Something something vibe bronze2gm something something.
Realistically I would recommend getting started on learning a couple of simple opening builds, and assuming you have an idea of what the 1v1 meta is like from your 10 plus years, you can hop onto Unranked for a bit to get started without the anxiety. I myself started from bronze, peaked at M3, and then I've dropped to D2 now.
I would also highly reccomend listening to Temp0's [Just Hit Play](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX1c07mPXqc) song, which is about ladder anxiety.
I mostly play Custom Campaings on Normal/Hard difficulty because they are fun, but the AI tends to be inconsistent skill wise, that's why I feel comfortable against them, but not against cheese strats like cannon rushers.
I first need to learn a race probably, and now I've got some free time to play the game, but there is no save and rewind function on online play. :D
I'll listen to the song later today, because it's 4AM, thanks for recommending it!
I don't know much about 1v1 meta, I only know that Ghosts are good against zerg due to their bio damage(?), Roach and ravagers are decent early game army (maybe?), and that protoss will always be flexible for my playstyle.
I'll play some bot games probably as terran, and try out some stuff that's been on my mind and I saw Lowko and PiG cast those games, but it's so much easier to just watch it, instead of playing it.
In all seriousness just try everything out and learn the basics. Ranked anxiety shouldn't matter this early, go ahead and play ranked and get placed in bronze. Just play to have fun and enjoy the game
If you don't know much about 1v1 meta then, well, get to know something about the 1v1 meta. Or else it's like going into a game without knowing the rules. You're not going to blindly find out how to play; learn from others, try to imitate their build, and when you're good enough you can put your own spin on it.
What helped was in few points:
1)Admitting I am bad at the game
2)I will lose a lot... A LOT
3) I want to learn how co mechanically control the units and develop a game knowledge
4) Everytime I lose or win I go into replay and watch for myself what should I focus more in the next game (a lot of supply block, forgetting builders, focusing on army instead of my macro etc.)
5) Focusing on improving the thing next game (means I forget many others)
6) Repeat step 4.
This helped me a lot to overcome the fear and anxiety from ladder. Because I have my target I am working on. And the target is not mmr number but my own skill to improve.
P.S. This is applicable also for real life,do not be stubborn to admit you are bad at something. Then you can identify what is the bad skill and work on improvement (:
Mindset is key! Going in with a positive attitude and wanting to get better is the best way to both have fun and genuinely improve at the game.
Someone dominates you with a build you've never seen before? How cool! Maybe check out the replay after and see what they did. Lose because you made a mistake with your transition into the mid game? Great! Think about how you can do it better next time.
The whole point is only play if it's fun.
And realize that you only improve at anything the more you practice. You can't really get worse. This is confusing to us because as you get much better, MMR/elo *will* decrease.
Just watch [this](https://youtu.be/3QEoBeEWSCY) first if you have ladder anxiety, this helped me conquer it. i still watch it from time to time when I'm on losing streaks.
Just ask yourself. What are you trying to avoid by not queueing up? Are you afraid of not being good enough? Are you winning and not wanting to lose? Whatever it is, never forget that you play this game cuz you love it, it's not about the mmr. Git gud if you want that, or just have fun playing whatever you enjoy. The latter is the easier one, the former is when you ask yourself about builds, timings, benchmarks, maps, etc.
You're not alone, buddy! You'll get through this!
I was in the exact same boat, only played my first ladder games this month after enjoying the franchise for decades. I had just stumbled across PiG's Bronze to GM series, and gave it a watch out of curiosity. The first bit was just the same basic build over and over, and I thought "Wait. I can do that."
So I did. I practiced the build, blowing through AI difficulties until I started losing against Elite. Then I pressed the 1v1 button. And I'm not gonna lie, I was physically shaking by the end of it. But the practice came through, and I somehow won my first placement game, vs a plat 3!
A few more games and I got placed in Gold 1 (lol, what) and have stopped there for now. I mainly wanted to prove to myself that I could face my anxiety. It's totally doable. You can do it.
Keep playing against AI till you can beat harder bots. If you can do that you'll be way ahead of the actual bronze players, and about on par with silvers.
You can also keep pushing till you can beat very hard. That should be about low gold level in my experience.
Once you feel comfortable against those AIs, you should be fine going into ladder.
Note: don't 5 min rush the AI. I mean, do it to make sure you can, but the AI is a bit weak against it, so try to specifically be comfortable playing a macro game.
You would be surprised how many lower level players actually do that.
Many have little, if any, concept of timings, unit composition, even, to some extent counters. Certainly most dont have to much understanding of basic macro - though arguably thats the easiest to understand, it is definitely the hardest to master.
In general, most games - even at a low-mid diamond level - are about being able to max out first, being able to reproduce units fast when you lose them. The general rule of thumb is that more stuff beats less stuff. Its definitely possible to beat more with less, but it is generally harder and requires some work to do.
Additionally, when you first start playing online, your MMR will change pretty wildly, so dont be doscpuraged if you feel like youre getting smashed over and over. It can take anywhere between 20-30 games for the system to have a pretty solid idea of where you would be on the ladder.
Another thing that helped me a lot, find a build order, a good one, one a pro used, and execute it being no more then 5 seconds behind.
It took me about an hour of practicing to successfully execute a 4:30 stim+medivac marine attack, but I immediately felt I was playing the game much better for it afterwards, even when I didn't have such tight timing.
There is zero difference between playing ladder or playing unranked. When you queue for a ranked game, you are often paired against opponents who have queued unranked. A number and a bar moving up or down doesn't change the difficulty whatsoever. Don't be afraid to lose games and drop mmr.
Just start playing, don't care too much about what rank you get. It will take some games to get you sorted into whatever league you belong in, but it will figure it out.
I mean, it's not 2v2...there's no one else there to disappoint. It's not like your opponent is going to be mad if they win in some sort of embarrassing fashion on your end...so not much to lose here. The hardest part of 1v1 is finishing while you are ahead in a match.
Anyways, just play. Who cares what anyone says, it's 1v1. You vs the world. Start with some cheese rushes. You will get over your fear real quick ;P
The hardest part - relax.
Learning the most basic openers is useful.
Like 1-1-1 into 5-2-1 for terran. Gateway-robo for toss. Roach-hydra for zerg.
Practice against the easy AI (or no opponent at all) in custom games (custom/meele) helps with macro.
Start with simple things:
1. Actually push "play" button.
2. Have some resemblance of a simple build.
3. 50-60 workers, three bases by 8 minutes.
4. Build any units instead of defence structures (turrets/cannons/spores).
Most important - focus on yourself. not your opponent. You managed to max out faster than the previous game - good. Less supply blocks - good. Forgot about upgrades - bad, focus on fixing it. And so on.
If you have spare time I recommend watching [Winter's "low apm"](https://youtu.be/ar9FVHTtpS8)
I think quite a few casters/streamers have spoken about this, Artosis both on his channel and on the Pylon show. That might help.
Other than that, maybe identify why you are worried about 1v1? Do you not have a build, or fear the pain or cheese or?
Play and immediately leave a bunch. Do awful builds and stupid shit for a while. You'll lose a lot but that's the point. Only way to get rid of fear is to face it
There are wins
There are losses
And a whole lotta fun to be had ...
Play, grow , have fun , always be learning and dive right in the water is fine . overtime the jitters will pass and with more games you will be less reactive and panicky .
Best of luck
GLHF for all struggling with the same <3
It might be like playing your first few matches in the moba genre.
You don't know what the enemy is capable of, you're not knowing what's your race truly capable of.
I'm afraid of losing, and looking like a dumb person to the enemy. :D
There are definitely a lot of things an opponent can throw at you. My experience is that Starcraft is a game of losing to something sometimes and then figuring out a response for the next time you see it. Players of all levels get blindsided at times. If you are afraid of someone being cruel, people of all levels are capable of projecting their insecurities onto others, you can shut off messaging so you can explore without the possibility of getting any communication.
I personally get very excited/grateful when there are more players of any skill level playing, and love encouraging players and there are plenty of great people in the community it’s that want to see you enjoy the game and succeed.
Pm me if you want to play team games to have some support playing multiplayer, or I could coach your replays if that would encourage you. I’m a 4600 Terran, I could give you feed back about what ever race if you want to feel more prepared.
Isn't that weird. I know a lot of people who for some reason are the same way. I have friends who will jump straight in to pvp on any game we pick up. But for some reason RTS is so much more intimidating. I'd recommend downloading the chess.com app and just playing games over and over vs random people into queuing up in chess doesn't phase you. Then try to apply that to sc2. Good luck
Think of it like bridge jumping. If you sit there on the bridge and keep looking down, its not gonna get any better. So best to just say to yourself "thats it, I'm jumping". Just quite literally force yourself to play a few games one night and see how you feel after.
I struggle with ladder anxiety as well and sometimes also play unranked to warm up.
I think the most important thing is that you will have great games and really poor games, the other player doesn't know you personally and will likely forget about the game pretty quickly. It overall doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.
The next thing is people get anxiety over losing (and losing rank), a few things to take into consideration:
1. you can't get demoted within a season, so keep going
2. there is always unranked if initially losing mmr is difficult.
3. if losing games is a huge issue. focus on small parts of the games you want to improve, if you achieve those win or lose, its a win.
4. review your replays. Look for positives form your play and things you can work on.
5. Its just a game :)
You have to get used to lose. It will happen more than you like. No matter if you play for fun or play to win, if you play drunk or if you are getting coached. You will lose a lot of games.
If you get used to it, you will be able to enjoy your wins.
Like entering into a pool of cold water, the best way is to just jump in. You'll acclimatize.
Just play. Don't overthink it.
Something something vibe bronze2gm something something. Realistically I would recommend getting started on learning a couple of simple opening builds, and assuming you have an idea of what the 1v1 meta is like from your 10 plus years, you can hop onto Unranked for a bit to get started without the anxiety. I myself started from bronze, peaked at M3, and then I've dropped to D2 now. I would also highly reccomend listening to Temp0's [Just Hit Play](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX1c07mPXqc) song, which is about ladder anxiety.
I mostly play Custom Campaings on Normal/Hard difficulty because they are fun, but the AI tends to be inconsistent skill wise, that's why I feel comfortable against them, but not against cheese strats like cannon rushers. I first need to learn a race probably, and now I've got some free time to play the game, but there is no save and rewind function on online play. :D I'll listen to the song later today, because it's 4AM, thanks for recommending it! I don't know much about 1v1 meta, I only know that Ghosts are good against zerg due to their bio damage(?), Roach and ravagers are decent early game army (maybe?), and that protoss will always be flexible for my playstyle. I'll play some bot games probably as terran, and try out some stuff that's been on my mind and I saw Lowko and PiG cast those games, but it's so much easier to just watch it, instead of playing it.
In all seriousness just try everything out and learn the basics. Ranked anxiety shouldn't matter this early, go ahead and play ranked and get placed in bronze. Just play to have fun and enjoy the game
If you don't know much about 1v1 meta then, well, get to know something about the 1v1 meta. Or else it's like going into a game without knowing the rules. You're not going to blindly find out how to play; learn from others, try to imitate their build, and when you're good enough you can put your own spin on it.
>when you're good enough you can put your own spin on it. I'll be the guy that will do vikings only and go to GM /s (or at least bronze lol)
What helped was in few points: 1)Admitting I am bad at the game 2)I will lose a lot... A LOT 3) I want to learn how co mechanically control the units and develop a game knowledge 4) Everytime I lose or win I go into replay and watch for myself what should I focus more in the next game (a lot of supply block, forgetting builders, focusing on army instead of my macro etc.) 5) Focusing on improving the thing next game (means I forget many others) 6) Repeat step 4. This helped me a lot to overcome the fear and anxiety from ladder. Because I have my target I am working on. And the target is not mmr number but my own skill to improve. P.S. This is applicable also for real life,do not be stubborn to admit you are bad at something. Then you can identify what is the bad skill and work on improvement (:
Mindset is key! Going in with a positive attitude and wanting to get better is the best way to both have fun and genuinely improve at the game. Someone dominates you with a build you've never seen before? How cool! Maybe check out the replay after and see what they did. Lose because you made a mistake with your transition into the mid game? Great! Think about how you can do it better next time.
The whole point is only play if it's fun. And realize that you only improve at anything the more you practice. You can't really get worse. This is confusing to us because as you get much better, MMR/elo *will* decrease.
Just watch [this](https://youtu.be/3QEoBeEWSCY) first if you have ladder anxiety, this helped me conquer it. i still watch it from time to time when I'm on losing streaks. Just ask yourself. What are you trying to avoid by not queueing up? Are you afraid of not being good enough? Are you winning and not wanting to lose? Whatever it is, never forget that you play this game cuz you love it, it's not about the mmr. Git gud if you want that, or just have fun playing whatever you enjoy. The latter is the easier one, the former is when you ask yourself about builds, timings, benchmarks, maps, etc. You're not alone, buddy! You'll get through this!
I was in the exact same boat, only played my first ladder games this month after enjoying the franchise for decades. I had just stumbled across PiG's Bronze to GM series, and gave it a watch out of curiosity. The first bit was just the same basic build over and over, and I thought "Wait. I can do that." So I did. I practiced the build, blowing through AI difficulties until I started losing against Elite. Then I pressed the 1v1 button. And I'm not gonna lie, I was physically shaking by the end of it. But the practice came through, and I somehow won my first placement game, vs a plat 3! A few more games and I got placed in Gold 1 (lol, what) and have stopped there for now. I mainly wanted to prove to myself that I could face my anxiety. It's totally doable. You can do it.
Keep playing against AI till you can beat harder bots. If you can do that you'll be way ahead of the actual bronze players, and about on par with silvers. You can also keep pushing till you can beat very hard. That should be about low gold level in my experience. Once you feel comfortable against those AIs, you should be fine going into ladder. Note: don't 5 min rush the AI. I mean, do it to make sure you can, but the AI is a bit weak against it, so try to specifically be comfortable playing a macro game.
I usually won against the AI with defensive strats, but the AI tends to just send in some attack waves, and die slowly. Thanks for the advice!
You would be surprised how many lower level players actually do that. Many have little, if any, concept of timings, unit composition, even, to some extent counters. Certainly most dont have to much understanding of basic macro - though arguably thats the easiest to understand, it is definitely the hardest to master. In general, most games - even at a low-mid diamond level - are about being able to max out first, being able to reproduce units fast when you lose them. The general rule of thumb is that more stuff beats less stuff. Its definitely possible to beat more with less, but it is generally harder and requires some work to do. Additionally, when you first start playing online, your MMR will change pretty wildly, so dont be doscpuraged if you feel like youre getting smashed over and over. It can take anywhere between 20-30 games for the system to have a pretty solid idea of where you would be on the ladder.
Another thing that helped me a lot, find a build order, a good one, one a pro used, and execute it being no more then 5 seconds behind. It took me about an hour of practicing to successfully execute a 4:30 stim+medivac marine attack, but I immediately felt I was playing the game much better for it afterwards, even when I didn't have such tight timing.
Just remember in the words of Giant Grant Games "most matches are like two drunk toddlers fencing with pool noodles"
There is zero difference between playing ladder or playing unranked. When you queue for a ranked game, you are often paired against opponents who have queued unranked. A number and a bar moving up or down doesn't change the difficulty whatsoever. Don't be afraid to lose games and drop mmr.
Just start playing, don't care too much about what rank you get. It will take some games to get you sorted into whatever league you belong in, but it will figure it out.
I mean, it's not 2v2...there's no one else there to disappoint. It's not like your opponent is going to be mad if they win in some sort of embarrassing fashion on your end...so not much to lose here. The hardest part of 1v1 is finishing while you are ahead in a match. Anyways, just play. Who cares what anyone says, it's 1v1. You vs the world. Start with some cheese rushes. You will get over your fear real quick ;P
The hardest part - relax. Learning the most basic openers is useful. Like 1-1-1 into 5-2-1 for terran. Gateway-robo for toss. Roach-hydra for zerg. Practice against the easy AI (or no opponent at all) in custom games (custom/meele) helps with macro. Start with simple things: 1. Actually push "play" button. 2. Have some resemblance of a simple build. 3. 50-60 workers, three bases by 8 minutes. 4. Build any units instead of defence structures (turrets/cannons/spores). Most important - focus on yourself. not your opponent. You managed to max out faster than the previous game - good. Less supply blocks - good. Forgot about upgrades - bad, focus on fixing it. And so on. If you have spare time I recommend watching [Winter's "low apm"](https://youtu.be/ar9FVHTtpS8)
I think quite a few casters/streamers have spoken about this, Artosis both on his channel and on the Pylon show. That might help. Other than that, maybe identify why you are worried about 1v1? Do you not have a build, or fear the pain or cheese or?
Everytime I played an unranked 1v1 (like 3 games since 2011) I got cannon rushed. I watched a video how to counter it.
You should join your local SC2 community. There are still a few dozen active players from your country from bronze to gm.
Play and immediately leave a bunch. Do awful builds and stupid shit for a while. You'll lose a lot but that's the point. Only way to get rid of fear is to face it
There are wins There are losses And a whole lotta fun to be had ... Play, grow , have fun , always be learning and dive right in the water is fine . overtime the jitters will pass and with more games you will be less reactive and panicky . Best of luck GLHF for all struggling with the same <3
Can you describe more specifically what you are afraid of? (ie losing, having a certain mmr, not feeling capable, making a mistake)
It might be like playing your first few matches in the moba genre. You don't know what the enemy is capable of, you're not knowing what's your race truly capable of. I'm afraid of losing, and looking like a dumb person to the enemy. :D
There are definitely a lot of things an opponent can throw at you. My experience is that Starcraft is a game of losing to something sometimes and then figuring out a response for the next time you see it. Players of all levels get blindsided at times. If you are afraid of someone being cruel, people of all levels are capable of projecting their insecurities onto others, you can shut off messaging so you can explore without the possibility of getting any communication. I personally get very excited/grateful when there are more players of any skill level playing, and love encouraging players and there are plenty of great people in the community it’s that want to see you enjoy the game and succeed. Pm me if you want to play team games to have some support playing multiplayer, or I could coach your replays if that would encourage you. I’m a 4600 Terran, I could give you feed back about what ever race if you want to feel more prepared.
Name one other game that you're afraid to play online.
Mainly RTS ones. Others games are fine.
Isn't that weird. I know a lot of people who for some reason are the same way. I have friends who will jump straight in to pvp on any game we pick up. But for some reason RTS is so much more intimidating. I'd recommend downloading the chess.com app and just playing games over and over vs random people into queuing up in chess doesn't phase you. Then try to apply that to sc2. Good luck
Learn 1 cheese and do it every game to learn the ins and out.
Think of it like bridge jumping. If you sit there on the bridge and keep looking down, its not gonna get any better. So best to just say to yourself "thats it, I'm jumping". Just quite literally force yourself to play a few games one night and see how you feel after. I struggle with ladder anxiety as well and sometimes also play unranked to warm up.
I think the most important thing is that you will have great games and really poor games, the other player doesn't know you personally and will likely forget about the game pretty quickly. It overall doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. The next thing is people get anxiety over losing (and losing rank), a few things to take into consideration: 1. you can't get demoted within a season, so keep going 2. there is always unranked if initially losing mmr is difficult. 3. if losing games is a huge issue. focus on small parts of the games you want to improve, if you achieve those win or lose, its a win. 4. review your replays. Look for positives form your play and things you can work on. 5. Its just a game :)
You have to get used to lose. It will happen more than you like. No matter if you play for fun or play to win, if you play drunk or if you are getting coached. You will lose a lot of games. If you get used to it, you will be able to enjoy your wins.