[D] Race switching to break skill ceiling - Page 3
Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy |
sixilli
51 Posts
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zelevin
United States200 Posts
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Cortza
South Africa328 Posts
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Tzyx
Northern Ireland280 Posts
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CutTheEnemy
Canada373 Posts
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Socup
190 Posts
On August 07 2014 02:12 FabledIntegral wrote: I don't doubt my strategy whatsoever. Almost at no point during the game do I think "what should I do next." Strategy is above an beyond a strength, not a limiting factor for me, it's all intuition. I just don't care about increasing APM or taking the time to practice, hehe. My APM has been low since BW, where I capped out as C on iCCuP due to mechanics. Strategy didn't get you quite as far in that game. That's one way of putting it, but I'd rather like to think that we can say the strategy isn't overpowering strong so that executing it isn't so strong that alternatives are worthless. | ||
-HuShang-
Canada393 Posts
If you want to develop good game sense you can approach it two ways(or both). 1) Play tons and tons and tons of games; many thousands. Once you play this many games you have a really good idea of what your opponent can have and if you play as many games as a progamer you're likely to notice when things aren't as they should be and take action to figure out why (Star Sense). 2) Watch your opponents view (ACTIVELY). Whatever you do, don't skim through it lazily. Make sure that you're just as focussed as you are in a game of starcraft. Figure out what build he's doing, where the turning point is in this build(Turning point: something you can identify in your own games to differentiate this build from others. ie) gas before 3:30 in zvp. High percentage speedling all in), where he is the weakest, what time he attacks etc... Note: Offracing only helps if you can get close to the level of your main race since lower than that and you aren't facing similar builds/levels of macro that you yourself would be able to achieve with your main race. Thus you aren't able to take what you learn and meaningfully apply it to games you play on your main race. Reasons to offrace imo: fun. /endoflist | ||
Dangermousecatdog
United Kingdom7084 Posts
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EsportsJohn
United States4883 Posts
On August 08 2014 09:18 Dangermousecatdog wrote: In the end, I think that if you are having fun, you will be more likely to improve. Off racing is just part of that. Ehhhhhhh, debatable. For some people, "having fun" means getting on the ladder, BMing your opponent and cheesing and watching the hilarity that ensues as your opponent gets angry and frustrated that they lost to some pathetic lowlife who resorts to cheesing and BM in order to win. For others, it's all about the learning . EDIT: But I strongly agree with HuShang on this one. You don't really NEED to switch races to get an understanding of what the other race is doing, but it's always fun. Although, there is definitely some weak points that you can't fully understand until you play the race: for instance, as Zerg, Terran feels unbreakable and like they can just go 3CC and survive every game with hellions and banshees, but then you play Terran and realize you have like 4 hellions, a reaper, and a bunker to stop a roach/ling all-in lol. | ||
aZealot
New Zealand5447 Posts
Playing Terran has improved my mechanics (in the same way that playing Zerg would also have increased my mechanics). I am not sure yet if I think Terran mechanics are substantially harder than Protoss mechanics - they might be just different. But, playing Terran re-ignited my enjoyment of the game at a time when I was getting bored of SC2, and I am continuing with the race for a second season. I may switch permanently. It's a lot of fun playing another race, not just for the sake of learning a match-up from the other end but also for it's own sake , and I'd recommend it to anyone playing the game. | ||
brickrd
United States4894 Posts
On August 08 2014 09:35 SC2John wrote: for instance, as Zerg, Terran feels unbreakable and like they can just go 3CC and survive every game with hellions and banshees, but then you play Terran and realize you have like 4 hellions, a reaper, and a bunker to stop a roach/ling all-in lol. yes this is a big part of it. and even if you play a race there are other people out there who play your race a different way and do things you dont do. if youre a terran who never goes factory, or youre bad at it or not confident, offracing protoss might give you perspective on how to execute it from the other side. also, watching your replays may teach you enough about your opponents weaknesses and builds, but it wont teach you how the other races mechanics feel, and knowing their mechanics can give you an insight into how to abuse those mechanics if you are a good player | ||
Magnet
United States77 Posts
The only time I'd say somebody is hitting a true skill ceiling is if they are literally not capable of processing information any quicker than they are now, whether it's due to age or that just being how they naturally process things. I've felt it before, which is why I capped out at High Masters and probably won't ever get any higher. A majority of people just don't have the natural raw ability to process that much information and make decisions that quickly or easily. I think that's something a lot of higher leagued players take for granted and say things like "anybody can be X rank if they practice". It's about like saying I could compete as an Olympic sprinter if I just practiced hard enough. | ||
GoStu
Canada60 Posts
On August 05 2014 02:29 VengefulTree wrote: Can't say for the skill ceiling, but I can say switching from Zerg to Random really made me more appreciative of the skill needed to play each race and therefore made me able to enjoy tournaments more. Before, I couldn't possibly cheer for a protoss as their win felt so dirty to me, but playing them changed that and helped my viewer experience tremendously. Now I laugh at protoss bullshit instead of crying. Almost my thoughts exactly. Some time messing around playing Terran and Zerg has taught my two things: 1) I'm absolutely horrible with Zerg. 2) No matter how much I feel like another race might be easy, I can cool myself down by recalling my awful losses as that race. 3) I appreciate watching other races more, like you said. | ||
ShambhalaWar
United States930 Posts
While I haven't switched back to zerg for long periods of time, what I found was that the games I did play microing felt so much easier. For example, as zerg, instead of having to build two extra rax and a starport and then switch some buildings while scouting with a reaper... I now just had to drop two evos and start my gas which felt a lot easier after dealing with terran infrastructure. Now as a zerg there are things like creep and injects to occupy my time, but I did feel like the terran experience made it seem easier managing basic buildings as well as learning how to micro more consistently throughout the game. My conclusion was that if I picked a small task which the race lends itself to at practiced that consciously as I off raced, then I was forced to learn something new that could make me better at my main race. Having to constantly deny creep with hellions and marcoing at the same time definitely helped me scout the map with lings better and drone as a zerg. A bonus... was that I realized how hard it is to play terran! Man, tvz I am about 30% right now lol. So it opened my eyes to the truth... protoss is bs :D I made friends with the humans and now the hate is only for one race. It freed up so much negative energy for me | ||
Mojito99
Germany154 Posts
You simply gain a deeper understanding of the opportunity cost each race deals with and you become better at judging a game. Even scouting is not exactly straight forward. Seeing a spire or an infestation pit does not mean swarmhost or mutas necessarily. For Terran, its possible a little less relevant that for zerg and protoss. | ||
GDI
United States69 Posts
On August 05 2014 00:17 SC2John wrote: I don't think that people that plateau in gold are limited because of their skill. There's no reason why every person can't reach masters if they practice correctly and are learning efficiently and put in the time. I disagree. I could use name drop but I'm not. I've been playing as random for 2 years now. Learning all the races makes the game much more enjoyable for some reason. Every time I start up a game it's completely new and different then the previous games I played. Random means you need to understand 6 match ups and know at least 9 builds. I appreciate all streams now and watching tournaments is much more enjoyable because I understand what's going on. So all in all I think random has helped my game play tremendously because it put the "game" as a whole in larger perspective then just understanding the game from my main race. | ||
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