So I’m thinking about quitting SC2 for good.
Backstory:
Bought SC2 years and years ago, played several hours but was busy and didn’t play again.
3 months I picked it up again, loved everything about it. Watched Pig’s tuts, became Terran main, got to Gold 2.
Got sick of losing over and over and didn’t have enough time to invest in getting much better. Still thoroughly enjoy watching SC2 on YouTube and spend quite a few hours each week thinking about it.
Got the itch again and came back to it a week ago, haven’t won a single game since. New season, playing against bronzos. Losing to them. Losing to the AI. Game after game after game. After losing 6 in a row now, 3 against the AI, I’m just not sure this is the game for me. Some of these games drag on for 20-30 minutes, with me sweating and on the edge of panic, and 6 losing games can mean 2-3 hours of intense stress and demoralization. One game the other day I was trying my darndest, really giving it my all, but just feeling like I was being beaten up over and over, and I realized that I’m not sure I have the capacity to sit through 10-20 minutes of super intense defense and still enjoy the game. And if I don’t enjoy it, why am I playing it?
There’s lots of clever strats I really enjoy, I like learning, I like improving, I like gaming, I like SC2, but I don’t know if I can do it. I say quitting for good because I don’t really think playing halfway is a great idea for me. I saw a great video by Harstem the other day and he mentioned what a great community SC2 is on the forums, so I figured maybe you guys can help me.
Thanks!
3 Likes
This is all you really need to ask yourself. StarCraft is hard. It is an undeniably stressful game. It is always possible to get better; it is also possible to play the game for fun and not focus on improvement but it means accepting losing a lot more often than winning for most players.
That being said, there are options that aren’t 1v1. There’s a plethora of Custom game modes and Coop which has a very active community. These modes tend to be less rigorous than 1v1 StarCraft.
2 Likes
Seconding this. Certainly I dont care for the 1v1 mode that much, I play almost exclusively coop, arcade and campaign, because thats the speed and stress level that i can enjoy the game at.
If you want to explore some of the other game modes, you could maybe start off by starting one of the campaigns and going through until you feel like you’re back in the swing of understanding the basic flow of the game and controlling stuff, then try some coop mode matches. You’ll have a partner for them too, so the pressure isnt going to be on you to immediately understand and succeed either.
2 Likes
I’m gonna third this. Much as I love 1v1, Coop, campaign, arcade games like Direct strike and nexus wars, and even just vs AI is a lot of fun in itself.
The game is hard, but it’s fun. There’s plenty in it for everyone, even if you’re not into the competitive side of it.
1 Like
Ofc it can be that Sc2 is not for you, its a stresfull game. But a few tips that maybe can help if you wish to try a bit longer.
I used also to get quite stressed , so I trained against AI long enough to beat it in a macro game at elite level. Against AI I didnt stress. Then I went to ladder, and after adjusting for cheese, I easily was able to be high gold, then started to climg higher.So maybe train against AI only first, for me it was far less stress.
Also if for a week you cant win again AI or bronze, I would guess that maybe you cant figure out what you are doing wrong, whats most critical to improve. I would in your place rewatch the guides and rewatch your replays, analyzing what you are doing wrong, taking note how many workers and army you got at what times compared to the guides. Or if you got disposable income, I would maybe consider buying a coaching session., i never did it, but maybe it would be the easiest way, sombody pointing out what to improve.
2 Likes
Like others have said, what you should quit (temporarily or permanently, only time will tell) is only a few parts of SC2, it seems you’ve only scratched the surface of “the game” for now.
1 Like
Let me tell you something brother, SC2 is actually for you if you find the game stressfull and think its useful investing your life into it.
However at this point (anything under diamond), you need to not focus on learning the game by playing ranked games that you are emotionally invested in, you should focus on watching pro games and trying to learn what they do, and what the counters to builds and units are.
You should also have fun in the arcade with the micro trainers as that gives you awesome situations where you can play with pre built armies and you can practise tabbing through your spell casters so you learn the basics like stimming when you have ghosts in your army.
SC2 is difficult, you will lose and that is absolutely alright, however what is not alright is giving up and thinking you are not good enough.
The point is to be better than you were yesterday, and not to care about ladder or points.
There are many people I vs that I lost to last month and walk over this month, and there are many people I have squashed previously and now they can beat me or are competitive (diamond 1/masters level).
Its all fun at the end of the day, keep that in mind and don’t stress.
Kind regards,
Myrnn.
1 Like
You are rusted,try playing a bit of coop,once you start managing two/three bases you can jump into the ladder and play some games,aim for shorter games,10-15 minutes,practice some basic build and follow it, but over anything else,try to have fun, do not see the game as as grinding games after games, just 4-6 games per day and ypu will be ablo to chill and play.you can also play unranked when needed,or 2c2 3v3 team games until you start getting used to the game again.
1 Like
Personally i believe that the main reason why we all have difficulty winning the game is because of plummeting SC2 population
2020 october - Total population is 504 k players
2022 april - Total population is 250 k players (source: rankedFtw)
So basically in 1.5 year the global population is halved. This means that less and less lower ranked players are available, this in turn causes frustration and necessity to smurf (intentionally lowering your MMR to meet people whom you can beat)
@Omnipotent
You are not the only one. Few days ago i suffered 7 losses in a row. I am facing multiple ex diamonds/master players. After losing to one of them i politely asked him if he is smurfing or not. He said that had returned after 2 years of absence which is a lie because i checked his match history and his every loss was under 1 minute ! He was losing games on purpose to stay at plat1/dia 3 level. It is not that you suck at the game, it’s because there will be less and less players whom you can beat.
1 Like
I hate all the above but i like to destroy my opponents and this is why i still play this game
1 Like
If you want to play campaign, and custom games, and coop games, just have fun with it. Don’t stress.
But laddering isn’t just another game, it’s a hobby that requires attention and dedication. It’s a bit like going from “I beat dark souls” to “Let’s look at deathless, runs, hitless runs, randomization runs.” Etc.
You’re going to die a lot, and because of that if your only goal is to win, you’ll get frustrated.
You have to have goals other than victory. Goals of learning more about the game. Goals of improving your mechanics in a certain way. Goals of experimenting with your own builds. Goals of learning and applying philosophies of competitiveness. Goals of building a plan, trying the plan, and refining the plan.
I would suggest watching ViBE’s 2021 BtGM learning series. It’s much more chill than his earlier series and PiG’s BtGM.
Part of the panic comes from the fact that you don’t know what is best to do in a given moment. Once you learn your macro cycles, and know what your build and goals are, it’s much more chill. You do things FASTER, but not with more anxiety, because you have a plan.
1 Like
Man, this is all hugely helpful stuff. I did go back and play against the AI and won one (vs Harder), which felt good.
I really appreciate the validation that this is a hard and stressful game – glad I’m not alone there, haha. I think I relate most to the folks who say to have different goals than winning. If I can “succeed” at, say, hitting certain build splits, or even doing a certain build, or microing well in one particular situation (e.g. having enemy fight into my tanks), even if I screw up the rest and lose everything, I’ve won that game. I can see that being helpful, though tbh not sure if I’ll be able to maintain that mindset if I do 1v1s. 2v2s worked well for me in the past, I played like 20 games in a row, lost maybe half, but having somebody else there to learn from/with made it a lot easier not to get stressed or down on myself.
Also appreciate the reminder that I’m rusty, I shouldn’t expect to win stuff that I used to be able to win against because there’s a lot to remember and practice. It’s true that I could really use practice stimming while having ghosts, libs, vikings, BCs in the army. Definitely either F2 (aka tab for me) and can’t select what I need in time, or I box the wrong stuff and micro gets screwy.
I think it probably doesn’t help that early in a new season, lots of good players are ranked lower than normal. I may have indeed played against players who are definitely not bronze.
I think I’ll watch and try ViBE’s BtGM series, take it easy, and see where I get. Nobody should ever expect to see me at the top of a tournament, but that doesn’t mean I can’t still have fun playing and improving. And hey, if I stop enjoying it, I can just stop, pause, or come back here and complain to you guys to get my motivation back. 
Thanks all!
3 Likes
Hah, no problem!
Feel free to add me, I’m always willing to have another person to play with, or to help people out to the best of my ability. I’m not the best player out there, but I have some idea of what I’m doing, and I love to teach 
Enjoy the game, because it’s the best RTS out there bar none!
1 Like
There is something to that. I was diamond 3 player, who even achieve diamond 2 for a short while in the past. Nowadays i think I play better, and I with great effort hover around Dia3, not even coming close to Dia 2.
I wouldnt mind it that much, if there was no smurfing freeloosing, what you described. But between rampant cheeses and not to so rare smurfs it can get really frustrating.
I truly despise the smurfs who freeloose to beat on weaker players. They are cowards, who cant stand loosing, so they inflict unfairly what they cant stand upon other poeple. I see it as if i went to primary school and punched kids, to feel strong. Its just disgusting
2 Likes
Well that sounds like a philosophy of a freeloosing smurf, Im not impressed.
The best way to think about sc2 imo is it’s a contest against yourself, like a rally racing game.
Your goal should be to be more and more efficient and the opponent is just a roadblock to that efficiency.
I found this mentality helped me a ton, maybe it’ll help you too!
2 Likes
you should try playing custom campaigns. It’s a lot of fun and it switches up a lot of what you’re used to from regular campaign. It’s not a tireless borefest that will leave you feeling drained either. I suggest either Hard or Normal difficulty. I’m doing the randomizer version of the WOL campaign right now.
1 Like
I’ve heard a lot of coaches say that the skill level of starcraft has actually gone up. The diamond player today has to have really tight macro to even be viable, a master’s player in the days of WoL didn’t even have to hit their Queen injects.
3 Likes
yes this is def true.
the average low master / diamond player is usually more skilled than we were 7-8 years ago…
2 Likes
If you’re not a satanist, a klan member or just a general reprehensible person… there’s nothing here for you. No one talks about strategy in this game, because this game is actually devoid of it. You can find more strategy in any other sport or game. This is actually the worst group of people probably in the entire world. Could be no worse association.
Just look at the top streamers of any other game… they actually don’t emanate evil/fakeness. It’s really jaw dropping. And, they all have more subs than anyone in this game, yet “everyone in this game is an elite group.” Tl;DR if you made it to first grade, you already drastically outgrew playing this game or communicating with anyone. Worst habit ever is talking to badhabits. Give him a helmet and move on.
The only thing anyone can say after playing this game is… could I sign up for another universe… You know, one that doesn’t involve a supernatural cowboys vs indian game. Couldn’t care less. Dumbest universe ever and nothing is lower than satanists.
“But Playa, the devil is bitter. We gotta help him get back at god, durrr. But Playa… since you created everything, we’re bitter nerds and we gotta help them get back at you for creating things. You get it right? Oh, we’re just really stupid and there’s nothing to get? Yeah, well… tell him off badhabits. Use your powers of brainlessness.” SC 2 in a nutshell. Garbage game, garbage people.