Many people wonder why Koreans are consistently beating the rest of the world in Starcraft. Only a few foreigners are capable of getting decent results against Koreans, but no one is consistently beating them, which in my opinion is an important factor if you want to call yourself a good player. We don’t really have a real champion like Manuel “Grubby” Schenkhuizen was in Warcraft 3. Let’s be honest, a real champion is someone who is not just capable of winning a single championship, but also defend’s their belt.

Starcraft championship at Dreamhack. Photo by Helena Kristiansson

Could it be that the domination of the scene by Koreans results in fewer viewers on live streams? It’s not the only reason, but I do think it plays an important role in the popularity of the game. There were no Dutch people watching the Formula 1 until Max Verstappen qualified. And why would a Jamaican watch the Olympics if Usain Bolt isn’t attending, even though there are other Jamaicans attending? People are missing a national hero. Not someone who is good, but someone who is a real champion. Yes, there is a little nationalism inside all of us.

So what is the secret to making Starcraft popular again? Easy. We need someone that wakes up in the morning with the first thought being “I am going to be the best player in Starcraft and win Blizzcon”. His friends will laugh, but that doesn’t stop the passionated person from practicing hard. Someone who, when his hands are hurting from playing to much continues, because nothing is going to stop this superhuman from becoming the next god in Starcraft. They key to success is passion, resilience and working beyond your own boundaries.

Who is this next machine?

That person is you. You wouldn’t be reading this article if you weren’t interested in Starcraft. But the fact you have a job and are in a relationship stopped you from thinking clear. Deep inside you wanna be on that stage defeating the best players out there. Why does a relationship or a job stop you from becoming the next undisputed champion in Starcraft? Conor McGregor who is a MMA fighter didn’t get champion because he had talent. He became this good because he worked as hard as he can. He quit his job and he and his wife weren’t sure whether there was food on the table the next day or not. Another reason was that his wife is a great support to him. She payed the bills, while Conor was practicing every day, so he could knock out his opponents, and get where he is now.

How can you call yourself a champion if you don’t measure the position of your keyboard. Photo by dailyesports.com

Sir, yes sir

You are going to practice every day, but you are also going to have fun. The first thing you will do is join a team. Then you will practice. Grind the ladder to work on your mechanics, but play customs with your teammates to actually learn how to play, by playing the same matchup continuously and critically analysing each others game.

After a few days of practice you notice you are frustrated. You lose all your games to all-ins on ladder and your teammates will beat you 10 games in a row. That is the moment you will continue. Accept your loss like a man, analyse your games either alone or with your teammates and improve your game.

Start playing practice clan wars, online tournaments/qualifiers and attend local LAN party’s to meet people and improve your skill level. Don’t worry about losing, and especially not versus high level players. There is a good chance only good players will be playing, because all those other people on think they will lose anyways, which is the wrong attitude. Don’t worry about your name hanging on the bracket with a loss, your goal is not to make a name for yourself, but to get better at the game. Some people even hide behind bar codes because they literally gave to much shit about losing with their actual nickname, well you don’t.

After work, I just want to go sleep

That’s an excuse. You feel tired because you aren’t passionated enough about your dream. Even though it’s a fact you only have a certain amount of energy a day. Many times people feel less energised because they aren’t putting their thoughts into action. The moment you work on your goals, you will start feeling more satisfied and you will feel that your energy tank is bigger than you thought. I am kickboxing five times a week and I know what it is to be mentally exhausted. But whenever my trainer pushes me to keep going, and when I actually do it, I notice that I still have plenty of energy left. This life is made in a way where people that try and go beyond the boundaries, will achieve.

Coach or be coached

Whenever somebody is mastering a certain craft, he works and once he is old and experienced they will teach someone else. In Starcraft this is kind of similar. It is a good thing to be coached by other people, especially people that are better than you, because they already fixed the flaws that you still make. Joining a larger community with a lot of higher level players will help you immensely to improve when they are available to coach you. But don’t forget to actually do the homework they gave you. When they say you have to improve your scouting in matchup X, you really have to think and apply it.

Explore structural patterns (common mistakes)

Coaching when you’re not that great of a player yet is also a good thing to do. Whenever you can coach other people, you will also learn. You are thinking about what someone should improve. This skill will help you read opponents. Whenever I played in local LAN events I did all the preparation I could to beat people. I would scroll through their match history, watch all the replays I could find and check for commonly made mistakes. Sometimes those patterns where map specific. When finding those mistakes, I would prepare my builds. I would even go all-in three times in a row, even if he holds it once. I had a tournament where I played dark templar three times in a row versus a better player than me, he was statistically at least, and then won the series. I felt great and played an the rest of the tournament went even better, because I was on confidence steroids.

I would scroll through their match history, watch all the replays I could find and check for commonly made mistakes.

Developers learn to write documentation, so should pro gamers

When I started programming I quickly learned that the experienced developers would document the most important notes. This helped them to solve earlier found problems which they could use in any project. In the world of programming documentation is often open source (public to anyone), sometimes internally for the company. This allows people to collaborate. Pro gamers should do the same, you should. Write down build orders, tips, divide them in chapters and using a table of contents, note references to replays or other contents and so on.

Some of my notes

Could you give examples of what I should document?

Recently I wanted to improve my ZvZ. When I was searching YouTube I found out PiG has amazing vod’s about improving your game. It might be super obvious to you, but when he told me to put send an overlord to the opponent’s main, one to the natural to check for expansions and one at my own exit to check for morphing banes, I actually learned something new. Even though I could have thought about this myself, the fact that he said it and says it in a way that I feel like he’s right, made me actually note it down and apply it in my game. Writing those thing down I put my neurons to work. Going through my notebook now and then reading the notes I make, will strengthen those neurons. Strengthening those neurons will actually increase your performance under pressure when playing important tournaments.

The theory that became a myth

For a long time we Europeans and Americans thought that being in a game house with a bunch of other pro gamers day in day out, would improve your game effectively. However the performance of firstly Byun “ByuN” Hyun Woo and now Koh “Gumiho” Byung Jae have shocked the world. Practicing solo in a house, with or without their parents, they have dominated and the biggest tournament of Korea, also known as the GSL. So again, you can do this, your passion and dedication needs to be top notch. And especially enjoy the game.

A brief summary of what you should do

Join a team/community to socialise and practice

Grind the ladder to improve your mechanics

Take small steps. Work on your early game before you even think about the mid-game

Set focus. Don’t immediately aim for the highest. Monday I focus scouting in matchup X. Tuesday I focus micro. Wednesday I focus spending all my resources, and so on

Write down important notes from replays in the notebook (documentation) that you will buy at a local shop. Especially analyse your losses

Playing in online tournaments/qualifiers, clan wars and attend local LAN events

Coach or be coached

A beer once in a while as Nal_rA would have said. Watch his series to see a real hard working person. Personally I think alcohol is poison, so don’t take this from me

References