when you run into a new barrier. And your ego will prefer you take breaks, run away, or even if you keep playing, it will make you irrational and blame games on all-ins, cheese, random shit, luck, accidents and your opponent being "so dumb that he didnt react to what I did". You will stop learning from your losses and go on tilt much faster. This negative focus will make Starcraft a very sour experience for you. Work on avoiding it at all costs.
Distractions
Also when you play. Please do yourself a favour and don't have any second monitor turned on, any streams in the background, or anything like that. AND do not browse the web in between games. It is SO important for you to process how you're playing, why you're losing/winning in between games and to keep your focus. Do not distract yourself with all this other stuff.
P.S. If you want to play in a more relaxed way, hop onto a different server, unranked or a different account and play funner, cheesier or more relaxed strategies if you're going to have distractions present.
Not as easy as it sounds - putting in the extra effort
Of course things sound simple written like I have above. But this is a complex game where there are many, many factors surrounding every win and loss. If you want to get the most out of coaching/ladder/progress I want you to re-write out your entire builds e.g. vs ZvP 3-base blink or wherever your problems may lie, pointing out what you react to, where you choose to do what and transition how.
If you write all this out in detail you might solve some of the problems yourself before you even get into game. Application of focus and effort is not easy, but it is rewarding.
Gl hf,
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/1rDuCLH.png)
 
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never leave a man behind.
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So what to do if I have a negetive mindset, but towards myself not the game or the other player? I self-BM a lot 
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On January 31 2015 14:26 SetGuitarsToKill wrote:So what to do if I have a negetive mindset, but towards myself not the game or the other player? I self-BM a lot
Staying Positive and maybe in a situation like yours you actually need a little ego, or confidence at the very least...
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Ego being the enemy is so true. Every time I see someone rage they are talking about how overpowered the other races are. How this or that is bullshit. It's very rarely self-critical rage.
Every game I'm constantly going over all the crap I do wrong. Getting supply blocked. Late on my lair or not scouting enough ... Oh i didnt see that coming ... thats all MY fault. Just remember to do better next time.
Stay focused on your mistakes and what you need to improve on and all the things you need to keep in mind at various stages of the game. If you're really honest with yourself, you will find that you're not angry when you lose- but surprised when you win.
I really enjoy your stream PiG ... if you and Moonglade streamed enough, I'm not even sure I would play the game. :p
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Nice article PiG =)
On January 31 2015 14:26 SetGuitarsToKill wrote:So what to do if I have a negetive mindset, but towards myself not the game or the other player? I self-BM a lot
Be patient with yourself. Whatever you're working on, you don't need to master it today, or tomorrow, or even next week. Give yourself time, pace yourself, and you will see progress.
As an example, I have been working on integrating camera hotkeys into my game for the past month or so. I still have a lot of room for optimization, but I went from clicking on the minimap after assigning the hotkeys to using them to build buildings in my bases. Still need to use them to deal with harassment, etc. however.
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On January 31 2015 11:13 PiGStarcraft wrote:
With each level you climb you will hit new obstacles that will reveal your weaknesses.
What a strong reminder!
Nice blog, applies to more than just Starcraft I think.
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On January 31 2015 14:26 SetGuitarsToKill wrote:So what to do if I have a negetive mindset, but towards myself not the game or the other player? I self-BM a lot
yea me too, I put myself down more than the other guy usually
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So smart on forums but cant even get to ro32 in dreamhacks x)) ripperino
User was warned for this post
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This is exactly the stuff I've been having trouble with in the past, so this was an excellent addition to our lesson ^^
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On January 31 2015 20:57 Spektorius wrote:
So smart on forums but cant even get to ro32 in dreamhacks x)) ripperino
User was warned for this post
Pretty rude and uncalled for man
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And your ego will prefer you take breaks, run away.
I don't see that as a problem. Instead of playing with a bad mindset and not having fun. Take a short break, stand up and start the next game 10 minutes (or an anime episode) later solves most rage problems. The only reason to need to work through it is if one wants to play in competitions where that delay isn't possible.
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On January 31 2015 14:26 SetGuitarsToKill wrote:So what to do if I have a negetive mindset, but towards myself not the game or the other player? I self-BM a lot
I think this might come down to ego and maybe some lifestyle/mindset outside of the game things. If you're angry at yourself rather than just critical of your play, maybe you're ego is telling you that you're an amazing player. It might not be this though, it might actually be that your ego and confidence isn't strong enough, and you've somehow become comfortable in a pattern of self-flagellation. Remind yourself that you enjoy playing the game and improving is just another part of that and try to focus on the satisfaction of solving the problem that is Starcraft. Every time you find an error in your play this isn't about you being bad, it's about you being smart enough to find something you can refine and improve. There are hundreds of mistakes in every Starcraft match, even at the highest levels, if we get in a negative mindset and punish ourself too much for these we lose out.
Finding things to focus on in our improvement is just as much about giving us direction and helping our confidence as it is about actually working on that specific issue. If we are in a strong state of mind many other parts of our game will fall into place without conscious effort.
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On February 01 2015 09:10 Yurie wrote:I don't see that as a problem. Instead of playing with a bad mindset and not having fun. Take a short break, stand up and start the next game 10 minutes (or an anime episode) later solves most rage problems. The only reason to need to work through it is if one wants to play in competitions where that delay isn't possible.
I agree that some short breaks are ok, but generally it is a negative thing for your progression as a player to have to push away from the game regularly due to anger/upset/tilt. Preferably we'd focus on the underlying issues rather than distract ourselves from the issue at hand. Of course, for most players not wanting to be a professional it's only natural this will happen sometimes, but we should try not to let it get out of hand. Definitely taking a break is the better option to continuing to play with a huge burden of anger/tilt.
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On January 31 2015 16:05 CursOr wrote:
Ego being the enemy is so true. Every time I see someone rage they are talking about how overpowered the other races are. How this or that is bullshit. It's very rarely self-critical rage.
Every game I'm constantly going over all the crap I do wrong. Getting supply blocked. Late on my lair or not scouting enough ... Oh i didnt see that coming ... thats all MY fault. Just remember to do better next time.
Stay focused on your mistakes and what you need to improve on and all the things you need to keep in mind at various stages of the game. If you're really honest with yourself, you will find that you're not angry when you lose- but surprised when you win.
I really enjoy your stream PiG ... if you and Moonglade streamed enough, I'm not even sure I would play the game. :p
Spot on mate, that hunger for, and satisfaction from self improvement is such a great thing to stay focused on.
Thanks for watching our Aussie zerg streams!
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Every few weeks I do a lecture-style segment focused on thinking outside the game: layers of metacognition (thinking about thinking) where we consider the way human minds operate in a competitive gamespace. In contrast to most of eSports, poker has a broad body of literature on the mental aspect of advancing upon the path of mastery and frustrations along the way. A major improvement we can collectively bring to Starcraft is an awareness of how situations influence our mood and focus, how to adequately prepare for stressful situations and become more successful managing our emotions over time.
When the expected conduct of gamers includes keyboard-smashing rage and cancer-cursing bm, learning to make peace with the nature of Starcraft and our human opponents is a powerful edge to seize in both the immediate and longer term.
Mentality Workshop 4 on the Path of the Strategist: http://www.twitch.tv/neurostarcraft/c/5688020
Audio for all 4 workshops: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6aypo6zngzkf4wl/AAAa9a61jUmmKoxxYQV0Hyb2a
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Such a beautiful piece of writing. Always good stuff to remember. 5/5
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On February 01 2015 09:13 PiGStarcraft wrote:Show nested quote +On January 31 2015 14:26 SetGuitarsToKill wrote:So what to do if I have a negetive mindset, but towards myself not the game or the other player? I self-BM a lot I think this might come down to ego and maybe some lifestyle/mindset outside of the game things. If you're angry at yourself rather than just critical of your play, maybe you're ego is telling you that you're an amazing player. It might not be this though, it might actually be that your ego and confidence isn't strong enough, and you've somehow become comfortable in a pattern of self-flagellation. Remind yourself that you enjoy playing the game and improving is just another part of that and try to focus on the satisfaction of solving the problem that is Starcraft. Every time you find an error in your play this isn't about you being bad, it's about you being smart enough to find something you can refine and improve. There are hundreds of mistakes in every Starcraft match, even at the highest levels, if we get in a negative mindset and punish ourself too much for these we lose out. Finding things to focus on in our improvement is just as much about giving us direction and helping our confidence as it is about actually working on that specific issue. If we are in a strong state of mind many other parts of our game will fall into place without conscious effort.
I think it's very much more the 2nd part, about low confidence and pattern of self-hatred. I often feel the need to tell my oppnents how bad i am after i lose and stuff. I guess I just want to improve too much. I've been stuck in gold league for 6 months now with basically no improvement and it's getting frustrating. Thanks
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I like what you said NeuroSwarm.
Often times when I'm not taking the game too seriously, I can laugh at my awful mistakes or failures to hold all-ins and then concentrate on improving myself rather than getting emotional and hating my opponents play.
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On February 01 2015 10:10 NeuroSwarm wrote:Every few weeks I do a lecture-style segment focused on thinking outside the game: layers of metacognition (thinking about thinking) where we consider the way human minds operate in a competitive gamespace. In contrast to most of eSports, poker has a broad body of literature on the mental aspect of advancing upon the path of mastery and frustrations along the way. A major improvement we can collectively bring to Starcraft is an awareness of how situations influence our mood and focus, how to adequately prepare for stressful situations and become more successful managing our emotions over time. When the expected conduct of gamers includes keyboard-smashing rage and cancer-cursing bm, learning to make peace with the nature of Starcraft and our human opponents is a powerful edge to seize in both the immediate and longer term. Mentality Workshop 4 on the Path of the Strategist: http://www.twitch.tv/neurostarcraft/c/5688020Audio for all 4 workshops: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6aypo6zngzkf4wl/AAAa9a61jUmmKoxxYQV0Hyb2a
Sick! I didn't know about this. These deserve their own thread that you keep updated so TLers can easily follow it, it's really refreshing to see this content in our scene.
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On February 01 2015 09:15 PiGStarcraft wrote:Show nested quote +On February 01 2015 09:10 Yurie wrote:And your ego will prefer you take breaks, run away. I don't see that as a problem. Instead of playing with a bad mindset and not having fun. Take a short break, stand up and start the next game 10 minutes (or an anime episode) later solves most rage problems. The only reason to need to work through it is if one wants to play in competitions where that delay isn't possible. I agree that some short breaks are ok, but generally it is a negative thing for your progression as a player to have to push away from the game regularly due to anger/upset/tilt. Preferably we'd focus on the underlying issues rather than distract ourselves from the issue at hand. Of course, for most players not wanting to be a professional it's only natural this will happen sometimes, but we should try not to let it get out of hand. Definitely taking a break is the better option to continuing to play with a huge burden of anger/tilt.
I think a handful of players don't tilt often. I tilted a few weeks ago when I was getting lag because of high ping due to torrenting, but other than that I rarely tilt. I think short breaks as long as they are infrequent are fine. If you're taking breaks after every game because of rage, then that's still a good thing, but it leads to not confronting larger issues.
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This problem is pretty alien to me. Perhaps it's because I don't surround myself with people who would jeer at me for making a mistake, so I have never needed to save face and cover up my mistakes. I guess for people who experience anger from losses and have trouble seeing their mistakes, this is a social survival mechanism they have to unlearn.
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On February 03 2015 04:46 Chef wrote:
This problem is pretty alien to me. Perhaps it's because I don't surround myself with people who would jeer at me for making a mistake, so I have never needed to save face and cover up my mistakes. I guess for people who experience anger from losses and have trouble seeing their mistakes, this is a social survival mechanism they have to unlearn.
Interesting theory. However, some of us do see our mistakes and that is what makes us angry, or more so continuing to make the same mistakes even after we've identified them and try to stop, so I'm not sure it applies to everyone.
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Good post. I really liked it.
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On February 03 2015 04:49 SetGuitarsToKill wrote:Show nested quote +On February 03 2015 04:46 Chef wrote:
This problem is pretty alien to me. Perhaps it's because I don't surround myself with people who would jeer at me for making a mistake, so I have never needed to save face and cover up my mistakes. I guess for people who experience anger from losses and have trouble seeing their mistakes, this is a social survival mechanism they have to unlearn. Interesting theory. However, some of us do see our mistakes and that is what makes us angry, or more so continuing to make the same mistakes even after we've identified them and try to stop, so I'm not sure it applies to everyone.
Possible. I think it's also common for people to incorrectly or too vaguely identify a mistake, so that they have no clear plan for resolving it. Like "I lost the game because I lost this battle" or "I lost this battle because I mismicroed" are harder to find a solution for than "This battle was difficult to execute because my units were not postured correctly at the start of it" which is a lot more trivial to fix. You shouldn't get frustrated if you make the problems small and easy enough to understand. Sometimes the answer to "I keep losing my scouting probe early" might just be "I don't know my build well enough to be able to focus on keeping my scout alive." Again the first assessment might technically be the mistake, but the root cause of that mistake is another, much smaller mistake that is easier to solve than trying to keep the probe alive through sheer force of will and hate.
There's people that get mad at themselves for always forgetting where they put their keys and there's people who hammer a nail in the wall and hang their keys there after the first time they lose them. I guess that's got less to do with saving face and more to do with just being able to think about a problem calmly.
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Thanks for the post, I enjoy the way you always seem to come at Starcraft from a unique perspective.
I often find myself sitting at work watching SPL or GSL ( I have a bit of spare time at the office  ) and looking forward to getting home and booting up starcraft, then when I eventually get home I launch Battlenet, stare at the splash screen for a while...and then decide "F*ck it" and end up watching series...
I'm still trying to understand this mindset, I feel it's more of an effort vs reward thing rather than an ego thing or ladder anxiety. After a long day of work getting my ass handed to me by some Terran scrub is not how I want to end my day, but getting that perfect baneling surround and crushing him feels soooo good. I suppose it's almost like I don't want to risk loosing so just not play.
There's people that get mad at themselves for always forgetting where they put their keys and there's people who hammer a nail in the wall and hang their keys there after the first time they lose them. I guess that's got less to do with saving face and more to do with just being able to think about a problem calmly.
I like that  Well put
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On February 03 2015 09:15 Chef wrote:Show nested quote +On February 03 2015 04:49 SetGuitarsToKill wrote:On February 03 2015 04:46 Chef wrote:
This problem is pretty alien to me. Perhaps it's because I don't surround myself with people who would jeer at me for making a mistake, so I have never needed to save face and cover up my mistakes. I guess for people who experience anger from losses and have trouble seeing their mistakes, this is a social survival mechanism they have to unlearn. Interesting theory. However, some of us do see our mistakes and that is what makes us angry, or more so continuing to make the same mistakes even after we've identified them and try to stop, so I'm not sure it applies to everyone. Possible. I think it's also common for people to incorrectly or too vaguely identify a mistake, so that they have no clear plan for resolving it. Like "I lost the game because I lost this battle" or "I lost this battle because I mismicroed" are harder to find a solution for than "This battle was difficult to execute because my units were not postured correctly at the start of it" which is a lot more trivial to fix. You shouldn't get frustrated if you make the problems small and easy enough to understand. Sometimes the answer to "I keep losing my scouting probe early" might just be "I don't know my build well enough to be able to focus on keeping my scout alive." Again the first assessment might technically be the mistake, but the root cause of that mistake is another, much smaller mistake that is easier to solve than trying to keep the probe alive through sheer force of will and hate. There's people that get mad at themselves for always forgetting where they put their keys and there's people who hammer a nail in the wall and hang their keys there after the first time they lose them. I guess that's got less to do with saving face and more to do with just being able to think about a problem calmly.
Very nice post, I completely agree. Often people are more emotional about problems and simply aren't used to calmly finding the simple solution to them. I find 90% of players when I ask them to analyse a replay are mostly looking at unit compositions and the fights - the obvious, exciting parts. I try to impart upon them the idea of having a few set things to look for in their games to identify where mistakes really happen. As well as to always look for the point where a game spirals out of control, not the last nail in the coffin - something far too many players look at. This is usually where macro benchmarks and other set markers of performance become very important to calmly analyse where our problems start.
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EPT
