EPTOn December 04 2012 03:58 Ver wrote:
The way Blizzard has masterminded such a phenomenon is twofold. First, Terran, is specifically made extremely difficult to play and brutally unforgiving against both other races. Alongside this designation of Terran as the token punching bag, Zerg has been crafted to be the white man race with the buffing of the infestor. The fungal growth/infested terran combo makes it so that Zergs can recover from multiple blunders if their opponent looks away for a second or less and gets fungaled, while their opponents can never make any real “errors” or they almost instantly give away the game. Protoss meanwhile sits in the middle: very easy to play mechanically, but not nearly as forgiving as Zerg.
Second, Blizzard has clearly designed that certain races are strictly superior in the lategame, again in the order of Z>P>T. When this hegemony was interrupted thanks to that rascal Mvp and his ghosts, Blizzard promptly relegated the ghost to the dumpster. It should be also noted that virtually all major foreigner wins over Koreans - sans PvZ, for obvious reasons - came either from winning an early game coinflip or more often, the lategame. The midgame is where you have the greatest opportunity to outplay your opponent in any non-PvZ matchup, and not surprisingly, is the area where foreigners can’t win at.
Is it just a coincidence that Zerg is the race that is both the most forgiving overall and has the best lategame? Is it also a coincidence that Terran is the least forgiving overall and has the worst lategame? I think not. These two features make it so that Terrans can virtually never come back from a disadvantage, a key feature that normally allows better players to consistently win versus lesser ones. The reverse holds true for Zerg naturally, hence why Korean Zergs have lost by far the least against foreigner Terrans and Protoss. Nowadays, the best Terrans and Protoss are those who never make any mistakes, because when they do, there is no coming back despite how godly they may be. MMA made copious amounts of errors in his prime; fortunately, he could make up for it with overall brilliant play. That is no longer possible. But Zergs? They can blunder all day now, so long as they don't die before hive. Sooner or later, they will be able to get a fungal off. Then, they proceed to win the game.
Now, you may ask, what direct proof is there, as if this compelling argument was not ironclad in itself? Why, the most convincing of all: a single isolated statement, translated from Korean to boot.
Hint: 2 white Zergs, 1 Korean Terran, 1 Korean Protoss. He "hopes" the white Zerg wins.
Case closed.
I write this article and expose this unpleasant truth as a plea to Blizzard: I beseech you, leaders of the mighty empire, to strengthen fungal growth even more. Indeed, your wise patches have propelled legions of white Zergs to previously undreamed of results. However, there is an unintended side effect: what happens when almost all the high Korean finishers are Zerg too? Yes, infestors lower the ZvZ skill ceiling so that much that it even lets patchzergs beat GSL champions occasionally; unfortunately, this occurs too infrequently. IPL5 had an all-Korean top 12, and MLG Dallas an all-Korean top 8, and their viewercount suffered greatly as a result. This occurred mostly because top Korean Zergs knocked out all the patchzergs. Thus if we want ESPORTS to succeed, fungal must be improved even more so that white Zergs are all but guaranteed podium places. Otherwise, as we have seen at MLG, IPL, and GSL, once only Korean Zergs remain everyone quits watching.
I profess, from the bottom of my noble heart, that I have no ulterior motive for writing this. I am, after all, simply a humble part-time white Terran; naturally I gain no benefit from such a fungal buff. While obviously I want some easy wins over better players too, I publish this because I am willing to sacrifice future prize money for the greater success of my fellow white brethren, and thus for ESPORTS! as a whole.
The way Blizzard has masterminded such a phenomenon is twofold. First, Terran, is specifically made extremely difficult to play and brutally unforgiving against both other races. Alongside this designation of Terran as the token punching bag, Zerg has been crafted to be the white man race with the buffing of the infestor. The fungal growth/infested terran combo makes it so that Zergs can recover from multiple blunders if their opponent looks away for a second or less and gets fungaled, while their opponents can never make any real “errors” or they almost instantly give away the game. Protoss meanwhile sits in the middle: very easy to play mechanically, but not nearly as forgiving as Zerg.
Second, Blizzard has clearly designed that certain races are strictly superior in the lategame, again in the order of Z>P>T. When this hegemony was interrupted thanks to that rascal Mvp and his ghosts, Blizzard promptly relegated the ghost to the dumpster. It should be also noted that virtually all major foreigner wins over Koreans - sans PvZ, for obvious reasons - came either from winning an early game coinflip or more often, the lategame. The midgame is where you have the greatest opportunity to outplay your opponent in any non-PvZ matchup, and not surprisingly, is the area where foreigners can’t win at.
Is it just a coincidence that Zerg is the race that is both the most forgiving overall and has the best lategame? Is it also a coincidence that Terran is the least forgiving overall and has the worst lategame? I think not. These two features make it so that Terrans can virtually never come back from a disadvantage, a key feature that normally allows better players to consistently win versus lesser ones. The reverse holds true for Zerg naturally, hence why Korean Zergs have lost by far the least against foreigner Terrans and Protoss. Nowadays, the best Terrans and Protoss are those who never make any mistakes, because when they do, there is no coming back despite how godly they may be. MMA made copious amounts of errors in his prime; fortunately, he could make up for it with overall brilliant play. That is no longer possible. But Zergs? They can blunder all day now, so long as they don't die before hive. Sooner or later, they will be able to get a fungal off. Then, they proceed to win the game.
Now, you may ask, what direct proof is there, as if this compelling argument was not ironclad in itself? Why, the most convincing of all: a single isolated statement, translated from Korean to boot.
Hint: 2 white Zergs, 1 Korean Terran, 1 Korean Protoss. He "hopes" the white Zerg wins.
Case closed.
A Plea:
I write this article and expose this unpleasant truth as a plea to Blizzard: I beseech you, leaders of the mighty empire, to strengthen fungal growth even more. Indeed, your wise patches have propelled legions of white Zergs to previously undreamed of results. However, there is an unintended side effect: what happens when almost all the high Korean finishers are Zerg too? Yes, infestors lower the ZvZ skill ceiling so that much that it even lets patchzergs beat GSL champions occasionally; unfortunately, this occurs too infrequently. IPL5 had an all-Korean top 12, and MLG Dallas an all-Korean top 8, and their viewercount suffered greatly as a result. This occurred mostly because top Korean Zergs knocked out all the patchzergs. Thus if we want ESPORTS to succeed, fungal must be improved even more so that white Zergs are all but guaranteed podium places. Otherwise, as we have seen at MLG, IPL, and GSL, once only Korean Zergs remain everyone quits watching.
I profess, from the bottom of my noble heart, that I have no ulterior motive for writing this. I am, after all, simply a humble part-time white Terran; naturally I gain no benefit from such a fungal buff. While obviously I want some easy wins over better players too, I publish this because I am willing to sacrifice future prize money for the greater success of my fellow white brethren, and thus for ESPORTS! as a whole.
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