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Ok here i am, the ultimate newbie trying to pass the crawling stage (i assume most of TL has already started jogging so..) and after a break from iccup for about a week or two i've gone back and lost 4 consecutive games. (all games on desti)
The last win was totally bullshit even by my low standards.
1st game looked good as i scouted DT rush, and i countered with 2 fac vult which was very successful. I dropped his main and raped probes and whatnot, but when i thought i had the advantage to contain him i pushed badly to his base and died. 2nd and 3rd games were straight up losses so i don't feel angry about that. 4th game was a proxy gate that i responded to immediately but failed to defend. This resulted in a ragequit that i dont support either.
Last game is the main focus - i got proxy pyloned in my main into gate, i took my gas late in case of bunker, but i microed abit madly and killed the offending probe and the pylons supporting the gate.
Deciding to go 2fac to punish the toss for his early error, and smelling DTs, i went for an ebay and (this time, thanks to pangshai pointing out my error) microed my 2fac as best as i could, only to get hit by a DT drop (i don't know how toss can lose 1 gate+2 pylons and still do that) while pushing into his base. I harass constantly with vultures, take my 2nd, then decide that i should play defensively since i lost the 1st game to poor pushing. Lo and behold i push to 9 and see he has fortified the high ground with reaver and cannon, so i pound it repeatedly with tankfire until it dies.
Game playes out normally but with so little mental focus on my side that i don't push properly, i don't siege or rally properly, and the entire game revolves around amoving and being really furious with the opponent. after ~30min of rage and beatdown and realising the opponent was still calm i decided to gather my senses and pushed slowly and steadily to his last mining expo and decisively raped it (all in all a 40min noobfest with most noobism from myself)
I would like the ask the community, when you guys were passing this stage, what went through your mind? What did you tell yourself everytime you defeated yourself mentally? What golden advice did anyone give you?
I wouldn't consider myself the most mature or immature around here and would like to take home a lesson in mental strength (or perhaps illustrate one right here). Just as progamers deal with huge losing streaks or really stressful games, other professions deal with similar stress. Factors that throw cheap shots at you (DT im looking at you) are part and parcel of life and sometimes the only thing u can do is rage awhile and deal with it the best you can afterward (im sure Artosis will have something to say about DT though =p)
So here ends my long spiel, almost as long and probably as bad as the latest game i had on iccup. Comments would be warmly appreciated =D
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just play. watch your replays. dont take games personal. winning is not as important as playing up to your potential. strive to play your best which includes learning from losses and refraining from letting uninformed mistakes become habits. play SC to have fun and hopefully to improve your skill. winning means very little unless you are trying to get recruited to a sponsored team.
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United States41680 Posts
Take the aspects of your game that are the strongest and focus on them. If you've got great vult harass then focus your style around that, playing more vult heavy than conventional strategy would advise. Likewise, take the weaker aspects and phase them out. Say you're bad at late game multitasking macro wars when you're on several bases each and smashing maxed armies into each other. Knowing that gives you license to be more aggressive and risk taking in the mid game, even if it doesn't always work out. Because if you know you're likely to drop the ball late game then it completely changes the risk/reward ratio of going allin mid game. Feel free to get pissed off at your losses but don't let it into your game. Just find practice partners who can beat you and don't be afraid to ask for a re. Don't get pissed off by cheese, just learn to scout it, the most satisfying games are the ones where some noob tries to pull some cheesy shit on you and you just shut it down. Equally, don't be afraid to cheese. People take risks in their games, scouting late and skipping things they should know better than to skip. It's not wrong to abuse their mistakes if you see them making them. Cheesing forces them to play honest or forfeit the game for their greed.
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Since i don't have enough attention span I only read about the last game and the bold paragraph.
When you are ahead (deflecting proxy double gate) you should play safe instead of aggressive. When ahead, avoid chances, when behind, take chances.
4 games loosing streak? Stop, watch replay, play again when your temper is under control.
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Thanks everyone for the very useful and prompt advice.
It'll be great if people knew that nerds arent just robots and have such big hearts too /random More <3 for TL hehe
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First of all, I'm not sure what you are asking about: how to deal with rage in your head, or how to deal with long games?
Rage is not that bad thing. Look at Jaedong: he is often shouting on himself at the beggining just to keep the composition. If you'll learn to control your rage (meaning it won't turn into resignation anytime your game goes bad), then it'll eventually become your friend. If you ask me, everytime when I mess up something, my APM hits the roof because of the nerves, and, as a result, I often come back to the point where I were before with little damage (though I often lose strategic view on the game when I go furious, :-(
In the long games, I try to figure out who has better economy first, because once battle goes to that stage, macro becomes crucial factor. If I'm ahead, I try not to hurry and macro up till I outproduce him. If I'm behind, I often go for something unexpected or even crazy to twist the momentum. But that's just me, it really depends on your style/strength, how you should respond to late-game situations.
Oh, and BTW, always think about how to get a mental edge over your enemy. He is not a robot too: if you can pull out something spectacular (like massive Peon-slaughter, epic Nuke, minetrap etc.), do it! Sometimes it can be risky, but on low level you can often get away with it, and psychological impact will often be huge. (He may even concede at once, hehe).
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On October 13 2009 02:45 JFKWT wrote: I would like the ask the community, when you guys were passing this stage, what went through your mind? What did you tell yourself everytime you defeated yourself mentally? What golden advice did anyone give you?
Essentially what Kwark said. At this level, pick specific builds to stick to - builds that suit your strengths. You can always go back and practice in weak areas later, and it's easier to play confidently and comfortably by avoiding them, which at D level is going to help with mental issues.
When I started grinding up from D my first season, I picked a simple build for each matchup to stick to. You can cut out a lot of the 'noobish' messy play by having a clear BO written out for you, and key timings to follow. It's easier (and probably more beneficial) to learn to adapt your build to your opponent than to try to do something more unfamiliar.
PS: I said I'd give you some games, but I've been really busy with Army lately and haven't been on ICC
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On October 13 2009 02:45 JFKWT wrote: i've gone back and lost 4 consecutive games. (all games on desti) lolol. i lost 8 consecutive games of tvp at just D+/C- level after being inactive for a relatively short period of time (like 2 weeks). http://www.iccup.com/matchlist/751202/1x1.html
my record vs protoss is now 14-21, and my stats on heartbreak ridge are 5-11. i guess its all about controlling tilt. you have no idea how many games in that 8 where i had an advantage and i ended up throwing it all away cause i just attack moved. terran is a race where you have to control your units well, all the time.
i guess what someone else suggested before is good. stop playing for a bit, watch the replay, learn what you did wrong, before going back and trying again. when i was on that losing streak, i was playing a lot worse than i usually do, and i could feel that i was losing to opponents who were a lot weaker than i usually lose to.
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Hmm i agree i 've been losing consistently to players that i felt were not as skilled... maybe i should go back to drilling my BO..
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konadora
Singapore66065 Posts
(i don't know how toss can lose 1 gate+2 pylons and still do that)
Fakesteve: "Toss is so fucking gay."
After that pylon gay shit regarding your last game, go for FE and play defensively until you got 5~6 facts running. Do a timing push, unless the toss is going for some 2 base arbiter or whatnot.
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The best simple advice is "learn a build and improve your macro" and by learn a build probably a safe macro build in order to improve your macro. (and probably add that you should scout lots lots lots so they dont get away with stupid shit because scouting is the easiest form of direct game sense)
If you can get to the point where you arent floating much money and don't lose early early game by having a fundamental misunderstanding you'll easily blow all the D rank players away.
Of course with practicing these things the finer little things will fall into place like when to do what, and what counters what when he does this or she does that. But yeah. Taking that advice seriously got me out of D ranks fairly easilly.
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I bet most of those losses were vs much better opponents. It is normal and accepted to have a negative record at D level, so you shouldn't be angry when you lose. If you think you just lost to a weaker opponent due to cheese, watch rep, if you can find a way to beat the cheese fine, but my approach would be to not bother about that. I said this before, I am too weak in standard games to worry about beating cheese, so there is no point for me to practice fighting proxy in the main since that is not the main problem.
In addition to Kwark's post, think about how you approach the game in general. Going forGG on them is cool but is it efficient? My biggest mistake in SC was playing SKterran. If it looks good it does not mean it is good.
To gather yourself mentally, I would suggest not thinking about it. Think about playing the game and it will be fine.
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