• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 14:08
CET 20:08
KST 04:08
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
TL.net Map Contest #21: Winners0Intel X Team Liquid Seoul event: Showmatches and Meet the Pros10[ASL20] Finals Preview: Arrival13TL.net Map Contest #21: Voting12[ASL20] Ro4 Preview: Descent11
Community News
Starcraft, SC2, HoTS, WC3, returning to Blizzcon!20$5,000+ WardiTV 2025 Championship5[BSL21] RO32 Group Stage3Weekly Cups (Oct 26-Nov 2): Liquid, Clem, Solar win; LAN in Philly2Weekly Cups (Oct 20-26): MaxPax, Clem, Creator win9
StarCraft 2
General
TL.net Map Contest #21: Winners Starcraft, SC2, HoTS, WC3, returning to Blizzcon! RotterdaM "Serral is the GOAT, and it's not close" Weekly Cups (Oct 20-26): MaxPax, Clem, Creator win 5.0.15 Patch Balance Hotfix (2025-10-8)
Tourneys
$5,000+ WardiTV 2025 Championship Constellation Cup - Main Event - Stellar Fest Merivale 8 Open - LAN - Stellar Fest Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) $3,500 WardiTV Korean Royale S4
Strategy
Custom Maps
Map Editor closed ?
External Content
Mutation # 498 Wheel of Misfortune|Cradle of Death Mutation # 497 Battle Haredened Mutation # 496 Endless Infection Mutation # 495 Rest In Peace
Brood War
General
BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ SnOw's ASL S20 Finals Review [BSL21] RO32 Group Stage Practice Partners (Official) [ASL20] Ask the mapmakers — Drop your questions
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [BSL21] RO32 Group B - Sunday 21:00 CET [BSL21] RO32 Group A - Saturday 21:00 CET BSL21 Open Qualifiers Week & CONFIRM PARTICIPATION
Strategy
Current Meta How to stay on top of macro? PvZ map balance Soma's 9 hatch build from ASL Game 2
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Dawn of War IV ZeroSpace Megathread General RTS Discussion Thread
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread SPIRED by.ASL Mafia {211640}
Community
General
Russo-Ukrainian War Thread US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine YouTube Thread Dating: How's your luck?
Fan Clubs
White-Ra Fan Club The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread Korean Music Discussion Series you have seen recently...
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread NBA General Discussion MLB/Baseball 2023 TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Formula 1 Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
SC2 Client Relocalization [Change SC2 Language] Linksys AE2500 USB WIFI keeps disconnecting Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
Saturation point
Uldridge
DnB/metal remix FFO Mick Go…
ImbaTosS
Why we need SC3
Hildegard
Career Paths and Skills for …
TrAiDoS
Reality "theory" prov…
perfectspheres
Our Last Hope in th…
KrillinFromwales
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1951 users

Race balance last 6 months. - Page 8

Forum Index > SC2 General
Post a Reply
Prev 1 6 7 8 9 10 21 Next All
Offhand
Profile Joined June 2010
United States1869 Posts
May 02 2011 17:14 GMT
#141
Well it's interesting to see how overstated the few months of "Protoss dominance" was (jan-march 2011). Which makes it seem more like a metagame change then anything. Anecdotal evidence does back this up as this is when the PvZ/PvT "standard" builds started to become more defined. Historically protoss have only managed to briefly climb above terran for most dominant race.

Korean numbers show that the game is ridiculously volatile there. One bad GSL for protoss has them at the historic balance low for the past 6 months, which is kind of absurd given everything leading up to that. Obviously the lack of events is to blame for the small data size.

No race really has any ground to complain about balance at the moment. Yes, even zergs.
Erasme
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Bahamas15899 Posts
May 02 2011 17:20 GMT
#142
On May 03 2011 02:03 Alejandrisha wrote:
Zergs could have 80% winrates in every matchup (including zvz) and they'd still find something to whine about. It's just the way the game works. Have you ever beaten a zerg who actually thought they deserved to lose? It is just the way Zerg play has developed; apparently being beaten into the ground by 5rax reaper for so long didn't sit well with them and they've grouped any loss they've suffered with a similar abuse. It is sad, really. A lot of zergs I know are losing because of their mindset rather than their play; they are beating themselves.


That's kinda stupid. You can see that a reaper nerf was needed. That TvZ was (or is) imbalanced in favor of terran. And you still say 'whiny whiny zergs'. That's beyond my mind. Stop bashing on zerg.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7lxwFEB6FI “‘Drain the swamp’? Stupid saying, means nothing, but you guys loved it so I kept saying it.”
Silkath
Profile Joined April 2011
United Kingdom102 Posts
May 02 2011 17:20 GMT
#143
Any chance of error bars on each data point? Just Poisson noice based on the number of games contributing to that point would be fine. Would be very useful to compare how reliable a given data point is. Alternatively, any indication of how many games contribute to each datapoint would be useful. If TvZ is up at 70% one month with only 10 games played then back down at 50% the next month with 100 games played the number of games is really important in interpreting the data.

PS That's sqrt(no. of games)/(no. of games) if you're not familiar with Poisson statistics.
We sit together, the mountain and I, until only the mountain remains
Alejandrisha
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States6565 Posts
May 02 2011 17:23 GMT
#144
On May 03 2011 02:20 Erasme wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 03 2011 02:03 Alejandrisha wrote:
Zergs could have 80% winrates in every matchup (including zvz) and they'd still find something to whine about. It's just the way the game works. Have you ever beaten a zerg who actually thought they deserved to lose? It is just the way Zerg play has developed; apparently being beaten into the ground by 5rax reaper for so long didn't sit well with them and they've grouped any loss they've suffered with a similar abuse. It is sad, really. A lot of zergs I know are losing because of their mindset rather than their play; they are beating themselves.


That's kinda stupid. You can see that a reaper nerf was needed. That TvZ was (or is) imbalanced in favor of terran. And you still say 'whiny whiny zergs'. That's beyond my mind. Stop bashing on zerg.


I said the reapers were abuse. They were imbalanced. I'm not saying they were not. "whiny whiny zergs" was not found in my posted. How is that beyond your mind. Even Nestea, the zerg hero says "Zerg TT." It looks like you look past every other sentence in my post and just harp on 2 words here, three words there.
get rich or die mining
TL+ Member
Ctuchik
Profile Joined October 2010
Sweden91 Posts
May 02 2011 17:26 GMT
#145
On May 03 2011 01:39 Befree wrote:
So are the data points you used to for the graph every month? So like 6 values for each race? And when you say you only tournaments/leagues, are you excluding all the KOTHs and qualifiers that are listed in the TLPD

The Korean statistics I'm most critical of. If we take for example the April statistic, I assume you're using the GSL Code A/S and the SK Gaming Asia Master tournament as the sole source of data. Now when you also consider the GSL code A and S are not even finished and that a large portion of games are mirror match ups, I just can't see how we can find value in a sample like this.

I think the huge variations we see are much more indicative of the volatility that comes from the tiny sample, rather than patches or "metagame" changes.

Do you think you could give your numbers more specifically and calculate the error? I don't think you just noting a small sample size is enough (As shown by how seriously people are taking the korean data in this thread). I think otherwise this thread is abusing statistics and giving people bad information.


Yeah, there is one data point per race per month. I can very easily make it per week (or day) if you are interested in seeing that.

The data set IS the TLPD. I am loading everything in it. The only restrictions on the data set is the time period (6 months) and the exclusion of mirrors.

I would probably agree that the data set is to small to make any real analyses on the Korean side, but it is pretty interesting anyway. I would not make make the conclusion that P is weak based on only one data point.
http://twitter.com/sc2statistics
Chill
Profile Blog Joined January 2005
Calgary25987 Posts
May 02 2011 17:28 GMT
#146
On May 02 2011 23:59 DNB wrote:
This is super interesting, I especially like the graphs where the winrates switch places oppositely and then start to even out. It really tells you about the math behind the metagame...

There is no math behind the metagame. That's like saying "the math behind anticipation".
Moderator
Alejandrisha
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States6565 Posts
May 02 2011 17:31 GMT
#147
On May 03 2011 02:28 Chill wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 02 2011 23:59 DNB wrote:
This is super interesting, I especially like the graphs where the winrates switch places oppositely and then start to even out. It really tells you about the math behind the metagame...

There is no math behind the metagame. That's like saying "the math behind anticipation".


Whenever some one says meta game I just wait for it xD
get rich or die mining
TL+ Member
Kaonis
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
United States243 Posts
May 02 2011 17:38 GMT
#148
So.. The metagame seems to be unstable.

Ah, Chill isn't even reading this thread anymore, unless he has some special search function for the word "metagame"

If metagame isn't an acceptable term, then "the widely accepted as standard set of strategies as well as possible cheeses all seem to be fairly volatile at this point in the game".

Also, protoss not dominating? Am I reading this wrong?
Nevermind.
Ctuchik
Profile Joined October 2010
Sweden91 Posts
May 02 2011 17:38 GMT
#149
On May 03 2011 02:20 Silkath wrote:
Any chance of error bars on each data point? Just Poisson noice based on the number of games contributing to that point would be fine. Would be very useful to compare how reliable a given data point is. Alternatively, any indication of how many games contribute to each datapoint would be useful. If TvZ is up at 70% one month with only 10 games played then back down at 50% the next month with 100 games played the number of games is really important in interpreting the data.

PS That's sqrt(no. of games)/(no. of games) if you're not familiar with Poisson statistics.



I would love to do this, going to see if I can get this added!
http://twitter.com/sc2statistics
Thojorin
Profile Joined May 2008
Germany162 Posts
May 02 2011 17:40 GMT
#150
On May 03 2011 01:43 Mafe wrote:
Hm. Unless there is additional information about the data (number of matches per month, especially april), I am convinced this does not proove anything (if scientific criteria would apply). In terms of balance I mean.

Exactly. It's a nice plot, giving food for thought, showing exactly what the original poster said it shows. Inferring and/or interpreting any interesting general statements from this plot, like "as of now, races are balanced", requires a lot of work (and is impossible with these plots alone).
It is wise to keep in mind that neither success nor failure is ever final. --- Roger Babson
caradoc
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
Canada3022 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-05-02 17:44:52
May 02 2011 17:42 GMT
#151
On May 03 2011 02:28 Chill wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 02 2011 23:59 DNB wrote:
This is super interesting, I especially like the graphs where the winrates switch places oppositely and then start to even out. It really tells you about the math behind the metagame...

There is no math behind the metagame. That's like saying "the math behind anticipation".



I disagree with this, I think there is math behind metagame-- To simplify-- you have a strategy that is perceived to be powerful, people flock to it. As more people flock to it, strategies which are strong vs. said strategy gain in popularity, people flock to said counter. As more people flock to said counter, initial strategy becomes less popular. The curves representing the number of people using both of those strategies approach bell curves.

This is idealized and simplified, and the reality is much more complex of course, but its disingenuous to say there is no math.

But I understand your hostility towards the term, it gets bandied around and used in a million different ways.
Salvation a la mode and a cup of tea...
Chill
Profile Blog Joined January 2005
Calgary25987 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-05-02 17:51:24
May 02 2011 17:49 GMT
#152
On May 03 2011 02:38 Kaonis wrote:
So.. The metagame seems to be unstable.

Ah, Chill isn't even reading this thread anymore, unless he has some special search function for the word "metagame"

If metagame isn't an acceptable term, then "the widely accepted as standard set of strategies as well as possible cheeses all seem to be fairly volatile at this point in the game".

Also, protoss not dominating? Am I reading this wrong?

It's not special, I just used the search function.

How about "Protoss strategies are dominant"? There's no need to try to overcomplicate it. Using the wrong word is more convenient but it's still wrong. Compare the following:

1. The shuttle failed when the fuel inside initial booster rocket #6 exploded.
2. The shuttle failed when the table exploded.

#2 is simpler but wrong.
Moderator
Chill
Profile Blog Joined January 2005
Calgary25987 Posts
May 02 2011 17:50 GMT
#153
On May 03 2011 02:42 caradoc wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 03 2011 02:28 Chill wrote:
On May 02 2011 23:59 DNB wrote:
This is super interesting, I especially like the graphs where the winrates switch places oppositely and then start to even out. It really tells you about the math behind the metagame...

There is no math behind the metagame. That's like saying "the math behind anticipation".



I disagree with this, I think there is math behind metagame-- To simplify-- you have a strategy that is perceived to be powerful, people flock to it. As more people flock to it, strategies which are strong vs. said strategy gain in popularity, people flock to said counter. As more people flock to said counter, initial strategy becomes less popular. The curves representing the number of people using both of those strategies approach bell curves.

This is idealized and simplified, and the reality is much more complex of course, but its disingenuous to say there is no math.

But I understand your hostility towards the term, it gets bandied around and used in a million different ways.

Very true. My comment was a defensive exaggeration.
Moderator
Thrombozyt
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
Germany1269 Posts
May 02 2011 17:50 GMT
#154
On May 03 2011 01:45 Saechiis wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 03 2011 01:15 Dommk wrote:
On May 03 2011 01:05 LastMan wrote:
On May 03 2011 01:00 Dommk wrote:
On May 03 2011 00:56 SKC wrote:
On May 03 2011 00:33 hi im new wrote:
On May 03 2011 00:28 Micket wrote:
In Korea:

Protoss has MC and maybee San and Alicia.
Zerg has Nestea, Losira and July.
Terran has MVP, MKP, MMA, Ryung, Bomber, NaDa, Keen!, Supernova, SC, Top, Boxer (kinda), Jinro, Cliiiiiiiiide and Hyperdub (no denying this).



so you're saying out of all the people that train starcraft 2 really hard in korea (and it's a lot, trust me on this) only 1-2 protoss, 3 zergs and also a fuckton of terran players dominate the scene?

unless you somehow believe that picking terran magically gives a huge boost in skill (which it doesn't)
then you're saying terran is imbalanced.
i agree.


That post must be a joke, maybe San and Alicia but definatelly a shitload of Terrans like Hyperdub, Boxer, Clide, etc that either have one good run or haven't even showed anything besides a few Code A games or Team League games. A lot of the "Terran promises" may actually fail when time passes, like promisses always do. If you go that route, why not put Squirtle, Choya, Inca, Ace, etc? They had at least one good run, seemed promissing at the time, even if they are not the top Protosses.

This is just so biased it can't be taken seriously, and doesn't even consider the fact that, if you believe in the imbalance, which I don't, maybe players like Tester would have more sucess as Terran and some of those Terrans wouldn't have the same sucess as Protoss.

The korean sample is too small to start crying about anything, but the international sample definatelly says that all this Protoss OP QQ is weird, or at least premature, specially from Terrans, where the matchup has always been pretty damn close. PvZ hasn't really been stable so it's hard to say anything about it.


Don't think it is imbalance, just easier to play Terran at higher levels than the other two races.

NesTea even said it himself, I'm paraphrasing here, but in his interview with Artosis it went something along the lines of "Terran you can play a little bit and become a great player", "Protoss, if you work really hard and become really good at it, you will become unbeatable", "Zerg sad"


getting really annoyed by this quote, mvp said terran is the weakest race so why dont u quote him, biased much?


This isn't balance though....Don't think anyone thinks Terran is imbalanced, but there have been so many "great" Terran players when there has been so little for the other races, why is that?

What NesTea said was right, other than MC how many very "solid" Protoss players do you have? Possibly Ace, maybe Alicia---keep in mind this is the most played race in Starcraft2 right now.

What about Zerg? NesTa and Losira come to mind, but for Terran there are a plethora. The race isn't stronger than any of the other races, but it is a lot easier to be consistent and "solid" with than the other two, though keeping that in mind it doesn't take anything away from the tip top players like Bomber and MVP.

Maybe in a few years it will cease to matter when people have gotten a lot better.


You would quote anything that says Protoss is hard to play, it's getting tiring to read your replies to every thread that has "balance" in it. We get it: Terran OP, Protoss UP, sympathy for Zerg to get them to agree and ending on the note that you're not implying imbalance.


Thank god I'm not the only one that noticed..
xbankx
Profile Joined July 2010
703 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-05-02 17:56:02
May 02 2011 17:51 GMT
#155
Personally, people should just stop complaining about imbalance and just play to improve. Let the designer of the game do the game tweeking.

Also, people got to stop thinking higher apm=playing better. I just hate it whenever I hear someone say "I played better but I still lost". No, you lost because you played worse than your opponent saying the prior is merely trying to justify your loss through balance/imbalance discussion.

Some player in a few post said a lot of zerg whiners. It is mainly because pro zerg like Idra, and artosis (before he switched) tend to whine a lot more and the other zerg just follow. Protoss players have pros like Tyler and Incontrol. When protoss were dying left and right to terran/zerg in GSL1,2, and 3 they never said imba. They just said the protoss were playing bad.

Lets all remember the show Imbalance with Idra/artosis that said supposedly the "2base void ray colossus zealot build" was supposed to be unstoppable. How many PvZ pro games have people seen where toss went that.
Jayrod
Profile Joined August 2010
1820 Posts
May 02 2011 17:56 GMT
#156
On May 03 2011 01:45 Saechiis wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 03 2011 01:15 Dommk wrote:
On May 03 2011 01:05 LastMan wrote:
On May 03 2011 01:00 Dommk wrote:
On May 03 2011 00:56 SKC wrote:
On May 03 2011 00:33 hi im new wrote:
On May 03 2011 00:28 Micket wrote:
In Korea:

Protoss has MC and maybee San and Alicia.
Zerg has Nestea, Losira and July.
Terran has MVP, MKP, MMA, Ryung, Bomber, NaDa, Keen!, Supernova, SC, Top, Boxer (kinda), Jinro, Cliiiiiiiiide and Hyperdub (no denying this).



so you're saying out of all the people that train starcraft 2 really hard in korea (and it's a lot, trust me on this) only 1-2 protoss, 3 zergs and also a fuckton of terran players dominate the scene?

unless you somehow believe that picking terran magically gives a huge boost in skill (which it doesn't)
then you're saying terran is imbalanced.
i agree.


That post must be a joke, maybe San and Alicia but definatelly a shitload of Terrans like Hyperdub, Boxer, Clide, etc that either have one good run or haven't even showed anything besides a few Code A games or Team League games. A lot of the "Terran promises" may actually fail when time passes, like promisses always do. If you go that route, why not put Squirtle, Choya, Inca, Ace, etc? They had at least one good run, seemed promissing at the time, even if they are not the top Protosses.

This is just so biased it can't be taken seriously, and doesn't even consider the fact that, if you believe in the imbalance, which I don't, maybe players like Tester would have more sucess as Terran and some of those Terrans wouldn't have the same sucess as Protoss.

The korean sample is too small to start crying about anything, but the international sample definatelly says that all this Protoss OP QQ is weird, or at least premature, specially from Terrans, where the matchup has always been pretty damn close. PvZ hasn't really been stable so it's hard to say anything about it.


Don't think it is imbalance, just easier to play Terran at higher levels than the other two races.

NesTea even said it himself, I'm paraphrasing here, but in his interview with Artosis it went something along the lines of "Terran you can play a little bit and become a great player", "Protoss, if you work really hard and become really good at it, you will become unbeatable", "Zerg sad"


getting really annoyed by this quote, mvp said terran is the weakest race so why dont u quote him, biased much?


This isn't balance though....Don't think anyone thinks Terran is imbalanced, but there have been so many "great" Terran players when there has been so little for the other races, why is that?

What NesTea said was right, other than MC how many very "solid" Protoss players do you have? Possibly Ace, maybe Alicia---keep in mind this is the most played race in Starcraft2 right now.

What about Zerg? NesTa and Losira come to mind, but for Terran there are a plethora. The race isn't stronger than any of the other races, but it is a lot easier to be consistent and "solid" with than the other two, though keeping that in mind it doesn't take anything away from the tip top players like Bomber and MVP.

Maybe in a few years it will cease to matter when people have gotten a lot better.


You would quote anything that says Protoss is hard to play, it's getting tiring to read your replies to every thread that has "balance" in it. We get it: Terran OP, Protoss UP, sympathy for Zerg to get them to agree and ending on the note that you're not implying imbalance.

Protoss IS hard to play though and that is going to become very clear with the next patch when all the nubs 4-gating start fucking up the TL strategy forums trying to figure out why they can't win anymore.
entropius
Profile Joined June 2010
United States1046 Posts
May 02 2011 17:59 GMT
#157
On May 03 2011 02:20 Silkath wrote:
Any chance of error bars on each data point? Just Poisson noice based on the number of games contributing to that point would be fine. Would be very useful to compare how reliable a given data point is. Alternatively, any indication of how many games contribute to each datapoint would be useful. If TvZ is up at 70% one month with only 10 games played then back down at 50% the next month with 100 games played the number of games is really important in interpreting the data.

PS That's sqrt(no. of games)/(no. of games) if you're not familiar with Poisson statistics.


I was just about to post the exact same thing.

I tell my students the first week of lab: "No data is useful without an error bar."
Jermstuddog
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
United States2231 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-05-02 18:12:41
May 02 2011 18:11 GMT
#158
On May 03 2011 02:51 xbankx wrote:
Personally, people should just stop complaining about imbalance and just play to improve. Let the designer of the game do the game tweeking.

Also, people got to stop thinking higher apm=playing better. I just hate it whenever I hear someone say "I played better but I still lost". No, you lost because you played worse than your opponent saying the prior is merely trying to justify your loss through balance/imbalance discussion.

Some player in a few post said a lot of zerg whiners. It is mainly because pro zerg like Idra, and artosis (before he switched) tend to whine a lot more and the other zerg just follow. Protoss players have pros like Tyler and Incontrol. When protoss were dying left and right to terran/zerg in GSL1,2, and 3 they never said imba. They just said the protoss were playing bad.

Lets all remember the show Imbalance with Idra/artosis that said supposedly the "2base void ray colossus zealot build" was supposed to be unstoppable. How many PvZ pro games have people seen where toss went that.


So many issues with the logic in this post...

I'll start with your comparison of pro Zergs vs pro Protoss.

Zerg has been buffed repeatedly since release and is only now coming to equal win ratios vs other races.

Protoss has been nerfed and now they're doing better than ever.

When Tyler and Incontrol said Protoss were just playing bad, that's true. When IdrA, Artosis, and every korean pro said Zerg was less capable, that was also true.


Then you move on to talk about 2 base Void Ray/Colossus implying that it isn't imbalanced when the infestor was specifically buffed by Blizzard to deal with this unit composition and even AFTER that, Zergs are STILL having trouble with it. When they made that episode so many months back, it definitely WAS imbalanced and had to be addressed by the creators of the game...

*sigh* why bother...
As it turns out, marines don't actually cost any money -Jinro
joyeaux
Profile Joined May 2005
United States169 Posts
May 02 2011 18:16 GMT
#159
On May 03 2011 01:49 Cloak wrote:
Sample size is smaller for Korea but deviation from average is ridiculously huge. If you do a chi squared, I'm sure it would reject the null at 95% confidence, probably even 99% confidence. 700 games is pretty damn sizeable. PvT and PvZ are looking like absolute garbage right now.


That would be relevant if we were
1. looking at a random sample of a population and
2. drawing conclusions about the whole population.

These statistics measure a non-random section of the population (results of specific tourneys and league) and from those statistics you aren't trying to draw conclusions about the whole population, but about the ephemeral subject of "game balance."

TL;DR statistics do not work that way.
whatthefat
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States918 Posts
May 02 2011 18:19 GMT
#160
Very nice work, although as others have said it can be dangerous to try to read too much into these types of analyses. Any analysis of win rates between a pool of players who essentially never change races cannot tell us how the races are objectively balanced. This is essentially because it doesn't tell us how things would shake out if say all zergs switched to terran, all terrans to protoss, and all protosses to zerg. The players who are making it into top level tournaments are selected for based on their ability to compete with other top level players. We might thus expect close to 50% win rates (as we do on the ladder) unless tournament organizers are using some form of affirmative action to balance out the number of players of each race.

Perhaps the raw number of players of each race who qualify for tournaments, or make it to a particular round would be a more reliable statistic for assessing balance. But ultimately the term balance isn't very well defined. Would we consider the game balanced if the 3 races were objectively equal when played close to perfection, but one race won 80% of the time between equally skilled players at all lower levels? Or what if each player has a particular race that stylistically suits them best, but one race is only the best fit for 5% of the playing population. Since more than 5% of the population plays that race, they may appear to perform worse than they should. Would that be defined as imbalance?
SlayerS_BoxeR: "I always feel sorry towards Greg (Grack?) T_T"
Prev 1 6 7 8 9 10 21 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
LAN Event
18:00
Day 3: Ursa 2v2, FFA
SteadfastSC263
IndyStarCraft 135
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
mouzHeroMarine 472
SteadfastSC 263
IndyStarCraft 135
UpATreeSC 130
ProTech52
MindelVK 43
Codebar 32
StarCraft: Brood War
Shuttle 434
firebathero 194
BRAT_OK 50
scan(afreeca) 20
ivOry 5
Shine 4
Dota 2
qojqva3008
Dendi1100
Counter-Strike
fl0m988
pashabiceps637
Other Games
FrodaN884
Beastyqt601
ceh9590
Mlord550
KnowMe155
ArmadaUGS153
Mew2King64
C9.Mang058
QueenE57
Trikslyr52
OptimusSC23
Organizations
Counter-Strike
PGL118
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 17 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Reevou 10
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• sooper7s
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• Migwel
• intothetv
• LaughNgamezSOOP
StarCraft: Brood War
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• C_a_k_e 2182
• Ler80
League of Legends
• TFBlade966
Other Games
• imaqtpie944
• WagamamaTV351
• Shiphtur250
Upcoming Events
OSC
2h 52m
Replay Cast
3h 52m
OSC
16h 52m
LAN Event
19h 52m
Korean StarCraft League
1d 7h
CranKy Ducklings
1d 14h
LAN Event
1d 19h
IPSL
1d 22h
dxtr13 vs OldBoy
Napoleon vs Doodle
BSL 21
2 days
Gosudark vs Kyrie
Gypsy vs Sterling
UltrA vs Radley
Dandy vs Ptak
Replay Cast
2 days
[ Show More ]
Sparkling Tuna Cup
2 days
WardiTV Korean Royale
2 days
LAN Event
2 days
IPSL
2 days
JDConan vs WIZARD
WolFix vs Cross
BSL 21
3 days
spx vs rasowy
HBO vs KameZerg
Cross vs Razz
dxtr13 vs ZZZero
Replay Cast
3 days
Wardi Open
3 days
WardiTV Korean Royale
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Kung Fu Cup
5 days
Classic vs Solar
herO vs Cure
Reynor vs GuMiho
ByuN vs ShoWTimE
Tenacious Turtle Tussle
6 days
The PondCast
6 days
RSL Revival
6 days
Solar vs Zoun
MaxPax vs Bunny
Kung Fu Cup
6 days
WardiTV Korean Royale
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

BSL 21 Points
SC4ALL: StarCraft II
Eternal Conflict S1

Ongoing

C-Race Season 1
IPSL Winter 2025-26
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 4
SOOP Univ League 2025
YSL S2
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
Thunderpick World Champ.
CS Asia Championships 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025

Upcoming

BSL Season 21
SLON Tour Season 2
BSL 21 Non-Korean Championship
Acropolis #4
HSC XXVIII
RSL Offline Finals
WardiTV 2025
RSL Revival: Season 3
Stellar Fest
META Madness #9
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026: Closed Qualifier
eXTREMESLAND 2025
ESL Impact League Season 8
SL Budapest Major 2025
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.