Albino of afterMath Esports is one of Stormgate’s top players, and he believes replays are the most valuable tool you can use to become a better player. They allow you to break down your game into key moments or phases, enabling you to analyze specific aspects of your gameplay. This makes it easier to replicate successful strategies and better handle scenarios based on your mistakes.
Thanks to our friends at Untapped.gg, a leader in the field of data-driven tools for gamers, you now have a way to research different Stormgate build openers to practice based on how effective they have performed with robust search options including win rates by faction matchup, skill ratings, and even filter by map.
Want to practice like a pro? Watching high-level gameplay and comparing it to your own will help you understand how they handle certain situations, enabling you to adopt techniques and strategies from top players. When analyzing a replay from a professional, it’s important to watch the clock. Ensure that you’re building structures at the same times they are and have the same number of units when they do. Setting goals for yourself—such as identifying one or two aspects to improve—will help you focus your practice. Reviewing your own replays can reveal why you may not be reaching your goals or why you have fewer units/tech than high-level players.
Reviewing replays from high-level players is one of the best ways to learn and execute new, fun, and successful strategies. It can also help you counter certain strategies that give you trouble. For example, if you’re an Infernal player struggling with 2-base all-ins from Vanguard, you can find a replay of an Infernal player defeating that specific build order.
If you are committed to making serious improvements to your competitive play, it’s important to make replay review a regular habit. Consistent analysis helps you see improvement in your own play over time. Watching replays can also positively impact your mentality. Noticing your own progress over time can be a powerful motivator. Even if you come away from a bad loss on full tilt, by going back and analyzing your gameplay in a calm manner (after replacing your broken keyboard), you can reduce that feeling of frustration and develop a more positive mindset. Having friends or a coach review a replay with you can also create a sense of camaraderie and support, reinforcing a positive environment for growth.
Watching replays will also help you refine your mechanics and improve decision-making. Observing your actions, such as micro-management in big fights or worker production lapses, can highlight areas where you need to improve your mechanics. By analyzing moments when you hesitated or made a questionable choice, you can learn to trust your instincts or weigh your options more effectively.
Replays provide concrete examples of how to improve. Whether it’s learning new build orders, optimizing strategies, enhancing mentality, improving mechanics, or discovering new and successful tactics, replays are a key component and a valuable tool for your improvement.
Untapped.gg has made it easier than ever to find high-level replays tailored to your playstyle. We hope you’ll take advantage of this new feature and let the Untapped team know in the untapped.gg channels on our official Discord if you’d like to see additional features or functionality in the future.
USING THE NEW REPLAY AND BUILD OPENERS FEATURES
Starting today, you can visit the Stormgate Untapped.gg page and click on the OPENERS tab at the top of the nav to discover the most popular and successful opening build orders for your favorite faction. Maybe you specifically want to improve your results as Celestial vs. Infernal on Broken Crown as you’ve been struggling?
Here, you might see a win rate just under 50% when you open with a Collection Array.
But look, if you dig a level deeper, you can find that going Collection Array > Creation Chamber isn’t nearly as successful as following up with a fast expand into a second Collection Array, before building your first Creation Chamber (and following that with a third Collection Array).
Let’s dig in deeper. You can click on the magnifying glass on the right to then check out match replays where you can see these build openers in action. This view shows you the units and structures created as well as the upgrades that player picked. Don’t worry if you’re a competitor and don’t want your strats shared–these games are anonymized as “Player 1” vs. “Player 2”, so your strats will be a secret unless you opt into sharing your replays with the public.
So what do you do once you’ve found a replay file to study?
- Click the download icon to download the replay
- Save the replay file to your replays folder. It is typically located in: C:/Users//AppData/Local/Stormgate/Saved/Replays/ The is the name of the folder where the replays are contained from the latest build of the game.
- Launch Stormgate and go to the Replay viewer by clicking the button at the top.
Please note: Only replays from the current build are downloadable or viewable in the Stormgate client. Replays from older builds will not be viewable.
And you’re in! Use the tools to speed up, slow down, and learn everything you can. GLHF!