This was my record a few days ago:

Nine losses in a row. I don't always win or anything crazy, but I also don't get loss streaks like that. Each match, I wondered what I was doing wrong and yet I never went to watch replays because I just wanted to get into another match and win it... And then I didn't and lost just as bad as the last time. "gg"s at the end of each of these but even though I never rage, there were times where I just felt like "BM"ing my opponent like made, especially the few times I lost to cheesing. Then today:

An 11 win streak. I'm not even sure what changed. Maybe I was more tired in those past few days than I was today? I don't know, but I do know it messes with my mind when I'm just consistently losing and then, suddenly, winning match after match. And it makes it all the more painful when this good fortune will come to an end and I eventually find myself "gg"ing before my opponent and leaving the game.

And such are some of my woes with laddering. What are your experiences? Do you frequently experience cheesing players or bm? Are you the first person to state "gl hf" in a match or are you one to ignore it when an opponent states it themselves? When going against a Random opponent or a Zerg, I'm often suspicious when someone throws out "glhf" real early because I'm always expecting cheese, with the common greeting as a guise for what they're doing.

Are you intimidated when you ladder? I know a lot of people avoid 1v1 because they say it's stressful, but I've never found that to be the case and, if anything, I find teams to be more stressful because if I mess up, I'm letting down a team and not just myself. 

Basically, I want us to share our impressions with laddering. 

This was my record a few days ago:

Nine losses in a row. I don't always win or anything crazy, but I also don't get loss streaks like that. Each match, I wondered what I was doing wrong and yet I never went to watch replays because I just wanted to get into another match and win it... And then I didn't and lost just as bad as the last time. "gg"s at the end of each of these but even though I never rage, there were times where I just felt like "BM"ing my opponent like made, especially the few times I lost to cheesing. Then today:

An 11 win streak. I'm not even sure what changed. Maybe I was more tired in those past few days than I was today? I don't know, but I do know it messes with my mind when I'm just consistently losing and then, suddenly, winning match after match. And it makes it all the more painful when this good fortune will come to an end and I eventually find myself "gg"ing before my opponent and leaving the game.

And such are some of my woes with laddering. What are your experiences? Do you frequently experience cheesing players or bm? Are you the first person to state "gl hf" in a match or are you one to ignore it when an opponent states it themselves? When going against a Random opponent or a Zerg, I'm often suspicious when someone throws out "glhf" real early because I'm always expecting cheese, with the common greeting as a guise for what they're doing.

Are you intimidated when you ladder? I know a lot of people avoid 1v1 because they say it's stressful, but I've never found that to be the case and, if anything, I find teams to be more stressful because if I mess up, I'm letting down a team and not just myself. 

Basically, I want us to share our impressions with laddering. 

i completely avoid 1 vs 1. its way to stressful to me sadly. because i really enjoy the game itself.

but i do 2 vs 2 with a friend of mine. and i have fun there.

I don't really ladder right now because I play random and am not comfortable with enough of the matchups yet. If I were to main a race, it would probably be Terran, but even then I have a tough time with it's matchups, especially TvZ and there's sooooo many zergs on the ladder. So I'm just gradually getting better at each match up before I jump back into laddering. I would use ladder as practice, but losing is really stressful to me.

I think I had a 5 game losing streak, took a week long break, then had another 5 game losing streak... and that was the end of my motivation.

I didn't have much exposure to BM, luckily, unless it's a team game or something. Guess if you have a crew to back you up you're more prone to say silly nonsense. If it's 1v1 I just respond with something polite. Though if someone says something dumb in real life I do the same thing. Smile, make it known that I don't care about anything they say or that they even exist. Kill em with kindness! And apathy!

Usually playing tired kills laddering for me. I can't multi task at all when I'm tired, I focus on one thing too much. Also I like to BM when playing random people on ladder, but I normally wait for them to start it. I kind of find it fun, but some people are kind of weird and take it personally, so most arguments end by me not responding after a certain point.

For laddering itself, I tend to play when I can if I'm not too tired. Don't really mind about winning or losing streaks. Nothing can compare to a losing streak on poker, so I barely even notice when it happens on SC.

I have the same tedencies to have big lose streaks and big wins streaks. I think I become very lazy, least thats my theory. I also tend to lose my first few games when I sit down to ladder, not warmed up, being lazy, not scouting enough.

As for BM, I don't BM anymore, as I did in the beginning, I couldn't stand losing, but I think as you get more games under your belt you become more accustomed to losing. I notice that BM happens more at the lower levels bronze to gold for some reason, though thats just a personal observation, not a legit study on my behalf. I don't really glhf, unless my opponent says it, cause I'd much rather have as little contact with my opponent as possible, I play better that way for some reason. If we strike up a conversation I most likely always lose. Costume games is different. As for saying gg, I take that very literally. Much like NoNy (liquid tyler) does. If it wasen't a good games in my eyes, it makes no sense to say it. If the game was around 10 mins long and you lose to a 7 gate allin, then the likelyhood of me saying gg is very small. I'm not being bm, because I'm not raging, just feels wrong to do so.

How I respond to BM varies. Most of the time I just stay quiet, that seems to piss people off the most. When they are really angry I might say standard sarcastic responses like "cry me a river, or cheer up buttercup". What gets me angry though when they rage at me, is balance whinning. I hate balance whine, especially around diamond level and lower. Just play the game and analyze your play, I bet my life that there is at least one thing you could improve upon, most likely more than one. That pisses me off. Random name caling and shitting on my skill dosen't, that just amuses me.

If 1v1 is too stressful then you are taking the game way way WAY to seriously. That being said, it can get extremely infuriating when you know you have better mechanics than the other player but they just did some really cheap thing to win. There have been times when I bitch at a dude for doing something, and when I first started playing the game I would occasionally be that asshole that flew his building to the corner of the map.

Also, do as I say, not as I do, because there are still times to this day that I get really nervous when playing 1v1, even though I know the stakes are so low they barely exist.

@JacobShOckgosu said:

As for saying gg, I take that very literally. Much like NoNy (liquid tyler) does. If it wasen't a good games in my eyes, it makes no sense to say it. If the game was around 10 mins long and you lose to a 7 gate allin, then the likelyhood of me saying gg is very small. I'm not being bm, because I'm not raging, just feels wrong to do so.

I'd like to think like that, but every time someone leaves a game without saying "gg" I just find that to be impolite for some reason. Thinking about it now, maybe this thought is egotistic because they're not acknowledging the efforts I made to get a victory and just leaving? Then again, I state "gg" even if I fail real hard and lose to a 7 pool, so maybe that's not it.

@FluxWaveZ:

Maybe we just view it different, for you gg is a polite sentiment of a sort. For me it's just aknowleding that the game was good and close. Sometimes the game ends in a really anti climactic way, like recently I lost a zvz I was clearly ahead in, killed his hatch early. I was doing the Stephano style ling/infestor into ultras and I just lost to a lower upgraded roach baneling push do to my poor control. I couldn't bring myself to say gg, it was sucha bummer ending. But If I do get outplayed and I feel like there was nothing I could do, I tend to say wp.

I used to take laddering a lot more seriously than I do now; I only play 2-3 games in a row now, and never rage. Whenever anyone tries to bm me, I just say "okay" and they tend to realize I don't care and leave.

@FluxWaveZ said:

Basically, I want us to share our impressions with laddering.

Fun thread!

I'll be honest, haven't played Starcraft II much in the last year. Still like the game a lot, but my friends have moved on to other titles and/or gotten married.

I like 1v1 best actually, the "stress" if you will is what I like. I like the adrenaline kick and man does victory feel rewarding under conditions like that. I'm not intimidated, I know where my skill level is on the totem pole but I don't care.

I agree with you I find team games more stressful for the same reasons. My PC tends to really drag in those high unit games and I feel like I let the team down if my PC's slowdown make me even worse than normal.

Unlike you I guess I've always been streaky. Its' pretty typical for me to lose 5-10 in a row and then turn around and drop equally as many And then reverse it once more.

If someone's horrible. I'll just ignore them. Most bming is just silly and musing though . Engaging them if they are over the line just feeds their mania and might cause them to harass another player who might take it more personally.

I don't bm, just not my thing.

I usually say gl hf but I'll usually only gg if I've had positive interaction with the other player or respected their play (and will add wp).

Cheesing doesn't bother me and I feel like people who complain about it, need to stop whining and adapt their playstyle. Most cheeses can be repelled with proper scouting/builds and if you can't there's no shame in it. It happens.

It's difficult but you need to watch games you lose, if you want to improve you have to view your mistakes with reason and understand why you lost and where you can improve. don't need to watch them straight after but when you find yourself not in the mood to ladder just click on a game without knowing if you won or lost and just watch what you do and you will see the mistakes they become so obvious when you look at it a second time.

As for the BM just ignore it, it doesn't hurt that much just try and play games with the intention of enjoying everything that happens good or bad then be really nice to your opponent it will really annoy people who are out there to upset everyone they beat and you also make the people who lose feel better.

Also you will have a 50/50 win rate if you are at your skill level on ladder so if you lose 9 you will as you did win 11 in a row as your mmr dropped a fair bit from the loses you win lots in a row and it picks back up the system works :D

when i ladder i made a rule for my self, if i loose more than 3 games in a row and im just 'loosing' i take a 10min break and watch the replays and mark down all the mistakes i made in the games before going back. it helps me improve a fair bit...

and as for BM I do love it... when i get it, though when i give it, i try to do it with play, like mass recaling all my probes into there main and killing all his workers etc... and dancing units... also when playing against z and wallng them in with nexus's is pretty funny

Went against a player who blocked my ramp with pylons right as my natural went down (I knew that probe was moving suspiciously) and then followed up with void rays. Didn't handle things well and just made a bunch of roaches going to his base, eventually dying by a couple of void rays. I don't mind; I would have typed out a "gg" and left after I realized I was stuck on one base and he had two as well as two stargates and shit, but what really set me off was his constant need to type "ez". That fucking irritated me, so I decided to stay in the game, building hatcheries/extractors everywhere across the map. Man, I play this game to have fun but people like that just make me not want to play at all.

I feel that I'm relatively close to being promoted to master league, though. I'm 3rd place diamond and as I've cared less and less about winning matches and have just been playing for fun, I've been getting better. Didn't actually think having that kind of mind set would do anything for me, but it totally has. Though, the more I win the more I think about winning and that's kind of a hassle.

@FluxWaveZ: I wish I could get that mind set, losing irritates the fuck out of me. That combined with not enjoying the state of like, any of the matchups(TvT is still fun) right now is kinda killing all the will I have to play SC 2. It's sad because I love it so much.

I never got into Starcraft 2 because the ladder intimidated me. Since everything is tracked in the ladder, including experimental or just goofing off, that killed all of my motivation to do any matches.

@EXTomar: You should just play Free-For-All, then. That mode only exists for goofing off and there isn't any ranking associated with it, either. It isn't laddering, but it's still something.

I'm on a 12 game losing streak

I'm always scared of the playing the first match, but once I get going I usually don't want to stop unless I am tired. I put a lot of pressure on myself to win though, even though I should just be playing to have fun, its not like I'm a pro. I've been trying to calm myself and just not car eabout winning or losing, but I have trouble with it, especially when I lose games I know I should have won. As far as BMing goes, the worst I do is not give a GG, usually when someone does some stupid cheese.

@FluxWaveZ said:

Went against a player who blocked my ramp with pylons right as my natural went down (I knew that probe was moving suspiciously) and then followed up with void rays. Didn't handle things well and just made a bunch of roaches going to his base, eventually dying by a couple of void rays. I don't mind; I would have typed out a "gg" and left after I realized I was stuck on one base and he had two as well as two stargates and shit, but what really set me off was his constant need to type "ez". That fucking irritated me, so I decided to stay in the game, building hatcheries/extractors everywhere across the map. Man, I play this game to have fun but people like that just make me not want to play at all.

I feel that I'm relatively close to being promoted to master league, though. I'm 3rd place diamond and as I've cared less and less about winning matches and have just been playing for fun, I've been getting better. Didn't actually think having that kind of mind set would do anything for me, but it totally has. Though, the more I win the more I think about winning and that's kind of a hassle.

Indeed. The thought of losing and being below my own mental "skill level" was what kept me from playing a lot early on when the game came out. Eventually I was able to overcome that to a certain extent, thanks to my fellow podcast buddies like Wunder, Domorin, Harris and Moztacular, and I got into Diamond. (edit addition: After my initial placement matches on retail release, I was placed into Gold and played <20 games when they told me to keep going, as they felt I was at least Diamond level at the time, and this was prior to Masters and Grandmasters existing.) Perhaps try to play, as Day[9] would suggest, with the mindset of improving rather than winning. Work on certain deficiencies in your play that you notice, whether it be from replays or playing with friends/practice partners. You'll probably get worse in the short-term as you change up the way you play, but then you'll probably get better in the long run.

@YI_Orange said:

@FluxWaveZ: I wish I could get that mind set, losing irritates the fuck out of me. That combined with not enjoying the state of like, any of the matchups(TvT is still fun) right now is kinda killing all the will I have to play SC 2. It's sad because I love it so much.

I agree, same here. I hate to lose, which probably contributed to my "ladder anxiety." I've been away from the game so long though that my mechanics must be so bad; I don't think I'm even at Diamond level anymore. I finally have a laptop good enough to play SC2 and my absence has made me consider playing random for fun and to learn more about all the races, but the thought of having to learn 9 match-ups and potentially more than 9 build orders has me a bit nervous about this decision.

@EXTomar said:

I never got into Starcraft 2 because the ladder intimidated me. Since everything is tracked in the ladder, including experimental or just goofing off, that killed all of my motivation to do any matches.

It is tracked and it can be intimidating. However, if you are in any league lower than Masters (meaning Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond), only your wins are displayed in your profile and not your losses. So while the server will keep track of that statistic, it will be hidden from you. That way, unless you specifically make it a point to keep track of it, eventually you will play so many games that it won't matter.

@Wunder_ said:

I'm on a 12 game losing streak

So... I guess I shouldn't ask you about that promotion to Masters League huh?

I'm done typing "gl hf" in the beginning of a match. Players would type the "greeting" first as a match started and I would reply, however they go all nuts when I start beating them and the "have fun" part they were advocating no longer makes any sense. It's happening very frequently now (an indication that there are more asshole Master players than Diamond ones?) and I'm just done with it. I feel bad for players who genuinely say "gl hf" to me with good intentions, but that seems really rare nowadays.

@FluxWaveZ said:

I'm done typing "gl hf" in the beginning of a match. Players would type the "greeting" first as a match started and I would reply, however they go all nuts when I start beating them and the "have fun" part they were advocating no longer makes any sense. It's happening very frequently now (an indication that there are more asshole Master players than Diamond ones?) and I'm just done with it. I feel bad for players who genuinely say "gl hf" to me with good intentions, but that seems really rare nowadays.

when im apm spamming at the start of the game its hard for me to not type 'glgl'... even if the person at the other end ignoors you or goes ape shit, its all about being able to keeo your own mind on a level playing feild and not letting assholes get to you

@FluxWaveZ said:

I'm done typing "gl hf" in the beginning of a match. Players would type the "greeting" first as a match started and I would reply, however they go all nuts when I start beating them and the "have fun" part they were advocating no longer makes any sense. It's happening very frequently now (an indication that there are more asshole Master players than Diamond ones?) and I'm just done with it. I feel bad for players who genuinely say "gl hf" to me with good intentions, but that seems really rare nowadays.

This isn't the cause all the time of course but typically speaking I would say the higher someone's league ranking is, the more "dedicated" they are to the game and the more emotional(?) they are when it comes to things like winning and losing; it means ALL the more to them. That's not to say it's an excuse for them to BM, but that's my reasoning behind it.

Anyways, I usually try laugh about it. I beat a guy once who then called me a noob and told me I'm a terrible player. Well, considering I won the match, what does it say about his skill level if I'm terrible and he lost to me? Think of it that way and maybe it'll help?

Haven't played SC2 in a while, simply too many other things taking up time in my life. But back then, yeah, I've had similar streaks. Some days are just your off days. Simple as that.

I had this to an extreme a few weeks back. Went about 2 weeks of only winning like 1/3 of my games (and sometimes looking like 6 in a row or more) then went on an 18(!) game winning streak before going back to normal. 
 
@FluxWaveZ said:

I'm done typing "gl hf" in the beginning of a match. Players would type the "greeting" first as a match started and I would reply, however they go all nuts when I start beating them and the "have fun" part they were advocating no longer makes any sense. It's happening very frequently now (an indication that there are more asshole Master players than Diamond ones?) and I'm just done with it. I feel bad for players who genuinely say "gl hf" to me with good intentions, but that seems really rare nowadays.

@wchigo said:

Anyways, I usually try laugh about it. I beat a guy once who then called me a noob and told me I'm a terrible player. Well, considering I won the match, what does it say about his skill level if I'm terrible and he lost to me? Think of it that way and maybe it'll help?

I do think of it that way, at least I try to. I think I'll start saying "glhf" for myself rather than for the other player in a match, as a way to give myself a peace of mind instead of starting off with some kind of animosity towards an opponent.

@baldgye said:

when im apm spamming at the start of the game its hard for me to not type 'glgl'... even if the person at the other end ignoors you or goes ape shit, its all about being able to keeo your own mind on a level playing feild and not letting assholes get to you

Kinda like that.

@FluxWaveZ said:

@wchigo said:

Anyways, I usually try laugh about it. I beat a guy once who then called me a noob and told me I'm a terrible player. Well, considering I won the match, what does it say about his skill level if I'm terrible and he lost to me? Think of it that way and maybe it'll help?

I do think of it that way, at least I try to. I think I'll start saying "glhf" for myself rather than for the other player in a match, as a way to give myself a peace of mind instead of starting off with some kind of animosity towards an opponent.

@baldgye said:

when im apm spamming at the start of the game its hard for me to not type 'glgl'... even if the person at the other end ignoors you or goes ape shit, its all about being able to keeo your own mind on a level playing feild and not letting assholes get to you

Kinda like that.

yeah man thats how I roll... I tilt fairly easliy if I start loosing a bunch of games vs people who just play badly... so being able to 'reset' after annoying games is always a good thing.

I don't think league has anything to do with how much people bm. I've seen my friend get just as much shit as I do from gold players.

Also playing against Protoss is so fucking boring. Wish they would do something other than 2 base all in. Even 1 base all in would be a nice change of pace.

Aw man, I met this girl at the club last night and laddered her so hard.

@haffy said:

Also playing against Protoss is so fucking boring. Wish they would do something other than 2 base all in. Even 1 base all in would be a nice change of pace.

I wouldn't say it's boring, but I also find that it's rare to see a Protoss go for a macro game with a 3rd base instead of doing a 2 base timing. Still sometimes have problems dealing with it even when I'm fully expecting it, though.

Now that I'm in Master league, I think I feel some of that ladder anxiety other people do. I worked so hard to get into this league and now that I've achieved it, I'm afraid of being demoted.

@FluxWaveZ: Haha I was just a bit pissed off. Played about 6-7 Protoss this morning, and all the games were pretty much the same.

Also grats on getting masters man, just try keep laddering through. I got pretty nervous when getting to a certain amount of points sometimes. But if I got to that point and stop playing, I always drop a fair bit before leveling out again.

@tunaburn said:

i completely avoid 1 vs 1. its way to stressful to me sadly. because i really enjoy the game itself.

but i do 2 vs 2 with a friend of mine. and i have fun there.

This.

@haffy said:

I don't think league has anything to do with how much people bm. I've seen my friend get just as much shit as I do from gold players.

Also playing against Protoss is so fucking boring. Wish they would do something other than 2 base all in. Even 1 base all in would be a nice change of pace.

I just want to shout out something that has little to do with this thread but alot to do with this post, now I'm a Protoss player that when I put my mind to it is more than capable of being #1 Plat (and last season I was for most of it while I could play) and I really do think that Protoss is kinda shitty.

2 base all in's are so common (I feel) becasue late game protoss kinda, isn't so good vs Z THIS IS NOT BALANCE this is more design of protoss... 2base is so good becasue mid/tech P is kinda fucking awesome.

I really wish with HotS P becomes better at late game, like T is becoming (in TvZ) becasue PvX is kinda mid/early game or if it gets to late game, vs Z its over with one battle and vs T its basically all down to who can multi-task the best...

and PvP is still total trash, its either build order win/loss or war of the worlds nonsense...

@FluxWaveZ: Haha I was just a bit pissed off. Played about 6-7 Protoss this morning, and all the games were pretty much the same.

@baldgye said:

@haffy said:

I don't think league has anything to do with how much people bm. I've seen my friend get just as much shit as I do from gold players.

Also playing against Protoss is so fucking boring. Wish they would do something other than 2 base all in. Even 1 base all in would be a nice change of pace.

I just want to shout out something that has little to do with this thread but alot to do with this post, now I'm a Protoss player that when I put my mind to it is more than capable of being #1 Plat (and last season I was for most of it while I could play) and I really do think that Protoss is kinda shitty.

2 base all in's are so common (I feel) becasue late game protoss kinda, isn't so good vs Z THIS IS NOT BALANCE this is more design of protoss... 2base is so good becasue mid/tech P is kinda fucking awesome.

I really wish with HotS P becomes better at late game, like T is becoming (in TvZ) becasue PvX is kinda mid/early game or if it gets to late game, vs Z its over with one battle and vs T its basically all down to who can multi-task the best...

and PvP is still total trash, its either build order win/loss or war of the worlds nonsense...

Yeah I can understand why Protoss want to 2 base all in. It makes sense. And to be honest, as far as balance goes, I wouldn't be surprised if Zerg had a pretty big advantage late game. I just kind of hate the broodlord infester style, so I'll only really go hive for upgrades.

I kind of wish the match up would change somehow, I just really don't know how. If I'm watching a ZvP stream or tournament, I don't even bother watching the first 8 minutes, because it's unlikely anything different is going to happen.

@haffy said:

@baldgye said:

@haffy said:

I don't think league has anything to do with how much people bm. I've seen my friend get just as much shit as I do from gold players.

Also playing against Protoss is so fucking boring. Wish they would do something other than 2 base all in. Even 1 base all in would be a nice change of pace.

I just want to shout out something that has little to do with this thread but alot to do with this post, now I'm a Protoss player that when I put my mind to it is more than capable of being #1 Plat (and last season I was for most of it while I could play) and I really do think that Protoss is kinda shitty.

2 base all in's are so common (I feel) becasue late game protoss kinda, isn't so good vs Z THIS IS NOT BALANCE this is more design of protoss... 2base is so good becasue mid/tech P is kinda fucking awesome.

I really wish with HotS P becomes better at late game, like T is becoming (in TvZ) becasue PvX is kinda mid/early game or if it gets to late game, vs Z its over with one battle and vs T its basically all down to who can multi-task the best...

and PvP is still total trash, its either build order win/loss or war of the worlds nonsense...

Yeah I can understand why Protoss want to 2 base all in. It makes sense. And to be honest, as far as balance goes, I wouldn't be surprised if Zerg had a pretty big advantage late game. I just kind of hate the broodlord infester style, so I'll only really go hive for upgrades.

I kind of wish the match up would change somehow, I just really don't know how. If I'm watching a ZvP stream or tournament, I don't even bother watching the first 8 minutes, because it's unlikely anything different is going to happen.

I'm not sure what the problem is really... I think if carriers wern't so easy to deal with and you had to use both corrupters and infestors to deal with them it migh mean they could remove the mothership without it making late game protoss horrible vs late game Z...

which might be fixed with the temphest thing... but I still kinda hate the collosus... its just a big dumb gold egg on legs that is super good and requires no skill to use :/

anyway I've been back and able to finally get back to laddering in over 5weeks... pretty happy my first 5 games where all vs mid Diamonds and all of the games I walked over the opponent with ease.. then got pvp that I lost pretty easily... but find out he was top masters... so pretty happy that I evenr got placed against him :D