[G] Having the right mentality to improve

Hello there,

Im not usually one to go to strangers for help but i think you might actually be able to help me. Im currently in silver after a 2 month break from the game and i would love to be like some other top protoss players and participate in tournaments etc. I loved your post on the pro mentality but i was wondering if you had some way to stop the amounts of rage i have when losing multiple games in a row.

im ecstatic when im winning but my rage from losing makes me exit starcraft when I would rather keep laddering.

Hello Mr X,
Rage is something that can be really hard to control at first when playing the ladder, but it is generally something that is easy to overcome once you get your mindset straight.

First of all try to find the reason why you get angry when you lose. Is it because you make mistakes? Is it because you know you could have done way better? Having a bad day in general? Getting "cheesed"?

The first thing you need to remind yourself of when you lose is this: Even the best Korean progamers lose a fair deal of their games. 65% of the GSL Code A and S players have a sub 35% win ratio. Everyone has loss streaks and win streaks from time to time, or a bad day. You have to know yourself well enough so that you know how you respond in certain situations. It's really just figuring out your own behaviour in certain situations, and learning to deal with it efficiently. Whatever you do though, NEVER get stressed about a loss. You have to teach yourself to not see losing as failing, and not feeling ashamed or pissed when you lose.
Losing does not mean you are "bad", it means you lack experience and knowledge, or have not developed a great solid and consistent enough sense of timing and decision-making.

Also remember that against people of your own skill level, you should not win more then 50% of your games. The only reason you see Grandmaster players with 80% win ratios is because they face perhaps 1 player of equal skill per 20 people way below their league. Don't stare yourself blind on that. Most top players were 50% for years, until they finally got to that new plateau, where only ~100 players reside and dominate the rest consistently. If these best 100 were to be constantly matched against each other, the outcome would be close to a 50% win ratio for most of them as well.

If you know that you feel bad after losing a game (this is mostly because of the adrenaline and tense body posture during the game), you must train yourself to take a 5-10 min break after a loss. Go take in some fresh air, get a drink, get your mind off the game and get out of the room. Once you feel better, you can go back, analyse what happened and take with you an important piece of knowledge for all games to come.

Don't shrug off a lost game, write down why it happened, and what you could possibly do to stop situation X or Y from happening. If you exit Starcraft 2 every time you lose, you basically run away from a frustrating situation. So give yourself a moment of peace to regain your rationale, since you cannot think straight with your body going haywire.

Then there is the fact that losing does not have to be a bad thing. Sure you might have lost this game because you made some mistakes or got cheesed. But if you then go back and analyse the game, and account for certain events to occur in a game, a loss is actually more rewarding than a win, because you learn a lot from it. Winning only becomes more valuable then losing if you are actually competing in tournaments professionally.

I hope I have helped you with this, if you are still not sure about certain things, remember: It is not an overnight process, it takes time to work on your own behaviour and train yourself to always get the most out of a situation. Just gradually implement things that work for you to control your rage, like the small breaks.

Your sincerely,

Masayume

Hi, I read your post about having the right mentality to improve, and I have this one problem that I dont know what to do about. The thing is, my play is very inconsistent, sometimes I go on a winning streak against high diamonds and low masters and other times I lose to golds. Is there anything I can do to make myself play better all the time? Thx in advance!

Hello Mr X,

This is quite a common issue that a lot of players seem to have. Even the best players generally have loss and win streaks, but not quite as extreme as the ones you are describing. The first thing we want to do here is to set up some rules for yourself regarding winning and losing.

The next time you lose 2 games in a row, you stop playing for a bit. What I want you to do is just take a break for at least 15 minutes where you do not think about the games you just played. It might be hard at first but it is the most crucial step. This way your brain will get a chance to process the information that has been thrown at you during those games.

Once you have done that, go back to Starcraft 2. Before you analyse the replays of the losses, I want you to do the following: Write down what you "felt" during the lost games. Did you stay in your base out of fear of being crushed? Were you feeling overconfident, taking the situation or your opponent too lightly?
It is important that you pin down your exact thoughtflow during the games, so that you can learn to avoid the bad patterns to become ingrained in your play.

What you basically want to think when you enter any game is "I am going to play to the best of my ability, and go to the limit. I want to win". This is the only thought you want to keep summoning during your play, that is not directly tied to ingame information. What this does is enable you to actually really try hard, no matter what, it functions much like a mantra.

Furthermore, you do want to check all your replays, even the ones you win. Until you reach the very high end of Grandmasters, it is generally unwise to shrug off any game, even the wins. Heck, even the best players would be unwise to do so.
The best way to do this is to play a game, take a 2 minute or 5 minute break, come back and start up the replays. Next to writing down what you did wrong in the game, write down how you felt and how you thought, and the effects you think this had on your gameplay.

Being a consistent learner and keeping a good balance is the ultimate key to becoming a better player. It might seem like a lot of effort at first, but would you rather have a sense of accomplishment when you steadily improve, without feeling stressed out at all and by avoiding big loss streaks. Or do you want to waste countless hours being annoyed about the loss streak, with this nagging feeling that you should check the reps and your own behaviour, but because you are slightly pissed or filled with adrenaline, you keep queuing and increasing said loss streak without being productive whatsoever?

If you have any further questions, please do let me know. I hope my response gave you a few guidelines that will help you become a more consistent performer.

Yours sincerely,

Masayume

For some reason the button always manages to evade me. I don't know if it's because I'm afraid of losing, or afraid of winning.

I usually end up playing only 1-2 games a week and I'd like to play more.

I havn't hit any walls recently, or been on any losing streaks.

I know I'm good enough for diamond, but am unsure as to what is holding me back from spamming out the games to get there, and then go even further.

I found your post on this, so I was hoping you could give me an answer other than. "Just click the find match button"

Cause I tried that >_< lol

Hello Mr Y,

This is actually really easy to overcome, it's just knowing what the root cause for the problem is. Now from the sound of it, you seem to have build up a certain connection with the find match button.

Usually what happens is that players start linking the emotions and feelings they have with hitting the search button. This can be ladder jitters, nerves, fear and stress. This can happen on a subconscious level and can really eat away at your ability to perform.

The way to deal with it is as follows: Whenever you plan a 1v1 session, mentally prepare beforehand. Take some deep breaths and focus on removing negative thoughts and unnecessary stress/fear/tension one by one. It is crucial to go through them one at a time, otherwise this won't work quite as well.

Then you need to start linking the Find Match button to more positive thoughts and feelings. Whenever you get ready to hit it, focus on your body posture first. Make sure you sit in a straight up, proper position that ensures proper breathing, and make sure that your muscles are completely relaxed.

The next thing you want to do is get a strong mental focus going. The easiest way to do this is a mantra that you will not let go. This is the harder part. You have to tell yourself that it is the process of learning that matters, not the actual stats or the league you are in. Then you want to get a winning mentality going that says: "I will play my best this game, fight my hardest, and I will win."

Now comes the part that really takes time to master. You want to train yourself to feel absolutely no doubt, anxiety, fear or stress when you say that line about playing your best and winning. This can take a while to master, but once you do, you will be more confident in your play in general. Your play will not be influenced by fear, rage, anxiety or any such thing. And because you hold it to be true, you will actually play better during every game, even if the opponent is way below your league, you will play your best.

If you combine this with staying entirely calm and relaxed during the whole game, focusing mostly on your breathing to be proper, you will gradually lose all the negative links you have connected to playing 1v1 or starting up a game.

The general thing I want you to keep in mind though, is that this process takes time. Don't push it, but train yourself in small increments. Make it a day by day process. Don't set deadlines, first because it will take away from your focus in doing the training. But secondly, because you will always be able to improve in this area, it never stops.

I hope that this information helps you overcome your obstacle, and turn a problem into an opportunity.

Yours sincerely,

Masayume

Hey Masayune, I read your thread and I wanted your opinion on something that I recently had a conversation about with my roommate. It might not directly relate to your thread but it does have to do with the playing mindset, so if you would be willing to comment on it I believe it could be helpful to others.

For background, I am a high-diamond player, currently practicing to make the break to masters, and my roommate is high masters, and he consistently plays against and beats GM players.

I'm certain that you're aware of the "casual playing style" , and by this I mean playing without a certain goal in mind, just sort of macroing and doing whatever you feel like. I can quite easily play this way with any race against lower leveled friends of mine. However, I believe that the idea that a higher level player can always do this against a lower level player may be a mindset that can plague your thought process during a game.

Back to the conversation. I regularly practice with my roommate, and he regularly beats me. I try pretty hard in these games, but he seems to always sweep my plays aside without much effort. After one such set, I approached him and asked him (beforehand requesting a complete honest answer), "How hard do you have to try to beat me? Are you just sort of winging it, or is it actually difficult?"

His response (summed up), was that although my timings are not optimum and he's able to gain macro advantages as a result, he does still have to play seriously and intently in order to net the win. What I took from this was that, when playing, it is perhaps more important to play with every intention to win and take every advantage possible, than it is to "just focus on macro". At least at masters and above.

I recognize the importance of having good macro, but do you think that there is a point where a player can no longer rely on macroing and a-moving? Or is there something else that can / should be taken from this?

Hello Mr Z,

To give a really straight up and short answer: Macro + a-move is all you "need" up to high diamond/low masters (depending on your region). But once your macro really IS at a high level (let someone that dwarfs you check you out for this), it is time to move on. Decision-making etc comes next. This is the conventional wisdom, which I think fails unless you want to spend way more time training. Now on to a proper answer..

To get the most out of your time, yes macro might be a good thing to train, but if you solely focus on macro first and then move on, it will take you a large number of games to gain mastery of the next trait. I would generally advocate another way to train, that contains all the ingredients for a strong and balanced player with good habits.

If you want to get good, you need to work systematically. This will be very elaborate so hold on tight, it will be worth your while. In steps:

1) You want to write down your ingame strengths and weaknesses first. Just make 2 lists and set them next to each other. Think hard and deep about this so you have a very accurate list to guide you for the next step.

2) Look up all the builds on Liquipedia and watch a bunch of pro replays. Look for a build for each Matchup that connects with the highest number of strengths you have in your play thus far. The build should ideally also inspire you or draw your general interest. You don't want to bore yourself to death and get demotivated. (Make sure that it is a build that does not rely on dealing damage or severe "multitasking" a la Boxer or something. Not yet at least)

3) Once you have your builds per matchup, it is time to do some deep preparations for the build. For this phase it is generally recommended to find someone to train with. Or to find replays of specific situations (which is infinitely harder but still worth it).
Write a list with all the situations in a matchup you don't want to be in. For example we take the PvZ matchup. For my own list I wrote down the following:
6 pool, 7 roach rush, baneling bust, Losira timing, hydra/ling push, etc etc.

Why would you do that you ask? Well very simple, this will become the foundation of training for your decision-making, thinking patterns and your level of reading the enemy based on limited information. Why start later, when you can do it right now. It is not too much information if you keep it all organised.

4) You work out each and every situation you jotted down. Come up with a plan on how to scout for a situation, and how you will respond on the situation. If you know a six pool generally arrives at your doorstep at 2:52, and lings take 24 seconds to build...You know that a pool goes up at ~1:28. So you know that you always want to scout on 9 against a zerg to catch this relatively early. Make a trigger for when you havent scouted the zerg yet at 13 food, you automatically expect a six pool until proven wrong. This way you can get your wall off or zealot response up in time.

Now you go test this situation in custom games. Preferably alone first to train your building placement and money flow, and if your "six pool until scouted" trigger works well enough with your money flow. After that you train with someone and let him six pool you all the time, until you feel confident in holding that. Talk with others or post on the forum with a [H] thread to adapt and finetune your response and triggers. Now simply do this for all matchups and situations, taking it 1 matchup at a time. You will find that your decision-making, information reads and execution improve at a fast rate.

5) The final part of the nasty foundation work. After editing your strengths and weaknesses list, it is time to make a list of situations you want to be in. Things like: I know I am good at harassment, how can I abuse that....Ah suddenly you know and write down: -Using Dark templars to cut off enemy reinforcements and stall time. Or something like: I want map control, what kind of play would give me just that against X and Y.

And there you go, the foundations of improvement are there. It is time to just start laddering now, analysing every single one of your replays, writing down situations that occured etc and constantly analysing. Adapt your theoretical plans and custom training inbetween.

Take it on a daily basis if you want to move past the macro + A-move syndrome. "Today I want to focus on my mechanics and speed while under heavy pressure"....."Tommorow I want to focus more on macro, and let it be reviewed by people that are vastly better than me".

It's a big answer with a lot of information, but if you stick to at least some of the outlined info, I am sure that you will advance quickly. If you don't feel like putting in the effort, you can always continue to spam ladder games and try to get little nuggets of knowledge, but that is up to you to decide.

I hope this somewhat answers your question.

Yours sincerely,

Masayume