EPTFirst, a small bit of information about me: (you do not have to read if you do not want to)
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Hello, my public ingame ID is "Jerokar", and was a Danish middle-high diamond player (when masters' league had not yet been released), but went inactive for around 1½ month due to real life issues. I have now returned to starcraft 2, and am able to spend much more time on it.
Upon returning to Starcraft 2, i have now been placed in the masters' league on the EU server and the NA server. - (please don't start a discussion on which ladder is more difficult, the difference is not that big). However, after a few weeks of ladder, i realized that just laddering and practising was not as satisfying as it previously had been.
I have always admired players like incontrol who take time to teach lower rated players, helping them improve on whatever part of the game they were unfomfortable with (even if it is for money). I, myself, would now like to attempt to go down the same path, and have recently started a "project" in which i intend to coach a low bronze player all the way to Masters' league.
Before you start spamming my blog, i have to inform you that i have already found a player that i intend to coach for the next long period of time.
*NOTE* One of my EU accounts/profiles ("Jerokar") has just been demoted to diamond after loads of failed attempts at Day[9]'s Funday Monday challenge >_<
- I will attempt to get the account back into masters whenever i have time for some laddering
Upon returning to Starcraft 2, i have now been placed in the masters' league on the EU server and the NA server. - (please don't start a discussion on which ladder is more difficult, the difference is not that big). However, after a few weeks of ladder, i realized that just laddering and practising was not as satisfying as it previously had been.
I have always admired players like incontrol who take time to teach lower rated players, helping them improve on whatever part of the game they were unfomfortable with (even if it is for money). I, myself, would now like to attempt to go down the same path, and have recently started a "project" in which i intend to coach a low bronze player all the way to Masters' league.
Before you start spamming my blog, i have to inform you that i have already found a player that i intend to coach for the next long period of time.
*NOTE* One of my EU accounts/profiles ("Jerokar") has just been demoted to diamond after loads of failed attempts at Day[9]'s Funday Monday challenge >_<
- I will attempt to get the account back into masters whenever i have time for some laddering
What is this blog about?: I and have recently started a "project" in which i intend to coach a low bronze player all the way to Masters' league. --
I have already found a player that i intend to coach for the next long period of time. Please dont ask me to coach you before i say that i am looking for more people to coach. --
The player that i am going to be coaching for the next long period of time is a Swedish Protoss player named Ruki ingame, and is also named *Ruki* on teamliquid.net. At the starting point of our coaching sessions, he was a low bronze player, and was indecisive of wether or not he wanted to play Zerg or Protoss.
I first met Ruki on the Teamliquid.net forrums, reading a blog post made by him named *Mentor Needed*. After a brief chat with him, i senced that he was serious about improving his Sc2 abilities, and wanted to go to the very top.
I will now be spending my next months (or however long it takes) helping Ruki imrove his play. Our goals are reaching high diamond or masters' league. My methods of coaching Ruki are not completely "standard" however. I will not just be coaching him occationally for a one hour session. I will be spanding an extended amount of time having 1½ or longer sessions every day/almost every day, depending on what he is improving on at that point. I am not charging money for these coaching sessions. If my coaching is still wanted by others by the time that i finish coaching Ruki, i will start coaching others (this will probably be charged, price will depend on how high demand is)
I will regularly (once or twice a week, more if blog becomes popular) be updating this blog, adding progress reports and additional information
Once we reach Platinum-ish or higher, i might start streaming our coaching sessions. I WILL NOT STREAM RUKI OR YOU (if you play vs Ruki) WITHOUT YOUR/RUKI's PERMISSION HOWEVER
*NOTE* I have recieved permission from Ruki to post this information on this Blog - i have no intentions of violationg anyone's privacy
About my methods of coaching:
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As previously stated, my methods of coaching Ruki differ slightly from the 1-2 hour coaching lessons that are usually offered by other coaches. I will be spanding an extended amount of time (maybe several months) having 1½ or longer sessions every day/almost every day (voice communication via Skype), depending on what he is improving on at that point. I am not charging money for these coaching sessions.
When first starting out at bronze-level, i focus on choosing ONE BUILD PER MATCHUP and sticking with it. I mostly focus on SPENDING YOUR MONEY while constaly making probes and expanding when it is safe, without too much harrassment or fancy tactics. I do not really care if you micro your units perfectly at this point, since having more units generally > cutesie micro tactics that might save you 1 unit
Once that one build order (usually up to the 8-ish minute mark) is memorized and can be executed fairly well, i will start focusing more on the strategy aspect of the game. DO NOT CONFUSE STRATEGY WITH TACTICS. Focusing on strategy would mean going deeper into which unit compositions are strong agaisnt other unit compositions, which opponent build orders allow you/force you to be aggressive, etc.
Once we finally reach high platinum/diamond, i will go deeper into more subtle things like unit positioning and micro /tactics (like flanking tanks) and observer positioning + scouting.
For those of you who say that more frequent coaching has diminishing returns in the amount of "stuff learned", i am not claiming that coaching maintains a 100% efficiency no matter how frequently you are coached. The reason that i am doing an extended coaching "project" is that i want to see someone progress from bronze to masters', so that i can develop a greater understanding of how to improve at every skill-level. Once i feel that i have a good feel for this, i plan to offer individual caching sessions.
When first starting out at bronze-level, i focus on choosing ONE BUILD PER MATCHUP and sticking with it. I mostly focus on SPENDING YOUR MONEY while constaly making probes and expanding when it is safe, without too much harrassment or fancy tactics. I do not really care if you micro your units perfectly at this point, since having more units generally > cutesie micro tactics that might save you 1 unit
Once that one build order (usually up to the 8-ish minute mark) is memorized and can be executed fairly well, i will start focusing more on the strategy aspect of the game. DO NOT CONFUSE STRATEGY WITH TACTICS. Focusing on strategy would mean going deeper into which unit compositions are strong agaisnt other unit compositions, which opponent build orders allow you/force you to be aggressive, etc.
Once we finally reach high platinum/diamond, i will go deeper into more subtle things like unit positioning and micro /tactics (like flanking tanks) and observer positioning + scouting.
For those of you who say that more frequent coaching has diminishing returns in the amount of "stuff learned", i am not claiming that coaching maintains a 100% efficiency no matter how frequently you are coached. The reason that i am doing an extended coaching "project" is that i want to see someone progress from bronze to masters', so that i can develop a greater understanding of how to improve at every skill-level. Once i feel that i have a good feel for this, i plan to offer individual caching sessions.
If you would like to assist us in this journey to masters' league /have a chance to be streamed, or if you are just looking for a practise partner:
*EU ONLY* -- I am currently looking for players (platinum and under) to play custom games VS Ruki. If you are interested, Leave a comment on the Blog or write me a PM on Teamliquid containing the following information: Ingame character name, Character ID, your 1v1 League, your race, and wether or not you mind being streamed. Alternatively, if you would like to play against Ruki and be part of a coaching session, you can join the chat channel "Jerokar", and if Ruki and I need someone to play against, we will ask in the chat channel.
TL;DR: Low Bronze Protoss being coached, will post progress reports. Leave a comment on the Blog containing account information or join chat channel "Jerokar" on the EU server if you wish to play against person being coached
--Progress Report: 14. April 2011--
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This first progress report was posted on the same day that this blog was created. After a week of regular sessions, Ruki has dramatically increased his matchmaking value and is now regularly facing silver- players on ladder. He is still in the bronze division ranked 2 with 602 points, but will probably be promoted shortly...
--Progress Report: 29. April 2011--
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After around a week and a half of training and laddering, and a very busy easter vacation, Ruki has reached the gold league. He was placed into the gold division "Hartley Lambda" the 28th of April, and is currently rank 4 in his division with 480 points and 101 games won. during the next week or so, we will be focusing on defending early aggression, especially from terrans, as requested by Ruki. If anyone would like to play VS ruki, please leave a comment or a message for me on TL containing your character name and ID...
--Progress Report: 13. May 2011--
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Ruki is still in the gold division "Hartley Lambda", now with 746 points, and is ranked 2nd. Ruki entered into the Golden Age Cup today, but got knocked out in the quarterfinals VS. the Swedish protoss "Western". During the next week or so we will be working on general army positioning and map awareness (scouting, expanding safely). If any gold-diamond players would like to help out in our training, please leave a comment :D
