[CJM]

Hey everyone I'm mGGCwnAnnwn and I am a . I need advice on setting goals in sc2.

Originally when I got sc2 a year ago I was placed in bronze. I happened to play against a gold league player and at the time I thought he was god incarnate. I decided at that time that I wanted to be gold league aswell.

Several seasons ago I managed to reach that goal as Protoss. However once I was gold I didn't have any motivation to get any higher. So I started to play other races and started to play more custom games while I got mGG up and running. Over time I got all three races up to gold level so now I am not only stuck in gold without a goal but I no longer have a main race.

Is this a common problem for other gold level players? I would like to get plat/dia but I dont know the best ways to go about improving my game. Do I do drills? Do I study build orders to their minute detail? Do I do a basic build order and practice it? Do I focus on mechanics????

Anyway, to cut the post short. I really am lost at the moment. If a higher league player could offer some advice on how to break out of this mindset that would be great.

Thank you

[Shieldz]

just choose a race lol

[Statix]

nah i cant play any of the other two races! Dont really want to, dont see the point of dividing time, as for goals play 10 games in a row and benchmark. are you hitting the benchmarks you set in game? if so push it that little bit further to eek out efficiency, see if you can do that, its how im playing this month, next month im going to follow scouting patterns as suggested by apollo in l2p series as well as hitting these bench marks. Not sure how fast you want to improve but ive set myself the goal of plat by the end of this year, but im going to work on macro mostly and scouting in my games, creep spread is next!

[Temujai]

Hey mate,

I completely understand your lack of motivation, my goal was diamond and now I'm there I'm struggling to find the will to grind out 20 ladder games and whatever.

What I can say is this, if you want to improve as random, it will take alot more effort than if you wants to improve in one race. I would suggest choosing one race which you enjoy, for example I chose Zerg cause Iove being able to swarm my opponent, whereas my friend chose toss cause he loves warping in. So just find your race and that's the first step.

When you've picked you're race, you have to get out about what you consider to be good games on your behalf while a good game on your opponents. From these, you can sit and watch, and it's important to take notes on things like; do I get supply blocked, is my worker production good, for toss and Zerg am I hitting y injects, or warp ins. Am I keeping up with upgrades. Have I got the right amount of production facilities off of my amount of bases, etc. Alot of little details like these matter, and I
If a few of them are off it can affect you greatly.

So your next step after realizing what was wrong in your game is improving it, setting goals over periods of games and seeing if you can accomplish these goals. I found that post it notes stuck on the top of your monitor are a great way, but make sure they're precise so you don't get distracted.

Hope this helped a little bit mate, gl hf

[TABjornbrandr]

The best thing to do is remember to enjoy yourself. This can be easily achieved by setting week by week goals and maybe even writing them down so that you can keep a track of when you achieved them.
I always thought I wanted to blast straight into GM asap, but nowadays I find myself just trying to get my gameplay on all three races to an acceptable level. I hit Diamond on Zerg and then went straight into playing Terran on my smurf account because that's just what I'm enjoying at the moment.
However, all that I can say is that I'm limited a lot by work, so I don't have the same freedom I used to. This is partly why grinding out 20 games a day + watching replays to jump to the next level isn't really the most attractive idea for me at the moment.

[TheGentleman]

Hello!

When trying to reach goals I believe it's important to have goals. Firstly a long term goal needs to be set... previously for you that was reaching gold league and it appears as though you've already decided what your new long term goal...

Originally Posted by mGGCwnAnnwn

plat/dia

... even if you havn't yet decided race.

Deciding upon a race is important as you can reach your goals quicker with a primary race. Having played to gold with all three races you should have a reasonable idea of how all three races perform (mechanically, at the macro level, their benefits, disadvantages).

An example: I chose Protoss after playing WarCraft 3 and deciding I wanted something similar to the Undead where I didn't actually have to "build" the buildings. I also like their ability to control games through spells like forcefield, proxy power grids etc...

After this decision is made you're ready to start making some short term goals which will eventually build up to allow you to reach your long term goal. You may want your goals to have deadlines so that you reach them faster but never forget goals can be modified in the future if the goal you're aiming for is no longer one you're wanting to aim for.

Now that the goals speech is over lets discuss how to improve your play... I've written something to that effect already so I'm just going to quote it instead (easier :P)

Originally Posted by TheGentleman

I strongly suggest you select just one race and stick to it. Playing the other races is good to get an understanding of how the other races work and what their limitations are but at the end of the day you will improve fastest by trying to improve just one of the races.

If you're genuinely stuck then there are several options available to you that you may be unaware of.

1. Coaching: Yes this costs money, but these coaches have been where you are and know how to get where they are. Like personal training at a gym coaching will speed your results allowing you to obtain your starcraft goals faster.

2. The replay feedback thread! (click here) This thread is frequented by many helpful people willing to look over your replays (especially replays you're stuck on) with the goal of helping you improve. Often times these helpful people point out mistakes that you didn't even know you were making.

3. Watch streams: Watching professionals play (especially when you try and analyse their play) will help give you an insight into why decisions were made and concurrently improving your decision making skills.

4. Join a Clan: I cannot emphasise this one enough, a clan is full of helpful people often who share goals similar to yours. Some are in a clan just to fool around of course but others are there who want practice against people of your skill level. Which leads me to point number 5.

5. Practice partners: These are people who wish to improve much like yourself. They will look over your replays and you will look over theirs. You will help each other get better at the game. Clans are an excellent place to find practice partners as well as this thread. EDIT: You can use the quick find feature found in the features menu above or click here.

If you're genuinely stuck chances are you're doing stuff wrong that you aren't even aware of so hopefully one of the 5 tips above helps you out.

Good luck and stay classy

Originally Posted by PiG

Follow gentleman's advice!

When watching a replay watch only your macro! Learn some markers for instance I tell zergs they should always have 50 drones by 8:00 unless they are HEAVILY pressured. A little helion/marine/stalker pressure shouldn't stop you getting 50. Watch pro Terran and Protoss players replays to see when they have 50 probes/scvs by and make sure you are doing the same.

Reasons you won't reach these goals: Supply blocks, lack of constant worker production, random build orders.

Fix these things!

Another low league mistake is to just randomly build units early on. You need to identify all your scouting que's. e.g. watching 2nd gas + chronoboost to identify a 4 gate. If you aren't reading into things like gas timings and such then you need to start doing that! Only build the minimal amount of defence at each period so that you can maximise your economy!

gl!

Obviously you're already in a clan and it's getting rather sizable so you have access to plenty of practice partners who would be more than willing to help... and if they're not you can simply...

... KICK THEM OUT!! ...


... jks

I wish you the best of luck!

[Volition]

Hey mGGCwnAnnwn

I havent posted in ages, the site was telling me to stop being a lurker. so here i am! I am not going to give you specific advice - you seem to just want a general pick me up. I was only a plat player at the best of times, so i am no-one to give you advice

I always think there are only two things you need in life. Ambition and Motivation.

No one can give you ambition. you have to ask yourself exactly what you want to do, where you want to be in 3 months from now, 6 months from now. if you think about that, and your initial reaction is "god i hope i am not still gold", then suddenly you have a goal

the second thing is motivation. Motivation is the ability to keep on going when struggles start to appear. there are many people that give up, when things start getting hard.

when i used to start feeling like giving up, i would watch this sc2 motivation video:-

You Tube

You Tube

And then hit that big yellow button. BUT, the motivation this grants is nothing without the ambition to actually do something

best of luck

Quick Comments

	SanG:	I have so much ambition but 0 motivation LOL
	CJM:	hey man thats an awesome vid! Thanks :D
	Paroxysm:	Epic Vid!

[Doghead26]

I think you should play more with mGG people first, then once your confident then you are good with a race, go ahead and ladder.

[AxS.Sorathez]

If you want goals for each individual game I can suggest the following:
1. Make sure ALL your Nexi/CCs are CONSTANTLY building probes/scvs until you have 75.
-----Make nexi/CCs your first priority with this goal. Your thought process for this should be: "There's a drop in my base. I will deal with it AFTER I build these probes/scvs"
1 (zerg version). Keep every larvae-spewing queen's energy BELOW 30 for the whole game.
-----Similar idea to above, but instead of watching your nexi/CCs watch your queens and make sure you nail every inject.
2. Perfect a build.
-----Pick a build for each matchup, be it an all-in or a fast expand build. Go in to each matchup and aim to do it optimally. Don't worry about what your opponent is doing, and just nail every timing. For example, if it was the 4-gate, then aim to get all your buildings down on time, and your warp-in on time (between 5:35 and 5:50).


If for a longer-term goal, aim for a league you want to be put in.
Think "I WILL be placed in to plat these holidays" and mass games, analyse replays if you don't know why you lost.

My 2c, I don't know if there's much else I can say on this subject :P

[Bloodmyst]

1. Pick a race to main already :P

2. My goals work kinda different to many others. A lot of the time you will hear people say, I want X leage by X date. Myself, I do not do this and prefer to set goals such as;

- In T v P I want to be hitting this benchmark of X amount of units for X timing "consistently" so it becomes second nature by the end of the fortnight. (RIght now I've been practicing the Bomber 1 Rax FE for more then 3 weeks now and still haven't hit the same benchmarks as he does..... I've come close a few times though :P)

- I need to be maxing out by X minutes in X MU with X ups etc.

- I NEED to work on late game army engagements. For the next two weeks, I am going to push for lategame T v P so I can force myself to work on this.

The leagues and points that come along with it to me is just the icing on the cake.

[mGGMueX]

The method I use is to force myself to play x number of ladder games a day (trying 20, but something like 10 seems more viable), and ignore the ladder points. Every game I must play my best, no cheese, and never rage or give up. I don't care if I win 10 or lose 10, just keep playing and keep getting better.

As for the comments to "just pick a race", I don't think that's the right method. However, if you want to play all 3, don't ladder random. Play 1 race a day and rotate. It lets you get used to the mechanics of each race over the course of a day and have much more chance to repeat the same matchups. It also avoids the issue of people doing weird builds in response to a random player.

[FaDe'Shampoo]

generally just focus on your macro i guess, that should be your number 1 goal, for instance, if your zerg focus on not missing injects at all in the first 10 minutes, not getting supply blocked etc, and you will improve a lot

[A3Mercury]

I've always been one to set goals for myself but your goals kind of have to be fluid..

I'm still pretty new to the game but I told myself that if I could get to in the top 50 of silver before I got back to college I would keep going.. I got it in 16 games lol. So now I've told myself that if I can get in the top 25 of gold by my birthday, or season 9, I'll keep going. If all goes well I'll be in diamond by Christmas break -_0

When I say keep going I really mean all out playing. I love competitive gaming but I never set goals for myself in halo so I never went anywhere. And I wasn't bad at it lol..

I love researching and trolling the internet to find tactics that others have already learned so I don't have to go through the trouble of learning them myself and practicing what they've done and maybe trying to add to it.

[RVLiveR]

You don't need to pick one race, like a lot of the other people say. Yes, you will get there faster, but you won't necessarily have more fun. Do something that you like to do - if you like playing a race more than the others, stick with it!

Like everyone says, focus on macro etc. etc.

Watch that uncomfortable vs exhaustion, totally sealed the deal for me when I was in plat!

[windsolace]

The fact that you've gotten all races to gold, you've more or less got a grasp of the mechanics of each race and discover the common problems that u face using each race against certain other race. This gives u an advantage as you can exploit the weaknesses of each race u play against! And when the opponent manages to counter what your attempt to exploit his weakness, you'd have a chance to review your play and find a solution to the problems that you were previously facing whilst using that race!

Besides, you will not be always playing against gold level players due to the MMR thing. thus, you will have plenty of opportunities to learn and improve beyond your current skill level! Keep playing and dont lose your spirit!