I got onto iCCup [Archive]

Aqo

05-06-2008, 7:25 AM

Took me long enough. Seriously, why didn't I sign up earlier?

After sending months on shitty RTSs like C&C3 and DoW (they're actually not that bad, just... highly inferior to Starcraft), I figured it's time to oil my RTS skill back up to what it once was. And I needed a source for constant Starcraft games.

Well than, I've played my first two iCCup games. I won both, yay. But that was against D players, they didn't stand a chance ~.~
Is there anything I should know before I start burning my time onto Abyss daily? I went over iCCup's site but it just confused me more than anything. How do I get a rank thingy into my siggy? How do I rank up in the ladder? What kind of maps should I be playing on (like, am I only supposed to use iCCup maps, or is it ok to use WGT maps)?

Ahzz

05-06-2008, 12:58 PM

only iccup maps from newest wgt mappack. You only get points/wins/losses if you play one on one instead of melee, you rank up like the following
D- 700/800
D 1000
D+ 2000
C- 3000
C 4000
C+ 5000
B- 6000
B 7000
B+ 8000
A- 9000
A 10500
A+ 12000 or 13000
Olympic rank: 20000 I believe

The siggy thing can be got from the profile options or so if I remember correctly. Investigate a bit.
(on warboards it wont update unless you set the signature again, but on other forums it does. on swbk.net it updates, but really slow)

SilverCrusader

05-06-2008, 3:57 PM

Yes, you get Olympic rings at 20000. But no one that isn't a top Korean pro gamer is ever going to reach that.

Aqo

05-07-2008, 6:21 AM

Yes, you get Olympic rings at 20000. But no one that isn't a top Korean pro gamer is ever going to reach that.
Wanna bet? :P

---

Thanks for the information Ahzz, I guess it's time to get going. RAPE FACES, HURR : D

Ahzz

05-07-2008, 7:57 AM

Well, to be honest I think your pace will slow down considerably once you're done with bashing D newbies (this is quite late to the season, no good players on lower ranks anymore). You will prolly get D+ without trouble now, but I'd expect you to have trouble at C-

SilverCrusader

05-07-2008, 8:36 AM

PaiN

05-07-2008, 3:18 PM

I dont know what Aqo's skill is but getting into the C range seems to be on the more difficult side for me lol.

Magmaniac

05-07-2008, 7:33 PM

I'm thinking about joining ICCup now too, I don't think I will be able to get up to D+ any time soon, but fuck why not try for it.

PaiN

05-08-2008, 11:36 AM

Its probably the best place to learn.

I started there and dropped to D- pretty fast but after playing for about 2-3 weeks mainly on weekends but sorta consistently im D+ closing in on C- =/

MatGeo

05-08-2008, 1:43 PM

You'd know what be funny? If he got C+ and kept it.

That's a pretty high possibility, he's a good player(even with months spent on other RTSs').

SilverCrusader

05-08-2008, 3:30 PM

That's a pretty high possibility, he's a good player(even with months spent on other RTSs').
Actually the jump from C to C+ is pretty big. Players stop doing bullshit things on that level.

Aqo

05-08-2008, 3:46 PM

Looks like it'll take some time to regain my lost skills. My APM is down to a measly 100 ;_; and I can actually fuck up and *lose* :D

I feel like it's slowly coming back to me, I start remembering all the counters and stuff. lol, I always get into a losing position and still end up pulling the game 30 more minutes thanks to lategame abilities that surpass my opponent's rush ability which initially fucked me up -.-
Still got lots of to catch up... waaa... expo timing, I always expo too early! xD
And remembering not to lose units unnecessarily... blah... zerglings aren't Nod Militia, I can't just attack move with 50 of them and not really care if they die (shouldn't it be the opposite? I thought alien underlings are more expendable than men... eh well...)

It feels so great getting back into SC; it feels a lot more eXtreme than any other RTS. I can't just lay back and watch the battle, I have to do shit and to actually -think- about what I'm going to do ^^

Back when I played Starcraft, Protoss has always been my strongest race (storm is so fucking imba), while people were telling me I should go T because of my micro (I can micro? I thought I only attack move) and Z were my favorite race (because, they look nasty). Now I just play R all the time, but maybe it'd be better for me to focus on one race and master it before using others? And then, which race should I choose?

Statistically, my best matchups are TvP, ZvT and PvT, how screwed up is that? o.0

Ahzz

05-08-2008, 4:00 PM

That's a pretty high possibility, he's a good player(even with months spent on other RTSs').
Nah it wont happen. Once Aqo is back to somewhat his original shape, he might reach C but until he improves more reaching higher will be impossible. (I mean no offense to Aqo, I respect him for actually coming back and playing iccup etc)

It feels so great getting back into SC; it feels a lot more eXtreme than any other RTS. I can't just lay back and watch the battle, I have to do shit and to actually -think- about what I'm going to do ^^
yeah, I hear that a lot. They change game to other RTS and come back because the other RTS sucked besides the first feeling cuz its new.
For example some semi-famous finnish WC3 player admitted afterwards thats BW is a better game and all but wc3 has all these events which makes him play it. He told me they even went to some strip bar or something O_o

Actually the jump from C to C+ is pretty big. Players stop doing bullshit things on that level.
Meh, people have reached C+ before by doing only 4 pool. But if you play it 'fair', it's a somewhat big jump, especially if you play koreans.

The difference between koreans and non koreans is simply huge. For example just recently I beat someone twice who was 130-40 A last season, but that was only because he didnt play koreans. When Mondragon played TSL he got so few losses because he didn't play koreans either.
Incontrol said that if some korean is B+ with 70% win it means they're really sick gamers because they usually pick the best players they find in the channel, heh.

but maybe it'd be better for me to focus on one race and master it before using others? And then, which race should I choose?
By playing random you improve 2-3 times slower than you would by playing one race alone. I would recommend you to become at least B- level before REALLY considering going random if you want to get good before sc2 comes out.

How I do? I basically choose ZvT ZvP PvZ when I'm serious, either I'm playing a very strong opponent or its a serious tournament.
Otherwise against weaker players and such I pick my offrace, whatever it might be and I learn them really quickly since I already have the gaming senses, micro, macro and multitasking

Aqo

05-09-2008, 11:23 AM

I can't really choose one race though :/
I'm going to try circling through them on play-daily basis.

anderoo

05-10-2008, 12:46 PM

I can't really choose one race though :/
I'm going to try circling through them on play-daily basis.

I'd recommend just trying to figure out which race suits your play style the best. I played random for a while and it got me nowhere.

Aqo

05-13-2008, 10:55 AM

I've taken a spreadsheet and wrote down a weekly plan for me. progaming is all or nothing, and I recently realized I can't deal with nothing.
I planned my week in a way that will let me play 100-150 games per week, with emphasis on playing P.
Today is a P day. I only got to play 9 games today, and I'm still only ranked D+ with 2193 points. I really feel the pwnage going through my vains right now, some player just *left* without even saying GG when he realized that I sent 2 DTs into his probes while he was going to attack me, I think I made him cry >:3

iCCup is the best thing that happened to me this year; why didn't anyone tell me about it earlier? D:

However, ranking up does seem to slow me down, because uh, less people join... I normally host games; when I was hosting D, people came in 0.3 seconds, now that I host D+ it takes like 30 seconds until someone comes in omg the wait D:

Cpt.Chronic

05-13-2008, 6:44 PM

Progaming? D+? Do you see the discrepancy?

anderoo

05-13-2008, 9:46 PM

I've taken a spreadsheet and wrote down a weekly plan for me. progaming is all or nothing, and I recently realized I can't deal with nothing.
I planned my week in a way that will let me play 100-150 games per week, with emphasis on playing P.

How the fuck are you gonna play 150 games in one week?

In preparation for the TSL elimination stages Mondragon was playing 140 games a week, and he's. . . Mondragon.

SilverCrusader

05-13-2008, 9:48 PM

How the fuck are you gonna play 150 games in one week?

In preparation for the TSL elimination stages Mondragon was playing 140 games a week, and he's. . . Mondragon.
Mondragon isn't a pro. He is just the top foreign player. He's just like one of us, he has to go to school, go to work, etc. The pros are in Korea.

Ahzz

05-14-2008, 6:12 AM

Well, I guess aqo means getting good.

SilverCrusader

05-14-2008, 7:21 AM

Aside from that you can do the math.
140 games with around 15 minutes as an average game.
140/4 to get the hour.
That'd be 35 hours of game play.
35/7 for days in a week.
5 hours a day.

Aqo

05-14-2008, 7:31 AM

Cpt.Chronic -> refer to Ahzz's post
that's what I meant.

Right now I'm in: *picture of a recycle bin*, far from my goal;
My goal is A+

Like some guy I know said in his MSN personal message: Play hard go pro

Ahzz

05-14-2008, 7:55 AM

My goal is A+
A+ is almost progamer level. Even if you had talent, reflected on your games, and played as much each day as your schedule says, you would have to play at least 1½ years before getting there.

lammas

05-14-2008, 9:01 AM

Iam not sure about the 1.5 years. Guys at A+ rank are really sick fuckers and have been playing for a decade now.

It would take at least 10 000 hours of practise (which isnt a random number, perfecting any skill, such as playing instrument or playing football or chess always takes around 10K hours) to reach about that level (a little more tho cause all the other guys have practised twice that at the point you are there). Which is 2500 days 4hours a day (which is unrealistic) so you could expect to be quite close to A+ ranked users in about 7 years. Too bad there arent any opponents for you to play at that point, so youll have to go for sc2 and sc3.

I really dont think that you should not go for that. You really want to spend that much time on something as mindless? Do you think that having A+ in front of your name is going to make you happy? Do you really think that for happines you need that? No you really dont need it.

SgtHK

05-14-2008, 9:13 AM

You'd better start practicing now because research has shown that people aged 24 or above will have their hand-finger reflexes slowed down considerably. The older you become, the less likely you'll reach your goal.

Aqo

05-14-2008, 9:29 AM

SgtHK

05-14-2008, 9:50 AM

I didn't say it would be impossible, btw. What I meant was it would become harder and harder the older you become.

anderoo

05-14-2008, 10:23 AM

Mondragon isn't a pro. He is just the top foreign player. He's just like one of us, he has to go to school, go to work, etc. The pros are in Korea.

You don't really think he only plays a game or two a day as long as he hasn't got homework, do you?

Aqo, you're not gonna become a progamer, but you will get really good playing like that, good luck.

lammas

05-14-2008, 11:13 AM

A+ impossible? I don't think so. It's certainly a challenge, but not something impossible. Nothing is impossible if you try (really fucking-)hard.

Besides, do you imply people who start playing today have no chance to get into the proscene? I call bullshit. All it takes is will and dedication.

Will, dedication blah blah blah. Dont hide behind that retarded anyone can be winner shit. It takes at least 10000 hours of practise which is a fact, you had will or dedication or you did not. Now that means 7 years 4 hours every single day (and no way in hell you are going to play every single day of your life during the next 7 years so its 6 hours a day). Now another fact is that starcraft is dead in 2 years. So you will have to go for sc2 and sc3 untill you can get the A+ rank assuming such ranking system still exists in future. Its possible but I want you to understand these facts before you decide if you really want to be A+ ranked.

Another matter is if it makes any fucking sense to hunt some letter that you get in front of your nick. I dont know if there is anything more sad than sc players trying so hard to get one more + to their rank letter or chess players practising 10 hours a day trying to get GM in front of their names. Or karatekas training all day long just to get one more dan to their black belt. All those people imagining that they cant be happy unless they are better than others in some game, that they have to get respect from other addicts like they are to be happy. Really if sc is the thing in life you enjoy the most go ahead and play it as much you like but dont make that letter the goal of your life.

Hey I just noticed that you are from israel. Dont you have 3 years military service there? So it will be 11 instead of 7 years for you then.

He's just like one of us, he has to go to school, go to work,

But he can quit school and part time at mac donalds so that he will only have to like 20 hours a week. That should give him enough money for rent and internet and then he can spend all the spare time on sc.

Aqo

05-14-2008, 11:17 AM

You just don't get it lammas. I don't play for the letter. I don't give a fuck about the letter. I play for the challenge. For the thrill of out-thinking someone else in a fast-paced strategic environment. For fun.

If first place was indicated with the letter Q and not the letter A or A+ I wouldn't care. If my rank wasn't indicated at all, it wouldn't stop me from playing. However, this indication *is* helpful in finding players on your level to play with, so I rather it be there - it helps me find games suitable for my level faster, hench why iCCup is awesome.

lammas

05-14-2008, 11:20 AM

ok, good. why so much talk about A+ rank then?

Aqo

05-14-2008, 11:21 AM

Because A+ indicates the ultimate challenge in this area. Didn't I just say I love challenges?

lammas

05-14-2008, 11:21 AM

No it doesnt. OSL finals do.

Aqo

05-14-2008, 11:23 AM

Good, so once I get A+ I'll get into the OSL Finals.

lammas

05-14-2008, 11:28 AM

yeah tho dont be too optimistic. After the 11 years of practise you must beat all the other 1000 koreans who have spend as much time on sc to get there so its 1/1000.
But yea gogo. I dont like the idea of someone putting all that effort in getting a kick out of being a little better than someone else so much as I said already but as it is the thing you enjoy the most go for it (still a little sad how you imagine that you would need that daily kick of beating sc game to be happy). I hope that you enjoy working in mac donalds for the 11 years it takes untill you are anywhere close of the opportunity to be pro. (no sarcasm here btw)

Ahzz

05-14-2008, 12:07 PM

Lammas, that was quite... negative ._.

Idra could reach A+, and he's on his third year of SC now. So is notforu, but notforu might not QUITE be A+.

What you said would be for somewhat average person, maybe slight amount of talent included.

But Aqo has been playing for a while already. He will probably reach C- by the end of the season, perhaps even stay C-. And that already counts a huge deal since he doesn't have to learn everything. Maybe 1 year of active/motivated starcraft I'd say? And IF, and only IF he had the motivation for 1½ years and trained 5 hours a day, had talent, and reflected on his mistakes which many do not do, then yes he probably would reach A+ in 1½ years. However there will be breaks, he probably will slow down a bit after a while etc but if Aqo stays active overall, and plays a LOT, (and has talent) then I'd say he might reach A+ in 3 years. But that really requires huge lot of motivation. I've been playing 'serious' (aka 1v1's @ melee) starcraft for maybe 5 years or so now. Maybe a little bit less. True, I'm not A+ yet, but on the other hand I never played a huge load, and I never had very long breaks. I just played it little by little, sometimes more sometimes less. If that is what Aqo is going to do, he might be A- in 3 years. Huge difference between A- and A+ btw.

GenocideAlive

05-14-2008, 12:23 PM

Wanna bet? :P
Yes, pretty much anything. Souls, money, life, firstborn child, whatever.

At what point do you wish to concede?

Cpt.Chronic

05-14-2008, 2:48 PM

PaiN

05-14-2008, 2:54 PM

But a losing streak is to be expected. The point is he has not been comptetively playing SC untill now and he wants to get better so ATM yeshe is at a D+ rank. I would be totally surprised if Aqo had more wins than loses now considering the amount of time he has been playing SC pre-iccup.

atohmixbomb

05-15-2008, 12:41 AM

i dont get it... was is this iccup?? im no noob or anything just... what it is...

Ahzz

05-15-2008, 1:34 AM

I doubt Idra could get A+. The only possible way would be if he didn't play any Koreans, but considering Koreans make up like 95% of A's and 100% of A+, he would eventually have to play them, which is when he would be crushed like a bug...winning (if he's lucky) 1 out of 10 games. Idra is really not that good. He just has standard macro westerner play and has very little game sense or the ability to strategically think on the fly.
Mistrizzz is/was A+ with 70% win, Gosia was A+ with 75% win or so. Idra is definately not far behind. My point never was that he'd easily reach A+, I meant he could reach it with maybe 50% or a bit more

i dont get it... was is this iccup?? im no noob or anything just... what it is...
no offense but in fact you are if you dont know about iccup. Every good player does.
iccup is a free ladder server for starcraft, which anyone can use. It even has antihack. At the moment there isn't a single public hack which can go around iccups antihack.

Basically, you download their launcher, update it, launch starcraft from it, go to their server which you can select now from the server list, use their maps, one on one mode, and play.

PaiN

05-15-2008, 6:40 AM

Its also ranked by skill, going from D- to A+, as you can see Aqo has hopes of becoming A+

If you've never competitively played before then even keeping D may be hard but its a great place to get better if you can deal with losses.

Oh and its at http://www.iccup.com

Aqo

05-18-2008, 5:18 AM

baah, because of my crappy internet I can't play too often, because lag happens :<
All the cool guys have like 20-90 latency and I have 400-500 ~_~!

What kind of connection is standard these days? Clearly my 1.5MB isn't cutting it; I was thinking about getting 4MB, but since my ISP can provide anything up to 10MB maybe I could get something even better?

Also, I just got my ass out of a completely losing situation. PvT the T is up to my expo with his siege tanks, vultures, mines and turrets all lined up nicely in the belly of Python. So I go like -lol but i has 3 bases kekeke- and send obs to his base entry, which is, defended, poorly. and then I go like -lulz speedzea > ur reaction time > siege tanks unsiege speed- so I go rape his base and ignore his army, then when he unsieges I send my units from 3 different directions and eat all his mines and turrets then eat him up : D : D : D
My micro and macro sucked so bad rofl, but I finally returned to being able to do zeabombs with teh non-speedy shuttles and expanding all the time even when I'm busy, uh, scouting or teching or picking my nose or something. eh, it's in my blood, but I need moar practice, my hands still need practice before I can go fun multitasking ;_;

110 APM
187 Max
77 Min

Are any of you cool guys here willing to play /w me so that I could get practice with better players in my empty hours?

lammas

05-18-2008, 5:35 AM

btw dont care about apm too much, only care about winning games.

Aqo

05-18-2008, 5:49 AM

APM means my reaction speed. It does matter ~_~. Winning games can come down to my opponent doing mistakes on the level of play I'm at atm.

My APM was 95 like two weeks ago. At this rate, I'll get the desired 200 at, what, 3 months from now? too slow, gotta play more; then I'll care about winning. Right now I only care about improving and having fun >:3

lammas

05-18-2008, 7:19 AM

No apm doesnt matter. It has nothing to do with your reactions, it only means how much you spam. Having 600 apm isnt going to make you a good player.

140 and you can beat anyone you like. I had like eh 150 when I beat iefnaij and I was spamming in those games ._.

or yeah apm means a little bit, no one can be good with 80 apm.

So focusing on improving apm is going to make you a spamming machine which is going to improve your play. Instead focus on playing faster and dont give a fuck about apm and youll do fine.

Aqo

05-18-2008, 7:51 AM

pfff I don't spam at all. I never click something I already clicked except for the first 2 minutes of the game where I clickfest my minerals and workers ;p
I don't try to get my APM high; I just like seeing it get higher naturally without me doing anything to get it up, which in turn does show how my reactions get faster.
i.e. I don't click more to get a higher APM, durr, because then of course it's meaningless. Besides doesn't BWChart ignore repeated clicks anyway?

lammas

05-18-2008, 8:41 AM

bwchart does take spam actions into account. It removes some repeated actions but not all (and even repinfos eapm has nothing to do with anything).

Anyways if you follow your apm and feel good about it going up I think that you very easily start to do a little more a little useless things to have it up even faster.

Also I dont think there is any reason at all to be happy about having higher apm you spammed or not.

SilverCrusader

05-18-2008, 9:01 AM

I'd play you Aqo, but my mouse died and I had to get a new one. So I'm still getting used to this mouse speed, it is a tad bit faster than my old one, so I often misclick things.

anderoo

05-18-2008, 11:33 AM

Are any of you cool guys here willing to play /w me so that I could get practice with better players in my empty hours?

Message me with times you want to play. I'm not very good, but we can play on abyss so you can get some points out of it.

I'm T>Z>P

PaiN

05-18-2008, 12:04 PM

Meh. I brought up the whole APM thing about a year ago too, it really doesnt matter. Honestly it depends on the game if your lazy and just play a large macro game you can win with like 90~100 APM,, at least at our level. I've maxed like 200+ but theres no point if I can play just as good at like 130 or whatever... untill you start getting into like B + A then I wouldn't care as long as your 100+

Ahzz

05-18-2008, 12:34 PM

This APM discussion is retarded. A fact is that as long as you keep playing it will keep increasing naturally. I'm not TRYING to be faster, I dont spam, I just play relaxedly and my apm keeps constantly increasing, little by little, without giving any negative side effects. ATM I have 140-170 APM most of the time, and its plenty for a long time still.

100+ will be plenty at D/C level. Don't mind it, really, just keep playing and trying your best. if you keep following your apm results constantly you concentrate on it too much 100% and you will lose more than gain.

Aqo

05-24-2008, 11:41 AM

It's not like I concentrate on APM or something, but trust me, I do 0% spam clicks, I never give the same order twice unless I'm microing something intense on earlygame. My APM shows me my awareness level, which kinda means a lot... I just won a PvZ that last 25 minutes, it took so long merely because his lurkers and hydra drops kept hurting me around the map as I was concentrating on other things; with a higher awareness level I would've kept my expos longer and won faster ;p

SgtHK

05-24-2008, 1:35 PM

Hey, I don't wanna make a new thread. So I might as well ask my question here regarding iCCup.

How do I get into iCCup? Here are the things I've tried:

1. I registered in the website
2. It said to check my email and click on the link in the email to activate my accout, which I did.
3. I tried to log into the website several times, but it always says something like "login error"
4. So I downloaded the necessary files: The AntiHack launcher, the official maps, and the REG file (I already have patch 1.15.2).
5. I installed the AntiHack iCCup launcher and ran the program
6. I went into Brood War, clicked on multiplayer, and chose the Abyss server under Bnet
7. I tried to log in with my registered name (SgtHK) but it was invalid
8. So I tried to create a new account with the same username (SgtHK). But it said someone already uses that name.
9. Then I tried to create an account of a different name (SgtHK0223). But it still said that someone already uses that name o.O
10. Then finally I tried to create an account of a completely different name (dickhead12344321). It still said the same thing >.<

Can somebody tell me what's the problem here?

Aqo

05-24-2008, 3:55 PM

I had the problem, here's the thing: some of their boxes have a limit on the characters in the password you choose, and some don't, so you're ending up not using the same password as the one you thought you registered with. You must use a password that is no longer than 10 characters. You could try logging into your initial account SgtHK by typing only the first 10 characters of the password you thought you registered with on it in the logic window.

This whole thing kinda sucks, I usually make my passwords 16-22 characters long :/

SgtHK

05-25-2008, 3:03 AM

Hey it worked! Thanks +1rep
I played my first iCCup game and I won! XD

Magmaniac

05-29-2008, 12:47 AM

CHECK IT OUT I MADE AN ICCup ACCOUNT TOO LOL

http://iccup.com/iccscprofile/323750/

Magmaniac

06-02-2008, 3:40 PM

iccup ladder reset! lolol

mranderson

06-02-2008, 6:17 PM

Go go ladder race :P

Aqo

06-08-2008, 4:50 AM

omg I didn't have internet till now ;_;
Time to race to A+ fuck yeah :D

SilverCrusader

06-08-2008, 10:05 AM

Beginning of the season sucks for low level players, but rocks for high level ones.

KillerKow

06-08-2008, 11:03 AM

I feel like getting back into the ladder scene... Time to relearn everything I know about melee ;P

Aqo

06-28-2008, 2:39 AM

I got to C-! Hell yeah ^_^
This only comes to show that hard work does pay off, and that playing 150 games is a good way to buff one's skill >:3

I am a lot more confident with my PvT now, I've been easily pwning T players lately. I'm not very confident with my PvZ, so I'll work a lot on this area now. And I feel really solid with my PvP, after having experienced lots of very different PvP games.
Also, my ZvZ improved a lot. I can actually win ZvZs now :O yay! :-D

Now... is it really that impossible to find C- games? :/
When I used to host D+ games it would only take about 10 seconds until someone popped up. How long does it usually take for C levels?

Ahzz

06-30-2008, 5:46 AM

its harder.
If you want games easy, make games such as
D+/C-/C MOTW

or something along the lines. This way almost anyone of those ranks will be attracted to join the game. You will get a game quickly, though you may have to play people one rank lower than yourself.

If this doesnt work, another great method is to spam for example
"C-/C MSG"
people will usually message you pretty quickly. In addition to your own spamming, message anyone who says that they will play C- players to 'go game' and make the game. Several people cannot make games, so if you can you should get one easily.

If all else fails, as it often does in A/B ranks, you can just whisper "go game?" to everyone you're willing to play in the channel