I have returned: StarCraft II

[geno]

I think it'd be hilarious if Nada joined a foreign team. He does seem sick of the traditional korean practice regimen, and probably doesn't need a backing team with how much he earned in BW, but it would still be awesome. Since liquid is pretty much stationed in Korea at this point and live with oGs anyways, he would fit perfectly there!

[Torn]

Anyone having issues logging in? I can't log in or go to battle.net.

[tol]

that is some god damn exciting news lol

[altwight]

Okay I've been diamond for quite some time now. I seem to stay around rank 30-50 and everytime I drop below 30 I usually end up around 50 again.

The problem is I don't seem to be getting any better. I'm just stuck. I know how to scout when to scout when to harvest up when to pump units, I'm not sure how to describe it, I've just hit a wall.

[geno]

You should post your points rather than rank, its difficult to tell how good rank 30 or rank 50 is without any comparison. For instance, in like one of the really early made divisions (Medic Mu I think is a big one), rank30-50 would all probably be rank 1 in most of the newer divisions.

As for your problem in particular: I think the primary reason people get stuck at this mid-diamond level is a lack of refinement in their play. You get as far as you do on base talent and a natural understanding for the game, but after that you actually have to be very very proactive about getting better. Playing more games alone doesn't cut it, you have to analyze and begin to practice very specific things to start to improve. Everyone reaches this wall, though it is probably at different points for different people.

To break through it you really have to work at it. Analyze every loss and see where you went wrong. Look up popular build orders and try to work them into your game. Download top level replays, and watch them not for the entertainment, but for their playstyles. Avoid the big battles, concentrate on what they are building, when they are building it, and most importantly, why they are building it. Try to understand why they feel safe enough to do what they are doing, or pick out the points where you can tell they are taking a risk intentionally.

Its also important to find a friend, and practice very specific builds with specific timings, making sure you are optimizing everything you do; for instance, rather then saying "I'm going to go FE and then go 2 base mutas into 3 base hive play," work on the very specific timings in the early game, and start to factor in every good strategy your opponent can be doing and thinking about how you can optimally deviate from your original strategy.

And finally, work on doing everything you currently do, except faster. APM isn't particularly important to get to diamond (like I said before, 60-80 is plenty even for mid-to-high), but there is a reason you won't see people in top end tournaments with sub 100APM. You just cannot effectively harass, macro, micro, and keep tabs on the map without some decent speed.

All of these things will start to improve your play but its a long and hard process. I think for the majority of players looking to have fun with the game (myself included), its actually not worth it to go too far out of your way. It's better to just mass game and keep these things in the back of your mind so you try to get what you can out of your play. If you are really serious about improving very quickly though, you have to work at it, and hard.

[altwight]

721 points

[altwight]

I'm almost certain the reason I'm not progressing as much is because I play random. I really need to pick a race and stick with it.

I think Protoss is my best 1v1 race. Early game is meh but if I get to mid game/late game it can get pretty epic.

[geno]

That's pretty important too. Only a few players have managed to stick with random and make it into the upper echelons, and even they eventually choose a race.

[altwight]

I'm almost certain I'm pretty good with Protoss. Just won 3 games in a row putting me back down to rank 34 Diamon with 755 points. I'm goin to start adding everyone from BG who's willing to do 1v1s.

[Bweigelt]

Another important point that really starts to separate the mid diamond players (600-900) from the higher level ones (1000+) is having an overarching plan. You should always ask yourself why you're doing something (attacking, macroing, Turtling) and you should have a reason. For example in TvP I use a build where I open two barracks once with a tech lab, one with a reactor into expand. I add on Concussion shells early so I can apply some early pressure and hopefully pick off a stalker or two while I expand. I will build mostly marines in the early game to defend against possible void rays and once the toss first attack comes (unless he early expands in which case I'll usually double expo right off the bat) I'll take my third and deny him his third securing the game for me in most cases. Now obviously this doesn't happen exactly like that every game, but that's the plan I have going into most TvP's.

I find a lot of mid level diamond players seem to have a good plan for the early game but as the game goes on they tend to get running around without an idea of what they want to do. Basically they are just winging it because they are still winning most of their games before it gets to the late game simply by having better BO's than their opponents. Even simple things like immediately expanding after you are attacked, or expanding towards you're opponent while you're making an attack seem to be new concepts for them. One thing that really helped me improve was concentrating on macro and getting a third base up and running while keeping my money low and letting army control slack a little bit. I lost a few games where I had a lead and didn't control my army properly at important points, but in the end my macro became much stronger. Now I steamroll a lot of people by just out producing them at every turn and my APM has improved to the point where my army control doesn't suffer either. So sometimes focusing on one of two specific things can really help even if you lose a few games in the process

[altwight]

I've noticed a lot of positioning problems.

One game I ran my zealots around the back of a terran's army and sniped his tanks while my HTs/stalkers/sentries and immortals tanked a ball of marauders and thors but because I sniped the siege tanks I dominated the engagement.

The very next game I went to surround siege tanks but was caught out of position trying to get a flank and got curb stomped by high ground tanks.

It's really infuriating knowing exactly why you lost because you ask yourself why didn't you avoid that or do it the right way.

Sometimes though I just don't know the answer to certain scenarios. It's quite frustrating. I think I will ultimately become a protoss player. I favor zerg more than protoss in all honesty but zerg is such a hassle.

[Kaylia]

I'm almost certain I'm pretty good with Protoss. Just won 3 games in a row putting me back down to rank 34 Diamon with 755 points. I'm goin to start adding everyone from BG who's willing to do 1v1s.

Add me! Well, you're already on my list, but I'm down for hardcore 1v1 practice if you want to.

It's really infuriating knowing exactly why you lost because you ask yourself why didn't you avoid that or do it the right way.

What annoy me the most is losing because of shitty building placement (ie: thor get stuck and dont get to your expand in time to save you from the evil muta). Shit like this happen way too often to me.

[altwight]

test

[Serif]

I hate when games get postponed by 1 hour because some one island camps and just produces BCs or Vikings

Although it was quite fun when Kaylia and I pissed those guys off when they DT rushed

[Kaylia]

Well, I thought I had a chance of winning again when I did it last time. ;s Near they end, they were just jerk thought, so yeah.

[Kaylia]

Hey Serif, do you still have a replay of that game? I got a message today from a random guys saying these 2 were map hacking, but the replay is long gone from my folder.

[Sylvrdragon]

Tonight's Day9 Daily was fucking hilarious. If there is anyone here that doesn't watch Day9, you're wrong. Start watching. You can thank me later.

[Bweigelt]

Hurray for the new patch tomorrow. Hopefully I won't be seeing an endless streams of TvT's every time I ladder now.

[Misuicide]

Just now got your messages on bnet kaylin, i was sleeping! Was tired. Might even go back to sleep, lol

[Syntex]

You know whats pissing me off lately, is FFA where EVERYONE masses BC/VR I was the only terran vs 3 protoss and they all went VR.

So annoying.