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Good luck with your endeavours! Working on the small things, as you have set yourself out to do, is the first step to becoming awesome!

i recently got to plat today it took me about 3 years to get to gold. If you keep going you will get there

Personally, coming from the perspective of someone who is weak in macro as well, I found Protoss was a far easier choice. You don't need to micro several workers at once to build depots, only one, the warp-in mechanic means it's very easy to pump out units. And at low levels, the death-ball doesn't require much micro. This means you have a lot of games to learn how to avoid supply blocks and micro, whilst having something to fall back on whilst you're struggling.

It's not an 'easy' race so to speak, as at higher levels your macro and micro has to be very very good. But it's a far more friendly race for lower level players like me for learning the basics before you move onto high-intensity races like Terran. But if you really want to stick with Terran, ignore me :P

Good luck on it mate!

As a person also with a very busy life (Engineering Masters / Wife + child / Exercise etc...) my advice is to schedule your play time and try to aim for consistency throughout the week rather than big chunks of time sporadically.

If you are having trouble getting supply blocked at the later numbers you may want to try to put in some indicators for an increasing rate of depo building eg after 30 supply 2 at a time, after 50 suplply 3 at time etc. (I play zerg so not sure on the numbers but you get the idea)

Also you should try to have some paragraph spacing on your next blog update =)

Great to hear that you're looking to improve Japetto. How seriously did you take TheStaircase. I've looked at it as well, but I didn't really stick to it too terribly strictly. If you really focus on one build order and cleaning up your mechanics (ie. no supply blocks) you'll be surprised how quickly you will improve. Remember that every supply block/missed MULE/missed SCV throws about a pro-build order. If you can get those right consistently the build order will fall into place more naturally. Like you said, you will lose a lot as you get better. Don't be afraid to lose and be a bit stubborn while you're working on your mechanics. I find the more I focus on my macro and ignore my army, the more games I win. At least till I start getting matched against high plat/low diamond.

For the other people reading this blog, if I've got anything particularly wrong here, please yell at me.

I wouldn't advise playing 21 games a day or you'll probably notice a downfall in your health and grades pretty hard :P but do keep practicing!

The most important thing for you to develop is your macro/mechanics. Until Diamond (maybe even Master), you should be playing the game against yourself, not your opponent. If you try to read too much into your opponent before your own play is refined, you will distract yourself and improve far slower. Far and above the best thing you could do (perhaps even better than ladder games) is playing against a Very Easy AI.

Jump into the game and focus purely on your build order timings (scouting included) until they become second nature. Watch the replays, take note of the following:

-When did you get supply blocked? Why?
-Was there a time you weren't producing SCVs out of all your command centres? Why?
-Was there a time your army production facilities weren't making units? Why?
-Were your bases saturated properly? If not, why not?

What will really help, if you don't already, is to structure the way you think about your macro. Memorise your 'Macro Cycle' and follow it throughout the game, this will help you to stay focussed. I don't play Terran myself, so someone else please feel free to correct me, but I believe the Terran Macro Cycle is:

1. Supply Depots
2. SCV Production
3. Unit Production
4. Building/add-on production

Ideally, you will complete the cycle before your SCVs/Units complete, allowing for continuous production. You may find that you're not quite quick enough yet, and that's totally fine - just keep a closer eye on your SCV/Unit build timers.
Once you find yourself getting quicker at the cycle, you can add another step.

5. Unit Movement

Without the distraction of an opponent, it's also a great opportunity to challenge yourself mechanically. Consciously force yourself to do what you know is mechanically correct:

-Use all of the production Hotkeys (even for long-timer upgrades)
-Make sure everything important is on a control group
-Use multiple control groups for your army (e.g. Vikings should be on a seperate hotkey to focus fire)
-Set and force yourself to USE camera hotkeys

Once you know your builds inside and out, then, and ONLY then, should you start worrying about what your opponent is doing and adjusting your builds accordingly (outside of extreme cheeses like 6-pool, proxy 2-gate etc.)

Starcraft, until the absolute highest level, is 90% a mechanical game. It may not be the most fun way to play, but if you're serious about improving, you should focus on your mechanics and macro and NOT on artifically inflating your MMR through cheesing.


P.S. Turn on the 'Enable Game Notifications' setting. This will bring up a notification on the left side of your screen every time a unit/building/upgrade completes. It's not big enough to get in the way, and it serves as a reminder to refocus on your cycle if you feel lost (Also EXTREMELY helpful for keeping track of Injects if you play Zerg).


Hope this helps, and best of luck to you in your play! It's a great thing to see new people wanting to take their play to the next level!

Wow thanks for all the responses people! Your responses have really encouraged me.
@FaDeHealZ that sounds really sensible but I have always quite liked the Terran play styles. It is tough at the moment but I just love that marine, marauder and even just having tanks and banshees. I just really like the units.
@Bugalugs McScruffin, I probably looked at it till around level three/four but I've found quite often despite hitting masters saturation and even GM spending bio units can melt so quickly to banelings or colossi if you miss them on the minimap for a second can spiral out of control. I will say it definitely is a great beginning to getting you thinking about the game and about what is important.
@abstract & DynSL.Fullmetal definitely will aim for some stronger grammar next time. Those 21 games hopefully should work out to about 3 games a day maybe a few more.
@Plottel, that is a really good way to think about it. I hadn't really come across that cycle idea put so well and concisely. I think that will really help. Many of the other things I do already. Hotkeys are great, structures are split between two control groups. I need to improve both my use of camera hotkeys and using multiple hotkeys for conrtoling army ie vikings, drops, main army.

Wow, the site feels so alive!! Makes me so happy :')

@japetto, Awesome that you've set a reasonable goal for yourself! 21 games (why not 20 lel) a week should be good. Try and divide to like 5 a day which considering your hectic schedule, should be fine in terms of keeping your mechanics and multitasking on point and possibly improve them slowly

Gl with your journey to getting promoted! If you also want, try joining an active clan coz if you ask help from other people and their opinions, it can be a great help! Cya around~~

Agree with ProzeR, I picked up Zerg about 4 weeks ago and I've gone from dropping games to Silvers to beating platinum players in macro games in pressure situations. And this is with 3-4 hours a week to play the game! A lot can be credited from being in a clan, they can watch your replays, tell you exactly what mistakes you made and give you really good suggestions.

There are a lot of clans out there, with large skill ranges. It's a very good way to improve efficiently, and plus you make a few SC2 friends on the side