the 1000 apm thing is because of a bug in how apm is calculated in starcraft2. There is a hotkey to assign all your units to a new control group while also deleting it from all other control groups which TLO extensively uses, and while it just is one key-combination to press it records as 1 action per unit which was selected. The real APM of pro players averages at 250-400 and peaks at 600-700.

> a repetitive strain injury waiting to happen.

Yes, I have one from it and wasn't even playing that high (I averaged less than 100 apm). I understand that it's a common problem.

Was Starcraft the only/main game that you played?

Yes, basically the only for several years at that point. A few hours here and their of other games but nothing at all substantial.

i already had some RSI, but playing SC2 made it a lot worse (i stopped playing when i got to plat as a zerg because it required enough APM to hurt)

It is why I stopped playing SC, and I was never any good anyways. Still fun, but it just hurt real bad.

I stopped playing SC competitively because it's too stressful. Both physically and mentally. Hitting 300 APM continously in a game for up to 60 minutes at a time makes your hands go numb. And the adrenaline rush makes you want to go running afterwards. With games like LoL/DoTA at least you have a chance to take a break after a gank/farming/ team wipes. With starcraft every decision has a significantly higher compounding effect

Hell I never played it competitively. I had to stop playing it even casually because it physically hurt.

Wait until you hear about stringed musical instruments? :)

From what I understand, the most common string instrument problems are with shoulders/neck/back, due to sitting for long periods of time with poor posture.

Most music should be playable without excessive risk of serious injury to arms / wrists / hands, but from what I understand very high notes on e.g. the violin are hard to play without using an over-flexed wrist, which is definitely a problem if playing music requiring such a position for long stretches of time, or many rapid switches between high and low notes.

Some of the string players with most risk are novices who have not been taught proper technique.

For professional PC game players, the design of the standard computer keyboard and furniture is absolutely terrible from an RSI perspective (worse than any common musical instrument, and without any of the design requirements of acoustic instruments as an excuse), and it is shocking to me that there has not been more effort to get more ergonomic equipment into players’ hands. The way game players typically use a computer keyboard is generally more dangerous than the way typists or e.g. programmers do. As someone who spent a few years thinking about computer keyboard design, I can think of at least a dozen straight-forward and fairly obvious changes that could be made to a standard computer keyboard to make it more efficient and less risky for game players. There is a lot of low-hanging fruit here.

Whether or not the equipment is changed, the most important single thing when using a computer keyboard (or any hand tool for that matter) is to avoid more than slight wrist flexion or extension, especially while doing work with the fingers. Excessive pronation and ulnar deviation of the wrist are also quite bad. Watching pro players, many of them have their wrists in an extremely awkward position while doing fast repetitive finger motions for hours per day without breaks, which is a guaranteed recipe for RSI.

Well I have heard of them, also looked up TLO mentioned above, he actually did get RSI and had to take months off.

"Liquid regretfully announces that Dario “TLO” Wünsch will be unable to play for the next few months due to the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome he experiences in both hands. He will however continue to be involved with E-Sports even as he takes a break from gaming to give his wrists time to heal. Sadly, this means that he will not be attending Dreamhack Summer or the Homestory Cup III as a player."