[PanDMonium]

So, I had been struggling to get out of silver for months now. Watching replays, playing when I can, paying for guides and coaches. Today when I played for my season 4 placement, I got demoted all the way back down to rank 75, when before I was rank 10. I'm beginning to wonder if there's not just something wrong with me as a person that is inherently incapable of being good at this game.

After 500 wins, and working on my mechanics, I can confidently say that I don't generally loose to not building enough drones. I loose to shit like phoenixes picking off all my overlords, rows of stalkers I can't kill no matter how many zerglings and upgrades I get. I've played against zergs that consistently get more shit out and have a stronger economy no matter how much I try to only build units when I scout an attack or tech switch. I die to marine spam, no matter how many fungals, or banelings, or mutas I make.

I'm not getting utterly rolled over. I'm just not winning. I don't know what to do. I feel terrible for dedicating so much time to something and never seeing any improvement. I hear that there are little kids that make it into masters league, and it makes me feel like I may be developing some kind of inferiority complex.

[neon]

Originally Posted by PanDMonium

So, I had been struggling to get out of silver for months now. Watching replays, playing when I can, paying for guides and coaches. Today when I played for my season 4 placement, I got demoted all the way back down to rank 75, when before I was rank 10. I'm beginning to wonder if there's not just something wrong with me as a person that is inherently incapable of being good at this game.

After 500 wins, and working on my mechanics, I can confidently say that I don't generally loose to not building enough drones. I loose to shit like phoenixes picking off all my overlords, rows of stalkers I can't kill no matter how many zerglings and upgrades I get. I've played against zergs that consistently get more shit out and have a stronger economy no matter how much I try to only build units when I scout an attack or tech switch. I die to marine spam, no matter how many fungals, or banelings, or mutas I make.

I'm not getting utterly rolled over. I'm just not winning. I don't know what to do. I feel terrible for dedicating so much time to something and never seeing any improvement. I hear that there are little kids that make it into masters league, and it makes me feel like I may be developing some kind of inferiority complex.

While I'm no expert myself, I believe rank is just based on how many points you accumulate, when you do your first placement, win or lose you get 0 points, so you will have no points till your next win, and you will be with all the other people doing their placement, so I would not let this worry you and keep playing.

In regards to your losses, post a replay or two and get some feedback, there are some very nice community members here who can give you tips and help analyse your play, you mention you've gotten coaching, I guess maybe try remember what you have been taught and watch the replays and ensure you are doing all of those things. (write down the things you were told are most important, then watch the replay so it's clear when you do and don't nail it, many people just say yeah I was doing it and cheat themselves!)

It's important to have fun also, so try not get too disheartened, watch your own replays and try focus on improving one or two main things and if in say 5 games time you can compare the replays and notice a visible improvement in it, take merit in that, win or lose!

Quick Comments

Nemo:

@PanDMonium : do what neon says

[Volition]

Originally Posted by PanDMonium

After 500 wins, and working on my mechanics, I can confidently say that I don't generally loose to not building enough drones. I loose to shit like phoenixes picking off all my overlords, rows of stalkers I can't kill no matter how many zerglings and upgrades I get. I've played against zergs that consistently get more shit out and have a stronger economy no matter how much I try to only build units when I scout an attack or tech switch. I die to marine spam, no matter how many fungals, or banelings, or mutas I make.

I know where you are coming from - i also love the game and just never seem to be going anywhere. i have swapped races because i believed they are OP, and then found the problems of that race, felt that no matter how hard i worked or how much i knew opponents builds etc, i would still get pummelled and was losing more than i thought i should be.

There will always be the people that say "learn to macro blah blah blah" and not actually provide any thoughtful or useful help to you. Like other posters have said, throw up a replay if you want some tips from the boss zergs on this site. in general, i find the people on this site are much better than other sc2 forums

I know where you are coming from in relation to gauging whether you have improved or not. this thread:-
http://www.sc2sea.com/showthread.php?t=2252
contains a pretty useful thread (and discussion afterwards) about measuring your macro and it provides a number. As the posters in the thread state, there are limitations in using it, and it isnt the be-all-and-end-all of determining whether you are getting better, but it is still pretty interesting stuff and able to at least provide a bit of guidance as to your ability to macro. I know that after every game now i check my resource collection rate and average unspent resources because of reading this. you can set it all up in a spreadsheet so it is super user friendly - if you need a hand doing this PM me and i will help. I think that if a person was to input say 10-20 games worth of data every two weeks, there could only be an improvement in a player's ability to macro - and if it suddenly starts to drop, you can ask yourself why, but as opposed to other times (when you feel like crap and have no idea what is happening that is causing you to lose) you have some data at least.

I found taking a break from starcraft really reignited my desire to play. these days I want to play, i dont play because i feel that if i stop i will lose skill and mechanics and play even worse. If you are still feeling the same way in a week or two weeks, and the advice from these other good people doesnt help, post up here again and I will try again.

best of luck

Quick Comments

nirvAnA:

[mGMUSE]

Originally Posted by PanDMonium

So, I had been struggling to get out of silver for months now. Watching replays, playing when I can, paying for guides and coaches. Today when I played for my season 4 placement, I got demoted all the way back down to rank 75, when before I was rank 10. I'm beginning to wonder if there's not just something wrong with me as a person that is inherently incapable of being good at this game.

After 500 wins, and working on my mechanics, I can confidently say that I don't generally loose to not building enough drones. I loose to shit like phoenixes picking off all my overlords, rows of stalkers I can't kill no matter how many zerglings and upgrades I get. I've played against zergs that consistently get more shit out and have a stronger economy no matter how much I try to only build units when I scout an attack or tech switch. I die to marine spam, no matter how many fungals, or banelings, or mutas I make.

I'm not getting utterly rolled over. I'm just not winning. I don't know what to do. I feel terrible for dedicating so much time to something and never seeing any improvement. I hear that there are little kids that make it into masters league, and it makes me feel like I may be developing some kind of inferiority complex.

i would like to try and help you, add me on skype mgmuse

btw for the people in lower leagues, dont give up, dont spam games either, if i used the same level of analysis(of both in-game issues and psychological issues) of my games now as i did in lower leagues i would have jumped from silver league to grandmasters in 50 games.. not kidding.

now i'm lazy to type, but it's all about learning properly