Quote your first post on TL! - Page 21

On June 17 2007 09:45 Dromar wrote:
here's my advice:

after the initial run-in with your lings, you kept making lings, but you really didn't have enough drones at all. You needed to make a third hatchery sooner, and a Den would have been a nice investment (although I suppose you were planning muta-ling instead). Try to make sure that you never have a larva just sitting there. Zerg literally can't possibly have too many drones.

On July 31 2007 04:11 Daigomi wrote:
Firstly, I know this is my first post and my whole post will probably be shot down for just that reason, but I have been a member for a few years now, and I've been following the pro-scene since the days of Boxer vs Yellow. Obviously, due to my crappy internet connection, I haven't been able to follow it all the time, but I do my best to stay up to date. This season was the first season I could actually follow the three main leagues! That said, I don't agree with all your ideas.

The first reason, and main reason, I don't agree with most of your ideas is that they aim to increase the entertainment of the proleague, but I believe that it's at the cost of some balance issues.

Your idea of splitting up the leagues... well, there's nothing wrong with it, but I also don't see the point of it. You say that if ACE loses to Samsung in the first week of play, and Samsung is leading the league, ACE only has one more head to head match vs Samsung to make up any ground. This is the basis of all big leagues, leagues are not about single team vs. team performances, but about sustained team performances. Take KTF this season. They beat Samsung twice yet it didn't make any difference. That said, it doesn't mean that individual matches, and rivalries, aren't important: They're just not as important as consistent performance.

The second consequence you mention is the lack of rivalries. As mentioned earlier, I agree that it's not as important as consistent team performace, but it is still there. Take the FA Premier League this year, 20 teams, double round robin format, exactly the same as the Proleague, just bigger. Yet that doesn't stop rivalries from developing, especially among the higher ranked teams. Arsenal vs Liverpool, Man U vs Chelsea. Yet every single match is important, sometimes for first position, sometimes for a top four position. Either way, it's always tense.

As to your idea of changing the play day format, there's only one 2v2. As you say, it's a team league, but starcraft is mostly an individual game. One 2v2 seems to me to be the perfect balance. Teams are put in the difficult situation of either creating a fixed 2v2 team, which focuses those players on teamplay (and possibly removes them from 1v1 leagues) or using makeshift 2v2 teams, but allowing more flexibility in your line-up. As to the placement of the 2v2 game, 3rd game seems perfect to me. This is clearly the most important spot for any game, and thus it increases the importance of the 2v2 match, making it more prominent than just 1 out of 5 games. Teams like Samsung have shown that.

The idea of winner stays on is a bit circumspect as it allows teams to, technically, win the league with one strong player. Even if, like you say, they only make use of that format once every 3 weeks, it is still bound to screw over someone. Say there's a very tight battle for first spot, and the first team plays against the second team, the first team fielding a strong balanced squad (eg. MBC) against the second team that has a slightly worse line-up, but one strong player (eg. CJ). Having the bad luck of drawing the winner stays on format for this match-up would clearly disadvantage the balanced squad. Even worse, a team like Samsung sits in fourth position (in this example). They have a very good chance of winning the league, but due to a bad start they've only barely made it in. In the last match, the match that they need to win to maintain fourth position, they draw someone like Pantech EX. Obviously EX plays Nada first match, and Nada beats Stork which causes a bit of an upset. Next up is FBH, which Nada with his strong TvT stands a fair chance of beating. After that it's highly possible that EX could beat Samsung. Thus one upset (Nada > Stork), and one evenly matched game (Nada = FBH) could cause a massive upset. All I'm saying is that the winner stays on format would clearly disadvantage some teams too much, and having it just some of a time would leave a lot to luck. For me, the current set-up is nicely balanced, especially with the ace match at the end.

As to proleague teamplay... I agree with you that the teamplay isn't very evident in the proleague, but as mentioned earlier, Starcraft is mostly a 1v1 (if only because most leagues are 1v1 which prevents most players from becoming dedicated team players). That doesn't mean that the proleague is not a team sport, just like the Formula 1 is a team sport. The team strategy part of the proleague (and what makes it so interesting to me) is done before games. It's about the players recruited by the team, the team strategy per match (compare Lecaf's match strategy with say KTF's strategy), the team practices and coach influences. Most of these things we don't see, we only see the effects of it. That said, I'm not against your ideas.

The StarBrain idea is interesting, as is the team melee idea. Of course, team melee would be like 2v2, except rarer. Why would a player become a team melee player, thus cutting himself off from all play except proleague play (sure, he could still play 1v1, but the time he spends practising team melee, other players will spend practising 1v1).

Finally, the maps were ... interesting. DMZ was awful, obviously. As mentioned earlier, Fantasy wasn't part of the MSL, but it does seem to be against Terran. Monty wasn't that bad and as mentioned, by DjEtter, it forced some innovative strategies to be created. Geometry was obviously very imbalanced, but the Terran mirror matches on geometry were very enjoyable. Still, they should take geometry out. All in all, I enjoy new maps. Perhaps they should send the maps to be played to the pro-teams a week before they announce them, and then pick some of the maps out of the bunch?

In the end, I'm happy with the proleague as it is. I don't watch every match, but I support my team religiously, and each match is tense. I wonder what changes they will make though...


PS. Can anyone tell me when the major leagues start again (MSL, OSL, SPL)?