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The Introduction
Today I probably played around 25 games in a row without giving a break, possibly my highest laddering session (normally I can only play 5-6 games in a row and leave). At the moment I'm learning Terran. Probably 50-60 games so far. Only my last 20 or so games been okay. But this long streak of games (which I surprisingly won the majority) made me realize how one should approach to learning how to play better.
The Beginning
I have played Toss for around 2 months as my main focus when I picked up the game (my first race), and then I switched Zerg because I hit a wall in top Platinum that I just could not break. Lost a bunch of games, and just decided to give a try to Zerg (this was before roach range or reaper nerfs, I thought choosing the underdog race would be a challenge). I played Zerg for probably around 3 months, made it to Diamond, and about two weeks ago I started learning Terran and got demoted to Plat. I hope to learn Terran so that I can start playing Random (this is my goal now)
The thought of going Random has been in my mind since I started playing Zerg. I got arguably better at Zerg than Toss, but then I realized that playing Zerg actually made me a better player (and what promoted me to Diamond) macro-wise. I used to suck at Macro. I did not have enough workers, not enough gateways, most of my games were 2-base pushes or 4gate. I did not like expanding, I was scared to do so. Clearly I was doing something wrong.
The Way to Improvement
Then, after playing Zerg for 2 Months, I realized that my economy side had become better. When I was playing Protoss a while later just casually in 2v2, my hands were just making probes and pylons, even though I wasn't playing Protoss at all for the most part during my period of playing Zerg. Because the thought of "make workers, you need economy, make supply, you need workers and production capacity to have a good army!" (make them drones until you bleed! ) had become fixated into my mind. I became much better at spending my money, creating an economy advantage, and much better at the game overall.
I think playing Zerg thought me the following:
Macro. Economy is the safest way to play the game, much better than throwing a dice and going all-in.
Expanding. It is VERY important. I was a fool to be scared of expanding. I'd feel like I'd die if I just put that Nexus over there. It turns out the fear is completely an illusion.
Not sure what playing Protoss helped me, probably nothing but getting familiar with how Starcraft 2 works, as it was my first race. I'm sure I have a lot to learn in terms of timings, build orders etc as Protoss. But since I'm ok mechanics wise, rest is just mental and is not that hard. I'd like to hear some insights about Protoss play from the experienced players.
I think what Terran is teaching me right now is:
Build orders (More or the less I have one build order for each matchup now)
Positioning
Importance of harrassment, drops, tech sniping. (I love dropping and sniping that robo bay, or roasting 20 workers with blue flame helions)
Micro (marines are really micro intensive in TvZ, siege/unsiege micro while positioning, microing vikings to get vision while getting into position with tanks, these cutesy small details are not THAT important as Zerg or Protoss, Protoss, depending on the strategy and the opponent, strives to get the deathball in order to start sweeping the map, while Zerg can usually keep throwing shit at other player as long as he is ahead/equal in economy and macroing correctly (micro is still important tho, don't 1-a your banelings into thors or tanks when there are marines, let your colossus get sniped by the viking ball due to mismicro or sit there and take storms to your bioball when you can move)
The Revelation
My first couple weeks as Terran was the hardest thing in SC2. My macro still slips at certain points and my money can shoot up due to forgetting depots (because I'm not that familiar with T yet) , but, I can at least win games around my shitty level (no offense to the players/league, its just how I am as a player at the moment) now with good decision making, harrasment, positioning and expanding when it's right.
I played a TvP today. It was my last game in the long streak. My opponent went for fast Chargelots and High Templars. Maybe not that effective, maybe not the standard play. However, I realized after the game as I watched the replay that what he did or what he could have done better wasn't that important. I realized that I did not win the game because of my opponent's choice of strategy. If he went for a more standard and proven strategy, I realized that I would still win perhaps a little while later, because my play was almost perfect for someone that has close to no experience with a new race. Aside from getting supply blocked around 150 food for a long time (because I was harrassing him with drops) , I ended up 200/200 in 18 minutes, on 4 bases with around 63-65 workers, and a bunch of raxes with 2/1 MM army with the 3rd Infantry upgrade on the way along with the infrastructure to switch vikings/ghosts depending on my opponent's choice. My harrassment, created me enough room of advantage in economy, made me safe to expand, build stuff, tech, get upgrades, and I built my plan over that. My money, did not go over 500-600 for the most part until I reached the cap aside from the periods were I was microing, or the period when I got supply blocked. I never felt so satisfied with my play before.
Moral of the Story
All three races have different perspectives and approaches to the game. I'm not sure how different my learning process would be if I just stuck to one race from the get go. What I feel is that I would be deluded with my wins over all-ins or cheese and overlook these core, important fundamentals, which would make the learning process much harder and longer, at least mentally. Picking a new race, just makes you focus on those fundamentals once again. Doing it with one race over and over is obviously great, but doing it three times with different races, is a much different experience in terms of learning. Not to mention you accept the fact that you aren't good and you focus for three times on those core parts of the game, something you don't do after you feel "comfortable" with your play with one race. You don't blame your opponent's strategy for the lose, but just yourself. Perfect mindset for getting better.
I'm not trying to make it sound like "You need to play all races to get better." Go stick to your favourite race, it's great. I am just saying that I realized after trying out all three races, that even though they are different, what you need to do to win is the same: You need to realize and work on the core philosophy.
My advice to those who are struggling with the game, those who think they lost the game because of some fancy unit or tech or any kind of attack they deem as "cheese, all-in" , just try to fix all the bumps in your play first. Try to focus first at making those depots/ovies/pylons and workers (/salute Day9 for hours of dailies on these), keeping your money low and having a game plan. If after that you lose, congratulate your opponent with a gg and leave the game without feeling bad. Don't fear of losses. Every loss is an experience that you can keep in your pocket for the next games. If you have to lose 10 games to not forget making workers, then lose them. Then go watch the replay and see how you were doing. Watch Day9 dailies and some tournament games if you have time. Forget about fancy microing until you are good at the above. The end result will surprise you.
When I'm finally decent with T and start playing Random, I think I'll be able to outline all 3 races' strenghts/weaknesses better, but for now, I hope I find a way to position those siege tanks before ling/bling rolls me over.
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