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Good Players With Low APM

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1 2 Next All
Sabresandiego
Profile Joined July 2010
United States227 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-09 19:47:51
July 09 2010 19:46 GMT
#1
I don't disagree that having high APM is extremely important, but it is true APM (which can't be measured) that needs to be high. Your true APM is not what is listed on the APM counter. If someone is far more efficient and effective with fewer commands than a spamming retard: he may be playing at 30-40APM and winning meanwhile his opponent is at 150 APM and losing.

Some players click once or twice to issue a command, while others click 10-20 times.

Some players push a hotkey, then hold the shiftkey to put down mutiple structures meanwhile other players hit the hotkey 10 times for 10 structures.

Yes its good to get in the habit to be able to do many things at once, and for some spamming helps them get in the zone for the mid and late game where you do need to have a decently high true APM. Just remember that efficiency beats spam, and it is your true APM that will improve your game, not listed APM which is complete garbage.
Terran
Mesha
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
Bosnia-Herzegovina439 Posts
July 09 2010 19:50 GMT
#2
Spam is uber efficiency so you can t really avoid high APM or spamming if you are indeed a good player. I think... But there are also different levels of spam so the subject is really relative to discuss.
Reality hits you hard bro.
Baha
Profile Joined June 2010
Spain64 Posts
July 09 2010 19:51 GMT
#3
30-40 is too low anyways even in sc2. Maybe a normal APM wouyld be around 70-80 i think.
Roffles *
Profile Blog Joined April 2007
Pitcairn19291 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-09 19:53:00
July 09 2010 19:52 GMT
#4
On July 10 2010 04:50 Mesha wrote:
Spam is uber efficiency so you can t really avoid high APM or spamming if you are indeed a good player. I think... But there are also different levels of spam so the subject is really relative to discuss.

Highly disagree with this. Spamming is in no way efficient. As long as you are able to perform all the actions you need to, anything else is redundant.

Only problem is, if you have really low APM, if you are unable to crank up the speed when it comes to microing, macroing, and multitasking at the same time, then you aren't being efficient.
God Bless
JiYan
Profile Blog Joined February 2009
United States3668 Posts
July 09 2010 19:53 GMT
#5
white-ra claims 120apm average sc2
angelicfolly
Profile Joined June 2010
United States292 Posts
July 09 2010 19:55 GMT
#6
One thing to point out, is warm-ups before the actual game.

Those so-called spamming moves made early on, are what you would account for in stretches in sports.

Me0w
Profile Joined June 2010
Sweden52 Posts
July 09 2010 19:56 GMT
#7
I heard Moo has a very low APM.
Lite.wasalreadytaken
Profile Joined May 2010
Canada42 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-09 20:03:39
July 09 2010 20:03 GMT
#8
Clearly the pro-est thing would be to own Jaedong with 40 apm. It's not going to happen. It is hard to get fast apm. It is much harder to then maintain the same win ratio and greatly reduce your apm. To me, low apm is of little use without the win/loss ratio. Although most of the time it implies newness.
"A witty saying proves nothing." - Voltaire
vyyye
Profile Joined July 2010
Sweden3917 Posts
July 09 2010 20:04 GMT
#9
How many APM threads do we need?
Axlav's APM is insanely low at times, he only clicks when he needs to. He can have 0-20 APM early game. Still, he manages well.
Nyx
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Rwanda460 Posts
July 09 2010 20:05 GMT
#10
As your macro/micro skill increases, so does your apm, not the other way around.

On the other hand, backing this up with a proper strategy is half the fight.
Roffles *
Profile Blog Joined April 2007
Pitcairn19291 Posts
July 09 2010 20:06 GMT
#11
I think there's a certain minimum limit for achieving maximal efficiency. Past that certain point, everything else is just a bunch of spam. However, the faster you are, the more efficient you'll be at multitasking.

For example, we see that Stork at 250 APM has no problem against any other BW players, even those like JD who play at 400-500 APM.
God Bless
Lite.wasalreadytaken
Profile Joined May 2010
Canada42 Posts
July 09 2010 20:07 GMT
#12
That is a good point, there is definitely a hard minimum below which you are clearly underperforming, and that minimum depends on race and how many units/building you have at the time.
"A witty saying proves nothing." - Voltaire
junemermaid
Profile Joined September 2006
United States981 Posts
July 09 2010 20:07 GMT
#13
On July 10 2010 04:51 Baha wrote:
30-40 is too low anyways even in sc2. Maybe a normal APM wouyld be around 70-80 i think.


Still kind of low. There is a lot of shit to do... I'd say around 110-150 to be fully efficient.

I average around 130 with zerg, 120 with protoss, 110 with Terran and I don't spam, although I might not be the most efficient player with spawning larva / generating creep, I still find that if I were a little faster I could be doing a lot more.

A quick, rough (really rough) analysis:

you can cast about 3 chrono boosts a minute (rounded off to 3 for simplicities sake). During middle game, If you have three nexii, for each Cb session:

all nexii hotkey 0 (1 action)

chrono boost + select target x3 (6 actions)

build / upgrade from CB building (3 actions)

10 actions total just to chrono boost during one session from 3 nexii and you can do this ~ 3 times

So we're looking at 30 APM just chrono-boosting things. While its nearly impossible to keep up with CB's, 80 apm is no where near enough to keep up with each races macro mechanic & be effective on the battlefield.

on the other hand, keeping up with CB & MULEs only marginally increases your edge against the opponent, so differentials in APM aren't tiered as they were in BW. An 80 apm vs 120 apm player in SC2 is definitely noticeable, but not so noticeable that he 80 apm guy doesn't have a chance.
the UMP says YER OUT
789
Profile Joined October 2009
United States959 Posts
July 09 2010 20:08 GMT
#14
On July 10 2010 04:56 Me0w wrote:
I heard Moo has a very low APM.


I watched alot of CGM replays early in beta, if i remember right it was in the 80-100 range. So while lower than some might have suspected during his early beta success, it wasn't SHOCKINGLY low.
Member of Hyuk Hyuk Hyuk Cafe! He's the next Jaedong, baby!
Slayer91
Profile Joined February 2006
Ireland23335 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-09 20:14:41
July 09 2010 20:12 GMT
#15
Fair enough with this discussion in SC:BW threads, people in the 120-170 range could just about keep up if they were very smart, as a lot of the 200-300 apm players were spamming a lot. That said, I'm don't believe they can keep up with the mechanics of todays flash/jaedong (like, what, 400 apm?) level mechanics for a second. [Given example was stork, not known for really good mechanics IIRC and he played protoss, also not known for high APM. Compared to terran, although iloveoov was the exception with apm he also was noted to have idle scvs around and messy building placement]

But with mechanics a lot more clear cut in sc2, it doesn't mean we can just divide by 3, people. 40 apm? Thats 2 clicks every 3 seconds? I was probably doing more than that in wc2 when I was a kid. If you only do that much you don't have a clear grasp of all the things you need to do.

Also CGM played people in the beta who had the game for 1 week max, when he was there during the whole development. That just gives you an insane advantage.
InfiniteIce
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States794 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-09 20:15:00
July 09 2010 20:12 GMT
#16
On July 10 2010 04:53 JiYan wrote:
white-ra claims 120apm average sc2


White-Ra claims correctly as verified through myself when viewed through many of his replays (Parsed APM via GEARS, not Blizzard's broken-ass "game time" ~0.75x APM.)

Of course any good player will spike upwards during battle.

Also, anybody on the old patch, watch a TLO replay.

I was surprised how low his APM was, because he was doing incredibly well.
i keep going back to my response to chill's fake PM and laughing, then immediately getting a feeling that i assume i'd get if i had an orgasm and the girl said "hahaha guess what i have a dick" -FakeSteve
InToTheWannaB
Profile Joined September 2002
United States4770 Posts
July 09 2010 20:13 GMT
#17
Didint Travis beat the marine who had like 300 apm, while he had like 80apm during team liquid tour lol? So it can happen
When the spirit is not altogether slain, great loss teaches men and women to desire greatly, both for themselves and for others.
Slayer91
Profile Joined February 2006
Ireland23335 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-09 20:17:32
July 09 2010 20:16 GMT
#18

Didint Travis beat the marine who had like 300 apm, while he had like 80apm during team liquid tour lol? So it can happen

I remember beating a guy on USEast called "exalted" with his friend obing [Not sure if it was the TL guy] ZvT on Luna. At one point I infested his mineral only CC and used infested terrans. He was NOT good and he had 400 apm. I was definitely like iccup (current, because I was higher on PGTour obviously skills have improved) D or D- rank at the time and just went 3 hatch muta into 4 gas with lots of shit. I probably had about 120 apm.

SichuanPanda
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
Canada1542 Posts
July 09 2010 20:17 GMT
#19
If someone has perfect macro they should be at 90-150 APM just as a matter of fact of how many actions it takes to maintain that macro.
i-bonjwa
Sabresandiego
Profile Joined July 2010
United States227 Posts
July 09 2010 20:43 GMT
#20
40-50 APM is not low as an average. You can play the first 5 minutes of the game with perfect macro with 20 APM, then progress to 150APM by mid to end game and avg it out as 50.
Terran
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