[SkyBreaker]

En Taro Tassadar,

A little bit of a background on myself... when I first started playing SCII I had literally no previous SC experience and only a small amount of previous RTS experience (through WC3) so I was pretty much fresh to the scene with no experience and everything to learn. So after immediately jumping into my placement matches and going 1-4 (W/L) I placed in the muddy depths of the bronze league. Since then I have played as often as possible and from what I have seen and have been told; have constantly been improving my game-play and refining my mechanics and I have made it into the gold league thus far and am currently facing platinum opponents.

So I thought I would share my own thoughts, tips and useful VoDs with the Brotoss community that I believe were the fundamental things which allowed me to improve and subsequently get that promotion into the next league. I've written up bronze to silver and am in the process of writing up a guide for silver to gold; and so intend to update it yet again when I receive my promotion into platinum, diamond and if all goes well, master's.

Anyhow, onto the guide, enjoy and hopefully you take something from it...

Bronze to Silver: Learn the basics of SCII...

+ [Bronze to Silver] +

Know the basic counters!
I now know that hard-counters aren't very important however in the early stages of your game-play; you should familiarize yourself with "what beats what". Open up the help menu (F12) in-game and have a look at the strengths and weaknesses of each unit. I would often refer to this when I used to have trouble with a certain unit in a certain match-up and would then make the mental connection, "ah, so stalkers are weak against marauders". These small mental links helped me in all my following games.


A zealot wall-off is very effective against early zerglings.

Have a plan!
Have an idea of what you want to do in the game. Protoss' base can support ~4 unit producing structures on it; so keep that in mind when forming your plan for the match-up and don't try anything silly like having 5 warp-gates, a robo, while teching into colossi and high-templars... simply put; because you will get killed. An example of a plan is "I'm going to build 3 gateways and a robo and keep my macro up and push out at 50 supply".


An example of planning to have 3 warp-gates and a robotics bay.

Macro!
Probably the most fundamental thing which was imperative in my promotion from bronze to silver. Macro, for those lower league players that are unsure of it's meaning is practically looking at the bigger picture. You constantly need to be building workers out of your nexuses, constantly keeping your warp-gates on cool-down (i.e. always using them), constantly producing out of any other tech structure you may have and most importantly at this level of game-play - building additional pylons. In essence this seems easy, but it's easy to forget when your focus has been diverted to some pressure at your ramp.

Hot-Keys!
Get used to using your hot-keys. These hot-keys will go hand in hand with the above point, macro. Try using 4 for as your nexus(es), 5 as your warp-gates and 6 as alternative tech structure. I'm aware the warp-gates are assigned to 'W' but by having your three 'macro orientated' buildings as 4-6 you can constantly spam 4, 5, 6 and check the progress of everything and to remind yourself if you're letting your macro slip. Also part of improving is using your hot-keys to the best of your ability so ensure you learn each and every hot-key for our race and never, ever manually click a hot-key - even if you're unsure of it, mouse-over it and press the associated key (it's good for your future memory).


Basic Protoss hot-key layout.

Build Pylons!
You must construct additional pylons. You must construct additional pylons. You must construct additional pylons. You must construct additional pylons. Always build pylons; the less time you spend supply-capped the less you hurt your macro, the less you hurt your macro the more units and bases you will have.


Not this many of course! But you get the idea!

Scout at 9 supply!
At the bronze level of game-play; you probably aren't 100% sure of what to look for when scouting but some may do it; and some may not. But I strongly suggest scouting at 9 supply, directly after your first pylon. The reason being you will be able to realise when someone is cheesing you and can act (and deal) with it accordingly.


This is generally what a 6-pool looks like. React accordingly. N.B. I set this photo up with Seagal, he doesn't 6-pool :P

Wall-off against Zerg!
Against Zerg you should always wall off; using a gateway, cybernetics core and zealot (on hold position) to prevent zerglings running into your base. You don't have to worry about banelings as by which time you should have enough sentries up to use FF to your advantage. The photo I took and used for my example of knowing the basic counters is a solid way to wall off against Zerg opponents.

So they were my own points from my own personal experience from bronze to silver; however here are some videos which will be extremely helpful and resourceful to those trying to progress out of the bronze league:

D9D#184 - Newbie Tuesday #1
D9D#164 - In-Game Decision Making

The above should be enough for a player in the bronze league to earn that promotion into silver; and everything I outlined are crucial skills to have in SCII and will be relevant for your entire gaming career.

Silver to Gold: Expanding your knowledge...

+ [Silver to Gold] +

Coming soon...