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SC2 does not require you to have 300 APM. Maximizing APM is to SC2/BW as pre-optimizations are to programming in my opinion. I do agree with the rest of your p

SC2 does not require you to have 300 APM. Maximizing APM is to SC2/BW as pre-optimizations are to programming in my opinion. I do agree with the rest of your points though. I never got much into SC2 (became #1 in my Diamond league within the first month of the game being out) as it lacks several playability characteristics that the first SC had. I played BW for about 8 years and went to several tournaments and was B or better in a few early WGTour seasons. I have kept in touch with some of the other top players from my time and it is interesting to see a lot of us have moved onto things where skills we gained from playing BW definitely translate. Finance, poker and programming seem to be a common theme among most of us.

rfnslyr 13y ago
I have to respectfully disagree. When you get into the upper top X of world player, you won't find many without a high APM.
- rubiquity 13y ago
  A lot of that 300 APM is from the early stages of the game where people are spamming actions like crazy. As the game goes on the average tends to come down. I do envy the players that are able to maintain 220+ in big battles though, but I only envy them if they're microing well and queueing units at the same time.
  - rfnslyr 13y ago
    Actually no, the beginning APM isn't long enough to have a lasting impact on the next 30 minutes of the game. I have around 250 constant, no spam. Once you master hotkeys and mechanics it's second nature. It's like how when we see a piano player playing at like 500 APM. She can just hit the chords and it will still sound beautiful. That's not the point though. While you can still execute strategy at a lower APM, that extra APM helps to execute it on a new level. Am I making any sense? I feel like I'm not lol.
bitwize 13y ago
All the top guys in SC I'd heard of had APM in the high 200s at least. Maximizing APM is more like agility drills in football: a basic foundational skill whose lack will prevent you from executing even if you have a great meta game.
- vladimirralev 13y ago
  Yes, unless you specialize in cheesy builds, you have to have a great APM. I think there used to be at least 2 GMs in WoL who were just cannon rushing or 6pooling every game with 100 or so APM.
  - rfnslyr 13y ago
    Yeah that was me, sorry. I tried, for fun, to cheese my way into GM and it's entirely possible.
    - cpeterso 13y ago
      For us non-StarCraft players, what is a "cheesy build"? <:)
      - ajuc 13y ago
        It's cheesy cause it "smells" :) If enemy is scouting on time he will notice your cheese and if he reacts properly he is almost guaranteed to win no matter what. But many people don't scout (or don't understand what they see even when they scout) and then cheesy strategy is easy win. It's usually very gimmicky strategy - for example building your barracks near enemy base at the start of the game and pumping army instead of workers, or attacking with your soldiers AND workers before opponent has army to defend. Most players look down on cheese, cause it's much easier than to play a regular ("macro") game - you only need to learn a few first minutes of game and then either you won or you lost, you don't need to react to enemy, and you don't need to multitask much (you have few units and only one base at the beginning of the game). On the other hand people say that cheese keeps others "honest" - people often play greedy (skip scouting and defense to get economy faster) and cheese punish that. In tournaments when players play each other a few times choosing to cheese or not is another level of metagame.

rfnslyr 13y ago

I have to respectfully disagree. When you get into the upper top X of world player, you won't find many without a high APM.

rubiquity 13y ago
A lot of that 300 APM is from the early stages of the game where people are spamming actions like crazy. As the game goes on the average tends to come down. I do envy the players that are able to maintain 220+ in big battles though, but I only envy them if they're microing well and queueing units at the same time.
- rfnslyr 13y ago
  Actually no, the beginning APM isn't long enough to have a lasting impact on the next 30 minutes of the game. I have around 250 constant, no spam. Once you master hotkeys and mechanics it's second nature. It's like how when we see a piano player playing at like 500 APM. She can just hit the chords and it will still sound beautiful. That's not the point though. While you can still execute strategy at a lower APM, that extra APM helps to execute it on a new level. Am I making any sense? I feel like I'm not lol.

bitwize 13y ago

All the top guys in SC I'd heard of had APM in the high 200s at least. Maximizing APM is more like agility drills in football: a basic foundational skill whose lack will prevent you from executing even if you have a great meta game.

vladimirralev 13y ago
Yes, unless you specialize in cheesy builds, you have to have a great APM. I think there used to be at least 2 GMs in WoL who were just cannon rushing or 6pooling every game with 100 or so APM.
- rfnslyr 13y ago
  Yeah that was me, sorry. I tried, for fun, to cheese my way into GM and it's entirely possible.
  - cpeterso 13y ago
    For us non-StarCraft players, what is a "cheesy build"? <:)
    - ajuc 13y ago
      It's cheesy cause it "smells" :) If enemy is scouting on time he will notice your cheese and if he reacts properly he is almost guaranteed to win no matter what. But many people don't scout (or don't understand what they see even when they scout) and then cheesy strategy is easy win. It's usually very gimmicky strategy - for example building your barracks near enemy base at the start of the game and pumping army instead of workers, or attacking with your soldiers AND workers before opponent has army to defend. Most players look down on cheese, cause it's much easier than to play a regular ("macro") game - you only need to learn a few first minutes of game and then either you won or you lost, you don't need to react to enemy, and you don't need to multitask much (you have few units and only one base at the beginning of the game). On the other hand people say that cheese keeps others "honest" - people often play greedy (skip scouting and defense to get economy faster) and cheese punish that. In tournaments when players play each other a few times choosing to cheese or not is another level of metagame.