To Celebrate the 3rd anniversary of the best RTS game of all time, Millenium is proud to present you a part of our work about this event. WoL beta started three years ago, and this game gave us a wide list of sensational feelings. On this news, we provide you our video and our timeline, but later on, we will translate our work, even if someone does it before !
Video realized by Jack, directed by @M_Spit
3 YEARS OF WOL FULL ARTICLE by @M_Nazca
1.Introduction
On February 17 2010, Blizzard opened the beta-testing phase of Wings of Liberty, first chapter of the StarCraft 2 trilogy. To celebrate this anniversary, and before we all switch to Heart of the Swarm, let's dive together in our memories and analyse how these three years of WoL have gone so far.
Imba or not imba ? That is the question. As we are coming to a conclusion for Wings of Liberty, I've wanted to know if a race had dominated the http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Premier_Tournaments overall. Counting the victories per race, we get the following table :
Over these three years, it seems that Terrans are the big winners with 37 victories out of 93 tournaments. However, this triumph is mainly due to the Terran success in 2011 : they won half of the competitions that year. The metagame taking a certain time to stabilize, it's not surprising to see that 2012 was much more balanced than 2011.
Needless to say, the domination of a race depends on numerous factors. Let me cite for example the patches, the metagame, or the map pool. This is why the success rate of races varies over time. 2012 has, on this regard, been quite eventful.
The graph above shows the winrate per race in 2012 premier tournaments. The first thing to notice is how close the curves are with the ideal value of 50%. Overall, we see that - at least in major competitions - the game is pretty balanced.
As 2012 was starting, the Terran domination of 2011 continued during several months with e.g. MMA and MKP victories overseas. But two consecutive patches were going to change this : the Ghost nerf in February and the Queen buff in May. These two modifications had Terrans winrate droping between April and May. From then on, Zergs were to take the power and keep it for the rest of the year. Worthy of mentionning is the Protoss curve which is the closest to 50%, oscillating very few over the twelve months.
3.The ladder leagues
People always talk about the pros, but for us too, ordinary people, things have evolved quite significantly in three years. How is the distribution inside the leagues ? Are there more Zergs, Protosses or Terrans ? Here are some answers.
Let me remind you : at the beginning of the beta, there were five leagues : Copper, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum. On May 22 2010, Blizzard removed the Copper league and added a Diamond league above Platinum. But it was not until January 10 2011 that a Master league appeared, followed by the Grand-Master league on March 22.
Over the first year, the league distribution went as follows :
In these stats, we see the creation of the Master and GM leagues but that's not the only thing that catches the eye. Between July 2010 and the Summer 2011, Protosses dominated in the leagues ! And more importantly, no one, not even the pros, wanted to play Zerg. It's true that with the injects and the creep spread, the Zerg macro has changed a lot from Brood War to SC2.
Also, in low leagues, rumors say that Zerg is the hardest race to play. Whether you agree or not with this statement, many new players do prefer the clean and shiny design of Protoss to that more underground and bestiary of Zergs. Moreover, in Bronze and Silver, the Terran race is over represented. One of the reasons is that the campaign of Wings of Liberty is played as Terran and hence many players start laddering with that race. The ratio between the races tends to get more balanced as you get to higher leagues though.
The distribution is very far from what Blizzard once announced : 20% in Bronze to Platinum, 18% in Diamond and 2% in Master. With an average of 42% of the players, the Bronze league is the fullest. The league filling then gradually decreases as we go up before dropping enormously in Master and GM leagues since those are restricted.
Between September 2011 and now, the most significant phenomenon is the Zerg impulse. Whereas low leagues continue to sulk at Kerrigan's race, quite the opposite happens from Diamond to Grand-Master. To the extend that nowadays, it is the Terran race that collapses : only 24% in Grand-Master compared to 37-38% for Protoss and Zerg.
In November 2011, Blizzard publicly released a ladder points system showing the cutoffs to reach in order to be almost assured of a promotion. From that moment on, the leagues distribution got greatly modified. Over the last two periods, Bronze have dropped to only 30% of the players and hence the other leagues' filling increased. The Master league went from 1.5% to 3.5% in a year. Is it that the overall level of players increased or is it that it has become easier to get promoted ? There's no real way to judge.
4.Evolution of the metagame
To say that the metagame has evolved in three years is a huge understatement. And to try to summarize its evolution would probably be impossible. A way to illustrate how the metagame has developped, however, is to follow a particular player in a particular matchup and to study several of his games.
For the matchup I've chosen the PvZ as it is in my opinion one of those that has evolved the most. As for the player, well, it's two players that I propose to follow : HuK and IdrA. Everyone knows that these two have been involved in a lovestory that would put Captain Hook to tears, and it's always delightful to read their conversations at the beginning and end of games. But this is not why I picked them.
First of all, HuK and IdrA have played 1on1's countless times, thereby providing more replays to analyse than needed. Besides, both of them are standard players, enough at least to be fairly representative of the PvZ metagame at any given time. Of course, some may say that their level has significantly decreased lately but once again, our goal here is to study the evolution of PvZ over three years.
Game 1 : End of the Beta
The first replay that I chose to watch brings us back to July 23 2010 when Day[9] organised the http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Razer_King_of_the_Beta tournament. Our two players faced each other in the group stage. The three games of their BO3 are absolutely worth watching for the lack of clear strategies is so shocking. This game is the third one and it's played on Lost Temple.
HuK opens with a nexus first followed by two gates. He then goes for a forge and the cybernetics core before switching to double robo. IdrA, on the other hand, adopts a style close to that of Brood War : a quick ling-speed and fast lair, a two-base play and an army mainly composed of hydralisks and roaches. After scouting his opponent's composition, he decides to morph some corruptors. The upgrades come quite late for both of them. Worth noticing is the absence of charge, storm and archons for the Protoss player, and infestors or broodlords for the Zerg.
The general impression in this game is that no timing whatsoever is settled. Not only the strategies are quite chaotic, but the players stay on low economy for a really long time.
Game 2 : Infancy of the Metagame
The next game is from December 13 2010 but is from a ladder replay pack released by Team Liquid (HuK's team at the time) and hence we don't know exactly when it was played. We are on the old version of Shakuras Plateau.
This game shows very clearly the beginnings of PvZ mechanics. The opener is a 3-gate expand followed by a stargate. Zerg on the other hand tries to expand as much as possible while being safe. IdrA continues to make a really fast ling-speed into hydralisks, but Husky himself says in the video that the hydra-play tends to disappear. Overall, the macro is far better than in Game 1 : expands are taken little by little, the economy is good for both players.
The army compositions too are starting to incorporate key elements of the matchup : blink stalkers, colossi and storm for HuK ; roaches, corruptors and broodlords for IdrA. But we get a hint that we're still at the beginning of PvZ's metagame by noticing the excess of colossi without gateway unit support, how storms are stacked (their effect would add up in BW but not in SC2) and the absence of mothership (KiWiKaKi hasn't introduced that yet) for the Protoss ; underproduction of corruptors and complete absence of infestors for IdrA.
Game 3 : and Zerg discovered Infestors
Early April 2011, at http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/2011_MLG_Pro_Circuit/Dallas, that very same where HuK hallucinated his voidrays and provoked one of the most memorable idraquits… The game we're going to watch is on Crossfire and I believe it's the first game where the guys faced each other in the group stage.
Little do I have to say about HuK's play in this game : 3-gate expand opener to which the Zerg replies by delaying his third base. The production of immortals lasts a relatively long time since HuK never really managed to secure his third and sustain colossus production.
The most important point here is the evolution in the Zerg's gameplay. Exit hydralisks, welcome roaches and infestors ! The transition to hive tech and broodlords happens at 14.20min which is arguably early seeing how late the third was. Altogether, the feel of this game is that Zerg's play is much more fluid and is starting to stabilize.
Protoss opens with a forge fast expand, opening that has become more and more popular in the previous weeks. The interesting point here is that FFE was the PvZ standard opening in Brood War. It's quite remarkable that it took something like a year and a half to reach SC2. Notice that Zerg's third is now taken before the 5 minutes mark and that ling-speed is not researched as early anymore. Also, the army compositions are very close to what we can see nowadays.
Game 5 : The last fight
The Evil Geniuses team organised last year an internal tournament : the Most Evil Genius. The finals on April 30 2012 saw the very last HuK vs. IdrA of WoL history.
If I've chosen this game it is because it shows how much PvZ has enriched itself over time : IdrA goes for a ling-infestor style followed by a very standard 12-minute hive. Protoss too has emancipated : they're not afraid to take a 9-minute third anymore. Finally, the mothership has become absolutely mandatory to counter a broodlord-infestor army.
Game 2 and Game 5 of this list are sixteen months appart. They both take place on Shakuras and in both cases HuK opens with a stargate. However, these games are like chalk and cheese.
5.Has there been a Bonjwa in WoL ?
Many among us have wondered if there had been a true bonjwa in Wings of Liberty. Some also overuse the word bonjwa anytime a new comer defeats with a certain ease his opponents in a tournament. So, have we had a bonjwa or not ?
According to Liquipedia, bonjwa is a term used to describe a player who dominates the StarCraft scene for a long period of time. A bonjwa has a very high winning percentage and successive title wins. However, a bonjwa is not defined by his statistics or records. Rather, a general consensus is reached that he is the most dominant progamer of his era. In other words, a bonjwa is a boss who reigns unchallenged and crushes those trying to steal his crown.
BoxeR, the Emperor, the first Bonjwa
In Brood War, five players have been recognised as bonjwas : BoxeR, NaDa, iloveoov, sAviOr and Flash. Many people think that JaeDong should also be in the list but no real consensus has been reached on this point. Among the titles gathered by BoxeR, we note two OSLs and two consecutive WCGs. Flash, on the other hand, has won three MSL, three OSLs and a WCG. Not bad.
But how can we translate these criteria on WoL ? For instance, the first clear and obvious difference is the frequency of tournaments. In BoxeR's times, there were few international competitions and the Korean champions didn't use to go out of their country so much. Nowadays, there are many major tournaments and teams have to establish their bidget very carefully to determine which players they send to which event. Therefore it's not really about how many tournaments a bonjwa has to win, but rather how much he dominates in the tournaments that he can attend to.
Flash dominated the Brood War scene for almost 3 years
The notion of time is also very important. The era of BoxeR started in January 2001 that is approximately two years after Brood War was released (November 1998). In a RTS like StarCraft, the game takes a certain time to mature. The metagame continously evolves and a bonjwa cannot decently emerge until the game stabilises, and that a standard of strategies is established. In that sense, since WoL is only 3-years old, to not have seen a bonjwa yet wouldn't be surprising at all. In addition, SC2 differs from Brood War since it's a regularly patched game and that certain patches have drastically modified the metagame. To consider that a bonjwa has to dominate over a year, for example, in a game so often revised is very hard.
Since palmares and time are arguable criterias, let's consider the communitary aspect. It's all the SC2 scene that recognises if a player is a bonjwa or not, but it's also his personnality and his fanbase. One could say that MarineKing, who was quite dominant last year and won several MLGs, has been a bonjwa. However, his quest for the Grail (a GSL) has never been successful. Following the same idea, NesTea has won three GSLs and the community agrees that he has been dominating back in the days. But he's never managed to be constant enough nor to win any premier foreign tournament.
Mvp earned the NesTea Award for his 10 qualifications streak in GSL Code S
It should be clear by now that it's very hard to determine if a particular player has been a bonjwa on Wings of Liberty. But without any doubt, the one that comes closest to it is Mvp. Winner of four GSLs, an MLG, a BlizzCon, WCG 2011 and IEM VII Cologne, Mvp has been crushing souls on WoL. Some may say his international titles are not sufficient, but let me emphasize that Mvp hasn't participated in the last MLGs. In fact, the last one he attended dates back to February 2012. He's also never participated in a DreamHack. And don't even get me started with his health issues… In summary, everything leads to say that there has been an Mvp era, even though it seems to be over.
Life, the next Bonjwa ?
Another candidate to being called bonjwa is Life. He shows all signs of it at least. Coming from nowhere, Life started to win every tournament in which he participated. For the last three months, he's been dominating without any clear rival on the SC2 scene - except maybe PartinG. Only time will tell if he can be constant, but with the upcoming release of Heart of the Swarm, all the timers are set back to zero. To be continued….
Obviously the timeline is not completely full of all SC2 information, we wanted to show the most importants moments, these who changed the eSport scene or the balance and game
The video was quite awesome, brought back some fond memories; the music was quite fitting too. I would've added some more game scenes or victory celebrations, but overall it was excellent. I also liked the timeline picture thing.
The only thing I have to criticize is this:
On February 16 2013 19:17 Millenium wrote:
To Celebrate the 3rd anniversary of the best RTS game of all time
So thats how it happened... Fruitdealer saw a add on the side of the bus then said "I think ill go win that tourney with the most underpowered race" gg.
I am surprised the that 3700 is the largest live audience. Maybe I am used to seeing the crowds at tournaments with multiple games. I went to BlizzCon 2009 and the hall was packed for the finals. I think it held 15k. I know thats not a single game tournament, but most people there seemed to be fans of the game.
On February 17 2013 01:03 StreetWise wrote: I am surprised the that 3700 is the largest live audience. Maybe I am used to seeing the crowds at tournaments with multiple games. I went to BlizzCon 2009 and the hall was packed for the finals. I think it held 15k. I know thats not a single game tournament, but most people there seemed to be fans of the game.
Well "seem" just isn't good enough for trivia/statistics like this, although I agree with you. The reason it seems surprising at first glance is because most of our household major events aren't SC2-only, talking about MLG, DreamHack, IEM, Assembly etc. All of them existed before SC2 and kept shifting their supported games throughout these last 3 years, but I don't think that they've ever been SC2-only. And events like NASL and IPL have also had LoL so yeah, there you go.
Although it does strike me as quite peculiar that GSL finals attendance didn't manage to break 3700, especially given the precedent of tournaments 5-8 years ago. I guess LoL is simply too popular in Korea.
that picture is pretty sweet, kinda lame that the only time MVP gets mentioned is his 4th gsl win, when there was a quite long period when he dominated the scene harder than anyone ever did in sc2, when he won gsl/mlg/wc etc.
also no mention of Polt and super tournament... lame since it was the most prestigious tournament in sc2 history...
no mention of fruitdealer or nestea... both very top10 important characters in sc2 history... no mention of leenock, thorzain, rain, etc, all much more important characters than kaaz and eve lol
it mentions neural range nerf but doesn't mention the fungal buff when fungal became the best spell in the game...
etc etc. if you put in the effort to make such a picture at least get good info from someone who watches sc2 from the beginning.
On February 17 2013 01:26 thezanursic wrote: I don't think Eve deserves to be on the list...
Well it's not a list of "skilled players winning tournaments", but rather various interesting benchmarks and achievements. As stated in the OP (and as you should know if you've been around here for a while) she was the first actual female pro-gamer, you know, signed with a legit team (a huge team at the time, to boot). It doesn't matter that she was perhaps inferior to players like Aphrodite or Flo at the time, or even thousands of male pro-gamers, semi-pro-gamers and casual Master league players, she's there because she was the first female signing.
Should this matter? That's not up to your or I to decide, but rather the community as a whole.
Oh god! Dunno why this gets me so emo.... didn't really realise how much I had invested into this... Thanks for everything everyone. It was AMAZING!! T_T
On February 17 2013 01:26 totauksz wrote: that picture is pretty sweet, kinda lame that the only time MVP gets mentioned is his 4th gsl win, when there was a quite long period when he dominated the scene harder than anyone ever did in sc2, when he won gsl/mlg/wc etc.
also no mention of Polt and super tournament... lame since it was the most prestigious tournament in sc2 history...
no mention of fruitdealer or nestea... both very top10 important characters in sc2 history... no mention of leenock, thorzain, rain, etc, all much more important characters than kaaz and eve lol
it mentions neural range nerf but doesn't mention the fungal buff when fungal became the best spell in the game...
etc etc. if you put in the effort to make such a picture at least get good info from someone who watches sc2 from the beginning.
You realize this is a timeline of really important steps in sc2's history ? Most of the stamps are "first of something". So Kaaz and Eve definitely have their places there. While for Leenock and Thorzain, what ? You're not even citing DRG or MKP while they have bigger accomplishments.
It misses Fruitdealer for first GSL champion, Nestea as first player to win 3 GSLs.
To me one thing is really missing : Fenix, first foreign player recruited by a Korean team. But well no point to make an infinite list.
sick sick sick sick video! fruitdealer winning first gsl open is my favorite memory, that guy is a hero. so glad you put him in there, his legacy lives on forever even though he lost his passion shortly after.
On February 17 2013 02:52 Fanatic-Templar wrote: Heh, Neural Parasite range upgrade gets mentioned, but not the Fungal changes or the Khaydarin Amulet nerf.
I would rofl so hard if they had included every single bunker change. xD
On February 17 2013 02:52 Fanatic-Templar wrote: Heh, Neural Parasite range upgrade gets mentioned, but not the Fungal changes or the Khaydarin Amulet nerf.
I would rofl so hard if they had included every single bunker change. xD
On February 16 2013 19:26 Nazca wrote: 3700 spectators at IS2, yes
The second Blizzcon featuring Sc2, blizzard cup, and finals of the GSL had at least 10-15k live spectators
yes, but that was not a stand alone SC2 event.
I'm pretty sure I saw Jaedong having >9k viewers on his stream once, and that's gotta count for something when you are talking about views, competition or not.
On February 16 2013 19:26 Nazca wrote: 3700 spectators at IS2, yes
The second Blizzcon featuring Sc2, blizzard cup, and finals of the GSL had at least 10-15k live spectators
yes, but that was not a stand alone SC2 event.
I'm pretty sure I saw Jaedong having >9k viewers on his stream once, and that's gotta count for something when you are talking about views, competition or not.
I love the tyrant but your argument is so flawed I don't even know where to begin...
On February 17 2013 04:22 forumtext wrote: "To Celebrate the 3rd anniversary of the best RTS game of all time"
Best RTS of current generation? Yes One of the best RTS game of all time? Yes
But calling it "the best RTS game of all time" is highly debatable.
Come on, it's just to create some hype, not meant to be taken literally. It's the same way commercials always saying their stuff is number 1 in the world.
On February 17 2013 02:52 Fanatic-Templar wrote: Heh, Neural Parasite range upgrade gets mentioned, but not the Fungal changes or the Khaydarin Amulet nerf.
I would rofl so hard if they had included every single bunker change. xD
On February 17 2013 04:22 forumtext wrote: "To Celebrate the 3rd anniversary of the best RTS game of all time"
Best RTS of current generation? Yes One of the best RTS game of all time? Yes
But calling it "the best RTS game of all time" is highly debatable.
Come on, it's just to create some hype, not meant to be taken literally. It's the same way commercials always saying their stuff is number 1 in the world.
It's very close though, definitely a solid number 2 on my list.
Great video. Brought a tear to my eye, its incredible that SC2 is so young, yet has produced so much for our little world. Despite all the complaints, bitching, and moaning, SC2 was one of the greatest things that happened in the world of competitive gaming. Hopefully HotS can do what happened in SC1, and turn something that is amazing into something that is special.
Jack, you're awesome. For those who don't know him, he's an incredible videomaker who made a lot of stuff, including the very emotional one about Stephano's departure from Millenium.
The entire file is great, I already told you on Twitter but good job Millenium !
On February 17 2013 01:26 totauksz wrote: that picture is pretty sweet, kinda lame that the only time MVP gets mentioned is his 4th gsl win, when there was a quite long period when he dominated the scene harder than anyone ever did in sc2, when he won gsl/mlg/wc etc.
also no mention of Polt and super tournament... lame since it was the most prestigious tournament in sc2 history...
no mention of fruitdealer or nestea... both very top10 important characters in sc2 history... no mention of leenock, thorzain, rain, etc, all much more important characters than kaaz and eve lol
it mentions neural range nerf but doesn't mention the fungal buff when fungal became the best spell in the game...
etc etc. if you put in the effort to make such a picture at least get good info from someone who watches sc2 from the beginning.
You realize this is a timeline of really important steps in sc2's history ? Most of the stamps are "first of something". So Kaaz and Eve definitely have their places there. While for Leenock and Thorzain, what ? You're not even citing DRG or MKP while they have bigger accomplishments.
It misses Fruitdealer for first GSL champion, Nestea as first player to win 3 GSLs.
To me one thing is really missing : Fenix, first foreign player recruited by a Korean team. But well no point to make an infinite list.
if space can be wasted on Eve, neural range nerf, rain to fnatic then leenock and thorzain are absolutely worthy to be on the picture.
Well the picture misses a ton and puts fan favorites over the players that actually won the most. Nestea isn't on there at all and MVP/MC are only one there once while Stephano is on there 3 times.
On February 17 2013 05:35 JazzNL wrote: 9 months of Terran dominance, 6 months of Protoss dominance, 21 months of zerg dominance = WoL!
When did this happen?
These 2 posts are so biased lol. First of all since the game has released there has only 30-31 months of time so lol the first poster can't count. Terran dominance was way more than 9 months and zerg has only had like 4-5 months top. Terran dominance was basically from release to end of 2011 so like 18 months easily. They won the majority of the GSLs in that time and even the ones they lost they usually had the most in the ro8/ro4. They won tons of foreign tournament
Protoss dominance was like the first 7-8 months of 2012. People just don't actually look at results and over value 1st place compared to 2nd or compared to getting like 5 in the top 8 of an event. Zerg didn't start dominating right after the queen patch it took a while at least in ZvP (which they've actually never had significantly more than a 50% winrate in). They won WCS Korea, WCS Asia, WCS Global, WCG, TSL4, GSL, WCG Korea, HSC, Dreamhack, IEM, OSL etc. Their real dominance during this time wasn't in what they won though it was in ro4s, ro8s and 2nd places. They had the most players in the first 2 ro8s of GSL. They had a player in the finals of the first 2 GSLs. They had players in the finals of like 4 MLGs, IPL4, HSC, Asus Rog, NASL, etc. In the first MLG of the year even though the final was a TvZ Protoss had the most in the top 8.
Zerg dominance really only started with the last few GSLs/MLGs of the year and IPL5.
On February 17 2013 11:36 JJH777 wrote: Well the picture misses a ton and puts fan favorites over the players that actually won the most. Nestea isn't on there at all and MVP/MC are only one there once while Stephano is on there 3 times.
On February 17 2013 05:35 JazzNL wrote: 9 months of Terran dominance, 6 months of Protoss dominance, 21 months of zerg dominance = WoL!
When did this happen?
These 2 posts are so biased lol. First of all since the game has released there has only 30-31 months of time so lol the first poster is an idiot. Terran dominance was way more than 9 months and zerg has only had like 4-5 months top. Terran dominance was basically from release to end of 2011 so like 18 months easily. They won the majority of the GSLs in that time and even the ones they lost they usually had the most in the ro8/ro4. They won tons of foreign tournament
Protoss dominance was like the first 7-8 months of 2012. People just don't actually look at results and over value 1st place compared to 2nd or compared to getting like 5 in the top 8 of an event. Zerg didn't start dominating right after the queen patch it took a while at least in ZvP (which they've actually never had significantly more than a 50% winrate in). They won WCS Korea, WCS Asia, WCS Global, WCG, TSL4, GSL, WCG Korea, HSC, Dreamhack, IEM, OSL etc. Their real dominance during this time wasn't in what they won though it was in ro4s, ro8s and 2nd places. They had the most players in the first 2 ro8s of GSL. They had a player in the finals of the first 2 GSLs. They had players in the finals of like 4 MLGs, IPL4, HSC, Asus Rog, NASL, etc. In the first MLG of the year even though the final was a TvZ Protoss had the most in the top 8.
Zerg dominance really only started with the last few GSLs/MLGs of the year and IPL5.
there wasn't even such a thing as protoss dominance. seed had a lucky streak and barely won over byun and symbol.. and protoss was always doing pretty good in foreign tournaments, but no domination at all. squirtle had 2 good runs in his whole career. if it wasn't for MC the results for the protoss race alltogether would be practically zero.
On February 17 2013 11:36 JJH777 wrote: Well the picture misses a ton and puts fan favorites over the players that actually won the most. Nestea isn't on there at all and MVP/MC are only one there once while Stephano is on there 3 times.
On February 17 2013 07:29 MasterOfPuppets wrote:
On February 17 2013 05:35 JazzNL wrote: 9 months of Terran dominance, 6 months of Protoss dominance, 21 months of zerg dominance = WoL!
When did this happen?
These 2 posts are so biased lol. First of all since the game has released there has only 30-31 months of time so lol the first poster is an idiot. Terran dominance was way more than 9 months and zerg has only had like 4-5 months top. Terran dominance was basically from release to end of 2011 so like 18 months easily. They won the majority of the GSLs in that time and even the ones they lost they usually had the most in the ro8/ro4. They won tons of foreign tournament
Protoss dominance was like the first 7-8 months of 2012. People just don't actually look at results and over value 1st place compared to 2nd or compared to getting like 5 in the top 8 of an event. Zerg didn't start dominating right after the queen patch it took a while at least in ZvP (which they've actually never had significantly more than a 50% winrate in). They won WCS Korea, WCS Asia, WCS Global, WCG, TSL4, GSL, WCG Korea, HSC, Dreamhack, IEM, OSL etc. Their real dominance during this time wasn't in what they won though it was in ro4s, ro8s and 2nd places. They had the most players in the first 2 ro8s of GSL. They had a player in the finals of the first 2 GSLs. They had players in the finals of like 4 MLGs, IPL4, HSC, Asus Rog, NASL, etc. In the first MLG of the year even though the final was a TvZ Protoss had the most in the top 8.
Zerg dominance really only started with the last few GSLs/MLGs of the year and IPL5.
there wasn't even such a thing as protoss dominance. seed had a lucky streak and barely won over byun and symbol.. and protoss was always doing pretty good in foreign tournaments, but no domination at all. squirtle had 2 good runs in his whole career. if it wasn't for MC the results for the protoss race alltogether would be practically zero.
Seed didn't get lucky he said himself in his victory interview that the first 2 maps were bad vZ and he knew he wouldn't lose vs Symbol on the next 3. I guess he got a little lucky vs Byun but either way MC still would have made the finals. In the season Squirtle got to the finals there were 5 protoss in the ro8 and 3 in the ro4. If that's not domination then no race has ever dominated. Genius also got a finals appearance. WCS Korea, WCS Asia, and WCS global all had PvP finals with Protoss also having the most in the top 8. None of those were won by MC. Protoss have won plenty even if you discount MC. Plus if you want to play the: "well if you discount this players results then this race sucks!" then just look at 2012 Terran if you get rid of MVP. That's waaaay worse than Protoss without MC. Or look at 2010-2011 zerg without Nestea. They would have gone a year and a half without winning a GSL. From fruitdealers win all the way until DRGs.
On February 17 2013 11:36 JJH777 wrote: Well the picture misses a ton and puts fan favorites over the players that actually won the most. Nestea isn't on there at all and MVP/MC are only one there once while Stephano is on there 3 times.
On February 17 2013 07:29 MasterOfPuppets wrote:
On February 17 2013 05:35 JazzNL wrote: 9 months of Terran dominance, 6 months of Protoss dominance, 21 months of zerg dominance = WoL!
When did this happen?
These 2 posts are so biased lol. First of all since the game has released there has only 30-31 months of time so lol the first poster is an idiot. Terran dominance was way more than 9 months and zerg has only had like 4-5 months top. Terran dominance was basically from release to end of 2011 so like 18 months easily. They won the majority of the GSLs in that time and even the ones they lost they usually had the most in the ro8/ro4. They won tons of foreign tournament
Protoss dominance was like the first 7-8 months of 2012. People just don't actually look at results and over value 1st place compared to 2nd or compared to getting like 5 in the top 8 of an event. Zerg didn't start dominating right after the queen patch it took a while at least in ZvP (which they've actually never had significantly more than a 50% winrate in). They won WCS Korea, WCS Asia, WCS Global, WCG, TSL4, GSL, WCG Korea, HSC, Dreamhack, IEM, OSL etc. Their real dominance during this time wasn't in what they won though it was in ro4s, ro8s and 2nd places. They had the most players in the first 2 ro8s of GSL. They had a player in the finals of the first 2 GSLs. They had players in the finals of like 4 MLGs, IPL4, HSC, Asus Rog, NASL, etc. In the first MLG of the year even though the final was a TvZ Protoss had the most in the top 8.
Zerg dominance really only started with the last few GSLs/MLGs of the year and IPL5.
there wasn't even such a thing as protoss dominance. seed had a lucky streak and barely won over byun and symbol.. and protoss was always doing pretty good in foreign tournaments, but no domination at all. squirtle had 2 good runs in his whole career. if it wasn't for MC the results for the protoss race alltogether would be practically zero.
Seed didn't get lucky he said himself in his victory interview that the first 2 maps were bad vZ and he knew he wouldn't lose vs Symbol on the next 3. I guess he got a little lucky vs Byun but either way MC still would have made the finals. In the season Squirtle got to the finals there were 5 protoss in the ro8 and 3 in the ro4. If that's not domination then no race has ever dominated. Genius also got a finals appearance. WCS Korea, WCS Asia, and WCS global all had PvP finals with Protoss also having the most in the top 8. None of those were won by MC. Protoss have won plenty even if you discount MC. Plus if you want to play the: "well if you discount this players results then this race sucks!" then just look at 2012 Terran if you get rid of MVP. That's waaaay worse than Protoss without MC. Or look at 2010-2011 zerg without Nestea. They would have gone a year and a half without winning a GSL. From fruitdealers win all the way until DRGs.
when nestea won, zergs were not dominant so that example of yours is pointless.
if we take out mvp, we still have mkp, top, jjakji, rainbow, mma, etc
if we take out nestea we still have drg leenock life
all of these are gsl finalists and winners. you take out mc, what do you get? it's not the same. you can try to make it seem the same but it's not at all.
wcs korea some of the big names fell out: leenock in a zvz, mvp fell to polt, and also protoss had seed, squirtle, rain, hero, creator, parting, mc 6-7undisputed best protosses in the world.
terran had MVP, gumiho, and polt. even these are arguable as the best of the world. the rest is not worth mentioning.
zerg had leenock, drg, curious. again very arguable as bests in the world.
Protoss had a huge statistical advantage in this particular tournament. anyone who looked at the ro32 brackets could predict that a protoss wins it 90%. that's what you get if you have less top quality players of the other races. you can try to suggest how this is protoss domination but the race distribution at the start was massed up hugely for protoss' favor.
if you put 10 of the world's best players of one race and just 2 of the others it's very likely that that race wins. the correlation to in game balance is very very very low in this case.
WCS Asia is this multiplied by 10. All the top protosses in the world were in this tournament and terran and zerg had 90% no names. Curious was the only protoss worth mentioning, terran had NONE, protoss had rain, creator, squirtle, hero, parting seed. it was practically 100% that a protoss wins this, again not because of in game balance, because the racial distribution combined with skill was hugely protoss favored. if this tournament counts as an argument then you can use "mkp all killed vVv gaming so terran is overpowered" as an argument too.
in wcg finals was parting vs adelscott, mkp lost to a zerg. no further explaining needed.
all 3 examples are flawed as arguments extremely. look at the tournaments with the biggest average skill, gsls, ipls, mlgs, etc. protoss never ever had a dominating period compared to terran/zerg in this sense.
now i'm pretty sure some of the zerg and terran wins can be picked apart this way (the zerg wins a little bit less), but I don't define a race's domination if they win a few tournaments here and then. it needs to be a constant dominating fashion in all matchups over a longer period of time and protoss NEVER had anything like that if you take MC out of the equation, and this is not at all true for the other 2 races.
Nice picture! Don't know how complete it is, because I missed a lot during the last three years, but definitely a look worth. I liked how the biggest changes, or better say the changes with the most impact, were mentioned. Thanks for the effort.
I think GSL Season 2 is the only entertaining event throughout WoL. Having 3 different foreigners (IdrA / TLO / Loner), an upcoming innovative player Foxer and a thought to be washed-out veteran Nestea. Story was amazing. Strategies weren't matured and had innovation play and mechanics were still good.
On February 17 2013 11:36 JJH777 wrote: Well the picture misses a ton and puts fan favorites over the players that actually won the most. Nestea isn't on there at all and MVP/MC are only one there once while Stephano is on there 3 times.
On February 17 2013 07:29 MasterOfPuppets wrote:
On February 17 2013 05:35 JazzNL wrote: 9 months of Terran dominance, 6 months of Protoss dominance, 21 months of zerg dominance = WoL!
When did this happen?
These 2 posts are so biased lol. First of all since the game has released there has only 30-31 months of time so lol the first poster is an idiot. Terran dominance was way more than 9 months and zerg has only had like 4-5 months top. Terran dominance was basically from release to end of 2011 so like 18 months easily. They won the majority of the GSLs in that time and even the ones they lost they usually had the most in the ro8/ro4. They won tons of foreign tournament
Protoss dominance was like the first 7-8 months of 2012. People just don't actually look at results and over value 1st place compared to 2nd or compared to getting like 5 in the top 8 of an event. Zerg didn't start dominating right after the queen patch it took a while at least in ZvP (which they've actually never had significantly more than a 50% winrate in). They won WCS Korea, WCS Asia, WCS Global, WCG, TSL4, GSL, WCG Korea, HSC, Dreamhack, IEM, OSL etc. Their real dominance during this time wasn't in what they won though it was in ro4s, ro8s and 2nd places. They had the most players in the first 2 ro8s of GSL. They had a player in the finals of the first 2 GSLs. They had players in the finals of like 4 MLGs, IPL4, HSC, Asus Rog, NASL, etc. In the first MLG of the year even though the final was a TvZ Protoss had the most in the top 8.
Zerg dominance really only started with the last few GSLs/MLGs of the year and IPL5.
there wasn't even such a thing as protoss dominance. seed had a lucky streak and barely won over byun and symbol.. and protoss was always doing pretty good in foreign tournaments, but no domination at all. squirtle had 2 good runs in his whole career. if it wasn't for MC the results for the protoss race alltogether would be practically zero.
Seed didn't get lucky he said himself in his victory interview that the first 2 maps were bad vZ and he knew he wouldn't lose vs Symbol on the next 3. I guess he got a little lucky vs Byun but either way MC still would have made the finals. In the season Squirtle got to the finals there were 5 protoss in the ro8 and 3 in the ro4. If that's not domination then no race has ever dominated. Genius also got a finals appearance. WCS Korea, WCS Asia, and WCS global all had PvP finals with Protoss also having the most in the top 8. None of those were won by MC. Protoss have won plenty even if you discount MC. Plus if you want to play the: "well if you discount this players results then this race sucks!" then just look at 2012 Terran if you get rid of MVP. That's waaaay worse than Protoss without MC. Or look at 2010-2011 zerg without Nestea. They would have gone a year and a half without winning a GSL. From fruitdealers win all the way until DRGs.
it needs to be a constant dominating fashion in all matchups over a longer period of time
Zerg has never done this even during the heights of Protoss whining this year they never went significantly above 50% in ZvP for multiple months. The TLPD graphs were favoring Protoss while they were still being made. http://i.imgur.com/KGYMYh.png
this brings back lots of memories. i don't know why but this video made me sad. i remembered how much i liked the game on release. i hope hots can do the same and there will be a good video like this in ~2016. amazing production and good choice of music.
On February 17 2013 22:24 MateShade wrote: Why is Stephano winning wcs Europe significant but no other wcs region is? .. Just lol
Because WCS EU was tournament of they year for me and the production was even better than the grand finals imo. Pretty much every single player had a story coming into it and all of them spoke English, making them much more likeable.
On February 18 2013 13:58 JunkkaGom wrote: No mention of Fruitdealer? Also GSL finals between Genius and DRG had about 5,000 live spectators. GSL is Starcraft only tournament
On February 17 2013 11:36 JJH777 wrote: Well the picture misses a ton and puts fan favorites over the players that actually won the most. Nestea isn't on there at all and MVP/MC are only one there once while Stephano is on there 3 times.
On February 17 2013 07:29 MasterOfPuppets wrote:
On February 17 2013 05:35 JazzNL wrote: 9 months of Terran dominance, 6 months of Protoss dominance, 21 months of zerg dominance = WoL!
When did this happen?
These 2 posts are so biased lol. First of all since the game has released there has only 30-31 months of time so lol the first poster is an idiot. Terran dominance was way more than 9 months and zerg has only had like 4-5 months top. Terran dominance was basically from release to end of 2011 so like 18 months easily. They won the majority of the GSLs in that time and even the ones they lost they usually had the most in the ro8/ro4. They won tons of foreign tournament
Protoss dominance was like the first 7-8 months of 2012. People just don't actually look at results and over value 1st place compared to 2nd or compared to getting like 5 in the top 8 of an event. Zerg didn't start dominating right after the queen patch it took a while at least in ZvP (which they've actually never had significantly more than a 50% winrate in). They won WCS Korea, WCS Asia, WCS Global, WCG, TSL4, GSL, WCG Korea, HSC, Dreamhack, IEM, OSL etc. Their real dominance during this time wasn't in what they won though it was in ro4s, ro8s and 2nd places. They had the most players in the first 2 ro8s of GSL. They had a player in the finals of the first 2 GSLs. They had players in the finals of like 4 MLGs, IPL4, HSC, Asus Rog, NASL, etc. In the first MLG of the year even though the final was a TvZ Protoss had the most in the top 8.
Zerg dominance really only started with the last few GSLs/MLGs of the year and IPL5.
there wasn't even such a thing as protoss dominance. seed had a lucky streak and barely won over byun and symbol.. and protoss was always doing pretty good in foreign tournaments, but no domination at all. squirtle had 2 good runs in his whole career. if it wasn't for MC the results for the protoss race alltogether would be practically zero.
Seed didn't get lucky he said himself in his victory interview that the first 2 maps were bad vZ and he knew he wouldn't lose vs Symbol on the next 3. I guess he got a little lucky vs Byun but either way MC still would have made the finals. In the season Squirtle got to the finals there were 5 protoss in the ro8 and 3 in the ro4. If that's not domination then no race has ever dominated. Genius also got a finals appearance. WCS Korea, WCS Asia, and WCS global all had PvP finals with Protoss also having the most in the top 8. None of those were won by MC. Protoss have won plenty even if you discount MC. Plus if you want to play the: "well if you discount this players results then this race sucks!" then just look at 2012 Terran if you get rid of MVP. That's waaaay worse than Protoss without MC. Or look at 2010-2011 zerg without Nestea. They would have gone a year and a half without winning a GSL. From fruitdealers win all the way until DRGs.
it needs to be a constant dominating fashion in all matchups over a longer period of time
Zerg has never done this even during the heights of Protoss whining this year they never went significantly above 50% in ZvP for multiple months. The TLPD graphs were favoring Protoss while they were still being made. http://i.imgur.com/KGYMYh.png
all major tournaments from september-december and PvZ is 52% in Protoss's favor.
that includes like every tournament. try the tournaments with the highest average skill (mlg, gsl, ipl) and i'm pretty sure zerg rates are ridiculous since like half of those were top4 zerg only... cba to count them all though. your graph has like 1800 games of zvp in korea only, pretty sure 70% of that comes from irrelevant tournaments since gsl doesn't nearly have that many games... code a qualifiers and random tournaments skew the results because the skill level is very varying. gstl kinda skews the results since they are best of 1's and snipers can prepare anti-builds that only work once ever.
On February 17 2013 22:24 MateShade wrote: Why is Stephano winning wcs Europe significant but no other wcs region is? .. Just lol
Did you happen to catch the viewer counts for each tournament? I know it's easy to want to jump on the bias train as quick as you can but that tournament was HUGE. Possibly the biggest of the year and one of the most important in SC2's history (it showed that SC2 can rate and even without Koreans). The korean one didn't need to be showed because you can show them playing in far more important matches than that one.
My only annoyance is that they chose not to show NA as it meant Scarlett was left out of this clip despite being a pretty important figure in WOL.
Not having Nestea mentioned anywhere feels simply wrong. The man carried zerg for long time on its own, did things that were thought impossible (banelings vs thors) and did a full GSL without losing a single set.
one thing ive learned in the past 3 years is too much of something is defintely bad. while i enjoy the occasional tournament, my sc2 interest has waned
nice writeup and awesome video... boxer... nostalgia overwhelming... Need to do get into dia before the hots release... And don't forget to proxy a rax per day for the emperor
Amazing article, so awesome to get to read your articles in english Admins, idk how it works here at all, but imo this article deserves to be in TL news and articles, not just in "spotlight"
Hey, I just noticed the link for the first graph is missing (winrate per race) : it's from the awesome http://www.starcrafttrends.com/ website !! Sorry about that.
Wow i don't know whats a bigger travesty, calling sc2 the best rts ever, or the preciptuous adoption of the term bonjwa in a game that hasn't had any players who in terms of strength, results, or impact are up to the classical standards of being a bonjwa. Additionally this article reads like it was written by a wc3 player, who's knowledge of brood war doesn't wxtend beyond the names Flash and Jaedong.
On February 19 2013 11:04 Assirra wrote: Not having Nestea mentioned anywhere feels simply wrong. The man carried zerg for long time on its own, did things that were thought impossible (banelings vs thors) and did a full GSL without losing a single set.
Yeah nestea was a god, sad that people these days seems to forget how gooe he actually was a big period of wol.
On February 18 2013 13:58 JunkkaGom wrote: No mention of Fruitdealer? Also GSL finals between Genius and DRG had about 5,000 live spectators. GSL is Starcraft only tournament
Thanks for clarifying. A lot of people thought this might be true, but its nice to have an authority figure set us straight.
I see so much bias and missing stuff in the OP :D Fruitdealer, nestea's perfect run, IS2, stephano everywhere, mc as the first protoss to win a gsl, ...
If we take MVP, and then compare the tournament structure of sc2 compared to sc:bw, then he was actually way more dominant than most of the bonjwas. There was way fewer tournaments in sc:bw than sc2 in comparrisson and the timespan is also way different, so if anything, Mvp is certainly more of a bonjwa than say iloveoov, who probably had the least dominating era out of the 5 in sc:bw. If we aslo take money into consideration we will see that SK.MC has earned more, but almost 100k came about 3 months before the rise of Mvp, in a seperate year, where the average winning prize of a GSL was at 87k for 1st place and not 43k as Mvp won whenever he emerged champion of a GSL.
MvP has won 10 vs the 7 major championships of MC, and has been over a shorter period of time, so while nothing is certain, as the term of being a bonjwa needs radical changes to fit into the tournament style of SC2, MvP is certainly a bonjwa and has overall dominated completely the scene in WOL. Everytime someone has beaten him in a bo5 or more, it has been seen has a miracle, I mean, who can compete with that?
On February 17 2013 01:26 thezanursic wrote: I don't think Eve deserves to be on the list...
Well it's not a list of "skilled players winning tournaments", but rather various interesting benchmarks and achievements. As stated in the OP (and as you should know if you've been around here for a while) she was the first actual female pro-gamer, you know, signed with a legit team (a huge team at the time, to boot). It doesn't matter that she was perhaps inferior to players like Aphrodite or Flo at the time, or even thousands of male pro-gamers, semi-pro-gamers and casual Master league players, she's there because she was the first female signing.
Should this matter? That's not up to your or I to decide, but rather the community as a whole.
On February 23 2013 10:39 Cinim wrote: If we take MVP, and then compare the tournament structure of sc2 compared to sc:bw, then he was actually way more dominant than most of the bonjwas. There was way fewer tournaments in sc:bw than sc2 in comparrisson and the timespan is also way different, so if anything, Mvp is certainly more of a bonjwa than say iloveoov, who probably had the least dominating era out of the 5 in sc:bw. If we aslo take money into consideration we will see that SK.MC has earned more, but almost 100k came about 3 months before the rise of Mvp, in a seperate year, where the average winning prize of a GSL was at 87k for 1st place and not 43k as Mvp won whenever he emerged champion of a GSL.
MvP has won 10 vs the 7 major championships of MC, and has been over a shorter period of time, so while nothing is certain, as the term of being a bonjwa needs radical changes to fit into the tournament style of SC2, MvP is certainly a bonjwa and has overall dominated completely the scene in WOL. Everytime someone has beaten him in a bo5 or more, it has been seen has a miracle, I mean, who can compete with that?
Tournament wins in SC2 do not = winning an OSL or MSL, and it doesn't even take into affect proleague stats. I don't think a lot of people understand what Bonjwa represents or means. IMO people were quick to jump the gun calling Flash one and he is arguably one of the greatest BW players to ever exist.
On February 27 2013 22:04 Evangelist wrote: I know you gotta blow the horn of your own former player and all but wasn't the first major foreign win over Korean competition Thorzain in TSL3?
Well, teeeeechnically, Naama beat oGsTOP at DreamHack Winter 2010 and won the whole thing.
On February 23 2013 10:39 Cinim wrote: If we take MVP, and then compare the tournament structure of sc2 compared to sc:bw, then he was actually way more dominant than most of the bonjwas. There was way fewer tournaments in sc:bw than sc2 in comparrisson and the timespan is also way different, so if anything, Mvp is certainly more of a bonjwa than say iloveoov, who probably had the least dominating era out of the 5 in sc:bw. If we aslo take money into consideration we will see that SK.MC has earned more, but almost 100k came about 3 months before the rise of Mvp, in a seperate year, where the average winning prize of a GSL was at 87k for 1st place and not 43k as Mvp won whenever he emerged champion of a GSL.
MvP has won 10 vs the 7 major championships of MC, and has been over a shorter period of time, so while nothing is certain, as the term of being a bonjwa needs radical changes to fit into the tournament style of SC2, MvP is certainly a bonjwa and has overall dominated completely the scene in WOL. Everytime someone has beaten him in a bo5 or more, it has been seen has a miracle, I mean, who can compete with that?
Please don't talk shit about based oov who has NEVER lost in OSL/MSL finals. 5/5 appearances so have some respect.
EPT![[image loading]](http://static.mnium.org/images/contenu/actus/Bannieres/sc2_wings_of_liberty.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://static.mnium.org/images/contenu/actus/sc2/sc2_timeline_wol_sd.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/PGwTASk.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://static.mnium.org/images/contenu/actus/sc2/Dossier_trois_ans/huk-idra.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://static.mnium.org/images/contenu/actus/sc2/Dossier_trois_ans/bw_boxer.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://static.mnium.org/images/contenu/actus/sc2/Dossier_trois_ans/Flash_elo.png)
![[image loading]](http://static.mnium.org/images/contenu/actus/sc2/Dossier_trois_ans/sc2_mvp_award.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://static.mnium.org/images/contenu/actus/sc2/Dossier_trois_ans/sc2_life_is.jpg)
