[Seffy]

Hello everyone,

I'm not sure if there is a thread for this or not.. I presume not because for some reason I get no results when searching (apologies if there is a thread for this already).

As some people may be aware of (mGG channel especially), I go on Starcraft 2 quite often, but most times I do nothing but stay in chat..

I did play a bit often until Uni started to kick me into the papers and now I'm trying to play regularly again I'm having a problem with my state of mind.

In short, I have developed a bad sense of ladder anxiety. I can play team games more comfortably but even so I'd really prefer to play on my own.

I get worked up to try and play a game, but I always give up in the end. I have tried to join in on tournaments but cos of the anxiety I get when I'm wanting to do a 1v1 my confidence drops and this hampers my thinking and decision making, which therefore has a huge negative impact on how I play. This anxiety I get also impacts me on team games and whenever I play in a team I fall behind so often due to the lack of confidence I develop.

I play for fun really, just casual gamer but would be great to get better at this game. Is there any advice that anyone can give me to overcome this issue? As much input as possible would be highly appreciated!

Thanks everyone in advance, and hopefully in the future this thread can help others who experience this as well!

[TheGentleman]

For me I've found that the secret is to identify the source of your anxiety and then make a realisation why it's silly.

For example: I suffered a fair bit of ladder anxiety and would only play team games and with my friends but never ladder. The source of the fear I worked out was being afraid of losing and getting demoted. I then realised that the way to prevent this is to practice and one of the best way to practice is to ladder. That by laddering I'm far less likely to be demoted. Since then I have very little if any ladder anxiety. I turned the problem into the solution.

I hope this helps.

[mGGNemesis]

I use to get really bad ladder anxiety and adrenaline. I was (and still am) most comfortable with team games.

But loads of encouragement and friends pointing the way to play 1s properly all helped get me started (aka discussions and practice games). It also helped that they would listen to my constant whining and frustrations.

Now I make sure I ladder a few a day or every other day to keep the anxiety from returning.

Having said that losing lots makes the fear return a little... so I ladder practice on NA more than SEA because I dun get as anxious about my performance on NA than on SEA.

[Stallion]

this is the way I think of ladder every time you lose you can learn more out of the game than a win, so every time I hit that search button i'm like hay either way i'm going to get something out of this either a) going to be like sweet I won have a mini party or b) damn I lost ok what could i have done better!?!?!?!?. If you are having trouble with analysing you can always get help from a thread on here.

Quick Comments

breadfan:

so wise

[Seffy]

Gentleman: Yes that is indeed an excellent example, and reading what you said I did think about it and the one of the main reasons is indeed this. Before Uni decided to force me to hibernate from the game for a while, I was on a massive losing streak; I got placed in Diamond and I only won.. one or two games and lost just about every other game I played. I wasn't scared about being demoted (in fact it would've been nice), but just the losing really got to me it seems.

Nemesis: Thank you for the really good suggestion, I'll try to do that once I get the ball rolling. I've got loads of free time now so I should easily be able to ladder quite a while each day. Maybe I should go ladder on NA as well so I won't be as anxious when I play on other servers. Some of my friends do encourage me to keep going, but due to low-self esteem it's hard for me to take it in. But today my friend did say that it's possible for me to get up there with skilled players if I do well over the next few months so that was very helpful.

Stallion: Thanks mate! I sure will be going around the forums to find strategies against this and that play that I encounter. The way you think is really something I will definitely look in to; it's a great morale booster really; if I win having that sort of mentality will increase confidence and if I lose it allows me to be more motivated to find where I went wrong, and instead of moping about it I will work my way around it to be better.

Really excellent suggestions, thank you guys.

Quick Comments

	Stallion:	np all the best ^_^
	TheGentleman:	no worries ^^ stay classy :)
	mGGNemesis:	^_^ keep asking for games or obs games in mGG

[Torniquet]

Old thread but advice still may be of use.

http://www.sc2sea.com/showthread.php?t=1922

Quick Comments

ToRSpartaz:

Torniquet in the shadows :O

[ProAnnn]

If i remember some pro said this to me once, ladder fear stems from EGO. Put down your EGO and dont think that you are not suppose to lose. Just play and be prepared to lose.

[Meatex]

I have never really gotten ladder anxiety and don't understand how some people get so worried over meaningless points in a game :S
Then again I get anxiety from making phone calls so who am I to speak :

Upon consideration I believe its simply cause I don't think about it at all. Just press the find match button and play

[mirth]

for me, i started getting ladder anxiety, not really about going down on ladder but just the stress involved with playing long games that take alot of mind power, feels bad when u just lose and knowing your playing bad. so i just started playing with friends, and having an occasional game when i could muster it. just keep trying to play and you will eventually will realise losing is better sometimes and that every game is fun, you can learn alot from any 1v1 you play. probably not much help but thats my story =P

TLDR: use every game as a learning experience, play to learn not to win.

[RicocheT]

If you want to improve, you have to lose.

Quick Comments

breadfan:

This, for SC2 and everything else in life

[Fairyking]

I'd rather lose than win on ladder because then I get to learn and improve. My cure for ladder anxiety would be get a smurf so the games mean nothing :P.

[DotAKinG]

Hey SecretJieun and others who have ladder anxiety. I've been there done that myself. Went for more than one year without playing a single 1 v 1 on ladder, and didn't know when I should start again. A few ways you can overcome it: play on NA under a different name or make a smurf account to practice where you have no fear of losing. A few of those games will then improve your confidence.

Originally Posted by SecretJieun

Hello everyone,

I'm not sure if there is a thread for this or not.. I presume not because for some reason I get no results when searching (apologies if there is a thread for this already).

As some people may be aware of (mGG channel especially), I go on Starcraft 2 quite often, but most times I do nothing but stay in chat..

I did play a bit often until Uni started to kick me into the papers and now I'm trying to play regularly again I'm having a problem with my state of mind.

In short, I have developed a bad sense of ladder anxiety. I can play team games more comfortably but even so I'd really prefer to play on my own.

I get worked up to try and play a game, but I always give up in the end. I have tried to join in on tournaments but cos of the anxiety I get when I'm wanting to do a 1v1 my confidence drops and this hampers my thinking and decision making, which therefore has a huge negative impact on how I play. This anxiety I get also impacts me on team games and whenever I play in a team I fall behind so often due to the lack of confidence I develop.

I play for fun really, just casual gamer but would be great to get better at this game. Is there any advice that anyone can give me to overcome this issue? As much input as possible would be highly appreciated!

Thanks everyone in advance, and hopefully in the future this thread can help others who experience this as well!

Quick Comments

Fairyking:

Copy what I said much? :P

[mGGNemesis]

Originally Posted by DM.MCZ.ProAnnn

If i remember some pro said this to me once, ladder fear stems from EGO. Put down your EGO and dont think that you are not suppose to lose. Just play and be prepared to lose.

For me, it might also be the fear of numbers lol. Maybe the 'love for mathematics' side of me just cannot take having too many negative numbers over positive numbers with a huge negative net gain. :P

[VB_heathen]

I've always found the concept of ladder anxiety interesting. Maybe most people who have it havent ever competed in anything?? I've been nervous before but its never been a thing that stops me from playing. Thats why i love to ladder, i love that feeling, 1v1, battle of the minds and all that ghey. I used to train MMA and Boxing and had a few fights and lost, losing a fight sucks cos you get punched in the face in front of a bunch of people. Losing starcraft means you see a sign saying "you have been defeated" and you get thrown back to the menu. Curse, scratch your balls, grab a drink of water, take a breath, see what you did wrong, hit the find match button again. It's not a big deal.

[TheGentleman]

Yes, I imagine getting punched in the face would be a highly unfortunate way of losing. I found your post interesting. Though, a long while ago I used to do competitive swimming. I guess I didn't care about my results cause I was doing it for fun. So I think ProAnnn hit the nail on the head. Ladder anxiety stems from ego.

[|Erasmus|]

Originally Posted by DM.MCZ.ProAnnn

If i remember some pro said this to me once, ladder fear stems from EGO. Put down your EGO and dont think that you are not suppose to lose. Just play and be prepared to lose.

This... the ladder is trying it's damnedest to get you a 50% win rate. I've gotten depressed feeling like i've been losing a lot before too, but generally my overall win rate for the current season never strays too far from the 50% mark. I also tend to focus more on my losses... wins just happens, losses feel bad, so a 50% win ratio feels a lot worse than it really is.

[mGGNemesis]

Ego is probs one factor behind ladder anxiety.

But I remember back then the fear of being roflstomped contributes to ladder anxiety. Staying away from it increases the fear as well.

If I keep away from the ladder for too long, the feeling returns and I'm almost sure to start shaking again during the game or hesitating to hit the search button.

The other thing about team games is u have this feeling u are not alone Esp when I just started on 1s, I felt very alone. :P

Quick Comments

DotAKinG:

nemesis maybe i should hook you up with a training partner DotAQueen. you two are same level so should be interesting

[Seffy]

Thanks everyone for the responses! I'm glad that there are a lot of support for people who require help with trying to get over this and giving advice.

And yes I do agree that ego would be the nail in the coffin. I gotta admit, I have quite a lot of it.. stemming from the COD and Dota days. For a mainly casual gamer I do have a lot of it. I guess it's a matter of toning it down, having fun and always having the desire to improve. If we don't put effort into making things better then we'd get nothing right?

I did check the old thread and that was also very helpful, didn't think TL had an article regarding on how to battle anxiety and that indeed was really good. I'm going to take some stuff in from there, and slowly work up. For now I'll just be doing the usual APM spamming and non-vocal music listening, I did play an FFA at the Pad a couple of weeks back and all I had on was video game soundtracks.

Seeing as SEA is a bit dead this morning I'll start to do 1s in NA, and later on I'll go tune back to SEA for games.

Will update on the thread on how I am going if anyone would like me to do so.

[mGGVISION]

Originally Posted by FaDeUndoNe

If you want to improve, you have to lose.

So wise Rico

Quick Comments

	mGGNemesis:	lol
	Seffy:	He is right though lol. Gotta learn that losing isn't a bad situation, it's just a means and motivation to improve.

[mGGPrometheus]

Keep in mind that your skill level is something that exists outside of the battlenet ranking system. The important part is that if you keep playing, your skill level won't decrease just because you lose a few ladder points. You're not becoming worse, you're just having a bad day or playing some really good players.

It also helps to be honest with yourself. If you go on a massive win streak, you will eventually play people better than you and you will eventually lose. It's pretty much a fact. Accept it and play on. It's the only way you will improve and it doesn't do you any good to get anxious about petty ladder points.

Quick Comments

	DotAKinG:	likes this
	mGGSouth:	Great post