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Flash says he will choose random - Page 12

Forum Index > BW General
411 CommentsPost a Reply
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A.Alm
Profile Joined September 2012
Sweden558 Posts
Last Edited: 2020-04-26 21:06:54
April 26 2020 21:03 GMT
#221
Okay, i'll explain why i think your logic is flawed because i have a few minutes until dinner is ready and i'm bored.

On April 20 2020 23:11 FlaShFTW wrote:
Takes like this make it very clear how little people actually understand about starcraft.[1] He has to prepare for 9 matchups. That's 200% more matchups than he already has to prepare for. That means 200% more build orders, and 200% more understanding for how to play the matchup. [2]

Let's assume for a second that on the best case scenario that FlaSh playing Terran matchups means that he carries over 75% of his understanding to the other side. So he needs to learn about 25% of the knowledge to play ZvT and PvT.

That leaves 4 other matchups where he needs to learn everything. ZvZ, PvP, ZvP, and PvZ. Maybe you could make an argument that playing either side of the ZvP matchup only needs 50% more time.

Let's assume for percentage sake that mastering/learning to a pro-level for just one matchup takes 10 hours. This is just to represent the percentages, obviously it takes more time. So FlaSh has already spent 10 hours for each Terran matchup (30 hours). To learn ZvT and PvT, he needs to invest another 2.5 hours each. That's 35 hours total now. Then he needs to learn ZvZ and PvP, another 20 hours total added. To learn both sides of the ZvP matchup, he needs 15 hours total. That adds up to 70 hours total. [2]

70 hours total, compared to the average of 30 hours to learn just one race. That is 233% more time spent to learn all 9 matchups.

But sure, let's compare needing 233% more time to practice every single matchup AT MINIMUM to him gaining an advantage over the opponent not knowing what race he's playing. Imagine punishing a player for spending more time to get better at the game than everyone else. [3]

I suppose someone might say that FlaSh only has to prepare for 3 matchups too, because let's say he was going to play against Bisu, he would only need to prepare ZvP, TvP, and PvP. Sure, he prepares for Bisu, just like Bisu prepares for FlaSh. The difference is that Bisu gets to prepare with the same units for one race. FlaSh has to play 3 completely different races. Even if you want to make this argument, FlaSh gains no advantage besides the advantage for playing/practicing more than his opponents.
[/b]

[1] here you say people have very little understand of the game == bad at the game

[2] You're assuming his games as a Terran gives him no head start / understanding of the other match ups at all. Sure, you do give credit for PvT and ZvT, but non for the other four match ups. This logic concludes that Flash is as good in PvZ as someone who has never played the game. Both needs X hours a week, for each match up they have not played. A pro tip for your future calculations is to use variables instead of a set number. You don't need to use numbers for the "percentages to makes sense".

I'll use a few other examples to why that logic is flawed. What if SCBW had 10 unqiue races instead of 3? Would this mean a random player would have to practice almost 10 times as much as someone race picking? It does not take 148 times longer to become good with all champions in League of Legends than it takes to become good with one champion, even though the champions are very different from each other. The scale is not linear, it's logarithmic.

Also, the races in SCBW have a lot in common. F.e, macro, micro, map awareness, game understanding and so on (which is why it's logarithmic). Learning build orders is not the hard part of this game, so it does not take a lot of time. Flash is f.e already going to have OK muta micro because he has been microing wraiths and other similar units for 15+ years.

[3] The better the players the more build order advantages scale, and this is where the "not showing race" part of random becomes powerful. As someone pointed out earlier, doing a gate into gas in your main instead of gate/forge expand at ur natural PvZ can have quite a huge impact. Especially since the zerg (random player) knows this is what the Protoss will most likely do (nexus first or gate/forge at nat is suicide against P, 2 gate proxy sucks against T (sim-city) and 1 gate proxy sucks against Z, etc, there might be some good cheez but it's a biiig risk for the protoss and it will not be an entertaining game to watch or play if they are forced to toss a coin) they can safely go 3 hatch before pool on bigger maps, gaining a huge advantage on this level of play.

On lower levels this is not that big of a deal, but small advantages are huge at this level. Similar in chess on lower level if someone removes a center pawn at the beginning of the game (starting with 7 pawns instead of 8) it's almost neglectable but at GM level it's already game ending.

I think random should be allowed, but for the players and our sake as spectators the races should be shown to decrease the randomness of the games and there for make them more skillful and enjoyable to watch. Either way, i am very excited to see flash play random, regardless of how this is handled!
Jacenoob
Profile Joined August 2014
299 Posts
April 26 2020 22:38 GMT
#222
Comparisons to other games are completely pointless. Broodwar is Broodwar. There is an infinity of possible games in which the information aspect is more significant than the extra preparation and vice versa.
evilfatsh1t
Profile Joined October 2010
Australia8918 Posts
April 27 2020 00:51 GMT
#223
On April 27 2020 02:32 Jacenoob wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 27 2020 02:20 evilfatsh1t wrote:
On April 27 2020 01:41 Jacenoob wrote:
This discussion is still so very, very stupid. We have these as facts.

a: Random gives you a disadvantage because you have to practice for way more matchups and learn way more mechanics
b: Random gives you an advantage because of information at the start of the game

Now is the advantage from "a" bigger, smaller or equal to "b"? You can discuss or look the data.

What does data say: 20 years of professionell, talented, organized gamers playing against each other with lots of money on the line. So far no one has been able to make random work.

What does discussion say: Some random guy on TL claiming all progamers, coaches, teams so far have been wrong for 20 years and "random is OP". Not just competitive, straight out OP. Better than what the entire pro scene has chosen for 20 years. This is so, so very stupid. I don't even know how to emphasize how fucking stupid this is.

youre an idiot.
b is quite arguably bigger than a. thats the whole point of the discussion in this thread. like eonzerg rightly pointed out, 90% of the idiots in this thread are basing the feasibility of playing random on their own skill levels. the fact is flash doesnt have much to learn even if he switches races. "new mechanics"? what...did you think flash would have to learn muta micro from scratch or reaver shuttle micro from scratch?
do you think flash doesnt already know the fundamentals of how every single build in every matchup works? all hes missing at most is subtle nuances that can be learnt from other pros given time and overall match experience, which will also come with a bit of time.
it doesnt matter how good bisu is at pvz, if bisu is forced to play a 1 base gate opening vs a half decent pro zerg he will lose a substantial amount of games. thats how itll be if he one day vses flashs random zerg


A bit of repeating myself, but I am not basing this on my own skill level... you seem to be projecting. I am basing this on 20 years of data from the Korean pro scene. Players, coaches, managers. Several hundreds of people who dedicated their life to Starcraft.
What data is your opinion based on? Where are all the "Random" tournament wins? Proleague wins? I mean they surely should be there after tens of thousands of games if "Random" truly is OP.

absence of data =/= absence of benefits to playing random.
for someone who was pretty quick to criticise the discussion here after having 0 input its pretty clear you havent even read the discussion.
the official pro scene played by a set of rules and 1 of them was specifically " no random". so why are you looking for data as if it somehow proves your point?
Liquid`Drone
Profile Joined September 2002
Norway28877 Posts
April 27 2020 01:49 GMT
#224
That no random rule to my knowledge was one imposed by coaches because it was considered too hard to succeed playing random..? Not that it was ever actually illegal in korean tournaments to play random, just none of the teams would allow their players to do it (and very few players had any desire to go for it).
Moderator
heyitsMiro
Profile Blog Joined November 2016
83 Posts
Last Edited: 2020-04-27 01:51:08
April 27 2020 01:50 GMT
#225
the official pro scene played by a set of rules and 1 of them was specifically " no random"

This isn't true and I'm not sure where this massive misconception came from. It's constantly repeated though.
Some players played random on occasion. Some players switched their races to a different non-random race as well, it just wasn't very common. Any restrictions like this came from team management or player choice.
There was a rule that you had to give notice of your race one week in advance though.

edit: drone beat me to it. rip
reincremate
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
China2216 Posts
Last Edited: 2020-04-27 02:36:27
April 27 2020 02:19 GMT
#226
It wouldn't have made sense to ban random (as a tournament rule) at the professional level, as it isn't even viable outside of Flash using it. Sure, there might have been a small number of pros who played random way back in the day when most of us were still little virgin girls, but as the scene became more competitive, picking random would have been suicide. Even Flash is probably going to lose playing Zerg next season.
evilfatsh1t
Profile Joined October 2010
Australia8918 Posts
April 27 2020 02:31 GMT
#227
On April 27 2020 10:49 Liquid`Drone wrote:
That no random rule to my knowledge was one imposed by coaches because it was considered too hard to succeed playing random..? Not that it was ever actually illegal in korean tournaments to play random, just none of the teams would allow their players to do it (and very few players had any desire to go for it).

it doesnt matter who imposed the rule, the point is a rule was in place and the players had no choice
Pangpootata
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
1838 Posts
April 27 2020 02:37 GMT
#228
ITT: people who lost to random on ladder and are salty about it, and try to convince themselves that random is unfair
reincremate
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
China2216 Posts
Last Edited: 2020-04-27 02:46:49
April 27 2020 02:46 GMT
#229
On April 27 2020 11:37 Pangpootata wrote:
ITT: people who lost to random on ladder and are salty about it, and try to convince themselves that random is unfair

"If some 800 MMR noob cheesing scrub from some South American country I've never heard of can beat me with random, it's clearly OP!" Flash is an asshole for choosing R-sagi.
Liquid`Drone
Profile Joined September 2002
Norway28877 Posts
April 27 2020 03:21 GMT
#230
On April 27 2020 11:31 evilfatsh1t wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 27 2020 10:49 Liquid`Drone wrote:
That no random rule to my knowledge was one imposed by coaches because it was considered too hard to succeed playing random..? Not that it was ever actually illegal in korean tournaments to play random, just none of the teams would allow their players to do it (and very few players had any desire to go for it).

it doesnt matter who imposed the rule, the point is a rule was in place and the players had no choice


It matters in the context of whether random has been perceived as strong or powerful. Coaches banning their players from randoming because they assume nobody can be successful randoming is a very significant indicator that randoming is not considered beneficial, and indeed, that it would have been a disadvantage.
Moderator
LocoBolon
Profile Joined June 2012
Argentina246 Posts
April 27 2020 04:45 GMT
#231
On April 26 2020 21:30 [sc1f]eonzerg wrote:
The feeling i have with this thread is that most of u are seeing Flash choice from your noob perspective and 0 knowledge. Some people posting looks like didnt see Flash already winning zvp vs rain best snow mini and more. Flash also won zvt vs Nada Scan and others i fail to remember.is flash protoss or zerg as good as his terran? no.But is already good enough to be a new progamer as protoss or zerg.Flash love mindgames and what is the ultimate mindgame ? random.im not sure about his zerg vs zerg or protoss vs protoss but since he will be playing random.he will have an edge. Flash army control decision making with every race is just insane.i remember watching his zvt and while he didnt show jaedong micro.his actions alone win him the game.anyway for you from outside is looking like flash need to learn everything.and the reality is he is training offraces his whole career.hell i played Flash protoss and it wasnt even close. :d



Yes man thank you for shedding some light, I said it before but idiots keeps talking about imbalance.
as if picking random was Flash's ultimate evil plan to break the game.
Other delusional people keep bringing up how not good he gotta be with his offrace as you said, they probably think they could beat JD now that he is rusty if he plays offrace.

It's all about mind games and fun!!!!

oh I also saw him winning vs Larva in zvz
Standard Queens
evilfatsh1t
Profile Joined October 2010
Australia8918 Posts
April 27 2020 05:30 GMT
#232
On April 27 2020 12:21 Liquid`Drone wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 27 2020 11:31 evilfatsh1t wrote:
On April 27 2020 10:49 Liquid`Drone wrote:
That no random rule to my knowledge was one imposed by coaches because it was considered too hard to succeed playing random..? Not that it was ever actually illegal in korean tournaments to play random, just none of the teams would allow their players to do it (and very few players had any desire to go for it).

it doesnt matter who imposed the rule, the point is a rule was in place and the players had no choice


It matters in the context of whether random has been perceived as strong or powerful. Coaches banning their players from randoming because they assume nobody can be successful randoming is a very significant indicator that randoming is not considered beneficial, and indeed, that it would have been a disadvantage.

for the average player yes. there are way more players that werent successful even playing 1 race, let alone playing 3. were not talking about the average player however, were talking about flash.
i cant speak for everyone here but its worth pointing out that my argument against random picking in tourneys is based on the fact that the player in question is flash, not someone else. yes, his p and z are obviously not going to be as good as bisu's p or zero's z, but if he's able to hit a decent mid-tier level at those races then the build order advantages he could get out of picking random may well be enough to make up for the skill difference.

also it is WAY less interesting to see pros win or lose because of a build order loss that happened because you dont know what youre facing. im not trying to be biased but if i saw bisu lose pvz games simply because he had to 1 base every time he faced random and it automatically handicapped him every game, it would just be unenjoyable to watch. id rather watch bisu lose fair and square against a zerg that actually outplays him than a zerg that just opens 973 and laughs at the toss who is 1 basing.
RKC
Profile Joined June 2012
2848 Posts
Last Edited: 2020-04-27 05:42:58
April 27 2020 05:38 GMT
#233
Guess what the anti-random folks are saying is that must also be some rule banning footballers playing out of position - because you don't see Messi playing as GK for Barcelona (OMG MESAGI SO OP!) and unfair for teams not to know opponent's formation in advance (SURPRISE TAKTIK SO OP!)
gg no re thx
evilfatsh1t
Profile Joined October 2010
Australia8918 Posts
April 27 2020 06:03 GMT
#234
On April 27 2020 14:38 RKC wrote:
Guess what the anti-random folks are saying is that must also be some rule banning footballers playing out of position - because you don't see Messi playing as GK for Barcelona (OMG MESAGI SO OP!) and unfair for teams not to know opponent's formation in advance (SURPRISE TAKTIK SO OP!)

thats not even close to being an accurate analogy. you should be embarrassed
ggsimida
Profile Joined August 2015
1156 Posts
Last Edited: 2020-04-27 06:05:16
April 27 2020 06:03 GMT
#235
On April 27 2020 13:45 LocoBolon wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 26 2020 21:30 [sc1f]eonzerg wrote:
The feeling i have with this thread is that most of u are seeing Flash choice from your noob perspective and 0 knowledge. Some people posting looks like didnt see Flash already winning zvp vs rain best snow mini and more. Flash also won zvt vs Nada Scan and others i fail to remember.is flash protoss or zerg as good as his terran? no.But is already good enough to be a new progamer as protoss or zerg.Flash love mindgames and what is the ultimate mindgame ? random.im not sure about his zerg vs zerg or protoss vs protoss but since he will be playing random.he will have an edge. Flash army control decision making with every race is just insane.i remember watching his zvt and while he didnt show jaedong micro.his actions alone win him the game.anyway for you from outside is looking like flash need to learn everything.and the reality is he is training offraces his whole career.hell i played Flash protoss and it wasnt even close. :d



Yes man thank you for shedding some light, I said it before but idiots keeps talking about imbalance.
as if picking random was Flash's ultimate evil plan to break the game.
Other delusional people keep bringing up how not good he gotta be with his offrace as you said, they probably think they could beat JD now that he is rusty if he plays offrace.

It's all about mind games and fun!!!!

oh I also saw him winning vs Larva in zvz


if flash terran main is T0, imo i feel his offraces are at already T2 level in general from the games seen on his stream so far (with a few exception like PvT which i think is already at T1!). all he needs some refinements through learning more of the nuances/detail of each non-terran match ups form the other pros and his offraces will start to move up to T1. when that happens he will legitimately be very competitive as a random player and really scary to face. people really need realise their pereceptions of random do not apply to someone as prodigious as flash and to stop whining and go check out some of flash's offrace games for themselves, its an unprecedented moment in BW history that will be pretty interesting to watch
evilfatsh1t
Profile Joined October 2010
Australia8918 Posts
April 27 2020 06:11 GMT
#236
On April 27 2020 12:21 Liquid`Drone wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 27 2020 11:31 evilfatsh1t wrote:
On April 27 2020 10:49 Liquid`Drone wrote:
That no random rule to my knowledge was one imposed by coaches because it was considered too hard to succeed playing random..? Not that it was ever actually illegal in korean tournaments to play random, just none of the teams would allow their players to do it (and very few players had any desire to go for it).

it doesnt matter who imposed the rule, the point is a rule was in place and the players had no choice


It matters in the context of whether random has been perceived as strong or powerful. Coaches banning their players from randoming because they assume nobody can be successful randoming is a very significant indicator that randoming is not considered beneficial, and indeed, that it would have been a disadvantage.

theres also another factor thats probably carries just as much weight as player performance, and that is that picking random damages the integrity of the competition.
if you wanted to off-race then you could literally just pick your off-race and be upfront about it. picking random however, is inherently deceitful because you are trying to gain an advantage from making your opponent not know what theyre facing.
its a fundamentally dishonest way to play the game. flash got a lot of criticism in his early days for cheesing opponents regularly because it was considered dirty or cheap. well picking random tops even that.

as for why the other pros would be content with flash picking random and having the integrity of their competition compromised, well that was covered by me in a much earlier post but it has nothing to do with the fairness of random picking or competitive play at all. the overall issue is much broader than that
EsportsJohn
Profile Blog Joined June 2012
United States4883 Posts
April 27 2020 07:58 GMT
#237
On April 27 2020 15:11 evilfatsh1t wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 27 2020 12:21 Liquid`Drone wrote:
On April 27 2020 11:31 evilfatsh1t wrote:
On April 27 2020 10:49 Liquid`Drone wrote:
That no random rule to my knowledge was one imposed by coaches because it was considered too hard to succeed playing random..? Not that it was ever actually illegal in korean tournaments to play random, just none of the teams would allow their players to do it (and very few players had any desire to go for it).

it doesnt matter who imposed the rule, the point is a rule was in place and the players had no choice


It matters in the context of whether random has been perceived as strong or powerful. Coaches banning their players from randoming because they assume nobody can be successful randoming is a very significant indicator that randoming is not considered beneficial, and indeed, that it would have been a disadvantage.

theres also another factor thats probably carries just as much weight as player performance, and that is that picking random damages the integrity of the competition.
if you wanted to off-race then you could literally just pick your off-race and be upfront about it. picking random however, is inherently deceitful because you are trying to gain an advantage from making your opponent not know what theyre facing.
its a fundamentally dishonest way to play the game. flash got a lot of criticism in his early days for cheesing opponents regularly because it was considered dirty or cheap. well picking random tops even that.

as for why the other pros would be content with flash picking random and having the integrity of their competition compromised, well that was covered by me in a much earlier post but it has nothing to do with the fairness of random picking or competitive play at all. the overall issue is much broader than that


I think it only seems unfair because we assume that playing only one race is the optimal way to play the game. In an alternate universe where random is the standard, all players would be required to know to play against any race and be prepared for any possibility at the start of the game. The only reason we don't expect players to prepare for every race against a single opponent is because it's not common, not because it's unfairly difficult.
StrategyAllyssa Grey <3<3
att
Profile Joined March 2020
128 Posts
April 27 2020 09:08 GMT
#238
On April 27 2020 06:03 A.Alm wrote:
Okay, i'll explain why i think your logic is flawed because i have a few minutes until dinner is ready and i'm bored.

Show nested quote +
On April 20 2020 23:11 FlaShFTW wrote:
Takes like this make it very clear how little people actually understand about starcraft.[1] He has to prepare for 9 matchups. That's 200% more matchups than he already has to prepare for. That means 200% more build orders, and 200% more understanding for how to play the matchup. [2]

Let's assume for a second that on the best case scenario that FlaSh playing Terran matchups means that he carries over 75% of his understanding to the other side. So he needs to learn about 25% of the knowledge to play ZvT and PvT.

That leaves 4 other matchups where he needs to learn everything. ZvZ, PvP, ZvP, and PvZ. Maybe you could make an argument that playing either side of the ZvP matchup only needs 50% more time.

Let's assume for percentage sake that mastering/learning to a pro-level for just one matchup takes 10 hours. This is just to represent the percentages, obviously it takes more time. So FlaSh has already spent 10 hours for each Terran matchup (30 hours). To learn ZvT and PvT, he needs to invest another 2.5 hours each. That's 35 hours total now. Then he needs to learn ZvZ and PvP, another 20 hours total added. To learn both sides of the ZvP matchup, he needs 15 hours total. That adds up to 70 hours total. [2]

70 hours total, compared to the average of 30 hours to learn just one race. That is 233% more time spent to learn all 9 matchups.

But sure, let's compare needing 233% more time to practice every single matchup AT MINIMUM to him gaining an advantage over the opponent not knowing what race he's playing. Imagine punishing a player for spending more time to get better at the game than everyone else. [3]

I suppose someone might say that FlaSh only has to prepare for 3 matchups too, because let's say he was going to play against Bisu, he would only need to prepare ZvP, TvP, and PvP. Sure, he prepares for Bisu, just like Bisu prepares for FlaSh. The difference is that Bisu gets to prepare with the same units for one race. FlaSh has to play 3 completely different races. Even if you want to make this argument, FlaSh gains no advantage besides the advantage for playing/practicing more than his opponents.


[1] here you say people have very little understand of the game == bad at the game

[2] You're assuming his games as a Terran gives him no head start / understanding of the other match ups at all. Sure, you do give credit for PvT and ZvT, but non for the other four match ups. This logic concludes that Flash is as good in PvZ as someone who has never played the game. Both needs X hours a week, for each match up they have not played. A pro tip for your future calculations is to use variables instead of a set number. You don't need to use numbers for the "percentages to makes sense".

I'll use a few other examples to why that logic is flawed. What if SCBW had 10 unqiue races instead of 3? Would this mean a random player would have to practice almost 10 times as much as someone race picking? It does not take 148 times longer to become good with all champions in League of Legends than it takes to become good with one champion, even though the champions are very different from each other. The scale is not linear, it's logarithmic.

Also, the races in SCBW have a lot in common. F.e, macro, micro, map awareness, game understanding and so on (which is why it's logarithmic). Learning build orders is not the hard part of this game, so it does not take a lot of time. Flash is f.e already going to have OK muta micro because he has been microing wraiths and other similar units for 15+ years.

[3] The better the players the more build order advantages scale, and this is where the "not showing race" part of random becomes powerful. As someone pointed out earlier, doing a gate into gas in your main instead of gate/forge expand at ur natural PvZ can have quite a huge impact. Especially since the zerg (random player) knows this is what the Protoss will most likely do (nexus first or gate/forge at nat is suicide against P, 2 gate proxy sucks against T (sim-city) and 1 gate proxy sucks against Z, etc, there might be some good cheez but it's a biiig risk for the protoss and it will not be an entertaining game to watch or play if they are forced to toss a coin) they can safely go 3 hatch before pool on bigger maps, gaining a huge advantage on this level of play.

On lower levels this is not that big of a deal, but small advantages are huge at this level. Similar in chess on lower level if someone removes a center pawn at the beginning of the game (starting with 7 pawns instead of 8) it's almost neglectable but at GM level it's already game ending.

I think random should be allowed, but for the players and our sake as spectators the races should be shown to decrease the randomness of the games and there for make them more skillful and enjoyable to watch. Either way, i am very excited to see flash play random, regardless of how this is handled!
[/b]
Actually league of legends would prove a point that specialisation is useful, rather than that it is not worth it. Pros in league of legends usually only have a small pool of 4-5 champs that they will play. Because yes, learning the matchups with a lot of champions is a lot of work, and their winrate will suffer if they try to learn too many of them
A.Alm
Profile Joined September 2012
Sweden558 Posts
Last Edited: 2020-04-27 10:14:49
April 27 2020 10:12 GMT
#239
On April 27 2020 18:08 att wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 27 2020 06:03 A.Alm wrote:
Okay, i'll explain why i think your logic is flawed because i have a few minutes until dinner is ready and i'm bored.

On April 20 2020 23:11 FlaShFTW wrote:
Takes like this make it very clear how little people actually understand about starcraft.[1] He has to prepare for 9 matchups. That's 200% more matchups than he already has to prepare for. That means 200% more build orders, and 200% more understanding for how to play the matchup. [2]

Let's assume for a second that on the best case scenario that FlaSh playing Terran matchups means that he carries over 75% of his understanding to the other side. So he needs to learn about 25% of the knowledge to play ZvT and PvT.

That leaves 4 other matchups where he needs to learn everything. ZvZ, PvP, ZvP, and PvZ. Maybe you could make an argument that playing either side of the ZvP matchup only needs 50% more time.

Let's assume for percentage sake that mastering/learning to a pro-level for just one matchup takes 10 hours. This is just to represent the percentages, obviously it takes more time. So FlaSh has already spent 10 hours for each Terran matchup (30 hours). To learn ZvT and PvT, he needs to invest another 2.5 hours each. That's 35 hours total now. Then he needs to learn ZvZ and PvP, another 20 hours total added. To learn both sides of the ZvP matchup, he needs 15 hours total. That adds up to 70 hours total. [2]

70 hours total, compared to the average of 30 hours to learn just one race. That is 233% more time spent to learn all 9 matchups.

But sure, let's compare needing 233% more time to practice every single matchup AT MINIMUM to him gaining an advantage over the opponent not knowing what race he's playing. Imagine punishing a player for spending more time to get better at the game than everyone else. [3]

I suppose someone might say that FlaSh only has to prepare for 3 matchups too, because let's say he was going to play against Bisu, he would only need to prepare ZvP, TvP, and PvP. Sure, he prepares for Bisu, just like Bisu prepares for FlaSh. The difference is that Bisu gets to prepare with the same units for one race. FlaSh has to play 3 completely different races. Even if you want to make this argument, FlaSh gains no advantage besides the advantage for playing/practicing more than his opponents.


[1] here you say people have very little understand of the game == bad at the game

[2] You're assuming his games as a Terran gives him no head start / understanding of the other match ups at all. Sure, you do give credit for PvT and ZvT, but non for the other four match ups. This logic concludes that Flash is as good in PvZ as someone who has never played the game. Both needs X hours a week, for each match up they have not played. A pro tip for your future calculations is to use variables instead of a set number. You don't need to use numbers for the "percentages to makes sense".

I'll use a few other examples to why that logic is flawed. What if SCBW had 10 unqiue races instead of 3? Would this mean a random player would have to practice almost 10 times as much as someone race picking? It does not take 148 times longer to become good with all champions in League of Legends than it takes to become good with one champion, even though the champions are very different from each other. The scale is not linear, it's logarithmic.

Also, the races in SCBW have a lot in common. F.e, macro, micro, map awareness, game understanding and so on (which is why it's logarithmic). Learning build orders is not the hard part of this game, so it does not take a lot of time. Flash is f.e already going to have OK muta micro because he has been microing wraiths and other similar units for 15+ years.

[3] The better the players the more build order advantages scale, and this is where the "not showing race" part of random becomes powerful. As someone pointed out earlier, doing a gate into gas in your main instead of gate/forge expand at ur natural PvZ can have quite a huge impact. Especially since the zerg (random player) knows this is what the Protoss will most likely do (nexus first or gate/forge at nat is suicide against P, 2 gate proxy sucks against T (sim-city) and 1 gate proxy sucks against Z, etc, there might be some good cheez but it's a biiig risk for the protoss and it will not be an entertaining game to watch or play if they are forced to toss a coin) they can safely go 3 hatch before pool on bigger maps, gaining a huge advantage on this level of play.

On lower levels this is not that big of a deal, but small advantages are huge at this level. Similar in chess on lower level if someone removes a center pawn at the beginning of the game (starting with 7 pawns instead of 8) it's almost neglectable but at GM level it's already game ending.

I think random should be allowed, but for the players and our sake as spectators the races should be shown to decrease the randomness of the games and there for make them more skillful and enjoyable to watch. Either way, i am very excited to see flash play random, regardless of how this is handled!

Actually league of legends would prove a point that specialisation is useful, rather than that it is not worth it. Pros in league of legends usually only have a small pool of 4-5 champs that they will play. Because yes, learning the matchups with a lot of champions is a lot of work, and their winrate will suffer if they try to learn too many of them


I didnt say it was not worth it to specialize i said it does not scale linear
SlayerS_BunkiE
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
Canada1717 Posts
April 27 2020 15:08 GMT
#240
Does this make sense:
Obviously from a general/long-term perspective, Flash/random needs to learn (and be good at) more matchups than his opponents.
But in series play, both he and his opponents need to prepare x3 matchups on each map.

Anyway, the other two interesting questions are:
a.) would a player be allowed to shift his race selection throughout the tournament (i.e. Terran in ro16, Random in ro8, Zerg in semis, etc). Or even Terran for map1, Protoss for map2, etc.
b.) would the race need to be announced beforehand (I would think that it would be) so everyone knows in advance what you'll be playing (even if Random)
iloveby.SlayerS_BunkiE[Shield]
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