• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 13:28
CEST 19:28
KST 02:28
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Classic Games #3: Rogue vs Serral at BlizzCon8[ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt1: Ascent10Maestros of the Game: Week 1/Play-in Preview12[ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt2: Take-Off7[ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt1: Runway13
Community News
Weekly Cups (Sept 1-7): MaxPax rebounds & Clem saga continues23LiuLi Cup - September 2025 Tournaments3Weekly Cups (August 25-31): Clem's Last Straw?39Weekly Cups (Aug 18-24): herO dethrones MaxPax6Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris76
StarCraft 2
General
SC4ALL: A North American StarCraft LAN Classic Games #3: Rogue vs Serral at BlizzCon #1: Maru - Greatest Players of All Time Geoff 'iNcontroL' Robinson has passed away [G] How to watch Korean progamer Streams.
Tourneys
RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series LiuLi Cup - September 2025 Tournaments Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris WardiTV Mondays Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament
Strategy
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 490 Masters of Midnight Mutation # 489 Bannable Offense Mutation # 488 What Goes Around Mutation # 487 Think Fast
Brood War
General
BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ alas... i aint gon' lie to u bruh... BW General Discussion [ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt1: Ascent The Korean Terminology Thread
Tourneys
Small VOD Thread 2.0 [ASL20] Ro16 Group A [ASL20] Ro16 Group B [Megathread] Daily Proleagues
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Muta micro map competition Fighting Spirit mining rates [G] Mineral Boosting
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread The PlayStation 5 General RTS Discussion Thread Iron Harvest: 1920+ Nintendo Switch Thread
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Laptop on Rent in Delhi – Smart Choice for Student
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine The Games Industry And ATVI UK Politics Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
The Happy Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion!
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion MLB/Baseball 2023 TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Linksys AE2500 USB WIFI keeps disconnecting Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread High temperatures on bridge(s)
TL Community
BarCraft in Tokyo Japan for ASL Season5 Final The Automated Ban List
Blogs
The Personality of a Spender…
TrAiDoS
A very expensive lesson on ma…
Garnet
hello world
radishsoup
Lemme tell you a thing o…
JoinTheRain
RTS Design in Hypercoven
a11
Evil Gacha Games and the…
ffswowsucks
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1352 users

Things I like about Starcraft 2 Part 1

Blogs > Riot grrrl
Post a Reply
Riotgrrrl
Profile Blog Joined November 2011
Canada73 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-11-16 12:40:42
November 16 2011 00:45 GMT
#1
Alright so I started this blog so I could update daily about various things on my mind that are SC2 related. I will make fairly uninformed and general statements, perhaps someone will enjoy them hehe

For the first entry I want to talk about how matchmaking 'democratizes' SC2. I will compare it with the first game I got into competitively (my first love ololol): Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Nintendo is a company that has never acknowledged the competitive community of its Smash Bros. series. These are the repercussions of this fact:

1. The game is balanced for casual players.
2. The game is never patched.
3. Nintendo doesn't support any Smash Bros. tournaments.
4. Nintendo's matchmaking system doesn't allow for reliable practice.

The negative repercussions of these are pretty self explanatory. Number 4 however is especially damning since tournaments are played on LAN latency and Nintendo's online has a significant amount of unavoidable lag. This means that practicing revolves around who your friends are or which good players you can find nearby. One of the top players in North America, Ally, happens to have a brother who is also extremely high level at Brawl. Go figures!

Anyways I love StarCraft 2's matchmaking system. I can find an opponent at my skill level after a 20-30 second queue. Even ICCUP's channel type system of creating games and waiting for people felt like it took longer in my experience. Allowing anyone to find games whenever they want allows anyone to improve and thus democratizes the game.

Edit: I want to make a blog post about something good about SC2 or that I find interesting for daily for (at least) the next 100 days. 1/100!

***
And its basketball Bow Wow lets go
dmasterding
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
United States205 Posts
November 16 2011 00:52 GMT
#2
coming from a casual competitive smash bros background myself, I have to agree with all 4 of those points.
it was so frustrating not having friends who played smash bros, and there not being a good solid way to practice online.
No tears now, only dreams.
Pangpootata
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
1838 Posts
November 16 2011 00:54 GMT
#3
I agree with most of your points, except the usage of the term "democratize". SCII is inherently competitive in nature, and much more players of SCII follow the competitive scene as well as attempt to play competitively, opposed to super smash bros where competitive players are a minority. Hence both Blizzard and Nintendo are still catering to the majority at the expense of the minority (SCII's system generates ladder fear for some low level players just as super smash bros' system generates unreliable practice for high level players), which is very democratic.
Gheed
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States972 Posts
November 16 2011 01:20 GMT
#4
"Democratizing" is not the right word. You are possibly looking for the word "socializing" (made available to everyone who, by buying the game, inherently invested in it) and even that would be a stretch. A video game is not a system of economics or government.

To the general idea that the ladder gives people more opportunity to practice and improve, I would agree somewhat. Blizzard has made every attempt they could think of to dissuade such improvement, though. When they removed the displayed win ratios for 98% of players, Blizzard said that low level wins and losses mean basically nothing. So, then, what is there left to compare? Points are a measurement of activity, not skill. By only worker rushing I had more points than anyone in my bronze division. Does that make me better than them? Not really.

Instead of guiding players to improve, they are steered toward achievements or ladder points. These are rewards for playing a lot of games, not necessarily playing them well. By boiling down the competition to just a single division of your league with points as the only metric, they have obfuscated any true measure of skill, any way to measure improvement. It is instead a system designed to keep people interested until the next expansion pack comes out, not necessarily to enhance the quality of that play.

Coupled with the matchmaking system which only pits you against players of close skill, improvement is not encouraged, even if it is possible. So, while the ladder does give one the opportunity to improve, it is in no way emphasized by the game itself. Most of that comes from out of the game, the ladder is just the tool we use to get games. I wouldn't give blizzard too much credit for it.
MysteryMeat1
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United States3292 Posts
November 16 2011 01:34 GMT
#5
lol Gheed and ur silly worker rushing blogs. (I love those btw)
"Cause ya know, Style before victory." -The greatest mafia player alive
keiraknightlee
Profile Blog Joined August 2011
United States301 Posts
November 16 2011 02:09 GMT
#6
I sense some jealousy in your post
~~~Happiness. Dreams. Love~~~Good Luck
Riotgrrrl
Profile Blog Joined November 2011
Canada73 Posts
November 16 2011 02:50 GMT
#7
I agree that democratize perhaps is not the best word. The matchmaking system for SC2 does give more people the power to improve, so in that loose kind of sense I meant democratize i suppose. Maybe just saying 'evens the playing field' or 'reduces geographical bias/luck of what games your friends play' or something like that.

Gheed there are many examples of Blizzard encouraging you to climb the ladder. For example splitting up players into small divisions so you can try to bust in the the top 8 and get a shiny gold star on your league badge. Using the most obnoxious strategy at low levels to climb the ladder and claiming the system is flawed doesn't really mean anything. I think you're giving too much weight to an anomaly rather than a rule. For me, I always look at the league of each player after the game and think about raising my MMR and so on. To continue a comparison with smash brothers (and most fighting games) you can beat relatively unskilled players very easily with one or two moves (Meta Knight's neutral B for example is hard to deal with for beginners) but you won't be able to get it done against a competent player...

Also I'm aware that a few people have gotten really high on the ladder worker rushing or 6 pooling, but i would argue these are short term results.
And its basketball Bow Wow lets go
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 16h 32m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
mouzHeroMarine 541
BRAT_OK 83
UpATreeSC 82
Codebar 41
MindelVK 27
ProTech12
JuggernautJason3
StarCraft: Brood War
Calm 5015
Rain 1779
Bisu 1363
Shuttle 1176
Mini 1022
EffOrt 540
Stork 451
BeSt 272
firebathero 219
sSak 212
[ Show more ]
Soulkey 171
hero 155
Dewaltoss 149
ggaemo 109
Mong 85
Sharp 79
TY 54
Rush 38
Mind 37
Yoon 35
Aegong 21
Terrorterran 18
soO 17
Dota 2
The International96311
Gorgc9877
PGG 28
League of Legends
Reynor56
Counter-Strike
fl0m478
Heroes of the Storm
XaKoH 57
Other Games
Grubby1981
Mlord538
B2W.Neo529
Beastyqt444
Lowko280
RotterdaM216
Hui .173
ArmadaUGS142
KnowMe139
QueenE53
C9.Mang051
SortOf38
Chillindude30
ToD26
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick1264
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 17 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• iHatsuTV 4
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• sooper7s
• Migwel
• intothetv
• LaughNgamezSOOP
StarCraft: Brood War
• FirePhoenix12
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• C_a_k_e 1352
• Ler69
League of Legends
• TFBlade587
Other Games
• Shiphtur346
• imaqtpie110
Upcoming Events
RSL Revival
16h 32m
Classic vs TriGGeR
ByuN vs Maru
Online Event
18h 32m
Kung Fu Cup
18h 32m
BSL Team Wars
1d 1h
RSL Revival
1d 16h
Maestros of the Game
1d 20h
ShoWTimE vs Classic
Clem vs herO
Serral vs Bunny
Reynor vs Zoun
Cosmonarchy
1d 22h
Bonyth vs Dewalt
[BSL 2025] Weekly
2 days
RSL Revival
2 days
Maestros of the Game
2 days
[ Show More ]
BSL Team Wars
3 days
Afreeca Starleague
3 days
Snow vs Sharp
Jaedong vs Mini
Wardi Open
3 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
4 days
Afreeca Starleague
4 days
Light vs Speed
Larva vs Soma
LiuLi Cup
5 days
The PondCast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Copa Latinoamericana 4
SEL Season 2 Championship
HCC Europe

Ongoing

BSL 20 Team Wars
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 3
BSL 21 Points
ASL Season 20
CSL 2025 AUTUMN (S18)
LASL Season 20
RSL Revival: Season 2
Maestros of the Game
Chzzk MurlocKing SC1 vs SC2 Cup #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1

Upcoming

2025 Chongqing Offline CUP
BSL Polish World Championship 2025
BSL Season 21
BSL 21 Team A
EC S1
SL Budapest Major 2025
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
MESA Nomadic Masters Fall
Thunderpick World Champ.
CS Asia Championships 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.