More thought about mindset and other stuff

If you liked my previous article, I hope you’ll like this one as well.

I’ve been working on my mindset lately, because I think that you need to be not only strong in practice, but also mentally to perform well in tournaments. I’ve been doing much better lately, more consistent on ladder and in tournaments, more good wins vs top players, more Ro8-Ro4 appearances, but I still got so much work to do.

There is a thing called discouragement. There are 3 states of mind: before, during, after. For example, before an exam you pray not to fail it, during the exam everything is great and you’re feeling great because you won’t fail it, after the exam you are a bit sad and you wish you could have tried better or could get a better mark or whatever. These states are so different, and such transition of states happens if you dont take control of it.

I got so many examples and I want to share it with you, because I really hope I am no the only one!

You woke up in a good mood, really look forward to practicing all day long, you start playing, you lost first game. Well, good warm up, that’s ok. Got cheesed, lack of attention to minimap, well, shit happens. Lost in a very close macrogame - “damn I’m so bad, fuck this shit, fucking terrans (tosses, zerg, whatever), fucking Blizzard, fucking David Kim etc.” :D Some people need more games to lose, some people less, but I am sure that happens to most of the players, I used to calm down my students a lot, because they got panic attacks in losestreaks. So you came to the PC with SUCH A GREAT MOOD, and after a few games you absolutely forgot about it, you gave up! I wish I could clone myself to slap me everytime I try to give up! If there was a coach nearby, he would say something like: “You’re trying to give up like a little pussy, are you a fucking little pussy?” “No, sir” “I dont hear you” “NO, SIR” “WHAT?” “I AM NOT A FUCKING LITTLE PUSSY, SIR” “THEN PRESS THE FUCKING SEARCH BUTTON AND SHUT THE FUCK UP”

You are going to do something cheesy, but your opponent scouted that. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” He scouted that, you cant make this push anymore, life is finished. Damn, some people even dont know why they’re scouting and what they are looking for. If you are playing someone good, then he’ll understand what you’re doing, but are you sure he’s THAT SMART? I played so many stupid players on the ladder, you cant play mindgames with them, because they dont understand anything, or even they scouted something, that doesnt mean they undertood what’s going on / they know how to counter that OR they know it’s coming, they know how to counter it but knowing is not enough, not enough units or mismicro or anything. Do you remember Dreamhack finals between Huk and Moon, when Moon was playing mindgames, he made a base to make Huk think it’s a macro opening, but then he canceled the base and went for a roach push, but Huk DIDNT SEE THIS BASE and thought it’s a roach push initially :D Dont outsmart yourself, you’re gonna fail.

You are playing same guy a few time in a row on the ladder. Few days ago DIMAGA was at my place after WCS Season finals, I was laddering, raped same barcode zerg 4 times in a row, then I didnt play as good and lost fifth game, I was like “Damn, I lost, I dont know what to do!” He said “Oh, man, you won 4 games in a row, accidentally lost fifth game and now you’re so upset? WTF?” Yeah, really, what the hell? :D You need to take each game as separate one, it’s a bo1. Even if you’re playing bo5-7-9, you need to take this as 5-7-9 bo1s and concentrate on each map! You lost, you made conclusions, understood your mistakes, that’s it, time to move on. Concentrate and forget about all that random shit!

Some small and not really essential things may discourage you as well. You’re cheesing and seea good defence, already want to leave the game / you scouted army mix that counters your army perfectly / you found a ninja base that’s close to be mined out. That’s not a big deal, that’s just some bad situation to deal with or maybe some bad luck, but at this moment you’re like

In order to explain it a little better, let’s compare SC2 to boxing. You practice every day, you get some knowledge and skills, if you are in bad mood or if you are talking to somebody in the room you’re still doing ok because you already have some muscle memory and reflexes, you got triggers for every situation: if he does x, I do y, so simple. And if you are boxing with someone, you dont get sad or mad when he defended or dodged your attack, you cant get back, you move on, if you think about some random stuff for a second - you get punched. But in Starcraft2 we are not so worried about our life, our health, because that’s just a computer game, but why cant we imagine so and do our best no matter what? I’m not saying it’s easy, I cant do it myself, those are only my thought and conclusion I made and I am going to implement, but that sounds legit, doesnt’ it?

Now it’s time for some smart quotes. I am a well known person with good authority to say smart thing, but if I give you some quotes of top players, you’ll trust me!

Innovation: Was it difficult to overcome the reverse sweep loss during the finals of the WCS KR Premier League?



I’m a rather emotionless person so it really didn’t affect me all that much. After I won the third game and the score became 3-0 during the finals today I started remembering the WCS KR Season 1 finals. I work really hard so that I could make sure I kept my focus on the game.

The best player in the world lost by accident to a reverse kill leading 3-0, and he cares less than you losing 1 game on the ladder! I imagine INnoVation coming to the prohouse after the finals, all the players, coaches are like: “Hey, do you want to talk about it?” “Sorry, got no time for this shit, I need to practice!” He wants to be the best, he doesnt get depressed if he loses, that’s just another step forward!

Soulkey: Q. You claimed your first championship with a dramatic comeback. Anything to say regarding your victory?





My desire to win was huge and motivated me to put in a lot of effort. When I was losing 0:3, I thought to myself “this is really difficult”, but I think the reason for my victory was because I managed to recover my mentality. I am really happy. I cried because I became emotional, but I will make sure not to cry next time.

No emotions during the games, but you can be happy or sad before or after!

Q. You lost 3 games in a row and did not look so good. How did you feel when you were down 0:3?



After I lost 3 games, I was almost out of my mind. But, after the 3rd loss, the coach and my teammates talked to me and I was able to recover little by little. My coach, who is usually strict, even talked playfully to me so that my tension can be relieved.

So the most difficult thing is to always remember that first state of the mind - the before one, if you manage to keep it - you’re gonna reach your goal! Even Soulkey was going to give up, who knows what could have happened if his coach and teammates didnt come to the booth to support him and he didnt find enough power to overcome the 0:3 situation?

That’s all for today! Thanks for reading, look forward to your feedback!