Ok so got a random discussion here for our TAW SC2 members. Myself and another TAW member got into a little debat in chat today and I want to know everyone's opinion.
Here's a simple question....
Let's say you had someone who ONLY played teams in SC2 (2s, 3s, 4s, etc), like myself. Does said player HAVE TO do 1s to improve, as a TEAM player?
His position....
" to show a skill difference, you have to be a higher league", (me)... " I am not debating, your the one that said I have to do 1s to improve in 3s lol" (him), "you do",
"you're lacking fundamental Starcraft skills and the best way to build those skills is to play 1s"
My position....
Taking from personal experience, I do not play MMOs to play by myself. SC2 is an MMORTS and 1v1s are boring as hell. Yes I understand that doing 1s "may help". But it is not MANDATORY. Three's take teamwork and knowledge of TEAM strats, 1v1s do not. There is no reason why someone who does team games can not play 1s and why someone who does 1s can not play teams. Any "fundamental skills" of starcraft can be learned in ANY ranking system in ANY league, team games or 1s.
I'd add a pole but it dosen't seem as though I can. So I would like everyones opinion(s) about this... do you NEED to play 1s to improve in TEAM games?
My thoughts:
No. Why? Cause ANYTHING you learn by doing 1s, you can learn by doing teams. The same, however, can not be said about 1s.
Hey Redeyez, I added the poll to your post. Good job starting this discussion.
I added a third option beyond yes/no, which is my personal opinion: you don't need to play 1v1 to improve your 4v4 etc., but it helps if you are new to the game.
The reason for this is, in 1v1, you live or die by your own sword. If you lose, you know it's solely because of yourself. In a team game, you can be carried by your team and not realize your weaknesses. Or you can lose because of your team and wonder what you did wrong.
When forming your basic SC2 skills -- build orders, keeping up with your macro, etc. -- having fewer factors helps train those skills. Having to learn team tactics at the same time as the most basic skills is more challenging -- not impossible, but more difficult.
A given player may be strong in one aspect of the game, but weak in another. If he only plays team games, it is more difficult to figure out what that weakness is, because another teammate's strengths may cover for that weakness without the player even realizing it.
These are my thoughts as a (former) Platinum 1v1 and team-game player. I mainly play team games; stopped playing 1v1 long ago because I enjoy playing with teammates, not by myself.
As a player who -used- to play SC2 I feel that the team games (especially when you get up to 4v4) can obviate the need for individual skill at micro - you will still have to do some but not nearly as much in general... HOWEVER having better micro will still yield you better returns in team games, and the easiest way to practice this is 1v1 where only your micro matters (your entire team has to improve or it won't have nearly as much as an effect as you might like).
@ Vulkor and yes that was kinda the point of the discussion. I play 2s 3s and 4s because I do NOT like to play MMOs by myself, its more interesting and there is more to do.
I just don't see how someone could think that by NOT doing 1s I am somehow NOT getting better. That makes little to no sense.
As for your 3rd paragraph, "because another teammate's strengths may cover for that weakness", thats kinda the whole point of being on a team - is it not? So the weakness is covered... do they not have the same concept when playing sports? Let's say you have a guy who is REALLY good at shooting 2s, but sucks at shooting 3s, dose the coach not pick up someone who is good at 3s then to equal out the team?
Makes sense to me....
1s do help, but are not essential to improve your starcraft skillzz. So I would say you don't need to play 1s to improve.
I agree with Vulkor that it helps to notice your weakness. Be it finding out correct counters, correct unit composition good building timing or w/e.
The point of Vulkor's 3rd paragraph is finding out about the weakness, you'll have to find the weakness before you can fix it with your team! I do agree that it is done this way in sports. I have an example for this, when running an estafette with 4 people you'll have to see which one of the 4 is the best starter, who is the fastest etc etc. In order to find out about this you'll have to look at for example the 100m sprint times and who starts the fastest. These are things they do individual.
In team games you can look at who has a good early game (good at rush/early defence), who can keep their macro up for a longer game etc etc.
A lilttle bit off topic I feel but bottomline, 1s is best at finding strong points and weak points. You do not have to play 1s to improve.