<story><title>To get good, go after the metagame</title><url>https://commoncog.com/blog/to-get-good-go-after-the-metagame/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Proziam</author><text>Getting good in almost all games is based on understanding and mastering the fundamentals to the extent that you can make consistently correct (or at least a high degree of &amp;#x27;correctness&amp;#x27;) decisions based on them. This is true for all esports titles, and probably all games in general.&lt;p&gt;Mastering the fundamentals will make you &amp;#x27;good&amp;#x27; to a level that very few people ever reach. It&amp;#x27;s not until you reach a level where &lt;i&gt;everyone&lt;/i&gt; around you has a mastery of the fundamentals, that the meta comes into play.&lt;p&gt;source: coached and managed professional esports players, in multiple games, who have competed in the world championship of their respective titles.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>WhompingWindows</author><text>I disagree slightly. The metagame is relevant whenever you&amp;#x27;re facing opponents of &lt;i&gt;similar&lt;/i&gt; skill. If you&amp;#x27;re way better than your opponent, you can use highly sub-optimal, non-meta strategies and win through sheer experience and skill. For instance, I could kill 50% of Starcraft opponents lower than me by building only one unit and even announcing which unit I&amp;#x27;ll mass up.&lt;p&gt;However, if you&amp;#x27;re making a similar number of errors as your opponent, then the meta does come into play. Regardless of the raw error rate, where pros make few and amateurs make many, if this rate is similar to your opponent, then it still matters if your opponent has a strategic&amp;#x2F;meta counter to your strategy.</text></comment>
<story><title>To get good, go after the metagame</title><url>https://commoncog.com/blog/to-get-good-go-after-the-metagame/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Proziam</author><text>Getting good in almost all games is based on understanding and mastering the fundamentals to the extent that you can make consistently correct (or at least a high degree of &amp;#x27;correctness&amp;#x27;) decisions based on them. This is true for all esports titles, and probably all games in general.&lt;p&gt;Mastering the fundamentals will make you &amp;#x27;good&amp;#x27; to a level that very few people ever reach. It&amp;#x27;s not until you reach a level where &lt;i&gt;everyone&lt;/i&gt; around you has a mastery of the fundamentals, that the meta comes into play.&lt;p&gt;source: coached and managed professional esports players, in multiple games, who have competed in the world championship of their respective titles.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>timerol</author><text>TFA definitely agrees with this opinion, but also asserts that learning about the meta teaches you what fundamentals are most useful to know.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Note what I’m not saying, however. I’m not saying that I should actively pursue the meta — this is ineffective, because I am not good enough to play. I cannot execute even if I know where the puck is going. But studying the state of the metagame as it is right now often tells me what I must learn in order to get to that point.</text></comment>