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Hello TeamLiquid! Please give a warm welcome to one of the worst, if not, the worst player on iCCup.
So yea, I just joined the community a couple of days ago and one of the main reasons why I joined TL was... That's right.
TO FUCKING SUCK LESS GONADS..
My buddies got me into the world of Starcraft andI've been playing It for a little over a month now and dear god, iCCup is hard as hell. I've read most of the guides on this site and on gosugamers about the basics(timing, build orders, etc.), reviewed my replays over and over to find out the mistakes I've made, but I still can't manage to do well. I just don't get it. I'm completely aware of the mistakes I made in previous games, yet I still make them in future games. Whenever I'm in a position where It looks like I have a big advantage, I get overconfident and screw up, make the wrong decisions and screw up, but in general, I screw up most of my games.
For example, there was one game I played against a Terran on Destination. I was doing relatively fine as I successfully defended against his early push that was comprised of some tanks and marines. He lost a tank and was forced to pull back. I then decided to contain him with my whole force and get my third up. He was contained for quite some time. After a while, I see a large amount of vultures and tanks. So I then decide to back up, thinking I had the advantage, until
I get ran over by the push and have my 3rd and natural get turned into something that resembled an abandoned playground. I don't get it. I was pumping units most of the time and I had 2 expos. I tried to scout him earlier on, but he surrounded his base with turrets so I got almost no info, but I don't think that was the reason I lost. So I checked the replay out and the guy had a hidden expo and I was in a state of rage and shock as I smashed my keyboard and thought to myself, how do I keep making these stupid mistakes? I try so hard not to, but it still happens.
When I began playing starcraft, At first, I was pretty confident in my abilities. I faced a toss user and being the baddie I was, I cheesed him with a DT rush. So I thought it was pretty easy, until my second game which was against another toss user on Destination. This time, I played standard, aiming for the robo bay after my second gate. I send all my units to harass and as I leave, I see a nexus making, so I built another gateway and composed a timing attack. It Turns out that it FAILED miserably as I had like 12 goons and a reaver, vs his 8 goons and a reaver.
He then proceeded to steamroll me with a counter. As I kept playing, I got really pissed off and tired of losing to an assortment of cheeses and standard play and I was playing incredibly bad against zerg as all zerg had to do was mass hydras or mutas and he basically won against me. So I decided to focus on only PvT and PvP. 2 weeks have passed and my record is comprised of 24wins and 80Losses. About 90% of those wins are from people below 1100. That's right.
I can't seem to beat anyone above 1300 and that got me wondering a lot of things... Is iCCup that high-leveled or do I just suck that much balls? A "D+" in iCCup is like facing a korean progamer to me. Is it because I can't multi-task?? Maybe so. I checked all my replays with BWChart to compare my APM with the guy I'm facing and usually he ends up with a higher APM than most of the people I faced, yet I keep losing to them. But I know APM isn't everything and when I'm juggling tasks, I usually lose focus once I get harassed which usually leads to stray shuttle carrying my 2 reavers that all of a sudden runs into a turret and disappears.
So then I kept practicing and practicing, hoping to live up to my name ,but as weeks pass , I keep losing and losing so much that I get frustrated and smash away another new and perfectly fine keyboard that will be replaced with another keyboard I'm about to smash in the future. Have I mentioned how fucking hard iCCup is to climb? Why the hell is it so hard!?!?! So please, if any of the gosu veterans or anyone on this site(because I know everyone on this site should be better than a shitty player like me) waste their valuable time on giving a noob like me some tips on how to improve, telling me why iCCup is so hard, or to simply piss on this blog, saying how much it sucks, or anything you guys feel like saying, feel free to do so, because I'm reeeally tired of my C and B- budds, telling me how easy iCCup is on friday nights out and it pisses me off so much to the point where I wanna grab a bottle of Captain Morgan from the counter and smash it on their heads and I REALLY want to save money on keyboards.... and I want my girl to stop being
afraid of me and my sudden outbursts.
 
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In one month you really have no game knowledge at all. Most people have been playing the game for years on bnet, watching vods, replays etc and they are still mediocre players who on top of that don't fully grasp what a lot of pro gamers do until it has been fully explained. So to expect after one month to have the skillset and the knowledge required to play well is asking too much
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Watch Vods. It really helps you know what you should do.
Also, find a player you like and try to emulate them.
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Play strait up. Find few builds for every matchup and only do those builds, over and over again.
Improve your mechanics and macro that way. Just play and dont get stressed by the game.
Enjoy it 
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5/5 awesome read. mad lulz @ captain morgan and abandoned playground remark.
you are still learning, 24-80 on ICCUP (not bnet) for a player who played a little over a month is impressive. I couldn't win a game when i transfered my 6 months of bnet experience onto iccup.
think of it as learning how to ride your two wheeler bike for the first time, you are gonna fall like crazy.
i posted something similar before maybe you can take a read http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=73590
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dont fret, when i just started, the only way i could win is with 5 pool (even then i still loose a few 5 pools here and there). For me, theres really two parts to the game, mechanics and strategy. Mechanics comes naturally as you play more and more and strategies very often are made for you, just memorize the proper counters etc. The other part of strategy revolves more around timing which you should learn about more by watching vod of the top progamers of your race Protoss: Bisu, Stork, Jangbi Terran: Flash, Leta (Fantasy's style is a bit more advanced) Zerg: Jaedong and Lux.
Just my 2 cents, but im still D+ on iccup =P
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konadora
Singapore66357 Posts
Rofl, great write up. Very long, but somehow managed to read all.
First of all, check his upgrades consistently. Big difference in upgrades can lead to a nasty outcome even if you have an overwhelming army (unless you're imba like Jangbi and storm every single shit you see).
Also, try making use of the terrain and open spaces. Protoss > Terran out in the open, use your observer to scout his army, find the right angle to flank him from (try to avoid mines and flank him from many directions if possible) and if resources allow, get shuttle/High Templars. That game of PvP on destination with 12goon reaver vs 8goon reaver, did it happen at the narrow bridge? If that is the case, I do not find it surprising that you lost. If the opponent is drawing you towards a choke, DO NOT FALL FOR IT. Just contain him, and you mass expand while defending harassments and continue to contain him until he pushes out and gets run over by your exceeding number of gateways or army, or until he runs out of resources.
Since you are a Protoss, try to make more use of observers. Place them everywhere; in enemy's base, in his entrance, at your entrance, the sides of your main, on the open grounds, etc. Free maphack, USE IT.
Not a Protoss player, but hope this somewhat helps.
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You guys are right. I mean, a farm can't grow in one day, you need to spend a lot of time and dedication to it in order to make one. Hopefully, I'll reach D+ by the end of the semester.
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Northern Ireland22208 Posts
Just keep playing and reading. I'm struggling to maintain D, and I've been playing for a good while (not consistently though  )
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a lot of new players overlook the value of reviewing replays which is something that you're doing so that's a good thing. you should pretty much look over every replay you lose and find out what you did wrong. you should really make use of fpvods as well, something i wish i had when i was learning (though we did have fpreps for a while!), it can show you where you are focusing too much attention and when you are forgetting to macro / micro.
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Wow...I can relate to this so closely its not even funny o_o. I started only a couple of weeks ago too, and I'm so scared of PvZ I'd rather play ZvZ >_>. But hey if you want a similarly bad practice partner, throw me a pm. My best rank is D (Though I got like 1900 points at one time. sooo close ;_;), and I'm hovering between D-/D now.
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Playing straight up games with near perfect b/o execution + subpar decision making in mid game can carry u quite far on iccup (like C-). I say practice 1 b/o over and over again and just focus on what you did wrong so you won't make the same mistake again. One important thing I recommend you to do is find someone similar to your level and theorycraft on what to do and what not to do as well as which strategy works and when it works.
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5673 Posts
I feel your pain. I'd just advise mass games. It's what I'm doing, and I think I can see myself improving, little by little at least. I'm talking about 2v2 here - my partner and I just create games and play a few every night. Of course, you need to think about each game afterwards, maybe watch the rep, and analyse where you made mistakes. Even if you win, try and think about why you won. This helps a lot. We hit the D+ wall too. We have a great streak up to 1800 or so, and then lose like 10 or 15 in a row and go back down to the lower Ds. It's frustrating, but just keep at it.
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Accept defeat, I know it's painful to watch your defeat via replays but it's one way of getting better, to know where you made your mistake.
Go the the Strategy threads and don't be afraid of bumping threads, we like that better than some mindless guy creating his own thread on a topic that was covered somewhere. If you still suck after forever (no not really, like after 2 months), it's ok it happens to the best of us. If you're really puzzled on something just post the reps here and we won't flame you.
(Jeez I remembered the first Strategy thread I posted here and my BO was off but TL is such a great community to give subpar advices...)
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Dude that's an awesome record, when I started playing on iccup I had a record of like 1-20 or something, it was horrible.
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Play terran, rage harder.
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Russian Federation386 Posts
Your record is actually very good for such a new player. I've been playing ICCup on and off for 8 seasons and I'm only D+ who sometimes goes into C-. (I play in korean hours though)
Why is iCCUP so hard? Well, because the game have been out for 10 years and it is to be expected that most players are very good at at (compared to complete newbies). Also, iCCup usually gathers people who want to improve, so it has a lot more competition than say regular BNet servers, where players mostly play UMS, BGH, etc.
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one thing I don't like about iccup is how personal 1v1 games are and thus how difficult it is to meet and befriend people through the games you play.
i met most of my friends and people i regularly play with on bnet through playing them randomly and whether i win or lose, they'd be interested in my odd style of playing and invite me to their channel or add me to their f list.
if i ever do something creative on iccup my opponent would either rage quit (if i win) or say "why u laming" or "leave noob" (if i'm losing) and tell me to alt+qq or bm me and then never talk to me again.
if it weren't for that, i'd say:
whenever you lose a game against an opponent who is clearly at a level higher than you (not via cheese or w/e) and also good mannered, compliment them and ask to add them to f list, or if they have a channel (or invite them to yours) and chat, and/or ask them about their timezone and what times they're on iccup (if they play regularly).
...or if you win against an opponent in a close game, you can also ask
...or if you lose and get raped horribly, and your opponent is mannered, you can ask him to watch the replay with you and give you tips.
usually in any game there is a spot where you can do a "timing" attack... have your opponent watch the replay with you and have him point out where you could have done something differently (ie. attack while he's trying to secure an early 3rd)
edit:
also another thing is to find a coach. back when i was in a (noob) clan, we would play a 2v2 game where it was 1v1 with a coach ob on each side (vision only to their respective student... er, this would need an amount of trust though) and that coach would point out things that normally would be overlooked. (ie, "you have 2 idle workers" or "what build do you think he's doing? now how do you want to respond" )
^ though this would be pretty hard to convince a stranger to do... so gotta make a circle of friends/teachers
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I would simply suggest you watch your losing replays and find out why you lost. It's easier if you have someone else who can watch them with you, but doing it yourself works fine also.
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more practice... MORE PRACTICEEE
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EPT
