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With the new season under way and thousands of eagerly-awaiting fans swiftly swarming the refreshed Iccup ladder, I feel a strong foreboding of a promising era to come. As with the recent previous seasons, there is sure to be an extremely competetive pool of gamers scouring every level from the initial red ranks to the prestigious gold. Reading the blogs and brood war section on this site, I see many aspiring ICcup players hoping to gain that extra leap to finally achieve their goals, whether it's the next rank or new level of skill. Seeing so many motivated iccup players inspires me to help you - the fresh wave of ladder players, so this blog is dedicated to the new season before the new year! 
Beginning of the season
To begin, I want to discuss a few things regarding ladder gaming. As you all know, the beginning of the season is the scariest time around. Why is that? This time of the season is when all the big fish of the sea mix in with the small fries. In other words, it is very possible that you may be a D/D+ skill user facing off against a previous B or A rank gamer, so watch out for the sharks and predators; they'll be infesting the shallow waters for a while.
On the other hand, there are among those who are bold (crazy) enough to actually seek out the big names to get a feel for high rank gaming. That is good and fine once in a while, but I personally feel it's pointless in terms of learning to play against those who are on a completely different skill level. Imagine a small elementary school student picking fights with jacked high school football players. It just won't work out in the end. For the sake of this guide, try to stay within your skill range or slightly better.
Learning to see beyond the rank.
One of the things I fear for each generation of aspiring gamers is their tendency to fall for deception. I know it's easy to sway into the rhythm of looking at a gamer's rank, but try to avoid achieving a rank for its face value. Sure it's nice to receive praise for achieving that blue and shiny B- rank, but the real question is, how well can you do against the variety of gamers within that same rank? Like any other manmade design, ladder gaming has its systematic flaws, which many players know how to abuse. In some cases, players get to B- by avoiding certain matchups, some play only on certain maps, and some cases even include racking wins by playing or asking a certain player to lose against you. I'm not necessarily saying the higher ranks are full of abusers, but be wary. It's better to seek experience from the games you play rather than simply bragging you got A+, which 99.99999% of the time, is an obvious lie.
Understanding the game
More importantly than winning, the goal of iccup training emphasizes your ability to analyze your losses. If you've played 20 games on iccup at your approximate level and won each game effortlessly, you're not going to get any better. Improving your skill will require facing multiple situations against strong opponents. However, on the same note, if you're playing 20 games and collecting losses down a one-way street, you're probably not analyzing your game correctly. Think about weight training - to become stronger, you'll need to struggle with the weights you can handle. If you take on too much, you'll probably injure yourself; if you take on too little, you probably won't see any results.
That being said, how do you analyze losses and improve? That question doesn't have a set answer, since people have different methods that work for them. Personally, I have found my best method by watching my own replays. However, instead of watching what I did, I'd look at what my opponents did. Turn off your own vision and place yourself in the other guy's shoes; you'll be surprised to see the same battles fought from the opposition's point of view. Replays are a great resource that many people neglect as part of their training, perhaps because it's so hard reliving the humiliation of losing.
Patience
Have patience. You probably know what I'm talking about. Many a keyboard and mouse equipment have seen all sorts of damage to the frustrations of a ladder game on a tilt. If you play enough games on iccup, it's bound to happen sooner or later, but most of you already know this. Learning to overcome these down times is one of the hardest parts of training, so bear with it. For those who are just starting out, simply stop and take the time to recover if you're feeling too frustrated to go on gaming with a clear mind. Remember, you're playing in a ladder with the most competetive seasons BW has ever seen. Playing at the current C ranks is on a way different level than playing C ranks during the PGT seasons. Everyone is on eRoids these days and have eeh han timing. The guy on the other end has a progamer's mentality and aspires to become the next Savior or Flash, while Protoss simply got better at 1a2a3a4a (this, coming from a protoss player). To become better at Brood War now will require more determination and perseverence than ever before.
Conclusion
Have enough determination and perseverence, and you'll accomplish your goals. It's disgusting to see gamers play like 15 games on iccup, lose, and make a thread on TL crying about how they can't get any better. People learn at different paces. Stick it out to the end and don't give up. That's pretty much all I have to say. I was bored at work, so I decided to write this mini-guide.
64.8% of the statistics I've used in this guide are 100% true.
 
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Yeah people sometimes get too obsessed with rank and don't realise the process of learning is far more important than the end result.
But you can't blame them too much, since the current education system is result-orientated too.
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Germany2762 Posts
i'm a d-player and i totally hate the first few days of a season. i hardly play during these days because it's just so frustrating to play vs some "d" players who totally rape you just because they're actually much better. when a new season starts i just wait a few days or about a week until i start playing. it prevents a lot of frustration 
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This guide works 60% of the time...EVERYTIME.
In all seriousness, nice write up. A good way to look at things, and I agree with the patience. I am personally trying for 1000 games this season, and completely ignoring rank / color. So far im 11-25 and struggling (I was C rank last season) however I find that just playing to improve, and ignoring the rank / record just takes off tons of pressure, and allows me to actually work on my game, rather than concentrate on getting to that next rank.
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I've sought out gamers that were better then me all season or I assume are I've lost more then I won, but it is those games that make me play harder.
Your advice is good, but I think every player should shit bricks when they realize if they just go on right now and play hard, and get to d+ /c- as soon as possible, they are going to get a week or two of the BEST practice possible for any player.
Good Luck Guys!
Enjoyable read;)
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Good article. I think everyone here has had his share of slumps, which we don't seem to control and get frustrated. What was happening to me last season is that I played some games, and then i would refuse to continue playing iccup because i didnt want to mess up my score with a loosing streak :S I'm off to another mentality this season, and i hope i can mass all the games i can.
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Canada3394 Posts
I agree with 'Learning to see beyond the rank'. There is some guy that I know that he was a 50/50 C-/C player all season long. Last 5 days, He was talking about how He is playing on some 'smurf' account and then transfers to his main account that everyone knows some 44-20 C+ Stats when everyone knows that's not him. He wouldn't tell anyone this account he transferred from and it turns out it was just a friend of his [a friend who is easily B-/B] and He is posting everywhere after that 'Yah, I'm a C+ Zerg, I can offer you some advice ertc'. Its kinda sad that people need to lie about ranks because they want respect from online people that they have never met.
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On December 10 2008 04:19 AttackZerg wrote:
I've sought out gamers that were better then me all season or I assume are I've lost more then I won, but it is those games that make me play harder.
Your advice is good, but I think every player should shit bricks when they realize if they just go on right now and play hard, and get to d+ /c- as soon as possible, they are going to get a week or two of the BEST practice possible for any player.
Good Luck Guys!
Enjoyable read;)
Ah yea, I have nothing against seeking stronger players than you. It's just that if you're at around a C- or C level trying to play the olympic rank player from last season, you're in a bit over your head :O
Definitely good to seek stronger opponents, though.
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Cool read, I don't know if I would call it a guide though.
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Ugh terrible, TERRIBLE read. Die zil die.
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Lovin your support, Dr. Equinox.
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Hwarang[Name] , former A+ Protoss totally destroyed me ^_^ Was hella fun to play him. Unfortunately he had no time for a re T_T!
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Yeah? Well 97.6% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
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hmm i'm a new terran who reached D+ last season so i was pretty happy but right now it's extremely tough. i've won like 2 games with terran but they didn't count. nonetheless i like early season because i get to play people who are actually better than me (not always, but most of the time since we all start at D rank).
with protoss i managed to win all my pvt's which is pretty surprising since i sucked at it once i hit c-/c but whatever :D
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United States24779 Posts
What rank do you need to be below in order to make use of this guide? I'm approximately B high so I probably don't need this guide.
+ Show Spoiler +I enjoyed reading your writeup and agreed with you especially about playing A/B level players when you are D+. Occasionally playing them for a thrill is great, but doing it consistently isn't using your time correctly.
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I don't like this guide... :X Sorry. It's either pitifully obvious or plain wrong TT
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lol, nice writeup...
Ill definately try and watch reps as my opponent, never thought of doing that 
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On December 10 2008 06:36 micronesia wrote:What rank do you need to be below in order to make use of this guide? I'm approximately B high so I probably don't need this guide. + Show Spoiler +I enjoyed reading your writeup and agreed with you especially about playing A/B level players when you are D+. Occasionally playing them for a thrill is great, but doing it consistently isn't using your time correctly.
http://www.iccup.com/gamingprofile/mallow[x].html
/shameless brag
Btw, I hit 213 on bowling the other week. Was so glad I broke 200 :D
/shameless brag x2
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United States24779 Posts
On December 10 2008 06:39 ilovezil wrote:
Btw, I hit 213 on bowling the other week. Was so glad I broke 200 :D
Oh Nice. 213 is a good score. Any opens?
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Zil, I love you. You reminded me to stop being a dumb ass and watch my replays!
Thank you!
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EPT
