Totally disagree. As the poster has said, after a certain difference in skill you dont know whats happening
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Sure, for that game, you might be clueless, but as you continue to play games, your brain will start to discover and recognize the patterns that lead to better game play. Slowly, you will grow to being able to implement better and better strategies as well and hone your mechanical skills to compete at that level of play. Practice makes perfect as the saying goes.
If, however, you only challenge yourself against opponents who are evenly or slightly better matched, you will only hone the skills necessary to defeating those opponents over a longer span of time.
If what you said was actually true, nobody would ever get better through mentoring, which is obviously not the case.
Yes, take 1000 random people that know how to play Chess an put them to see a game between GrandMasters. Those people would be totally clueless and would be surprised when the GM 1 would leave when at the opinion of the public his game was proceeding well.
The bigger the difference the less is the transfer of skills from top to bottom. If somebody is not capable of geting thatā¦ignore the poor guy.
Basically he is arguing that in Grade School it would be a good thing to begin with solution of Differential Equations or before learning the Newtonās Laws to deal with Shroedinger Psi Functionā¦
Unbelievable!
Sure, because mentoring and actually competing with the intent to win (no matter SC2, chess, boxing) is the same thing. 
In mentoring, the teacher gradually pass lessons understandable by the mentoree in order to make him better. In actual competition, your opponent throws all he has on your head to obliterate you.
You are clueless.
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I hate to break it to you but Starcraft 2 (as well as the vast majority of video games) is not the proverbial Rocket Science/Brain Surgery. Most of a playerās ability as they climb the ladder is almost completely the result of mechanical ability, muscle memory, and pattern recognition, all of which is learned through practice.
Thereās no magical, secret knowledge that higher level players learn about only after passing some mystical threshold.
There is a lot of truth in what you say, but is that all? There is no tactics/strategy any more in this game? In a battle between two equally mechanically skilled opponents, does not the one that uses his resources wisely and has a better judgement usually win?
Yes, there is luck (Hatch/Nexus that survives on 1 HP), but a better judgement is crucial.
I didnāt say that. Tactical/Strategic planning isnāt some esoteric and mystical knowledge. Itās the ability to recognized patterns in your opponents game play while implementing an appropriate response. You learn this by playing against opponents better than you.
Letās take Chess for example, Grand Master chess players arenāt human calculators iterating through every possible move. Instead they recognize patterns of play in their opponents moves, most of which is learned either through a lifetime of playing the game or through the observation of others playing. Thereās nothing mystical about understanding how to play a game of chess. That is why a unintelligent machine can play the game nearly flawlessly through brute force analysis.
Starcraft 2 is different than chess in that it also requires a physical acumen from itās human participants. Those skills can ONLY be obtain through significant amounts of practice. Thatās what separates most mid level players from their higher level counterparts. Likewise, Professional level play needs to be maintained by those participating in it. If it was strictly about game knowledge, high level players could easily win games against their opponents despite not playing the game for significant amounts of time.
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Nonsenseā¦ (only if you are Bronze 3 with few days of RTS/SC2 experience vs GM)
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Starcraft is a big brain game. I managed to climb my way to 4.1ishk on EU despite being half paralyzed. My right hand is almost completely useless and I can barely pull out 100apm. I have absolutely no mechanical ability. How do you explain that?
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The biggest smurfing jerks Iāve played are here on NA because I can see when someoneās having macro and creep spread and remax more than whats typical for a current MMR. And still beatableā¦ good training I guess but such broke my win streak on the other acc.
sigh ā¦and āall he hasā includes cheese right? You multi account LOTV trolls are all the same. No thanks to any of your āmentoring.ā Harass options, all ins, and copy and pasted over done pro strategies are not āteachingā even if all of your friends told you it is. Learn to play the game without being a bully and you might make more friends. Just some advice for SC2 and life in general.
Reposted a softened version from my last message. Apparently, the sensibility of the people I was talking about was hurt by the crudeness of my language, to the point they had to report it. Thatās not really the behavior Iāve seen ingame, but weāre talking about users not playing fair, arenāt we ?
I am curious to know what experience Zenasprime has about being smurfed. Iām currently a platinum, and though Iāve reached diamond MMR in the past, itās only since a few months that my mechanics and overall skill are closing-in with a truly diamond skill. Depending on the day of the week and daytime played, the proportion of verified smurfs (multiple freeloses in their history) at this MMR has been increasing since F2P to vary between 15 and 50%.
The truth is you DO learn from games against smurfs/higher leagues opponent, but I wouldnāt say youād learn faster than against players closer to your MMR. The thing is superior mechanics in early and midgame can make such a difference that if, as a platinum terran, youāre being played by letās say a diamond 1 who plays a metagame aggressive strategy (hellion 2 reapers ā banshee ā expand in TvT, or a chronoboosted zealot stalker from a gate expand or 2 gates expand, chances are you wonāt even survive the second poke (and depending on the MU, even the first one). Your reaper(s) will be outmicroed or outnumbered, and then a skilled opponent will snowball either in outright killing you or containing you on one base.
Would you learn more from a game like this than against a mechanically comparable opponent ? Clearly no, the game will end in the first minutes before you can even exert a 2 bases macro (TvT/TVP), or a 3 bases in case of TvZ. And then you wonāt have a chance to really test your micro or composition as youāll be outmacroed rather heavily. BUT, you will still learn from it things different than what an honest opponent wouldāve offered, and that is learning the defects in your play/build/gameplan that wouldnāt be viable against current metagame in higher league. The exception being if the opponent is so much above you that he can use troll strategies effectively. XD
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So in the end smurfs can constitute an opportunity to learn different things from regular opponents, but chances is are youāll learn less from them mechanics-wise. They still constitute a benchmark of sorts, as becoming able to endanger them or even win sometimes is then an undeniable evidence of progress. But then thatāll mean youād completely break a regular opponent in a similar situation. So smurfs still do hurt the ladder more than they help, but there are ways to still make the better out of those encounters.
More GG, more skill. Even against opponents not playing fairā¦
First, props to you for that achievement ! Even though almost useless is very different than completely disabled when it comes to the handicap (Iāve seen players play with their mouth or feet, so one or two functional fingers on a hand make quite a difference compared to no hand at all).
Now, putting aside one could get ridiculously far by just cheesing, fact is a lot of players do spam to imitate the warm-up of progamers ; and so they overestimate the EPM required to pull decent mechanics. If youāre massing carriers or going regular mech or DTs, the apm required even though playing it. If weāre talking about mech for example, the key points are macroing in spite of the opponents strategies, and then setting up a good position for your army. One does not need 200 APM to do that.
At the other hand, if youāre playing multiharass bio styles, lings banes in ZvZ or phoenix/multi blink styles, I believe 100 APM isnāt enough to achieve every action decently.
Can confirm. Can anyone sell me a prostetic robot hand?
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Iād take a prostetic robot brain for my part. XD
What styles do you play, by curiosity ?
As terran:
VS Terran: Marine tank and mech. I donāt really plan my games so I just wing it depending on whats going on with my opponent
VS Zerg
When I want to lose I play bio mine with ghosts. When I want to win I make tanks and thors and amove
VS protoss
pretty much just bio timings or the occasional: LUL Iām making tanks and thereās nothing you can do to stop me!!!
As Zerg:
ZvZ: ling bane to roach +2 timing in to lurkers or some mutas
ZvT: ling bane muta. Against mech I go roach swarmhost timing in to gg
ZvP: I just turtle until I have 7+ broods and then amove.
As Protoss
PvP: make the blink make the ruptors and gogo YOLO
PvT: Blink in to colossus in to zombietoss
PvZ: archon drop in to either macrohard or make 7gates with charge.
and when Iām just bored I do stupid things off of 1 base and try to micro.
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Protoss
Thatās neat but itās my terran thats high oh and zerg oh and yes i do admit protossā¦ I play the BOX!
I think most people should cube it up. I would go crazy playing only 1 race 100% of the time.
TvP all day every day would literally drive any sane person to a frenzy of mental issues.
Hereās a TRAGIC story. I gave up on starcraft in HOTS after a 47:57 game vs swarmhosts. I just flipped my #### and uninstalled right then and there. In the coming months I would lurk liquipedia looking for the swarmhost nerf patchnotes. It never came.
Fast forward to 2 weeks before Sc2 went F2P.
aww damn I really need to make some marines. I really really need to make some marines RN
I scoured my city. Went to 4 places that sold videogames, only to hear: Naw fam we aint have starcraft!
When I finally found a place that sold them the prices were absolutely obscene. The basic games were going for 70e a pop. I was salty af. BUT I NEEDED TO MAKE MARINES! So I got the set. To top it all off I didnāt even get physical copies because the store was āoutā of them. So I walked out with a receipt with codes. I installed the game(s) and went in to placements. And got rekt. and rekt. and rekt. And then I made it to plat. LIKE A GOD AMONG MEN!
The truest of tragedies.
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