Plan a game, then review it

Lesson

14 of 14

Watch

A written lesson, no video

Practise

A checkpoint và a plan for your next game

This is the last lesson, and it is all practice. You will plan a series game by game, review your own replays with a structure that finds the real mistake, and finish with a final project that turns one idea from this course into something you have tested yourself.

What you will learn

• How to plan a best of three or best of five before the first game starts.
• What to change after a loss, and what to leave alone.
• A written replay review that takes fifteen minutes and finds the one thing that decided a game.
• How to pick a strategy that fits you rather than the player you watched.
• The final project: take one idea, test it, and publish it for others to pull apart.

Plan the series before it starts

A series is not three separate games. It is one contest where each game tells your opponent something about you. Plan it that way.

Before game 1

Write down, for each map in the pool:

1. Your default plan on that map in this matchup. What you open, when you expand, what your army looks like at ten minutes.
2. What the map favours. Rush distance, how easy the natural is to hold, whether there is a back door or a cliff to drop.
3. Your switch. One different plan you can play on the same map if the default loses.

Then write what you know about your opponent. Their race, their favourite opening if you have seen it, whether they like long games or short ones. Predicting what they will do is worth more than any build.

After a loss

Ask one question first: did I lose to their plan, or to my execution?

• Lost to their plan. They did something your default cannot handle. Switch. Play your alternative, or a plan that punishes what they just did.
• Lost to your execution. Your plan was fine and you played it badly: supply blocked, idle production, a bad fight. Do not switch. Play the same plan again and play it cleanly.

Most players switch after every loss. That throws away a good plan because of a bad five minutes.

After a win

Expect them to adapt. If you won with an early attack, they will probably be ready for it next game. Decide before the game whether you repeat it, because they may overprepare, or play the opposite.

The mindset

• Reset between games. The last game is data, not a mood. Take a breath, write one line about what you learned, then load in.
• Pressure that works, keep applying. If one kind of pressure hurt them, do not go looking for something new. Hit the same weakness until they fix it.
• Lose well. A loss where you can name the reason is progress. See losing well.

Play to your strengths

A strategy is only good relative to the player using it. Before you copy a build, check it against yourself:

• If you macro well, choose longer games with more bases. You win by being bigger.
• If you macro poorly, choose plans that end the game before it matters, or that force the kind of game you are good at.
• If your micro is strong, choose plans with many small fights. Every skirmish is a chance to trade up.
• If your micro is weak, choose plans with fewer, bigger fights on good terms: defensive positions, tanks, static defence.

Then build one thing that is yours. A build tuned for one map you play often, which looks like a normal opening when it is scouted and turns into something else right after. That is worth more than any build you copied, because your opponent has not seen it.

Review a replay properly

Watching a replay is not reviewing it. A review is written, and it ends in one sentence you can act on. Use this structure every time.

1. The timeline, in five lines

Write the game as five or six timestamps, one line each: when each player expanded, when the first fight happened, when the big fight happened, when it ended. Nothing else. You are finding the shape of the game.

2. The turning points

Find two or three moments where the game changed direction. For each, write:

• What happened, in one sentence.
• Who decided it, and whether it was a decision or an accident.
• What the loser could have done in the thirty seconds before it.

3. The one thing that decided it

Out of the turning points, pick one. Only one. The thing that, if you changed it, would most likely change the result. If you cannot pick, the answer is usually the earliest one.

4. What to practise

Turn that one thing into a drill. Not "macro better", but "no idle production buildings between four and eight minutes". Play your next three games with that one goal.

For a full walk through, read how to read a replay, then try it on a game in the Replay Room.

Reading a pro game

The same structure works on a professional game, with one step added at the start: before the first fight, write what each player probably expected. What they have played before, what the map forces, what each one would fear. Most of a pro game is decided before the armies meet, by a chain of counters you can read from the build orders. Lesson 11 walks through one.

Your final project

The course ends with a project, not a test. Here is the brief.

Pick one idea from this course, test it, and publish what you found.

1. Choose a question. Start from something you can actually measure. Some that work well:
   • How much earlier does an army arrive when you take a shorter path? Does it change who wins?
   • What fraction of your army is in range during a real fight? Does arriving in an arc change it?
   • How often did one scouting trip change what you built next, over twenty games?
   • Price one bluff you use: cost against what it won, over twenty games.
   • At your actions per minute, where does one more production building stop helping?
2. Start from the simple case. Strip the question to a version you can write down: two armies, one choke, no upgrades. Then add one piece of reality at a time.
3. Test it. In the labs first (Battle, Flux, Scouting), then in at least ten of your own games. Write the numbers down.
4. Write it up. Two or three pages. The claim, the working, the numbers, and what surprised you. If the answer went against what you hoped, say so. That is still a result.
5. Publish it. Post it where better players will argue with you. The criticism is the point. It is how you find out what you missed.

Common mistakes

• Switching plans after every loss. Check first whether you lost to their plan or to your hands.
• Reviewing only losses. Wins hide mistakes too, and they are easier to look at calmly.
• Watching instead of writing. A replay you watched and did not write about teaches you almost nothing.
• Fixing five things at once. Pick one. Three games. Then the next.
• Copying a pro build that does not fit you. Match the plan to your own strengths.

Practise

• Plan a series

  Pick three maps. For each, write your default plan, what the map favours, and your switch. Play a best of three against a friend or on the ladder and follow it.

• Review two games

  One win and one loss, using the four part structure above. Fifteen minutes each.

• Start the project

  Write your question and the simple case in two sentences. Run it once in a lab tonight.

Checkpoint