[DarthNoko]

Hi I've been stuck at platinum for 2 season now after a long break due to college. My best ladder ranking was Diamond Rank 8 (about 2000pts) on a fairly average division before masters was implemented but I never fully got back inshape. I can only play 2-3 games per day due to other commitments and I was wondering what practice routines do you guys go for for improving? What aspect should I focus on since I have very limited play time? Thanks!

[Statix]

I always do a search for this when im bored and i never find much either!

what i do is this as zerg

2x multitask trainer but restart if i really drop the ball ...
I very rarely finish it on easy but gets my hands dancing around the control groups and creating structures without looking. I use grid set up

2x 200 supp on veasy or no opponent:

Get to 200 supp and gully teched in less than 15 mins or so
Get to 200 under 12 mins with very few inject misses, mass expansion and creep all over the world!

2x Vhard difficulty against random cpu concentrating on scouting and good ovie position (normally i get killed before 12 mins if im not building an army) but it makes you macro up fast at these points to try and defend and play against pressure

finally play 2 ladder games. Always evaluate after. i count injects, drones at 5,10,15...

[ToRMaverick]

LOVE THE POST.... but sadly not much of a reply yet.

Being in the lower end of the leagues, I too have always doubted my practice routines and methodology on how to improve. So I hit the chat channels in game with a similar question and the main remarks are basically...."MORE GAMES".

But my line of thinking is OK I can do more games but won’t I just be doing the same mistakes over and over? I have played 1000s of games since the start and am still in Silver on the SEA server. This strategy obviously isn’t working?

My next line of thinking is I NEED to find people that know what their doing and are willing to help me. GOOGLE "need help with sc2 on sea"... BAM found SC2SEA and within a week I was welcomed to a new clan (ToR) playing some sick clan league games that were cast LIVE!!

Holy crap.... next thing I find that the clan actually care about your gaming. Eg. This afternoon I was so frustrated with my game I got on the clan channel and vented my frustration and basically pleaded for help. The next thing you know I am practicing with Diamond / Plat players in a 4 way Skype conversation where they were giving me help on my game. Talking me through builds and issues I had and all the things that concerns most players. Brilliant!

So, in short... practice for me isn’t just "play more", it was a whole transition into a new community that actually cares about their fellow gamers to a point where they take there own time to help (group hug everyone).

Quick Comments

ToRSmotPokingFish:

group hug :D

[souljah]

More games generally does help but like you mentioned, you need to know where your mistakes lie and where you need to improve on. 2 ways you can go about, first will be just viewing your own replays, and being critical of yourself. second way you can go about doing it will be to just play customs with people observing, and at the end of the game they will be able to tell you where you didnt do as well as you should have. After that, its back to spamming games to correct the mistakes highlighted. Rinse and repeat, and you should be on your way to improving =)

[MrPandaPants]

i wish i had a solution for you, but as far as things go, my usual routine is like this

1-8 hours:
play

at night time when i'm completely exhausted (2-3 am):
play vs ai and do builds over and over and over again, squishing every single second into improving my upgrades and still play safe

u can only play for 8 hours straight and after that your decision making will start to crumble and you'll forget things, if you're stuck in platinum the only way to get past that is to play more since your skill is probably bottle-necked by your apm and not your thinking

i hope this helps

[Zepph]

Practice goes beyond just playing. Don't forget to watch over your own replays to see what you can improve on. Try and pick out one or two things at a time to work on so that you don't go into a new game overwhelming yourself with 10 things you're going to try and do better because you won't end up improving anything.

Seeing as you do have time constraints though, I think that Conundrum and Souljah made a good point about getting other people to obs your games then give feedback. It helps a lot! And of course it saves you from watching and re-watching your replays.

Another helpful thing can be to watch other people's games to try and find some new builds or ideas to try in your own games. (:

[Statix]

heres where i can maybe help, not with sc as im low level player but as a secondary school teacher i can tell you what mass gaming and doing things longer than 20 mins is not good for your mind and muscle memory.

So. Ive never really applied this to game playing but its just the way the brain works. When i teach, my aim is to break the learning zones up into 20 minute sections and then switch, you can only remember 3 things at once or so the theory goes.

so heres the way you should get your brain working.
A game is 20 mins(or so) long so this is just one session (Chunk A)
When you finish reflect breifly. Ask yourself "What did you learn". Jump into the SEA forum, walk about the room just do something which isnt the game and dont get angry, i think the GM manual talks about this.(chunk B)
Now after this 5 - 10 mins of down time put your reflection into practice. Pick 3 things you need to impove and even this is pushing it but certainly no more than 3. and go into a YABOT or practice game with someone who will drill you (see i say this and i have no such partner in sc2 yet heres an ad for one! But as a band member we do this with solos and they come together much quicker if you chunk your learning)(Chunk C)
When this is done check your replay of the game which spawned this feeling and further look at what you have been doing and come up with soma realistic points on how you are going to get this better(chunk D)

Finally always review(chunk E) what have you learned. identify the steps you took to achieving the objectives. If you were to come and sit in any one of my lessons you can clearly identify these 20 minute chunking sections. the brain needs time to reflect, you have to provide that time.

so any of you wanting to get into teaching, if they ask you some odd questions at interview about engagement use this and it may get you the job or place on a training course. there is a guy who wrote a whole book about it who the speakers keep referencing, i pay no attention i have sc2 to play in my free time not read some 9000 page book.


Once again im really sorry for typos and that i never re read what ive just written, i know this is bad coming from a teacher but i should be doing some real work right now not task evading ^^

Quick Comments

	sRFullstop:
	FaDe'Shampoo:

[sRFullstop]

To improve faster, get practice partners that you will practice regularly with. Get them to watch you play and give you feedback after every game. In addition, watch your own replays and identify what you have to focus on. For example, sometimes I don't spend larvae for over a minute after injecting which causes my macro to suffer, and so I can focus on spending larvae in the games to come.

Playing with people regularly is different from ladder. In ladder people aim to win, and they will never give you feedback. Ladder is the best way to drill and to practice your mechanics but if you are looking to improve quickly practice partners are the best way.

Watching streaming, casts and tournaments are pretty good too, because you can get inspiration to how you play. Casters provide good analysis of the game and if you listen you can pick up a lot of tips and tricks from them (especially tournaments like MLG). Personally I find GSL entertaining but not the best place to learn because the Koreans often use gimmicky builds to win (just my opinion).

Lastly, if you have problems or are looking for specific tips you can always post here on sc2sea.

[mewmew]

For me, my main problem is with my mechanics. Most of the time I get a good read on the how the game is developing and what strategy my opponents are using; but I still lose because I don't get enough units when they hit, I let my minerals pile up etc. If you're experiencing same troubles as me the only way to improve mechanics is by playing more often, focusing on 1 aspect at a time till you get proficient at it, then move on to another. Strategy you can gain by watching replays and VODS and their scouting intel.

[Fate]

Wow Statix's post on 20 min chunks for learning seems really helpful, now just to apply it to learning different kinds of stuff in various parts of my life

[Statix]

hah its supposed to be fact . . however i just mass game! To hell with the Dr who said it!

[Fate]

http://blip.tv/day9tv/day-9-daily-38...-in-3s-5799969

Check out this day9 newbie tuesday daily(daily #382). I find that it is quite related to practice routines. In summary, during this daily day9 shows how to construct a solid game plan which spans the entire game. During writing down all the notes and things to do, he also lists down at least 3 questions for timings and scenerios that he is unsure of. Then he simply lists down any possible answers he can come up with at that moment in time.

He then asks viewers to play games and practice and try out those "answers" that they thought of for those questionable moments in their gameplan. After a few practice games the player should be able to figure out what works and what does not, and include it into their gameplan.

In general this construction of a detailed game plan and the agenda of playing games to try out 3 possible solutions seems like a very logical and effective way of improving our sc2 strategy skills.

Should try to watch that particular daily if you're interested.

[Zombie.]

I find just talking to yourself works, reasoning what you did right, what you did wrong, and thinking whats next. For improving watch your replays, if you don't know what you are looking for look for basics (i rename to what i did right and what i did wrong) (ie TvZ - Macro[B]Scouting[G]) and aim to improve that, next game.

Just playing and grinding games is ok for mechanics but to push yourself you need to focus or different areas(micro or upgrades etc) gl hf :]

Lots of love
Zombie

[Starcyph3r]

You seem to be in the same situation im in atm, although stuck in diamond. My advice probably wont be the most valid for that reason but I suggest not to mass ladder games as it can sometimes simply lead to greater frustration. You need to spend time watching some of your own replays so you can isolate which areas/matchups/unit comps etc your having trouble with. There are many friendly people on sea who would gladly analyse your replays just in case you cant isolate the problem yourself.

Also I would suggest watching more pro streams, vods etc to understand how different or how similar your play is to the pros play. But also try to understand the reasoning behind everything they do, again if this is difficult, the love on sea is quite open ended My advice is very time consuming I know, but wasting time laddering and going no where will end up being more time consuming in the long run.

[neKo]

I got from low diamond to GM in about a month.

The best course of practice is indeed mass ladder, but while massing ladder you need to improve mechanics. That means not getting supply capped, scouting and multitasking in general. You see a push coming you need to defend from but you are close to unit capping, make overlords instead, you will lose a few games but it will benefit you in the end.

also sticking to 1 style and strategy each matchup, and not diverting and playing 100541012 crazy things every day. It will improve you so much you won't believe how bad you used to be.

Bruce Lee once said "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times" I'm sure IdrA or NesTea has said something similar :P

But this applies so well to Starcraft it's actually scary. The best players are people who practice 1 build over and over until they are so good at it they can do it in their sleep.

Also just practicing in general, open sc2 and click that find match button. Ladder anxiety destroys potentially amazing players.

Quick Comments

FaDe'Shampoo:

i like =)

[Fr0nti3r]

my practice regime is generally focused around specific matchups. for example the other week was PvZ so i found a few high diamond/master zergs and played some custom matches against them. (im still 0 for 9 against one of my practice partners -.-)

in each match i focus on specific things in the build that im currently working on, i have a google docs page opened up on another screen with notes for all of my matchups. using this i try different things with the build. what if i go fast upgrades and stay on warpgate tech, what if i go fast storm of a FFE. things like this. i try and learn from each game. work out where problem lye within the build and what are the correct solutions (fast mutas? blink? what if i have stargate do i still go for blink and get more pheonix?) with every game comes more questions and solutions. (sometimes my problem is just mechanical based with my chrono/probes/pylons)

i feel writing things down helps me not forget things soon after working them out, until eventauly it all becomes instinct with reactions and build orders

Quick Comments

PiG:

great point about writing stuff down

[FaDeNotoriouS]

if you can only play 2-3 games a night make sure they are the same matchup and do the same build each time and ask ur opponent to do different things against it.. so u can refine it and make it safe (and/or) aggresive. Also learn to scout ur opposition race and have backup plans for the build if needed.

Like the person above me said, write down notes and peform ur build as perfectly as possible.. time spent playing ladder games and simply winging it would be a total waste of time, since you wont learn everything.

So yea.. do the same build over and over and refine it to make that matchup really strong and flexible.

hope this helps

[iceiceice]

Play dota.

Quick Comments

	TargA:	this is how you get good at sc2
	iVnStinger:	For sure!

[Posigen]

Well I joined a Clan... since I joined a clan I practicaly steamroll (okay im high bronze xD) and I only play onlien sicne 2 weeks, rank 3 in my division.
I find joining a clan for YOUR level is good because A diamodn strategy might not work as wanted in bronze/silver because its a different meta (I think)
just join a clan with players of your level (ToR is a good clan, was in it nice people)
if you have an Ipod/Iphone you can note your builds on it (what I do)
but you should learn you builds without notes too/make an own build -> adapting.
I always had problems with opponents that went mass voidrays but then one day... I went mass voidray as another one went mass voidray but I had 2 stargates and had more voidrays then him (and facerolled him) *trollface.jpg

[Fenner]

I currently aim to play at least 8 hours a day, generally more. Even though some research suggests against playing so much as it just becomes inefficient after a certain point, I believe it is needed to form the habit and not become lazy. If you decide not to play because you're tired, you feel like shit or whatever and you feel like playing in this state will not grant you good results, you will slowly start to become lazy and then miss times when you are in a really good state for learning.

With that said, I do believe that you only learn improve at a decent pace when you're pushing yourself as hard as you possibly can and this is something I've realized recently since I play all day I got into the mindset of just mass grinding ladder without playing every game like its the GSL finals. Since you don't have as nearly as much time as me to practice, you definitely need to make sure every single game you play is your absolute best you can do. Pump yourself up before every single game so that you can push the boundaries of whatever you're currently working on in the game. If you're not pushing yourself to your limit your improvement will be slow. Another thing that helps with this is completely removing all distractions when you play so you can get into the zone, shut yourself in your room, close msn/irc/facebook/twitter, turn music off and just put all your focus in playing the best game you possibly can. Tabbing out to MSN between games and chatting to a friend is one of the biggest distractions, I can't possibly play my A game if I'm thinking about how cute my new friends dog is.

Also having something to focus on during a game is great, don't worry about winning - just doing the best you possibly can with the thing you're working on. If you don't know your weaknesses before clicking find match, go look at some replays so you know. This is easier if you just focus on specific match ups at once but keep it simple and focused rather than broad, for example just knowing that you're slow on upgrades - only focus on getting your upgrades out with your standard build/play.

This is just what I've learnt so far, I still have lots to learn about making my practice better.