On March 07 2024 01:16 Yoshi Kirishima wrote:
I mean, I agree that Pro players need a more nuanced solution than just the simplified idea of "add a Raven sometime somehow in the later parts of the game". But it really isn't so crazy or arrogant to suggest building a Raven... you don't need to be a pro to say that it could easily pay off, and there are often things pros take a while to incorporate, they aren't always aware of the smart and best things to do. (MVP for example didn't stack his BCs and EMP them once vs Squirtle to stop them from being mass feedback'd, which was a tactic and used by other pros, although not super commonly).
Ofc this doesn't mean that a diamond player knows better than a pro. Pros are good at the things they know are most important, but it doesn't mean that a lower player can't know of a good idea that they could incorporate if they had the time and energy to do so.
The current top KR Terrans don't do it sure, but it's still a small sample size. With a smaller scene, it's more likely there are good and reasonable things to do but because there are fewer players there are also fewer players to copy new ideas from. With a huge scene, the game can develop faster.
Now if pros did have a reason against it though, it might be that they've found that building just 1 Raven leads to it being Abducted, and it's not worth making multiple Ravens which takes up supply when they could build ghosts for about the same cost and supply too. And scans are free and something they use for vision in general anyways, not just detection.
I’d love to hear the reasons, I’m sure there are legitimate ones but it does feel Ravens would give a lot of value even aside from this particular problem.
If I were to guess it’s a combo of:
1. It’s a pretty easily sniped unit.
2. Adding a Raven at that phase of the game makes an already technical army comp even more technical on the control side.
3. Awkwardness of production. Although really in a split map high eco game I don’t see one extra Port and a tech lab as a huge deal. And it gives you a +1 on your medivac replenishment if you lose a bunch at once.
4. It may not solve the problem you’re trying to fix anyway. If Maru was narrowly missing scans when he knew ninja sharkfestors were on the field and he was clearly looking for them, there’s no guarantee his Raven is going to be positioned to catch them either.
My half a dollar anyway, it does still feel intuitively to me an underused unit given how critical creep control is in the matchup but equally I have seen progamers experiment with it in that capacity and it never really took hold, so there must be some good reasons as to why.
EPT
