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South Africa4316 Posts
Seismic Maps
by Daigomi
TeamLiquid Final Edits
Maps can, and often do, determine the way a season plays. If the maps are interesting and balanced, the season is usually exciting, while a season with imbalanced or boring maps usually leads to an uneventful and boring season. Unfortunately, map makers have more responsibility than simply making sure their maps are interesting and balanced. Maps should also pose new and unique challenges to progamers, and should have a feature which distinguishes it from past maps.
Looking at the previous season, we can see that map makers tried very hard to find new ways to make their maps unique and interesting. We saw neutral buildings, neutral creep, twice as many resource spots and gasses at the start, massive chokes, minimum chokes, and just about every new feature that map makers could think of.
Unfortunately, when making a unique map, past experiences are not dependable predictors of balance, and this could also be seen in the previous season. Baekmagoji was imbalanced in every single matchup ( although the map itself was not imbalanced for a specific race), Katrina, on the other hand, showed a clear bias (at least initially) towards Protoss, while Un’goro was impossible for Protoss. The maps were interesting, and exciting, but the matchups were predictable because the maps weren’t well balanced.
This season KeSPA has decided to take a new view on map making. No longer do maps need to have a neutral building or a minimum choke that makes routing difficult, no longer are mineral walls, or creep colonies at expansions, required to make a map interesting. Map makers have instead opted for an older approach to making interesting maps – unique map layout and basic geographic features. But will this be enough to keep us glued to the screen?
To find out, I'm going to look at six new maps that have been announced for this season. On each map I will give a number of ratings. The first rating is the Richter scale for each map, which will measure how groundbreaking the map is. This does not only include how ground breaking the map itself is, but also how ground breaking its effect on gameplay will be. The second rating is the predictability rating, which will measure how predictable the map, and the balance of a map, is. Finally, I’ll give a rating based entirely on how interesting and exciting I think games on a map will be. This measure disregards balance and predictability, and focuses simply on the expected quality of games on the map.
So, let’s begin.
Andromeda
Richter Scale: 6/10
Predictability Rating: 8/10
Excitement Rating: 4/10 |
Andromeda is the first map that will be looked at. The map appears to be fairly standard at first glance, but it deviates from the expected in a few small, but notable, areas. The first area in which it deviates is the safe mineral only inside the main base. Although not entirely unique, few recent maps have had a safe mineral only within the main, and it would be interesting to see how this mineral only is used in new strategies.
A second defining feature of Andromeda is the cliff looming over the natural. The nat-cliff used to be a fairly standard feature in old maps, but has recently not seen much action. In this season almost all maps show a cliff of some sort covering the natural. To weaken the effect of the cliff on Andromeda, the map makers have added neutral buildings which can be destroyed in order to reach the cliff. Because of this, I do not think we will see too much action on the cliffs. The only influence the cliffs will have is that it will force players to keep their troops at home a bit longer to destroy the neutral buildings.
With these two features taken our of the picture, the map is fairly standard, and very reminiscent of Nemesis. There are two island expansions at 12 and 6, and two fairly easily protected expansions at 3 and 9. This leads us to the predictability rating.
The predictability rating is 8/10, simply because the map seems fairly easy to predict and nothing too out of the ordinary is presented to us. That which is unusual, is not too difficult to predict. The mineral only, while interesting, should not have too great an impact on the game, except allow players to turtle up a bit more, and the same can be said for the nat-cliff. Rather than being used offensively, I see the nat-cliff as mainly a defensive feature of the map, allowing players to turtle very comfortably.
The safeness of the main bases means that players will mostly avoid the open middle, and play with their safe mains, until a final confrontation is forced and one player overpowers the other.
The excitement rating is lower than average for me, as this map looks very much like an even more defensive Nemesis. We can expect lots of turtling, and fairly low-paced games. I won’t write the map off completely though, simply because slow paced games aren’t necessarily bad games, and we might see a few early cliff cheeses.
Colosseum
Richter Scale: 6/10
Predictability Rating: 5/10
Excitement Rating: 7/10 |
Colosseum is an interesting map. There’s little about it that makes it look different from your standard four player map, and yet it is one of the maps I think will be the most unpredictable during the coming Proleague season. Why is this? Well, the main reason for this is the strange placement of the higher grounds around the choke of each main, which is very similar to old-school Plains to Hill. The difference between these two maps is that the one higher ground base can be entered from outside the player’s main, which means a contain can easily be set up from this position by a Terran player.
On the other-hand, for the Terran player, it’s almost impossible to wall in, because two gate goons can easily attack any wall from this higher ground position. There is also a sunken colony placed in front of each choke, but the sunken colony will only create creep in a very small area behind it, due to the the terrain around it. Because of this I’ll give the map only 5/10 on the predictability scale.
The map scores slightly above average on the Richter scale, simply because of the interesting layout of the map. In my opinion, a defining feature of the gameplay on Colossuem will be if players are able to successfully take their second nats early and safely. This will be a problem for Zerg, because a single line of sunks cannot defend this expansion and the main base.
Once players find a way to get past the opening part of the game I expect exciting games from the map. The open layout of the middle, as well as the multiple routes into each base should make for exciting to-and-fro play. The safe nat is also a positive on the map, as it will give players a fighting chance, even if they get contained early on.
Hannibal
Richter Scale: 8/10
Predictability Rating: 4/10
Excitement Rating: 9/10 |
Hannibal looks to me to be one of the most exciting 2v2 maps made so far. The map is interesting, unique, and seems to combine all that was good from last season’s maps, and then add something extra to it.
The first, and most notable, feature of Hannibal is the small main bases. These bases are absolutely tiny- I doubt more than two factories could comfortably fit in there. This might sound like a relatively strange feature, but if you take into consideration that this is a 2v2 map, it makes the map incredibly dynamic. Players will no longer be fine just turtling up and defending their mains. Because of the tiny size of the mains, players will be forced to move out of their bases, and onto riskier ground.
The second unique feature of the map is the relatively low mineral count in the main bases. Each main only has seven resource spots, and two gasses. This will reward players who move out of their mains earlier and take greater risks. Because of this I expect to see players taking greater risks early on, making both rushes, and macro based 2v2 play a good possibility.
Once players move out of their mains to their naturals, we find large cliffs behind the nats making for interesting battles over resources, perhaps similar to those found on
Seongangil. The main bases can also be attacked with tanks from the lower ground (although the resources spots won’t get hit), which means that players might be even less likely to fill up their main base with buildings.
2v2’s are by nature fairly unpredictable, but I think that even for a 2v2 map Hannibal is more unpredictable than the average. The map introduces many clever elements, through simple geographical changes, and we will hopefully see some great games thanks to that.
Hwarangdo
Richter Scale: 7/10
Predictability Rating: 4/10
Excitement Rating: 8/10 |
Hwarangdo is the new OGN map for this season, and to me it has the potential to be both the most imbalanced map of the season, as well as the most interesting map of the season. The most immediately obvious feature about the map is that there is no gas available at the natural expansion. This has been seen before, most notably on Nostalgia, but on Nostalgia taking a second gas was more plausible due to the small chokes into mains, and fairly closed off second nats.
Hwarangdo throws the whole balance off not only by not having a gas at the nat, but also by making all potential gasses very difficult to hold.
The corner gasses on Hwarangdo are fairly open, and a tank push from the higher ground onto the corners will be impossible to stop early in the game. Furthermore, the gasses at 5 or 10 are completely open, and can be attacked from three different directions. Holding such a gas will be very difficult, especially during the early-game for Zerg. Thus the map forces players to either take a risky second gas, or to play from one gas for a while. This should give Terran an advantage, as they can go M&M against Zerg, and a few tanks supported by hordes of vultures against Protoss.
Once the game reaches the middle game, I expect Terran’s advantage to completely disappear. Terran will have difficulty coping with a Zerg player that makes use of the multiple routes onto the middle to run circles around the Terran, while a Protoss player should also have a fairly good time, since the middle terrain prevents Terran from setting up a proper push.
With that said, I think the map shows the potential for some very exciting games. The map is open, which should make for some mobile armies running up and down the map, launching attacks and counter-attacks. The fights early on will also be interesting to observe, and it will be interesting to see how the players cope with only having one gas.
The map once again makes use of new and interesting geographic features to change the gameplay, and if the map’s balance doesn’t let it down, we can expect some of the best games of the OSL to be played on Hwarangdo.
Othello
Richter Scale: 6/10
Predictability Rating: 8/10
Excitement Rating: 10/10 |
Othello is my favourite map of the new maps. The map is relatively standard, but it looks like it could provide gameplay heaven. The defining feature of the map is the open position of the expansions on the map. The middle expansions are incredibly open to attack, and while taking them will be easy, keeping them will be much more difficult.
The four bases in the middle of the map can all be cliffed fairly easily, so players will have to insure that they are able to cope with such a threat before taking these bases. Added to that there is the problem of the three potential routes into each base, which means setting up a static defense will be near impossible. What all this means is that the aggressive player will be rewarded, while the defensive player will constantly be under pressure to stay in the game.
Playing aggressively and taking an early middle expansion could mean victory for a player, especially if his opponent turtles up and does nothing about it, but taking a fast expansion could also end the game for a player if he is unable to hold on to his expansion against a more aggressive player. Thus, we’ll end up with games in which players are constantly taking and fighting over expansions, while the multiple routes of the base allows counter-attacks on the other expansions.
The map also shows a very strategic side, with the routes around the side offering extra protection to an attacking army, while rushes down the middle will be able to circumvent and trap the armies going down the sides. Because of this, I rate this map the most interesting of all the new maps, and also potentially the most interesting map we’ve had in recent seasons.
Othello gives players the opportunity to macro, but it also rewards the aggressive players who prefer to keep their opponents under constant pressure.
The only potential problem I have with the map, concerning balance, is the position of the cliff behind the natural. While I do not think tanks on this cliff will be a problem, I am worried about the position of this cliff in relation to the minerals it is guarding. The cliff is very close to the minerals which means mutalisks will be able to harass effectively from the cliff, which could cause a problem for Terran in the same way the cliff caused a problem for Terran on Blue Storm. While there is a building that can be destroyed for access to the cliff, the neutral building appears to be one of the bigger ones, so it will be interesting to see if a Terran player is able to remove the building in time to prevent mutalisk harass.
Wuthering Heights
Richter Scale: 9/10
Predictability Rating: 3/10
Excitement Rating: 7/10 |
The final new map to be looked at is Wuthering Heights. The map scores the most highly on the Richter scale for its interesting higher ground feature in the middle, as well as its high density mineral spots in the middle of the map. These features are what defines Wuthering Heights, and they are also what could potentially make the map a single race map.
Wuthering Heights provides the opponent with two safe gasses in the beginning, and the mains look very similar to those of Tau Cross. Once you move out from the main bases though, you find that Wuthering Heights is a completely different ball game. The middle of the map plays a defining role in Wuthering Heights, and holding on to this middle could be what all the battles are about.
From the middle of the map, a player is able to not only take the shortest route between bases, but also attack all four the high density middle bases. Seeing as these middle bases have two gasses and twelve resource spots, being able to control these bases are crucial to having success on the map. Unfortunately, controlling the middle will be very difficult early in the game for Zerg or Protoss, and we are likely to find Terran players rush to take the middle.
To counteract this, there are multiple routes around the middle of the map which allows a player to take advantage of anyone that simply camps out the middle. These routes are quite long though, and an army stationed in the middle of the map could quickly move out to counter-attack or defend against an army that moves along the side of the map.
Because of this the predictability of the map is not very high. While it seems like Terran might have an early game advantage, it is impossible to say exactly how big an effect the routes around the side of the map will have to this army, or whether it will be possible for Terran to hold such a position against a Protoss attack.
If the map turns out to be balanced, we might see some very interesting games on the map, perhaps similar to the games we see on Katrina when carriers are not involved. We can only hope that the map balance won’t turn out to be similar to Katrina’s!
I hope you have all enjoyed this look at the new maps, and that you are as excited as I am about the up-and-coming Proleague! As I said in the beginning of this article, good maps tend to make for a good season, so let's hope this season lives up to the wonderful maps it's been given!
The maps can be downloaded here.
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Baltimore, USA22254 Posts
Nice, I actually read the whole thing. Very insightful analysis. 
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Yes, quite insightful, really worth the read. Excellent job, thank you
can't wait for some awesome games:D
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Where is hunters ?
Thx my favourite map is colloseum, i love the tileset and the idea of upper ground
Troy and Colloseum <3
Very good daigomi, damn, Plexa and u are a hot couple
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gonna read all of it when I find the time. Daigomi for Pres.!
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Nice analysis for all the maps. Can't wait to get a hold of them!
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IMO:
Hannibal looks like Hwangsanbul without ramp blocks and 5th spot.
And you said to little on the micro Zerg could go for with mutas on the OGN map: Hwarangdo.
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I love analysis on everything Starcraft
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South Africa4316 Posts
On April 09 2008 06:21 wo0py wrote:IMO: Hannibal looks like Hwangsanbul without ramp blocks and 5th spot. And you said to little on the micro Zerg could go for with mutas on the OGN map: Hwarangdo.
While it is true that Zerg muta harass on the natural could be a problem, it shouldn't be too big an issue, since Zerg will go one gas muta harass, so, unlike on Blue Storm, the muta harass will have no sustainabillity. That's why I didn't really bring it up.
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Nice analysis love the term Richter Rating too...
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On April 09 2008 06:36 Daigomi wrote:While it is true that Zerg muta harass on the natural could be a problem, it shouldn't be too big an issue, since Zerg will go one gas muta harass, so, unlike on Blue Storm, the muta harass will have no sustainabillity. That's why I didn't really bring it up.
Yea, you're right. Nice write man!
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I like your idea of a Richter scale, but remember the Richter scale is logarithmic; that would mean that Othello is 1000 times more groundbreaking than Othello, Colosseum, and Andromeda ;-)
Nice read, but your analysis makes me worry about some of the maps. With Flash entering a period of domination, I hope the maps don't wind up favoring Terran too much in the midgame (I want to see more JD vs Flash go into the lategame, which is where JD really shines)
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That was great. I have a lot of trouble analyzing maps, so this was very helpful for me.
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On April 09 2008 04:15 EvilTeletubby wrote:Nice, I actually read the whole thing. Very insightful analysis.
QFT.
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Hannibal reminds me of Jim Raynor's Memory, mostly because of the distinctive island arms branching out from the sides. Anyone else see that or is it just me?
And thanks for the article, was a good read.
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Russian Federation4333 Posts
I think the best map of the season is going to be Hwarandgo. It looks like Nostalgia/Peaks hybrid in my opinion. Dunno about the balance but I think that the gamplay will be the best on this map, and by best I mean most fast paced and micro intensive. The secong gas is pretty hard to hold for zerg. I am really excited to see how Z will open up on the map against Terran.
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Man Daigomi is such a fucking baller.
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Well done again on a well-thought out article! Can't wait to see the new maps in action.
And I love that banner! 
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hmmm look like zerg gonna have hard time again 
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On April 09 2008 06:21 useLess wrote:
I love analysis on everything Starcraft
QFT. Othello looks like the most exciting map for me..
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is awesome32275 Posts
I think Hannibal early game will play somehow like R-Point, the expo a little far from the expo and easy to grab third. Dunno, its more open, but seems that kind of map...
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Very nice. This actually gave me quite an appreciation for these maps and the thoughts that go into designing them. I may never be able to look at a map the same way again 
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I hate change.
Oh the other hand, I hope they balanced them correctly this time.
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Actually, you can't destroy the neutral crystal block in Othello. This is because it is supposed to have 10,000 hp, but sc can only display up to 9999, so the end result is an invincible neutral building which you cannot attack.
It might however not fully block the path, I dunno. It looks like it might be open enough for lings or workers?
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Now how bout that review of Hunters....
j/k
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HonestTea
5007 Posts
I love these gameplay analysis articles
I think for people like me, who don't play regularly, map understanding is one of the most difficult things to grasp. It's hard to tell why certain maps force gameplay to lean one way or another... until Daigomi showed up! heh heh
Although: no Hunters? Come on! I demand an analysis for Hunters!
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Good read. I fear these maps won't be good for da zerg
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HonestTea
5007 Posts
Great point about the throwback to creative geography. Last season's maps did feel a little too whiz bang boom. This seasons' feel more grounded for sure.
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United States20661 Posts
I'll do Hunters. Hunters is easy.
<font size='4'>Hunters</font><table style="border : 1px solid black; background-color : #EBEFF2"><tr height=600><td width=500> ![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/maps/173_Hunters.jpg) Richter Scale: 10/10
Predictability Rating: 10/10
Excitement Rating: 10/10 </td></tr></table>
Reach started his StarCraft career on this map. Clearly it is the best map out of all of these. Expect Reach's resurgence with a 22-0 undefeated streak here.
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I think on Colosseum Terrans are going to have to revert to later expansions / FD-sized armies to take it. 2gate goons won't be stopped by that puny wall. ==
On the other hand we'll have to see rush distance ...
And Last Romantic, you're wrong.
Expect all the progaming teams to hire a bunch of hacking BGH newbs to play for them this time around, what with all their fresh blood laughing and throwing up blood at Hunters. Kekeke ~
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Nice job. Can't wait to see epic battles @ wh 
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I was just watching the first televised Hannibal match-up in the Averatec-Intel Classic and I noticed that there seems to be at least a couple patches that are actually two patches stacked up on each other in each main. Can anyone else confirm?
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Thx for the article! TLFE is allways worth a read and when it comes to maps i'm excited nomatter what imbalance might occure.
I don't analyse maps beforehand so it's good to have someone like you writing something down. Thx for the insight now i'm even more hyped, the break is killing me.
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Aotearoa39261 Posts
Yo you know my feelings about Wuthering! You'll see that it will easily >> Othello!
^^
nice article <3
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How can you predict predictability?
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Spenguin
Australia3316 Posts
By predicting the predictability of the predictable!
Mmmm, awesome Daigomi you have the analysis FE's and Plex has the nostalgic and/or cocksucking FE.
The cocksucking ones are good BTW!
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South Africa4316 Posts
On April 09 2008 15:09 Zalfor wrote:
hunters?
Since a few people have asked this now, I'll explain why I didn't do Hunters: This FE is about predicting the playabillity of the new maps. Hunters is not a new map. Thus the Predictabillity would be 10, the Richter scale rating would be 0, and the excitement rating would be however exciting games are on Hunters. It just doesn't fit into the FE.
I was just watching the first televised Hannibal match-up in the Averatec-Intel Classic and I noticed that there seems to be at least a couple patches that are actually two patches stacked up on each other in each main
That would be very interesting. If this happens it takes away some of the need to expand early on, and allows players to stay in their bases a bit longer which would be something of a downer. On the other hand, the small base sizes will still reward those who move out, so it will be interesting to see what happens.
Actually, you can't destroy the neutral crystal block in Othello. This is because it is supposed to have 10,000 hp, but sc can only display up to 9999, so the end result is an invincible neutral building which you cannot attack.
Interesting. Well that also changes it slightly. It depends on whether units can get past. If units can get past I would say the effect of the ledge is negligible, if units can't get past we just might see some ledge action. Once again, it will be interesting to see how that pans out.
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Aotearoa39261 Posts
On April 09 2008 21:06 Spenguin wrote:
Mmmm, awesome Daigomi you have the analysis FE's and Plex has the nostalgic and/or cocksucking FE. You'll get your analysis!!
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small size units can get past, the medium,bigger size no
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Germany1302 Posts
good job!
finally some pro-terran maps :D
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othello will most likely be the next blue/tau/long/luna etc., the only thing i dislike is that opening between bases on 12 and 6
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South Africa4316 Posts
TT1, I agree with you, Othello looks like it will be the next big standard map. I'm really excited about it though, since it looks to be more aggressive than any of those maps because of the openness of the map.
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Where do I download these maps?
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On April 09 2008 19:17 Centric wrote:
I was just watching the first televised Hannibal match-up in the Averatec-Intel Classic and I noticed that there seems to be at least a couple patches that are actually two patches stacked up on each other in each main. Can anyone else confirm?
I noticed this too. The flash player on gomtv.net doesn't have times so it's hard to report, but there are some clear instances, like when the first time they show the blue zerg, he has two drones mining from the 3rd-from-top patch. There are some other pretty clear instances of that in the beginning when they showed the teal and red probes.
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United States10774 Posts
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On April 09 2008 21:58 Daigomi wrote:
I was just watching the first televised Hannibal match-up in the Averatec-Intel Classic and I noticed that there seems to be at least a couple patches that are actually two patches stacked up on each other in each main
I noticed it as well. I thought my eyes were just tricking me or the workers were buggy. Still, it's only 8 patches in each main, a pretty standard amount.
On April 09 2008 21:58 Daigomi wrote:
Interesting. Well that also changes it slightly. It depends on whether units can get past. If units can get past I would say the effect of the ledge is negligible, if units can't get past we just might see some ledge action. Once again, it will be interesting to see how that pans out.
Small units like workers can move out. SCVs were used to try to stop a tank drop in the first televised match on that map, so I'm assuming players will be able to construct turrets on the ledge against muta harassment.
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when can we dl the maps???
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On April 10 2008 03:27 Chosi wrote:
good job!
finally some pro-terran maps :D
We don't want pro-terran maps. Anti-Terran maps forces innovation from Terrans, something we haven't seen in a little while now. Just look at Flash. He's an innovator, and the maps have rewarded him and punish all other terrans.
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anyone know if these maps have been leaked yet?
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excellent analysis, very useful for a newb like me!
thanks daigomi
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South Africa4316 Posts
The maps are not available for download yet. Once they are you'll be able to get them on the TLPD.
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On April 10 2008 18:36 Daigomi wrote:
The maps are not available for download yet. Once they are you'll be able to get them on the TLPD.
What is TLPD? Team Liquid P___ D___ ?
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South Africa4316 Posts
Progamer Database. There is a big link to it on the right had side of the screen.
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On April 11 2008 05:41 Daigomi wrote:
Progamer Database. There is a big link to it on the right had side of the screen.
I've never actually see that before. It's kinda hard to spot unless you know what to look for, probably due to the colour scheme. Thanks for pointing it out though.
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is awesome32275 Posts
On April 11 2008 05:34 Zzoram wrote:Show nested quote +On April 10 2008 18:36 Daigomi wrote:
The maps are not available for download yet. Once they are you'll be able to get them on the TLPD. What is TLPD? Team Liquid P___ D___ ?
Progaming Database
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is awesome32275 Posts
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yea those are the maps but it says you need a password number in order to get in. -_-'
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South Africa4316 Posts
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Excellent article. I really need to get better at analyzing maps since I think it would help out my game sense. You do it very well. It's kind of hard when you haven't seen a game played on them yet, as shown by the previous comments in the thread. Thanks.
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yah, point out the new tweaks they made to hunters, and analyze that for us too! we'd love to hear it.
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where can i download these maps?
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South Africa4316 Posts
Mgenus, I posted the link for you like 3 comments up.
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http://www.panschk.de/mappage/replays/othello size.rep
http://www.panschk.de/mappage/replays/othello size2.rep
These two games are test games showing which units can go past the crystal onto the nat cliff.
All small units, zlots, hydralisks, defilers can pass normally. You can use a vulture's mine to push itself across, and we also were successful in pushing a tank across with a vult and mine. There is plenty of room there for a proxy building.
I think the nat cliff will be used a lot. Tank drops won't be as strong as on lt, because protoss can send zlots or templar without shuttle use.
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from the look of it, this makes terran players more imba.... in almost every map, there is a cliff overlooming everyones natural and some other expos. Unless those places are covered with defense, a tank drop would kill everything there
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Thankyou GTR and Daigomi for the new maps!
can't wait to destroy my friends on Andromeda!
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awesome awesome, this is a very good read! well written also
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Awesome write up. Loved it.
On April 09 2008 02:57 Daigomi wrote:
Colosseum
On the other-hand, for the Terran player, it’s almost impossible to wall in, because two gate goons can easily attack any wall from this higher ground position.
Why do you say that? It seems like T could wall in from HIS higher ground. From where tanks can shoot both valley and the attacker's cliff.
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South Africa4316 Posts
Because the goons will get there much faster than the tanks, so defending your wall early on will be a problem. If the Terran player survives this then Protoss will have a hard time staying alive though.
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where do we download these maps?
im looking for seongangil , plains of hill, and othello
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nvm i got the stolen ones XD
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On April 18 2008 02:29 Daigomi wrote:
Because the goons will get there much faster than the tanks, so defending your wall early on will be a problem. If the Terran player survives this then Protoss will have a hard time staying alive though.
It seems that walling in for terran became pretty much standard, with tanks often being able to stop the goon pressure. Protoss is in a very good spot if the break through, but in a very bad one if they fail.
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South Africa4316 Posts
Protoss isn't in a bad position if they fail, because they use plain two gate goon to apply the pressure. Terran does seem to be able to defend the wall mostly, but the goon pressure is much more effective on this map than it is on any other map, and it usually picks off an SCV or two in the process.
When I wrote this (before the maps were released or any games were played on it), I expected it Terran to just not wall in, because they would lose too many units trying to defend the wall. On the other hand, walling in allows Terran to FE, so I guess it's fine if they lose a few units.
Looking back at this now, I'm fairly happy with my predictions. Andromeda has turned out to be more interesting than I expected it to be. Looking at the stats, it appears more imbalanced than I still think it is, especially if you looked at the games. The only imbalances that I think should be mentioned is that I think Protoss has an advantage when starting at cross-spots, because of the massive distance between the bases, while Zerg seems to have a slight edge over Protoss when starting at close-spots, because the cross-spot expansions is too far away then which means Zerg can take it fairly easily. Protoss seems to go corsair/reaver often to increase its mobility a bit, because the expansions are so far away, and it seems to work quite well. All in all, it's been a fairly interesting map in my opinion.
Colosseum's balance has turned out more balanced than I thought could happen, although I still don't like Zerg's chances on the map. Terran hasn't been able to abuse the higher ground as much as I expected them to, but I haven't seen why this is so yet. I'd like to see a few stronger players TvP on the map, to see if they try to abuse the higher grounds or not. As I say at the start of this comment, the Terran still walls in, but the Protoss does apply a lot of pressure to the wall in, so I'm not that bothered by that prediction not turning out the way I predicted it 100%.
Hwarangdo... We still haven't seen enough on this map yet. The TvZ's on the map were all in rushes while the PvT's were either failed rushes, or rushes that do enough damage to allow Terran to lose his early advantage. I stand by my predictions for the map, but we'd need to see a few more standard games on the map to see if things turn out like I predicted. Basically, if Protoss or Zerg can hold on to its gas expansions it will win, while Terran should be able to stop any gas expansions from being take and win like that.
Othello is one of the maps that has confused me the most. The stats for the map are fairly balanced, and the games have pretty much turned out like I predicted, yet there has been 15 TvTs on the map. This implies that the progamers see the map as favouring Terran, which I can understand, except that all the games I've seen on the map have seem pretty balanced. Terran won when I expected the Terran player to be stronger, while Protoss or Zerg won when they were the stronger player. Furthermore, they way they played the game didn't imply any imbalance (such as Zerg going for all-ins because he could survive the middle game). So I don't know. The stats say it's fairly balanced, the games appear to be balanced, and yet we only see Terran play. Maybe if we see a few more games on the map the imbalance that makes proteams avoid playing other races will become apparent.
Wuthering is as bad for Zerg as I expected, but better for Protoss. In cross-positions, by splitting up his army and retreating from any Terran force, Protoss can stop Terran from leaving his base for a long time, so that Terran can't take the higher ground outside Protoss's base, which is a big deal. I'm not sure if the map is better for Protoss yet, but I think it's interesting to see how Terran will stop this from happening (such as a quick rush into a slow push could work). As with Othello, teams prefer to play Terrans though, with 17 TvTs having been played on it so far. In this case though, I can see why.
I haven't watched enough 2v2s to comment about Hannibal, and I'm mostly likely quite wrong about the map. 2v2s are so damn hard to predict :p
So yeah, all my predictions didn't turn out the way I thought it would, but I think most of the specific things I mentioned on the maps have been a factor in the progames. What I have enjoyed seeing a lot was my predictions of "imbalance" being used by the race I said the map would favour, and then watching how the other race copes with that. Most notably of this is the way Protoss stops Terran from moving out on Wuthering, something I didn't see happen at all, even though it's so simple.
Anyway, if anyone is still reading the comments of this old final edit, let me know how you feel the predictions turned out. We all watch different games, so you might have seen some things in games I haven't.
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as a p i love andromeda more then anything
so fucken fun
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EPT![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Daigomi/Banner__Seismic_Maps_v2.JPG)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/snowbird/map/andromeda.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/snowbird/map/colloseum.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/snowbird/map/hannibal.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://fomos.kr/board/issue/1207189168_1.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/snowbird/map/othello.jpg )
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/snowbird/map/heights.jpg )
