WCS 2013 Format, Players, Prizes and Point Details - Page 16

Edit - This post was meant to be on page 15 (though as I was writing it, it's on page 16 and people are now talking about the main topic against instead of SC2's status in South Korea >.>).

In terms of maybe why BW is still doing better in South Korea compared to SC2:

I think one of the major disappointing things in SC2 the lack of ability for a lot of units to be microed in the way like in BW. Like dancing Mutalisks back and forth for example (how you can move back and forth with a unit without losing speed/acceleration while they attack or drop, like with Mutalisk, Vultures, and Shuttles + Reavers). (I say "dance" instead of "moveshot" because when people say or think of moveshot, they think simply just attacking and moving at the same time "but" that's only one part of it. When you moveshot, you simply order a unit to attack something, then you quickly order the unit to move. Dancing around, is more complicated than that because it requires you to attack the units directly, or you need to make sure the unit is facing the target before you issue an attack move/hold position or else the unit will slow down before attacking. In terms of patrol micro, you need to gauge the distant between your mutalisks and your opponent's scourge before using patrol, then once you patrol, you need to immediately move the same direction your Mutalisks were already moving.)

When you see something like this, you probably would want to like to have it in the sequel too:
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I say the whole easy vs harder debate leads to the wrong conclusion of what is actually missing with SC2 from BW.

I say both SC2 and BW have relatively the same "skill ceiling" (in the sense it's hard to be the top player - Players have proven there is a skill gap and a skill ceiling, like with Life and MVP [During MVP's prime]). What SC2 lacks compared to BW is more ways to micro individual units (and lots of players liked playing with a small group of individual units and doing fancy things with them), which is more of a "skill room" thing (well not sure if that's an accurate way of saying it).

Here is an analogy I made with Chess Boxing (as "skill ceiling" vs just a bigger "skill room")
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Now, the issue isn't "SC2 isn't hard enough", it's "you can only play a certain way to win SC2" compared to BW (in BW, you could win with a lot of games by just controlling your units better than your opponent).

(That's also why I think Flash, out of TBLS, is doing the best in SC2. Flash is most known for his game sense rather than his mechanics in BW compared to the other 3. And in SC2, game sense and strategy matters more than how well you control you can micro your units, which is potential why Bisu, Jaedong, and Stork aren't doing as well as Flash... of course it could be because Flash is just Flash.)

The point isn't that BW is hard though. The point is that BW had more ways to use/control your units (and more ways to have fun) than in SC2. And that point isn't just about any micro trick (using your Widow Mines and switching targets back and forth quickly to hold fire isn't very fun or practical for example).


It's how units like Mutalisk could be microed (which were actually easy to pull off, very practical to use, and satisfying and fun to pull off correctly).

I really think that simply adding in some form of moveshot/dancing that is as similar to BW as possible (and adding the Reaver back) can really make SC2 that much of a better game. (Obviously some things, like using a unit far away in your control group to stack air units should be done in a different way.)

That's one of the major differences between what you can do in BW compared to SC2, and I don't think it would be a big deal if they tried to add some form of that in SC2.

Back to the BW vs SC2 in terms of difficulty discussion again - I say the only real hard thing (compared to SC2) in BW is the control groups being limited (to 12) and the fact you can't build stuff if you have 2 or more workers selected (and you can't shift/queue build with structures the same way you can in SC2).

Things like lack of automine and multiple building select in BW is countered by macro mechanics in SC2 (larva injects, creep spreading, and making sure your structures are chrono boosted are acceptable replacements IMO).

Things like being able to micro or dance your Mutalisk in BW isn't something that makes BW "harder", it makes the game better by allowing the player more ways to play the game their style. So, that's why I said saying SC2 is an easier game than BW is the wrong approach IMO. The only real "hard for the sake of being hard" things in BW is (again) the control groups and how workers can't build stuff if you have two or more selected. SC2 introduces a few macro mechanics for each race that counters the addition of automine and MBS, like managing your queen with larva injects (for example).