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Austria24422 Posts
Blizzard have released four new maps to be introduced in 2018 Season 1. However, the date, set at January 23rd, has caused some concerns among professional players — the patch date is set only three days before WCS Leipzig begins.
The qualifiers for Leipzig were played on the current map pool, but if the patch goes through as planned, players would be forced to play on new maps only three days after their official release. For now, they are available only in Melee modes — for testing. In their official post, Blizzard ask players for feedback on maps, perhaps indicating there might yet be changes to them before they are introduced to the ladder.
In turn, Blizzard have stated that Abyssal Reef, Odyssey, Ascension to Aiur and Battle of the Boardwalk would be removed. The first three have been mainstays in tournaments for months, so a sudden switch away from arguably the most standard maps might hit players especially hard.
As a result, a number of players have already expressed their frustration towards the decision.
CatZ, in turn, has written a response on Reddit defending the decision. Blizzard have not responded to the criticism thus far.
You can read Blizzard's update on the new map pool here.
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Adapting to new maps is a skill that matters in Starcraft. I totally agree with CatZ here.
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It's fucking retarded and nothing else than what I've learned to expect from Blizzard 
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On January 18 2018 18:08 Timmay wrote:
Adapting to new maps is a skill that matters in Starcraft. I totally agree with CatZ here.
What if some map reveal themselves as VERY unbalance in the hands of pro players... it could easily screw up a tournament
All of that could have been avoided easily with releasing the new map pool during the off season '--
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Finland965 Posts
Going to side with ShoWTimE here, this is just poor timing on Blizzard's part.
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I have to agree with CatZ here. Everyone has the same amount of time to prepare. In addition, as Optimus pointed out, progamers want to do this professionally so they have to put in work anyway, at least a strong 8 hours a day. This being LotV and faster games, most of them will be prepared once the tournament starts, the strats don't change, it's not as if they have to determine a whole new meta.
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On January 18 2018 18:08 Timmay wrote:
Adapting to new maps is a skill that matters in Starcraft. I totally agree with CatZ here.
At the cost of voiding a lot of practice and preparation skills. From a viewer's standpoint it's not great gameplay either to see players randomly losing games since they don't know the proxy locations on the map. It's also a good way of ensuring that almost the entire tournament will be played on Catalyst/Blackpink/Neon Violet thus reducing the map diversity seen.
On January 18 2018 18:19 Mun_Su wrote:Show nested quote +On January 18 2018 18:08 Timmay wrote:
Adapting to new maps is a skill that matters in Starcraft. I totally agree with CatZ here. What if some map reveal themselves as VERY unbalance in the hands of pro players... it could easily screw up a tournament All of that could have been avoided easily with releasing the new map pool during the off season '--
Imbalance is the one thing I'm not worried about. It takes longer than the pros have to figure out the maps optimally to exploit things.
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On January 18 2018 18:08 Timmay wrote:
Adapting to new maps is a skill that matters in Starcraft. I totally agree with CatZ here.
I don't think this element is good when a player won a map because he knows the fresh map better.
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It's all a question of temperament. Some people enjoy chaotic nonsense where players are fumbling in the dark trying to figure everything out. Then again, some of us enjoy it when the dust has settled a little bit more.
That's from a spectator's point of view. As for the competitive players, I think most of them prefer having ample time to learn the ins and outs of new maps (thats not even considering the possibility of the new maps being awful).
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On January 18 2018 18:19 Mun_Su wrote:
What if some map reveal themselves as VERY unbalance in the hands of pro players... it could easily screw up a tournament
Unless a map is terrible, you won't know map balance until it is used in tournaments.
On January 18 2018 18:29 Dingodile wrote:
I don't think this element is good when a player won a map because he knows the fresh map better.
That's exactly what I want to see. Players should be rewarded for better preparation instead of using the same builds they have been using for months.
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On January 18 2018 18:44 Timmay wrote:Show nested quote +On January 18 2018 18:19 Mun_Su wrote:
What if some map reveal themselves as VERY unbalance in the hands of pro players... it could easily screw up a tournament Unless a map is terrible, you won't know map balance until it is used in tournaments. Show nested quote +On January 18 2018 18:29 Dingodile wrote:
I don't think this element is good when a player won a map because he knows the fresh map better. That's exactly what I want to see. Players should be rewarded for better preparation instead of using the same builds they have been using for months.
better preperation aka doing a half arsed build on a map they couldn't practice on? games on new maps are very often trainwrecks, precisely because it takes time to figure out how to execute builds on them. You can't just load up a new map and say "fuck yeah dude ive got the sickest build here, lemme show u". It takes time to create and perfect a build.
That's also all disregarding the fact that SC has a history of being a game of perfectonism in skill, not doing 1 off cheeses on Moonlight Madness
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On January 18 2018 18:23 ZigguratOfUr wrote:Show nested quote +On January 18 2018 18:19 Mun_Su wrote:On January 18 2018 18:08 Timmay wrote:
Adapting to new maps is a skill that matters in Starcraft. I totally agree with CatZ here. What if some map reveal themselves as VERY unbalance in the hands of pro players... it could easily screw up a tournament All of that could have been avoided easily with releasing the new map pool during the off season '-- Imbalance is the one thing I'm not worried about. It takes longer than the pros have to figure out the maps optimally to exploit things.
I feel like it takes longer for people to adapt to maps than to learn where to exploit things. Some maps have been quite unbalanced, and it takes time for people to learn how to defend on those maps. This change also favours people who use allins and proxies.
You are right that people need time to exploit a map, but conversely, they need time to learn to defend those exploits, and I feel like the counters to such strategies are usually found after those strategies occur.
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I expect Blizzard to delay the mappool change, they've been pretty responsive lately.
Not sure what Optimus is on
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I'd have to say for once I completely disagree with CatZ's point of view here. There are many parts in his write up that are just plain wrong in retrospect to some of the best T pushes ever seen due directly to map pool, or one off players in proleague.
But, in short, I think it's quite clear that most people are opposed to this. With that being a basic starting point, I think it is quite clear that regardless of ur stance Blizzard should at least try to communicate more with the professional players.... as literally every other eSport company already does (at least some variant of "more" communication than blizzard).
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I think this is a cool decision by blizz. at least, it makes things more exciting to watch
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United States33708 Posts
3 days prep time for a new map pool is pretty unreasonable, given what the established standards for StarCraft II tournaments have been historically. It's also wholly inconsistent with what kind of expectations WCS has set in the past (2017 had major WCS circuit events come at the end of a ladder season). And given the kind of players/skills BlizzCon tends to reward, it's very strange to have one of the steps to BlizzCon be run in such a divergent manner.
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Are they obliged by rules to use the current ladder pool? Can't they just play on the old maps even though the patch hits?
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Yeah, it's the same for everyone, but I don't see why they should do it. There's usually never map changes that close to big tournaments. Why start now?
Maps that make it that far are usually not broken in certain matchups, but you never know how a map plays out until it's been used a while. It might make some games more wonky, but I prefer the players having been given ample time to learn the new maps before being used in major events. Leipzig is one of 4-5 premier tournaments and I think it deserves better circumstances than new maps that close to the tournament.
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United States33708 Posts
at least one player is BURNING with happiness
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I'm surprised there even are people that agree with CatZ. We (ESL Italy) were blasted because we changed the map pool for an event with a one month's notice, and now people agree with a three day's notice map pool change wtf?!
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EPT
