There's been a lot of discussion about LOTV and whether it will "fix" the game (if the game even needs fixing), how balanced it will be, etc.
However, I believe that Blizzard, and the community, have made a major oversight. While steps are being taken to address potential imbalances with warp gate mechanics, there is another feature of the Protoss race which is totally unbalanced, and which hasn't been addressed at all.
I'm talking, of course, about the extreme amounts of swag that the Protoss race have thus far had in SC2. When you compare the three races, it is clear that Protoss have imbalanced levels of swag.
Going back to BW, this was not the case. Some members of the Protoss race had swag, but it was spread fairly evenly across all three races--in fact, the BW player with arguably the most swag was a Terran, FireBatHero.
However, in the transition to SC2, it has become increasingly obvious that Protoss as a race have taken up an unfair percentage of overall swag.
The two clearest examples of this are, of course, MC and PartinG. Nobody in SC2 has as much Swag as these two.
MC, of course, is the master of ceremonies, the Boss Toss, has more awesome english quotes than most players who actually speak English as a first language.
And Parting...
I think this quote from the New Yorker sums it up
During breaks between matches at the Lincoln, the producers aired personalizing video interviews with the contestants, mostly using subtitles, and it was easy, for an American raised on Mike Tyson and Neon Deion, to see why Scarlett’s differentiation seemed to matter. Here was Bomber: “Every single loss is a life lesson.” And last year’s world champion, sOs: “In my opinion, I don’t have the strongest mind-set as a professional player.” (He noted, “I think we’re all equally handsome.”) A relative newcomer named Trap: “When I was a rookie, I had the wrong mind-set toward losses. . . . I was overwhelmed with pessimism. I think that’s what kept me from coming out of my shell.” DongRaeGu: “I can utilize Red Bull Battle Grounds as potent fertilizer for a rich harvest next season.” He added, “I can’t stand being smacked around any longer.” Scarlett (whose reticence, in this instance, was pretty much the norm): “Mostly, success for me would be about being happy.” Only PartinG diverted from the humble messaging. “I am one of the gods,” he said.
Its clear that in SC2 there has been an imbalanced concentration of swag in the top tiers of the Protoss race, so much so that it even trickles down to less impressive Protoss.
For example, Genius was never the most accomplished SC2 player, but he was consistently top 3 in Swag, far ahead of many Zerg and Terran who were more successful players. How else to explain this disparity in swag levels then by some fundamental racial imbalance?
So the question is, will LotV change this, or will we continue to see Protoss with overpowered levels of swag for the lifetime of SC2? The future of the game itself hangs in the balance.
I think both the community and Blizzard need to work together to help repair the disparity in swag we see in the current climate of StarCraft 2. Currently Protoss have the ability to proxy nexus as BM, but manner mules are simply not enough.
-Balance: Blizzard needs to implement ways for Neural to quickly build Terran and Protoss structures quicker. For Terran they should also implement new taunt-like unit dances to help aid the problem.
-Training: Sponsors should host manatory swag training for their teams to maintain sponsorship
I believe that the future of LotV and swag in SC2 is bright, but we'll all need to pitch in.
As a protoss player, I find myself celebrating hard-earned wins on ladder with mass twilight councils and chronoboost in my opponent's base. I can't do anything like this as a terran or zerg player as their mechanics don't allow for it. Additionally, zealot dancing is way cooler than marine/zergling dancing, and I can spam FFs on my opponent's production buildings, an ability which is unmatched in either the zerg or terran race
I've actually often wondered why this is, you even see that there are more protoss commentators than zerg or terran (maybe even zerg and terran combined?)
Damn, it's actually so true. I used to have friends and a social life and was doing well back when I played protoss. Since I switched to zerg I've lost all that :/
On November 18 2014 06:35 SetGuitarsToKill wrote: Damn, it's actually so true. I used to have friends and a social life and was doing well back when I played protoss. Since I switched to zerg I've lost all that :/
I need my swagger back damn it!
My friends would gather around me when I played protoss and they would watch me crush my opponents with tons of lasers. But when I switched to terran to BC rush they lost their sc2 passion and started playing LoL and minecraft
On November 18 2014 06:35 SetGuitarsToKill wrote: Damn, it's actually so true. I used to have friends and a social life and was doing well back when I played protoss. Since I switched to zerg I've lost all that :/
I need my swagger back damn it!
My friends would gather around me when I played protoss and they would watch me crush my opponents with tons of lasers. But when I switched to terran to BC rush they lost their sc2 passion and started playing LoL and minecraft
Lasers = Swag confirmed. Who knew that Pink Floyd knew swag better than the rest of us.
Ugh, this old bit again. Guys, all the swaggest player just happen to be Protoss. The swagging mechanics are perfectly acceptable in-game. You can tell that some teams are better at swag than others - for example, Jin Air had the best swag of all 3 races for a solid month.
They probably also work harder at swag.
You won't get that kind of dedication to the swag from your typical Zerg - he'll just Tweet about it.
On November 18 2014 06:40 Circumstance wrote: Ugh, this old bit again. Guys, all the swaggest player just happen to be Protoss. The swagging mechanics are perfectly acceptable in-game. You can tell that some teams are better at swag than others - for example, Jin Air had the best swag of all 3 races for a solid month.
You won't get that kind of dedication to the swag from your typical Zerg - he'll just Tweet about it.
Even Scarlett only tweeted about it when she picked protoss. That's not swag enough, she needed to do a ceremony in order to be an honorary swag protoss
On November 18 2014 06:40 Circumstance wrote: Ugh, this old bit again. Guys, all the swaggest player just happen to be Protoss. The swagging mechanics are perfectly acceptable in-game. You can tell that some teams are better at swag than others - for example, Jin Air had the best swag of all 3 races for a solid month.
You won't get that kind of dedication to the swag from your typical Zerg - he'll just Tweet about it.
Even Scarlett only tweeted about it when she picked protoss. That's not swag enough, she needed to do a ceremony in order to be an honorary swag protoss
Unless she accepts the light of the Khala into her heart, she won't have enough swag to pull off a ceremony.
Admittedly, Bbyong showed us with his Gangnam style build that there are ways that terran can be swag where protoss can not. However, Bbyong is just above any talk about swag balance and can't really be considered when looking at overall percentages.
On November 18 2014 06:48 Blacklizard wrote: It's true, but it's so part of the game I'm not sure how they can revamp the game to give more swag to the other races without calling it SC3.
Well, LotV has huge changes coming, so they could revamp the swagger system to require more swag expansion across the map, which could benefit terrans and zergs more than protoss
EPT
