> APM is an interesting question I think. Like what is the relative importance of APM to strategy?
Depends on the strategy, and the skill level you play as, and what that APM is being used for.
Among the lower 90% of play, a player with a very good understanding of strategy, and good prioritization of their actions (Spend money, don't get supply blocked, don't lose your army to a dumb blunder) will win ~100% of their matches with ~40 apm, assuming they plan to use a low-apm strategy (no fancy drop play, preference to units that don't require a lot of micromanagement.)
On the masters/pro scene, though, you need a lot of APM just to stay alive. When there's three medivacs cycling drop harass in your main and natural, while helions keep running into the worker line of your fourth base, while your opponent's army is jostling for position with yours, trying to get a good angle to land EMPs, or to siege up in a good position, you're not going to be able to physically stay alive, unless you are devoting over a hundred APM to dealing with these threats.
> If I have 20% more APM than you do I beat you even if I totally pick the wrong units and build order?
That depends on what 'the wrong units and build order' means.
Some build orders will straight up die to other build orders, assuming perfect play on both sides. Assuming non-perfect play, it depends on which mistakes are made by each side.
Some build orders are soft-countered by other build orders. They can, theoretically, hold against a 'countering' build order - but will die, if the person using them makes some mistakes, and their opponent makes none.
Likewise, 'the wrong units' is huge a bag of worms. Are zealots better units, cost-per-cost than marines? Yes, unless there's a critical mass of marines, at which point zealots become the 'wrong units' for that engagement. Throughout a game, there are ebbs and flows of strengths and weaknesses, between two players, as they hit their various tech timings/unit counts/positional advantages, and try to transform those short-term advantages into economic damage, or efficient army trades.
A big part of pro play is knowing when you have an advantage you can exploit, how much you can exploit it, how to exploit it efficiently. You need game sense for the first, good strategic thinking for the second, and APM for the third.
[1] I'm a pretty casual player, but I've had no problems hitting Master (5%) level in every season I've cared to play. I generally sit at ~90 APM, when I don't spam - and I presume that if I were much smarter, better with my timings, and more knowledgeable about the game, I could be in the 10th percentile with half the APM. The amount of extra game knowledge that pro players have, compared to me, is staggering.
Depends on the strategy, and the skill level you play as, and what that APM is being used for.
Among the lower 90% of play, a player with a very good understanding of strategy, and good prioritization of their actions (Spend money, don't get supply blocked, don't lose your army to a dumb blunder) will win ~100% of their matches with ~40 apm, assuming they plan to use a low-apm strategy (no fancy drop play, preference to units that don't require a lot of micromanagement.)
On the masters/pro scene, though, you need a lot of APM just to stay alive. When there's three medivacs cycling drop harass in your main and natural, while helions keep running into the worker line of your fourth base, while your opponent's army is jostling for position with yours, trying to get a good angle to land EMPs, or to siege up in a good position, you're not going to be able to physically stay alive, unless you are devoting over a hundred APM to dealing with these threats.
> If I have 20% more APM than you do I beat you even if I totally pick the wrong units and build order?
That depends on what 'the wrong units and build order' means.
Some build orders will straight up die to other build orders, assuming perfect play on both sides. Assuming non-perfect play, it depends on which mistakes are made by each side.
Some build orders are soft-countered by other build orders. They can, theoretically, hold against a 'countering' build order - but will die, if the person using them makes some mistakes, and their opponent makes none.
Likewise, 'the wrong units' is huge a bag of worms. Are zealots better units, cost-per-cost than marines? Yes, unless there's a critical mass of marines, at which point zealots become the 'wrong units' for that engagement. Throughout a game, there are ebbs and flows of strengths and weaknesses, between two players, as they hit their various tech timings/unit counts/positional advantages, and try to transform those short-term advantages into economic damage, or efficient army trades.
A big part of pro play is knowing when you have an advantage you can exploit, how much you can exploit it, how to exploit it efficiently. You need game sense for the first, good strategic thinking for the second, and APM for the third.
[1] I'm a pretty casual player, but I've had no problems hitting Master (5%) level in every season I've cared to play. I generally sit at ~90 APM, when I don't spam - and I presume that if I were much smarter, better with my timings, and more knowledgeable about the game, I could be in the 10th percentile with half the APM. The amount of extra game knowledge that pro players have, compared to me, is staggering.