{"id":3121,"date":"2014-06-18T19:00:25","date_gmt":"2014-06-19T02:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cpgaming.gg\/?p=3121"},"modified":"2024-01-24T16:39:11","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T00:39:11","slug":"a-discussion-of-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/a-discussion-of-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"A Discussion of Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Samuel “Midday” He of Complexity Gaming<\/em><\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Many people rush onto the ladder with the hopes for an increase within the ranks which is a symbol of their progress and improvement. What they tend to forget about, or consider less important, is the process of improvement. StarCraft is not a game where you can organically improve simply by grinding. This is evidenced by the people who play countless games yet don’t improve.<\/p>\n

\"1-profile\"<\/p>\n

While my previous blog<\/a> was talking about general improvement and ways to go about it, this blog will talk about the actual practice of the game itself, what to do about it, and what to do in and out of practice.<\/p>\n

Practice preparation<\/em> is step one. In order to actually sit down and hit that find match button, you need to be motivated to do it. Different people have different motivators. Some people hit the \u201cFind Match\u201d button because they want to improve and improvement makes them feel good. Some people hit it just to have fun. Regardless, ensure you have a motivator (otherwise you’ll never end up hitting that button), and that this motivator does not impede on your improvement, whatever it may be. If you believe that you are earnestly passionate about the game, you won’t let ladder anxiety get in the way of hitting that button. Don’t be satisfied with where you are, ask yourself, “is this rank the best rank I can possibly achieve? Is this the best I can do?” Well of course not, there is always room for improvement. It’s well known that ladder anxiety and a sense of satisfaction stops a large amount of people from continuing to play the game. Don’t let ego get in the way of playing\/improving at the game. Many people end up disappointing themselves and look retrospectively at StarCraft and say, “man, I wish I really went at it. I could’ve been so much more.” Whether more<\/em> means having a higher rank, or if you felt you could have gone to the pro level and been competitive, don’t be one of these people.<\/p>\n

\"2-leader\"<\/p>\n

Keeping a stable mentality during practice<\/em> is step two. If you play with constant frustration, take a break. Playing while tilted is simply not productive. If you feel that you’ve reached your frustration limit, just stop. Taking a walk helps clear the mind and isn’t time consuming, so if you want to get back to practice quickly, perhaps take a relaxing walk with some music and then get back to it. Many people feel that they can play while being frustrated, but this hinders reaction time, decision making, and, most heavily, judgement. I know of some players who get stupidly frustrated extremely quickly, and at that point they just stop trying to micro at all, with the feeling that whatever they do, it won’t help them win, or they complain that they’re not skilled enough to attempt such micro. That is a very negative attitude that cripples improvement. If you don’t get out of your comfort zone, try new things, try to improve yourself by attempting more skilled builds or micro tactics, then there is little hope for progress. Keeping a neutral mentality is the best. You need to have the confidence that you can win, but also stay cautious enough to not underestimate your opponent, and at the same time not overestimate them. Staying calm within games will also help against tunnel vision, misclicks, and judgement errors. It will also help you stay emotionally stable whether you lose or win the game.<\/p>\n

\"3-ingame\"<\/p>\n


\nWhat to do with your practice<\/em> is step three. So I’ve mentioned that you can’t just learn StarCraft organically by grinding more. Great. So now what? It means that practice can’t be mindless\u00a0– we have to look at our errors and fix them.<\/p>\n

\"4-whitera\"<\/p>\n

It can be very difficult to pinpoint the game ending mistakes you made in games you won because, well, simply there were no game ending mistakes – otherwise you would have lost. One of the only instances where it’s productive to look at games you’ve won, is when you repeatedly lose to that person. And even then, the improvement that took place may be falsified by your opponent making a massive human error. That being said, the most valuable place to look is at your losses. I know many people dislike watching their own defeats, but for every single replay you watch of you losing – you could\u00a0learn something, regardless of how big or small this thing\u00a0is. Swallow your pride, because that will always make watching your defeats worth it.<\/p>\n

\"5-tweet\"<\/p>\n

The last step is using your practice for tournament preparation. What people don’t tend to realize is that studying is a huge part of practicing! If you don’t study, your practice won’t be as effective. Whether it’s studying for your opponents in tournaments, builds, strategies, playstyles, etc., at the end of the day, if you want to make your skills that you’ve practiced so hard on useful, you will be competing in tournaments. In tournaments, it’s easy to get nervous and scared. Many people practice and play ladder just for the purpose of playing in tournaments, where the money and results (the important stuff) are. If you’re afraid of losing to a lesser skilled opponent, or intimidated by a greater skilled opponent, the key point to think upon is consistency. Losing to a lesser skilled opponent (otherwise known as an “upset”) is not nearly as common as how people feel matches should be played out. How often does an instance like Sjow beating Life happen? Or Idra topping rorO and Stephano in his group? Really, Stardust has beaten Jaedong, Golden has beaten Stardust, I’ve beaten Golden, I’ve known some diamond players that have beaten me, and i’m sure some plat players have beaten him, and the chain goes on. Just because instances like this happen, doesn’t mean that the bronze player at the bottom of the chain is better than Jaedong. Consistency is key, and will shine through in tournaments like it almost always does. Practice with the concept of consistency, and practice in a way that will make you a consistent player.<\/p>\n

\"6-justbecause\"<\/p>\n

Yes, there are many gambles made in tournaments, and those have the tendency to be shaky when it comes to consistency, but control is king. Strong control will overcome heaps and loads of build order counters. Practice with this in mind, and you will become a dangerous and intimidating player out of it. That being said, look to abuse potential inconsistencies to take out a stronger opponent. Study your opponent’s play. If they are well known, take a look at their VODs and find out what they tends to lose to, or are thrown off balance by. Practice your builds and your control, and find the chink in the armor.<\/p>\n

As mentioned in my previous blog, having a teacher can be a massive catalyst to this whole process, and if you are serious in your practice, it would be wise to invest in one. All in all though, these are the key points to be taken from this blog. Begin your practice humbly, this will get you to hit the grind quickly. Having a stable mentality will keep you practicing longer and more efficiently, and taking walks is a good quick\u00a0method to clearing your mind and getting back to the grind. Practice with consistency in mind – it will benefit you in competitions. Studying is an imperative part of practicing and they go hand in hand, don’t undermine its importance.<\/p>\n

\"7-slayers\"<\/p>\n

I’m Samuel “Midday” He<\/a>, a Zerg player proudly playing for compLexity Gaming<\/a>. Thanks to our sponsors Sound Blaster, CYBERPOWERPC, Newegg.com, Creative, Twitch, DXracer, Scufgaming, and Pwnitwear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Samuel “Midday” He of Complexity Gaming discusses the importance of practice and mindset on improving as a StarCraft 2 player.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":3128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2830,2724],"tags":[561,914,2279,2280,1972],"class_list":["post-3121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-esports","category-news","tag-complexity-gaming","tag-esports","tag-midday","tag-practice","tag-starcraft-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3121"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15425,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3121\/revisions\/15425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}