EPTSo long has been since I last write a post, or on this case a blog on a game forum, that I had to make my fingers work a bit today =)
Some context on my part, I’m a FPS player that comes from the time of Quake3… 12 years ago, I started my virtual life, on what now I see as the best FPS made so far (since I never played quake2, I will exclude that game), being on that game not at the top, top, but you can see me as the guy who trained toe to toe with some of the great ones, simple never entered in the tourneys (1on1 on this case).
Then I gone to Enemy Territory, Quake4 (total disaster of game), a bit of UT3 (didn’t lost much time there) CoD4 (a FPS of high success, but literally the most newbie FPS I ever seen, like someone said once,” The pro’s of CoD are the noobs of Quake!“ ) and ended my run in FPS on Quake Live. Now I’m a SC2 player on diamond division, as zerg .
All I will say next please take in account is my personal point of view, nothing more than that!
I consider Quake, to be to FPS (skill, and learning curve needed to be good on the game) what SC2 is to RTS genre, with that in mind, the question I ask is, which one is best, both for the players and to the viewer’s at home, has the best eSport game , if only one could exist?
That said, Quake is dead, and all I will try to discuss here, is has if, Quake3 was still the King of the FPS world as he was a decade ago (you can see is sucess at the time as SC2 is today), and SC2, well is what it is today! That asked, my answer is… Quake!!! Why? That is what I will explain next =)
![[image loading]](http://www.sobcontrollers.com/temp/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/quake_3_tattoo_girl-542x341.jpg)
First let’s see in the point of the player perspective:
While Quake is indeed a hard game to master, to be really good, when a player first enters the game, it’s quite obvious for him what needs to be done, take a weapon and start shooting everything that moves. On SC2 not even close to that, 3 races to choose, one needs to learn what each race is +/- good at, and how it plays on the game, so one can know which one, is the right race for him.
When that choice is made, SC2 has again a new challenge, not only I need to learn my own race (which I sincerely believe, starting at diamond that happens, with this I don’t mean, one has mastered the race, no, I mean more with, he is doing X, ok, I will need to do Y, he has not done A, I can do B then, and has finally some macro that can be taken in account) but also, I need to understand the other 2 races, what they can do, and what they cannot do… A bit like, a lower player stopping a 3 rax timming attack from a terran, and he thinks that on the next minute several clock banshees can be on his base, when that cannot happen. On the Quake side of things, you need to learn when each of the 9 different weapons you have, is good to use (and if you never played Quake, believe me, is easier said than done)
Then we have the “skill” that you need to gain, to play the game at the top! On this point, I believe SC2 wins. In Quake, you need fast reactions; great aim (is amazing when you see two players hitting 60% or more of the hits they shoot); the ability to perceive the sounds (or the lack of it) during the game so you can understood were your enemy is, or is not; have the timings of the armors, mega health; knowing in which area of the map your opponent is going to spawn after he dies ( and on this point, the skill, to not spawn immediately as you die in certain situations, so you can mistake your opponent); and all the small things you need in the midst of all this. But like I said, I believe that SC2 on this point wins, the “skill” needed is amazing here… knowing build orders, and being able to execute then with less errors as possible (macro); micro (just this alone make names for players (MarineKing? =P)); multitasking, and here is where I put my finger on, the “skill” gap between players, if you have great to incredible multitasking, is simple… you must be a Korean =D (Since you all play SC2, I think you can understand, just how this skill itself, can make the difference, between to great players, and while Quake as many points were you need to have skill, you don’t have one skill, that can make a difference over one player to another, has can multitasking on SC2).
![[image loading]](http://www.methodsofhealing.com/files/2010/07/failure-of-multitasking.jpg)
Now we have the gameplay itself kicking… On Quake, the game is equal in all stages (beginning to end) for both players, they start with a machine gun, and have a map full of armor, life, and weapons, were each player has to make is decisions, I would love to explain here, the complexity of when a player as the control of the map, when the player that has not try’s to gear up, and take that control back, the fights that go around the Red Armor, and the Mega Health (with some amazing denials that happen here), the different types of players, the aggressive ones, defensives ones, the ones that are a bit of both, how all this gameplay makes strategy in the game… I cannot explain this in a way that people that never played, or that have played to little can understand, I just ask that you believe me when I say, is not just a “ME have a gun, OK, ME hit the other one with a gun on his hand!” but like in SC2, while not in the same manner it has his own type of strategy, that like in SC2 is hard to master. But nevertheless, the fields are equal to each player, and the true skillful player will win that match, you will never have a match were you say, ohhh, he just won because he was over lucky, oh, he won, because the other guy didn’t see that coming, and was a stupid move that should never have worked. No! I give you one sword, I put another guy with a sword just equal as yours you have to fight to the death on a desert, and the guy with more skill wins, not the luckiest one.
In SC2 that is a different story, the gameplay on SC2 is too much volatile! You both start with 6 workers and a base, and after… well, is not always the guy with most skill that wins… all that I will write here is from a perspective of ZvX, since is the one that I better understand. But this is a point to all races, in all MU’s.
Before I start, so people don’t say I’m a diamond so that is why I’m writing this, please take in mind, a lot of stupid thing’s happens in GM, and yes, why skill is capped at diamond but I can understand the GM games, and I think the best example I can point out, since I believe almost everyone likes the guy and don’t see him as being Idra in the complaining department, lose some hours and go see the Stephano stream, on the two days he did commentary’s (was like one month ago) and the number of times he said things +/- like this “This was stupid, he did this blind and got a win”; “This is why Ladder is so stupid,on a tournament game, if you did this, you would lose right there” and etc… He never rages, just makes at times the point that I agree so prominently, people get wins, that are not skill based, but lucky based.
![[image loading]](http://picturesofwins.com/files/2010/10/a-lucky-kid.jpg)
The way gameplay is designed, in SC2, is not like, the better player always wins (which should be) but, a lot of times the less skilled player wins, not because he did a great game, or capitalized on a mistake of the opponent in a way that gave in the victory, but because he did a great cheese, and even better if no one has ever seen that cheese, then the unknown factor that is always around makes is march on the parade (and if in WoL the unknown factor is extremely decreased with HoTS it will rise again, with the new units, new timmings, etc)!
I have seen some games, but I don’t remember who played, and when that games were, and since I would prefer to put a link to the vod’s, instead I will ask for you to remember games, with players of different skills, were the victory was achieved not with skill, but with a cheese, or a lucky move. With this I don’t mean that this type of play should not exist, no, what I mean is that, cheese, and luck, are factors that have too much weight on the balance, when they should not have! And while on the high level of play, this is not so noticeable, on a lower level (and I don’t mean bronze, silver) it’s amazing how much the weight of skill is not so heavy on the balance.
You don’t need to read this, to keep in context with what I have write so far, so you can simple skip, it’s just my point of view and experience on ladder.
Now I will speak of my personal experience on this game, and how I see the world around me on SC2. First, I know I suck on this game, and I don’t say this just for saying, I know, I don’t have all that much of a multitasking, my micro, mehhh was worse, now it’s better a bit =D, still sucks, my macro compared to the players of my level is above average, minimap awareness (erm what is that hahaha) and last, I play this game to learn it, so I don’t cheese… I practice my macro hardcore, don’t give so much attention to micro, and try to improve my multitasking (which at the moment I give priority over micro). I played two months of season 1 has random (started in bronze all the way up to diamond (thank you day[9]), then decided to stick with terran, stopped playing master divison was not even include), played near 2 months season 2 has a Zerg (big mistake should kept Terran, diamond div, before season ended, gone back to random, ended in plat) the last week of season 5 before it close (just spent my almost 500 bonus pool lol, and placed myself plat, but was playing against high gold players basically) played fully season 6, and made my way to diamond.
So what can I say from all this… Season one we were all noobs, all experimenting, will not say anything from then, season two, O M F G, what a cheese festival the game was, in all races, was so sick of it simple stopped playing (and the maps, were everything less zerg friendly), season 6, well, some things changed from season 2, great part of then did not!
ZvT… And then people make topics has, “Were did all the terrans go?” They didn’t go, they stopped in time, 95% of the people I faced in plat and diamond are just one thing, Silver Gold players in plat diamond, but with the skill of high masters on the cheese they are good at =) When I see a terran as my opponent in ladder I just make a question to myself, what will be the cheese or the all-in that will come to me. Really, it’s amazing, seeing a great cheese incoming, we stop it, we keep going on our game, and terran simple has no clue how to macro lol, or then we have the ones that I love more, when the cheeses doesn’t result the first time, let’s try a second and a third =)))). Or then we have the very popular tactic, doom drop, we stop it, and then I come to the conclusion that the terran player was used to win there and doesn’t make a clue what to do next when it fails. Then we have the 5% that can actually macro, and that put me in panic mode, when I don’t see any shenanigan incoming trolololol.
ZvP… Don’t know if it is because of Stephano 3 base roach build order, or if they indeed have a completely different mentality from terran players, but while the cheesers are there (rarely lost a game to a cannon rush that so many like) normally the games goes around with timing attacks, and quit often I see the 3rd for the protoss, being build. I just think that too many players abuse is on the 2 bases all-in, but unless is the stupid 6 gate 2 base all in, the rest is a choice for the protoss.
ZvZ… Ok, this MU, or is a true indicator that zerg players cannot play on my lvl, or that I’m one of the few that doesn’t like to all-in all games. The only advantage or disadvantage, dunno, this MU as, is that the games don’t go much longer than 5 minutes time, in all the ZvZ I have done, I can count with my fingers how many went to a 3 base vs 3 base… Sincerely don’t know, or is a gameplay flaw, that need to be corrected, or is a player flaw, that cannot be repaired.
OK, you can start reading again =D
So, now we need to see the Viewer perspective on the matter, but since this post has gone for so long, I will leave this point for a second part, hope you have enjoyed the reading so far, and see you on part two. =)
BamouT
