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So me and my friend had a discussion today about starcraft and pro-gaming in general. He's always been a skeptic when it comes to e-sports. He loves gaming and is an amazing player and he's also a huge sports person, but he doesn't think games can be considered a sport because there's no physical effort involved in the players. While he doesn't think it is sport in the traditional sense, he loves competitive gaming and follows it just as much as the next nerd.
Now, that discussion has been done to death, but it did lead us into an interesting debate. He claimed that professional Starcraft doesn't take large amounts of intelligence because deficiencies in a players strategic thinking and tactics can be overcome by spamming games and perfecting mechanics. He pointed to the korean style, practicing for 12-14 hours a day, as proof of that concept as well as players like Idra who nearly completely rely on mechanics alone to bring them to the top.
I countered his argument by pointing out some of the genius strategies that players like TLO employs. I pointed him to the legendary Nazgul vs. TLO game, where TLO makes extensive tactical use of nukes and battlecruisers. It's plays like that, something an average person wouldn't even be able to conceive, that prove that brilliant players like TLO, MorroW, Tester and even in BW, players like Boxer, Nada, Bisu etc. showing that brilliant players will be able to rise over the less gifted ones.
So I was wondering what TL thinks. Does intelligence matter when it comes to Starcraft, or can deficient strategy be overcome by spamming games and perfecting mechanics?
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Mechanics will only bring you so far. If you cant make good decisions, then you cant compete with the best.
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I think mastermind pretty much rapped this one up
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Of course intelligence matters, but there are many kinds of intelligence. It's perfectly possible to be intelligent about Starcraft but not about something else.
Flash has frequently talked in interviews about how he always tries to out-think his opponent. At the highest levels the game is very mentally taxing. However, your friend might be setting some unreachable standard
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I don't think you need to be intelligent to become very good at SC. I agree entirely with the "practice makes perfect" argument that your friend supports.
There are obviously opportunities to be creative and to showcase your smarts. But I think that overall a lot of SC is mechanical and deals heavily in repetition/memory (even learning numbers like hits-to-kill).
Like many things in life, I think you simply need to be "smart enough" to understand and play the game. From there, intelligence will have rare opportunities to do more for you than mechanics.
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Well, you certainly need to be somewhat intelligent (not retarded I guess), but I think by the way your posting you should be fine lol. It isn't like chess, and ultimately, intellect is not going to bar your progress. I'd say above average intellect, but everyone on the internet in complete and coherent sentences should be fine because average intellect is really low lol.
A lot of the intellectual skills in SC2 are learned. Its about thinking in terms of the structure of game, in terms of timing windows, positions, map awareness, etc. Not much of it relies on "hard" mental skills that can't really be improved beyond a certain point.
At the same time your friends pretty wrong in the sense that Starcraft doesn't require intellect. But hes true in the sense that it doesn't require too much innate intellect that can't be improved.
And people who characterize Idra as a mechanical player in the sense that he wins because his he has higher effective apm then his opponents don't really have a great understanding of the game, at least no in Starcraft 2.
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Basically the ability to think on your feet is essential for high-level starcraft play. You can't anticipate everything your opponent can do, so real-time reaction is key.
However, usually that kind of interaction only occurs in the mid to late game, not with all the 1 base build that are commonly used.
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I think you don't necessarily need to be intelligent to be able to from strategies and to know what to do in certain situations, but like you said, the truly intelligent ones will eventually separate themselves from the rest.
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You have to be smart to be good at starcraft. Playing and being good are two different things  Spamming games is a way to learn the game thus makes you a smarter player, so yes to both I guess.
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if you're talking about intelligence as in do well in school and stuff like that, then no it isn't required to be good
however game sense isn't something that you can achieve by practicing (otherwise everyone would be at flash's level)
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United States7166 Posts
there have been countless discussions on this already with starcraft 1, i dont think we should start another one here
"..Idra who nearly completely rely on mechanics alone.."
common misconception with idra, people just think he plays like a robot without thinking, but i think his quick decision making is one of his strong points
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u dont have to be smart
u jus have to have an open mind
that way u can learn valuable information from replays, casts, and tips from other players
playing your own way without trying to learn where you went wrong and what others say that could improve your gameplay can only get you so far
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IdrA is a smart player. He just players zerg which is a reactive race so his decisions aren't really in the spotlight. If you play a high level zerg then u can appreciate it but he is a smart player. Ofcourse if you think smart play is nukes than you might consider 4v4 games filled with child prodigies.
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iNcontroL
USA29055 Posts
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There are limitations to how good you can be without being at least halfway intelligent, but with enough playing you can beat someone who is more intelligent than you for sure. plus blind counters are super effective.
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It comes down to the definition of intelligence in the context of the argument. You can argue semantics all day, but i think most people will agree that starcraft, at the highest level is more tactical then strategic; once the "best" strategies are done by both players mechanics is what it comes down to, which cannot be done by everyone, in my belief, means a good starcraft player is very intelligent at starcraft.
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On September 21 2010 09:48 {88}iNcontroL wrote:
Machine.
looooool
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I don't think it requires as much intelligence as say, chess, but generally speaking, most top Starcraft players I've seen come across as pretty intelligent.
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On September 21 2010 09:48 {88}iNcontroL wrote:
Machine.
rofl <3
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EPT
