Just for a bit of fun, I’d like to hear peoples story for progressing up the ladder. I’ll start us off with mine.
I started back in 2014, initially started out with the goal of defeating the elite Ai 10 times in a row before I started the ladder. Eventually after a good few months I finally accomplished this and started my climb up that daunting ladder. With the goal of reaching the top of Diamond one day.
I placed in bronze league. Was there for maybe a month or 2 before getting promoted to silver. I wouldn’t say I played an extreme amount during this time but a decent amount. I hovered at the top of silver for 2 years but just was unable to get over the hump into gold. I remember being a bit frustrated at this and thinking I would never make it out of silver league but I was having fun so I keep pushing on despite all the losses.
One day I found some youtube videos on build guides from Winter that resonated with me. Before I knew it I found myself flying up the ladder I remember hitting platinum and being very happy because this was the league total biscuit was in and he was the guy who got me into SC2 in the first place with his ShoutCraft casts. Within just 2 month I hit D3. Which I was very pleased with. I would say this was the peak of my SC2 experience. I made a lot of great strides in my game play during this time and set a lot of habits (good or bad) that I still do to this day.
At this point I was fairly content with where I was, but I still wanted to reach the top of diamond so I keep trying my best to learn. I was in D3 for 2 season before being promoted to D2 and was only in D2 for 1 season before getting D1. At this point I was ecstatic. I reached my goal and thought I probably would never get any higher than this.
I of course wanted Master league but never thought I would actually make it so D1 was fine with me. So I kind of just casually played the game in D1 for around a year and a half. Played the other 2 races quite a bit more as well during this time. Eventually I found myself being able to defeat master players relatively often and decided I should make the plunge for master league. Took me 2 more seasons of hovering in the 4.2-4.3k range and like 400-500 games and eventually I finally hit master league. Surpassing my wildest expectations.
This is where I sit today, a M3 toss. I think I am able to make it to M2 but just haven’t found the drive yet to go for it. Maybe soon I will but honestly I am 100% fine with M3. If I never get promoted again I wont much care <3
So tell me your story, doesn’t have to be this long. But I am interested in hearing your guys journey through the ladder. No matter what skill level you are at. <3
8 Likes
Started as Z at early jan11, lost my first 33 games,played one as protoss and won (p imba),went z again and lost some more games, after that I went into a really good streak,around 26 games in a row,the bad thing is they got me 1 point per game and after obe single lost game I lost all my points,but after that the amount of points won/lost was pretty normal.Stayed at bronze-Silv for some months,my laptop ran just at 12fps in medium battles and also i was playing with laptop keyboard that was awful, so I only ranked up when i bought a new laptop.Stopped playing Z at wol end and started playing T,reached diamond in about 700 games.During hots played z and t and also started playing some protoss.I stopped playing around mid hots brcause the game was pretty awful,followed the game but did not play at all.At the end of hots I was playing again,mostly focused on some victory achievements,I dont remember when I got dia as protoss,but the amount of games were about the same as other races,around 700. Overall I did not rank a lot because I cant stay motivated to do it and im not good enough to rank up while playing casually so the highest rank I reached was 4,2k, i dont know if its ladder anxiety but i dont like playing at my highest level,as soon as I rank a bit I lose the motivation so these days I just play unranked so I dont have to care about ranks.
3 Likes
I played 36 games got GM, got bored and retired. It’s a hard life being a Protoss…
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Played some brood war as Protoss and Terran. I had no idea what I was doing. I knew about the game from a richer friend who had a computer before me but couldnt play because I didnt have a computer yet. I eventually got one as a present from my aunt and started playing online. Had a really good mentor who I only met online teach me how to play and while I never got really good, I did actually get better and at least was able to do some respectable cheese. I eventually stopped playing Brood War because I thought “Im never going to be good enough”.
When WoL came out I was super hype. I really really had a pokemon syndrome about it (I wanna be the very best, like noone ever was!). It was a wild and interesting time and I played from launch. From a guy who usually only buys used games. I hate paying full price. Anyway… I played Protoss since that was my favorite race from the BW, especially lore wise. I laddered as hard as I could. I went from Silver to Diamond. I was playing like an unhealthy amount at one point. When I got to Diamond, there was no masters. I thought… well there is nowhere to go and being in Diamond is tough. I should just quit this game… Ive been playing too much. So I did.
I recently came back about a litle over a year ago since I had never played HOTS or LotV. I played through the campaigns since i figured that would be fun. I eventually decided I would ladder again and eventually reached low Diamond with Toss. I could not get past my very poor PvZ and was at ~27% PvZ. I was very frustrated. I made a topic that some people thought was trolling asking for help playing as Zerg. I ended up getting to Diamond 2 as Zerg and kept positng my results which kept me motivated. Eventually I lost interest in that too since even though I thought Zerg was good, I dont really like the style of the race. So I quit playing for awhile.
Recently with the patch changes to VR particularly, I went back and started playing Toss again. I got my Toss back to Diamond 3 again and almost got to D2 but ultimately found the VR change good but not enough to really get me over the hump. (which is probably for the best). Improved my PvZ, especially because I got better at holding early Zerg busts (I hate it but I admit battery overcharge helps in holding some of the more heinous zerg cheese). But ultimately, I cant deal with late game zerg so felt pigeon holed into basically going all in with a cheesy timing attack every game. So right now I am not playing at all. Also played some Terran in there and got placed in Platinum for funsies. But ultimately I dont really have the time necessary to ladder anymore. So I still love the game and watch when I have time but cant spend 3+ hours a day laddering.
3 Likes
Absolute ladder stress.
I play SC since 2008 and have SC2 account since 2013.
In 2013 I was a proud Bronze, then Silver… but in Wings of Liberty after HotS release. I was playing very poorly. I got Silver in Season 1 2014 and managed to get to Gold in Season 3 2014 in HotS, I was so proud of that achievement.
When LotV was released, I kept being in a top Gold (disruptors OP!) in 2015-2016.
As far as I remember there were League shifts in end of 2016, that “pushed” me into Platinum in Season 4 2016.
Since then I was playing mainly Coop, Arcade and Campaigns, (my another Season with 1v1 score was 2018).
While playing Brood War I encountered locations for first time. I started using them in SC2 as well, kept practicing vs Elite opponents.
With improved control over locations, and learning literally 2 openings (using PvP opening vs Terrans 
I got to Diamond 2 on both EU and NA. Now I am polishing many aspects of my gameplay in Arcade games (printf’s multitasking simulator, minutemicro challenges, LOTV multitasking trainer EXPERT), vs AI and Diamond 1/Master Zergs.
I don’t play a lot of versus, but when I do (unranked), I have high win ratio recently.
SoonTM on my way to D1 or (I wish!) M3.
4 Likes
i started in 2013, i played about 3k games and cant get out of silver because sadly i play terran. it is very sad.
lul, youre m2 XD
tell us your story peek. would be interested to hear it 
well, i started playing when i was very very young, as you would excpect i got destroyed so didnt play for a few years. i started playing competitive 1v1 in probably 2017 i remember i called one of my opponents a name after he sent his reaper in and killed a bunch of my workers. the first build i had success with was a cyclone hellion rush, with the old cyclone. eventually when it stopped working at around gold - platinum league i watched one of winters guides. thats when i learned the key to success was a strong eco, i started focusing on building lots of workers and taking a fast expo
part of the appeal for me was that it was 1v1 and i didnt have to worry about an annoying team who is bad.
after i got into diamond i stayed in there for well over 2 years, the reason i was in diamond for so long is because i never liked to copy a build order and didnt have a skill to make my own, obviously the build orders i use now arent a masterpiece of creativity but i made and refined them all. for a while i used a chaotic version of 211 and eventually i started to optimize the build order depending on the matchup. something i remember was being in a peep mode lobby against a zerg, i made a bunker and put it way out in front, my opponent right clicked the zerglings past the bunker and said “wow good thing that bunker was there”. im not sure why i remember that. my macro has always good/great depending, compared to my opponents. zerg and terran in particular i win by macroing pretty much.
master 2 was way easier to hit than master 3 from d1. master 3 was the real challenge, i spend more time in diamond 1 than any other league i think. and there wasnt one quick trick to get master, i just did everything better, at some point there was a change in diamond 1, im not really sure why but at some point i realized how many mistakes i was making and was easily able to point them out. this helped allot.
something i dont remember is why i picked terran, i think it had something to do with me liking the simplicity yet coolness of the units.
4 Likes
Positive non balance whine thread? Take my 
!
Will add my story later when I have more time.
2 Likes
I played back in the past WC3 but on a pretty low level with a friend of mine. With the release of SC2 we started the new game together, but most of the time only team games. After a year I started 1on1 and when I reached finaly the Diamond league I was so happy to be under “the best” and then 2 month later… the master league was released and I had to grind again…
A bit later I found a random player and we understood each other pretty well. So for a while we only played against each other for like a month and then we decided to play tournaments. After a while playing every tournament out there we finaly reached gm and even got 1-2 decent runs but nothing which anyone will remember. At the end of WoL my “random friend” stopped playing which was kinda sad…
So I was “alone” Ok, Clans etc. but nothing serious anymore because I didn’t had anyone on my level to talk about builds anymore. Also without the 1on1 training with him I started to fall in ranks aswell. So I looked around I created a new ME in Sc2. With the release of HotS I started to create guides for Protoss, got attached to a page called “mystarcraft .de” (If “Khaldor”[Now Heroes of the Storm Caster] is still a name for someone) and helped them as “Forum-Mod” and Sc2 “Newswriter(I only wrote about patches and Map changes everything else was handled by 5 other guys.)”. This was maybe until mid of HotS and afterwards I stopped playing aswell for a year+.
But I still like the game, so I play it from time to time on a casual level. Sometimes I try to hit gm again but thats pretty hard… You get older, you will change your way to live… So gm is a commitment of time and playing without an rival is kinda boring for such a effort and after each break I have to start at 0 again, which is demotivating…
- Search for builds which are fitting for my playstyle
- Learn the Maps
- Learn the Meta
- Search for builds which are good in the meta and which I like to play
- Grind with them and run into a wall
Once I hit the wall it’s pretty hard to stay active. Once more… no rival…
Usual this takes around 2 month or so and then I slowly drop the game for a while until I play again and do the same stuff with the regret, that I have to do all the steps again. 
But man after all the time I still love the game.
3 Likes
Ahh yes good point. I forgot to add why I picked toss. I initially started out as a Terran because it seemed the most similar to the Command and Conquer factions. But quickly switched to Toss because I just loved the look of all their units especially the Colossus.
DukeNukem’s journey (EU server):
I started playing SC2 right after the original release. I moved from SC1 to SC2 and started playing Terran. After my first placements match I managed to take 5:0 and platinum and I was worried to play 1v1 because back then the highest league was diamond and I wanted something to have to show (platinum badge). It took me few months after I break the “I don’t play ladder because I have 100% win ratio”. Then I switched to zerg because I loved to play the weakest one (back when nobody knew how to play zerg and everybody was trying to counter bio/medivac by ling/hydra). At the middle of Wings of Liberty I was inspired by MarineKing marines micro and all I did was playing marine split challenge all the time for like 90% of my SC2 time then I started to play pure marines medivacs all the time at the ladder and got into diamond at late WOL. Then my hate towards protoss started to increase because it was pretty imbananalanced back in the days and I registered on US forums. After few years I realized I was kinda wrong. Protoss is strong but zerg was even more powerful so I started to telling people the truth about zerg however I was silenced all the time (this happens to this day). Then I managed to reach master by playing marine/medivac only (then after mine nerf revert I added some widow mines to the gamestyle) [please notice I used it only in TvT and TvZ, in TvP I played mech]. Then after the LOTV release I just could see zerg is even more OP than it was. The maps favors zerg, the balance favors zerg, literally everything did however we had some new toys to play with. Few liberators that killed 50 of mutalisks in one shot when you did it correctly meanwhile protecting the ground aswell. Then 5 nerfs in a row happened to liberators. Then the “economy rework” when they deleted the MULES FROM THE GAME LOL ITS NOT A JOKE IT REALLY DID HAPPEN - and this was the worst time of SC2 ever. Thankfully it was reverted after few months. Then zerg players realized that zerg pros are using ultralisks sometimes and started to monkey them. And now when they see bio they turtle until ultra and gg. That’s my story.
2 Likes