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Mechanics = The utilization of the keyboard, mouse and user interface to execute actions in the quickest and most efficient way.
The Korean Gap = "Korean's own white dudes" -Moon at IEM
The Korean Gap
Effective Actions per minute = a value that can evaluate mechanical skill
![[image loading]](http://wordpress.tools.majorleaguegaming.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/players.jpg)
Sc2 Gears Replay Analysis from IEM world championship, MLG winter arena, Assembly winter, EU Bnet invitational
![[image loading]](http://s18.postimage.org/w8726s4o9/mechanicxs.png)
"Koreans really do own white dudes" - The data
Here is what I think truly defines the Korean Gap in Starcraft 2. Koreans have better mechanics and only the foreigners with the best mechanics can even hope to compete. In the top 30 of the Effective or Efficient actions per minute chart we can see that only a handful of foreigners are present. Idra, Ret, nerichio, stephano, select? The very top of the EAPM shows some ridiculous feats of mechanics by DRG, Losira, Taeja. Notice, Stephano one of the top foreign players, also has one of the top EAPM's competing with the top Korean's.
While not necessarily indicating skill it would seem to reaffirm my Hypothesis that Koreans have much better mechanics on average and the top foreign big names have some of the best mechanics out of all foreigners. So for to foreigners to decrease this gap, it would seem a top level Starcraft player needs to aim for about 350 APM and 200 or so EAPM to compete with the titans winning all the tournaments.
TEAM USA?
The myths lower level players in NA face. Are they destroying mechanics?
MACRO IS KING?
Destiny clearly mentions improving mechanics, but most low level players really focused in on the macro part. I cannot tell you how many lower level players i have tried to talk to say "You mean macro?" when I mention mechanics. There are macro mechanics and micro mechanics but in general "mechanics" is not "macro" or "micro".
Further discussion
[D] Underused Tactic in Lower Leagues
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=326528
How many bronze and silver level players are out there trying to focus on building workers, but clicking on the bottom right of the screen rather than using a hotkey. How many silver level players are getting their zerglings fried, because they tried to double click a fast moving group of unhotkeyed zerglings instead of control clicking them? How many gold players miss a few pylons because they sent a stalker to a watchtower by clicking and boxing it manually rather than cloning (Shift+deselect portraits)? How many platinum players cant keep their money low after 2 bases because they don't know how to tap to check their production? How many diamond players lost their entire army to a flank because they were watching their probes build at the nexus? How many masters players lost 20 drones to a stimmed marine drop, and responded to it too slow, cause the hotkeyed queen died and they don't use screen hotkeys? I hope you get my damn point.
You can't learn how to macro and micro until you know the correct way's to get around the screen.
Well, I am mad now, North American ladder needs to be like the korean ladder. But for the ladder to become competitive we need more competition. We need more plat's to become diamonds, and diamonds to become masters. We need to teach our lower level players better fundamentals. And our NA pro's could swallow their pride a bit and improve their mechanics also.
I leave you with possibly one of the most useful Day9 daily's of all time.
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mechanics are only half the battle.
in bw, if you had good mechanics, but crappy mind games and bad on spot decision making you were getting nowhere.
same is true in sc2..
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I got to masters on pure mechanics, now I'm getting my ass handed to me because I never learned real strategy, scouting, etc.
I still fucking destroy high diamonds though, so its not like I'm not masters material.
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the time you're making pointless threads koreans are playing ladder... could be a reason why they're better.
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your entire argument involve EAPM being the definition of mechanics.
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There is obviously more to the game than just mechanics like strategy. However, strategy without mechanics is a joke. This was just an opinion article with facts.
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I never realized stephano had such high apm. I wonder if him using grid has any effect in any way
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I believe Ace said that quote at IEM not Moon.
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Zenio has highest EAPM in GSL, but does it make him very successful? Mechanics are good, but there are tons of example where people with bad (progamer wise) mechanics do very well. your evidence doesnt support your argument...
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United States97277 Posts
On April 10 2012 08:12 IronSaint wrote:
I believe Ace said that quote at IEM not Moon.
It was moon. They tried to hype it up again when Huk beat him at dreamhack and when Moon came over for MLG Columbus in 2011
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On April 10 2012 08:10 Angel_ wrote:
your entire argument involve EAPM being the definition of mechanics.
Effective Actions per minute = a value that can evaluate mechanical skill
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On April 10 2012 08:13 Corsica wrote:
Zenio has highest EAPM in GSL, but does it make him very successful? Mechanics are good, but there are tons of example where people with bad (progamer wise) mechanics do very well. your evidence doesnt support your argument...
See this is what people will derail this thread into. My argument is that koreans on average have better mechanics, therefore korean's are better on average. Not that having the high eapm will make you the best player, only that you have the necessary mechanics to become one of the best players.
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On April 10 2012 08:12 andeh wrote:
I never realized stephano had such high apm. I wonder if him using grid has any effect in any way
I don't think it's grid-layout per se that does the trick. Your hotkey setup needs 2 things:
- Hotkeys not too far apart, easy to reach. Having everything all over the keyboard will slow you down due to the time it takes for your fingers to move around.
- Something you're used to. With many games played comes muscle memory, letting you hit the hotkeys in rapid succession without missing a beat.
Obviously grid-layout covers the first point, but so do many other layouts that you can design for yourself. The second point comes with practice and more practice. Some people will learn a layout more quickly than others of course.
So just go with what you're comfortable with and if possible swap some keybindings to move the relevant keys closer to the main cluster of hotkeys.
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On April 10 2012 08:17 RedDragon571 wrote:Show nested quote +On April 10 2012 08:13 Corsica wrote:
Zenio has highest EAPM in GSL, but does it make him very successful? Mechanics are good, but there are tons of example where people with bad (progamer wise) mechanics do very well. your evidence doesnt support your argument... See this is what people will derail this thread into. My argument is that koreans on average have better mechanics, therefore korean's are better on average. Not that having the high eapm will make you the best player, only that you have the necessary mechanics to become one of the best players.
KR have better mechanics, but it comes from person to person, some of them have low apm and win a lot (nestea), some have highest eapm and lose to foreign terrans (zenio) , depends on person, and many various things, mechanics are just a small particle of kr success..
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On April 10 2012 08:31 Corsica wrote:Show nested quote +On April 10 2012 08:17 RedDragon571 wrote:On April 10 2012 08:13 Corsica wrote:
Zenio has highest EAPM in GSL, but does it make him very successful? Mechanics are good, but there are tons of example where people with bad (progamer wise) mechanics do very well. your evidence doesnt support your argument... See this is what people will derail this thread into. My argument is that koreans on average have better mechanics, therefore korean's are better on average. Not that having the high eapm will make you the best player, only that you have the necessary mechanics to become one of the best players. KR have better mechanics, but it comes from person to person, some of them have low apm and win a lot (nestea), some have highest eapm and lose to foreign terrans (zenio) , depends on person, and many various things, mechanics are just a small particle of kr success..
Did you even read the post you just quoted?
Mechanics a small particle of success? then what are the big particles.
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mechanics is very important obviously, but hard to tell who have better mechanics just by looking at the apm/eapm. you can argue people who are faster generally have better mechanics because they can do more stuff, but what about misclicks and bad unit control?
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Mechanics are important but they're not everything. Boxer while may be sluggish now because of his age, but that doesn't stop him from making successful runs at MLG or taking games off of stronger players. Savior had comparatively very low APM to other progamers, but that never stopped him from becoming a bonjwa. And Flash's APM is lower than someone like Bisu but that hasn't stopped him from being god. You could have the best mechanics/macro but if your planning or decision making is shit, you're not going to get anywhere far. A not so great example would be someone like Idra, who's mechanics are great but his mental attitude is weak. Its the overall package that makes great players.
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Northern Ireland27448 Posts
Mechanics are important put using APM metrics to judge them, while it has validity in like-like comparisons, skews things racially. Protoss players, even the very fastest players just don't have the same APM/EAPM as other races.
There are many, harder things to quantify that seem to separate Koreans, for me noticeably it's their ability to adjust pre-determined builds on the fly, and the clean-ness of their adjusted timing attacks. They also just seem to be able to play a more aggressive/multi-faceted style, i.e non-committal aggression while playing standard which a lot of foreigners shy away from doing for a more passive style.
Again these traits are possible by the OP's point regarding their mechanics being top notch, but just having good mechanics alone does not explain the gap. Mentality/gamesense etc all play a part, if this game was decided purely on mechanics, among foreigners Ret and Idra would stomp face
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On April 10 2012 08:36 HellionDrop wrote:
mechanics is very important obviously, but hard to tell who have better mechanics just by looking at the apm/eapm. you can argue people who are faster generally have better mechanics because they can do more stuff, but what about misclicks and bad unit control?
Well EAPM weeds out a lot of the spam and useless actions. bad unit control is more a decision making issue rather than a mechanical problems. mouse accuracy is part of mechanics the main thing is with superior mechanics can maintain better macro while doing similar or better quality unit control than people without good mechanics. You can have poor mechanics and great macro or great micro, you just cant have both at the same time.
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EPT
