StarCraft II in Data - Balance

TrAiDoS

Germany160 Posts

August 26 2023 19:07 GMT

Hi everyone,

I started a StarCraft II Data Twitter thread and thought that you guys here might enjoy some cool and interesting SC2 data as well. :D

Recently, I began playing around with some data from Esportsearnings.com. Here is what I gathered so far about balance.

The picture above shows the win percentage of the 1st and 2nd place finisher of all major and premier tournaments in StarCraft II over the last 13 years. The data indicate how balance & map pools impacted tournament outcomes.
Also, high achieving (skilled) players may have a higher impact overall.

Another way of looking at the influence of balance and map pools is through the lens of win percentages of each races' matchups. Interestingly, since 2020 we have seen way less variance (big up or down swings). This could indicate a more balanced state of the game. How the current changes may impact those stats? We shall see.

If you guys enjoy this kind of stuff, please let me know, or simply follow the Twitter (or X) thread online. I also have a weekly newsletter where I discuss Gaming & Esports Science, and data like this in more detail.

Happy weekend.
~Christian :-)

jy_9876543210

265 Posts

August 26 2023 20:14 GMT

I found a format that can stop all balance whining: The balanced tournament! Inspired by Counter Strike, because you switch roles after half of the rounds, the balance of T vs CT doesn't matter too much. The issue there is, if it ends in a tie, you'll have to keep playing until the tie is broken. But in Starcraft, there's a natural way to break the tie: The third race!
So here's the format: Both players choose any races for the first map, but they must choose a different race for the second map. And if it ends in a tie, they must choose the only race left for the third map. That'll do for a BO3. For longer games, if it's BO5, you choose your race in map 4, and you must switch your race with your opponent's in map 5, and if it's BO7, you must choose a different race in map 6 and switch race with your opponent again in map 7. That way, there's no balance issues!
I even thought of a slogan for this tournament: "Be a winner, not a whiner!"
Take it as a joke or not, I wonder if there's been a tournament in this format? Is anyone interested?
Not sure if it's worth a separate thread but I'll put it here...

Drahkn

186 Posts

August 27 2023 02:21 GMT

It's a slight indicator doesn't show the whole picture.

When the game was new it took a very long time for the meta to settle and most core things were figured out, this period is highly volatile and balance can be hard to judge , some players thrive in these situations they make good strategy and execute at a very high level (MC, sOs , Parting are perfect examples this is the biggest reason they won championships)
Then they get figured out and the strategy is proven to be really bad once the counter is learned. (And in some cases nerfed for no reason because crybabies , Parting Immortal all inn is a good example)

When things would start to settle down a new expansion would come and suddenly new crazy strategies appeared, people needed to adapt, some things got nerfed and after a while meta starts to settle and then a second expansion and it all begins all over again.

So you have a period basically where it is impossible to balance the game because changes are happening to fast and Blizzard is to happy to swing the nerf hammer ( especially against protoss which is a whole other story don't get me started on that one)

Now that there are no more expansions coming the game is starting to settle and its easier to see things clearly.

And to my amusement people are actually starting to understand now how weak Protoss is and had it not been for the creativity and skill of the top Protosses creating new deceptive builds the winrate at high level would have been abysmal.

Now this whole spiel that Protoss was designed to be deceptive and it's part of how they are meant to be played it does not excuse the countless nerfhammer of strong aggressive plays Protoss has had over the years that would also help them play macro games because T/Z had to respect the possibility but this seems to be a concept almost NO ONE in the community has the capacity to grasp

TrAiDoS

Germany160 Posts

August 27 2023 06:01 GMT

On August 27 2023 11:21 Drahkn wrote:
When things would start to settle down a new expansion would come and suddenly new crazy strategies appeared, people needed to adapt, some things got nerfed and after a while meta starts to settle and then a second expansion and it all begins all over again.

Good point. We also had countless patches in between that tried to put a damper on crazy strategies, strong units etc. Then, you also had the map pool that changed and favored certain races at some point. But I also think that a) the balance team got better over the years, meaning they did a better job of not over or under shooting, and b) players adapt quicker than we may think. Yes, I do see there probably is a cycle that repeats, but assuming it takes months or even years is a bit too much, imo.

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