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Hi TL,
I expected a thread on this already but a search for it came up empty. Pretty much, what I'm hoping for in a discussion/survey is this - how many hours weekly (in general) do you Master league players spend practicing and laddering on SC2, and how often do you practice with friends/partners rather than straight up ladder? What individual practice regimens do you find most helpful to maximizing the usefulness of your time?
The reason I ask (and a bit of background about me) is that for as much as I love Starcraft 2, I simply don't have a lot of time to play and my technological resources aren't that good. I work an average of 70 hours per week, have a social life, and I live in a historic building in the middle of nowhere and thus have to rely on Mobile Broadband (with its 5GB monthly limits) as my main internet connection, which makes purchasing coaching just not an option (at least until summer). This makes my average play time each week between 6 and 12 hours.
Despite all of this, I'm strongly passionate about improving my Random-playing low diamond/high platinum self enough to attain my goal of Masters. I'm aware that not sticking to a certain race is another thing that will slow my curve, yet I find exploring all of the different matchups intriguing as well as a way to keep the game from becoming stale - and after all, the game should be about fun, right?
Anyhow, enough about me - Masters players, I want to hear from you, post away!
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I can only speak for myself. I have around 50-50 ladder and costum games. This because I play Ladder games to win, while in costum games I can practice a bit more. Thus, obviously, I feel like I learn more from costum games. My biggest trouble, most of the time, is finding people to play against.
I also have school and work, which kinda eats into my playing time. It also varies depending on how much I can, and how much I can be arsed to actually play. But I don't think it would be wrong to say that I am logged into sc2 around 8 hours a day, and playing games for half of that time (I socialize a lot 
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I'm a low masters player (~350 pts atm, 3200 Last Season), and I generally spend about 1 hour laddering per day during the week, and on weekends I can spend 2-3 hours laddering per day. I have played for as long as 8 hours in one day, but that's not a regular thing. Dedicated practice sessions with my friends really depends on who is online and who needs practice vs a certain race, but generally I try to get at least 1 hour of practice a day on weekends vs whatever I'm currently having trouble against.
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2-3 hours per week.
Ladder.
You can easily get into Masters & stay in Masters if you can "master" defending cheese, which is 98% of the time in Master league matches.
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i play maybe between 0-20 games / month
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Hmm that is completely different per person tbh, the amount of time you play only hurts ur macro IMO.
Sometimes I don't play for a week, when I start playing again I do retarded shit like forgetting a pylon 7 minutes in the game and strange stuff like that.
But when I actually have too micro there is no problem at all.
The macro problem only stays for like 2-3 games tho then I'm back in the rhythm again ^^.
Also, there is effective and ineffective practice, if you just do some stuff and don't analyze ur losses u might have to play like 2/3 times more then if you would use ur time effective
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usually i play like 5-15 custom games a day with my practise partners, sometimes more and rarely none at all. as far as laddering goes it depends on how im playing. if i feel like im playing as well as i should and not making stupid mistakes all the time i might play about 20 ladder games in a day but sometimes i play so bad that i dont have motivation to play more than 1 game and them start playing custom :D
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Calgary25980 Posts
I play about 5-10 hours a week, all ladder.
On April 23 2011 23:39 Almin wrote:
You can easily get into Masters & stay in Masters if you can "master" defending cheese, which is 98% of the time in Master league matches.
I don't find this to be accurate in the slightest.
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On April 23 2011 23:44 Chill wrote:I play about 5-10 hours a week, all ladder. Show nested quote +On April 23 2011 23:39 Almin wrote:
You can easily get into Masters & stay in Masters if you can "master" defending cheese, which is 98% of the time in Master league matches. I don't find this to be accurate in the slightest.
I guess I inflated my %, it's more like 70%, my bad.
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A poll is always nice.
Poll: Masters - How many hours/week do you play?<2 hours (72) 33% 10-20 hours (41) 19% 2-5 hours (37) 17% 5-10 hours (34) 16% 20-40 hours (20) 9% >40 hours (11) 5% 215 total votes Your vote: Masters - How many hours/week do you play? (Vote): <2 hours
(Vote): 2-5 hours
(Vote): 5-10 hours
(Vote): 10-20 hours
(Vote): 20-40 hours
(Vote): >40 hours
EDIT: Are you not a master?
+ Show Spoiler +Just for fun Poll: Diamonds - How many hours/week do you play?<2 hours (11) 32% 5-10 hours (10) 29% 2-5 hours (9) 26% 10-20 hours (2) 6% 20-40 hours (1) 3% >40 hours (1) 3% 34 total votes Your vote: Diamonds - How many hours/week do you play? (Vote): <2 hours
(Vote): 2-5 hours
(Vote): 5-10 hours
(Vote): 10-20 hours
(Vote): 20-40 hours
(Vote): >40 hours
Poll: Platinums - How many hours/week do you play?5-10 hours (4) 40% 2-5 hours (3) 30% <2 hours (2) 20% 10-20 hours (1) 10% 20-40 hours (0) 0% >40 hours (0) 0% 10 total votes Your vote: Platinums - How many hours/week do you play? (Vote): <2 hours
(Vote): 2-5 hours
(Vote): 5-10 hours
(Vote): 10-20 hours
(Vote): 20-40 hours
(Vote): >40 hours
Poll: Golds - How many hours/week do you play?<2 hours (4) 67% 2-5 hours (1) 17% >40 hours (1) 17% 5-10 hours (0) 0% 10-20 hours (0) 0% 20-40 hours (0) 0% 6 total votes Your vote: Golds - How many hours/week do you play? (Vote): <2 hours
(Vote): 2-5 hours
(Vote): 5-10 hours
(Vote): 10-20 hours
(Vote): 20-40 hours
(Vote): >40 hours
Poll: Silvers - How many hours/week do you play?10-20 hours (2) 50% <2 hours (1) 25% 2-5 hours (1) 25% 5-10 hours (0) 0% 20-40 hours (0) 0% >40 hours (0) 0% 4 total votes Your vote: Silvers - How many hours/week do you play? (Vote): <2 hours
(Vote): 2-5 hours
(Vote): 5-10 hours
(Vote): 10-20 hours
(Vote): 20-40 hours
(Vote): >40 hours
Poll: Bronzes - How many hours/week do you play?>40 hours (3) 50% <2 hours (2) 33% 5-10 hours (1) 17% 2-5 hours (0) 0% 10-20 hours (0) 0% 20-40 hours (0) 0% 6 total votes Your vote: Bronzes - How many hours/week do you play? (Vote): <2 hours
(Vote): 2-5 hours
(Vote): 5-10 hours
(Vote): 10-20 hours
(Vote): 20-40 hours
(Vote): >40 hours
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very low average/week.
i barely play. i still had 600 bonus pool last season from taking2 months break and now again havent playd in 2 weeks.
but i understand the game quite well, my mechanics are good for low-mid masters and watching sc2 keeps me up2date on fotm builds. so i just play some from time to time and unless i get unlucky with cheese/buildorder gamble i do ok.
just masters isnt the exactly hard tho. at high-top masters its starts to get interesting.
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I spend about 10 hours a week playing SC2. If I had kids, then there would much less time to play SC2. If you are truly working 70 hours a week, then it seems you already have 0 time to play SC2.
Depending on how much time you have put in SC2 already would be an indicator of how much work you need to get to masters. Unless you have barely played the game, if you are platinum then it will take a huge amount of time to get to Masters. The spectrum of diamond players' abilties is huge. Its like going from Bronze to Diamond just to get from plat to top of diamond or low masters. I am saying this because it seems you are trying to determine how "far" you are from masters.
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Show nested quote +On April 23 2011 23:39 Almin wrote:
You can easily get into Masters & stay in Masters if you can "master" defending cheese, which is 98% of the time in Master league matches. I don't find this to be accurate in the slightest.
It's not only inaccurate, it's like the exact opposite of what actually happens, and I seriously doubt the guy who posted that is in master's.
Anyway OP, I spend about 60-90 minutes on weekdays and maybe a couple hours on weekends playing.
Not this weekend tho cause im at my parents' house for easter^^
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You can make it into masters by putting more time into it, sure. That's what you wanted to hear I suppose.
However, what you also would like to know, how much time it will take for you, no one can really answer.
But with limited amount of time, you better optimize what you get out of each session, less team games, playing with the intention to better yourself, and best your opponent, and probably only laddering with the race you are most comfortable with, are examples.
Also, when I feel like I'm improving, playing custom games is a waste of ladder time. I could be laddering while I feel somewhat confident in that my play is on par with my current mmr.
I suspect your goal first and foremost is making into masters in as short a time as possible.
I did not mention build orders going for wins in less than 10 minutes, since it does not encourage much learning. Also, I did not mean to say custom games in general is a waste of time, just not until you know for certain you have hit a certain point where you learning curve has flattened out..
Have fun reaching masters.
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On April 23 2011 23:47 natewOw wrote:Show nested quote +On April 23 2011 23:39 Almin wrote:
You can easily get into Masters & stay in Masters if you can "master" defending cheese, which is 98% of the time in Master league matches. I don't find this to be accurate in the slightest. It's not only inaccurate, it's like the exact opposite of what actually happens, and I seriously doubt the guy who posted that is in master's. Anyway OP, I spend about 60-90 minutes on weekdays and maybe a couple hours on weekends playing. Not this weekend tho cause im at my parents' house for easter^^
I guess most people in Masters get in Masters by just outplaying people in a macro game? bahahahaha don't be so hilarious. For every 5-6 cheesey games, I get 1 legit one. Maybe it's just my MMR or bad luck, I don't know.
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6-12 hours per week is more than enough to reach / stay within masters for sure as long as you don't play on tilt or cheese/all in every game but you play your games in a "deliberate" fashion with clear plans. That is about 20-40 games more or less. Much more than what most people play including me
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On April 23 2011 23:50 Almin wrote:Show nested quote +On April 23 2011 23:47 natewOw wrote:On April 23 2011 23:39 Almin wrote:
You can easily get into Masters & stay in Masters if you can "master" defending cheese, which is 98% of the time in Master league matches. I don't find this to be accurate in the slightest. It's not only inaccurate, it's like the exact opposite of what actually happens, and I seriously doubt the guy who posted that is in master's. Anyway OP, I spend about 60-90 minutes on weekdays and maybe a couple hours on weekends playing. Not this weekend tho cause im at my parents' house for easter^^ I guess most people in Masters get in Masters by just outplaying people in a macro game? bahahahaha don't be so hilarious. For every 5-6 cheesey games, I get 1 legit one. Maybe it's just my MMR or bad luck, I don't know.
Maybe you are just using an overly broad definition of cheesy? Because even saying half of games are cheesy is a gross exaggeration in my view.
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I think the difficult part is to break the barrier into Masters.
To get the builds hammered out, basic macro, basic micro.
After you have achieved the mechanics, having average mouse control, and you get into Masters, it won't be difficult to stay there once you reach that point.
For instance i'm a high master in touch with top 200, and i could stop play 1 month and would still be able to stay @ mid master level if i inform me about the actual build / trends.
You won't lose all of your keyboard / mouse skills, you will get rusty, but not lose them completely.
Right now i play about 30-50 games per week and its sufficient for me to stay where i am.
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I played a bunch when the game first came out (about 200 games), but since then I play maybe 1 or 2 games a month - Mainly just when I get bored. NA masters really isnt hard, you just need decent mechanics to get into it.
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+ Show Spoiler +On April 23 2011 23:50 Almin wrote:Show nested quote +On April 23 2011 23:47 natewOw wrote:On April 23 2011 23:39 Almin wrote:
You can easily get into Masters & stay in Masters if you can "master" defending cheese, which is 98% of the time in Master league matches. I don't find this to be accurate in the slightest. It's not only inaccurate, it's like the exact opposite of what actually happens, and I seriously doubt the guy who posted that is in master's. Anyway OP, I spend about 60-90 minutes on weekdays and maybe a couple hours on weekends playing. Not this weekend tho cause im at my parents' house for easter^^ I guess most people in Masters get in Masters by just outplaying people in a macro game? bahahahaha don't be so hilarious. For every 5-6 cheesey games, I get 1 legit one. Maybe it's just my MMR or bad luck, I don't know.
Before the ladder reset I at least had 9/10 games just being normal macro games. Since they reset though I get like 4/10 normal macro games. Which I find hilarious. On the topic though I play maximum of like 6 hours sc-2 per week now and I'm in high masters. Mostly ladder.
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EPT
