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After years of playing SC2 a few questions still remain in my mind… honestly, feel free to number off your answers in the comments if you think you have the answer to the question.
Read my reasoning for the questions in the spoiler below if you are confused!
1. Is achieving top 8 really accurate of skill, or is it simply the players who play A LOT more than the rest of us?
2. Are people who don’t make Diamond actually just horrible at RTS games?
3. Sure, it is arguable that the best players live in Korea, but isn’t the smarter choice to be like
Jaedong, MC, MMA and the others who took to the foreigner world to gain popularity and fame?
4. Isn’t warp gate actually a broken feature of the game?
5. Is hard work and dedication the most important aspects to achieve skill and high win rates in SC2 – is there no such thing as talent?
6. Does MMR make this game impossible to climb the ladder? 50/50 win rate – WTF?!!?
7. Is the “serious” laddering community actually very small – does anyone care about it?
8. Does anyone actually like The ROOT Team?
9. Is everyone from EG a douchebag?
10. Aren’t gaming nerds the worst people to market for popular Sport or ESports in general?
11. Do top level Koreans actually cheese a lot on ladder?
12. Masters top 8 vs Grandmaster; how much better is Grandmaster really?
13. Why doesn’t Blizzard create the weekly tournaments like they had in Warcraft 3?!?!!?
14. Would it be cool if Corruptors had a melee charge ability like Zealots do, but just in the air?
15. Why aren’t there more team matches in tournaments – especially clan wars?!
Reasoning:
+ Show Spoiler + 1. I’ve been in top 8 Master many times, and its usually because I’ve just played A LOT of games and laddered up without bonus pool. I’m ranked 40 right now on ladder, but still hit top 8 all the time because of my MMR, but I probs won’t ever achieve top 8 because I can’t play regularly enough due to other commitments.
2. I’ve laddered up a bunch of friends accounts into diamond and masters with ease… seems like people who just don’t play well can’t do this.
3. I guess it depends on mentality and what deems success for a player, but it seems like the smarter decision would be to go make money and fame in foreign scenes.
4. The “rally” mechanic of the game existed in BW and for 2 races still in SC2. It provides a very essential macro mechanic to the game that Protoss in its current state completely neglects. It seems like Blizzard ignores this completely in every interview question.
5. Every “talented” player I’ve known was simply good at other RTS games… I’ve witnessed many of my good friends who were initially horrible at this game become very good through practice.
6. Nuff said.
7. Seems like the laddering population is small. I play a lot of the same players daily. It’s fun, but it just seems small. Perhaps a large SC2 community isn’t necessarily the goal for Blizzard…
8. Their players aren’t very successful; they seem disorganized and very unprofessional. Seems more like a club than a legit group. I don’t mean to be negative; it just seems like a rag-tag group that a lot of people aren’t super passionate about.
9. This will probs make a lot of people mad and I’m sorry for that. I’ve never met any of these guys in person, but since the beginning of SC2 most of their players seem douchy… that’s all. I’m sure they’re great people and I do support EG a lot, Idra was one of my fav foreigners… even though he was kinda douchy too haha.
10. Just my question is all.
11. Commentators say this a lot in tourneys, but when you watch top level streams and tourneys, the players always default to macro games because they know they have better chances of winning. Seems like cheese def exists in high level but not necessarily top level play.
12. Okay top 16 GM, probs better, but everyone else under that I’d say is negotiable.
13. Seriously, this would make the game so much more fun and interactive – esp for people who want to “compete” more or play at a competitive level. I loved those tourneys in War3!!
14. Wouldn’t it?! Or maybe they could morph into a type of BroodLord that shoots out Scourge that have a life limit like Broodlings and Locust.
15. Come on!!
  
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THE FUTURE52491 Posts
1. Players that play a lot more. You can't be demoted mid-season so as long as you have a bonus pool you'll keep gaining points and not losing them.
2. That's insulting me >.< Maybe.
3. Depends on whether you want money and fame or not.
4. No.
5. Yes, but talent is helpful.
6. If you win a bunch of games in a row (meaning you're better than you are expected to be) you can climb up the ladder. You can't farm against newbies sorry.
7. Of course some of us care.
8. Yes.
9. No.
10. Yes. Attractive women and athletic men are much better for advertising just about anything.
11. Not sure. Watch some of their streams and find out!
12. They are better, but there are fewer of them and they are based on who gets there first, so not all of them are better.
13. Make this happen dammit.
14. …No.
15. Because people play 1v1s competitively and not 2v2s.
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1. Is achieving top 8 really accurate of skill, or is it simply the players who play A LOT more than the rest of us?
Only in masters at which point the point values become relatively concrete and more akin to actual ELO. That is to say, I am pulling numbers from my ass here, 2400 Masters was well away from 1300
2. Are people who don’t make Diamond actually just horrible at RTS games?
Not necessarily bad, they are objectively less effective at practicing though I suppose.
3. Sure, it is arguable that the best players live in Korea, but isn’t the smarter choice to be like
Jaedong, MC, MMA and the others who took to the foreigner world to gain popularity and fame?
I don't know what total prize money international vs. Korea looks like these days but I would imagine if your expenses are covered playing outside of Korea has its incentives.
4. Isn’t warp gate actually a broken feature of the game?
No
5. Is hard work and dedication the most important aspects to achieve skill and high win rates in SC2 – is there no such thing as talent?
Talent exists, but as the quote goes" Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.”
6. Does MMR make this game impossible to climb the ladder? 50/50 win rate – WTF?!!?
7. Is the “serious” laddering community actually very small – does anyone care about it?
Serious is poorly defined, when I made masters I was committing to 15-20 games most days of the week which is hardly serious to some.
8. Does anyone actually like The ROOT Team?
I like Root well enough,
9. Is everyone from EG a douchebag?
no
10. Aren’t gaming nerds the worst people to market for popular Sport or ESports in general?
What are you asking?
11. Do top level Koreans actually cheese a lot on ladder?
Yes
12. Masters top 8 vs Grandmaster; how much better is Grandmaster really?
The difference between top 50 GM and the rest of it is night and day.
13. Why doesn’t Blizzard create the weekly tournaments like they had in Warcraft 3?!?!!?
old question
14. Would it be cool if Corruptors had a melee charge ability like Zealots do, but just in the air?
Newp.
15. Why aren’t there more team matches in tournaments – especially clan wars?!
Balance priorities are based around 1v1.
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United States4546 Posts
1. Is achieving top 8 really accurate of skill, or is it simply the players who play A LOT more than the rest of us?
Meh. Top 8 requires a lot of effort, and generally the people who play the most end up at the top of ladder. If you think you're somehow better than those people but you just "don't put in enough time", the truth is probably that you don't put in enough time AND you're also a worse player because of it.
2. Are people who don’t make Diamond actually just horrible at RTS games?
Tbh, below masters is kind of a joke in terms of actual skill. There are a lot of diamond players and even masters players who still make incredibly dumb mistakes and still generally have terrible mechanics. You really have to understand that skill in SC2 looks like an exponential graph: as you approach the top, the skill level increases exponentially. There are no words to describe how much better a Code S player is compared to a GM on the NA server.
For me this is an inspiration to improve. By knowing that there is so much more than I can learn and get better at, I never fall into the trap of feeling like I can't possibly improve anymore and the game is just flawed.
3. Sure, it is arguable that the best players live in Korea, but isn’t the smarter choice to be like
Jaedong, MC, MMA and the others who took to the foreigner world to gain popularity and fame?
Possibly. Who knows?
4. Isn’t warp gate actually a broken feature of the game?
No. Get over it.
Actually, it would be nice if gateways vs warp gates made sense, but this is the way SC2 works, and we've got it to a decent level of balance. This will never change.
5. Is hard work and dedication the most important aspects to achieve skill and high win rates in SC2 – is there no such thing as talent?
Talent defines a player's skill ceiling, not their skill floor. As a player comes closer to reaching their potential skill ceiling, they tend to plateau and stagnate indefinitely (though no one can actually ever reach their potential skill ceiling). That said, though, everything up to that point is based entirely on building skill and hard work.
6. Does MMR make this game impossible to climb the ladder? 50/50 win rate – WTF?!!?
No. MMR is a rating of your skill level relative to your opponent. Ladder will try to push you to a 50/50 win rate, but if you continue to improve, you will occasionally beat players that are better than you while, at the same time, losing less to the players below you and move in skill level. Even if your win rate stays at 50%, you still are increasing in MMR.
7. Is the “serious” laddering community actually very small – does anyone care about it?
? I don't understand this question. This game is an ESPORT and also played by many many people casually for the fun of the game.
8. Does anyone actually like The ROOT Team?
Not as long as Catz is on the team.
9. Is everyone from EG a douchebag?
Did you just call Suppy a douchebag?
10. Aren’t gaming nerds the worst people to market for popular Sport or ESports in general?
No, nerds are fucking cool. Polt is the ultimate nerd and I love him so much.
11. Do top level Koreans actually cheese a lot on ladder?
Yes. All-ins all day. Better way to practice in a lot of situations.
12. Masters top 8 vs Grandmaster; how much better is Grandmaster really?
See Number 2. Grandmaster is exponentially better than Top 8 masters. Code A is exponentially better than GM players. Code S is exponentially better than Code A.
13. Why doesn’t Blizzard create the weekly tournaments like they had in Warcraft 3?!?!!?
They're busy making Heroes of the Storm (true story).
14. Would it be cool if Corruptors had a melee charge ability like Zealots do, but just in the air?
No.
15. Why aren’t there more team matches in tournaments – especially clan wars?!
Because team games are highly unbalanced and do not reflect skill as well as 1v1 does. However, 2v2s are some of the greatest games, and I am actually organizing a tournament right now with 2v2s built into the format for the fun factor.
Reasoning:
+ Show Spoiler + 1. I’ve been in top 8 Master many times, and its usually because I’ve just played A LOT of games and laddered up without bonus pool. I’m ranked 40 right now on ladder, but still hit top 8 all the time because of my MMR, but I probs won’t ever achieve top 8 because I can’t play regularly enough due to other commitments.
2. I’ve laddered up a bunch of friends accounts into diamond and masters with ease… seems like people who just don’t play well can’t do this.
3. I guess it depends on mentality and what deems success for a player, but it seems like the smarter decision would be to go make money and fame in foreign scenes.
4. The “rally” mechanic of the game existed in BW and for 2 races still in SC2. It provides a very essential macro mechanic to the game that Protoss in its current state completely neglects. It seems like Blizzard ignores this completely in every interview question.
5. Every “talented” player I’ve known was simply good at other RTS games… I’ve witnessed many of my good friends who were initially horrible at this game become very good through practice.
6. Nuff said.
7. Seems like the laddering population is small. I play a lot of the same players daily. It’s fun, but it just seems small. Perhaps a large SC2 community isn’t necessarily the goal for Blizzard…
8. Their players aren’t very successful; they seem disorganized and very unprofessional. Seems more like a club than a legit group. I don’t mean to be negative; it just seems like a rag-tag group that a lot of people aren’t super passionate about.
9. This will probs make a lot of people mad and I’m sorry for that. I’ve never met any of these guys in person, but since the beginning of SC2 most of their players seem douchy… that’s all. I’m sure they’re great people and I do support EG a lot, Idra was one of my fav foreigners… even though he was kinda douchy too haha.
10. Just my question is all.
11. Commentators say this a lot in tourneys, but when you watch top level streams and tourneys, the players always default to macro games because they know they have better chances of winning. Seems like cheese def exists in high level but not necessarily top level play.
12. Okay top 16 GM, probs better, but everyone else under that I’d say is negotiable.
13. Seriously, this would make the game so much more fun and interactive – esp for people who want to “compete” more or play at a competitive level. I loved those tourneys in War3!!
14. Wouldn’t it?! Or maybe they could morph into a type of BroodLord that shoots out Scourge that have a life limit like Broodlings and Locust.
15. Come on!!
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1. Is achieving top 8 really accurate of skill, or is it simply the players who play A LOT more than the rest of us?
Playing a lot more.
2. Are people who don’t make Diamond actually just horrible at RTS games?
Nope.
3. Sure, it is arguable that the best players live in Korea, but isn’t the smarter choice to be like
Jaedong, MC, MMA and the others who took to the foreigner world to gain popularity and fame?
As long as they can still practice with other Koreans...
4. Isn’t warp gate actually a broken feature of the game?
No.
5. Is hard work and dedication the most important aspects to achieve skill and high win rates in SC2 – is there no such thing as talent?
Talent exists, but hard work >>> potential.
6. Does MMR make this game impossible to climb the ladder? 50/50 win rate – WTF?!!?
Difficult but not impossible.
7. Is the “serious” laddering community actually very small – does anyone care about it?
No one cares about ladder.
8. Does anyone actually like The ROOT Team?
Yes, don't be a douche.
9. Is everyone from EG a douchebag?
See #8.
10. Aren’t gaming nerds the worst people to market for popular Sport or ESports in general?
Why aren't they the best? Their the relevant demographic.
11. Do top level Koreans actually cheese a lot on ladder?
They practice builds. All builds. Including cheeses.
12. Masters top 8 vs Grandmaster; how much better is Grandmaster really?
Not much, since GM gets filled but Top 8 Masters could fill empty spots.
13. Why doesn’t Blizzard create the weekly tournaments like they had in Warcraft 3?!?!!?
Ask Blizzard.
14. Would it be cool if Corruptors had a melee charge ability like Zealots do, but just in the air?
No. Their ranged attack would still trump their melee attack.
15. Why aren’t there more team matches in tournaments – especially clan wars?!
Why don't you make some?
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8. Does anyone actually like The ROOT Team?
Yes, don't be a douche.
9. Is everyone from EG a douchebag?
See #8.
10. Aren’t gaming nerds the worst people to market for popular Sport or ESports in general?
No, nerds are fucking cool. Polt is the ultimate nerd and I love him so much.
12. Masters top 8 vs Grandmaster; how much better is Grandmaster really?
See Number 2. Grandmaster is exponentially better than Top 8 masters. Code A is exponentially better than GM players. Code S is exponentially better than Code A.
Great answers, guys. I think I'll make a compilation of all my faves when this thing is all said and done.
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WCS
