Firstly, this guide is not for people who play this game exclusively to amuse themselves. This game offers discipline, self-introspection, and the development of patience and perseverance. You can apply things you learn from this game in many other parts of your life.
THESE ARE ONLY SUGGESTIONS. Please don't post that 'this isn't how I get my head-space'. I realize just by asking people not to post that I'm pretty much demanding that ten or twelve idiots post exactly that.
These WILL work for SOMEONE.
Starcraft 2 is a very 'pure' game. Each element of it can be exploited to offer genuine advantage on the battlefield but none moreso than your own mind-set. If you've spent any time with Day 9's videos you realize early on that attitude is a huge part of it but how do you get attitude? This is a list of simple ways before you go into a game of working out your own attitude. They may seem a little arcane but I promise, they help.
1.Visualize your end army composition. This is the army you want to build, constructed regardless of the opponents actions. Close your eyes and formulate the model of each unit in your head. If you are Protoss, take the Zealot first. See how many you will want in your composition and why they will be there. Are they going to be tanking damage or dealing it? If they are dealing it, what is keeping them alive and allowing them to close with the opponent (obviously Charge and Sentry Guardian shield). 2.Think of the unit that scares you the most. For me this has and probably always will be Banshees. Yeah, they scare the crap out of me. Once they're on the field, I am just having a bad day. I know the list of counters and methods of dealing with them. There are plenty and Protoss will soon have more due to the Phoenix and Observer buffs.
That isn't the point. Visualize the unit. See it in your mind's eye. Now see a huge army of them. A terrifying army. Now make that army crumble. Shatter that army and break it's back with a mass of your own units. If you do this mentally you can actually find yourself looking forward to the actual encounter with the unit or composition that frightens you. 3.Become a sado-masochist. Take the death of each of your units with a smile and the death of each of his with a giggling grin. Imagine their deaths and enjoy the spectacle. If you are a nasty bastard killer, those deaths mean nothing. Win or lose, know your opponent would fear you if he could see into your head at this moment. 4.Be the cold center of the world. Be empty of emotion. Before each game, take your feelings about what you are doing, who you are playing, and whether or not you are going to win and put them outside of yourself. You can do this by imagining a spinning blue ball full of all of your feelings and then mentally placing it outside of your head. It's a simple piece of self hypnosis but it works surprisingly well. 5.Meditate on your plan. Take thirty seconds before the game and close your eyes. Are you cannon rushing this game? Are you going to do early pressure or early defense? Make each decision before the game has begun and before the loading screen appears. If you have the game in your mind and your opponent doesn't you will own the playing field. 6.Imagine the game as a long term war. If you lose this battle that doesn't mean you've lost the war. The war is ongoing and your units are only meaningful in the way they contribute to that war, not in how they contribute to this battle. If they all die then they died for the cause. Think of the 'Surrender' button in the menu as a 'Retreat' button. You live on to fight another day. You can come back to this battlefield and win the day in the future. 7.Think of each of your units as hugely over-powered. Look at them as power-houses of monstrous strength. Even should they die it wasn't because they were weak. The only weakness is inside you and those weaknesses inside the human being are the ones that can be defeated most easily. You might make a gun fire more bullets but it won't matter if the man behind the gun hasn't the will to fire those bullets. Imagine yourself moving mountains with your army. If you have the will, your army will have the will.
This is a list of traps people fall into that they MUST be aware of. If you are falling into any of these, you should know that these will steal strength from your army as much as they steal it from your mind-set. Trap 1.The Game Is Imbalanced-Everyone is guilty of this at one time or another. Awww, man, those Roaches have such shitty range. My buildings fell SO fast to that Marauder drop. God, those Stalkers just don't do enough damage. Man, Archons suck so bad. If you find yourself thinking this, see #7 of the above list. If you believe your gun is smaller than the enemies and your will is weaker, you will not prevail. Trap 2.All the other players seem so much better than I am.-They aren't better. More knowledgable perhaps, for a time. They know the decisions more intimately. They are human beings. Two arms, two legs, a nose, eyes. Trap 3.I hate losing so much!- Get on the ladder today and lose 10 games. Do it on purpose. Throw endless waves of units away. Let the enemy straight into your base. Don't build defenses. Let them stomp you and have the win. Then, when they win, go and tell them they're the best player you've ever fought. If they make fun of you or call you names all the better. Tell them they're right. LOSE HARD. If they say 'You suck, faggot' say 'I sucked ten dicks today. Thank you sir, may I have another?'.
Crush Your Ego. You don't deserve to win until you can win without defining yourself based on how much you win. Trap 4.I must practice like Huk or I'll never be as good as he is!- No, you are not trying to be as good as Huk. Sorry I keep using him as my example but I've been watching his replays a lot. Go out and play a pick-up game of basket-ball. You aren't trying to be Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant. This game is not about being God. Just because you can climb to compete in the same leagues as those players with less luck than is involved in being picked up by an NBA basketball team you should not make this your goal. If this is your goal, be prepared to sacrifice large parts of the rest of life to do it.
Don't try to be someone. Imagine yourself being them if you must, but be YOU. Trap 5.I shouldn't steal someone else's play style. I should be able to make my own!- Yes, yes you should steal their play style. If you can make it work for you then by all means, rip it off right at the root. This is another ego thing. You are not Picasso. You do not need to be hugely creative. People name tactics after players in chess and fencing for a reason. They acknowledge the truly creative ones but they also make use of those tactics. Lalush style, Jinro style, oGsMC style...Use what you see from them. Trap 6.My replays will just show me losing.-Your replays will show you how to win the next game. If you are so embarassed to watch yourself lose, see the solution to Trap 3. Then watch your damn replays.
Okay, I'm wrapping this up. I realize it's long but I hope it helps. Attitude is the core of life just as it is the core of this game.
How often do you think Huk gets laid? If he goes on a 3 month break and doesn't play, he's BONED. His skills will fall apart. Don't try to be someone. Imagine yourself being them if you must, but be YOU
"Trap 3.I hate losing so much!" Ahhh this is me lol, I'm going to take your advice. :-) nice post for people who are a little more open to this type of thinking!
This are VERY good advices ! I especially love the Trap 3 response ! I think I'm gonna do that before my next session. I stopped laddering because I feared loss too much, but thanks to you, that won't happen again ! brillant post man
I like your post, because many people underestimate the importance of being mindful of your own emotions and just mindlessly give into them. The result is rage, unobjective thinking, selfhate (often projected onto others) and also very often doucheyness.
I did the exact same thing you described in trap 3 to get over my caring about winning/losing, it really helped(I actually just joined games and left or just worker rushed). If you only focus on the outcome (winning or losing) and not the technique or improving then you are just making it harder on yourself to improve. So much easier to play when you don't care about winning or losing.
On January 04 2011 21:12 chessiecat wrote: 4.Be the cold center of the world. Be empty of emotion. Before each game, take your feelings about what you are doing, who you are playing, and whether or not you are going to win and put them outside of yourself. You can do this by imagining a spinning blue ball full of all of your feelings and then mentally placing it outside of your head. It's a simple piece of self hypnosis but it works surprisingly well.
Great op, for me it all worked itself out by just studying my replays especially the ones where I lost. From my reps I learnt how to deal with banshees and they went form fear inducing to another anoyance that can be dealt with e.g. This coupled with watching the GSL and the pro's streams, of course
On January 04 2011 21:12 chessiecat wrote: 4.Be the cold center of the world. Be empty of emotion. Before each game, take your feelings about what you are doing, who you are playing, and whether or not you are going to win and put them outside of yourself. You can do this by imagining a spinning blue ball full of all of your feelings and then mentally placing it outside of your head. It's a simple piece of self hypnosis but it works surprisingly well.
On January 04 2011 21:12 chessiecat wrote: 3.Become a sado-masochist. Take the death of each of your units with a smile and the death of each of his with a giggling grin. Imagine their deaths and enjoy the spectacle. If you are a nasty bastard killer, those deaths mean nothing. Win or lose, know your opponent would fear you if he could see into your head at this moment.
I don't get how you're supposed to do this and focus on the game at the same time. It sounds like you're trying a little too hard to be a badass or whatever. Anyway, you kinda need to keep your units alive, especially if they cost gas.
I know you're going to say you didn't mean this literally, but I guess I just don't understand the, uh, metaphorical application, either.
Great post, I totally agree. Learning to lose is essential if you want to become a better player. If you're not afraid to play ladder, you can try new strategies whenever you want and just play to be a better gamer, not to beat your annoying opponent who said "fuck you" instead of "gl hf". Watching replays of lost games will be easier too if you don't get too emotional about losing. A great way to learn to lose is doing stupid things and laughing about them, or surrendering if you get supply blocked under 30 food.
This is well intentioned, but a few of those points are simply silly.
Become a sado-masochist, really? You need to think logically and with reason to be good at this game, this is just ridiculous.
Think of your units as overpowered? How will that help a Protoss who needs to keep his first few vulnerable stalkers alive at all costs, or one trying to keep a Void Ray from being killed. Sure, don't moan about them being unfairly weak, but this is going a bit far.
There are a good few points I agree with, and one or two more I don't. You have the right idea, but honestly, it need not be taken to such a strange extreme.
On January 04 2011 21:12 chessiecat wrote: 3.Become a sado-masochist. Take the death of each of your units with a smile and the death of each of his with a giggling grin. Imagine their deaths and enjoy the spectacle. If you are a nasty bastard killer, those deaths mean nothing. Win or lose, know your opponent would fear you if he could see into your head at this moment.
I don't get how you're supposed to do this and focus on the game at the same time. It sounds like you're trying a little too hard to be a badass or whatever. Anyway, you kinda need to keep your units alive, especially if they cost gas.
I know you're going to say you didn't mean this literally, but I guess I just don't understand the, uh, metaphorical application, either.
This is an internal confidence building exercise. You focus first on yourself and then on your opponent. You believing you can win is more important than your actual play. The belief that winning is possible will keep you from losing in situations where someone who believes they've already lost would crumble and gg even if they could hold off this push and then counter.
If you laugh at your losses and shut out all thought of failure you put yourself in mental condition (The 'I can win this' condition) to take advantage of holes in an opponent's strategy without mercy and then should you be rebuffed to come back and strike again. Even if you should lose a single game or a succession, maintaining this mind-set will bring you back. The best isn't the person who wins a single battle.
They are those people who lose, lose again, get set on fire, get filled full of buckshot and buried alive...and then still keep going. If you can see yourself as that, you will never have lost completely.
On January 08 2011 17:18 chessiecat wrote: A friend of mine suggested I might want to re-write parts of this. Anyone got any thoughts or additions?
More details about how you apply auto hypnosis, NLP, whatever, to improve your mindset ! I personnaly use anchors a lot to help me get in the zone, but sometimes it's not enough.
I'll make a note about that. Self hypnosis is a powerful way of relaxing before a battle and a player should relax far more than they should 'amp themselves up'. Starcraft is best played as a game of quiet contemplation and less as an adrenaline trip, at least if you want to get the best play out of it.
Eye of the tiger? "Think of crushing your opponent. THEN CRUSH HIM! Rawr!"
Starcraft 2 is exactly that easy.
I did laugh at the lose games on purpose thing. I actually did that recently before i switched from terran to protoss. I wanted to start protoss fighting noobs, so i threw 20 or so games in a row as terran doing ridiculous strategies. One barracks into four planetary fortresses in front of your natural = doesn't turn out as good as it sounds. But it really was an effort to make myself lose games. I'm so competitive.
EPT
