• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 09:12
CET 15:12
KST 23:12
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL22] Finals Preview: Sweet Victory!12[ASL22] Ro4 Preview: Mirror Mirror6[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: Within Reach5[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy11[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5
Community News
[BSL23] RO16 Group Stage1Weekly Cups (Nov 2-8): herO back on top?1Weekly Cups (Oct 26 - Nov 1): MaxPax, herO, Solar win0Weekly Cups (October 19-25): Clem triples first in 5.0.175Evil Geniuses - shutting down23
StarCraft 2
General
Weekly Cups (Nov 2-8): herO back on top? Serral's getting trashed by New Catsle's Mind No more SC2 streamers on team liquid? StarCraft open world shooter announced at BlizzCon [D] Hacker peak in sc2 ?
Tourneys
RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-22 Tasteless Time Warp: SC Evo Showmatch (May 25) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament SC2 iNu's Battles #22 SC4ALL: II Venue Change Announcement!
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
Starcraft 2 Advance [G] How to playtest arcade maps [D] the control group Simple Questions/Answers
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 551 Robotic Revival Mutation # 550 Graveyard Shift Mutation # 549 Endless Sparkles
Brood War
General
BW General Discussion [BSL23] RO16 Group Stage List of top players active on ShieldBattery BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Rollback Netcode in Brood War
Tourneys
[$1250] International ShieldBattery League 2v2v2v2 Tournament Stage 1: Community Poll [Megathread] Daily Proleagues Small VOD Thread 2.0
Strategy
Nuke strategy worked in K-League 2026-11-09 50,000-Word Terran Builds Memo 2026-10-22 Cliff Jump Revisited (1 in a 1000 strategy)
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread ZeroSpace Early Access is Now Live! Path of Exile General RTS Discussion Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread
Dota 2
Dota 2 Champions League Season 3 Begins April 25!
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Trading/Investing Thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Dating: How's your luck? Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine
Fan Clubs
Fan Club Resource Thread Reynor Fan Club The Flash Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! Anime Discussion Thread [Manga] One Piece
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
The time I organised my…
AssyrianKing
Why I built Repalyzer (1.1.…
BlueStar
Innovate or Game Over?
TrAiDoS
ShieldBattery on Mac
Kraekkling
[ASL22] Ro4 Day1 Ticket Giv…
bITt.mAN
Can Bots Beat Pros?? Starcr…
namkraft
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 12258 users

Getting better by losing

Forum Index > BW General
Post a Reply
1 2 3 Next All
[Fin]Vittu
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
Canada507 Posts
June 18 2008 04:53 GMT
#1
I think I have a bad habit of "dodging" pros judging by their records on B.net. I really like the feeling of winning by playing people with negative records...

People say although you game a lot by owning those people you cannot get better and rather your skill stays at a plateau.

Is it true that by losing 20+ games in a row that you are actually getting better and not receiving signs from god that you should quit sc?
The "Finnish Metal Terran"
clazziquai
Profile Blog Joined October 2007
6685 Posts
June 18 2008 04:55 GMT
#2
Well..playing better people and why you lost will only get you better. I used to be like that too, but now I prefer people with positive/better record to play. ^^
#1 Sea.Really Fan / #1 Nesh Fan / Terran Forever~
Purind
Profile Blog Joined April 2004
Canada3562 Posts
Last Edited: 2008-06-18 04:58:39
June 18 2008 04:58 GMT
#3
It's good to play ppl at around your skill level or a bit higher. A bit lower doesn't hurt, but if you smash people that you know you can beat, it's not gonna help you.

I think you can learn even by playing worse players, as long as they're close enough to you that they can take a game from you at any moment
Trucy Wright is hot
evanthebouncy!
Profile Blog Joined June 2006
United States12816 Posts
June 18 2008 05:05 GMT
#4
You gotta play all...

Play pros to get raped and have them criticize you
Play people your level and win/lose half the time to push your limits
Play people below your level to test out new ideas and to keep confidence
Life is run, it is dance, it is fast, passionate and BAM!, you dance and sing and booze while you can for now is the time and time is mine. Smile and laugh when still can for now is the time and soon you die!
evanthebouncy!
Profile Blog Joined June 2006
United States12816 Posts
June 18 2008 05:10 GMT
#5
But mostly play people your own level I think, I would take a post to explain this "tussle theory"

The tussle theory is something I thought up, basically it says that the game is an experience, and you gain from the experience.
If you play player that is so good they kill you in 5 minutes, there are little experience gained because you have no idea why you lose, and unless they point out something subtle to you, you just feel confused and lost w/o gaining anything useful.
If you player a player that is so bad that you can do what ever you want you are not "strained" in any way, and you cannot learn because you are not forced to play at a higher state. These games are mainly for laughs and giggles and egos, but not to improve.
If you play a player of your level, it will be a struggle. You will see hopes and lose hopes, you will have to claw every inch of your way to victory, and such endurance will build you to a better player, and forces you to push your gaming just a little more, as it is that little more that pushes a lose to a win, that lets you overpower your opponent. May it be abit more multitask, or more vigorous thinking in game, it will force you to work out.

xD
Life is run, it is dance, it is fast, passionate and BAM!, you dance and sing and booze while you can for now is the time and time is mine. Smile and laugh when still can for now is the time and soon you die!
Blind
Profile Blog Joined December 2002
United States2529 Posts
June 18 2008 05:10 GMT
#6
You don't necessarily have to play people who own you. Just play people that can give you a challenge. Playing those much worse than you allows you to win using the same strats repeatedly. It also lets you screw around and do dumb strats that would normally never work vs players around your level. Lastly, you are more relaxed vs worse opponents, so your multitasking isn't being pushed to its limit.
G5
Profile Blog Joined August 2005
United States2922 Posts
June 18 2008 05:16 GMT
#7
i am a really bad loser

i don't think its a bad thing to get mad at your losses. if i didn't care if i won or lost, i wouldn't have improved as fast as i did. what helped me the most to improve from a D player to a A player is by pushing myself, getting mad at myself and loosing. And I mean LOOOOSING A LOT... the key to loosing is understanding why you lost and fix it the next time you get in such a scenario. This is how you improve, playing players worst then you will help u stay in shape, you will remember hot keys and such but on a general understanding of the game / strategical standpoint, you won't improve at all. Man up and play better players, take your losses like a man or take em like a kid, it doesn't really matter as long as you take losses and realize you did something wrong; and then understand why you lost.

good luck and never ever dodge players for then being good. if i have 2 players at A-, 1 with 50/50 record and the other being 80-15, ill play the 80-15 guy every time. do the same and try to improve your game (if you care about improving at all).

once again, good luck~ G5
gg_hertzz
Profile Blog Joined January 2004
2152 Posts
Last Edited: 2008-06-18 05:21:36
June 18 2008 05:21 GMT
#8
losing is like medicine. it tastes like shit and sometimes hard to swallow, but you need it to get better. i admit that by not challenging myself and playing better opponents that I've not been able to reach my potential. So, while my record is pretty damn good and my skills are better than what they were a year ago, they would be so so much higher had I the guts to lose.

Losing just makes you a better player, but only if you know why you lost and work to get better. Losing by itself, of course, doesn't do jackshit but scare you into playing lesser players. But people who constantly challenge themselves, and learn from their losses and mistakes, are always guaranteed to become better in the long run. That goes for SC and life.
Archaic
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
United States4024 Posts
June 18 2008 21:35 GMT
#9
I know how you feel right now. Okay, well, you sometimes end up playing people, and losing miserably, and as gg_hertzz says, it "tastes like shit and sometimes hard to swallow" but it is inevitable. One warning though, don't just keep playing people better than you and lose a lot. If you get in a bad mood when you lose, you will only get worse; a lot worse... I don't mean in terms of losing skill, but the as you progress, you will play worse and worse, and sometimes improve on things you already have down. If you really need a confidence boost, just play some people worse than you. Everyone, feel free to criticize me about this, but sometimes, the confidence boost allows you to play better when you play someone better.
ilovejonn
Profile Blog Joined August 2007
Canada2548 Posts
Last Edited: 2008-06-18 21:56:52
June 18 2008 21:51 GMT
#10
The point of mass gaming against better players is so that you can rewatch the game and ask yourself questions such as what did I do wrong? Why did I lose? That way you can get better as you will pin point mistakes and learn from it.

If you just mass game against noobs where you always win, you'll think to yourself, whatever I won anyways even though I had some mistakes, who cares.
Snowflakes in January, Heart warm like February, I wouldn't ordinarily..
Chef
Profile Blog Joined August 2005
10810 Posts
Last Edited: 2008-06-18 22:16:29
June 18 2008 22:13 GMT
#11
How is it fun to play people who are worse than you? It's like playing any game that's too easy, you'll just get bored.

Would you wanna play a single player console game where it was actually impossible to lose? Or close to it? Of course not. Drop your stupid ego and start playing this game for fun, not for pride (because unless you're competing among the best, no one gives a fuck what your win rate is).

i admit that by not challenging myself and playing better opponents that I've not been able to reach my potential.

LOL, even when you're admitting you played games with people worse than you to save your ego, you're saving your ego by saying you'd be much better 'if only I'd tried.' It makes it very difficult to see if you've learned or not.
LEGEND!! LEGEND!!
yoshtodd
Profile Blog Joined October 2004
United States418 Posts
June 18 2008 23:31 GMT
#12
I'm going through this with chess right now. It's hard to keep playing when you lose over and over.
moo
ForAdun
Profile Joined August 2007
Germany986 Posts
Last Edited: 2008-06-19 00:02:07
June 18 2008 23:59 GMT
#13
I once had a losing streak of 13 games and after 2 more wins I lost another 7 games in a row and if that was a sign of god then that I had some huge weaknesses to work on.
Losing itself doesn't make you better at all. It's the 3 golden A's - awareness, attention, action - that make you better, and in order to get them started you first have to lose, because only then you can be aware of a weakness. Given that you don't ignore it (like everyone likes to do, the hardest part is not to ignore it) and instead pay attention you can take action which goes as following: see, understand, solve. That's the easier part since it only takes brain activity and gaming, your ego is not involved.
This as a whole is just a theoretical example and it only describes the ideal case. Much more often you will get to face quite a few weaknesses at the same time and if that pressures you it can easily make you ignore the facts after you told yourself it's alright you're still the better player and you simply had bad luck - actually nothing but an approach to stay mentally healthy, so it's not a bad thing at all, it's just standing between you and your improvement.
We all like to do that, I like to do that. The more you want to improve the harder it gets not to do it.

In the end there's only one advice I can give you in any case: stay real, heads up and do not join the dark side of the force.
KwarK
Profile Blog Joined July 2006
United States44449 Posts
June 19 2008 00:42 GMT
#14
Playing people your own level makes you better eh Evan?
ModeratorThe angels have the phone box
gg_hertzz
Profile Blog Joined January 2004
2152 Posts
June 19 2008 00:50 GMT
#15
On June 19 2008 07:13 PsycHOTemplar wrote:
How is it fun to play people who are worse than you? It's like playing any game that's too easy, you'll just get bored.

Would you wanna play a single player console game where it was actually impossible to lose? Or close to it? Of course not. Drop your stupid ego and start playing this game for fun, not for pride (because unless you're competing among the best, no one gives a fuck what your win rate is).

Show nested quote +
i admit that by not challenging myself and playing better opponents that I've not been able to reach my potential.

LOL, even when you're admitting you played games with people worse than you to save your ego, you're saving your ego by saying you'd be much better 'if only I'd tried.' It makes it very difficult to see if you've learned or not.


lulz?

i play to pass the time, not to compete? WTF are you criticizing me for? It's just a fucking game donkey.
[Fin]Vittu
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
Canada507 Posts
June 19 2008 01:14 GMT
#16
On June 19 2008 09:42 Kwark wrote:
Playing people your own level makes you better eh Evan?



how'd you know my name? :0
The "Finnish Metal Terran"
KwarK
Profile Blog Joined July 2006
United States44449 Posts
June 19 2008 01:18 GMT
#17
On June 19 2008 10:14 [Fin]Vittu wrote:
Show nested quote +
On June 19 2008 09:42 Kwark wrote:
Playing people your own level makes you better eh Evan?



how'd you know my name? :0

Level 18 internet skills. Takes a lot of grinding but it's times like this that make it all worthwhile. Amazing the new guys with your 1337 special abilities and rare armour.
ModeratorThe angels have the phone box
Seraphim
Profile Blog Joined March 2006
United States4467 Posts
June 19 2008 01:19 GMT
#18
I think he was talking to evanthebouncey~ haha
Hermes | Bisu[Shield] Fighting~!
KwarK
Profile Blog Joined July 2006
United States44449 Posts
June 19 2008 01:32 GMT
#19
On June 19 2008 10:19 Seraphim wrote:
I think he was talking to evanthebouncey~ haha

Whatever you say John.
ModeratorThe angels have the phone box
ScarFace
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
United States1175 Posts
Last Edited: 2008-06-19 01:35:31
June 19 2008 01:35 GMT
#20
Basically, avoid people who wtfpwn you, because their skills will be so above your head you wont be able to say "Wrong build. Bad macro/micro/game sense". You will simply stare at the screen and say damn, I was out played. Not a thing I could of done. Play people around your skill level- hopefully better, but not drastically so.
Can you dig it?
1 2 3 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
WardiTV Invitational
21:00
WardiTV Not-Summer Championshi
Percival vs Shameless
Solar vs TBD
WardiTV747
TKL 167
Rex112
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
TKL 167
Rex 112
trigger 57
EnDerr 5
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 74368
Rain 1998
Horang2 1210
EffOrt 928
Jaedong 774
BeSt 771
Stork 351
Snow 270
Zeus 267
firebathero 226
[ Show more ]
Soulkey 167
Rush 127
Barracks 99
ProTech93
Pusan 82
JYJ 80
Sea.KH 72
Hyun 64
Sharp 58
Mong 49
sSak 38
ToSsGirL 37
HiyA 31
Killer 28
Shinee 26
Noble 20
Shine 19
scan(afreeca) 17
Rock 16
Movie 16
sorry 16
Aegong 15
Terrorterran 12
sOs 11
Hm[arnc] 9
ajuk12(nOOB) 8
Sacsri 8
zelot 7
Dota 2
qojqva1277
Dendi1112
monkeys_forever163
420jenkins145
Counter-Strike
olofmeister1237
markeloff211
Heroes of the Storm
crisheroes283
Other Games
singsing2177
B2W.Neo836
hiko563
XaKoH 262
syndereN196
Mew2King67
QueenE57
ArmadaUGS54
ViBE44
NeuroSwarm31
Railgan23
Organizations
Counter-Strike
PGL80
StarCraft: Brood War
lovetv 7
[ Show 12 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• C_a_k_e 2090
• WagamamaTV429
League of Legends
• Jankos1789
• TFBlade286
Upcoming Events
OSC
8h 48m
ByuN vs MaxPax
herO vs Krystianer
Percival vs Shameless
LetaleX vs YoungYakov
Nicoract vs Gerald
GgMaChine vs ArT
PiGosaur Cup
10h 48m
INu's Battles
21h 48m
ByuN vs Classic
3D!Clan Event
1d 2h
The PondCast
1d 19h
KCM Race Survival
1d 19h
WardiTV Invitational
1d 21h
OSC
2 days
Ultimate Battle
2 days
CranKy Ducklings
3 days
[ Show More ]
IPSL
4 days
TerrOr vs IJ_Terran
rasowy vs Hazorath
Sparkling Tuna Cup
4 days
IPSL
5 days
Art_Of_Turtle vs KameZerg
Radley vs George
WardiTV Weekly
5 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-11-09
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
HCC Season 3

Ongoing

Acropolis #5
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 4
International ShieldBattery League
Individual League
BSL Season 23
IPSL Winter 2026-27
Calamity Cup Div. A Season 8
IEM Beijing 2026
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026

Upcoming

YSL S4
Sector 951
SC4ALL II: Brood War
BSL 23: Non-Korean Championship
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
StarCraft2 Weekly Open Tournament 2026 Grand Finals
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
Underdog Cup 2026 Div 2-3
PGL Bucharest 2027
BLAST Bounty Winter 2027
eXTREMESLAND 2026
PGL Major Singapore 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.