The 'skill cap' argument is a flawed one. There is no realistically achievable skill ceiling in Starcraft.

The skill ceiling is when each unit is micro'd to perfect efficiency, there are 0 timing errors, and scouting is as perfect as possible.

There will always be more to do and more to do more efficiently. The 'skill cap' has nothing to do with winning at the highest level. Yes terrans have a higher theoretical skill ceiling (due to the use of lower supply units throughout the game), but none of the racial ceilings are achievable.

It's not a flawed argument at all, and was thoroughly demonstrated in BW, and is currently being demonstrated in SC2.

There are simply more things that are possible with Terran. Even if they are harder than the hardest things to do with Zerg or (especially) Protoss, the way that the units/race as a whole is designed is such that there are simply more options/strategies/tactics/abilities/unit interactions/etc available to Terran, and this makes it so that you can simply do better. An absolute ceiling doesn't even matter; the point is that pro's have reached the point where the differences in capabilities between the various races starts to show. Two really simple examples: Think about things like MULE's or Medivacs. Both of these units are ridiculously flexible and useful in a myriad of ways. What about their counterparts? Larva Inject and Chronoboost are very specific abilities that have little to no flexibility, and Z/P don't have dedicated healers while their transport units are 1) different units completely and 2) don't have the mobility/tactical/strategic flexibility of the Medivac. It's little things like this that are spread all throughout T that make it have so much more potential.

NarutO

Germany18839 Posts

August 28 2013 06:48 GMT

#6303

The reason Rain is not a multiple champion yet is that he playes a very safe - style that will put him at a disadvantage usually entering mid and lategame, as he takes a late 3rd base and upgrades from one forge compared to most Protoss that play greedy and abuse the mothershipcore. While it works up until a certain level of play and against certain opponents, because Rain/Protoss shines in lategame especially it can be abused when you know how to play against it.

Taeja did play greedy 3CC/double ebay or pressure without overcommiting, he started to mass-drop once Rain wanted to take his 3rd. Due to the delay in economy and 3rd, Taeja had more units than Protoss what you can usually negate either due to having better upgrades or having your own 3rd up. Rain does neither, because as mentioned he want to be as safe as possible and pays the price for it.

Thats one of the reasons you sometimes (and I dare to say often, considering its 'RARE' so see non-Koreans beat Koreans) beat EU Protoss especially beat down Korean Terrans. They don't play as safe, yet they have all different styles from allin to greedy and it pays off in the end.

In addition to that Rain is still very capable of beating every Terran, and especially his series against Taeja he showed huge mistakes anf flaws in his style that are generally not happening to him so... that are my thoughts on Rain.

Additionally, skill ceiling and race potential doesn't neccessary mean that a race is overpowered, because you have to consider human capability and input potential. Just because Terran allows for multidrops / harassment doesn't mean its humanly possible to drop 4 locations at once while micro'ing and still managing your base. If we are to assume we have unlimited action then the Terran potential probably gets problematic but as its designed around high dps - range units that can be worth a ton or nothing that is very well known.

Protoss is designed around manipulating map and opponent with build orders and strategies. Often times you can see even professional casters not being able to call the strategy of Protoss early and especially for example Rains games can be either 2 base allin late or 3rd base delayed so the power of Protoss lies within strategic concept rather than mechanical abuse like Terrans. Asymmetric balance as already mentioned. If you believe Protoss players reached their cap, you are wrong. There are also a lot of mechanical aspects in the game for Protoss, and often times Protoss have chrono on their nexus. There is no reason not to get warpprism speed, non-stop chrono upgrades and/or gates/technology if you are not yet at the wanted supply (guess Protoss never wants 200/200 other than when he/she attacks) Yet I cannot say I see perfect play from anyone.

Warpprism with high templars is still way underused to start one critical point that is very strong in PvT.

aximtk

United States11 Posts

August 28 2013 18:42 GMT

#6304

On August 28 2013 15:40 Stratos_speAr wrote:

There are simply more things that are possible with Terran. Even if they are harder than the hardest things to do with Zerg or (especially) Protoss, the way that the units/race as a whole is designed is such that there are simply more options/strategies/tactics/abilities/unit interactions/etc available to Terran, and this makes it so that you can simply do better. An absolute ceiling doesn't even matter; the point is that pro's have reached the point where the differences in capabilities between the various races starts to show. Two really simple examples: Think about things like MULE's or Medivacs. Both of these units are ridiculously flexible and useful in a myriad of ways. What about their counterparts? Larva Inject and Chronoboost are very specific abilities that have little to no flexibility, and Z/P don't have dedicated healers while their transport units are 1) different units completely and 2) don't have the mobility/tactical/strategic flexibility of the Medivac. It's little things like this that are spread all throughout T that make it have so much more potential.

Hard to dispute this. T is designed to have more options period, hence the inevitable balance issue at the very top. Just consider floating buildings. That option alone is useful for so many things, i.e. for scouting, wall-building/re-positioning, interfering with AI targeting, winning early base trade, sneaking onto impassible expansions, safe construction behind walls (cc opening on high ground). In the right hands (minds), all these options for Terrans alone makes balance difficult.

Drake

Germany6146 Posts

August 28 2013 19:05 GMT

#6305

wehn i think about how close scarlett was, and how good she played vs bomber and then watch bomber vs jaedong ... is scarlett the best zerg out there ? together with perhaps soulkey ? i would say in zvt shes the best