Practice Partners
No one ever became a great Starcraft player on their own. Behind every great player is a large community of people who practice together. Playing with practice partners allow you to refine strategies and openings and to practice specific situations many times over. In this article i’ll talk about where to find practice partners and who to practice with.
Finding Practice Partners
It’s pretty common for Starcraft 2 players to not have many friends in real life that play SC2, if this is you don’t feel alone. If you do have a large network of friends who play then you are one of the lucky few! Even if you do it is still important to play with many different styles and levels of players.
Practice Groups
Sometimes a few outstanding people will take the time to create a place where like-minded people can link up and play games of SC2. This is a great method of finding practice partners not because of the amount of people you will find (these groups are often small) but because their mindset. People in these groups have come together with the same goal, to improve at Starcraft 2 and this makes them very helpful and very keen.
Unfortunately, finding these groups can be quite hard. You can sometimes find their posts in forums or you may hear about their website or chat channel from a friend. The following are two groups that I have came across:
PRACBUD (SEA)
Located on the SEA server PRACBUD was founded by a few Bronze and Silver League friends who wanted to have practice games with other low level players on the server. Since then it has evolved to include players up to Platinum. You can find out more info about PRACBUD by visiting their website PracbudSC2.com or by joining the chat channel “PRACBUD” in game.
Bronze Practice (EU)
Located on the EU server, this group caters to low level players by running custom games, tournaments and coaching. You can find out more about them by visiting their website www.sc2practice.com
If you know of any practice groups like these please share them in the comments below!
The Forums
Head to your local Battle.Net forum or to the Team Liquid Forums to find threads written by people looking for practice partners. Or you could start a thread yourself. What is great about this method is that you will know exactly what type of practice the person is looking for. If you are a Gold level player looking for ZvP practice and you come across a thread asking for Gold level Zerg players to practice with then you know it’s a perfect match!
Clans
Clans are something that I have not personally explored yet but I have heard from many people who are members of clans that it is the single best way to get a lot of practice partners. Clans are more formalised communities of gamers who join together to practice, to compete or just to socialise. There are a lot of clans available to SC2 players so I recommend doing a bit of research before you commit to one.
The Ladder
This may seem counter-intuitive as the ladder is where you got to compete not to practice. However, something that I often do is ask people I have played on the ladder if they would like to have some practice games. Not everyone wants to of course, some may want to continue to ladder, but many people were more then happy to play a few games and I have even made a few friends this way. This gives you a chance to practice with people who defeated you on the ladder and to explore why you lost. Just make sure that you use good manner in game if you want a chance to play practice games with your opponents afterwards!
Who to Practice With
Some people prefer to only practice with people their own level and below, while others swear by only practicing with high level players. It’s important to understand that both groups of practice partners have their own distinct benefits and drawbacks.
Evenly Matched or Below
Benefits
Practicing with these players give you a chance to play a lot of games while you are still familiarising yourself with the game. Games will be more forgiving and will often last longer allowing you to get more overall learning time. These games will also give you a chance to learn how to take advantage of your opponents errors when they make them, this becomes much harder to do when facing off against higher levelled players so it’s a good idea to learn this skill here.
Drawbacks
When playing lower level or evenly matched players you will find that you can use ‘tricks’ more successfully and that you can get away with many more mistakes. Playing games at this level for too long can cause you to develop bad habits. For example, against lower level players getting supply blocked is not game ending, where a more experienced player would take advantage of this slip. Without the threat of losing you will be less motivated to prevent this from happening.
Higher Level Players
Benefits
Playing against experts of the game will teach you what you cannot do. Make a mistake against one of these players and you will be punished for it. Thus, playing against high level players trims your play of tricks and gimmicks and helps you identify flaws in your play.
Perhaps the most important benefit of playing higher level players is that you must actively try to beat them. These players will rarely make a mistake and you will never win with passivity, you must try to take the win from them because they will not give it to you.
Drawbacks
When facing these players your every move must be well refined as you will be punished for the smallest inefficiencies. As such, there is little room for experimentation when playing high level players. Also note that unless you are fairly competent in the mechanics of the game, you will not get much benefit from playing someone who is able to crush you 100 times in a row.
Make sure that you practice with the players that are best suited to your current learning goals. If you are still struggling with the mechanics of the game, getting beaten repeatedly wont help you too much. In this case practice with people that are at or below your skill level. Once you are confident with the basics and you want to learn what your doing wrong you should seek out high level practice partners.
Do you have a good network of practice partners? Do you prefer to play with people at your own level or do you prefer to punish yourself against high level players? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
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