Improving in Starcraft 2 by Knowing Your Opponent

Are you tired of losing in Starcraft 2? Are you tired of losing in Starcraft 2 to 10 year old kids who cannot even type back to you? Well, let us at least hope that you can beat the 10 year old kid. There is not much I can do for you if you are losing to them. Or, perhaps there is...

There are basic components to any great Starcraft 2 players 'game'. I will be covering these components in numerous articles here at EzineArticles. Today, however, I would like to turn your attention to a few aspects of one of the pillars of solid gameplay: knowing your opponent! Here is what we will be looking at today:

1. Learn how to play with every race (This just means being familiar with the 3 races in Starcraft 2
2. Scout
3. Figure out what strategies he/she/they are using.

1. In order to even BEGIN to improve yourself in Starcraft you need to have a reasonable grasp of all of the different races. Of course you can improve your skills with one race, but at some point you are going to have to branch out and gain a deep understanding of how each side plays. You need to know more than just the units you will encounter, although that does help. If the first time you have seen a roach happens in a match you probably will (or should) lose that match.

Think about it for a minute. If you do not know what your opponent can do, let alone what their units can do, you do not even fully understand what your units can do in that match. Trust me on this one. Do not get caught in trying to just perfect one side! It will dampen your improvement worse than just about anything else. Not knowing the different sides would be like not fully understanding the movements that are allowed a knight in the game of chess.

2. This second tip, "scout", seems simple on the face of it; however, there are some important subtleties that make it important and meaningful to remember this point. Do not let the map stay covered in fog for too long. While you are playing it is easy to get lost in your own little world, planning what you are going to do with your resources and your units. That is an obstacle that needs to be overcome. You have to see beyond what you are planning, or you are going to leave yourself exposed, and react more often than you should.

3. After you have scouted your opponent in Starcraft 2 you can immediately begin to make judgements about what they might plan to do. This will allow you to create a better game plan for your match. You do not want to get caught with your pants down, basically. Predict your opponent's strategies by knowing what is possible for them in that match. That is why the best players send out drones, probes, or SCVs at the start of matches. The slight frustration that those units cause after scouting is simply a way of optimizing that unit, by not letting it 'go to waste' after it has already scouted. You need to know where your opponent is, what race they are (if he or she chose random), and what they are building.

Those are a few more tips for Starcraft 2 fans out there. I hope these have helped you to improve your Starcraft 2 skills more rapidly. You should be able to improve after every single game, not just because of the few mistakes you made in any given match but because of how you made your decisions. You should always evaluate the moves you made in a game and how you made them.

If you are looking for more depth then one article, then please check out the rest of my articles on EzineAritcles or check out the Starcraft 2 strategy guide from Shokz: [http://STARCRAFT2STRATGUIDES.INFO] Their guide costs a few bucks, but it is an amazing guide that can save a great deal of your time on improvement.

All the best in your Starcraft games and matches.

Ben