• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 02:49
CET 07:49
KST 15:49
  • 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
[ASL22] Finals Preview: Sweet Victory!9[ASL22] Ro4 Preview: Mirror Mirror6[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: Within Reach5[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy11[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5
Community News
Evil Geniuses - shutting down14ISSL (IntoTheTV x SOOP SC2 League): Premier5Weekly Cups (October 12-18): 5.0.17 era begins1[$1250] International ShieldBattery League64Weekly Cups (October 5-11): Farewell to 5.0.167
StarCraft 2
General
No more SC2 streamers on team liquid? REPORT: StarCraft 2: Remastered In Development Evil Geniuses - shutting down How do you feel about the mass reverts in the 5.0.17 PTR? Daily SC2 Player Grid - feedback wanted
Tourneys
ScienceCraft (October 24-25) - Live Event RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-22 ISSL (IntoTheTV x SOOP SC2 League): Premier Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament WORTEX Challenger Series — Open SC2 LAN in Budapes
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
[G] How to playtest arcade maps [A] Nemrods 1/4 players [M] (2) Sweltering Sands
External Content
Mutation # 548 Shining Bright The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 547 Temple Of Terror Mutation # 546 Catch the Train
Brood War
General
Rollback Netcode in Brood War [Recap] 0-6 Defeat for Mong's Team Bot on ladder Young Players Tournament Announced by SOOP Starcraft player cRuZa Passed away.
Tourneys
[$1250] International ShieldBattery League [BSL23] RO24 Group C Small VOD Thread 2.0 2v2v2v2 Tournament
Strategy
Cliff Jump Revisited (1 in a 1000 strategy) 50,000-Word Terran Builds Memo 2026-10-22 Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Armies of Exigo - YesYes? General RTS Discussion Thread Dawn of War IV
Dota 2
Dota 2 Champions League Season 3 Begins April 25!
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Artificial Intelligence Thread
Fan Clubs
Serral Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
Innovate or Game Over?
TrAiDoS
ShieldBattery on Mac
Kraekkling
[ASL22] Ro4 Day1 Ticket Giv…
bITt.mAN
Can Bots Beat Pros?? Starcr…
namkraft
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 8615 users

Are you worried about the skill ceiling in SC2? - Page 6

Forum Index > SC2 General
Post a Reply
Prev 1 4 5 6 7 8 16 Next All
sh4w
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States713 Posts
October 29 2011 14:33 GMT
#101
Those micro videos are a terrible example. You CANT do that. You would have to be psychic and know which zergling the tank was going to fire at and split it. The point is lesser skilled players beat more skilled opponents in SC2. How often do 'progamers' who practice 12 hours a day lost to people on the ladder? All the time. How often would average joe beat a BW progamer? Probably never. If your playing the game for 12 hours a day there needs to be a significant difference between you and someone playing it for fun. I don't see how that fact doesn't bother people who watch SC2.
I want to go back to being weird. I like being weird. Weird is all I've got. That and my sweet style.
Naeroon
Profile Joined April 2011
Canada166 Posts
October 29 2011 14:37 GMT
#102
I have no idea why you would ever compare micro of reaver/shuttle drops to colossus. They aren't even remotely related, of course comparing those two aspects is going to make sc2 look like shit.
Zzoram
Profile Joined February 2008
Canada7115 Posts
October 29 2011 14:38 GMT
#103
We still see tons of micro mistakes so I think there is still plenty of ceiling to go.

It'll be a good day when we don't see infestors and high templar without energy rush forward to their doom unnecessarily.
KDot2
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United States1213 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-10-29 14:39:40
October 29 2011 14:39 GMT
#104
I think this needs a poll or its hard what people really think.
cuppatea
Profile Joined April 2010
United Kingdom1401 Posts
October 29 2011 14:40 GMT
#105
On October 29 2011 23:08 KingAce wrote:
Sc2 doesn't offer as much as BW does in differentiating skill between players. And unfortunately even the micro side of it isn't as skill based as it was in BW.

SC2 was designed to be noob friendly, that's not an esports mentality at all.


No, it was designed to have a high skill ceiling and be appropriate for competitive play (which it is), while also being accessible for lower skilled players so that, you know, people actually buy and play the game. I'm sure the hardcore BW enthusiasts would have loved the sequel to have 8 bit graphics and an antiquated UI but the game would have bombed everywhere outside of Korea (and maybe there too).

As for there not being enough to separate top players in SC2, the win ratios between the elite in that game and BW are similar, as are the frequency of upsets. If there is enough in the game for guys like MVP and NesTea to separate themselves from the pack, why couldn't Flash, Jaedong and co. separate themselves even further?

SC2 may have a lower skill ceiling than BW but it's one that will never be reached by any human being. The game has existed as an esport for well over a year now and we still see even the best players' play littered with mistakes, which will continue to be the case if/when we see the top BW players switch over.
nojok
Profile Joined May 2011
France15846 Posts
October 29 2011 14:42 GMT
#106
A simple way to increase the skill cap is to increase the food cap, which is lower than in BW because of less mining from harvesters & more food cost from units.
Then I'd like to see more powerful AoE so pros have to split their armies as balls are not that great to see, at least to me.
"Back then teams that won were credited, now it's called throw. I think it's sad." - Kuroky - Flap Flap Wings!
cactusjack914
Profile Joined March 2011
United States183 Posts
October 29 2011 14:43 GMT
#107

Those micro videos are a terrible example. You CANT do that. You would have to be psychic and know which zergling the tank was going to fire at and split it. The point is lesser skilled players beat more skilled opponents in SC2. How often do 'progamers' who practice 12 hours a day lost to people on the ladder? All the time. How often would average joe beat a BW progamer? Probably never. If your playing the game for 12 hours a day there needs to be a significant difference between you and someone playing it for fun. I don't see how that fact doesn't bother people who watch SC2.


as much as I agree with this, the game isn't as old as BW. I feel like Sc2 is a lot like poker, the person with the most experience usually wins the hand but isn't invincible.
"starcraft isn't a hobby, its a lifestyle."
Sandermatt
Profile Joined December 2010
Switzerland1365 Posts
October 29 2011 14:43 GMT
#108
On October 29 2011 23:33 sh4w wrote:
Those micro videos are a terrible example. You CANT do that. You would have to be psychic and know which zergling the tank was going to fire at and split it. The point is lesser skilled players beat more skilled opponents in SC2. How often do 'progamers' who practice 12 hours a day lost to people on the ladder? All the time. How often would average joe beat a BW progamer? Probably never. If your playing the game for 12 hours a day there needs to be a significant difference between you and someone playing it for fun. I don't see how that fact doesn't bother people who watch SC2.


But what you say has nothing o do with a skill ceiling. The fact that you CANT do that means that the skill ceiling is unreachable, and you can always practice to get closer to that. You never run out of room for improvement.
By the way, stephano was once like 60-1 on the ladder, so really good players can differentiate themselves on the ladder.
ZerO_0
Profile Joined October 2011
United States137 Posts
October 29 2011 14:46 GMT
#109
I'm not worried at all. The game is still very new not everything has been figured out. Plus there are still two more expansions to come out. I think its to soon to worried about reaching the skill cap.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit. Aristotle
sukarestu
Profile Joined April 2011
Australia40 Posts
October 29 2011 14:47 GMT
#110
Sc2 has no skill ceiling
It's still very young, just around 2.5 years
I believe Sc2 is a long way away from reaching anywhere near the skill ceiling
There's just too much potential

But if you were to assume the perfect player, capable of dominating anyone (Nestea, MVP, MC, Naniwa, Stephano)
He will need a large pool of builds and tactics to counter every single style there is possible in Sc2 (lets face it that seems impossible)
If that were to occur.. well then we have witnessed the ceiling
Fritts
Profile Joined August 2008
Canada63 Posts
October 29 2011 14:47 GMT
#111
There is no such thing as a skill ceiling. In a 1v1 battle one must stand, and one must fall. That's all there is to it.
LetoAtreides82
Profile Joined January 2011
United States1188 Posts
October 29 2011 14:49 GMT
#112
On October 29 2011 23:33 sh4w wrote:
Those micro videos are a terrible example. You CANT do that. You would have to be psychic and know which zergling the tank was going to fire at and split it. The point is lesser skilled players beat more skilled opponents in SC2. How often do 'progamers' who practice 12 hours a day lost to people on the ladder? All the time. How often would average joe beat a BW progamer? Probably never. If your playing the game for 12 hours a day there needs to be a significant difference between you and someone playing it for fun. I don't see how that fact doesn't bother people who watch SC2.


Proof please.
The spice must flow
Makotoo
Profile Joined August 2010
Finland159 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-10-29 14:52:01
October 29 2011 14:51 GMT
#113
On October 29 2011 23:33 sh4w wrote:
Those micro videos are a terrible example. You CANT do that. You would have to be psychic and know which zergling the tank was going to fire at and split it. The point is lesser skilled players beat more skilled opponents in SC2. How often do 'progamers' who practice 12 hours a day lost to people on the ladder? All the time. How often would average joe beat a BW progamer? Probably never. If your playing the game for 12 hours a day there needs to be a significant difference between you and someone playing it for fun. I don't see how that fact doesn't bother people who watch SC2.


Surely you understand people use ladder most of the time to test things and hone builds so they lose a lot while testing if something is viable etc. I see top players mostly losing to other top players if they play seriously.

Also there is so much stuff pro players still aren't doing that they should be doing and they eventually will be doing. For example


I've never seen pro's do that even though it increases efficiency ridiculously. There are so many places for improvement and even pro's will say this is true.
TheBomb
Profile Joined October 2011
237 Posts
October 29 2011 14:53 GMT
#114
On October 29 2011 21:11 AudionovA wrote:
No, i really dont get this question. We already have super dominant players like MVP and NesTea, who still think they can play better. I really exited for the SC1 to SC2 switch but i wont worry about skill cap till i see it reached or someone comes really damn close consistently.

Yeah and Nestea and MVP were both mid B level players in Brood War. Now imagine the high B level players and their skill, then imagine A level players and then imagine S level players like Bisu, Jaedong, Flash, Stork, etc... They are going to rip apart the game I feel and all possible things to improve would be small and insignificant sort of gimmicky things that don't really make you an advantage no matter how good you do them.

So my point is about diminishing returns. I mean microing 10 stalkers against 40 roaches is never going to work no matter how good you micro the 10 stalkers with blink. So my point is if you think the game will come to that level where yes you can do more things, but they are so gimmicky and do not represent real skill.

Another diminishing return example: Mircoing zealots against marine and marauders.

But ultimately I'm looking of how many high level micro/high level reward do we have in SC2?

In SC1 we had lurkers vs marines vs tanks vs dark swarm vs irradiate vs scourge, then you had firebats coming in late vs lurkers and zerglings, etc....
in SC1 we had shuttle/reaver vs terran or zerg either mineral line or armies, we had corsairs with disruption web in support of reaver/shuttle vs say in zerg hydralisks, zerglings and scourge.

In SC2 I can only think of marines and tanks vs zerglings and balenings vs fungal. And we see more tanks to counter infestors. Other is hellions vs zerglings and mutalisks vs marines, but notice how things stop within 3 to 4 units?
Starcraft 2 needs LAN support
Excludos
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Norway8281 Posts
October 29 2011 14:56 GMT
#115
I think a lot of fair points have been brought forward. Yet I'd like you to turn your attention to HuK, who right now, is doing incredibly well due to his insanely good micro. Yes, there might, like someone posted earlier, a diminishing return higher than in BW when it comes to pure micro, simply due to units not being retarded (looking at you, dragoon).

However, day9 put it well with this: apm not spent on stupid units is apm you can spend elsewhere.
Euronyme
Profile Joined August 2010
Sweden3804 Posts
October 29 2011 14:58 GMT
#116
On October 29 2011 23:43 Sandermatt wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 29 2011 23:33 sh4w wrote:
Those micro videos are a terrible example. You CANT do that. You would have to be psychic and know which zergling the tank was going to fire at and split it. The point is lesser skilled players beat more skilled opponents in SC2. How often do 'progamers' who practice 12 hours a day lost to people on the ladder? All the time. How often would average joe beat a BW progamer? Probably never. If your playing the game for 12 hours a day there needs to be a significant difference between you and someone playing it for fun. I don't see how that fact doesn't bother people who watch SC2.


But what you say has nothing o do with a skill ceiling. The fact that you CANT do that means that the skill ceiling is unreachable, and you can always practice to get closer to that. You never run out of room for improvement.
By the way, stephano was once like 60-1 on the ladder, so really good players can differentiate themselves on the ladder.


Well the arbitrary question floating around is how reach the USEFUL skill cealing is.
Microing individual zerglings is ofcourse impossible for a human - thus an unreachable skill cealing. However this isn't really useful. Even though you have perfect ling micro against siege tanks - if you're basically that good, a player like Nestea can still beat you 50/50 as that micro isn't really enough to differentiate yourself from another great player..

I think that's the theory behind SC2 skill cealing being low.
I bet i can maı̸̸̸̸̸̸̸̸̸̸̸̸̸̸̸̸̸̸̨̨̨̨̨̨ke you wipe your screen.
Blasterion
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
China10272 Posts
October 29 2011 15:00 GMT
#117
Until you can micro like this,

The skill ceiling has yet to be reached
[TLNY]Mahjong Club Thread
Stropheum
Profile Joined January 2010
United States1124 Posts
October 29 2011 15:02 GMT
#118
While some macro mechanics may be more forgiving than others, they don't provide a cushion the way you think.

Bad zerg players miss injections. It's not the MAKING units that's hard for zerg per se, but more the retaining an availability of larva. It was the same in BW, in that you needed to make sure you had the right amount of hatches at the right time and you were also constantly producing out of them.

While terran can miss mules and just cast two at a time in the future, that may seem forgiving, but you have to consider that professional terran players base their infrastructure around their total income, so casting mules at the appropriate time is crucial to executing a build correctly

Same thing with protoss. You could argue that if you build up too much energy, you could simply chrono two things, but a lot of protoss builds have their chrono boosts planned all the way up to the 20's or 30's, knowing for sure when and where they need to cast each one as a means to execute their timing properly.

Something people also don't consider with "skill ceilings' is that yes, one could argue that eventually every pro player is expected to macro perfectly all game every game or he instantly loses. But also, what about professional players moving over who have 400+ apm?

Supposing they only need a fraction of their true potential hand speed to macro perfectly, then as strategies shift and tactics evolve, you'll be seeing quad pronged drops, players using three seperate armies with casters and microing them extremely well. They'll find a way to stress their opponent's mechanics regardless of the game's limitations.
aristarchus
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States652 Posts
October 29 2011 15:05 GMT
#119
The OP, and seemingly all of the discussion (unless I missed something looking through it) are entirely about mechanics. Will anyone get perfect mechanics in SC2? No, microing 3 or 4 simultaneous drops is still going to be insanely hard. What is true is that the marginal advantage you get from better mechanics will be a little lower than it was in BW. But that's not the only kind of skill. There is watching your opponents games and figuring out exactly what timing they're usually weak at. Or figuring out what timings they don't use very much to attack, and cutting corners right at that time to get ahead. Or seeing a small army being in a weird place, getting suspicious, and sacrificing an overlord to see the weird tech incoming. In short, there is strategy. It's too early to tell, but my bet is that the skill ceiling for the strategy part of the game will never even be close to reached. And frankly, if it is, that means (for me, at least) that the game design isn't good enough and that it's not interesting to watch. Adding harder mechanics wouldn't fix that.
Assirra
Profile Joined August 2010
Belgium4169 Posts
October 29 2011 15:09 GMT
#120
While it is true that is true that Broodwar at the moment requires more skill but you seem to forget a couple things.
You are comparing a not 2year old game compared to a decade+ one.
You are comparing a fully expanded game to a game that still has 2expansions to go so there is still a lot of stuff that can be added.
You are saying that a lot of stuff is automated but ever thought about the fact that you now have spare "clicks" left to do other stuff? It's not like you lose that crazy APM, instead of doing tasks like manually clicking your workers to mineral patches you can do stuff like creep spread.

There are still a lot mistakes in pro-gamers their play so we are not even near the skillcap.
Remember, pre gsl open season 2 people thought using marines vs banelings was suicide, then came MKP.
It just takes time for all this stuff to be discovered.
I doubt those awesome micro vids are from when sc1 was less then 2year old.
Prev 1 4 5 6 7 8 16 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 3h 11m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
WinterStarcraft760
Nina 180
StarCraft: Brood War
firebathero 360
Barracks 290
Hyuk 236
Leta 210
Mind 208
Mong 72
Sharp 64
Free 61
Bale 38
ZergMaN 35
[ Show more ]
ToSsGirL 30
scan(afreeca) 15
yabsab 14
Shine 13
Dota 2
NeuroSwarm238
Counter-Strike
Sick21
Other Games
summit1g10220
Livibee168
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick1103
[ Show 10 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• lizZardDota2378
League of Legends
• Scarra1375
Upcoming Events
FEL
3h 11m
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3h 11m
Replay Cast
16h 11m
WardiTV Weekly
1d 5h
IntoTheTV X SOOP
2 days
ByuN vs Lambo
MaxPax vs Bunny
PiGosaur Cup
2 days
The PondCast
3 days
Kung Fu Cup
3 days
IntoTheTV X SOOP
4 days
SHIN vs GuMiho
Clem vs Classic
WardiTV Invitational
5 days
[ Show More ]
GSL
5 days
Epic.LAN
5 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
6 days
Epic.LAN
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Acropolis #5 - GSC
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
HCC Season 3

Ongoing

Acropolis #5
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 4
BSL Season 23
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026

Upcoming

IPSL Winter 2026-27
SC4ALL II: Brood War
BSL 23: Non-Korean Championship
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
eXTREMESLAND 2026
PGL Major Singapore 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
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 © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.