Hello - Is there any announcement or any indication on when the ladder map pool will be changing? I recently started playing Sc2 (in november) but the map pool has been the same ever since I started and I love these maps but I am kind of looking forward to some new ones…
Maybe at the beginning of the next season, this season was a short one and there was the Katowice tournament,but nobody is sure of anything at this point.
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Remember this would require about an hour of work from blizzard to insert the maps into the pool.
So in other words it’ll never happen.
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This is a super short season. The fact that absolutely nothing has been said since the tournament regarding balance, pools, bug fixes, means that if nothing is said within the next 2-3 weeks, nothing will ever happen for SC2 again.
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Maybe the game can be balanced exclusively with maps now. That’s kind of cool.
Again this is putting faith in blizzard. They have made about 4 quality maps since WoL. Think about that for a minute.
No there’s no proposed changes announcement, no map contest; not one word from Blizzard nor a test ladder. It’s pretty safe to assume there won’t be any future balance changes or new maps; just minor bug fixes. It’s unfortunate that SC2 died like this but, it’s actually, genuinely dead now.
they change the map pool for Starcraft Broodwar fairly often so I don’t think you’re answer is accurate.
I hope this is not true because like I said, Blizzard changes the map pool for Broodwar - swapping in old maps rotating etc…
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I think it will start before GSL season 1 or after the Stay@homestory cup. I agree its pretty short but I think we will see some changes soon from the devs.
I haven’t seen a TLMC so I’m not sure where they would get new maps from for the pool
We don’t know for sure, but in the past when seasons were unusually short it meant the devs had something planned afterwards.
My guess is as Vicarious studio just took over, they went for only the necessary updates (the portraits for the Blizzcon, and the new launcher to promote the newly available games) and delayed any balance related change for a time where they’d feel comfortable doing it. And, well… map pools are a balance related change. 
People are saying they could get more maps from the last TL contest.
I doubt the new team will do some balance change, they are there probably to just keep the game running,it’s easier to think that some blizz employee with sc2 past will gather some small changes and the new team will be the one that will put them into the game, and maps, similar, someone from community makes them and send them to vicarious through blizz, but hard to figure anything, today I saw on reddit someone who linked blizzard’s job list and there was a spot for developer who acts like a supervisor who checks outsourced work?, maybe meaning the new team won’t be alone at the job, but that can be sc2 related or not, we don’t know since the team covers several games.
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TBH is actually more complicated than that. Blizzard often modify the maps and the map pools themselves to have a more diverse and balanced one, so you actually need a balance team to do the map changes, and we are not sure if a balance team exists anymore (it seems like it does not). For me the best bet would be to rotate old well rated maps rather than introduce new ones.
If this is the case I would be happy for vicarious to take their time and really understand the game before they do any balance and map pool changes to it. But I fear SC2 will just be left out to dry.
Catz said that the dude from Blizz that supervised the maps is missing and he doesn’t know if he keeps managing the maps or not because there is zero contact.
What I think is that they will only address something if it’s absolutely obvious and necessary. In other words, if there’s a blatant, widely admitted specific imbalance having an impact significant enough to be voiced by casters and players alike after a competition. A consensus like that won’t be that frequent with the state the game is in, IMO.
As for if they are joined by members of the old SC2 team, that would be great indeed.
Their reluctance to change the map pool (which could’ve been reversed to a previous one btw) is a sign of that IMO. Yet the other possibility you mention is completely possible, but the game isn’t in a dramatic state balance-wise atm.
Time will tell.
I also think that it may be perhaps due to all the changes in 2020 with SC2 Map Editor. Since map makers can now utilize 15(!) layers of height//high ground//low ground instead of just 3(?) or 2 like before, they have to learn how to “rebalance” the maps perhaps?
iirc they stated that ladder maps would still be constrained to the original settings and the additional layers were exclusively for custom maps/campaigns. I don’t have a source for that though.
Oh… so basically no one is going to usee the new layers because no one really makes custom maps anymore… ): sad