I've been facing a dilemma lately during my practice sessions:
(1) Do you play your best style/builds that has garnered you success in the past, and trying to get your ladder rank/score as high as possible.
Or
(2) Tryout different and diverse strategies that will benefit you as a player in the long run, but having your ladder rank/score suffer as a result.
I find myself trying to do (2) lately as I've been practicing HoTs alot more. However, once I lose a few games in a row of trying (2) I get huge temptations to go back to (1) because I'm getting frustrated over losing/lost points, and also showing losing games to my viewers.
What do you find yourselves doing?
P.S: Stream will be listed on TL in less than a week because of their policy thing.
Pick a target (eg, a specific tournament), do (2) until you have the builds that will become (1). If you have a target to aim at you might be better equipped to resist temptation.
Do 2 when you are not streaming, because you might chance upon a pocket strat you can use in the next tournament.
Do 1 when you want to entertain your viewers.
Either practice (2) or entertain (1)
Even though I have no real experience in the matter... I would suggest possibly alternating between 2 or 3 builds you would use for each match up. Once you feel you are confident with these builds, move on to the next however many. If you feel yourself getting bored... every 4th or 5th match try something completely new and exciting
GL on ladder Ray, look forward to watching your stream!
Personally i feel that (2) will get you further in the long run if you are still going to be attending LAN's and be considered a real threat to the other top tier players in SEA. To be honest you shouldn't be judged on ladder points/rank but judged mainly on how well your play is (mechanics ect..) and how well you perform at LAN's because allot of players can cheese to GM but wont go to LAN's because there macro is not solid and they are easy to prepare for.
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mGGHalt
"halt doesnt want to ruin his face so he uses his hands to play instead of facerolling the keyboard" - Kreamy
Get a second account where you only use unique/unorthodox/cheesy styles while using your main account to play safe/standard styles that your comfortable with on your main account. Alternate between the two based on what you feel like doing.
I find myself in this situation a lot. I have builds that I feel very comfortable playing so I always go back to them.
However I think its best to experiment most of the time. I think at your level it doesn't take long to get to the point where youre comfortable with a new build, just a couple of games. Experimenting puts you in new situations that you need to work out, gives you the possibility of coming up with new stronger strategies and generally just makes you think a lot more.
I don't know how much you should divide the 2 up, I guess it depends how long it takes you to learn a build and become comfortable with it. It might even be worth having 2 accounts, one where you experiment and one where you just play 2 win, then find a decent divide between the 2 with the time you have.
I think both are important? I mean, for a 'pro' ladder rank isn't anywhere near as important as winning competitions. Ladder = practice, you want to develop as a player and learn many nuances of the game and improving your mechanics. But when you want to explore a particular build or style then you focus on developing that directly. Focused (2) and varied (1) play styles? idk.. what ever you feel prepares you for competitions the best
I'm somewhat lazy about experimenting, if I want to add more depth to my game I'd just copy unique/cheesy/unorthodox builds that have used by a pro where the builds/timings are already refined (I have the same issues as you too where I don't like losing when trying these builds)
However, I don't find myself thinking as much about the game doing that, which is the main point of trying out new builds/styles.
I probably should do more of that if I can convince myself
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FB page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bryan-Drake-Sum/468389706519567 team page: http://flash-esports.com/
IMO at your level you shouldn't worry about ladder ranking as much, but instead trying to improve yourself as a player. So I'd say going with (2), this may mean one step back for two forward but in the end it will be worth it. However it doesn't hurt to use both
GL GL
play strategies you WANT to play, not the ones you think you need to. You lose games primarily due to **** ups, which aren't necessarily the result of 2) more so then execution or game sense fails.
1) only results in stagnation if you cannot notice why it is you lose or simply are not fixing it. Or if you're just a coinflippy fucktard getting what they deserve.
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Reluctant new users of this so called... Twitter- @ROOTiaguz
maybe its not chanigng almost daily now that its been out for awhile, but even so theres huge meta switches every 1-2weeks, esp on KR. just copy builds from GSL/proleague and learn those i think is best, use judgement to determine whcih builds to use
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