• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 16:14
CEST 22:14
KST 05:14
  • 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
Power Rank - Esports World Cup 202574RSL Season 1 - Final Week9[ASL19] Finals Recap: Standing Tall15HomeStory Cup 27 - Info & Preview18Classic wins Code S Season 2 (2025)16
Community News
Google Play ASL (Season 20) Announced14BSL Team Wars - Bonyth, Dewalt, Hawk & Sziky teams10Weekly Cups (July 14-20): Final Check-up0Esports World Cup 2025 - Brackets Revealed19Weekly Cups (July 7-13): Classic continues to roll8
StarCraft 2
General
Power Rank - Esports World Cup 2025 What tournaments are world championships? I offer completely free coaching services #1: Maru - Greatest Players of All Time Server Blocker
Tourneys
Esports World Cup 2025 $25,000 Streamerzone StarCraft Pro Series announced $5,000 WardiTV Summer Championship 2025 WardiTV Mondays FEL Cracov 2025 (July 27) - $8000 live event
Strategy
How did i lose this ZvP, whats the proper response
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation #239 Bad Weather Mutation # 483 Kill Bot Wars Mutation # 482 Wheel of Misfortune Mutation # 481 Fear and Lava
Brood War
General
Google Play ASL (Season 20) Announced BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Dewalt's Show Matches in China Simple editing of Brood War save files? (.mlx) Ginuda's JaeDong Interview Series
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [BSL20] Non-Korean Championship 4x BSL + 4x China CSL Xiamen International Invitational [CSLPRO] It's CSLAN Season! - Last Chance
Strategy
[G] Mineral Boosting Does 1 second matter in StarCraft? Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Total Annihilation Server - TAForever [MMORPG] Tree of Savior (Successor of Ragnarok) Path of Exile
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Stop Killing Games - European Citizens Initiative Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Post Pic of your Favorite Food!
Fan Clubs
INnoVation Fan Club SKT1 Classic Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
[\m/] Heavy Metal Thread Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Korean Music Discussion
Sports
Formula 1 Discussion 2024 - 2025 Football Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 NBA General Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Installation of Windows 10 suck at "just a moment" Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
TeamLiquid Team Shirt On Sale The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Ping To Win? Pings And Their…
TrAiDoS
momentary artworks from des…
tankgirl
from making sc maps to makin…
Husyelt
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Socialism Anyone?
GreenHorizons
Eight Anniversary as a TL…
Mizenhauer
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 788 users

Season 2 Map Pool Announced, Effective May 15 - Page 5

Forum Index > SC2 General
112 CommentsPost a Reply
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next All
ZigguratOfUr
Profile Blog Joined April 2012
Iraq16955 Posts
Last Edited: 2018-05-19 23:35:04
May 19 2018 23:31 GMT
#81
I rather like that they changed five maps. Some maps only deserve to spend one season in the pool (and some don't deserve even that), maps that are good deserve two seasons, and only maps that are excellent deserve three. So sometimes when the maps introduced last season are iffy you're bound to end up with a bigger turnover. Yes maybe they could have kept Blackpink, but five maps changed isn't unreasonable in of itself.

Lots of maps changing can be trying for the players of course, but if you aren't proactive about rotating you end up with trash like proxima station sticking around.

I do 100% agree that a non-ladder map getting vetoed non-stop in GSL doesn't say much at all about the map. And Darkness Sanctuary isn't getting vetoed solely because it's 4 player, but also because it isn't too well designed even within that framework, and walling off the natural is a pain.
Timmay
Profile Joined April 2005
United States112 Posts
May 20 2018 00:26 GMT
#82
On May 20 2018 06:24 Liquid`Snute wrote:
In many other spaces people would've been fired for allowing a product with a 2-7% customer approval rate to be one seventh of a product portfolio...

Professional players are not the customer, viewers are. When selecting vetoes, players value comfort over everything else. Viewer entertainment isn't a factor when they choose vetoes. If map fatigue is a real thing, and if viewers want variety, the least vetoed maps should be rotated out. Of course I'll have to add a caveat that truly awful maps should also be rotated out too. I'm not going to defend the inclusion of Darkness Sanctuary, as it's probably in the awful category for a number of reasons, but I don't want people using bad reasons to attack its inclusion.

If you have a map pool where everything is equally vetoed, none of them are doing anything interesting.
Avexyli
Profile Blog Joined April 2014
United States694 Posts
May 20 2018 00:33 GMT
#83
If map fatigue is a real thing, and if viewers want variety, the least vetoed maps should be rotated out


I personally disagree. I think it's better to keep trying to get really good maps to stay with maps trying to live up to those standards in different ways. When we have fairly balanced maps that all do interesting things, such as the mega-standard Blackpink, the experimental Neon Violet and the middleground of Abyssal Reef, I feel like the vetoes can begin to cater more towards playstyle rather than uncomfort.

I think this would be the best thing to strive for. We just need to keep working on medium, rush and "new" maps for a while longer to get to this point. I personally don't care for much of the new pool, I'm pretty eh on Dreamcatcher, and I think Redshift can be a good wild card without being too ridiculous like Ulrena or Dasan Station.

The problem with Map Fatigue is people get tired of it when there are *no* real other good options. I only know of a small few who were tired of Blackpink and Catalyst. But now that Catalyst is really the only thing left, I expect Map Fatigue to set in quickly for it, even if it doesn't really deserve it.

Sometimes an aesthetic refresh is all we need too. I can't imagine people being too upset with playing Abyssal Blackpink Catalyst Ascension if they all got drastic aesthetic changes when fatigue began to set. We just haven't tried.
AVEX - Multi Winner, Finalist, Judge of the TeamLiquid Map Contests, Currently assisting developing StarCraft: Evolution Complete as Environment Artist & Multiplayer Game Design and Balancing.
Charoisaur
Profile Joined August 2014
Germany15954 Posts
May 20 2018 01:02 GMT
#84
On May 20 2018 09:26 Timmay wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 20 2018 06:24 Liquid`Snute wrote:
In many other spaces people would've been fired for allowing a product with a 2-7% customer approval rate to be one seventh of a product portfolio...

Professional players are not the customer, viewers are.

What? A game is meant to be played, not meant to be watched. Nobody cares if a game is fun to watch if nobody plays it. Look at Overwatch; it's not particularly fun to watch but people still watch it because it's fun to play.
The "viewers first" approach or "tyranny of the spectator" as TheDwf put it is one of the reasons that led to the downfall of sc2.
Many of the coolest moments in sc2 happen due to worker harassment
Liquid`Snute
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Norway839 Posts
May 20 2018 02:01 GMT
#85
Another piece of history

[image loading]
Team Liquid
ZigguratOfUr
Profile Blog Joined April 2012
Iraq16955 Posts
May 20 2018 02:08 GMT
#86
On May 20 2018 11:01 Liquid`Snute wrote:
Another piece of history

[image loading]


It's quite interesting, but I'm not sure what the lesson is. That if almost all the maps in the pool are terrible, some of the slightly less terrible ones will inevitably see play?
Timmay
Profile Joined April 2005
United States112 Posts
May 20 2018 02:17 GMT
#87
On May 20 2018 10:02 Charoisaur wrote:
What? A game is meant to be played, not meant to be watched.

We were talking about pro player vetoes in a tournament setting, not map preferences for casual players. Obviously the game needs to be fun for the people playing it, but I don't think anyone is quitting because Redshift was added to the ladder pool.
Liquid`Snute
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Norway839 Posts
May 20 2018 02:23 GMT
#88
On May 20 2018 11:08 ZigguratOfUr wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 20 2018 11:01 Liquid`Snute wrote:
Another piece of history

[image loading]


It's quite interesting, but I'm not sure what the lesson is. That if almost all the maps in the pool are terrible, some of the slightly less terrible ones will inevitably see play?

I think it is good evidence that some maps are capable of being brutally unwanted for competition, even two in the same map pool. Not even mirror match-ups could save these. Somewhere in the process, these can be weeded out before this type of damage can occur, imo. Interesting how the rest of this map pool had a lot of evenly spread love for its remaining maps. I'm sure there's a lot one could look into.. But personally my point of focus is that some maps clearly are capable of getting dumped into veto hell, and it's bad for everyone. I have a feeling Darkness Sanctuary is about to become one of those maps. If one had a way to predict and replace such maps before statistics like these are allowed to occur, I would consider it positive for pros, casuals, and viewers to do so. That's my if-i-was-a-developer take on it, anyway.
Team Liquid
Timmay
Profile Joined April 2005
United States112 Posts
May 20 2018 02:32 GMT
#89
Darkness Sanctuary, Infernal Pools, and Secret Spring are all doing the important job of making people play on my maps. Don't hate.
ZigguratOfUr
Profile Blog Joined April 2012
Iraq16955 Posts
May 20 2018 03:49 GMT
#90
On May 20 2018 11:23 Liquid`Snute wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 20 2018 11:08 ZigguratOfUr wrote:
On May 20 2018 11:01 Liquid`Snute wrote:
Another piece of history

[image loading]


It's quite interesting, but I'm not sure what the lesson is. That if almost all the maps in the pool are terrible, some of the slightly less terrible ones will inevitably see play?

I think it is good evidence that some maps are capable of being brutally unwanted for competition, even two in the same map pool. Not even mirror match-ups could save these. Somewhere in the process, these can be weeded out before this type of damage can occur, imo. Interesting how the rest of this map pool had a lot of evenly spread love for its remaining maps. I'm sure there's a lot one could look into.. But personally my point of focus is that some maps clearly are capable of getting dumped into veto hell, and it's bad for everyone. I have a feeling Darkness Sanctuary is about to become one of those maps. If one had a way to predict and replace such maps before statistics like these are allowed to occur, I would consider it positive for pros, casuals, and viewers to do so. That's my if-i-was-a-developer take on it, anyway.


Blizzard sucks at picking maps. What's new? (Though I will disambiguate and mention that pros will to some extent veto "unusual" maps even if they have merit. As time goes on it normalizes a bit)

But as Blizzard is hardly likely to become better at picking maps overnight, one solution would be to expand the ladder map pool to say 11 maps (5 vetoes), and have tournaments pick 7 out of the 11 for their map pool. Like that tournaments can avoid disaster maps and we can even get some map diversity between different tournaments if there are enough good maps. Of course tournaments are liable to pick the seven largest turtliest macro and boring maps all the time, but it would still be an improvement.
Charoisaur
Profile Joined August 2014
Germany15954 Posts
May 20 2018 07:58 GMT
#91
On May 20 2018 11:17 Timmay wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 20 2018 10:02 Charoisaur wrote:
What? A game is meant to be played, not meant to be watched.

We were talking about pro player vetoes in a tournament setting, not map preferences for casual players. Obviously the game needs to be fun for the people playing it, but I don't think anyone is quitting because Redshift was added to the ladder pool.

You specificially said the viewer is the customer and not the casual player.
You're obviously right that pro player preferences aren't the all deciding thing but from seeing the shitstorm in the forums every time a very non-standard map gets added I'm sure the opinion of the casual players is very similar to that of pro players in this regard.
The only people who seem okay with maps like Redshift are those who mainly watch the game and don't play it hmmmmmm...
Many of the coolest moments in sc2 happen due to worker harassment
Ej_
Profile Blog Joined January 2013
47656 Posts
Last Edited: 2018-05-20 08:56:58
May 20 2018 08:56 GMT
#92
Redshift is aight.

In-base naturals tho...
"Technically the dictionary has zero authority on the meaning or words" - Rodya
nimbim
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Germany984 Posts
Last Edited: 2018-05-20 09:49:55
May 20 2018 09:46 GMT
#93
I actually like that I need just 2 vetoes to play only on new maps.
I don't have any objection to the current map pool, but I'm also not in GM.
Spirit_HUN
Profile Joined March 2018
24 Posts
Last Edited: 2018-05-20 10:05:01
May 20 2018 09:56 GMT
#94
Redshift in TvZ is an utter joke (as zerg). All of the 3rd base options (i consider the gold as a 3rd) are impossible to hold. Meanwhile terrun having fun with their inbase gold and overpowered siege tanks. The nat to gold distance is so long that you cant defend, cant attack. Whats the solution here? Roach allin every game? Or drops or swarm hosts? If u go roach allin they can just counterattack with drops or hellions ... Swarm host could be useful but they are really bad vs bio or hellbats. I dont see how drops could work either ...

I dont understand this. Blizzard doesnt play his own game or what? What was the reason that this garbage was added to the pool?
Elentos
Profile Blog Joined February 2015
55550 Posts
May 20 2018 10:18 GMT
#95
Redshift is a pretty normal map for TvZ honestly.
Every 60 seconds in Africa, a minute passes.
Bacillus
Profile Joined August 2010
Finland1927 Posts
May 20 2018 17:25 GMT
#96
I just got back to SC2 and I'm fumbling around platinium terran games right now. Dreamcatcher feels really random so far. It feels like you need quite a bit of skill and routine to have any kind of proper games in it, but then again I take it it's not particularly good on pro games either.

Darkness sanctuanary colour scheme is kind of a pain and the huge 4 pl maps feel pretty to alternate between cheese and sterile macro too often. Once again it takes pretty immense skill to have interesting games on such a big map, on my level it feels like two players fumbling around without much ability to actually use the space.

The rest seem passable or interesting. I haven't had enough games on Redshift to have much say in it, but at least I find the golds there to be interesting initially. We'll see how abusive gets in the longer run.
Poopi
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
France12869 Posts
Last Edited: 2018-05-20 21:50:41
May 20 2018 21:50 GMT
#97
The map pool seems super shitty so far, Darkness sanctuary, 4 player map, seriously?
You can't even see your health bar on it btw -_-
WriterMaru
xTJx
Profile Joined May 2014
Brazil419 Posts
May 20 2018 23:40 GMT
#98
Vetoed Darkness Sactuary for being 4 player, units being pitch black, which is annoying, and 5th base is very far; Redshift because probe arrives before 16 hatch; and the other inbase map for being hard to spread creep and heavy terran or turtle favored.
No prejudices, i hate everyone equally.
insitelol
Profile Joined August 2012
845 Posts
Last Edited: 2018-05-21 07:18:03
May 21 2018 07:14 GMT
#99
Oh, it looks like i'm not the only one being pissed off by the new maps.
Except for Lost and Found they are all disgustnigly bad.
Redshift and Dreamcatcher don't even need any comments. God they are aweful. But 16-bit. Seriously?! It's 2018 and we still get that lousy texture sets. Dark grey squares. All over the place. For real?

And another thing i can't stress enough, though noone really listens.
Dear, Mapmackers! STOP MAKING DARK-THEMED MAPS! Test your maps on lower/hybrid settings. I've complained for ages about lighting issues on Abyssal (though the map itself was ok), now we got 16-bit and Darkness sanctuary. If you don't care about players, then look at it from a viewers perspective. Just open a random SC2 stream and watch some games being played on 16-bit/DS. I'd die from horror if i were a SC2 newcomer. I can't fcking get it.

All in all. Blizzard!
Just replace Redshift with Blackpink (a really awesome map that deserves another season or 2). And we are fine.
Less is more.
Charoisaur
Profile Joined August 2014
Germany15954 Posts
May 21 2018 07:55 GMT
#100
They should bring back Daybreak. It's time.
Many of the coolest moments in sc2 happen due to worker harassment
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
18:00
RO8 Round Robin Group - Day 3
Bonyth vs Sziky
Dewalt vs Hawk
Hawk vs QiaoGege
Sziky vs Dewalt
Mihu vs Bonyth
Zhanhun vs QiaoGege
QiaoGege vs Fengzi
ZZZero.O330
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
SpeCial 338
JuggernautJason107
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 15028
ZZZero.O 330
Aegong 95
HiyA 26
Dota 2
syndereN302
League of Legends
JimRising 61
Counter-Strike
fl0m3798
flusha662
Stewie2K429
Super Smash Bros
hungrybox1057
Mew2King233
Westballz45
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor609
Liquid`Hasu551
Other Games
Grubby3666
FrodaN2852
Dendi1024
KnowMe118
Sick98
Trikslyr97
QueenE77
ProTech37
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick2782
StarCraft 2
angryscii 36
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 20 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• printf 117
• StrangeGG 82
• davetesta75
• Adnapsc2 16
• Dystopia_ 2
• Migwel
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• sooper7s
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
StarCraft: Brood War
• FirePhoenix7
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• masondota22227
League of Legends
• Nemesis4979
• Doublelift3165
Other Games
• imaqtpie1495
Upcoming Events
FEL
12h 46m
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
17h 46m
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
21h 46m
Bonyth vs Zhanhun
Dewalt vs Mihu
Hawk vs Sziky
Sziky vs QiaoGege
Mihu vs Hawk
Zhanhun vs Dewalt
Fengzi vs Bonyth
Sparkling Tuna Cup
2 days
Online Event
2 days
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
3 days
The PondCast
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Korean StarCraft League
6 days
CranKy Ducklings
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSL Xiamen Invitational
Esports World Cup 2025
Murky Cup #2

Ongoing

Copa Latinoamericana 4
Jiahua Invitational
BSL20 Non-Korean Championship
BSL Team Wars
CSLPRO Last Chance 2025
CC Div. A S7
Underdog Cup #2
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 7
IEM Dallas 2025
PGL Astana 2025
Asian Champions League '25

Upcoming

ASL Season 20: Qualifier #1
ASL Season 20: Qualifier #2
ASL Season 20
CSLPRO Chat StarLAN 3
BSL Season 21
RSL Revival: Season 2
Maestros of the Game
SEL Season 2 Championship
WardiTV Summer 2025
uThermal 2v2 Main Event
FEL Cracov 2025
HCC Europe
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
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 © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.