The truism that no pro leaves StarCraft permanently continues as both Marineking Prime and Byun have returned. It's clear that transitioning from an RTS like SC2 to a MOBA like League of Legends is not easy and no pro wants to deal with the vagaries of work outside the gaming industry once they've had a chance to make a living that way (as Redeye and Richard Lewis mentioned a couple of weeks ago, although I don't share Redeye's love for Idra's casting)--I agree with Lewis' theory (the same link) that Idra plans to return as a caster and his departure is intended as leverage for that return.
qxc made a number of interesting Tweets about balance today and I'll quote a few of them (which I've joined together):
how would you draw the line between balance and skill? When does a strategy go from being good to being abusive? When is it OP? When I proxy 2 rax vs protoss or zerg, they have very few options or they lose immediately. Is this strategy op? When do you cite balance vs a lack of understanding? 2b blink went from unstoppable to manageable if recent games are any proof.
This is a good point and minimal tinkering is the way to go. Each race has early cheeses which can result in an auto lose for either side immediately depending on which way the coin lands. It's always worth keeping in mind.
This is a bit dated, but something I've meant to bring up since I first saw it back in January. TotalBiscuit was streaming StarCraft and the game linked (beyond being entertaining) includes interesting comments about the SC2 community and the negativity in it. A few quotes:
-"We as a [SC2] community seem to be so dead set on this game being utterly and completely dead that we're not even pretending anymore. We're looking for all the drama we can possibly find."
-"I'm not too much a part of it [now; the drama/negativity]; that I do more to shut it down now than anything else. For the longest time I would get into all these fights and I know I was contributing to that."
-"The whole thing makes me said. If I could do 2013 over again I would, if I could do 2012 over again I would."
-"I can definitely do better. Be a better person in general. I look at all the stuff that happens in StarCraft now and I wonder: is the behaviour of myself and my peers at some point responsible for some of that? Is the community a product of the people that it follows in that way, or is it the other way around? Or did we [SC2 celebrities/personalities] become more cynical and unpleasant because the community sort of forced that upon us as a survival instinct? It's hard to say."
-"It's easy to be angry at the community and just say 'look at how dumb everybody is, look at how dumb everyone is acting,' but perhaps, people like myself are responsible for that and that makes me really depressed. Because I never meant to do that. I never wanted to be the asshole."
-"Looking on the bright side, one other thing the community is really good at is completely forgetting why it was mad in the first place. That means that there are almost always chances to redeem yourself in the eyes of people. Give them some fun, give them some enjoyable events, then you'll be surprised how quickly people can forgive you. More to the point: I think a community that is consistently engaged by cool content is less likely to look for their 'content' in the form of drama. And that's something I can do."
There's no question that he does provide cool content and I look forward to seeing more of it.
Speaking of TB, I thought he made a good point about avilo: his popularity is mostly due to the fact that plays Terran and has a unique style--something unique enough for people to ignore his sometimes toxic personality.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
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