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Artosis
United States2140 Posts
Over-Nerfed: Why Zerg Dominated Korea
Many people have wondered why the Asian StarCraft II Beta has been dominated by Zerg, while others have not. There are two reasons for this.
Zerg have less than the Protoss and Terran in this game. It's quite a simple concept. The Zerg have much less to work with.
Units usable in combat:
Zerg: 9
Terran: 12
Protoss: 14
This is a huge difference, especially when you consider that one of the Zerg units, the Ultralisk, is completely inferior to any other choice the Zerg have. This brings us down to eight units. Why does this make the Zerg better on the Asian server?
Streamlined learning. This is all that the Zerg has to work with. That means, the best units, ideas and strategies boil down much faster. There is simply less to test. StarCraft II is a very complex game, with many, many factors contributing to any situation. The Zerg have less of these factors. You have a very limited number of options. This doesn't make playing the Zerg easier, per sey, it just makes figuring out how to player the Zerg right easier. While other races are still around with three to five extra units, the Zerg already know what combination work and don't work. This makes every practice game a Zerg player plays worth more, as they are already past the testing phase.
There is one other reason, one which may weigh into it even more than the simplicity behind the previous reason. It is in the players who chose Zerg on the Asian server. First, let's state some things that should be obvious and accepted.
1) Korea is better at RTS games than any other nation in the world.
2) StarCraft is by far the most competitive RTS game in the world, especially in Korea.
3) The absurd majority of skilled gamers in Korea play or have played StarCraft professionally, both because of the competition and rewards of the game.
4) Going back in time in professional StarCraft I, you will find, on average, more free-styled and free-thinking players, due to the game being less developed.
5) This is StarCraft II. See #3.
So with these facts in mind, we will now go over which StarCraft I professional gamers are playing StarCraft II.
Read the rest of it here.
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cool
reading now
EDIT: so are u saying that the constant nerfing of the zerg race is in parts a unrewarded change to the overall balance of sc2 as a game.
and i also gather that you agree with tester that the major reason that zerg seems so strong in korea is that not much other sc korean pros have took the time and effort into learning sc2 and becoming top players themselves?
also what is your personal opioin on the patch toward the zerg race, do you think it is over done or do you think it was justified. you seemed to not talk about the patch to much in the write-up
also love how the only toss you mentioned to be playing the games alot is regarded as the best in korea ^^
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completely agree with you
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Nvm, addressed in the article.
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So you're saying its like being able to win piano competitions because you only play on the white keys? 
It makes perfect sense that when there is less to practice you can get better faster than the other races.
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I like the write-up so far... I hope the rest is just as good
edit: the rest really consolidates the statement made by the OP... makes you wonder why Blizzard balances based on Asia servers at all (assuming this is true)
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That makes absolutely no sense.
By the same logic Terran should be dominating Protoss since 'there are less units to use'.
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On May 17 2010 15:00 Jyvblamo wrote:
Why are Garimto and Intotherainbow not mentioned? He mentions at the bottom he doesn't count Garimto because he plays random.
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LMAO - "What have the top Korean Zerg players been doing since the last Zerg nerf in Patch 12? Well, I can't speak for all of them, but two of the very top players, Cool[fOu] and TheWinD, have both been practicing Terran on the Asian Ladder."
No no it was a good patch, you know just make one essential unit not very viable anymore and give no buff to other already un-viable units. LOVE U BLIZZARD <3
>
I guess to be fair it is a beta and the balance has been great consedering, just annoying how the Zerg race will be very very hard to play correctly for about a week.
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and many sc:bw users in korea played zerg isnt?
u have reps from asian nice zergs? im curious about actual game development... im not happy at all with sc2, but maybe in kor we can trust XD
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Never looked at it from that perspective. Thanks for the brief but always insightful writeups. I would have to agree with you, since I guess the ease of figuring out Zerg has always been with me on a subconscious level.
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Nice article, it sounds like a very reasonable explanation.
I am happy to see Junwi is playing. I loved his style. I won so many games copying his play long ago 
Any reps or interviews with him recently, Artosis?
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well, to be honest I agree to some degree.
The reason for Zerg domination in my opinion is that Zerg (race itself) is very macro intensive race and that over time caused Zerg to be stronger meta game wise. Because of that very fact people make more solid builds over time (repetition like you said, though IMO it is combination of lack of diversity and the way zerg works) it becomes more effective. A cheesing player will be better (much much better matter of fact) in short term but in long run macro oriented play will prevail over others. Once Protoss and Terran become macro heavy (roughly 30% of T&P player currently tends to be) then you will see Zerg get crushed even more~ ^_____^
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I like the second point (not in the OP) a lot better than the first. Good insight. Hopefully Blizzard takes this to heart.
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Good write-up and I agree with you.
Beyond the pointing out of an issue, though, what recommendations or changes do you have? While you've (hopefully, and I certainly think so) helped identify a problem, what do you think would help solve it?
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Doesn't the fact that there are so many great players in Korea who take it seriously (which you stated) mitigate the fact that more "prof" players play Zerg? Those progamers all lose plenty of games and I'd bet money there are plenty of non-famous players who are doing as good if not better than people on that list.
I guess my point is I really don't think any arguments saying "better players play this race" is really valid nor can it be proven unless you had a tournament with all the good players in. However this doesn't necessarily mean the players are better but rather that the race perhaps WAS better before the nerf which means that wouldn't of solved anything anyway.
As that is the jux of your argument I must kindly disagree with Artosis (who is awesome and helps the community so much) on this.
I also think it's really sad that people are jumping ship just because their race got nerfed.
+ Show Spoiler [HDH results] +
Idra just proved that Zerg (the one with least usable units) can ravage protoss (which has the most so should be the hardest to prepare for by Artosis' logic) in HDH.
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While I agree, I also have to say it isn't like T is hard to figure out... make Maruaders... give them medivacs and enough AA and yeah, walk over the opposing force with stim. This works unless Z makes Broodlords, then you go on forums and whine.
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I agree with your conclusion but I don't think it's necessarily because Zerg has less units to work with. Most Terran players are only aware of one unit: the Marauder, but that doesn't make Terran a dominant race because they limit themselves to a single unit.
Zerg initially performed better for two reasons. One is that base management is much easier as Zerg. All the races have to add tech buildings, but only Protoss and Terran have to look at their base in order to add supply depots and pylons as well as look at their base in order to add production facilities. Zerg doesn't have to look at its base to create Overlords and as long as the Zerg remembers to Larva inject, it shouldn't need to create additional hatcheries aside from expansions.
The second major factor is that the rate of growth of an uncontrolled Zerg economy is ridiculous. With larva injection you can essentially saturate an entire expansion in a single round of production. Neither Protoss or Terran can compare to that. They can only stifle the economy's growth.
The third, somewhat lesser factor in Zerg's initial stellar performance is that Zerg units are all simple. Aside from the Infestor, there's no real micro management necessary. You just 1a and possibly try to work up some flanks, but otherwise there's really no micro in the Zerg game. There are no unit abilities like Stim, Siege, Viking Transform, Force Field, Guardian Shield, Blink, etc that Zerg players need to manage. Plus, Zerg units all move insanely fast on creep which complements factor #2 (Zerg's insane econ growth) in that Zerg really only needed to concern itself with defensive play while the insane Zerg macro kicked in and raped everything.
What's changed is that more and more timing attacks and more and more deception have become standard for Terran and Protoss when facing Zerg. Now Zerg is much less able to expand wildly and take advantage of the unchecked Zerg economy's growth speed. I think all of this essentially agrees with your conclusion that Zerg has been over-nerfed. Between the development of better play for the other races (which certainly did take longer) and Blizzard's ridiculous balancing, Zerg is fucked.
But can you really blame Blizzard? The guys trying to balance this game and making the big decisions probably don't understand SC2 any more than say your average D+ BW player understood BW.
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Take a good, honest, unbiased look at the Korean SC2 scene as I have just described it.
Sorry but i personally find it hard to believe that your look at it is unbiased. I mean, you even say at the bottom you have likely missed out on some of the top players and the fact you are infact a zerg player yourself also makes this questionable.
Also, i personally think this roach change is also to pave the way for ultras to become a big part of zerg late game just like they were in broodwar zvt and zvp... I would be very surprised if things are left the way they are currently.
ps: you can no longer call any other race, the easy race. hah. :p
edit: also people are overreacting so bad to this roach change. It changes the late game maxxed out armies dynamic (which again, i think will be counter-acted by ultralisk changes in future patches) and changes the early game timings slightly, but its not any worse than the roach increasing from 75minerals 25gas to 87 minerals 25gas in cost for mid-game, which is where most standard games are won and lost anyway.
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EPT
