Interview of Flash on LoL, BW, Mech, Ruler & Girl - Page 14

well, i think the issue is the disturbed balance between being active and being defensive in sc2.

in bw, terran had to be aggressive, mostly with bio openers, in tvz. in the lategame though, zerg got the upper hand. in tvp, by contrast, terran had to start defensively, but had the more potent lategame army. in zvp, zerg had the initiative in the early- and midgame, but in the very lategame, toss had the more potent army compositions.

so in bw, every race had the initiative in one matchup and the stronger lategame army in the other nonmirror. this kept things fresh and interesting for both spectators and players.


in sc2, things are very different. T has to be aggressive in both nonmirrors or they will get crushed. zerg is more defensively oriented and wants to defend until they reach a huge eco and ride that eco advantage to victory in the lategame. toss is like the only race with a mix: defensively oriented against T, but has to deal damage to zergs before their eco gets out of hand, ie an attack has to be coming before the lategame.

exceptions to this pattern are roach/bling and gateway all ins. all ins from terrans are no exception, they are to be expected.



but dont get me wrong: this change of initiative/reactive play patterns across matchups from bw to sc2 is not the cause but the symptom of the issue with sc2. the army compositions and matchups are designed in a way that plays out like that. for example, the lack of a strong lategame direct-engagement army from terrans is what makes them require early damage to win games. this is compensated by the abundant strength of their earlygame units, which stay viable (or rather necessary) into the lategame. but due to this early game strength, blizzard cannot simply buff Ts lategame compositions, like for example mech, because the race as a whole would get too strong then. so to solve the issue, we would require a buff to mech, for example by more flat damage on siege tanks, combined with a simultaneous nerf to, for example, marines.

something like that is almost impossible to pull off in a game that is as developed as sc2, with an ongoing tournament scene and lots of money and careers on the line. simply put, sc2 is and has always been fundamentally flawed at its very core, namely the racial interaction/the racial dynamics. imho this all stems from very early WoL, where terran had so many early harass option that it was ridiculous. they wanted to make terran a fancy, dynamic race and in the process fucked up the whole game.

nowadays, the situation (at least to me) seems beyond recovery. the analogy with michael jordan being told he now can only play baseball is quite fitting. i have the impression that flash is by far not the only bw legend who doesnt truely enjoy sc2. bisu and jd seem the same. their problem is just that they gave up their youth and educational prospects to develop their bw skills, which were kinda devaluated by the switch to sc2. but since they have such a big name, sponsor contracts, salaries and so on, there is no course of action that is more profitable or sensible than going on with the game, even if they dont enjoy it (anymore).

the younger generation of bw pros, like innovation, ty and soulkey, seem to have coped much better with the switch. but this maybe also has to do with age: you can only be a toptier progamer for so long before the desire for a social life, a girlfriend or a career plan after progaming starts distracting.


edit: sorry that my post got kinda out of hand and offtopic at the end.