Which raises an interesting problem for the "StarCraft II" community: how do players manage to stay at the top of their game and remain healthy at the same time?įor many, it's a tricky balancing act. Just watching the video and trying to imagine moving across the keyboard that quickly practically makes my wrists ache.
#KEYSTROKES PER MINUTE PRO#
He sends me a famous video of Korean player KangHo (see above) to illustrate how nimble and dexterous a pro has to be at this point in the game's history. Who has the upper hand in a "StarCraft II" match can change in a matter of seconds, so a misplaced keystroke can be the difference between victory and defeat at critical moments. In "StarCraft II," the player keeps one hand on the mouse while the other remains firmly planted on the left side of the keyboard to be able to reach any number of hotkeys that are tied to particular actions instantaneously. "A guy like me can hit 300 APM easily," Weber continued, "but it's mostly wasted because the way I get there is just to click a lot, most of which are redundant actions - for example when I click for a unit to move I'll spam it 10 times to keep my speed up." Mechanics in 'StarCraft' refers to a player's speed, accuracy, ability to multitask, and efficiency."Ĭomparing himself to the pros, however, Weber said the speed isn't as important as what the player can do with it. "The way you talk about a player physically is similar to how you talk about a baseball player," Weber said. Games are often determined by which player is nimble enough to adapt to his opponent's forces. Each unit costs money, and a rock-paper-scissors-style logic makes every lightning-fast decision high risk.
#KEYSTROKES PER MINUTE PROFESSIONAL#
In a fast-paced multiplayer online battle arena game like "League of Legends" - the other major title on the professional gaming circuit - the player only controls a single hero, who runs around the map casting spells and killing bad guys.īut in the real-time strategy game "StarCraft II," a player must control hundreds of units: building defenses and gathering resources to produce soldiers, then mustering troops for battle, attacking and defending across multiple fronts.
And while APMs might be measured for curiosity's sake in other games, they're more important in "StarCraft II" than any other e-sport simply because the game itself is so complicated. Matt Weber, director of operations for the online e-sports community Team Liquid, told NBC News that he thinks about it like a baseball player's pitching speed - for pro gamers, there are certainly factors other than sheer velocity, but it's an important first standard to determine who can make it to the top in the first place. All you could see of the player during the actual games were their two hands - one on the mouse and the other on the left side of the keyboard, both moving at a blinding speed. Each player was housed in a tiny windowed booth where they sat, their faces blocked from the audience by large computer monitors. At a recent tournament in New York, early attendees looked on with outright confusion as two players squared off against one another from opposite ends of the stage. For the uninitiated, watching a professional league video game tournament can be a dizzying affair.
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