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BlasiuS
United States2405 Posts
Do you usually play at a certain time of day? (I'm assuming many don't play when the koreans are on) Do you usually stick to one map? Do you host games, or usually join them? Do you ask for games in the channels, or just go to the game list/host screen? Do you avoid certain maps depending on matchup imbalance? Do you play whomever, or do you only play against certain matchups (no T, only Z, etc.)?   | ||
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DoctorHelvetica
United States15034 Posts
Ask for games, or create. Don't avoid maps, but if you can practice only one match-up for about a week or so (easy ZvP practice for you). My strategy is to do the same build order every time in whatever MU I'm playing, so I can get good at this BO. For instance in TvP, I always do 1fac FE, unless they proxy or something. The more you narrow down what you're doing, the faster you'll get better. | ||
CaucasianAsian
Korea (South)11602 Posts
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intrigue
Washington, D.C9935 Posts
your mindset also needs to be 'okay i'm going to lose most of my games, but i won't make the same mistake twice.' watch your loss replays more than your wins, and focus on streamlining your builds and cleaning up the holes in your play. at the D/C level, these are usually fairly obvious - missing supply buildings when you get harassed, forgetting to get an upgrade, forgetting to scout for expansions, etc. eventually you'll find that your basic gameplan and adaptations are pretty solid, letting you focus more on more advanced concepts. joining/asking in channel makes no difference. as for times, stick with afternoon/evening american time for now. the competition is easier and you will be able to comfortably flame cheesers in your native language. pace yourself. play bgh, play strip jessica alba, mess around with UMS. if you burn out, no amount of advice can help you. | ||
Chill
Calgary26004 Posts
Nope. Koreans are on around 11 PM for me and I can't play that late on weekdays. Do you usually stick to one map? Nope. Do you host games, or usually join them? I usually join them, since I don't like deciding what matchup to play, which map, etc. Do you ask for games in the channels, or just go to the game list/host screen? Join screen for about 5 minutes. After that I'll start spamming. Do you avoid certain maps depending on matchup imbalance? About 5 people on Teamliquid are good enough to be concerned with map imabalance. You are not one of them. Do not avoid a map because it's imbalance at the professional level, because often times that doesn't filter down to your level. Examples: Longinus is P=T progamers, T>P foreigners. Wuthering is T>>P progamers, P>T foreigners. Do you play whomever, or do you only play against certain matchups (no T, only Z, etc.)? I play all. If you don't play Protoss, get ready to play against a lot of Protosses. | ||
Heyoka
Katowice25012 Posts
I play both a mix of time of day, and time of week (competition tends to be slightly weaker during the day on weekend, tougher during the korean hours over the week). Playing against tougher opponents is better for practice, but winning some games against higher rated opponents who are obviously weak players is fun and good for the ego. I host every game. I don't know many maps, so typically I pick one of the motw and play the hell out of it all week. I've found this to be a really good way of getting a feel for how the differing kinds of maps will play out for differing matchups. A lot of maps play similar to one another and now I'm a lot better at seeing it immediately when looking at a map. I don't avoid matchups (generally, I might dodge a few after losing a couple of frustrating close games). I play whomever typically, but if I'm losing a lot of one matchup I'll host a game requesting that specific match and play the hell out of it on that map until I feel I'm starting to get it. My PvP improved dramatically by playing nothing but pvp for about a week on a standard map until I finally got a feel for it. if you are relatively low level, stick with one motw with one standard build order for each matchup. play these until you get the hang of them - meaning learning how to compensate if you lose your first xxx units or your scout early, how to defend if you scout an allin at this timing, if you need to be tricky when your opponent scouts your build early, blah blah blah. it seems like a lot of work, but knowledge of these builds will serve as the backbone and understanding of any new builds you want to try. it is incredibly important, and the reason most players don't improve is that they find this process too tedious or 'useless.' This is basically what I did and I can't agree with it enough. Playing a lot of standard games will give a good intuitive feel for how a game unfolds, and you begin to see opportunities for creative play that will present themselves. At least this is true at the lowest levels, and I would assume applies upwards too. | ||
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EGLzGaMeR
United States1867 Posts
On November 26 2008 03:09 CaucasianAsian wrote: no, play when the koreans are, you'll improve the fastest that way thats true~ unless your trying to learn the basic's. which then it doesnt really matter who you play. im A- atm on iccup~ so this is the truth! Only way to truly improve and get better is by mass gaming and knowing what u did wrong when u lose. and slowly correcting your mistakes 1by1. some people watch the reps after they lose. if they dont allrdy know ^.^ GL HF | ||
IntoTheWow
is awesome32282 Posts
And always expect the worse. If you suspect a zergling all-in or 2 gates in the middle of the map, expect the worse, never think: "naw, no one will 2 gate in the middle of the map" because people on iccup will 4 gate in the middle of the map. | ||
keit
1584 Posts
Story of my life. | ||
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jello_biafra
United Kingdom6642 Posts
On November 26 2008 03:31 IntoTheWow wrote: Scout A LOT. And I mean A LOT. This is very important. I reckon iCCup should be called International Cheeser's Cup Personally I play pretty much all maps but I favour motw. I'll play at any time of day, you really have no reason to fear koreans, plenty of newb koreans around. I can't make games at the moment which is a bit gay so I just use the join list. | ||
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zulu_nation8
China26351 Posts
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TYL
Philippines116 Posts
* My gaming time is when koreans are on so i guess yes. Do you usually stick to one map? * I dont but avoid maps i dont like Do you host games, or usually join them? * I join since i cant create Do you ask for games in the channels, or just go to the game list/host screen? * Both Do you avoid certain maps depending on matchup imbalance? * Yes Do you play whomever, or do you only play against certain matchups (no T, only Z, etc.)? * Nope | ||
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Too_MuchZerg
Finland2818 Posts
I have both koreans and non koreans. Do you usually stick to one map? I can't host so I get what map they host. Do you host games, or usually join them? Only join. Do you ask for games in the channels, or just go to the game list/host screen? I just refresh join screen until someone makes game for my skill level (if D+ I play vs it assuming I am D+) Do you avoid certain maps depending on matchup imbalance? No, then again I am little disadvantaged because guy who host might have practised 20 games on that map but I have perhaps 1 or 2 game because I am mercy of host. Do you play whomever, or do you only play against certain matchups (no T, only Z, etc.)? I only play Z my race so what ever opponent picks I play against it (not random though) | ||
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DanceCommander
United States1808 Posts
My 2 rules are as follows: 1: scout your ass off 2: dont play at night (when koreans are on) | ||
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BlasiuS
United States2405 Posts
I always try to be 'smart' about my games when I play. When I lose, I try to watch it and see what I did wrong. I've watched Chill's FPVODs, Ahzz's FPVODs, and countless korean replays. I play zerg at D level, and it's very frustrating when I try to practice standard builds, and none of my oppoents do standard builds. The last 10 games or so, all against T/P, only 1 person did a standard build, the rest were bunker rushes, fac -> port drop harass, 4rax sunken break, 1base corsair/DT, 2gate, proxy gate, one guy even did 1base +1 zeals. And the one guy who did standard toss FE, was the game I decided to try an all-in build of my own :r On November 26 2008 03:13 intrigue wrote: if you are relatively low level, stick with one motw with one standard build order for each matchup. play these until you get the hang of them - meaning learning how to compensate if you lose your first xxx units or your scout early, how to defend if you scout an allin at this timing, if you need to be tricky when your opponent scouts your build early, blah blah blah. it seems like a lot of work, but knowledge of these builds will serve as the backbone and understanding of any new builds you want to try. it is incredibly important, and the reason most players don't improve is that they find this process too tedious or 'useless.' your mindset also needs to be 'okay i'm going to lose most of my games, but i won't make the same mistake twice.' watch your loss replays more than your wins, and focus on streamlining your builds and cleaning up the holes in your play. at the D/C level, these are usually fairly obvious - missing supply buildings when you get harassed, forgetting to get an upgrade, forgetting to scout for expansions, etc. eventually you'll find that your basic gameplan and adaptations are pretty solid, letting you focus more on more advanced concepts. Yes, I am definitely low level, so I will try this until I am confident in my early game/mid game play, against any opposing build. On November 26 2008 03:15 Chill wrote: Do you play whomever, or do you only play against certain matchups (no T, only Z, etc.)? I play all. If you don't play Protoss, get ready to play against a lot of Protosses. Boy is this the truth, I haven't played a single zerg in my last 20 games or so, and at least 75% of my games are ZvP. On November 26 2008 03:31 IntoTheWow wrote: Scout A LOT. And I mean A LOT. And always expect the worse. If you suspect a zergling all-in or 2 gates in the middle of the map, expect the worse, never think: "naw, no one will 2 gate in the middle of the map" because people on iccup will 4 gate in the middle of the map. It took me too long to realize this, but I finally am starting to scout more actively in my last 4 or 5 games. I feel like I'm doing better, but I still lose more consistently than I win. Honestly I've been cheesed/hit with non-standard build so much I'm wondering if I should just default to a super-safe build like overpool -> 3 hatch or something every game Also, the reason I ask these questions is because I notice some very disturbing trends when playing on iccup: ∙When I first played, I did really well, I went like 5-1. Nobody asked me for a game in channel. Now, I'm sitting at like 15-22, and people msg me all the time for a game. I can only conclude that people thought I was very good at first, but nowadays in the channel they can see my record in addition to my points, and so they message me for a game after looking at my shitty rec in the hopes of getting an easy win. Maybe I'm just paranoid, but probably not  ∙I try to join games that either say D-, D-/D, D, or D/D+. However, when I join those games, I get booted/banned over 50% of the time. Extremely frustrating. Also when I join any D- games, I nearly always get banned. ∙I sometimes see people doing games like 'no Z', 'you T', etc. I'm guessing these people are either practicing certain matchups, or avoiding mirror matchups, and I wonder if I should try it myself. | ||
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Nytefish
United Kingdom4282 Posts
I suspect it's also good at higher ranks, but I haven't got that high. (I'm talking about ZvP) Don't worry about things like playing at certain time, or picking especially weak opponents. In the end you'll just have an inflated ladder ranking that's too low to boast about and too high to truly represent your skill level. | ||
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Zoler
Sweden6339 Posts
Not really a special time. The time when Koreans play is for me 12 am - 6 pm so I get to face a lot of them when I get home from school, and I dont dodge  Do you usually stick to one map? Yes, I like python the most, but I can play other maps sometimes. Do you host games, or usually join them? Host, always. Do you ask for games in the channels, or just go to the game list/host screen? I just host, people will join anyway. Do you avoid certain maps depending on matchup imbalance? Not really, but Protoss often kick me if I join a game with Longinus (I'm T)Do you play whomever, or do you only play against certain matchups (no T, only Z, etc.)? Play all matchups (TvZ, TvP, TvT). That means 99% TvP and 1% TvZ / TvT | ||
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3clipse
Canada2555 Posts
On November 26 2008 03:15 Chill wrote: I play all. If you don't play Protoss, get ready to play against a lot of Protosses. This season of iccup has been so weird for me... almost every game I've played is a PvT. And one of two things happens. Either the Terran is quite skilled and I get destroyed by his first push, OR I'm the better player but the Terran doesn't realize when he's lost and turtles for 15 minutes. It's pretty annoying when my losses are so sudden but my wins are so tedious, lol. | ||
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Equinox_kr
United States7395 Posts
On November 26 2008 03:00 BlasiuS wrote: Do you usually play at a certain time of day? I honestly don't care/know when the Koreans are on, I prefer them to be on because it's a great learning experience. Do you usually stick to one map? As long as it isn't Python or LT. Do you host games, or usually join them? Join. Do you ask for games in the channels, or just go to the game list/host screen? Game list, I fucking hate "1V1 C YOU MAKE" spammers. Do you avoid certain maps depending on matchup imbalance? No, ICCup players fail hard. Do you play whomever, or do you only play against certain matchups (no T, only Z, etc.)? Only wimps pick certain matchups; it kills the point of playing ICCup unless you're playing for record instead of learning. | ||
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knyttym
United States5797 Posts
Do you usually play at a certain time of day? (I'm assuming many don't play when the koreans are on) No. Do you usually stick to one map? No. Do you host games, or usually join them? I join pub games. Do you ask for games in the channels, or just go to the game list/host screen? Game list because it is quicker. If you move up to a high enough rank, you will have to use the channel. Do you avoid certain maps depending on matchup imbalance? No Do you play whomever, or do you only play against certain matchups (no T, only Z, etc.)? I'll play anyone except when I go on a losing streak. If I lose to two Ps in a row, I'll only play vs P for a while. | ||
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