Why Do StarCraft 2 Pros Have Such a High APM

#sc2
#starcraft
#starcraft2
#esports

[anbu]

Not enough minerals !
Not enough minerals !
Not enough minerals !
Not enough minerals !
Not enough minerals !
Not enough minerals !
Not enough minerals !
Not enough minerals !
Not enough minerals !

[justinliebenberg]

Thinking of playing ranked: 😃

Actually playing ranked: 😩😓😤😵

[colts]

one of the main reasons i spam especially early on is like you said. To warm up but also to stay on rhthym.

[TheRealPDizzle]

As a Broodwar player since 1998, I retrained my APM at a certain point. I was getting around 300 APM with my Zerg play, and realized that a lot of my clicks and commands were indeed superfluous. I intentionally forced myself to play as slow as possible, only using commands when totally necessary. At first it was a slog and difficult, but over time I was able to bring my APM back up to 180, except now there are no wasted clicks or actions. My real APM is now 180 and goes up to 200 during large engagements. Having done this, I'm better at BW now at 33 than I was at 16. When all of your actions are efficient and necessary, a lot gets done. And when you get up to 180 with no superfluous actions, the way you look at the game totally changes.

[busTedOaS]

a large aspect of it is flicking through control groups real fast (422424154 etc) to see unit health, cooldown, production queues etc. it does not even count as actions, but it does give you important information.

[kaiser]

Its so that at the end of the game your opponent trembles in fear upon seeing your incredible speed

[svetoslavpopov]

Yea, I thought Byun’s high APM was due to his ability to control two drops, build infrastructure, create workers and queue units at the same time, but I guess it is just waste 😂😂

[bovinepro]

yeah you are right alot of the APMS when you are talking about 600 APM or 500 APM or 400 APM are probably redundant or race inflated (zerg larva selection etc) but from 50 all the way to 300 APMs is very very relevant for player speed and to be able to multi task. SC2 suffers from look away for one moment and lose all your worker syndrome. Pros program in camera locations and pull their worker immediately for example. Effective APMS are more important than total APMS but APM is still important. It isn't always make or break like with an FPS but it sure can come close with marine micro/splits and stuff like that

[fyregus]

“Warm up your hands”
Arthritis knocking on the door~

[lordlopikong]

It's said that you'll have more apm at the start and it gradually dies then spike at critical times. Cold fingers in StarCraft2 is like a blank mind during a test

[speakertrees]

Yeah. You got it. It's just being ready really, imo. "stay on your toes"

[Gator]

A lot of the mass input spamming is to ensure a command goes through at the earliest possible frame. Since the game has basically no input buffer, any form of lag or mistiming on the exact frame makes the cooldown effectively longer.
i.e mistiming a 1 second cooldown by 1 frame 60 times makes you have 1 less cast of that ability)

[vladmatei]

One day, man, one day I'm going to pass 40 apm.

[DordiHOTS]

High APM is a result of having control groups created, when you press 1 2 3 or 4 it corresponds with buildings, and you can produce units from your buildings while fighting your opponent on two different fronts, all while expanding your base, so since there is so much going on, their ARM will be high, somtimes they spam select or just look over their building production as a habit, it might be deemed as useless but realistically it is habit, awareness and production.

[ToTheNines]

I remember a noticeable climb in my own skill when I forced myself to play faster than I was comfortable with, basically on the verge of making many small mistakes, but eventually I got more and more comfortable with the pace.

I’m of the idea that having 10 actions where 6 are useless are better than 3 actions. Maths lol.

Still it’s better to focus on the basics in the beginning rather than speed. If you’re in low diamond with 400 APM then you should probably try and figure out what you’re doing wrong.

[nfzeta]

Beyond just warming up hands, keeping up with the rapid info dumps the spamming gives you keeps your brain in high gear.

[anthonygarcia]

The keyboards with the satisfying clicks
That’s why APM is high

[EbonySeraphim]

I think the real reason is actually confirmation of the keys pressed in addition to warming up. You want to have “just pressed” the correct key to select that specific group alternate with another. and see the visual feedback that you did it and “feel” that it is happening. In the heat of the moment during a real battle, you don’t want to have a shred of doubt in the responsiveness that your commands weren’t quite right other than knowing perhaps you physically didn’t press the right buttons because you don’t have the time to confirm everything. Maybe if you see a huge command that went wrong, of course you fix it, but a lot of stuff you’re going to need to trust it happened and move on to the next thing.

[CollaborationNation]

All the OG professional SC gamers now suffer from carpal tunnel.

[ZC.Andrew]

Even the random clicks and movements are not wasteful if they keep the fingers warm and the mind alert. Maybe it's the same kind of thing as boxers weaving during a fight. Would you call that constant movement waste? I guess it depends what the actions are doing outside the game itself.