[H] [L] Recovering from Hiatus - Page 2
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big_aug
United States14 Posts
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VeryAverage
United States424 Posts
Seems like there is a definite skill creep as gold league players did not play like this when I was playing good lord. On my trek up from Silver to Masters back in the day, people in gold were still bad, REALLY bad. Like idle workers, supply blocks every minute and a half, 40 APM, rushes that were 2 minutes too late, no scouting besides first workers into base, no base defenses, complete absence of multi tasking. Now I see some actually decent players who scout properly, can defend against things like Muta/Warp Prism harass, kill expansions and hit strong timings. Is it just smurfs? Most of the really good players seem to not be in leagues when I lose to them, the guys with like 180 APM and fantastic macro based on the replays. I guess I'm super out of the loop with things like build orders, army compositions and my macro is certainly rusty but after about 30 games of still in gold league (mostly against platinum players now, hopefully making that jump) people are clearly better than they used to be. I can't just 3 base colossus a+move to victory anymore. The only good thing I have going for me is that the map pool isn't far off from where I left it. Who is the best protoss player nowadays so I can get some inspiration? | ||
Frankie Teardrop
United States74 Posts
On December 18 2014 18:07 VeryAverage wrote: . Seems like there is a definite skill creep as gold league players did not play like this when I was playing good lord. On my trek up from Silver to Masters back in the day, people in gold were still bad, REALLY bad. Like idle workers, supply blocks every minute and a half, 40 APM, rushes that were 2 minutes too late, no scouting besides first workers into base, no base defenses, complete absence of multi tasking. Now I see some actually decent players who scout properly, can defend against things like Muta/Warp Prism harass, kill expansions and hit strong timings. Is it just smurfs? Most of the really good players seem to not be in leagues when I lose to them, the guys with like 180 APM and fantastic macro based on the replays. What you're experiencing is ladder deflation caused by over-aggressive MMR decay. Right now there are tons of 8-10x master leaguers stuck in platinum and diamond league who cat get promoted even with ridiculously high win rates. After a while; this causes gold league to fill up with all the legitimate plat and diamond players who keep getting stomped by those former masters. It was much worse this time last year before Blizzard re-drew the MMR boundaries for league distribution. 70+% of all players had been pushed down to bronze and silver leagues, and good league was full of former diamonds and low masters. ExcaliburZ had a great thread on ladder deflation and MMR decay last year with all sorts of graphs and statistical analyses. | ||
Daimai
Sweden762 Posts
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Vexon
United States23 Posts
In my opinion, the benefits of this training method, whether followed strictly or more in spirit, are threefold. 1. It separates "playing well" from winning. The most discouraging thing for any player trying to improve, whether new, returning, or veteran, is a losing streak that seems to stem from just being outclassed. It is very easy for that losing streak, which will almost certainly happen if you are out of practice, to scare the returning player away, and keep them from getting back in shape at all. This avoids that by providing clear benchmarks for macro and economy. For me at least, there is something incredibly heartening in being utterly destroyed, uploading the game to ggtracker, and seeing that I spent like a master-level player. It also makes it easier to focus the game around fun. It is very hard to beat yourself up over a loss when that loss consisted of you going 12 gate mass zealot in PvT. 2. It makes the job of figuring out why you lost much simpler. Starcraft is a complicated game. The number of factors involved in "who is ahead" at any point is incredibly complicated, and that can also lead to the horrible "why did I lose" discouragement. This training method avoids that by providing fewer things to analyze at the beginning, and making every aspect of the game ultra-clear. Even those dedicated to the"play game, watch replay, repeat" method of improvement should find this more effective. GGTracker offers about a dozen graphs of analysis for any game, letting you isolate exactly what it was that made you lose. 3. It provides a natural way for your fingers to remember the way the game works. It allows (in fact, requires) you to play ladder games, but is much easier and more helpful than just hitting the "find match" button on day 1. In conclusion, I hope that this long rant convinces at least one person to try The Staircase, or to sign up at GGTracker.com. GGTracker especially is an incredible resource that they could easily charge money for, but they do not. It is a tool that players at every level can benefit from using. TLDR: Try this: The Staircase And make an account here: GGTracker.com | ||
Roadog
Canada1670 Posts
On December 22 2014 11:10 Daimai wrote: I'm also recently returning and hyping for LotV, but my question is, is it really worth it to learn The Core or Fleet Keys? No offense to the creators but as far as I know, they haven't even broken diamond. So how can they know how it's a good and efficent hotkey system. I remember trying to learn the core once and it was a major pain in the ass, but it would be interesting to see some input from high rated players about these custom made hotkey setups. So you're basically trying to argue with the appeal to authority fallacy to cover up for your own laziness? Did you even read the OP in the TheCore thread, at all? http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/sc2-strategy/341878-thecore-advanced-keyboard-layout Look in the "The Players" section and see if that's enough authority for you. | ||
Gendo
United Kingdom216 Posts
I would say don't focus much on pro hotkey setups but instead try and practice your core mechanics like macro/micro and understanding the meta and what kills you early. I now take it less seriously (easier said than done) and happy to be climbing gold league with a few games, even if i get supply blocked like 4-5 minutes each game i still have a better macro than a gold player who's blocked for 1 minute and with micro i tend to win unfavourable engagements. What gets me is that i'm not used anymore to check constantly the supply and the minimap, something you should keep in mind as they are absolute essentials to get higher than gold. My DT nightmares are also back | ||
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