[Stream] IdrA - Page 36

On December 10 2010 00:47 KimchiBreath wrote:
Hi Greg,

I'd like to give a brief introduction of myself. Without disclosing any personal details, I would like to point out that I'm a final year law student in one of the top Australian law schools. I have secured a few internships in the past two years and will be entering one the top firms in Australia in 2012.

The reason I point this out is to separate myself from the general demographic population on this site consisting of adolescents and teenagers who are both immature and quick to judge. I see myself as a well rounded individual.

Similarly to you, I find it unnecessary to moderate my language and my wording to attempt to be modest. The fact is that what you achieve means a lot more than how many faces you can make smile. As we both know, the truth can often hurt.

To give you a little perspective, I am not a good Starcraft II player. I've played a total of 200 games over the last few weeks. I have not learnt the proper hot keys or any strategies. I did however manage to get to platinum with about a 60% win ratio over a span of two days. The purpose of my communication with you is not to discuss aspects of the game but to give some constructive criticisms of your attitude and work ethic. What I say henceforth may not be useful but I hope it does give some further perspective to your current training regime.

First of all, I'd like to give my opinion in that I do not think that you should be coaching. This distracts from your training and will affect your time allocation for personal development. While there is some correlation between teaching others and self realization of mistakes, the benefit of doing so is greatly outweighed by the fact you are teaching material that you have already consolidated. This will subconsciously tend to prevent you from challenging your own build orders, and understanding of the game.

My train of thought derives from the fact that a good teacher generally must have a uncontested view that what he is teaching is correct. Given the perpetual changes in the dynamics of the game, I think having this view will tend to prevent you from improving. The extra time can be used for more useful things such as studying new concepts, replays and personal reflection. Keep in mind how none of the coaches of any proteams ever take dual roles and no coach is ever a good player. In my opinion, you should not be continuing coaching despite the monetary rewards involved.

I take the same view in terms of casting. I personally enjoy your commentary more than any other of your fans. I find them one of the most insightful things that I can learn other than playing the game. However, even more than hearing you commentate, I want to see you win the next GSL. Casting will give away your mentality of thinking, opening up the space for potential opponents with access to a translator to pick away at your tactics. I advise against it.

More importantly though Greg, I feel that you need a competent coach that can constantly discuss build orders and timings with you. Part of your failure in Starcraft 1, along with Ret and even Chinese players like Luo Xian (Legend), was that within the progaming houses, there were language barriers. However, that in itself would not have been bad, if not for the prejudicial views that Koreans hold of foreigners. This doesn't come as a surprise considering that Koreans are the most xenophobic people in the world. They are just very good at hiding it. To that extent, I can fully understand why you choose not to share tactics with other Korean gamers.

Many foreigners so far are too naive or are too insecure to accept this as a reality. I remember that when Luo Xian was playing for SKT T1, he often beat Stork, Bisu, Boxer in games. He had a particularly good in house win ratio against Fantasy in practice games. In an interview, he raised that he used to own Fantasy in almost every game. Despite this, the reason he gave of leaving the scene was that the Korean coaches helped players like Fantasy reach their potential by nurturing them, giving them consistent advice and pointing out tiny details and weaknesses in their game.

LX felt neglected and especially frustrated that, whether it was because he was a foreigner or whether it was because he couldn't speak the language, he received none of that treatment and in return found there to be no need to stay in the country.

Back to the point, I think the reason why Starcraft 1 progamers succeeded to some extent was due to the help of coaching staff. A person has only so much time to both practice and produce working build orders. Having a coach allowed the player to focus on executing the mechanics and the intricate timings that are necessary. The coach would then take on the role of pointing out the flaws of the player that may not be known to the player themselves. It was also for the coach to suggest possible new surprise builds and outstanding situations that may occur. Absent of a coach, a player needs to prorate their time more strictly. This detracts overall from the quality of the training.

If we look at what history has taught us, we will see that many of the greatest achievers thrive in specialisation. Those with gifts in the field of science, engineering, law and medicine, or sports like fencing, chess, badminton, often know very little other than what they do. Those at the very apex of their chosen profession, sacrifice a great deal of their personal or academic life in pursuit of specializing in their chosen fields. Geniuses are almost always obsessive, judges often have no life other than law, and scientists are often inarticulate in expressing thought coherently other than in mathematical algorithm. You need to ask yourself Greg, what you've done to reach the 'apex' of your profession. Also ask yourself whether coaching or making streams is really going to make you win the next GSL.

As much as you might hate it, perhaps it's time to force yourself to create an extremely strict practice schedule and employ someone who you think would qualify as a competent coach. Otherwise, allocate time in the week to make a particular schedule. As much as you hate training back in the CJ house, I believe there must be some merit in practicing relentlessly the same build over and over again. In one of Nestea's interview (yes I know you don't look fondly on Nestea), he said he practiced about a hundred over games of the same build to prepare. In many sports like badminton and snooker, the same stroke is often practiced hundreds of times to promote consistency.

I enjoy watching your games and I hope you get far Greg. I hope any of these criticisms with help with your development in the game. Perhaps you, Ret, Jinro and a Protoss of your choice can form a trust between yourselves so as to improve without holding anything back. Understandably, you enjoy the publicity you are now receiving. However try not to let that get to you too much. Think only of winning and reward the fans with lip service when you take home the GSL. Good luck Idra, and I'll be continuing to support you.