[FSDarkNemesis]

Okay, I'm a newbie here and I just registered. I only recently revived my playing for SC2. I did play in season 1, but kinda went AWOL for the next 10 months because of my National Service, i'm a clerk though. So Season 1, I was a general bronze player. So just a few weeks ago I started playing again so I was even worse.
Now come season 2, all my leagues placement has gone all over the freaking place. Chia lat in this sense, because here's the scenario.

1v1s: Silver, lost placement match because of a freaking 6-pool which I can't defend.
2v2s: Gold, lost placement match and I totally don't deserve to be there in the first place because I'm a bronzie.
3v3s: Silver, lost placement match, because of sodding micro and macro
4v4: Bronze, lost placement match.

As you can see, I lost ALL of my placement matches. Now I have some problems and think you can help.
1. I hate using keyboard, and I can't get in the habit of keyboard.
2. I don't scout.
3. Often I have unspent resources during slightly later part of the game.
4. I can't seem to get a big enough army all the freaking to match the enemy due to low APM so I can't defend when I'm attacked by a huge rush early.
5. VERY important: I REALLY EFFING HATE CHEEEEEEEESSSSEEEEE!!!!!


Argh, everything seems to be going downhill after my placement matches! And now? I'm gonna freaking panic whenever I'm gonna ladder!

[CCJester]

First and foremost... Starcraft should be fun. If you don't find it fun then improving will be difficult because you'll never want to play.
1. Losing a placement match doesn't necessarily put you in bronze or silver. It has a whole bunch of factors but blizzard keep them secret.
2. You kind of need to use your keyboard, it saves soooo much time and allows you to be a lot more efficient. Start small though. Start grouping your Nexus (or whatever depending on race) and gateways (or barracks) on hotkeys 1-0... it helps with macro throughout the game and once you have that going you should be ontop of worker production and find unit production a lot easier.
When that comes together learn the basic hotkeys for buildings... eg for protoss, b,g for gateway... b, e for pylon.... b,a for an assimilator... this while speed up the start of your build and help prevent cheese from beating you.
3. Learn what unit producing structures can be used off of one / two / three bases, this will solve that army being too small problem.
4. scouting in the lower leagues does give you a huge advantage, for one it will let you know about cheese if its coming and secondly, often players wont care that you scout, they will steam ahead with their chosen build anyway. but that one is up to you.
All in all though id say that none of this will work unless you really want to play the game. Keep it fun. If it stresses you out then get some buddies together and play some custom games until you feel confident. Keep at it though, don't stress.

[Rythos]

1. Day[9] gives a very simple yet effective method for learning the hotkeys - Every time you are about to click something, stop, look at what the hotkey is and press it instead. This will feel a bit clunky and slow you down a tiny bit at first, but once you start to get to know the keys you will be surprised at just how much faster you can execute commands. There is a gameplay option you can enable called "Command Hotkey Text" that you may find makes the process easier.

2. You must scout a little bit, don't stress about it though. The main things you want to establish are a) where your opponent is and b) if you are getting cheesed. Don't waste your apm and attention trying to figure out exactly what build he's going, just try to answer those questions then get back to getting your build order as clean as possible.

3. Your main priorities over everything else should be to keep making workers, keep up with supply and just spend all your money. I'm sure someone here will be able to give you a loose guide on how much production per base is a good amount, but I think the simplest method for now would just be to spend all of your money. If you've just dropped pylons, built probles and warped in a round of units and you still have a bunch of money in the bank, expand or build some more warpgates. Too much is better than not enough, and anything is better than money in the bank. Just spend it.

4. Fixing up 3 will feed directly into this one

5. Cheese can be really annoying, but it's just part of the game. Most cheese is very easy to see coming if you scout your opponent's base early, and from there it's just a matter of knowing how to respond. For every cheese there is guaranteed to be a thread or a video on the net about how to beat it, every time you lose to one go look it up. But remember, even pros lose games to cheese sometimes, so don't stress!

[ke_ivan]

Being also a fellow bronzer myself, please note that bronze is famous for one-basing. That said, if you can hold a not well-executed one-base timing, it's GG from there cuz they don't know how to transition out of one-base.

1) use keyboard. google day9tv mechanics.
2) Scout lower leagues not too too impt, but scouting will give you massive advantage as Rythos said.
3) Spend your money. Less is MOAR!
4) if you're scared, forge first into cannons and turtle. you have a lot of money right? just throw down some cannons!
5) Did I say throw down some cannons? No amount of six pool/bunkering can kill 3 cannons. (This is the bronze league we're talking about - they don't know how to transition out of the rush.) Also have a plan before walling in. (Pylon at the edge of base to get units out etc etc.)

[porkchop]

Originally Posted by UltimateDeep

Okay, I'm a newbie here and I just registered. I only recently revived my playing for SC2. I did play in season 1, but kinda went AWOL for the next 10 months because of my National Service, i'm a clerk though. So Season 1, I was a general bronze player. So just a few weeks ago I started playing again so I was even worse.
Now come season 2, all my leagues placement has gone all over the freaking place. Chia lat in this sense, because here's the scenario.

1v1s: Silver, lost placement match because of a freaking 6-pool which I can't defend.
2v2s: Gold, lost placement match and I totally don't deserve to be there in the first place because I'm a bronzie.
3v3s: Silver, lost placement match, because of sodding micro and macro
4v4: Bronze, lost placement match.

As you can see, I lost ALL of my placement matches. Now I have some problems and think you can help.
1. I hate using keyboard, and I can't get in the habit of keyboard.
2. I don't scout.
3. Often I have unspent resources during slightly later part of the game.
4. I can't seem to get a big enough army all the freaking to match the enemy due to low APM so I can't defend when I'm attacked by a huge rush early.
5. VERY important: I REALLY EFFING HATE CHEEEEEEEESSSSEEEEE!!!!!


Argh, everything seems to be going downhill after my placement matches! And now? I'm gonna freaking panic whenever I'm gonna ladder!

***** i had the same problem too, being scared to lose, i eventually just played,played and played, then i started to have fun, SC2 is suppose to be fun, thats why its a game. if you want you can join the KJH family and maybe we could practise, my pvp sucks, add me up and maybe i could help and vise versa.. you could also check out the PRACBUD chat room, alot of help there, im silver too btw,

[ToRPandarine]

Hey, don't sweat it out. League placement isn't all there is to SC2. As a Silver player, I used to think that position and league matters but recently I found out theres more to SC2. Its about fun, community and self improvement. Don't worry too much cause even the pros bollocks it up here and there. Some useful tips I have from players leagues above me:

1 - Keyboard is key. I'm not a Protoss player but as a Terran, using the hotkeys to build, mass produce units and get upgrades save you a crazy amount of time. Hotkey buildings and units. That way you don't need to constantly be clicking things.

Start of by practicing with a computer and then increase the difficulty and when you think you're ready, bring it to the ladders. In your Options there a check for keeping the keyboard hotkeys visible ingame. Use it to make life easier.

2 - Scouting is not everything but helps a ton. An easy way to scout is to waypoint your scout to the spawning locations. Use the minimap to make life easier too. Send a scout every now and then just to see army composition and tech.

3 - Macro hard. Practice macro. Forget your League status and just macro like your life depends on it. Constant building of workers is priority followed by units. Have 1000 minerals? Slap down one or two more production buildings and spend those resources on more units!

4 - When your macro is acceptable, your army should never ever be smaller then the other guy unless he/she expands like a nutter.

5 - Cheese. I hate cheese too. I don't mind it on my pasta and pizza but in SC2, cheese is a no-no. Cheeses can be frustrating but never ever let it get to you. I've been cannon rushed, 6-pooled, proxy hatchery one too many times and it is always to keep your cool and remember, "If I can pull off this defense, the other guy is behind," and when you do pull it off, a sense of victory and achievement can really boost your game. There's more to how to beat cheeses but for the time being, keeping cool, defending it and getting back into the game should be your priority.

There's a ton of things I can keep on going about but, heck, I'm just a Silver player who knows this is what is to be done and I, myself, can't do it without balls-ing it up :P

Don't sweat it cause remember, its just a game

[harrad]

Originally Posted by ultimatedeep

1. I hate using keyboard, and i can't get in the habit of keyboard.

if you ever want to progress beyond gold level you absolutely have to get used to the keyboard asap. There's no way around that, period. Minimize the clicking and familiarize yourself with all the hotkeys. It might not be easy for you to get used to to using them, but it will definitely pay as hotkeys will allow your game to become that much smoother, like a flow.
The protoss challenge where you can only use hotkeys is a great way to practice.

2. I don't scout.

while you might be able to get away with that now you definitely won't at the higher levels. Unless you macro is like ten times better than you opponents, not scouting and thus not being prepared for what he goes for will be your downfall 90% of the time. Good scouting is something you simply have to practice over time. Eventually you'll learn what to look for and how to react to what and so on. For example, when you scout a terran taking two early gases it usually means a tech opening like early banshees with cloak.
You need to know what tech he's going for before it hits you unprepared at your door step. Good scouting also means you always know where his army is and what he is doing on the map (like taking a new base).


3. Often i have unspent resources during slightly later part of the game.

most players, even the pros, tend to have minerals/gas floating in the late game. Just make sure to work on your macro (making workers 24/7, expanding, adding production buildings, producing off them 24/7 etc.) so that you don't fall behind during the early and midgame, because if that happens you'll most likely die in the late game.

4. I can't seem to get a big enough army all the freaking to match the enemy due to low apm so i can't defend when i'm attacked by a huge rush early.

see point 3. You'll have to work on your macro. If you can manage decent macro you'll have enough of an army most of the time with most builds. This has nothing to do with apm btw, your apm will increase naturally over time as you work on your play.

5. Very important: I really effing hate cheeeeeeeesssseeeee!!!!!

cheese is part of the game. Learn to deal with it or it will deal with you. Account for it in your builds. For example whenever i try a new pvp build, first thing i make sure is whether it can hld a 4gate or not (do i have enough units/warpgates up in time.

argh, everything seems to be going downhill after my placement matches! And now? I'm gonna freaking panic whenever i'm gonna ladder!

stop caring about ladder. You're playing to improve, no one cares about your ladder ranking.

11111111111111111111111111

Quick Comments

	iMSystem:	Useless post?
	Maynarde:	Nice first post ...
	Benji:	Countering the bad rep ^_^
	|Erasmus|:	Benji knows where it's at!
	Paroxysm:	well thought out post unluckily it was misunderstood :)

[harrad]

Sorry, but I don't quite understand why I'm being downrated? I tried to help out as best as I can, I just added the 111111111111111111 as filler because the quote containing my notes doesn't count as post. Pleas outline what exactly is wrong with my post, thank you.

[iMSystem]

Right that's a mistake on my behalf, I thought you just quoted someone who already wrote all that and the spam on 1s just looked like you were spamming.

Unfortunately I can't undo what I have done but next time, at least put a sentence saying that you have replied inside the quote, or break up the quote instead of doing what you did.

Format goes a long way

[ToRDjvillian]

The placement match is just there to keep the inactive players out of the ladders. Your league placement had already been decided based on your MMR prior to your placement match.

[Next_rim]

no one cares about your ladder ranking.

qft

OP, neither should you.

Really, unless you are GM or top masters, ladder ranking means nothing. Blizz made too good of a job to hide you real MMR (match-making rating), and for now, leagues and points mean literally 0. While league is a general indication of your skill, within league skill varies vastly.

In order to track improvement, I suggest manually counting win/loss ratio, with breakdown by matchup and map. It really gives you idea on what exactly to work on. When I started doing this, I discovered my overall win/loss ratio was wooping 63%, and that on Shattered Temple, the map I really hate, my PvZ win/loss was wrecking 70%. I really thought my PvP sucked bad and that I never win any PvP's. I found out I had 52% PvP win/loss, I couldn't believe my eyes.

The part of SC2 (or, in fact, any competitive ladder-like game) is that any person follows losses with much more emotion. You may think than all you do is losing, while numbers will definitely state otherwise.

After S3 kicked off, I played roughly over 50 games. I had two 8+ loss streaks, I thought I was getting demoted soon. Then I updated my spreadsheet, discovered that I actually went 22:29. Although it's 43%, way below 50, it's not that bad actually, considering the amount of games. One win is +1,5%. Right now I lack PvT wins on TA, BG and some of the new maps, so that's what I'm gonna focus on for the next 2-3 weeks, until my PvT record improves.

I suggest you approach your progress analytically and ffs, stop caring about league and rank.

As for you points, yeah, you definitely need to learn them hotkeys. Don't worry that much about resource floating, focus on smooth openings and solid build order. Don't try to deviate, learn the standard of the standards. If you are zerg, learn 14 pool 14 hatch (is that standard? zergs, help me here). If you are protoss, focus on 3-gate expand. If you are terran, do 3-rax expansions.

Good luck and have fun.

[Maynarde]

Originally Posted by harrad

Sorry, but I don't quite understand why I'm being downrated? I tried to help out as best as I can, I just added the 111111111111111111 as filler because the quote containing my notes doesn't count as post. Pleas outline what exactly is wrong with my post, thank you.

Apologies bro, but perhaps next time write something like "Notes added in the quote" instead of 1's.

[rezyn8]

1. Take some time and watch day9's Newbie Tuesday series - extremely valuable: http://www.youtube.com/user/day9tv#g...36F0243659B1D4
Hotkeys and command groups are imperatives for solid play.

2. You need to find out where your opponent is on 4 player maps because it can dictate what you do in close/cross positions. Just send a work to check the spawn points when your first supply/pylon or first production facility starts building. If you lose the worker - its no big deal as you only lose 50 minerals - at least you know where the enemy is.

3. This is macro - as your economy increases, so too should your production facilities. Have a look at your replays and check to see when you start banking a lot of minerals. It maybe the five minute mark where you can afford an extra gateway or barracks. It really relates to your game plan, which you should have before starting a game.

4. In day9's episode #252 he talks about the tap, where you continually check your productions facilities and make sure they are producing units. The other part is also making sure you don't get supply blocked. As others have said, 3 ties into this one, but be clear on what you want to achieve and certain points in the game. One good way is to have a 5 minute check list - eg at 5:00 I want to have three barracks with stim on the way; at 10 minutes I want to have a factory, starport and an expansion mining.

If you stick to your plan, ensure you are not supply blocked and continually making workers and units you should have a sizeable army to defend or attack with.

5. Cheese - there is nothing wrong with cheese it just shows a lack of dedication to the greater game that is SC2 in that it is a strategy designed for a quick win. Even the pros use it from time time. But this is where scouting comes into it. If your worker knows where the enemy base is, you can check for things like an early pool or early double gas and prepare your defences. I love scouting early pools because I know its going to be a free win 99% of the time so long as I respond to the information I have gathered.

Laddering is just somewhere to test your skills against another human. Just like with sport and exams, you aren't guaranteed to win or pass every time. But learn from your mistakes, review your losses and work out why you lost. This is very important, if you don't work out what you are doing wrong you will never improve.

See you on the ladder sometime!