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Hiyo Liquidizens,
Over the lifespan of Starcraft 2, there have been a lot of topics and discussion about the game outside the game - playing your best and self-improvement. This "guide" aims to share a few things I have personally learned as I ascended from the D ranks of ICCup three and a half years ago to a top streamer and player making money playing Starcraft. I was inspired to write this as I shared some of my advice with another 16 year old grandmaster player from local LANs (SolidPyre) and realized how much I actually know about how to make yourself perform in this game. This will be a bit unorganized, mostly just listing and detailing some things that I thought people might find interesting.
This post is a bit... unstructured and goes off in a lot of different directions. Please feel free to ask if you want me to elaborate on anything, or have questions about more specific situations!
Ladder Fear/Motivating Yourself to Play
One of the number one topics in recent times has been ladder fear. How do you get over that win-loss record, that league icon, that number of points that represents your "skill"? Even if this isn't your issue, you may be unintentionally avoiding the ladder, always finding excuses not to play or other things to do instead.
The first thing I would say to do is take pride in your abilities, just do your best and realize that everything will work out if you just relax. Never make excuses, no matter what - just PLAY. If you're ending the season with tons of bonus pool, just so you can extrapolate your rank and say "oh well if I DID play I would be..." you are doing something wrong. Always put your full effort into everything and don't be afraid to fail. Fear of failure and learning is something a lot of players suffer with. It is SO much easier and faster to just JUMP IN and start learning, rather than telling yourself "oh I'll just watch streams and play a few customs until I know what I'm doing, then I'll ladder!" Don't ever find an excuse to not play, just play until it becomes second nature.
Confidence and Slumps
Everyone has had those days where nothing seems to go right. You're messing up your build order, missing all your injects/warpins/timings, and every build you do seems to be countered by your opponent.
One common mistake I see in these situations is defeatism. The first step in continuing to improve is, as I said before, no fear of failure. You need to be confident in your abilities - you ARE a good player, you did deserve that rank and all those wins you got on your way up. Just play your best, go for wins however you can - if you need to pull out a cheesy strategy to keep your confidence up, go for it! It's all part of the game, and no matter what happens, you won because you outplayed your opponent in the game that you are provided. There's no omniscient god of skill that determines arbitrarily who the best player is - the best player is the one that wins most.
Another problem is the opposite extreme - convincing yourself that you're better than everyone you beat, and refusing to accept losses as your opponent playing better than you. This again ties into fear of failure, and both extremes are equally likely to cause a player to get frustrated and stop playing. You need to recognize that every win and every loss is valid, every game is won by the player who played better. Especially in Starcraft 2 where the game is constantly shifting and developing and there's no true standard, any way to win is a valid one within the confines of the battlefield. Get in the habit of being positive about your own play and the play of your opponents - after you lose a long macro game, instead of saying "wow, that's such bullshit, protoss is so imba in macro games imba colossi" etc etc, you should try to be positive about both your opponent's play and yours. "Wow, my opponent really protected his colossi well and made a good unit composition, what could I have done to beat that? My macro was a bit lacking but it's improving, and I should've used my vikings better" is much better. You will find yourself being much more friendly to yourself and other players if you just assume both players are playing WELL rather than one using imbalance/bullshit or yourself/your opponent just being terrible.
Getting out of slumps just requires you to be patient and relax. Recognize that you will always lose games and win games, and soon enough you'll be winning. If you're really getting frustrated in an unproductive way and you find yourself being really negative, just get off the computer, go work out, take a shower, run around, find something else to do for a while. Keeping a positive mindset about your own play and the game will make it SO much more motivating, fun, and rewarding for you to play and succeed.
The Mental Block
This more applies to higher level players, but it really can be incorporated anywhere. The mental block I'm talking about is the one where you've convinced yourself something CAN'T be done - whether it be you beating a certain player (fear of big names etc), dealing with a certain build or unit, convincing yourself that something is imbalanced, etc. You must always be positive about your own play, every problem has a solution, every build has a counter, every player has a weakness and can be beaten. Having a positive, open mindset is key to learning, and I see so many situations of high master/even pro players saying "damn, pro player X is so much better than me. there's nothing I can do to beat him." Never convince yourself that it can't be done or that you are incapable of doing something. Keep on fighting~!
How to Practice/Improve
As I said earlier, the number one key to getting better is to not find an excuse not to do it. Everything is an opportunity and a challenge, not an obstacle, and you can overcome anything if you put the work into it. I'm actually a bit different from many other top players in that I don't put all that much value on replay watching, especially your own replays. I think the best and most efficient way to improve is just PLAY. Play until you get stuck, until you find yourself getting upset, negative and demotivated. Not until that happens is it time to go back to the drawing board. You're here to have FUN, not to make this into mindless work. When you're having problems, look at your own replays and more importantly those of other players. Talk about the game with people, get new ideas, and try to incorporate them into your play. Find out how you learn best. For me, the best way to learn how to beat something or improve my play in a certain way was to lose to it a bunch of times. Someone could tell me that my build was going to auto-lose to a 6 gate allin, or that I need to wall off more against Zerg, or that my fast expand build was going to die to 3 gate pressure, but I would never fully learn it until I experienced it myself over and over - then it would be fixed and I'd lose to it a lot less. When I was suffering against drop play in TvT, I just played some games where I was SUPER attentive to drops - always checking the minimap, making extra turrets and vikings, sometimes to the point where it was unproductive - but I learned how to not just lose to drops. Find the holes in your play and do your best to focus on nothing else until it is fixed. It's a great feeling to focus on something for a few days, then go back to playing normally and realize you're doing a lot better than you were before.
HAVE FUN
My most important piece of advice for aspiring players that ties a lot of this together. The game becomes a lot easier if you're having fun, if you're excited to learn and take on the next new challenge, if you're looking forward to taking out that friend who you're never able to beat. If you're not having fun, don't force yourself to play - competitive, dedicated Starcraft is not for everyone, and maybe it's better to just screw around playing casually and watching streams. That's totally cool! Everyone has their place in the Starcraft world, and you'll be happier than ever if you find yours. After you're having fun, then you can focus more on the details and the tougher aspects of the game, but everything sure looks a lot easier if you're having fun with it.
This ended up being a bit general and went off in a lot of different directions. Not quite as useful/concise as I hoped it to be. Therefore, I leave this open to questions as well - with personal situations as well as general questions/topics you want me to discuss. I'll reply to as much as I can and use this information to improve the guide. I hope something was worthwhile, and please feel free to tell me if it's total trash and what you'd like to see instead! I'm totally happy to share my knowledge about Starcraft, and hopefully I'll have time to write some more guides in the future about Terran play. I've tried to get started a few times, but by the time I get into it, my ideas are already changed from the week before... can't ever get anything really started. But hopefully soon! Feel free to suggest topics for future posts/guides as well, whether they be Terran-specific or general game theory.
gLyo~!
Nick // Pokebunny
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fear is such a weak emotion and that's why i despise it
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lol the ladder fear part is me exactly I went 19-2 last season and probly played 250+ CGs for practice, im still trying to get over it..
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finally somebody made a post that i can just copy the link to before i start laddering and then paste it every time i smell rage :D
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Really well-written, I'm impressed with how good a grasp you have of the mental game at your age. I can definitely use some of these ideas - the 'number one key to getting better is to not find an excuse not to do it' especially really applies to me. Inspirational <3
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On November 15 2011 05:11 Br3ezy wrote:
fear is such a weak emotion and that's why i despise it
Fear isn't a weak emotion, only a fool feels no fear.
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Wauw, such a nice read, exactly what I've been searching for for weeks :p
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Good post. I want to add one piece of advice that helped me TREMENDOUSLY in getting over "ladder fear":
Every loss (or losing streak) is not a permanent thing. If you lose 5 games in a row today, guess what? You are going to play easier people next time and get those wins back in the long run.
I came to that realization after seeing how streaky my play was. I'd often go on 5-10 game losing streaks followed by a similar win streak. The ladder is designed so that such things are common. Just remember if you are seeing one side of the coin now, will see the other shortly after 
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On November 15 2011 05:11 Br3ezy wrote:
fear is such a weak emotion and that's why i despise it
Why oh why would you quote new lupe lyrics? off lasers really?I love lupe, but that album is so much worse than his other two its crazy, it makes me sick to hear songs like i dont wanna care right now from lupe. Its so poorly written compared to his other 2 albums! He lost all of his motivation and inspiration due to atlantic records ( or he just sold out, we will find out when his next album comes out).
OT: good guide, but i just dont agree with you. I dont think you can make a claim that the better player is the player who wins, its too black and white for a game like starcraft. Truth is, some strategies are just easier to execute than defend. Yeah i know at my level balance "shouldn't" be taken into account, but if two players at the same skill level in diamond/ low masters play and one players mistakes are less important due to racial differences, in what way is the game fair? I understand what you are going for, and its all in good faith, but its just unrealistic (at least in my always angry mind).
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On November 15 2011 06:39 eFonSG wrote:Show nested quote +On November 15 2011 05:11 Br3ezy wrote:
fear is such a weak emotion and that's why i despise it Why oh why would you quote new lupe lyrics? off lasers really?I love lupe, but that album is so much worse than his other two its crazy, it makes me sick to hear songs like i dont wanna care right now from lupe. Its so poorly written compared to his other 2 albums! He lost all of his motivation and inspiration due to atlantic records ( or he just sold out, we will find out when his next album comes out). OT: good guide, but i just dont agree with you. I dont think you can make a claim that the better player is the player who wins, its too black and white for a game like starcraft. Truth is, some strategies are just easier to execute than defend. Yeah i know at my level balance "shouldn't" be taken into account, but if two players at the same skill level in diamond/ low masters play and one players mistakes are less important due to racial differences, in what way is the game fair? I understand what you are going for, and its all in good faith, but its just unrealistic (at least in my always angry mind).
But you're arbitrarily defining what it means to be good at the game. In the end, the only measure of a players skill is wins and losses. You are both playing within the same defined ruleset and you both have the same tools. Balance is not really relevant, because we have been given a ruleset we can't change, and therefore the better player is the one that wins under that ruleset. You can then make a good argument that the game is flawed, which may be true, but the definition of a good player at any game is to achieve your victory conditions more than everyone else. Sure some strategies might be easier to execute, but you can do them too - you have the same tools as your opponent, including your race selection.
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great read! pokebunny fighting! ^^
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“Courage is not the absence of fear, but the mastery of it”
Great guide! I'm integrating the "empty cup" mindset in learning this game. I'm getting better with the ladder fear since I just click the "Find Match" button and telling myself that "I'm playing to have fun, to learn and to improve."
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Pokebunny wrote this guide after he didn't get GM. JOKES ♥
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On November 15 2011 06:47 Pokebunny wrote:Show nested quote +On November 15 2011 06:39 eFonSG wrote:On November 15 2011 05:11 Br3ezy wrote:
fear is such a weak emotion and that's why i despise it Why oh why would you quote new lupe lyrics? off lasers really?I love lupe, but that album is so much worse than his other two its crazy, it makes me sick to hear songs like i dont wanna care right now from lupe. Its so poorly written compared to his other 2 albums! He lost all of his motivation and inspiration due to atlantic records ( or he just sold out, we will find out when his next album comes out). OT: good guide, but i just dont agree with you. I dont think you can make a claim that the better player is the player who wins, its too black and white for a game like starcraft. Truth is, some strategies are just easier to execute than defend. Yeah i know at my level balance "shouldn't" be taken into account, but if two players at the same skill level in diamond/ low masters play and one players mistakes are less important due to racial differences, in what way is the game fair? I understand what you are going for, and its all in good faith, but its just unrealistic (at least in my always angry mind). But you're arbitrarily defining what it means to be good at the game. In the end, the only measure of a players skill is wins and losses. You are both playing within the same defined ruleset and you both have the same tools. Balance is not really relevant, because we have been given a ruleset we can't change, and therefore the better player is the one that wins under that ruleset. You can then make a good argument that the game is flawed, which may be true, but the definition of a good player at any game is to achieve your victory conditions more than everyone else. Sure some strategies might be easier to execute, but you can do them too - you have the same tools as your opponent, including your race selection.
I guess thats another way of looking at it, fair enough. The game is flawed then. And i dont know if defining a "good player" as a function on his wins is correct, but i dont think i really want to argue it. Also understand its very difficult for one post to just change my mindset, its very difficult for me to see this from the perspective your looking at it.
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Pokebunny, great write up
I just want to highlight this
There's no omniscient god of skill that determines arbitrarily who the best player is - the best player is the one that wins most.
THIS x OVER 9000
Whenever an argument about cheese/skill/macro comes up, people fail to see this truth.
If someone were to play a suboptimal strategy, let's say the try to win on only making workers and zealots, no tech beyond Gateway. His opponent was playing a really easy, but effective strategy -- take stim timing. The stimmer wins. People will often say "that player's lame, he can't macro, all he does is cheese and all-in! This player was trying to go for a macro game which takes more skill"
I hope that extreme example is self-explanatory enough of what I'm trying to get at.
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Nicely written Poke. Truer words trully can't be spoken. I may not be pro at sc2 but I have made thousands winning in tournaments of other games (specifically melee/brawl/iidx/ddr/itg) and this applies in every sense of the way to anything 'sports' like.
A TL;DR funny version of what you are describing is this.
Steps to success:
1. Choose something you love to do, not something that gives you something you want (love the game instead of loving to win).
2. Dedicate yourself to truly doing that thing (practice instead of whatever else it is you were going to do).
3. Never say that you can't do ____ and instead see rule #2. This step is made easier if step 1 was correctly followed.
Notice how there is no step that is all ?s. There is no ? about this.
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On November 15 2011 07:25 vaderseven wrote:
Nicely written Poke. Truer words trully can't be spoken. I may not be pro at sc2 but I have made thousands winning in tournaments of other games (specifically melee/brawl/iidx/ddr/itg) and this applies in every sense of the way to anything 'sports' like.
A TL;DR funny version of what you are describing is this.
Steps to success:
1. Choose something you love to do, not something that gives you something you want (love the game instead of loving to win).
2. Dedicate yourself to truly doing that thing (practice instead of whatever else it is you were going to do).
3. Never say that you can't do ____ and instead see rule #2. This step is made easier if step 1 was correctly followed.
Notice how there is no step that is all ?s. There is no ? about this.
thousands? gj mate :D
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Its amazing how much I can learn from this young man.
<3 You're awesome poke
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Good job my bunny, you didn't think I'd read it, did you? :>
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EPT
