BROKEN LADDER

Back in the time when I was becoming really good in this game, reaching my first level 50 and beating true icons and the best players on daily basis, there was only one battlefield where you could confirm to yourself and prove to others that you are good. That battlefield was ladder.

 Now it is completely different. After that December of 2006. when I organized first RoC tournament ever where players used Garena and Delay reducer to host eachothers games, started an era of RoC custom game players who don't play ladder anymore. Lagfree, without stress for losing a level, ruining good stats or losing to not so good opponents or a cheater, majority, if not all players made their final switch to custom games.

And I don't blame them because by blaming them I would blame myself. Who would say no to well organized tournaments like W3CUP was in the past or BMF is now? Everything on a plate for a gamer who is prepared to become good. Hosting bots, great amount of skilled players and map pool which kills the monotony that ladder has since forever. Or amazing clan and player leagues like Replayers Clan League was or some event with weird name organized by Rocarena? By the way, I can name million and one thing that are against Rocarena but the one which goes in the favor of this site and the most important one is that this organization offers our community everyday events which gathers great players and which keep those players active.

However, discrediting and totally ignoring our battle.net ladder by disrespecting players who are still actively playing it leads us to two separate communities and two different opinions of players success and by ignoring one of these two battlefields one will always lack some part of gaming education. By gaming education I am referring to mindset and overall behavior toward the community rather than knowledge of macro game and races.

Okay I'll try to make it simple. One player cannot become fully accepted, loved or respected by the community if he played only ladder and ignored the tournaments and leagues. Same goes the other way. And I can name many examples. Players like Pumppaaja-eki, S_A_I_B_O_T, HLA or BeN and many others first became good in ladder and then they proved themselves in other competitive forms. And once they proved in other competitive forms such as solo tournaments, clan leagues and God knows what else, they became true icons of this game who are loved by many, hated by few but respected by everyone.

What I can say for them and for many other great players which  I won't name in this thread but in chapter 2 of Legends and their marks thread, I can't for players like ItsImba, LordSainz, Pokinho, TakeItHard and all those who played only ladder without mastering it or played only tournaments without mastering them. They are all decent players but they will always be like students who skipped some classes and finished their education without learning the most important lessons. 

Why is ladder so important? Well simply because you are building strong mindset if you active ladder player. I will take HLA again as my main example. Back in the time when I was ruling ladder with players like Pumpa, Ojune, eS.Rus, Gosu.Powa, Valtar, Gonokkoken, EyeOfTheDruid and Cecile, HLA was considered to be semi good player like Pokinho is now. No offense to any of them, but it is true. When you meet HLA in ladder and that welcoming screen jumps in your face you would be like "Thanks God its this guy and not Ojune!" 

In one year of constantly playing ladder, switching to TFT then coming back, having 2 accounts with more than 400 games on RoC and TFT account with more than 1500 solo games + playing on smurfs, HLA constructed his mindset to be so strong and he felt no fear of losing but focused himself only on improving. He never whined and for each loss he blamed himself no matter if opponent had 4 Golems and 3 Infernals from creeps. He would say that it is his mistake that he didn't stop his opponent from getting those powerful items. And in his next games he tend to play better for himself. And he succeeded and became one of the best players this game ever had.

Building your mindset is possible only in ladder. Players and maps are changing rapidly. Getting over your loses and celebrating your wins is much shorter than in tournaments. You also get to identify yourself with one race which is not the case with modern players. 

Today everyone wants to play RANDOM. Each random newbie wants to play random because he is deluded that he is good enough to deal with every match up or race he is up against. Then his opponent also picks random so he doesn't get to be seen as newbie who picks race or care-whore who is taking tournament too seriously. Then we have 2 random newbies playing 2 random races not knowing where they are going to get. Usually when it becomes hard or there is deciding game in front of them they slightly switch to Nigh Elf picking Scorched Basin as they final battlefield. In a blink of an eye we are watching 2 random newbies playing Night Elf mirror on one of the most hated solo maps.

Thats all happening because they missed that important lesson which is ladder. You can't start counting from 5 and you can't start your Warcraft 3 career by signing up for next BMF tournament. You can't, simply because you will get smashed in first or second round by someone who is done learning and is allready on next level. Experience, mindset and overall skill is something that takes time to be built. It cannot be done over night and it is pretty hard task. But if its not the hard way its the wrong way, right?