Stuck in... Bronze Tier 3 - and it is soul crushing

General Discussion
1

Folks, I need some guidance here. I never played Starcraft until about 2 months ago. After about 50 games vs AI, I decided to do the trials and got placed in the S1 bucket first. After another 50 games I’m all the way down to B3 with my MMR so low that it’s even below the minimum for that tier. I think I’m at 1700 or something, and I keep reading that silver is so easy. I don’t get it. I tried searching for good builds from the pros, and in some cases, when I actually have a chance to execute those builds and play macro, I win… BUT THERE ARE SOOO MANY CHEESERS and rushing attacks and some other crap, that I simply can’t execute my builds. How the hell ppl say is silver easy if I can’t even get out from the bottom of the B3. No way I can be that bad, or there is something I don’t understand. I feel I’m doing something wrong.

When I watch pros (e.g. WinterStarcraft, Lowko etc.) do bronze-to-masters series, they are matched up with very very basic players, who never rush, don’t do cheeses, don’t do anything, not even scouting, you can clearly see people are new. When I play, I get stuff like BC rushes, probe rushes, canons, ghost sniping, constant reaper disruptions, those little Zerg critters killing all my peasants, aka scvs, 3 min into the game)… out of 10 games I play, there is maybe 1 where I can do the proper build and max out my army at 11min with full upgrades, otherwise I’m just putting up fires and reacting all the time.

And then when I watch replays, I do see my mistakes, but I’m also seeing so many different rushing strategies ppl are using, that I am simply unable to scout them all and respond accordingly at a BRONZE level!

Is the game really that hard that as a new player you get smashed against the bronze floor for the first 500 games? The way I see it - you need to pick up some cheese strategy and simply do it n’s times until you’re stuck at D+ where cheeses no longer work. But I hate playing cheese, I just want to learn good proper Starcraft, but it seems it will get me nowhere on the ladder.

How do I break out of that god damn bronze? What am I doing wrong? I’m lost and very discouraged.

1 Like
2

Post some replays here

3

Hey bro, which race do you play?

1 Like
4

how fast can u max out vs AI? Practice maxxing out by 12 minutes and I guarantee you’ll move up from bronze.

5

everyone is in bronze 3 right now idk why i think it happens when the season changes.

if your actually stick in platinum or bellow chances are great you dont play much.

6

When asking for help, it is advised to provide a replay via known and safe sites like _http://sc2replaystats.com/.

Now regarding your question. The first 2-3 minutes is a mind game those you need to know what your opponent is doing to adjust your build.

  1. At your level, you should always scout with scv/probe/drone
    The worker should leave when barracks, pool, the gateway is started.

  2. You should Look At:

–Zerg:
HP of the pool and 1 expo to decide if its a pool first or a expand and then take appropriate steps.

Wall of and build units or expand.

–Protoss:
You should look at the position of 3 first buildings:
-If its pylon in to forge you will be cannon rushed.
-If it is pylon into a gateway into a pylon in main he going early defense or zealot aggression.
-if its pylon in to gate in to expand he going eco build.
If any of 2 the pylons is not in the base then he is doing proxy.

–Terran:
For terran, you looking for placement of military buildings. If any of the buildings are not in the base then he going proxy.

In some cases, the lack of building is due to forgetting to build it but my opinion is to always assume the worst scenario.

2 Likes
7

theres no reason to worker scout in bronze league, or silver, or gold. Execute a build, max out, kill enemy.

2 Likes
8

i think it depends on race im not sure why you would max out at terrran(unless late game)

obviously terran does max out but its also important to apply pressure especially to zerg.

9

no, not in b3 it isnt

1 Like
10

true he could probably just build marines and win without any thought but i think it starts to matter in high gold low plat.

1 Like
11

Complete BS

You should scout even in Bronze.

If you are playing Reaper-CC and your opponent is doing RR allin (or just roaches push really) there is no way how you are going to win against it especially in low leagues.

Unless you yourself is doing some 1 base all-in of course

12

because a bronze league player is going to know what the different timings are for each race? because theyre going to recognize what, with their scouting information? And then on top of it, being a new player, theyre going to know the best reaction? Go ahead and tell me you don’t make fun of metal leaguers while you tell me its complete bs. Go ahead.

OP focus on maxing out. Youre going to get cheesed no matter what rank you achieve. Focus on executing a build, and go kill your opponent.

1 Like
13

I think everyone is stuck in Bronze 3 at the moment because the ladders have locked. At least it says my MMR is in Bronze 3 despite being in Diamond 3 usually!

1 Like
14

Your first step is to get rid of this mentality. Look at the time you get “cheesed” then fast forward to that time in a Master or GM replay. My guess is they have more workers, more army, less floating money than you do.

Let’s say you get proxy hatch ravager “cheesed.” I bet in Bronze, the ravagers hit at like 7-8 minutes due to very poor build execution. Look at a pro replay when they have been left all alone for 7-8 minutes–they have a 4th base coming up and a near maxed-out army. This means the cheese is in your head, because to be a true cheese this ravager rush should have happened at 3-3:30 when it is ACTUALLY difficult to deal with.

Your best option is to watch the “probes and pylons” video from Day9 and go with that mentality. If you die, die because you had too many workers.

1 Like
15

Hey man! I’m sorry youre feeling discouraged. Right now there is a few things going on - your MMR is still in flux though likely on the verge of settling. Additionally, its likely you arent actually in bronze 3, because the ladder lock seems to have set a large number of players as “bronze” even though their actual MMR isn’t.

Now for the help:

I would first start by suggesting that you post a replay or two using a replay hosting website such as www.sc2replaystats.com in order to help us see what it is that you’re doing and what race you play to give some more tailored information.

Regardless of this, it sounds like you are inexperienced and currently in a league where “more stuff beats less stuff” which is true in the majority of games all the way up to diamond, but is far more prominent as the leagues get lower.

So, a few questions to get you started when looking at your replays to see what happened.

  1. MACRO: If you haven’t heard this term before, it generally encompasses large scale things like worker and army production , as well as how well you spend your money and how well you continuebase production and the like.

So the first question is, how well are you able to spend your money?

  1. Scouting: at the early levels, this shouldnt matter too much but learning to read what your opponent is doing in the early game - even just what buildings they are putting down - can make a big difference as to what units you make and how you react. Early scouting as a barracks or gateway starts for you will often allow you to scout any early cannon rushes or proxies that you need to react to, and will allow you to better prepare.

So, question two: did you scout what the opponent did? If so, what is the tell that lets you know what they’re doing? Perhaps they made a forge first to cannon rush you. Perhaps they hid a stargate on the map, and you saw they had a lot of gas. Maybe they didn’t have anything in their main base when you scouted, indicating a proxy of some kind, etc, etc.

  1. map awareness: this is probably the most under rated thing, particularly by lower league players - simply checking your minimap and having vision on the map will allow you to know when and where an attack is coming from.

So, third question. Did you see the attack coming? If so, did you prepare for it as best as you could? If not, how could you better defend, and make sure you see it coming next time?

  1. Micro: if you’re not familiar with the term, it relates to small scale things, typically unit control.

This is almost completely irrelevant at low leagues because nobody has the control to micro and macro until at minimum high plat, except in extremely niche circumstances. focusing on this more often than not hurts your game rather than helps it.

16

Yeah… even if you get to silver, you won’t stay very long, just by hoping that pro builds will help you win.

17

At that level the best thing you can do is scout, play safe,expand a bit late focusing on making troops, people cheese all the time and the non cheesers games play on a way that is still a chese or an all in.I assume OP already has learned about the basic counters to the cheeses,thats probably the first thing you must learn on starcraft and something you really never stop practicing.

18

First of all tell us which race you play. It’s the most viable information and the first step in any help we can provide. For example if you play teran and don’t wall against zerg, then it’s normal you’re getting rushed all the time.

A lot of players will cheese no matter the league you’re playing in. You need to understand the basics of all races to be able to read what your opponent is going to do. You don’t have to cheese to climb the ladder and I don’t recommend it for new players. Yes it is sometimes easy and rewarding but you will hit a brick wall in the higher leagues and then when you’re only used to do all ins you will have a hard time.

Keep in mind that a high tier player can win lower tiers without even scouting or doing anything special. It’s mainly because of the execution and the fact they know what they are doing thus they get a huge economic lead and the game is pretty much done.

1 Like
19

If you wanna get a handle on how to play, I’m happy to play games with you, or do Archon mode. I’m only a diamond player but that’s more than enough to help someone out of bronze.

5 Likes
20

Back when I was in Silver when I found out couple of scouting guides that catapulted me to Gold2.

At lower leagues people try to cheese you more often than in higher leagues because doing cheese is far more easy.

Scouting is important to pick up a correct opener. If you go Reaper-CC and your Zerg opponent is doing anything aggressive its BO loss.

I would recommend to topicstarter to go for 2 base all-ins (3 base if he is Zerg) always because that is the best way to improve at his level.

1 Like