• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 10:35
CEST 16:35
KST 23:35
  • 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
Code S Season 1 - RO12 Group A: Rogue, Percival, Solar, Zoun3[ASL21] Ro8 Preview Pt1: Inheritors16[ASL21] Ro16 Preview Pt2: All Star10Team Liquid Map Contest #22 - The Finalists19[ASL21] Ro16 Preview Pt1: Fresh Flow9
Community News
2026 GSL Season 1 Qualifiers24Maestros of the Game 2 announced92026 GSL Tour plans announced15Weekly Cups (April 6-12): herO doubles, "Villains" prevail1MaNa leaves Team Liquid25
StarCraft 2
General
Code S Season 1 - RO12 Group A: Rogue, Percival, Solar, Zoun Blizzard Classic Cup @ BlizzCon 2026 - $100k prize pool Team Liquid Map Contest #22 - The Finalists MaNa leaves Team Liquid Maestros of the Game 2 announced
Tourneys
2026 GSL Season 1 Qualifiers Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament INu's Battles#14 <BO.9 2Matches> GSL CK: More events planned pending crowdfunding RSL Revival: Season 5 - Qualifiers and Main Event
Strategy
Custom Maps
[D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3 [A] Nemrods 1/4 players [M] (2) Frigid Storage
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 523 Firewall Mutation # 522 Flip My Base Mutation # 521 Memorable Boss
Brood War
General
[ASL21] Ro8 Preview Pt1: Inheritors ASL21 General Discussion BW General Discussion Leta's ASL S21 Ro.16 review BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/
Tourneys
[ASL21] Ro8 Day 2 [ASL21] Ro8 Day 1 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL21] Ro16 Group D
Strategy
Fighting Spirit mining rates Simple Questions, Simple Answers What's the deal with APM & what's its true value Any training maps people recommend?
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Dawn of War IV Diablo IV Total Annihilation Server - TAForever
Dota 2
The Story of Wings Gaming
League of Legends
G2 just beat GenG in First stand
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas TL Mafia Community Thread Five o'clock TL Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread 3D technology/software discussion European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
The IdrA Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread [Manga] One Piece [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books Movie Discussion!
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion McBoner: A hockey love story
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
streaming software Strange computer issues (software) [G] How to Block Livestream Ads
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Sexual Health Of Gamers
TrAiDoS
lurker extra damage testi…
StaticNine
Broowar part 2
qwaykee
Funny Nicknames
LUCKY_NOOB
Iranian anarchists: organize…
XenOsky
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 2251 users

Random generator - not always 1/3?

Forum Index > BW General
Post a Reply
Normal
Wuselmops
Profile Joined December 2004
Germany346 Posts
February 20 2006 22:07 GMT
#1
This is no "I got my worst race 5 times in a row" whine thread.

In the bw.de-forum someone stated that the random generator of BW isn't Laplace-like anymore when at least 2 players choose random.

For example the probablilty of a mirror-matchup in RvR is 1/24 (it would be 1/3 with a Laplace-generator).
Also one race isn't picked more than 3 times in a game.

He said he disassembled the code to find that out. Can anyone confirm this or give more details?
ShabZzoY!
Profile Joined July 2004
Great Britain760 Posts
February 20 2006 22:28 GMT
#2
Its rigged to make at least one of each race with 4 players and theres lots of other quirks.

Theres a tread where it was discussed at length
Wuselmops
Profile Joined December 2004
Germany346 Posts
February 20 2006 22:30 GMT
#3
Link plz, I didn't find it with the search function.
Liquid`Drone
Profile Joined September 2002
Norway28789 Posts
February 20 2006 22:35 GMT
#4
well

random vs random = only 1/24 becomes a mirror matchup (I used to think 1/27, but 1/24 makes sense too)
but picked vs random = mirror matchup 1/3 of the time.

also if 4 people all go random (say a 2v2), it always becomes 1/1/2 (or, I guess you might get something different 1/24 of the time)
(if I play 2v2 all random and both me and my team partner gets zz, I can always assume that my opponents are tp)

so yeah he's right, but it's nothing new, although it might very well be new to a lot of players. =]
Moderator
Asta
Profile Joined October 2002
Germany3491 Posts
February 20 2006 22:37 GMT
#5
he said:
2 random players: chance of a mirror match up at 1/24
3 random players: not 3 times the same race
4: no race 3 or 4 times, only one race two times
5: no race more than 2 times
6: no race more than 3 times, at most one race 3 times
7: no race more than 3 times, exactly one race 3 times
8: no race four times or more

from my experience it might be true that there are such regulations (3v3 is almost always pretty balanced, you never get less than 3 different races)
ShabZzoY!
Profile Joined July 2004
Great Britain760 Posts
February 20 2006 22:47 GMT
#6
Here it is, dont recall how useful the thread was
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=21905
Esp1noza
Profile Joined September 2003
Russian Federation481 Posts
February 20 2006 23:04 GMT
#7
I noticed that myself too some time ago. In ~ 100 rvr games I played with my friend we got mirror 4 times. We would like to rvr but random generator is definetly biased! Is it a bug or a feature? More seems to me like bug. So why they don't patch it? Did blizzard even knows about it?
BroodWar forever
oHInsane
Profile Joined February 2005
France727 Posts
February 20 2006 23:08 GMT
#8
I don't think it is a bug, i think they did it on purpose but why? i don't have any idea about that ^^
Liquid`Drone
Profile Joined September 2002
Norway28789 Posts
February 20 2006 23:09 GMT
#9
I don't think it's a bug, and personally a good part of why I love rvr is I don't have to worry about mirror matchups. =[ I'd hate if they changed this.

Moderator
Patriot.dlk
Profile Blog Joined October 2004
Sweden5462 Posts
February 20 2006 23:11 GMT
#10
Well they modified it becouse mirror suck as.

They also modifed things like this in Wc3 TFT.. It's harder to get crossmaped, meaning the startposses is not randomed equally there either=p

Thank god for no TvT when going random
Wuselmops
Profile Joined December 2004
Germany346 Posts
February 20 2006 23:16 GMT
#11
@ShabZzoY!: Thx for the link.

Have you also noticed that random-players are worse in mirror-matches? Now I have two reasons for this:

1. Random players play mirror-matches less often because they are unlikely when they play vs other random players.

2. Random players usually have this advantage: They can put themselves into their opponent's position because they often play the matchup vice-versa. Only in mirror-matches the one-race-only players can do this as well.
SeBASTa
Profile Joined September 2003
China1147 Posts
February 20 2006 23:18 GMT
#12
On February 21 2006 08:09 Liquid`Drone wrote:
I don't think it's a bug, and personally a good part of why I love rvr is I don't have to worry about mirror matchups. =[ I'd hate if they changed this.



the mirror matchups trend to be zvz

personally i never met pvp and only 1 time tvt,but zvz is very common when i massed rvr games.
En Taro Terran
Wuselmops
Profile Joined December 2004
Germany346 Posts
February 20 2006 23:29 GMT
#13
Yes, ZvZ is also my strongest mirror, really strange.
IdrA
Profile Blog Joined July 2004
United States11541 Posts
February 20 2006 23:31 GMT
#14
On February 21 2006 08:16 Wuselmops wrote:
2. Random players usually have this advantage: They can put themselves into their opponent's position because they often play the matchup vice-versa. Only in mirror-matches the one-race-only players can do this as well.
its more this one, when you play random you have more to learn so unless you actually practice 3x as much as anyone else your not gonna play each race as much. but for example tvp you also learn from playing pvt so you dont need to practice tvp quite as much as if you didnt play pvt. mirror matchups the only way to learn it is to play it, so they dont get to play it from both sides.
http://www.splitreason.com/product/1152 release the gracken tshirt now available
prOxi.swAMi
Profile Blog Joined November 2004
Australia3091 Posts
February 21 2006 18:09 GMT
#15
why didn't blizzard make random truly random?
if a player chooses random he should be able to expect exactly that: random!
Oh no
Wuselmops
Profile Joined December 2004
Germany346 Posts
February 21 2006 18:54 GMT
#16
I don't know if Blizzard already thought about racewars, but if it was really random you would have to restart every second racewar because there are more than 3 players of one race.
haduken
Profile Blog Joined April 2003
Australia8267 Posts
February 21 2006 19:03 GMT
#17
There is no such thing as true random in a computer program. It's just not possible. They can be fairly random depending on the size pool but never a true random.
Rillanon.au
Wuselmops
Profile Joined December 2004
Germany346 Posts
February 21 2006 19:18 GMT
#18
Ok, but deterministic chaos would still be close enough to true random to assign races in a computer game... ;-)
Sfydjklm
Profile Blog Joined April 2005
United States9218 Posts
February 21 2006 19:28 GMT
#19
actually its the other way around for me. If i go R, ill get a mirror about 60% of the time.
twitter.com/therealdhalism | "Trying out Z = lots of losses vs inferior players until you figure out how to do it well (if it even works)."- Liquid'Tyler
nysikto
Profile Joined March 2005
Norway337 Posts
February 21 2006 19:31 GMT
#20
well i once played about 10 games rvr vs same person and in 8 of those games we played zvt, tvz about 50-50 there and he got p 1 time but i only got z or t
Physician *
Profile Blog Joined January 2004
United States4146 Posts
Last Edited: 2006-02-21 20:33:23
February 21 2006 20:31 GMT
#21
Nal_Testie Canada. December 25 2004 13:52.
There is something we refer to as the, "Random bug" that i've known for years and years. It does not work on observer maps (it may, I forget and have a lot of christmas alcohol in me), or if any person in the game PICKS his race.

In 1on1's, it is indeed random. And is always random. The chance of a mirror matchup however in RvR is extremely rare and almost never happens. But, it occasionally does.

In 2on2's, if all four players random. And you are z/z your opponents are t/p (automatically).
If all four random and you and your ally get z/p, one of your opponents is T. And the other may be z/t/p. Likewise if you are t/t they are z/p. Etc.. etc...

In games with 8 players, for race wars. All players can random without ever having to fear that you will have a team of five protosses, three terrans etc... It is always 3 of one race, 3 of another, and 2 of the other. Unless one person picks and fucks it all up.

So in any game including 1on1, it is indeed random. There are days when you will random zerg almost for an entire day, random terran, or random toss. But they are rare instances.

I didn't read any of the other posts. So if anyone else pointed this out, good job. If not, what a bunch of fucking morons.

Happy Holidays


dt Germany. December 25 2004 16:35.

I have disassembled Starcrafts "random" algorithm long ago, Nal_testie is right of course. It's quite complex and the person who coded it was probably drunk. The probability of a mirror 1vs1 matchup if both players go random is exactly 1/24, for instance.


Only 2 useful things said in da original thread.
"I have beheld the births of negative-suns and borne witness to the entropy of entire realities...."
Haemonculus
Profile Blog Joined November 2004
United States6980 Posts
February 21 2006 23:36 GMT
#22
On February 21 2006 07:35 Liquid`Drone wrote:
well

random vs random = only 1/24 becomes a mirror matchup (I used to think 1/27, but 1/24 makes sense too)
but picked vs random = mirror matchup 1/3 of the time.


Random vs Random SHOULD result in a mirror 1/3 of the time, as should picked vs random. Probability wise they're the same. How exactly does the generator decide to pick 1/24 instead?
I admire your commitment to being *very* oily
Insane
Profile Blog Joined November 2003
United States4991 Posts
Last Edited: 2006-02-22 00:25:52
February 22 2006 00:24 GMT
#23
On February 21 2006 07:35 Liquid`Drone wrote:
well

random vs random = only 1/24 becomes a mirror matchup (I used to think 1/27, but 1/24 makes sense too)
but picked vs random = mirror matchup 1/3 of the time.

It should be 1/3 for both I think. There are 9 possible matchups in RvR, and 3 of those are mirror matchups -- The race one person gets should not affected by the race the other person gets.

Edit: Although apparently Blizzard did it oddly.
Locked
Profile Joined September 2004
United States4182 Posts
Last Edited: 2006-02-22 01:47:04
February 22 2006 01:46 GMT
#24
blizzard just wanted more race variety in games, that's what i always assumed, i mean it would be a lot easier to code it just to have it be truly random so it must be intentional that they factor in other players races

perfectly valid reason IMO, wouldn't it suck to have like 8-players random and 6 of them get terran, or if you're mass RvRing then you get mirrors 1/3 of the time?
UMS map pack http://teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=50442
Haemonculus
Profile Blog Joined November 2004
United States6980 Posts
February 22 2006 02:15 GMT
#25
It would suck, no question. I was just curious as to how they arrived at 1/24 mathematically.
I admire your commitment to being *very* oily
Normal
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Kung Fu Cup
11:00
#6
IntoTheiNu 1019
WardiTV944
RotterdaM459
Ryung 328
TKL 260
Rex152
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
RotterdaM 459
Ryung 328
TKL 260
Rex 152
Vindicta 23
StarCraft: Brood War
Jaedong 2267
Horang2 1907
Mini 1132
EffOrt 936
firebathero 587
Soma 512
Light 507
Larva 495
Stork 448
Snow 446
[ Show more ]
Hyuk 289
ggaemo 278
ZerO 251
actioN 222
Killer 198
Rush 162
Soulkey 160
Zeus 139
Hyun 95
ToSsGirL 66
PianO 55
[sc1f]eonzerg 48
Sexy 43
sorry 40
Barracks 35
sSak 32
Free 30
HiyA 29
scan(afreeca) 15
Shine 14
yabsab 13
Rock 13
Sacsri 13
Terrorterran 13
GoRush 12
SilentControl 9
ajuk12(nOOB) 8
Movie 7
Icarus 7
Britney 0
Dota 2
Gorgc4226
qojqva1904
BananaSlamJamma128
ODPixel84
Counter-Strike
Fnx 1656
allub472
byalli249
Other Games
B2W.Neo997
hiko849
Lowko359
crisheroes294
QueenE79
ArmadaUGS39
ZerO(Twitch)9
Organizations
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Main Stream179
StarCraft: Brood War
Kim Chul Min (afreeca) 7
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 15 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• intothetv
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• LUISG 0
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• blackmanpl 23
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• WagamamaTV403
League of Legends
• Nemesis2816
• TFBlade1245
Upcoming Events
PiGosaur Cup
9h 25m
GSL
18h 55m
Rogue vs Percival
Zoun vs Solar
Replay Cast
1d 9h
GSL
1d 18h
Cure vs TriGGeR
ByuN vs Bunny
KCM Race Survival
1d 19h
Replay Cast
2 days
Replay Cast
2 days
Escore
2 days
OSC
2 days
Replay Cast
3 days
[ Show More ]
Replay Cast
3 days
IPSL
4 days
Ret vs Art_Of_Turtle
Radley vs TBD
BSL
4 days
Replay Cast
4 days
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
4 days
BSL
5 days
IPSL
5 days
eOnzErG vs TBD
G5 vs Nesh
Replay Cast
5 days
Wardi Open
5 days
Afreeca Starleague
5 days
Jaedong vs Light
Monday Night Weeklies
6 days
Replay Cast
6 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
6 days
Afreeca Starleague
6 days
Snow vs Flash
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Escore Tournament S2: W4
WardiTV TLMC #16
Nations Cup 2026

Ongoing

BSL Season 22
ASL Season 21
CSL 2026 SPRING (S20)
IPSL Spring 2026
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 2
StarCraft2 Community Team League 2026 Spring
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League S23 Finals
ESL Pro League S23 Stage 1&2
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S2: W5
KK 2v2 League Season 1
Acropolis #4
BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
CSLAN 4
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Maestros of the Game 2
2026 GSL S2
RSL Revival: Season 5
2026 GSL S1
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
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 © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.