Great compilation of advice, I overcame my ladder anxiety almost 2 years ago, and I can verify that these points are certainly vital to most people when dealing with the issue. Awesome read!

Balgrog

United States1221 Posts

May 04 2012 17:48 GMT

#104

I believe the GG part is the biggest, keeps you from getting overly frustrated which then ruins your other games, and you are basically just wasting practice time at that point. Great write up!

Schickysc

Canada380 Posts

May 10 2012 05:45 GMT

#105

So after a local tournament, and watching all the recent events, i had the urge to play again. i read this article and thought it helped me a little.

turns out.... it helped me greatly! i hated ladder and always got upset when i was losing to stupid stuff. ive stopped caring about losses, and just focused on having fun. cant say ive had this much fun with starcraft 2 since beta when i was casting. ive almost reached 100 terran wins, been promoted to diamond (started plat), and just used the self rewards system to purchase myself some computer upgrades since ive reached my goal (100 terran wins or a league promotion) i havent bought myself anything computer related since i quit casting and this was the perfect excuse!

not only has this helped me, but i told my bestfriend about the article and have been sending him all my replays.... now he is going to get back into playing! so exciting. thanks again... you truely turned my outlook on ladder around. id donate to you if i could!

sorry for the lack of punctuation, blame apple.

SanchoPanda

United States117 Posts

May 10 2012 07:05 GMT

#106

On May 10 2012 14:45 Schickysc wrote:
So after a local tournament, and watching all the recent events, i had the urge to play again. i read this article and thought it helped me a little.

turns out.... it helped me greatly! i hated ladder and always got upset when i was losing to stupid stuff. ive stopped caring about losses, and just focused on having fun. cant say ive had this much fun with starcraft 2 since beta when i was casting. ive almost reached 100 terran wins, been promoted to diamond (started plat), and just used the self rewards system to purchase myself some computer upgrades since ive reached my goal (100 terran wins or a league promotion) i havent bought myself anything computer related since i quit casting and this was the perfect excuse!

not only has this helped me, but i told my bestfriend about the article and have been sending him all my replays.... now he is going to get back into playing! so exciting. thanks again... you truely turned my outlook on ladder around. id donate to you if i could!

sorry for the lack of punctuation, blame apple.

This post alone made the whole article worth the effort imo!
Please send me some replays too!
sanchopandasc@gmail.com

Highlander.

Canada3 Posts

May 10 2012 07:05 GMT

#107

Really well put together, Prep like a pro is something I recently started doing and it's helped significantly :D

DropTester

Australia608 Posts

May 10 2012 07:46 GMT

#108

I agree watching pro plays gives me the urge to play again, I think skyping was the best motivational feeling I had to ladder, but my friends having been playing as much and so I've lost this.
music is really good too

Opasmea

United Kingdom34 Posts

June 09 2012 05:36 GMT

#109

very good read, don't seem too scared of playing myself (not as much as I used to be) but it was very interesting to read these tips.

paralleluniverse

4065 Posts

June 09 2012 05:59 GMT

#110

Here's the best tip.

It doesn't matter if you lose, it doesn't even matter if you lose 20 games in a row, because the ladder is always right in the long run, and you will be placed correctly in the ladder. Due to MMR, the ladder is self-correcting so it's impossible to stuff up your profile and losing doesn't matter.

On the flip side, large temporary win streaks also don't matter for the same reason too.

AC3

Canada337 Posts

June 09 2012 06:48 GMT

#111

The GG'ing with style might be the best tip of them all. When I get immensely frustrated during ladder sessions, like a strong majority of you out there, this anger is almost assuredly self-directed. If I play a macro game with an opponent and they straight up outplay me, I try to have the presence of mind to "gg wp" them. Even better is to complement them on an aspect of their play that was superb. If my zerg opponent is drowning me in creep, I complement them on that; if my terran counterpart is picking my apart with drop ship harass I try and give them props for that. So on and so forth. Not F10 "N'ing" as soon as I type GG lets me destress and evaluate what I've done wrong in the game, and come to terms with that. Barring your opponent being a real ass, you can generally have a short pleasant conversation upon giving them a genuine compliment. For me, this gives me motivation to hit the Find Match button another time without a pissed off losers attitude.

CaptainAmerica

United States89 Posts

June 09 2012 07:09 GMT

#112

I like 'em, but I especially like #8. That and surround yourself with the game. Make in-game friends and out-of-game starcraft friends. Read about the game and really submerge yourself inside it. Then, it's just natural to want to play SC2.

Coeus1

Finland160 Posts

June 09 2012 07:59 GMT

#113

I really strongly support the tip about GG'ing with compliments. It's the magic one for me.

Someone cannon rushes you and says even something mild like "LOL" before you are forced to leave.
How do you feel? Logically you should not feel bad, but you do. "I've just lost to an idiot, I suck."

I've done all three of these:
1) Ragequit -> Your bad mood doesn't go away, you don't want to play, you feel like a loser
2) Rage -> You get twice as angry yourself, you feel like an idiot and bad at this game
3) Compliment -> In one or two minutes, you don't feel bad about the loss. Your mind realizes it was just a game and the other guy won. It's magic!

To me this was an amazing discovery and helped me to play thousands of games. -) But have to admit I sometimes forget this rule.. especially when playing tired.

Fencar

United States2694 Posts

June 09 2012 08:08 GMT

#114

Great post. :D Personally what got me playing a lot is the idea of a schedule, where I have to play X amount of games a day.

On April 27 2012 08:29 Ermac wrote:
I no longer play this game actively, but while I did I couldn't help but ask myself one thing repeatedly.

If you have to force yourself to play a game for whatever reason, is it really a game you love to play?

At the moment I'm playing League of Legends and got hooked on ranked games pretty quickly. Strangely enough I'm not having any of the issues most people, including myself, know and/or have in SC2 with pressing that damnable "find match" button. On the contrary I sometimes have to stop myself from playing because I KNOW I am too tired to play a proper game but I just want to so desperately...

Thinking about it for some time I actually came up with some logical reasons why my behaviour and feelings playing League differ so much from those I had in SC2. But still... I believe what it comes down to is that the game is just more fun to me than SC2 was.

1v1 is the ladder button that is hard to press. Not team games, which actually do compare to LoL.

oemoR

Canada29 Posts

June 21 2012 03:06 GMT

#115

I just registered today and I must say, I'm quite dazzled with the degree of communication within this community. I've read a number of threads and they've all been interesting reads... I never knew that there was so much going on behind the scenes of the tumbleweed ghost town Blizzard calls their Sc2 chatrooms.

I'm truly intrigued!

With regards to the OP, I particularly like the tip about shaking out one's wits - I'll have to focus hard and tell myself that perfection isn't all that matters.

PardonYou

United States1360 Posts

June 21 2012 03:21 GMT

#116

Great thread, very interesting. It's good to keep all these in mind. I listen to classical music to get myself in the calm mood.

oneill12

Romania1222 Posts

June 30 2012 15:35 GMT

#117

Nice read!!!

SanchoPanda

United States117 Posts

July 17 2012 13:51 GMT

#118

On June 21 2012 12:21 NexRex wrote:
Great thread, very interesting. It's good to keep all these in mind. I listen to classical music to get myself in the calm mood.

Whoa! Haven't tried classical music before... usually more upbeat stuff. I'll have to give that a try. =]
Thanks for the input.