The Code – Part 2

1. Do whatever it takes to win
2. Be respectul to your opponent
   This one sounds a bit of a fluffy cliché but there is more behind it than that.  Naturally this rule helps to build a more enjoyable community. If no one bm’ed or raged in games a lot less negative energy would go around because it does go around. You rage and make someone annoyed in game who is then annoyed and rages in his next game and so it goes around. But this is just a nice bonus, even if you don’t care at all about that stuff this rule is here for a whole other reason.
   You should not be emotionally invested in your games and that is something that will span over numerous rules. The only goal in a game is to win that game, and once you are out of the game the game is done and over with and irrelevant. There is no reason to get emotionally involved in any way in your games and pretty much every kind of emotional influence you can have in game be it satisfaction, joy, irritation, anger, frustration etc is going to have a negative impact in some way on your game, even positive emotions have a negative impact on Starcraft play. There is going be a whole rule detailing this later on more specifically though.
   The question is what does this have to do with being mannered and not raging etc? Well glad you asked. With being respectful to your opponent I don’t necessarily mean that you need to say glhf at the start of every game and gg at the end, those are just customs. I don’t think that not saying glhf is in any way rude, there are a lot of people who just don’t talk in games. I happen to feel that wishing glhf at the start and saying gg at the end is a good way to enforce good behavior though for yourself. I think you should use those two not for the sake of your opponent but as a means to have a constant reminder for yourself to stay neutral and not let your emotions carry you away.
   The important thing though is to not be rude, not to rage in chat, don’t offensive gg, don’t whine when you lose or be rude to your opponent. The reason is that it while controlling your emotions in game is vital to your success and your progress as a player, it is really really hard as anyone can vouch for. Learning to be emotionally neutral is a lifelong process. When you bm or talk shit in games you are opening up the floodgates and allowing yourself to be emotionally invested in the game. Even if you feel like the other race is imbalanced and are already emotional, typing it out is only anchoring that emotion to the game and allowing it to take control. If you can’t keep yourself from typing out rage text when you lose a game, then how can you even begin to keep yourself from getting angry in the first place?
   Remember that the other player is just another player that is following the first rule of the code, he is doing whatever it takes to win, the other player did not balance the game. If you lost to cheese or all in he legitimately executed a strategy that you failed to stop and won and the ladder system is not going to give you a lower point loss because you feel it was “unfair” or an easy build. If you feel really annoyed at the end of a game just stay in the game for a bit and calm down, just stop macroing and cool off before you type gg and leave. If your opponent is rude just ignore it and focus on the fact that he is letting his emotions get in the way of his progress while you will be better than that. Which reminds me about being rude when you are winning, this is no difference, it is just as important to stay away from. When you offensive gg or bash at someone who you beat you are just trying to make yourself feel superior emotionally, that superiority is 100% psychological and has nothing to do with the actual game you just played and thus just like any other bad mannering it is just distracting you.
   A calm and neutral mind will win you games and make you take correct decisions and it will better allow you to study your replays.

   Oh and bad mannering people on the ladder is also a way to reduce your options, if you got stomped by someone, rageing at that player will get you on his permanent ignore list. If you are respectul though and ask for advice you might just well have found yourself a new practice partner for the future.
   If you get all inned by someone who does that all in every game, well then you have someone who should have a pretty refined all in and that would be an excellent player to practice defending against it right?