EPTAs I mass gamed on Iccup during the past month or so, I've been trying to figure out ways to break past my current skill cap in order to take myself to the next level. Due to my sudden hiatus in gaming, I'm sure that I still lack in many areas, but I do know that I have improved beyond the level I began at.
To begin, I feel it's necessary to point out that you need a consistent gaming schedule to follow in order to fully gain the most out of the learning experience. I somewhat kept to that schedule by playing at a good 3-4 hours per night from 8 ~ 12 o'clock. Due to my work schedule, I couldn't do much more than that, however. The best benefit I received from gaming at a constant pace is that I got used to constant exposure to the ladder experience, meaning that factors such as build orders, micro, and overall "game flow" stick to me more permanently.
Now, there is one HUGE factor that I had to overcome that was a hindrance during my sessions. We all probably experienced it on a ladder before... don't you love it when you wrack up win streaks in Iccup? You know those pretty stats (12-1, 8-0, etc) that look like candy before your eyes? Take those stats, hold them before your eyes, smile...then dowse it in oil, get a lighter, put it on fire, and watch as your dreamy record dissipates into thin air. Because if you're playing iccup to improve and to learn, you're gonna have to get used to 0-4, 0-8, 0-11, 1-33, 3-95, 9-173, and all sorts of ugly, jaded stats. So don't even worry about opening iccup with pure losses; they're all for the better! The sooner you burn down dreamland, the better it is to face the reality that, hey! You suck, I suck, we all suck, but it's ok. There will be a lot less sucking by the time Iccup whips your fat, candy ass into shape.
Before I conclude facing losses, there's one more thing to discuss: mentality. It's really hard on just about any gamer to run into that "lose few games, lose all of your games" curse. If you read Mgz)Merz's blogs, you'll see that when that losing curse hits you, it hits you HARD. In extreme cases, Keyboards and mouses have been reported broken due to the side effects of The Curse. The best advice I have to avoid it is don't let it get to you. It's really not so bad if you learn how to take a deep breath, calm down, and analyze what you did that caused you to lose instead of acting out what happened in
this famous episode.
That aside, I conclude Iccup on
Mallow[x] with a 103-106 losing record rank C+ + Show Spoiler +
Had a nasty dose of The Curse at the end there.
Part 2 of my iccup blog will be my personal analysis of the three protoss matchups, basically, a strategy guide. Thanks for reading~
-Zil
