At the time, I think you were right. Terran really didn’t have reliable detection. That isn’t true anymore. They’ve reworked the raven, nerfed burrow by making it easier to see, and terrans are so rich they can easily afford extra orbitals for scans. The infestor is absolute garbage as is, it’s one of the most over-countered units in the game second to only the mutalisk. That’s a general theme for zerg since almost all zerg units trade at negative efficiency (they lose more resources than they gain), but this is especially the case for infestors. I mean, you have to suicide infestors into skytoss just to use infestors for detection. So, you spend 150 gas for like 3 seconds of detection of only a part of his army. Do you realize how incredibly bad that is? It’s frankly amazing that Serral was beating Stats with mass infestor after the infested terran delete. Top zerg players are truly exceptional and they do not represent balance, at all, in the slightest.
The infestor nerf was the crux of the current meta’s problems. Zerg has never fully recovered from it. Immediately after that, Protoss began dominating Grandmaster, and they set dominance records. For the entire history of the game, no race has dominated Grandmaster as severely as Protoss did after the infested terran delete. It was flipping unreal how hard it was (and is) to beat a skytoss who f2+aclicks. Now terran is in a really good spot, and it’s very easy to blame the infestor once again.
The problem is that most of the people who play SC2 are mathematically and logically illiterate, so they make basic mistakes like generalizing balance by premier tournaments. The balance team used to resist this, but they just adhere to popular demand now, and that’s why Zerg’s been practically deleted. Correct me if I am wrong, there has NEVER been a GSL semi finals that was dominated entirely by 1 race.
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Reynor took a game off maxpax with his terran and 2-0’d with his toss 
But yea it’s da race
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Gotta love when zergs can play protoss better than protoss can.
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100% correct, protoss isnt represented at all compared to the other races yet they ALWAYS receive the most and biggest nerfs.
The guy doing the balance is clearly a terran player who truly hates protoss… only logical way I can explain all “balance” changes of the last few years…
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What are you smoking, man? Protoss have won 42% of ESL cups, for example. Why do you say they are not represented? What on Earth are you talking about? Protoss are over-represented. Lay off on the Mary Jane and you will stop losing, OK? OK.
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Protoss won their first tourney in Korea in over 5 years… you know the hardest region to play in… and ur talking “ESL Cups”? bro grow a brain please!
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Korea hasn’t been the hardest region since the kespa scandal ended the teamhouses. Maru is the king of Korea at the moment and he gets absolutely destroyed by Serral. Serral has a 75% match score vs maru. That’s insane. Korea is not the golden standard anymore. It’s just the facts.
Literally the only player in Korea to go toe-to-toe with Serral, after the kespa scandal, was Innovation. Innovation is practically retired now. It’s a separate subject, but if the region lock hadn’t been there, I’d bet Innovation would’ve taken most of Serrals wins from him. Innovation took WESG from Serral before the infestor/queen/creep/brood nerfs. Imagine what he could do now, but it looks like he’s lost interest in the game.
If you rate the skill in korea, Protoss players are just terrible. Sorry, it’s the truth. Innovation and Maru are sigma 4’s and Dark is a sigma 5, while the closest Protoss is a sigma 2. There are lightyears between the top terrans and the nearest Protoss in terms of skill. You can’t expect Protoss to win anything in a region where they are outclassed massively in skill.
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CURE has the best TvP on the planet right now tho, completely deletes maxpax
Starcraft 2 is dead in korea. The smartest SC2 pros are either currently studying and practicing to stream Brood War or have already moved back to it. It’s difficult to even get 2,000 people to watch a championship level stream for Starcraft 2. The gameplay is simply stale and boring, the maps are too big, there’s nothing new. The situations are the same over and over and viewers have caught on. It’s not like WOL or HOTS where every game had a unique feel to it and players with insane macro were seen as impressive. WOL had its own problems with mass force fields being so good vs zerg, but in general the better zergs were still winning and… the games were great to watch as a spectator.
There is nothing fun about watching a couple widow mine and marine drops while you know both players are on 4 bases. Nothing feels huge. The defenders advantage is so major that it’s hard to even care or get attached to a game as the spectator.
Brood War, on the other hand… can be amazing to watch. Yeah, TvT is pretty boring, but that’s one matchup and all the other ones are basically a treat to watch.
As for game balance… Zerg and Protoss have been overwhelmingly better outside Koreans for years now. You need that extra 100 apm to even compare. There’s a couple outliers like Spirit and Clem who seem to be doing good vs top players right now, but in general no. And don’t say Oliveira because he’s been training as a Korean for years now.
There’s very few moments in SC2 now where a player like MC walks up to the terran natural with a couple more stalkers and zealots than the terran thought, and ends the game (or the terran reacts immediately and the comeback is hyped). The terran probably has 2 cyclones out and just clicks backwards and forwards a few times. Bonus points if he takes 3 scvs and puts them on autorepair but probably won’t even have to.
They took ‘micro’ rushes out of the game. Yes, there are more ways to harass now, but they are almost all instant harasses like widow mines, oracles, etc.
It’s sad in a way. I knew WOL was something special at the time, although the maps were too small. Little did we know it would be the glory years of SC2, while Brood War improved Starcraft 1.
I agree that the map pool diversity is really low, but terran is absurdly busted on small maps. The current map pool has no viable way to defend basic parade pushes and drop maneuvers. Zerg doesn’t have units worth making before the 8 minute mark, and the entire theory of TvZ is to attack zerg to make him produce units that he doesn’t want to make (lings, banes, roaches, etc). On smaller maps you don’t have time to get out any units except these, and that’s why TvZ is heavily terran favored on those kinds of maps.
If you are wanting smaller maps, they need to undo every queen and infestor nerf. Zerg would be viable on small maps at that point. TvZ is balanced around zerg having a garbage early and mid game and that restricts how small the maps can be. All the creep nerfs would need to be undone. Etc.
The current map pool is already too small, with a TvTvTvT semi finals in GSL, and you’re saying it’s still too big.
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I am all for large maps with variety of neutral buildings, rocks, move speed fields and so on provided there is a back base like that recent map whose name I forget. Otherwise expect to get 3 base all in’ed by 12-14 mins each time