This hour is only about how to come back with something usable#

Attentive play is a different activity from play, and it does not happen by accident.

You will be trying to win and trying to notice, at the same time, for three hours.

An observation about the machine beats an opinion about yourself#

I played badly is an opinion about you. It is worth nothing here.

From the first back until the dragon spawned I had no idea what I was doing is an observation about the machine, and it is exactly what we want.

Self-evaluation is the thing you are already good at, and it has never helped you.

Three lines, after every match, before the next queue#

1. The last moment I knew exactly what I should be doing. Roughly when, and what made it obvious?
2. The longest stretch I had no goal. Roughly how long, and what ended it?
3. What told me I was winning. Not whether you were — what told you.

Line 2, across eight matches#

By game eight there is a pattern in line 2#

One you would not have predicted.

And it is almost always the same pattern that shows up in your studying, which is the reason we are doing this at all.

What counts#

Eight matches minimum, and the result has to have mattered to you — ranked, or draft with people who are trying.

A mode where nobody minds losing does not produce the thing we are looking at.

If you have never played, play anyway. Being bad is not a problem for this exercise. Being bored is.

What to bring to week 4#

The notes. All of them, including the games you would rather not discuss.

You will build the paper mechanism directly out of line 2 — the dead stretches are the thing we are trying to design away, and you cannot design away a stretch you never measured.