• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 15:00
CEST 21:00
KST 04:00
  • 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
[ASL21] Ro16 Preview Pt2: All Star10Team Liquid Map Contest #22 - The Finalists16[ASL21] Ro16 Preview Pt1: Fresh Flow9[ASL21] Ro24 Preview Pt2: News Flash10[ASL21] Ro24 Preview Pt1: New Chaos0
Community News
2026 GSL Season 1 Qualifiers13Maestros of the Game 2 announced82026 GSL Tour plans announced14Weekly Cups (April 6-12): herO doubles, "Villains" prevail1MaNa leaves Team Liquid24
StarCraft 2
General
Maestros of the Game 2 announced Team Liquid Map Contest #22 - The Finalists MaNa leaves Team Liquid 2026 GSL Tour plans announced Blizzard Classic Cup @ BlizzCon 2026 - $100k prize pool
Tourneys
Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament 2026 GSL Season 1 Qualifiers GSL CK: More events planned pending crowdfunding RSL Revival: Season 5 - Qualifiers and Main Event Master Swan Open (Global Bronze-Master 2)
Strategy
Custom Maps
[D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3 [A] Nemrods 1/4 players [M] (2) Frigid Storage
External Content
Mutation # 522 Flip My Base The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 521 Memorable Boss Mutation # 520 Moving Fees
Brood War
General
Pros React To: ASL S21, Ro.16 Group C BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ ASL21 General Discussion [TOOL] Starcraft Chat Translator Data needed
Tourneys
[ASL21] Ro16 Group D [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL21] Ro16 Group C [ASL21] Ro16 Group B
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers What's the deal with APM & what's its true value Any training maps people recommend? Fighting Spirit mining rates
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread Dawn of War IV Starcraft Tabletop Miniature Game General RTS Discussion Thread Battle Aces/David Kim RTS Megathread
Dota 2
The Story of Wings Gaming
League of Legends
G2 just beat GenG in First stand
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas TL Mafia Community Thread Five o'clock TL Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread YouTube Thread
Fan Clubs
The IdrA Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread [Manga] One Piece [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books Movie Discussion!
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion McBoner: A hockey love story Cricket [SPORT]
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
[G] How to Block Livestream Ads
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Sexual Health Of Gamers
TrAiDoS
lurker extra damage testi…
StaticNine
Broowar part 2
qwaykee
Funny Nicknames
LUCKY_NOOB
Iranian anarchists: organize…
XenOsky
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 2281 users

How come SC2 results are so unpredictable? - Page 3

Forum Index > SC2 General
Post a Reply
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 12 13 14 Next All
LockeTazeline
Profile Blog Joined June 2012
2390 Posts
December 11 2013 14:08 GMT
#41
No foreigners won a premier. That sounds fairly predictable.

Copymizer
Profile Joined November 2010
Denmark2107 Posts
December 11 2013 14:09 GMT
#42
On December 11 2013 23:08 LockeTazeline wrote:
No foreigners won a premier. That sounds fairly predictable.


10/10
~~Yo man ! MBCGame HERO Fighting !! Holy check !
Dreamsmasher2
Profile Joined August 2013
Canada38 Posts
December 11 2013 14:11 GMT
#43
The top koreans are just way to good for this game and there is alot of them, so when you put all of them in the same tournament they will all place high but its pretty unpredictable who wins the whole thing.
Nebuchad
Profile Blog Joined December 2012
Switzerland12449 Posts
December 11 2013 14:11 GMT
#44
We're underestimating how much the fact that we have so many tournaments a year plays a part in this.
No will to live, no wish to die
TAMinator
Profile Joined February 2011
Australia2706 Posts
December 11 2013 14:11 GMT
#45
If someone was to write an article on variance in the SC2 esports, it could easily be over 10k words. There's too many factors.
Scorch
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
Austria3371 Posts
December 11 2013 14:16 GMT
#46
There's just a lot that can go wrong even if you are a good player: you can get your worst matchup often, someone counters your style or prepares a cheese, unfavorable maps for the matchup, conflicting schedules with other tournaments cutting into your preparation time, jetlag, the metagame making your style obsolete, build order losses, being blind countered, getting unlucky any number of ways in a game, drawing a hard tournament bracket or simply having a bad day. All of this results in even a great player on a hot streak losing about a third of his games.
Darkhorse
Profile Blog Joined December 2011
United States23455 Posts
December 11 2013 14:21 GMT
#47
I'm sorry all I read was aLive was one of the only two players to make the round of 8 twice at a season finals. Wow that guy is so good and stuff.
WriterRecently Necro'd (?)
Apolo
Profile Joined May 2010
Portugal1259 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-12-11 14:25:18
December 11 2013 14:21 GMT
#48
On December 11 2013 21:46 papaz wrote:
My opinions:

- Depth of micro is not enough

- Whoever wins the first big fight tend to win the game - comebacks are virtually non existent

- Units die too fast so it doesn't matter if you are Flash/Jaedong/Soulkey. If you happen to not pay attention for a sec enough units can be killed so that you more or less already have lost

- Games reach max limits very fast. Macro is easy and not rewarding so players like Flash "can't outmacro" the opponent just as easy because the difference between the worst pro and best pro at macro isn't that big


So I guess it's a combination of not enough depth and the volalite units vs too much dps.


I think this guy answered the question pretty well. The first 3 points i've been saying for years. Not only is that bad for players but for spectators. How many times have we watched a 15min game of nothing but small pokes, everyone with anticipation of that battle (nothing more exciting after all) end in 10s, with no hope of comeback ?

I would just say, however, that a lot of the automation that SC2 brough is good. I wouldn't want to have to do a lot of things that are nothing but mechanical boring actions like taking a probe when it spawns and putting it to mine. In that regard, SC2 is pretty good. However, the developers, i find, didn't find a balance between easy and hard. In SC2 there are things that are much easier than BW (rally points, shortcut keys, etc), but also much harder (1second distraction = gg because units die too fast). It makes SC2 a very volatile game, because, on the one hand, all the top players master the easy things to perfection, but the super hard ones, are actually too hard for them to be consistently good at.

I always loved the potential of this game, but the developers' arrogance in thinking they know what they're doing, and fuck what we gamers think, is driving me, and i know for experience, many others away.

It is very hard to change the way someone think, and in these years since Wings of Liberty came out, little did the developers change theirs. If i was Activision / Blizzard, i would consider hiring a new developer crew for the sake of this game.
tili
Profile Joined July 2012
United States1332 Posts
December 11 2013 14:23 GMT
#49
Jaedong is not random.
StarStruck
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
25339 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-12-11 14:30:57
December 11 2013 14:28 GMT
#50
OP says unpredictable. I say it isn't that unpredictable and what do you know. I win a lot of money off making bets. It is true many players can win on any given Sunday; however, considering a lot of the tournaments are Western style LANs it's very easy to separate the contenders by looking for the guys that run hot and then you apply following criteria:

- match-up/map
- who are they playing and what's their history?
- consistencies
- where does the player normally finished? (Look back at the last several events)
- consider patch notes and other changes
- how do they normally lose if they were to lose?

Anyway, there are a lot of players out there who are very consistent when it comes down to where they finish and how they lose. That's the most important thing to take away from this.
MrMatt
Profile Joined August 2010
Canada225 Posts
December 11 2013 14:28 GMT
#51
On December 11 2013 23:08 LockeTazeline wrote:
No foreigners won a premier. That sounds fairly predictable.



12/10 (did the extractor trick for you)
TLWINDRUNNER
Profile Joined November 2013
36 Posts
December 11 2013 14:31 GMT
#52
On December 11 2013 21:35 urboss wrote:What do you think is the reason for this unpredictability of results?

- Is the skill level required for Starcraft 2 too low?

- Do the players that win tournaments relax too much after the win?

- Are the random elements of the game (fog of war) the reason for random results?

- Is the skill level of the top players too even because of the same training regimes?


1 | Whether mechanics influence the outcome of a match enough to allow superior players to overcome build order disadvantages against inferior players is subject to opinion.

2 | Everyone has off-days, everyone experiences ebb and flow in motivation, etc.

3 | Imperfect information obviously leads to randomness.

4 | Too even? What kind of wording of a question is this.

That said, I'm not sure why you would mind unpredictability. I mean, I wouldn't mind if Flash played well, but I'd rather a noname won with amazing play than Flash or whoever won with mediocre play. For instance, the tournament Jaedong won recently. It's hard to get excited about that when his opponent managed to fucking lose with an enormous bo-advantage (JD 9 Pool 8 ling vs 10 Pool 6 ling), but that's slightly off-topic I guess - just my personal rant.
WINDRUNNER*
goody153
Profile Blog Joined April 2013
44260 Posts
December 11 2013 14:31 GMT
#53
Just my guess on why its unpredictable.

- Working really hard doesn't pay of as much as broodwar since the skill cap is lower in sc2 due to lesser oppotunity to micro your heart out if your units are not named "marines" or "marauders".

- Planning a series is incredibly important since you can outstrategies opponents with build orders who may be better than you.

- Or maybe i am wrong and its just that there is kinda too many top players that i think the competition in the TOP is way too fierce and too close to call one player so dominating.

- Mirror matches that is not tvt is kinda coinflippy.

- It could be the never ending beta patch style of sc2 may hurt at times. Not saying that some of the patches are not needed like hellbat-nerf.

- The meta game is still too young or still evolving unlike broodwar who had a decade of time for meta game to evolve.

This is what i think at least anyways.
this is a quote
Caladan
Profile Joined May 2008
Germany1238 Posts
December 11 2013 14:35 GMT
#54
That's like the 500th thread about this topic.

In Short:
- The skill ceiling in Sc2 is too low, so on top level everyone can beat everyone. Victories are determined by daily form, small advantages and luck.
- Lack of scouting possibilities in early game leads to more all-in-play and build order wins/losses.
- Lack of defender high ground advantage leads to more static game play and one-battle-takes-it-all games. You win one battle and your opponent needs to gg because there are barely possibilities to defend with fewer units against far more units.

So, that's it. There cannot be something like a Bonjwa in SC2.
StarStruck
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
25339 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-12-11 14:49:27
December 11 2013 14:39 GMT
#55
I haven't used liquibet in a long time. Like I said, I like winning money bets so can someone enlighten me on the percentages in the top 100? I'd believe there are guys who are running at around 70% at the very least.

I wouldn't call the game young, the patches just speed-up the process of evolving and the patches in BW dried up ages ago man lol. Blizzard could keep making changes and the game would just go in cycles forever.

Anyway, like I said there are a lot of guys who are consistent especially at the top result wise and when a player does start to falter it's easy to make connections as to why. Reality is if you know your Starcraft you will make good predictions most of the time.
opterown *
Profile Blog Joined August 2011
Australia54784 Posts
December 11 2013 14:43 GMT
#56
i find the thinly veiled BW elitism in some of these posts rather amusing
ModeratorRetired LR Bonjwa
TL+ Member
Plansix
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
United States60190 Posts
December 11 2013 14:45 GMT
#57
Why would they be predictable in the first place? They are more predictable that professional sports. Or Dota 2 for that matter. If the outcome of a series is not what we expect, why would it be anything more than one player came more prepared that the other.
I have the Honor to be your Obedient Servant, P.6
TL+ Member
imre
Profile Blog Joined November 2011
France9263 Posts
December 11 2013 14:47 GMT
#58
the amount of people who suck at guessing the outcome of a game and blame it on the game instead of their own shortsights in this thread is amazing.
Zest fanboy.
StarStruck
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
25339 Posts
December 11 2013 14:47 GMT
#59
On December 11 2013 22:29 mihajovics wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 11 2013 21:47 marvellosity wrote:
You'll probably get a load of different responses about the nature of the game, but in part it's simply because series are so short. BO3s and BO5s are really incredibly volatile things.

It's kinda like playing only one set in tennis.

In chess, you get tournaments where it's all play all (usually) so everyone has the whole tournament to perform. In FIDE's short knockout world championships in the 90s and 2000s, there were a lot of "random" chess 'world champions' - Khalifman, Ponamariov, Khazimdzhanov (spelling) - random, quite strong GMs, but not actually world class. These tournaments are a pretty good equivalent of how SC2 tournaments are structured tbh, and the outcome is STILL really unpredictable, even though chess is a game of perfect information/much less (if any) luck.



Ponomariov not world class??? what are you smoking???
he was an absolute prodigy with easily the potential to become the undisputed world champion, so sad that FIDE and Kasparov screw him over this bad, he could never recover psychologically.

otherwise, I agree in principle, yet BW had the same system as SC2 and there were definitely a dominance of the top 3 (flash-jaedong-bisu), so it's probably a combination of the volatile nature of knock out tournaments and not enough depth / too much randomness in the game itself.

EDIT: there are about 600 million people who know how to play chess, around 200 million who actively play it online, 2 million registered, competitive players... so being in the top 100 at any time in your career is definitely world class status I would say, and Ponomariov has been there constantly for the past 10 years


With regards to the italics, this is somewhat false if we look at the most recent turn of events regarding the Individual Leagues. I've told people many times over that Bisu became irrelevant in Individual Leagues a long time ago. He hasn't qualified for a OSL/MSL since 2010 and guess what he died to in back-to-back prelims? Hydra busts. To this day, he still struggles against hydra busts. Flash didn't win the last few majors either. Fantasy and JangBi overrode the system. Jaedong is another character who kept getting knocked out in the late rounds for the MSL/OSL as well. In other words, they weren't really the dominant forces everyone knew in the end when it came to individual leagues. They still did well in Pro League, but their results were below expectations near the end of those leagues for BW.
Plansix
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
United States60190 Posts
December 11 2013 14:48 GMT
#60
On December 11 2013 23:43 opterown wrote:
i find the thinly veiled BW elitism in some of these posts rather amusing

I love the totally flawed argument: results not predictable = skill level on the game must be to low.

Like people could predict Alliance being knocked out of MLG or Speed winning over DK, even with a stand in. Clearly Dota 2 is a low skill game because of these unpredictable outcomes.
I have the Honor to be your Obedient Servant, P.6
TL+ Member
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 12 13 14 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 5h 1m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
mouzHeroMarine 335
IndyStarCraft 189
UpATreeSC 148
ProTech133
Railgan 109
BRAT_OK 75
MindelVK 6
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 20174
Calm 3695
BeSt 340
Rush 208
firebathero 115
Dewaltoss 97
Bale 19
Terrorterran 15
IntoTheRainbow 10
ajuk12(nOOB) 7
Dota 2
Pyrionflax12
Counter-Strike
pashabiceps2800
fl0m2396
byalli937
SPUNJ143
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King69
Heroes of the Storm
Liquid`Hasu316
Other Games
Grubby2816
FrodaN796
B2W.Neo699
Sick200
C9.Mang0187
Trikslyr163
DeMusliM144
QueenE67
Organizations
StarCraft 2
ComeBackTV 702
Other Games
BasetradeTV294
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 20 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• StrangeGG 64
• Shameless 30
• Reevou 3
• iHatsuTV 2
• Migwel
• sooper7s
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
StarCraft: Brood War
• 80smullet 13
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• WagamamaTV622
League of Legends
• TFBlade1751
Counter-Strike
• Nemesis1669
Other Games
• imaqtpie1061
• Shiphtur167
Upcoming Events
Replay Cast
5h 1m
The PondCast
15h 1m
KCM Race Survival
15h 1m
WardiTV Map Contest Tou…
16h 1m
Gerald vs herO
Clem vs Cure
ByuN vs Solar
Rogue vs MaxPax
ShoWTimE vs TBD
OSC
20h 1m
CranKy Ducklings
1d 5h
Escore
1d 15h
RSL Revival
1d 22h
Replay Cast
2 days
WardiTV Map Contest Tou…
2 days
[ Show More ]
Universe Titan Cup
2 days
Rogue vs Percival
Ladder Legends
2 days
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
2 days
BSL
3 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3 days
WardiTV Map Contest Tou…
3 days
Ladder Legends
3 days
BSL
4 days
Replay Cast
4 days
Replay Cast
4 days
Wardi Open
4 days
Afreeca Starleague
4 days
Soma vs hero
Monday Night Weeklies
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Afreeca Starleague
5 days
Leta vs YSC
Replay Cast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-04-20
RSL Revival: Season 4
NationLESS Cup

Ongoing

BSL Season 22
ASL Season 21
CSL 2026 SPRING (S20)
IPSL Spring 2026
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 2
StarCraft2 Community Team League 2026 Spring
WardiTV TLMC #16
Nations Cup 2026
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League S23 Finals
ESL Pro League S23 Stage 1&2
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
IEM Kraków 2026

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S2: W4
Acropolis #4
BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
CSLAN 4
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Maestros of the Game 2
2026 GSL S2
RSL Revival: Season 5
2026 GSL S1
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
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.