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Active: 1766 users

70 apm, the Rare Breed.

Blogs > Tadzio00
Post a Reply
Tadzio
Profile Blog Joined October 2006
3340 Posts
Last Edited: 2007-05-28 17:43:06
May 28 2007 14:04 GMT
#1
I've developed a caveat to the popular notion that "you need to compete against superior players in order to improve." Namely: if I cannot maintain a population greater than 2/3rds my opponent's, I probably won't learn anything beyond "I need to macro better-- somehow."

This is a flaw in my game that's been following me around since I reinstalled. I'm really bad at finding moments in between other things to spam 4sz5sz6sh7sh8sh9sd0so. I'm tremendously, horribly, damnedly bad at it, and it's really obvious in my BWCharts. With a sample of over 700 games recorded for statistical analysis, I think I can safely conclude that as long as this is a problem for me, I will not beat an opponent with more than 200 apm, even if he's only half serious about the game. It just can't happen.

Introduction time!

Hello, my name is Tadzio and I have 70 apm. I didn't always have 70 apm, but that's where I'm sitting at right now. BWChart tells me that I've averaged 71 apm this month of may and memory stipulates that this is the pinnacle of my apm-career-- prior month's apm averages being 63 and 67 for march and april respectively.

Most of my Bnet friends hover between 150-200 apm. One of them hates ZvZ and plays an off-race against me, and I can beat him about 50% of the time. Playing against the others, I feel fortunate to win 1 out of 6 games. There are a few on my flist that break this mold, and they have over 300 apm. I can't beat them. I have, easily, the slowest hands of anyone of my Bnet friends.

I like challenges, I like to improve, but I also like to win. There's a point where, after I've lost for the 5th or 10th or 20th time to my Bnet friends in a weekend, where I feel like I don't want to lose anymore. It's around this time I start wondering whether my 300++ apm friends are using the word "training" as a synonym to "rape." And it's around this time I start making pub games looking for people more my speed, and there is something I've noticed: there is a dearth of 70 apm players!

When I name games "1v1 [map name]" my typical opponent will check out in BWChart as having between 110 and 300 apm, with the occasional 30 or 40 apm pushover. When I name games "1v1 noobs" about half my opponents will end up having 20-50 apm and the other half will have 150+ apm. 70 apm players can't be found this way, I've concluded.

I can count on my pinky fingers the number of 70 apm players I've had the opportunity to play... one was drunk at the time, so even if I did run into him again I doubt he'd perform the same way; and the other was a WC3 player enjoying his very first multiplayer BW game and it showed in his unit choices and expand timing.

One of the benefits of this mysterious lack of players with apms between 50 and 110 is that I can brag with arrogance and truthfully claim that I've never been beaten by anyone with less apm than me, and I've beaten opponents with more than twice my apm, but I'd gladly give up the priviledge of brag for a good mannered training partner that plays at my speed. Someone I can play against for a decent, moderate challenge while I learn the basics-- like macro mechanics-- without having to deal with harrassment from a superior multitasker every 10 seconds.


Hm... Good rant. If you've got ~70 apm, PM me. Thanks.

(PS. after May is over with I'll post my 1.15 replays here in a reppack. I'm sure most complaints will be with macro, but it might be entertaining to watch the struggles of a noob anyway).

**
Frozenmax
Profile Joined April 2006
Netherlands23 Posts
May 28 2007 17:15 GMT
#2
I've got around 60-70 apm on average as well, and I'm experiencing the same problem, although not as bad.
My usual friends I play with have either sub-50 or over 110 apm. Not as bad as what you described, but similar. It hurts looking at bwchart sometimes, since I keep trying to go faster, but it just doesn't work :p
Pwntrucci[sR]
Profile Blog Joined June 2006
Canada1519 Posts
May 30 2007 08:13 GMT
#3
:D
bg
HiFi
Profile Joined February 2004
United States518 Posts
May 31 2007 13:28 GMT
#4
hehe, i remember back in the old time i play star with ball wheel, ball controlled by index finger. i got around 70 sometimes 80 apm as well. then ever since i switched to a regular mouse, i got over 150, of course with "training".
dont spam ya apm, no good 4 ya health
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