Besides practicing, what are some great ways to become a better player?

So I wrote this post a long time ago and everything here still applies, however, there is one Day9 Daily that has happened since that deserves mentioning:

  • The Mental Check List

I'll admit its a really good one, but not so good that I couldn't just add it to the current list of Dailies. To be worth its own section I would need something like:

  • The Day9 Coacher

That's right, someone took the mental check list daily and made it into a program you can use... to get better. Now I don't mention this a lot but my day job is a programmer, so the first thing I did was crack it open and start adding new sounds:

  • Spreed Creep
  • Vomit Larva
  • Stop Playing So Badly

These are trivial to implement and since he provides source code, you can even toss in whatever you think is appropriate.

I learned large portions of my knowledge by watching the Day9 Dailies. I believe he not only offers a steady supply of high level play and in depth analysis, but he also highlights issues that newer players often have.

As a starter I'd suggest the following:

  • Idra's solid ZvP opening
  • Brat_OK's TvP Special
  • White_ra's PvP Blink Stalkers
  • Back to the Basics
  • Gold Level 2v2
  • Plugging Leaks in Silver level play
  • Learning from a loss
  • Fine Tuning an Opening

Among other things he'll stress the importance of:

  • Splitting and rallying workers
  • Sending builders prior to having the minerals
  • "Normal" build orders
  • Having lots of "stuff"
  • Keeping Minerals and Energy low (for macro)
  • Powering drones
  • Transferring workers
  • Expanding when you attack
  • Timing pushes

I'd also avoid anything with TheLittleOne (TLO) in it. While his style is amazingly fun to watch, he plays on such a high level that little can be learned from his replays until you're more advanced.

Now once you've watched all those and practiced your builds my next advice is PRACTICE MOAR. To help with this I suggest YABOT. It'll allow you to practice your builds again and again without having to load a new game (it has an in game reset). Smooth out your builds till you start playing like Machine

After that you can look at Gosu Coaching to help bring your play up to more competitive standards.

Also, if you need a practice partner my Starcraft 2 account email is [email protected]

There are also a number of good articles here on gaming.se:

  • What build order should I use for Zerg in Starcraft 2
  • What are popular opening builds for Terran in Starcraft 2
  • What are popular build orders for Protoss in Starcraft 2
  • Scouting in Starcraft 2

There is also a good article on SC abbreviations on battle.net as well as a Beginners Guide


Complete the challenges.

For example the "Harbinger of Death" challenge will only allow you to use hotkeys to issue commands. To win you will have to learn the hotkey commmands, and in theory become a faster player once you've mastered the challenge.


  • Learn all hotkeys.
  • Train, train and train. Play as often as you can.
  • Watch replays when you think you struggle with something. There's no point to play if you are frustrated that you are losing and you know you are doing something wrong.
  • Follow various forums about the game.
  • Talk with fellow players about the game, share tactics and tips.
  • Learn from your own mistakes.

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Starcraft 2

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