Welcome to a new strategy series on SCReddit.EU called Systemized Improvement! This series of articles will not be about what you need to do to play a good game of StarCraft 2 – it’s easy to tell someone to do this and that to be better at the game – but rather ways improve systematically. While you can get better at StarCraft 2 simply by grinding a ton of games and hoping you learn something along the way, you’re usually better off learning how to think about your wins and losses. The articles are not meant to be read in any particular order.

This first article will be on how to play defensively – which, if done right, is a very good way to improve. Another way to put it is playing reactively. This is because when you play aggressively, you’re the one controlling the pace of the game, and often you’ll either win or lose depending on how your attack goes. If you’re set on doing a certain aggressive play, there’s little to no room for deviation in your plans depending on what your opponent does. Meanwhile, playing defensively requires you to play reactively because there are many different things you as a defender can lose to.

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