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Active: 2361 users

Is SC skill natural or trained? - Page 7

Forum Index > SC2 General
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Penecks
Profile Joined August 2010
United States600 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-03-21 17:03:13
March 21 2011 17:01 GMT
#121
Depends on what you see as "natural" talent. I never really played a competitive RTS before SC2, but I progressed quite quickly anyway: this is probably due to me just having played hours and hours and hours of other games at high levels of play.

It's hard to name this specifically, but after having played games (any genre) for so long, a player starts to gain sort of this "awareness" of gaming and just what the hell is actually going on. Not just SC2 but this can be attributed across the board. So I don't quite feel it's natural talent specifically, just skills learned elsewhere, how to react fast, how to pay attention to key things, how to improve, and how to look for advantages over your opponent.
straight poppin
vahgar.r24
Profile Joined October 2010
India465 Posts
March 21 2011 17:02 GMT
#122
Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Altho Im a noob silver , i practise a shit load but I know that If I do it rite and stop messing with races I would be diamond. Wait am i contradicting myself TT
Somethings are just worth fighting for
hmsrenown
Profile Joined July 2010
Canada1263 Posts
March 21 2011 17:03 GMT
#123
I think everyone can be very good player, but only those who have favoured circumstances would take the next step into stardom.
darmousseh
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States3437 Posts
March 21 2011 17:04 GMT
#124
I don't believe in skill, the only thing I believe in is how quickly someone can learn.

For example, I don't have natural ability in sports, I realized that in high school, but I grew up playing soccer and baseball from age 6. I was terrible at baseball at 9, after a year of playing i was good enough at 10 to be on a good team. I slowly got better in junior high making some all star teams, finally I ended up having the highest batting average in the county and making the county all star team. It wasn't because I had some magical ability, but because I played a lot. It took me 10 years to be one of the best, not easy.

Some people just learn really quickly, either they grew up with sports or have someone to teach them.
Developer for http://mtgfiddle.com
Slix36
Profile Joined May 2010
United Kingdom145 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-03-21 17:18:24
March 21 2011 17:14 GMT
#125
You'll find a few people saying that it's natural born skill or talent, and while it's quite possible there are genes that could contribute in some way to the "talent", for lack of a better word, of a gamer, or anyone else for that matter, they are in no way nessecary for people to become that good.

While it's true there have been genes linked to specific traits it's been proven that if you take subjects without these traits and put them in a much more enriched environment for whatever behaviour or skill you want them to learn then given enough time they completely overcome not having that gene and can even surpass those that do, and this isn't just when people are young either, it's throughout the entirety of one's life.

So, my answer to you is it is all trained. That being said, a person with certain genes or certain experiences that have defined their current skills or behaviours may pick it up faster or slower than everyone else, meaning less of said training is actually required to get to that level. You just need to stick in there and eventually, if you train in the right way and in the right environment then you'll get there provided you don't die or lose your ability to play starcraft in any way before you get there.
Never too late to stand your ground.
Sablar
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
Sweden880 Posts
March 21 2011 17:22 GMT
#126
Yes.. at a top level it would end up with almost all "natural" skill. Like in pretty much any area.

But it also depends on how far you take it. For example being able to practise hard would in part be a natural skill as well.

Decision making would also be more or less natural, in the sense that two people with the same information won't necessarily reach the same conclusion.

I kind of dislike the implication that natural talent > hard work, because you can still become really good at something regardless. But if we just administed an IQ test or something, I would be very suprised if there wasn't a fairly strong correlation between that and SC2 performance. Parts of the test would probably be even more predictive. Things like raven's matrices can predict performance in so many areas, and I don't see why SC2 would be an exception.

On an individual level there would of course be many exceptions, so it doesn't say everything. And what we call natural talent can be trained (more or less) but if your starting level is really high you are more likely to be able to make it extremely high instead of say normal->high.
EggYsc2
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
620 Posts
March 21 2011 17:26 GMT
#127
Starcraft 2 is not different than a school subject
you need
a) a brain
b) time to practise/memorize

/thread
Whitewing
Profile Joined October 2010
United States7483 Posts
March 21 2011 17:26 GMT
#128
The vast majority of it is training, but at a certain point, you need some amount of natural talent with regards to decision making. I believe the skill cap is higher for those with natural talent than those without, and it takes training to realize your skill cap.
Strategy"You know I fucking hate the way you play, right?" ~SC2John
Sablar
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
Sweden880 Posts
March 21 2011 17:35 GMT
#129
I think saying "it's all the environment" is kind of naive in terms of any human behavior or performance. In order to say that "it's all training" you pretty much have to claim that "genes have no effect on us", and the amount of research you would have to completely disregard is staggering.

That being said, the environment has a large effect. But even if we claim that training is 99.9% of the importance behind SC2 skill, once you reach the top 0.0001% of players, that 0.1% skill difference suddenly becomes significant.

nipZ
Profile Joined February 2011
United States5 Posts
March 21 2011 17:35 GMT
#130
so as any college student who went through their first year of gen psych would know, this is a matter of nature v nurture. in essence a very controversial subject to this day, but obviously in need of both sides. there is natural skill one can receive from their parents in form of ingenuity or quick wits, but a larger part would have to be trained even then. there are going to be naturals in anything but thats not to say that with enough proper practice and dedication that no one can make it to rank 1 masters or the gsl.
revy
Profile Joined September 2009
United States1524 Posts
March 21 2011 17:39 GMT
#131
I believe Flash picked up Starcraft 2-3 years before he first debuted. He undoubtedly worked hard but an awful lot of his good play was just natural talent. I don't believe your random bronze player can be in the GSL.
Ponyo
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
United States1231 Posts
March 21 2011 17:42 GMT
#132
99% trained imo. Some people who play videogames before starcraft may have some small advantage of being able to react quicker to the screen lay out, but anyone can reach the highest level of play with enough practice/dedication.
ponyo.848
N3rV[Green]
Profile Blog Joined August 2009
United States1935 Posts
March 21 2011 17:49 GMT
#133
It's a mixture of both. Ya you can play 10000 games and you will be better, no matter what. But if you're just not fast minded, quick handed, accurate with the mouse and many other things you will just never be as good.

I'd say I'm pretty much just born this way. Sure I play a lot (over 2k in 1v1 games played) but I screw around a LOT, switch races almost every day, and have very very few actual "build orders", I just play it by feel for the most part.

Never fear the darkness, Bran. The strongest trees are rooted in the dark places of the earth. Darkness will be your cloak, your shield, your mother's milk. Darkness will make you strong.
KevinIX
Profile Joined October 2009
United States2472 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-03-21 17:52:19
March 21 2011 17:51 GMT
#134
It's trained, but not everyone has the willpower and dedication to make it to the GSL. The skill can be learned by anyone, but you have to have the mental fortitude to go through with it.
Liquid FIGHTING!!!
Stanlot
Profile Joined December 2010
United States5742 Posts
March 21 2011 17:58 GMT
#135
I believe there is a sense of natural skill at play here. Some people are just faster in terms of mechanics and finger speed and others are better at being able to adapt to his or her situation more quickly. Those who are poor at both make it up by practicing and playing a lot. I'd have to say that for the mass populace, practice is responsible for >90% of what we see when we observe varying "skill levels" and at higher levels of play, one's innate ability to play the game better is what separates a relatively skilled pro from a tip-top pro. Just my two cents but I don't think that if two people practice the same amount but one is better at decision making that the two will be equally matched.
MC: "Sentry Forcefield Forcefield Marauder... cage Marauder die die"
Raiznhell
Profile Joined January 2010
Canada786 Posts
March 21 2011 18:03 GMT
#136
Any skill can be trained. The person with the natural talent for it will just have an easier time progressing and will most likely surpass the non-talented person in time ie: Flash, Jaedong. Relates to anything from arts, academics and athletics.
Cake or Death?
Poopi
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
France12908 Posts
March 21 2011 18:06 GMT
#137
I think until the very very top good training & dedication is what you need.
Then it comes to talent.
WriterMaru
Neino
Profile Joined March 2011
Norway295 Posts
March 21 2011 18:08 GMT
#138
I don't see starcraft 2 being different than getting good in a subject at school, chess or whatever really. People have to put in different ammounts of work to reach the same level of skill. Wether this is something you obtain while you're being raised or are born with I don't know. But for example, a couple of years ago, I was exceptionally lazy at doing homework or even showing up for class, even so, I got grades far over the averege. This is just because I was lucky enough to have been born with parrents who were rather intellegent, so I understand stuff quicker than a lot of people. Now obviously you can argue that I was a complete moron for skipping school and such, but that's not the point! :p

I do believe that people will have a very different time to get to a higher level of starcraft, but after all, you have to work for it to reach the top no matter what. I met a guy once that was extremly talented at playing the piano, and someone said "You're so lucky that you are able to play so beautifully" he just responded with "Yes, i'm very lucky that I can stand playing for five hours a day", I think he had a pretty good point.
Ksyper
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Bulgaria665 Posts
March 21 2011 18:15 GMT
#139
You can train yourself to be a Master or even a Grandmaster player, but you can't become a pro if you don't have some talent imo.
Blurio
Profile Joined March 2011
Germany288 Posts
March 21 2011 18:15 GMT
#140
Natural Skill is just a stepping stone that puts you above others without it at the start of your carreer. It is the same with everything. Some people can paint awesome pictures without much training, others cant. But to get really good both have to study. The lesser skilled person just has to study a bit more to overcome the natural skill of the skilled person. You can train everything. Everyone can paint the Mona Lisa or play in the GSL, it just needs a fuckton of work.
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