Hotkey Practice

It's been a long time since I last posted, been too busy with school to play, but I wanted to let you guys in on another training concept that you might find useful.

Use every single one of your hotkeys from the beginning of the game to the end. You've only got an army of four marines at the start? Then hotkey '1' for all four, '2' for three of them, '3' for two of them, '4' for one of them, '5' for the other one of them, 67890 for the buildings.

Train yourself to utilize every hotkey, even when it is inconsequential such as at the start. When you need to use them all late game you won't struggle to move between them. Your micro at the start will improve as a result of the intelligent hotkeying and your general speed will increase as you have to reset keys whenever new units are produced. It is through this method that the pros control their units so well (being able to split them apart quickly, circle around chasing opponents, surround with weaker units, pull back injured ones) and manage large scale battles.

Cheesing

Mastering an effective cheese strategy is a very quick way to progress up to Gold/Platinum skill level but is useless without both an effective counter measure (through much practice with a partner against the most common rushes, whether you also choose to rush or play straight) and an effective failsafe if your rush is not successful. It is also critical that you can vary your strategy so you are not reliant on rushing alone.

I am not condoning anti rushing whatsoever. It is a very effective potential tool in your arsenal, however do not make it your only tool and certainly learn what to do in unsuccessful instances so as to not throw the game based on this. Learning to defend against it (whether simultaneously rushing or not and understanding which race situations you can win) should increase your overall understanding of the game which you will need to excel in Diamond.

Starcraft 2 - G198 - 1/2 - Korea - scarWerra (p) vs oGs.iNcA (t) - Repla...

oGsTheStC vs RenieHouR - TvP - Blistering Sands - StarCraft 2

Opportunity Cost of Attention

New and old players alike often lapse their concentration on important matters when concentrating on what they deem to be higher priorities. The problem is that often where they are spending their attentions does not require that amount of focus they are dedicating to it.

When moving out with your army, you don't -need- to hover your screen over them all the while. Send a worker, observer or single unit from the composition further ahead to scout for you. This enables you to continue macroing right untill the point where your minimap flashes red (The scout gets attacked, or sees enemy forces).

Create an expansion just before you push out. It allows you to get ahead economically during and after the fight for minimal effort. If you lose the fight, they will most likely go straight to your base and not see it. If you win they have little chance of finding it untill rebuilding their forces.

During a battle, you don't need to micro all the time if you can avoid it. Once the concave is set up, make use of shift queued commands to cast abilities and focus fire. Watching the battle the whole time allows you to pull injured units out and back in, but you may be missing out on all of the reinforcements you will need whether successful or not. Too many people suffer from this and amass minerals during fights.

Make use of the F1, F2, F3 etc. Hotkeys to highlight important locations and quickly return to them, it works better than devoted hotkeys to unit production. You can use these to map areas fights are most likely to occur, the enemy base to recheck what tech they have after each scouting and your expansions.

Fundamentals

http://day9tv.blip.tv/file/3991475/

A really exceptional shoutcast to make you think more about what you're doing in game. Practice, practice, practice. When things feel fluid you are probably doing it right.

Every small bump slows down your overall game. Don't concentrate on rushing buildings to fufill set build orders. Concentrate on making sure there is never a gap between a workers actions, your scout is always moving, you have control of the watch towers with 1 zergling, marine or probe. Concentrate on never being supply blocked.

These fundamentals will allow you to improve whatever the situation, whatever the map, whatever the build order you are going for. Even if you are building the incorrect strategical unit, the fluidity of your play should win the game.

At most levels perfect execution of any strategy > subpar execution of the optimal.

StarCraft 2 - Crota - ArgoOs(Z) vs Roweaknina(P) on Lost Temple Part 1