When I check my ladder stats Protoss was always the least popular race. Basically I had 40-50% more games vs Zerg compared to Protoss.
But this season something has happened. I have played 48 games vs Zerg, 55 vs Terran and 71 vs Protoss.
I realize that Protoss is the easiest to use and most powerful race on causal (diamond) level but that has always been the case. What happened this season that could explain the difference in popularity?
It got even easier and more powerful.
Looking at the numbers, it appears there was a significant drop in the number of Zerg players… I believe around the time of the void ray buff? I would note however that Protoss and Terran both spiked relatively, it’s just the Zerg who dropped.
The numbers do not show that, in diamond Z is the most played race, the drop was just 4% in 4 years, the numbers go down, but really slow, not noticeable in a couple of seasons. Maybe it was luck, sometimes ladder is like that, many seasons I (diamond too) got a lot more games against T than against Z or P .
In my opinion of random player, the best race in diamond is Z by far, you can abuse almost any strat and it will work most of the times and is the race on that level that benefits more from raw macro mechanics, hit the injects, spread creep, good scout and you will be able to overrun anything with no strategic depth in your actions, just macro and insane amount of units, with good macro many times you can trade bases and win in the long run because you have way more bases.
After game became free to play in 2017 Protoss % popularity increased.
Could be a result of many, many factors, including, but not limited to one mentioned below.
Global increase in interest of high tech topics like Space Exploration and similar. That could influence trend of choosing Protoss, as highest tech race in the game.
But when it comes to comparing your ladder games, it would be more wise to check race distribution within your league, rather than global trends.
Even if Terran (barely) isn’t most popular race within my league, I still play with them the most, often a few games in a row. % of races on ladder may differ daily with time. Happens.
This season popularity of Protoss increased because of drop in Zerg players. Still Protoss is the least represented race within Diamond league.
You’re making a few bold claims here, though.
I think that Zerg is actually the easiest mechanically. There macro is more complex, so that requires more game understanding, but the execution is definitely easier.
Yes, that’s why I think Serral said that instead of spamming practice games he tried to understand the enemies strategies and find solutions on his mind against some situation. In bronze-gold Z is a really bad race, you don’t know when to drone, the enemies are doing weird things, in plat you start realizing how the macro works, in diamond the Z already figured more or less when to drone, when to make units.If you don’t steamroll your enemies in diamond with Z is because you have to work on your mechanics, Z works better when you do at least a bit from all the basic things, scout, creep, dronning, I have seen many Z that only focus in one or a couple, good scouting and good creep and then not knowing when to make units or drones, extremely good creepers with extremely bad macro, really good players at making units and barely putting creep on the map or scouting.
https://www.rankedftw.com/stats/races/1v1/#v=2&r=-2&l=4
Overall there has not been a sudden drop, but in diamond there was a noticeable dip. It stands out compared to the relatively even line, so it’s enough that I think it fair to call it a significant drop. The OP asked for how it happened and honestly I don’t know, but I can point to when it happened.
Protoss are rocketting up the ladder to higher leagues with the imbalance of the new shield battery / overcharge. Basically the late game protoss army is bonkers overpowered, but it was manageable because Protoss had weaknesses in the early/mid game that made it difficult to get to their ultimate late game.
Now they can get to their ultimate late game with ease, and trying to allin vs them is an instant free win for the Protoss. You are forced to fight their ultimate late game army, which is very difficult to beat. If the Protoss plays perfectly, he would not lose a single PvZ/PvT game.
Also the new void ray is causing balance problems too but it’s mostly the super defense of the shield battery + overcharge. In TvP it’s basically impossible to beat a shield battery + void ray proxy rush.
This is VERY obvious from how Protoss is MASSIVELY over-represented in Masters/GM compared to the two previous leagues (Diamond/Platinum). Protoss from Diamond/Plat are being shoveled into Masters.
https://www.rankedftw.com/stats/races/1v1/#v=2&r=2&l=4
LUL, this Trumpist…errr troll is at it again.
Make Terran Great Again (with BS and whine).
So nerf upon nerfs = more powerful? Alright buddy
Yeah at least in D2 I would say most of the games are against Protoss. I have the impression though that in D3 it is a Zerg fest, but as of now I seem to encounter less zergs than P or T. Which is fine by me, I hate mirror match-ups with a passion. I actually chose to play Zerg 8 years ago because ZvZ was over quickly.