Blizzard Blog: Balance Snapshot - Page 13

On September 23 2011 04:15 willz22912 wrote:

GSL August 9 Protoss - 15 Terran - 8 Zerg
GSL January 9 Protoss - 14 Terran - 9 Zerg
GSL Super Tournament 16 Protoss - 29 Terran - 19 Zerg out of 64 players

there have always been slightly higher T numbers than the other two races, but by not that significant until GSL October.

On September 23 2011 04:23 Arcanefrost wrote:
These stats mean nothing, if you really want a good view on balance you need to look at the macrogames only, because for example things like 111 really don't affect pvt in general and give a false result.

57% pvz seems weird, I thought I wasn't the only one who lost nearly everything since the fungal changes.

On September 23 2011 03:35 willz22912 wrote:
I'd just like to chime in for everyone who is trying to use GSL as a sort of balance discussion topic. While GSL is generally accepted as the highest level SC2 tournament in the world, with the best players, it can't be used exclusively on it's own without support as some unquestionable fact.

The fact is that people seem to forget that the GSL is in itself not perfect as a tournament or as a structure. Do we not all forget the open seasons and the difference it is in terms of skill level today, it took a long time for certain "average" players who everyone didn't think belonged in code S to fall down with the up/down format.

Remember how the ro32 is set up for both Code A and S. Before in Code S, the bottom two in groups were always sent into the up and downs with 1 person from code A coming up, with the top 2 of those 3 players making it back into Code S. Now the turnover is better for code A -> S but still the same for Code S. There is still only 8 people out of a 32 man tournament that could potentially lose Code S every season. Then there's code A Ro32 which is just a bo3 and if you lose you are knocked into code B which everyone knows is insanely difficulty to get back into code A.

My final point regarding the GSL is the group structure in ro32 code S. While people cannot handle multiple bo3s because of time constraints, this leaves us with the much worse outcome in terms of player potential, 2 bo1s and a 3rd potentially for a tiebreaker. Will you not agree that a single bo1 is not enough of a factor to determine who is the better player? Nerves aside in a tournament setting, this also increases the chances of cheese being seen in people's strategies since it's only a bo1 and if you cheese well, you generally have a high chance of just straight up winning which is why cheese is so popular. And I think most people would generally agree that a cheese game is 1) not fun for viewers, 2) not indicative of a players true skill. Remember IMmvp in GSL March? He got baneling busted twice in a row by July in an "upset" and fell to up and downs, and then lost in up and downs to two protosses and fell into code A. Now look at him, 3 time GSL champion with another high chance of winning a 4th title. Do people not slump and do weird results happen in the group stages. Yes and yes. Don't keep using GSL as a stand alone #s game since even out of 20 Terrans, at most 8 can go into up and downs every season, so getting the GSL to be racially balanced will take a long time regardless of game balance because of the tournament format.

On September 23 2011 04:24 Jermstuddog wrote:


Did you just gloss over those three examples? As a matter of fact... the only time Terran ISN'T the most numerous race in GSL it has been slightly beaten by Zerg. You could claim that this indicates Zerg being OP except they always follow that up with being the least represented race the next month.

Anyway, the fact that Terran is by far the most numerous race in the GSL this season isn't the issue.

It's the fact that they are ALWAYS the most numerous race (with few, brief exceptions) and the margin that they lead by is growing.

THAT is the issue...

On September 23 2011 04:34 sitromit wrote:


This makes absolutely no sense and here's why. If everything were as random as you say, ie Bo1s not a good indicator who is better, by skill or by power of having picked the right race, all races would fare equally well. It's random after all, a matter of chance. How is it that Terran always seems to get lucky? Why has Terran representation in the GSL consistently gone higher and higher every season?

On September 23 2011 04:08 Huragius wrote:


A Terran with a bicycle would beat a protoss with a motorbike in a race. Just say'in.

And honestly, I'm not going to argue with constant LR thread whiners.Overall at current state of TL talking about balance is waste of time sadly I couldn't resist it this time. And if you think that Sage/MC/Hero is as good as MVP/Bomber/Polt or Nestea/DRG/Losira, then it is your problem that you are living in an illusionary world.

On September 23 2011 04:36 Namu wrote:


No, what he is saying is that even if the game becomes balanced now after 1.4 or subsequent patches, it will take more than one season, probably like 3 for the terran number to go down to the appropriate ammount. He's saying that the number of races in GSL will lag behind the actual current balance.