EPTPoll: Should I do coaching thing for more matches?
Yes, it's an interesting read. (47)
60%
No, plz stop this and end our pain (27)
35%
Where did you get the idea that we give a fuck? (4)
5%
78 total votes
No, plz stop this and end our pain (27)
Where did you get the idea that we give a fuck? (4)
78 total votes
Your vote: Should I do coaching thing for more matches?
(Vote): Yes, it's an interesting read.
(Vote): No, plz stop this and end our pain
(Vote): Where did you get the idea that we give a fuck?
Did you wonder what skills are required to coach a progaming team in Korea?
Or did you envy the coaches of proleague teams?
Or, did you ever watch a match like SKT1 vs CJ Entus 3rd match in 2009-2010 proleague playoffs and say, for example: "WTF IS SNOW DOING IN ACE MATCH !!! TO SNIPE FANTASY ?!? WHY WOULD A PERSON WITH AN OPERATIONAL BRAIN WOULD SEND FANTASY AGAINST A TEAM WHOSE 3 BEST PLAYERS ARE EITHER ZERGS OR VT SNIPERS ?!? ARE YOU IDIOT COACH CHO ?!?!" ?
So, if the answer of at least one of these questions is yes, you're at the correct place. Metalwing will teach you how to coach.
To be a Proleague coach, you need to outsmart your opponent every single time. You need to make your team practice well. You need to keep your team spirited. You need to make the best out of your roster for the every single time.
Practice Makes Perfect
So, let's begin with practice routines. I don't say that you should coach every single player all on your own. You should have race-specific assistant coaches as well. But you, a soon-to-be proleague coach, have to determine the practice routines of your players according to their roles in your team and weaknesses on their plays. For example, if you have a player like
sKyHigh, 
Modesty or 
Horang2, you shouldn't make them practice anything but mirror match-ups more than 2-3 hours a day combined (assuming that each player practices 10 hours a day). But unlike 1 match-up snipers, players that are backbones of their teams, like Leta, Kal, Sea that your team depends on their good players should practice everything. 3 hours of practice should be done everyday for these players against each and every race in every single map in proleague map pool. The remaining 1 hour should be dedicated to player's specific training, like specific match-up build order or individual league. I don't know what the system works in progaming teams, but from B-teamers to best players of A team should practice with these players. For example, you're coaching Hwaseung OZ and B-team match is tomorrow, vZ sniper of your B-team wouldn't say no to some practice. Why not let him practice with Jaedong for 4 hours, or even more, on that day? I'm sure Jaedong wouldn't reject practising one of his match-ups with a vZ sniper. Especially considering the fact that besides Jaedong, Hwaseung OZ A-Team lacks a vZ sniper (srsly, neither IChooseYouMagikarp, nor AssHo are vZ snipers, PerfectSlump is perfect as ever and Chiller is the killer of OZ), so this B-teamer guy can be one of the best practice of his race that Jaedong can receive, if not the best, and practising with Jaedong is hands down the best possible vZ practice. And there is one more fact that you shouldn't forget about progamer trainings: practice is MUTUAL. So, if you make every single player on your team practice with Jaedong for a long time, the result will be 1xJaedong and an A-Team that will never lose a single game to Zergs.Spirits, Give Me Strength !!!
When running a competitive team in anything, having a spiritted team is so important. That spirit, that enthusiasm can win you so many games. Watching Turkey's National Football Team in World Cup 2002 or European Championship 2008, or Turkey's National Basketball Team in World Cup 2010 proved this fact to me for something like 86. time. But, how can you have a number of 15-25 year old spiritted Koreans?
In my place, eating together is everything. At home, families eat together. At workplace, all colleagues eat together. That is the thing that keeps the spirit up. The thing that gives motivation to everybody. You probably may have heard that in Korean Progaming Teams, practice partners and B-Teamers don't eat with A-teamers. Well, if we're talking about some people who share the same house, practice room, people who practice together; this means that they should eat together as well. The team should also be the second family for players. Everybody should feel like they're at home. So, keeping up the team spirit starts from the practice house.
But what about matches? Near the end of season 2009-2010, STX Soul tried some extreme tactic to "maintain the team spirit" which was a vast amount of failure. Every single time a player goes into the booth for the game, it's like a penalty shootout in soccer. You know what happens during a penalty shootout. But how about the rest of the team? They should always bond together, and keep the spirit. Just like this:
![[image loading]](http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41696000/jpg/_41696314_barnsleyline-up416.jpg)
Now, THIS is what I call a team spirit. Players and coaches together, watching the shooter or goalkeeper carefully. The exact same thing should apply to progaming teams as well. In this way, when a game ends, the next player will say either "I can win this game too, and you know what, I WILL WIN THIS FUCKING GAME" (if the previous player won the game) or "It doesn't matter if X lost his game just now. I'm goin for it. I can win this game, so I'm gonna do my best and I won't come out of this place before I hear my opponent typing out" (if the previous player lost). Regardless of the match result, as a coach, your mission is to give spirit to your team right after every single game of a match. For example, you're coaching STX, you're facing OZ in a Winner's League match and
FrOzen has just lost the first game against Jaedong. IT DOES NOT FUCKING MATTER. It's not because he lost to Jaedong. It's because he did his best even though he lost. Results of FrOzen can be dealt with in the practice room. Right now, the only thing you need to do is to motivate FrOzen. You're just gonna say "Well done man, well done. You did everything you can, so it's not time to be sorry. Keep ya head UP", give him a massage, and what next? You're gonna say "Modesty, it's your turn. You can own this newb ezpz. I know you can do it. And if you ask my opinion, you WILL crush this newb.". You know what will happen after this talk? Modesty will go there and won't come back before he kicks the last bit of shit out of Jaedong. And suddenly, your team will change from "1-0 behind against Jaedong" to "1-1 against OZ without Jaedong in a Winner's league match". Things are DOWN FUCKING HILL FOR YOU right now. Because Killer or HiyA will possibly try to revenge-kill Modesty, and even if one of them does, you still have Calm, Kal, Shuttle with first 2 are more than capable to sweep the rest of the team. But without that good spirit, Jaedong will possibly sweep Modesty, Calm and Kal in this respective order. So, keeping the spirit is as important as providing the right practice for your team.Masterminds, the True People Behind All Victories
Right now, what I was talking about was mostly the stuff about players. Now, this is the place where you will make the REAL difference. Let's say, you are coaching Woongjin Stars and you're gonna face KT in your next game. Let's say, the maps are:
Set 1: Empire of the Sun
Set 2: Grand Line SE
Set 3: Circuit Breaker
Set 4: Aztec
Set 5: Fortress
Set 6: Benzene
Set 7: Central Plains
You need to outsmart your opponent. Know what he's up to even BEFORE he's thinking. The first map is Empire of the Sun. So, what you see is nothing about that map. Almost everybody played on that map for KT. Action, Stats, Flash all played on this map. So, probabilities are limitless. Literally everybody can come on this map. Except
fOrGG. He played on only Fortress this season. So, you will reserve Neo.G_Soulkey for that match. This guy will practice his vTs on 2 maps everyday: 6 hours on Fortress, 2 hours on Central Plains for 4 days until the match. So, why 2 hours on Central Plains? Because the game has a possibility to go to ace match. There will be Central Plains and Flash, a Terran player. Neo.G_Soulkey definitely counts as your ace. With some practice, Snow was able to take Flash down in an ace match. So, WHY NOT SOULKEY?Let's say the game has begun. First set, let's first look at what we have: free, ZerO, Really, PianO, Flying, Neo.G_Soulkey, Crazy-Hydra. Soulkey won't go. Let's look at the opposing team: Flash, Stats, Violet, Action, HoeJJa, fOrGG, Anyppi. We know nothing but fOrGG. We also know that Violet didn't play at Empire, and instead he played a lot on icarus, which is not on this match's map pool. So, let's assume that Stats will come out on Grand Line SE as he played a lot on that map. So, what we actually have is Violet, Flash, Action, HoeJJa and Anyppi. Action played on that map a lot, Violet didn't play too much but his maps are out of the pool, but there is another factor, KT coach probably guesses that we won't send Neo.G_Soulkey on this map and are reserving him for Fortress. So, he may send Flash right on. Actually, without knowing what to do, assuming Flash will be the best possible option. So, we can send ZerO as well. His vT is good and vP is better compared to Soulkey. Even though we lose ZerO to Flash, we can guess better for next games. So, let's send ZerO on this first match.
ZerO < Empire of the Sun > Violet
Good, we caught him off-guard. We scored the win, more importantly, we scored a win with a guy who could possibly lose to Stats. Losing ZerO to Flash is not bad, but to Stats definitely is. So, we're good now. Next map, is the map on which Stats appeared too much. Right now, I don't think KT coach can take the risk of being down to 2-0. So, probably Stats will come out in this game. So, what do we have in our arsenal against him? Really, free, PianO and Flying are possible choices. Crazy-Hydra or Soulkey would be too stupid to send out right now. Really looks like a fair choice right now. His vP is good, he's on a shape, so let's send him.
Really < Grand Line SE > Stats
Here, KT coach did a big big blunder. Even though he equalized the score-sheet, he ran out of protosses. Anyppi would be too good for Woongjin to send out and other than him, no toss remaining. But, he still has Flash, Action, HoeJJa that can hit hard on us. Next map is circuit breaker. Both Flash and Action played on this map before. So, we just don't know anything. So, let's send out Flying to check out what's going on. We're probably gonna go down to 2-1, but it doesn't matter. Well timed free and Soulkey will still keep us up.
Flying < Circuit Breaker > Action
Well, the worse case has happened. He is up with 2-1 and he has Flash, who will probably come out in the next game as I can't imagine he will use up all his zergs right after using up all his tosses. So, I'm gonna throw another bait at Flash and try to pick off the rest.
PianO < Aztec > Flash
Now, everything is set there. Soulkey will play fOrGG in next map and free will play HoeJJa. Will he change his player on Fortress, let me think... No. HoeJJa has a horrid ZvZ and Soulkey looks much better at it. But still fOrGG can beat free, but so can HoeJJa. He's a vP sniper and free is a protoss. Go Soulkey.
Neo.G_Soulkey < Fortress > fOrGG
Neo.G_Soulkey used Ultralisks. It's super effective. fOrGG fainted. So, now it's probably free vs HoeJJa, as I don't see Anyppi coming out of nowhere. Go free.
free < Benzene > HoeJJa
Good. 3-3 now, Soulkey against Flash.
Neo.G_Soulkey < Central Plains > Flash
WOOHOO !!! That extra ZvT practice on Central Plains sure paid off !!! Soulkey used a new build order he practised all the way through those practice hours worked wonders against the newly-crowned bonjwa.
Another example, let's say, you got STX SouL. You're facing Hwaseung OZ in Winner's league. Maps:
Set 1: Benzene
Set 2: Circuit Breaker
Set 3: Aztec
Set 4: Fortress
Set 5: Central Plains
Set 6: Grand Line SE
Set 7: Empire of the Sun
So, what we got is: Kal, Calm, Shuttle, FrOzen, Bogus, hyvaa, hero, Classic, Modesty.
Hwaseung OZ: Jaedong, HiyA, PerfectMan, BackHo, Killer, Lomo, Anytime
In winner's league, maps are less important. More important thing is checks and reverse checks as i call them. So, before the 1st set. Let's think about what can possibly come against us. I don't think OZ coach would send Jaedong right away, as he won't take the risk of Jaedong will possibly be revenge-killed in the 2nd round. So, he will probably send out a scout (check as i call). But, who may the scout be? HiyA? I don't think so. I think he'll keep him for later. Killer? No either. Because what can snipe Jaedong can snipe Killer as well. Lomo? He's actually the worst player in OZ roster. He may be the check, but he may be reverse-checked so easily by even Shuttle or Bogus or even hyvaa. PerfectMan would go down to any zerg in my line-up as well. BackHo or Anytime should be the man. But which one? Doesn't matter. Looks like by.hero even can take down any single protoss in OZ lineup. But what happens if his check turns out to be Lomo, or even HiyA? My Zergs would easily go down to HiyA. But I don't think he wants to get HiyA revenge-killed in the 2nd round, leaving Kal in booth and Calm on the lineup. Picking a zerg check is not that valuable for him, I'd lose a protoss instead of that if I were OZ's coach. So, it's set. Hero out.
by.hero < Benzene > PerfectMan
1-0. Just as I expected. He chose to lose a protoss. Let's see. I don't think that he would want to send Lomo against hero, or another protoss. HiyA would clean-sweep by.hero, but that's risky and it's still too early for HiyA. But not for Killer. I think he'll probably come with Killer to tie to 1-1 and get destroyed by Modesty to 2-1. HiyA comes to tie to 2-2, Kal makes 3-2 and he's left with Jaedong. Not bad! If both Kal and Calm lose to Jaedong, there is nothing I can do there. There is nothing for me to win this game anyway. But, what happens if Killer takes out Modesty along with by.hero? I need a backup plan for that. FrOzen takes Killer, 2-2. But he will probably lose to anything else. Classic takes Killer, 2-2. He'll lose right away to HiyA and leave me with Kal vs Jaedong with Calm out of the field. Wait a second. Why am I using Modesty in the first place? To lure HiyA and pick him with Kal. Bogus can do it even eazy-er. OK. I'm set.
by.hero < Circuit Breaker > Killer
ROFL. This is too good to be true. OZ is left with 1 zerg and they need to use their weapons right here right now.
by.hero < Aztec > HiyA
Well, I pretty much expected this. Go Kal.
Kal < Fortress > HiyA
2-2. !@^+%&^'+%. I just lost my ace player and HiyA is on the field. Oh ****. Now, I have to re-think everything. I can't send Calm. My best option will be Classic or Bogus right now. Bogus looks more solid compared to Classic in later stages. If I win, I have 2 chances against Jaedong with Bogus being a solid vZ player. So, let's do it.
Bogus < Central Plains > HiyA
Oh yeah. Just like this baby. I'm up with 3-2, and OZ has nothing to do but Jaedong. I hope one of Calm or Bogus wins against Jaedong.
Bogus < Grand Line SE > Jaedong
Expected again. Well, I still have Calm.
Calm < Empire of the Sun > Jaedong
LOL. Calm takes down dong's spire with his lings and dodges dong's every single scourge. Even though he lost the initial muta battle, he won the ground battle and overwhelmed dong's air with next muta wave. Nice one.
So, I tried to explain you, what to do in games. The ways to think during a game.
You gotta study your opponent. Read him like a book. Know what he's up to. And, always, always, ALWAYS have a secret weapon against whoever necessary. Be creative. Don't have players over specific maps which will allow them to get sniped way easier. DON'T forget to scout. Scouting is as important as it is in the game itself, if not more. Always have backup plans. Always prepare your team for the next match, but your players for the whole season.
That's all from me for now. I'll gladly take questions and comments.
_________________________________________________________________
EDIT: New example. Let's go on MBC vs Hite Entus, and suppose I'm coaching MBC. Well, this is gonna be tough. I said I'd do something about KHAN vs WMF, but I just realized that the game is actually played. So, what I'll do is to write names for each set and then compare them with what Entus coach sends at the end of the game.
Set 1: Fortress
Set 2: Benzene
Set 3: Grand Line SE
Set 4: Empire of the Sun
Set 5: Aztec
Set 6: Icarus
Set 7: Circuit Breaker
First, let's study Hite. Well, they tend to send a toss player on central plains, which is out of the map pool. So, let's look for more. Good. They have never sent a vT sniper on Benzene. Let's reserve that map for Light then. Looks like Leta plays in almost every single map. But doesn't appear on rounds 1, 3, 4. Round 1 is actually critical and can not be given to Jaehoon in any circumstances. Using up my Terran line is one of the worst possible cases. Using HyuN is risky as well, because Movie played on this map before and he may appear today as well. But, another thing: Entus sends Hydra on the first games unless the map doesn't have "Central Plains" in its name. Now, sending Jaehoon and Tyson are out of the question. HyuN and Saint don't win too much ZvZ as well and Hydra has an outstanding vT. If I send Light out in the 1st game and he loses, that would be a huge blow. So, I think it's pretty much decided. I'll send HyuN for the first game. He may deal with Hydra or Horang2 in the first game. As long term, I'll try to dodge my 2 best players Sea and Light from
Snow and sKyHigh. Giving Jaehoon to Leta would be good too.+ Show Spoiler +
Second game, this actually depends on the outcome of the 1st game so much. But I pretty much know that no vT snipers come out on this one.
Sea or Light. Let's decide. Actually, Hydra appeared once on this map. But also, 2nd sets are mostly where Leta comes out. So, looks like this is decided. Let's send Jaehoon. + Show Spoiler +
Let's look at MY trends right now. Because I am coach Mumyung, I always send
Sea on Grand Line SE or Circuit Breaker. Since Circuit Breaker is the ace game map, Entus coach KimDongWoo would probably assume that I'm going with Sea right now, so he'll send a vT sniper. Let's look at what he has as vT snipers. Snow, sKyHigh, Leta, HydrasKyHigh would be too risky for KDW, but also he won't lose the game even if he loses to Sea and Light ONLY. And I don't think he sends out Leta as well, because if he sends Leta, and loses, it's a major blow to Hite. He may also send Snow. But, I think he will reserve him for something else. Because unlike sKyHigh and Leta, he can play other matchups than vT. Anyway, I have enough number of reasons to send a protoss to this game. Tyson, you're out.+ Show Spoiler +
Hahahaha, I can hear KDW saying "!@^#$'^+#$". As I am Mumyung, I should go with Sea&Light on next 2 sets. But I'm also planning to change. I'm pretending like I am 1-2 right now and I dodged Leta and Snow. So,
sKyHigh appeared a lot on 4th sets as well, so let's send out another zerg. Saint, it's you.+ Show Spoiler +
Sea and Light respectively on 5 and 6.5th set is another DEAD ON for me as Mumyung.
6th set would probably be
Light vs Leta.Ace match. Probably, I'm gonna play
Leta on this one, but Circuit Breaker is a map that sKyHigh played as well. Nonetheless, both are Terran players. In my ace duo, Light did not play on CB, but Sea did. And Sea is better in terms of vT compared to Light. Sea, it all comes down to this.Sea vs Leta+ Show Spoiler +
Btw, MBCGame coach did well IRL match.
EDIT 2: I edited my results with the real game.
