Simple Questions Simple Answers - Page 663

On July 07 2012 11:15 Mavvie wrote:

There's no definitive answer to how many games it will take to jump leagues. I was stuck in bronze for many months, but then I read guides, focused on perfecting my play, and within a matter of weeks I've jumped from bronze to top plat, beating diamond players.

My recommendation is to look at replays (or post them here!) and find every single mistake you make. If you have more than 0 energy on your queens after injecting, you're doing it wrong. If you took 3 bases despite scouting a 1-1-1 all-in, that's also a fatal mistake. Look at how you could improve decision-making, scouting, macro, and mechanics! If you ever lost a few lings because of a bad rally point, focus on setting hatch rally points and even adding morphing eggs into your control groups.

I think that at the low levels, the most important things to improving is achieving a good balance between playing and theorycrafting. If you're playing TvP, and Protoss doesn't expand, only takes 1 gas, and is saving up chrono (for WG), you should build a bunker to hold the imminent 4gate! These are all just examples. You should read multiple comprehensive guides on all applicable matchups, then play, say, 5 games on ladder. Watch every replay, and take what you did and compare it to what you should have done (according to the guide[s]).

I don't know what race you are, but a good way of improving mechanics is PERFECTING a build! As annoying as it will be to all your opponents on ladder, practice a 4gate until you get it so perfect + smooth that it's completely optimized. I believe a good build for terran is the 1-1-1, and as zerg...hell we don't use build orders :D in all honesty, practice hitting 70-80 supply at 8 minutes ZvP, benchmarks ftw!

Edit: That awkward moment when jWavA's answer is infinitely better than mine! He's right: ladder ranking literally means nothing. Watch husky and day[9] and major tournaments and love the sport and community! ^^

On July 07 2012 11:16 jWavA wrote:


This ended up being kind of a long answer, but still pretty simple:

First I want to tell you to be a bit more patient. 20 wins is not enough to get you promoted. Starcraft is not like a platformer or RPG where you move on when you've played enough "levels". You will be promoted when you are consistently defeating silver league players, and not a moment before that. There's always been a social stigma at least among me and my friends that the bronze-gold part of the ladder takes no skill, that most people get into gold immediately and anyone who doesnt is stupid. This is incredibly far from the truth. I was really angry when I won 3 games and lost 2 and got placed in bronze 2.5 years ago. Then I realized, as Day9 puts it, the ladder is a measure of progress and not a measure of skill. Ignore your league ranking: its not a merit badge or a shiny car, or lack thereof. Celebrate when you get promoted, but remember that your rank is a tool, not a caste.

Now on the subject of improving, for now(even though you've probably already heard this), just play as many games as you feel like playing, and try to remember to always build probes and pylons(or whatever race you play). Watch Day9's videos(especially Newbie Tuesdays) and try to play with some friends you know more often, and learn from each other. If you start to think, live and breath starcraft and immerse yourself in the joy that is esports, you'll soon improve just through osmosis, and you'll have a lot of fun while you're at it.