I keep reading comments saying he is really good at this game, a lot better then any other games he play.

So what are we talking here, diamond level?

I haven't heard brad talk about starcraft 2 for ages :p

From what I saw when he played he was pretty decent. That said, it's pretty hard for someone like Brad to focus all of his time on a certain game. I'm sure he'll be able to get back into it when Heart of the Swarm is released, but the Giant Bomb crew are only a few good men and they can only focus on games for a short amount of time. It's not their fault, it's the way of their business.

When he played regularly he was in the top league and winning a good amount of matches. Man's a beast.

He was certainly better than a very big chunk of the player base, having placed into Diamond League I believe when the game first came out.  But considering the actual range of skill levels that exist in the game, Brad was always above average at best.

@amir90: Yeah, in his prime, he was in 1v1 Diamond league, to the best of my knowledge. He seemed to play it pretty consistently for about a year (July 2010 to July 2011, though he also played the beta a lot), then sometime since then he started playing it less regularly and I think he has said he is out of practice and is generally disappointed with his performance when he plays, because he knows he's not at his peak.

he was really good i guess he is decent now

I beat him during the community tournaments like twice :D

So that would put him around mid-low diamond but I'm guessing his skill has atrophied.

I just want to say, as a low-level Bronze player, that anyone above Bronze is really, really good at Starcraft 2.

He was diamond at one point, but the leagues are even harder now. I was diamond too, now I am playing and practicing even more and struggle to stay in platinum.

@BoG said:

I just want to say, as a low-level Bronze player, that anyone above Bronze is really, really good at Starcraft 2.

This is the truth.

Thanks for the reply guys :)

@Morningstar said:

@BoG said:

I just want to say, as a low-level Bronze player, that anyone above Bronze is really, really good at Starcraft 2.

This is the truth.

I will second this, as someone who is only committed enough to Starcraft 2 to play it a couple times a month and coast along in Silver league. Though to be fair, you can easily make it to Gold and even Platinum if you're a terrible human being and just practice some cheese strategy (photon cannon rush, zergling rush, etc.) to perfection. They're easy to shut down if you know what you're doing, but the sad truth is that those cheese strategies will win more than they'll lose until you start to get to the higher end of platinum.

@BisonHero said:

@Morningstar said:

@BoG said:

I just want to say, as a low-level Bronze player, that anyone above Bronze is really, really good at Starcraft 2.

This is the truth.

I will second this, as someone who is only committed enough to Starcraft 2 to play it a couple times a month and coast along in Silver league. Though to be fair, you can easily make it to Gold and even Platinum if you're a terrible human being and just practice some cheese strategy (photon cannon rush, zergling rush, etc.) to perfection. They're easy to shut down if you know what you're doing, but the sad truth is that those cheese strategies will win more than they'll lose until you start to get to the higher end of platinum.

Or you ca just lose every round, like me. I play about three or four a week, lose every time, cheap strategy or not.

I don't know, man. I'm in Gold league and I think I'm pretty terrible at the game. I don't lose every round, but I feel like I should and could be so much better.

An easy way of making it to Diamond easy: get really good at making workers and making units, expanding and attacking every 5 or 6 minutes. 

@Turambar said:

An easy way of making it to Diamond easy: get really good at making workers and making units, expanding and attacking every 5 or 6 minutes.

The point is... "GET REALLY GOOD". Easier said than done.

@Turambar said:

An easy way of making it to Diamond easy: get really good at making workers and making units, expanding and attacking every 5 or 6 minutes.

While you summed that up in a single sentence, there are so many implied milestones in learning to multitask, how to respond to certain things the opponent does, and what build orders allow you to be most efficient that it's really not an "easy way". Though yes, if you put in the time and look of strategy videos, it's fairly inevitable that you can reach Diamond, unless you REALLY don't have any ability to focus continuously for 10-30 minutes or the ability to gradually improve at multitasking.

I have confidence Brad is good, at least at a journeyman level. Far above what I'd probably attain should I even try. Norm beat him a couple of times I thought during their bloody brutal fraticidal WAR of EGOS for happy hour or TNT I believe. It would not surprise me Norm is good at this game, also.

You can see both Brad and Norm when they played a lot right here. All people should watch the first 2 minutes, at least. (the embedding isn't working for some reason)

They were both pretty respectable. I played a lot, could beat my friends most of the time, and could take on anyone Gold and below. I felt pretty good, but Brad was still above me. Don't think he ever hit Master's, though.

He still plays just about every day, but only 3v3. His match history just shows a couple 1v1 at the start of each ladder season and he hangs around platinum level. He was never placed in diamond however to those who weren't sure. Brad was often very high platinum though which is quite respectable considering how many other games he has to play! We'll make sure we drag him back to 1v1 when heart of the swarm comes out and we host a tournament ;p

@Moztacular: Ah, when I saw that GSL tour video a while back, I thought the diamond account they showed for a second was him. Gonna be nice when HotS comes around. We'll get some Starcraft love back on Giant Bomb, and maybe I'll get some motivation to jump back into it.

@Turambar said:

An easy way of making it to Diamond easy: get really good at making workers and making units, expanding and attacking every 5 or 6 minutes.

While you summed that up in a single sentence, there are so many implied milestones in learning to multitask, how to respond to certain things the opponent does, and what build orders allow you to be most efficient that it's really not an "easy way". Though yes, if you put in the time and look of strategy videos, it's fairly inevitable that you can reach Diamond, unless you REALLY don't have any ability to focus continuously for 10-30 minutes or the ability to gradually improve at multitasking.

@Turambar said:

An easy way of making it to Diamond easy: get really good at making workers and making units, expanding and attacking every 5 or 6 minutes.

The point is... "GET REALLY GOOD". Easier said than done.

@BoG said:

I just want to say, as a low-level Bronze player, that anyone above Bronze is really, really good at Starcraft 2.

Well I was top master (2 months ago that is) and considered myself terrible at the game. Constantly supply blocked, bad controls, bad decision making etc. pp.

See, it's all just a point of view ;o

He was diamond for a time when that was the highest tier, but I think he is probably a platinum level player.

Lol, Brad, good at a game? That's something I'd want to see for myself. He's the most unskilled video game reviewer I've ever seen. Just look at his quick looks he moans countless Oh God's and dies all the time.

He's platinum 1v1 right now, he was diamond when the game came out

@Turambar said:

@BisonHero said:

@Turambar said:

An easy way of making it to Diamond easy: get really good at making workers and making units, expanding and attacking every 5 or 6 minutes.

While you summed that up in a single sentence, there are so many implied milestones in learning to multitask, how to respond to certain things the opponent does, and what build orders allow you to be most efficient that it's really not an "easy way". Though yes, if you put in the time and look of strategy videos, it's fairly inevitable that you can reach Diamond, unless you REALLY don't have any ability to focus continuously for 10-30 minutes or the ability to gradually improve at multitasking.

@themangalist said:

@Turambar said:

An easy way of making it to Diamond easy: get really good at making workers and making units, expanding and attacking every 5 or 6 minutes.

The point is... "GET REALLY GOOD". Easier said than done.

Actually, my point was forget about all the fancy shmancy compositions, positioning, and build orders. Simply getting good at making stuff, spending money, and attacking regularly will get you way further on the ladder than you'd imagine. Those aren't things that you'd think of normally when people think of how to "get good".

I agree, and that's always been my problem. I get too much into the cerebral side of things, worrying about unit compositions and positioning and trying to constantly out-think my opponent. Meanwhile my friend in Masters will point that I have 1000 mins and 1000 gas, and I get rolled over simply because I have less stuff. I've got the decision-making of a Masters player, and the mechanics of a Gold player. It sucks to know exactly how to win, only to be held back by not being able to actually do it. So basically, yeah, anyone wanting to get good should just focus on macro because it's the easiest way to get better.