Battle.net

@Blastoise: since season lasts for 2 months now and it opens on the 25th, I'm guessing it'll close around Christmas...

@wolfmaster:
I'm just a basic bronze leaguer myself but I can share a little:
* very helpful list of guides: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/1965569482
* If you're still learning basic mechanics, it's less frustrating to practice against AI, which never cheeses and allows you to practice basic things whether you win or lose
* learn a couple of builds by rote that you can fall back on. cheeses are fun to learn, but don't abuse them because:
a) they don't teach you anything
b) by beating people who are actually better than you, you'll rank yourself up for a well-deserved thrashing

The problem with SCII advice (and you'll read a lot) is that many of it is only pertinent for a certain level of gameplay. If you're just learning the basics, you need to make sure you are doing the most basic things right. My wild guess is that your biggest problem is economy. For T and P it's a no-brainer: always have a worker building in-queue (because they can build workers at the same time as army). In contrast, Z must choose to spend its limited larvae on EITHER workers OR army. While this affords flexibility, for beginners it means you screw yourself.

I see the Zerg's early game strategy thus: drone, drone, drone and drone. Build only what defense you'll absolutely need, everything else goes to drones. This requires that you scout, which is intimidating for beginners. At the very least, stick a unit outside your enemy's base. As soon as you see them leave home you'll have just enough time to top-off your army if it is not already sufficient to defend.

* Economy is both more important and easier to neglect for Zerg than for other races
* If you build one hatch for every nexus or command center, you are losing (unless you are going all in). Hatcheries are less expensive and you must have more than the other races to be equal.
* Zerg is powerful in that you can drastically change which units you are producing very quickly. The tradeoff is that you cannot afford to be surprised. Scout or die. Scouting means, in order of priority (for the beginner)
a) knowing when they are attacking
b) getting a sense for whether they spending mostly on teching/economy versus army. for example if they are spending too much on tech, attack now FTW or get rolled in 7 min.
c) what units they are building, so you can respond. For the beginner, this can be as simple as putting down some spore crawlers so you don't get hosed by mutas.

This Day9 video extremely helpful for the beginner, and inspired a lot of the above advice.

@PDrummond:
...forgot the Day9 link...
http://blip.tv/day9tv/day-9-daily-194-newbie-tuesday-drone-timing-4228999

@wolfmaster: 9 OverLord. 15 Pool. Go from there. ZvZ you might want to do a 12 or 13 pool.

@wolfmaster: there's plenty on youtube

@wolfmaster: to sum up buddis long-winded speech....mutas.

@wolfmaster: I can help if u want I'm diamond z so if you're interested just message me character code is 116. I can give a few lessons if u have skype.

@Minitrigger: I changed my name cause I joined a clan. Use this character name if you're interested.

@wolfmaster: The general idea of laddering is just keep playing while developing general notions. Get higher and higher, when you notice yourself getting lower, learn more specific things.

@wolfmaster:
youtube=>day9

@DarkBlaze: Just play a 1v1 on the ladder and you'll be put into a league for Season 4

@vTnTemujin: quantity no quality

@Adicogames: Agreed! doesnt matter if u mass wins. theres a kid with 20,000 wins but hes bronze.

@whOmOng: Still don't understand the placement. I need an example. So, if I have 20,000 wins but 100,000 loses, chances are, I'll be in bronze? Of If I have 100 wins, and 1 lose be Platinum? More Wins over loses I'm assuming? thanks.

@vTnTemujin: win loss ratio is always designed to be 50/50 if it's not then you're moved up or down in rank according to what would make the win loss ratio 50/50. That's the overall goal of the system, exactly how it accomplishes that is unknown to me, but to advance in rank just simply improve your win loss ratio.

@hrmXaeroxe: The system doesn't give a rats !@# about your amount of wins, it only cares if the amounts of wins is greater than the amount of losses.

@vTnTemujin: There is a good explanation on how MMR works on TL.net, it helpped me understand it a bit better. http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=142211

@MJshorty: My friend got me 1v1 platinum so I get pwned

@MJshorty: If you want to get demoted, just leave a few games. It will eventually demote you to Silver because each time you leave that counts as a Loss.

@Hakutsuru: Your ability to get into higher leagues is based on your mmr, not how high you are in your current league. If you don't know what mmr is, just google sc2 mmr explanation. I'm assuming you went back in rank because people passed you unless it was somehow a glitch or something.

@Hakutsuru: That's what happens with new leagues.

@AmishPanda: im in the same boat as you, was a scrub when i bought the game but now got my stuff together and sweep the floor with most bronze leagers now. I WANT TO BE RE-RANKED!

@TheBeast: Don't worry. If you keep losing you'll get demoted to gold :D

@EDAVIDJ: Watch casts on youtube or teamliquid.net and try to copy what the good players do. And use hotkeys if you don't already.

@EDAVIDJ: check out day9.tv he has helped me alot (still in bronze, but i am winning almost all my games)

@EDAVIDJ: You Need more practice