StarCraft News & Notes

The community feedback continues and the element I want to address is the maps.  Pros (and others) have complained vociferously about the current map pool--all the new choices being drawn from the most recent TL contest.  While there may very well be imbalanced elements in the maps, but I do like the idea of diversity--it's fun to see top players work outside their comfort zone and come up with map-specific strategies.  It seems like it's impossible to turtle on any of them--a discomforting thing for defensive players (RIP avilo), but a good one for increased action.  State has posted a look at the scouting distances in the current map pool.

 

WCS viewership numbers (via fuzic) were a slight drop from season one, but looking at the context (see image above), this season's numbers are still better than any in WCS 2014 (BlizzCon last year averaged 50k).  The region lock seems to have helped provide a boost to viewership and perhaps Lilbow's run will add some spice in season three before we get a true region lock.

As expected the current GSL champ Rain won the latest edition of the tournament (his only loss was to Lilbow in the R16); that his opponent was Sacsri was a surprise, but well done to the MYI player.  On the foreigner side of things, three French players (Lilbow, MarineLorD, and PtitDrogo) made it to the R8, but all fell there (Lilbow came closest to moving on, losing 3-2 to Jaedong).  I agree with TLO's theory that the reason foreign players can beat Koreans in group rounds but fail when they meet them later is due to a lack of diversity in their strategies.  Regardless, the event is much more about the relaxed atmosphere and as such was fantastic (Scarlett did well as a host).  Here are highlights from day one, day two, and day three [day four]; the Ode to David Kim; Rotterdam wrecking DeMuslim; there was a lot of fun on the B-stream as well with BaseTrade, but nothing has been posted yet.  It's worth noting that Home Story Cup's viewership was quite a bit lower than in the past (about two-thirds of HSC X and around 70% of HSC IX)--the decline is similar to DreamHack's in viewership.

Artosis offered his thoughts on number of things, including the differences between SC1 and SC2 where he talks about the latter being a more strategic game:

SC1 is a game of speed and mechanics. Yes, there is a lot of strategy, of course, but it is certainly secondary to being able to make as many units as possible and to move those units in the right way.  SC2 is a game of strategy. Yes, there are lots of mechanics and speed required, of course, but those are much less punishing than making incorrect strategic choices.

Yet more retired players have returned to the game as Starbuck and frozz are back after short breaks.  Both are participating in the WCS qualifiers.

Lycan brought on JakaTaK & Co. to talk about their Sandbox initiative and I recommend watching the discussion.  I have to think that until a player achieves specific results attributed to deliberate training it will remain a curiosity in the pro community (a reaction very clear on the latest TLG with desRow and Nathanias; JaKaTaK did say the focus of the group was on tournament results).  This isn't really a surprise as all competitors are results oriented, so whatever objections there might be would largely disappear the moment someone achieves something under their wing.

Somewhat related, TL has set up a strategy strat chat.  There's also a new tool to look at build orders.

I've been curious which Zerg players have been most impacted by the swarmhost change--something that's hard to track (unlike broodlord/infestor in WOL, since every Zerg player depended on it--I looked at its impact on players awhile back).  A few pros come to mind, two of the most notable are Kane and PiG, who have almost completely fallen off the map since WCS season one (the former hasn't participated in WCS qualifiers--or much of anything--while the latter failed to get through the SEA qualifiers in both seasons since the change).  This isn't to say either were completely dependent on the unit, but there's a very clear change in their results since.  Another is Serral, a Finnish player on the rise who fell out of Challenger and hasn't done much since.  Finally, Snute (the ultimate swarmhost player) has felt the impact--someone who had comfortably become the best foreigner is now just one of the best (comments like this from him are discouraging, but hopefully he perseveres).  There are probably more players struggling to adjust, but it's a pretty small number given how many players had adopted Snute's style before the patch.  The plus side is that it has meant much more entertaining styles of play from Zergs.

I stumbled across the Rival StarCraft League recently (a small tournament run by Hawkeye), which is already two iterations in.  I can't help but think the acronym (RSL) confuses some people--it did me as I thought it was the (now defunct) Russian StarCraft League.  For those interested in the VODs they can be found here; I think Hawkeye could help himself out by either making it an NA or at least foreign-only event.

Speaking of smaller tournaments, Drunkenboi won the ESL NA Open last night.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)