[Cordance]

Ive had a few months of hardly playing starcraft I managed to get myself up to silver before my break. Recently Ive played some 1v1 games and to put it plainly Ive sucked. Its probably a combination of three things firstly I probably remember myself better than I was, secondly lack of practice = laps in skill, thirdly people are just getting better more guides etc out there to learn from TGM on this site is example of that.

The question is what is the best way to get back into playing after a break? Im going to the US for a month I expect still be in this situation at the end of October. I played a few games in campaign to try to gauge my skills vs when I started playing and skills now far greater than then. A few things Ive been thinking about is playing custom map to get my macro back up to pace with my game sense (silver league quality shouldnt take too long). Playing team games to improve my general builds and macro (of cause the builds would be different but practice is practice). The third solution which I feel is the least motivating is to suck it up and take my losses and get my skills back from just doing.

What are your thoughts what is the path back into playing more after a break for myself and others who are in my position.

[StitcH]

To be honest, in my opinion Starcraft/ Starcraft 2 is like playing a music instrument. It's easy to play after playing for a while, but it's hard to master it. Personally I feel that playing team games may help you to be anti-push worthy, but it won't help much in 1v1.

1v1s and team games are soooo different. What I suggest is to play 1 race first, get a few practice partners around your level or slightly high and constantly practice with them and ladder every time you can.

Hope I help you. =)

[Apth]

Originally Posted by Cordance

... What are your thoughts what is the path back into playing more after a break for myself and others who are in my position.

I was in your position at the start of season 3 - barely played any 1v1 matches in season 2, hopped back on the ladder and got smashed by everything.

How you cope with that depends largely on your personality - for me, I just played through it and after 10 or so matches I was back to being comfortable on the ladder, and at this point I think I'm a little bit ahead of where I was as a player at the end of season 1.

If you're not keen on just putting your head down and smashing through some games, try one of the following:

• Easing yourself back into SC2 with team games
• Go into 1v1 games expecting a loss and set yourself an alternative goal, ie creep spread/scouting/whatever
• Find yourself a practice buddy and play them a bunch

Hope that helps

[ProAnnn]

Learn ONE strategy and just play that build order every single game, regardless whether you get smashed anot. As you play more, you'll realise you die to certain timings of attack and you can prepare better for it. Path to playing more is just to ENJOY playing!

[AxS.Sorathez]

I see you're a random player, so perhaps if you want to get back in to the game, pick one specific thing per race to practise, while expecting to lose like what Apth suggested.
For example, you could pick the following
Protoss: Constant Probe Production or Always low energy on nexi
Zerg: Creep Spread or Never missing a larva inject
Terran: Constant SCV Production or never missing a MULE

Go in to the game, and focus on that, and that alone with the mentality of "Oh there's a drop in my base, right I'll deal with it but I'm building this probe first". This will not only help you get better, it will help you deal with losing and it may actually win you more games almost straight away.
(I've played with this mentality (particularly against terran where I would always lose in a macro game) and surprised myself by winning the first game because my economy was so far ahead of my opponent's.).

Just a suggestion of course, it's up to you, but it's definitely a good way of getting back in to the game