The Starcraft II beta has been going on for some time now. And for those who've been monitoring it's progress, it's been getting alot of updates to keep the game balanced. The latest occured just today, and improves some Terran and Protoss units, but that's not what im writing about. I'm writing about the strange phenomenon of me being able to place within the top 3 of the bronze league prior to the game taking a planned hiatus, and not even being within the top 25 now that the beta is openly available to play again. What gives? Sure I enjoy the new polish to some of the units, and the UI, but seriously? Do I suck that bad? Nevertheless it really doesn't matter how many times I get my ass kicked I just get back up for more. I must be part masochist. Either that or Blizzard has really hit the mark for the new Starcraft and im just falling back into the addiction that the original Starcraft caused when it was first released. Either way I foresee many sleepness nights.

I feel your pain. I used to play the first one a lot but i got my ass handed to me frequently in the 2 beta.
Due to mostly luck i placed pretty well in the silver rank in 2 v 2. I had one really good game then had two games where i got demolished but my partner cleaned up. I'm a little frightened to go back in. I don't think i belong there.

We need a group for crummy people to play each other.

I had trouble sitting after 2v2 matches paired another GBer.
 
On the wrong end of the rape train. D:

Ive been playing SCI since 1998 and played a few tornys. Id love to play with some GB Guys : ) 
I run Toss Or Zerg.  
8 Pool Rush FTW

Whats happened to me is that i play the placement matches and win 4-5 and then get placed in the gold/platnium league and get trashed repeatedly.

" @audiosnag:  @devosion: 
 
I was hoping to lazy-web this into existence but I went and made it myself, http://steamcommunity.com/groups/S2KP. "

" We need a group for crummy people to play each other. "

Pro tip - You won't be pro in a day.  Took me months and months, the most I got in iccup was C-, and that was when I was playing good versus noobs.    
 
You gotta get your ass handed to you constantly.  It's the only way to learn. 
 
EDIT:  Normally I just stayed at D or D+, it will be weird to have a SC2 community without iccup.  x.x

" @Rockanomics said:

" We need a group for crummy people to play each other. "

I'm in too. Still need to get a hang of the hotkeys, I can't believe how fast some people get a hang of them.  Add me as: Anthony  in the beta. "

I suck pretty bad but I try to get in a lot of practice. I'll be up for any kind of gb community driven practice sessions.

I also suggest looking into a player by the name of Day[9] and watching some of the daily shows he does, specifically some like "Getting back to the basics" and "Plugging holes in Silver league play". They might not be the exact titles but something along those lines. I mean, in total between the two phases I've probably played maybe 20 matches yet I'm a Silver leaguer who has beaten Platinum players (not saying much as most people will tell you the skill level from BW to SC2 has dropped significantly) and back in SC1 I used to turtle with cannons and go for Carriers, while in BW my friends got me to watch replays and I started to emulate one of the higher level Terrans and while that helped me improve a bit, it was still met with limited success at best as I never played with any seriousness or regularity.
 
As many people have said though, getting better is far from an overnight process. Keep playing and taking your lumps and eventually you'll improve. One thing that helps me quite a bit, though I still have some problems keeping up, is remembering what Day[9] said in one of his dailies: "Start off with trying to remember 3 things: 1) Am I building probes? (or whatever workers for your race), 2) Am I getting close to supply blocked? and 3) Am I keeping my money low?". The last one is super important imho. I've won several matches where I've kept my money as low as possible, preferably no more than around 300 minerals or so, and only letting it build up a bit when I'm planning to expand. Meanwhile, my opponents regularly let their money rise above 1k and aren't macroing as well, so I tend to be ahead in army count and upgrades.
 
Keep at it, in time you'll start to improve and it's a great feeling. =D
 
Edit: As for hotkeys, I believe Day[9] mentioned a great way to learn them as well. When you're playing your game, don't ever build with your mouse. If you need to, mouse over what you want to build to find the hotkey (ie - 'z' for Zealots) and then use the hotkey to build the unit/structure. Sure, you'll be slower in the beginning and probably lose a whole bunch more. But when you finally get used to them, it'll improve your speed greatly, which in turn will improve your game. Just focusing on one race helps too, and the Husky video posted also gives good advice and making sure you learn the essentials that you will build every game first before the more esoteric stuff.
 
Sorry for the long-winded and perhaps slightly preachy post. I enjoyed SC and SC:BW, but for some reason my interest in SC2 is so great that any conversation I have about it gets me all hyper and blabbermouthy, lol. ^_^;

" @wchigo:   I routinely try to keep my monies around the 100 resources mark, well at least my minerals, and once it hits late game that number sky rockets, cause I think anyone with multiple expansions can't keep it low. "