High rated RTS gamers: skill or talent?

Let's clarify a keyword the original poster wrote: talent[1] . It has two meaning: gift[2] and/or skills[3]

Gift is something lies under your ADN, it is "premade" and you can't archive it no matter how you pratice.

Skill is something gets improved with the time you are working on it.

I agree with most of the comments so far that "skill" is need to archive 2k. But to reach 2.3k+, you have to do be gifted.

I also talked to some 2.2k ( sometimes 2.3k but falls back to 2.2k soon ) and they complain that they lacks of something they don't know. And he can't win daut or Chris in every map and civ.

Wikipedia also has a short but densed article about RTS[4] which if you read carefully, you will find that the key factors that make a gifted/skilled RTS gamer:

1. Micromanagement ( Yes, it is management, requires experience ( knowhow ), sometimes a a little research to the game )
2. Macromanagement ( Yes, it is management, requires experience ( knowhow ), sometimes a a little research to the game )

Both are important but IMO, macromanagement are more important: It is the capacity to adapt econ/armies to various situations. Where and how to attack. Help or contribute. I also strongly recommend reading "The art of war" by Sun Tzu[5].


[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talent
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_giftedness
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skill
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-time_strategy#Gameplay
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_War