• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 07:00
CEST 13:00
KST 20:00
  • 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
Team Liquid Map Contest #22: Results and Winners7Code S Season 2 (2026): RO4 and Finals Preview12TL.net Map Contest #22 - Voting & Ladder Map Selection7Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO8 Preview8[ASL21] Finals Preview: Two Legacies21
Community News
ZeroSpace at Steam NextFest - Last free demo16Weekly Cups (June 8-14): Clem and Solar double, PTR tested0RSL: S6 Finals played at BlizzCon 202611Douyu Cup 2026: $20,000 Legends Event (June 26-28)10[BSL22] Non-Korean Championship from 13 to 28 June4
StarCraft 2
General
StarCraft II 5.0.16 PTR Patch Notes may 26th Daily SC2 Player Grid - feedback wanted Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO8 Preview TL Poll: How do you feel about the 5.0.16 PTR balance changes? Updates to The Core/Core Lite for v5.0.16?
Tourneys
GSL CK #4 20-21th June Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Master Swan Open (Global Bronze-Master 2) Crank Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League Douyu Cup 2026: $20,000 Legends Event (June 26-28)
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
Work In Progress Melee Maps [D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3
External Content
Mutation # 530 One For All The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 529 Opportunities Unleashed Mutation # 528 Infection Detected
Brood War
General
STARCRAFT MOVIE - Last Night at the Command center BW General Discussion BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Battle cruiser feet vs Carrier fleet Fact based Zerg Upgrade Tier List
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues CSLAN 4 is Coming! Small VOD Thread 2.0 The Casual Games of the Week Thread
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Relatively freeroll strategies Creating a full chart of Zerg builds Why doesn't anyone use restoration?
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread Path of Exile ZeroSpace at Steam NextFest - Last free demo Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread ZeroSpace Megathread
Dota 2
Looking for a Dota Mentor Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread [H]Internet/Gaming Cafe Tips and Tricks The Games Industry And ATVI UK Politics Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
The HerO Fan Club! The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books [TV/BOOK] *SPOILERS* Game of Thrones Discussion
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread McBoner: A hockey love story TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Formula 1 Discussion Cricket [SPORT]
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread Facing Challenges in Mobile App Development
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
How To Predict Tilt in Espor…
TrAiDoS
An Exploration of th…
waywardstrategy
I'm an arrogant trash talke…
FlaShFTW
Gauntlet SC2: A Retrospectiv…
Ctone23
Why RTS gamers make better f…
gosubay
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 8742 users

Which SC2 expansion had the most entertaining esports?

Forum Index > SC2 General
Post a Reply
1 2 3 4 Next All
TL.net Bot
Profile Joined June 2004
TL.net136 Posts
July 04 2024 12:08 GMT
#1
Discussion thread for front page poll: "Which SC2 expansion had the most entertaining esports?"
Chris_Havoc
Profile Joined August 2016
United States600 Posts
July 04 2024 12:23 GMT
#2
For me, Heart of the Swarm. That's when I was most into the GSL, Proleague, WCS, and even many Tier 2 tournaments.

Miss some of the maps from the HotS-era too like Overgrowth, King Sejong Station, Frost LE, and Habitation Station.
Owner of the SC2 Esports Anthology channel on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SC2EsportsAnthology
Fango
Profile Joined July 2016
United Kingdom8987 Posts
July 04 2024 13:13 GMT
#3
HotS did, but not necessarily because the game was always in the best state. We just had a much bigger scene, and Proleague was always the most entertaining Starcraft tournament. Plus the larger WCS circuit, Blizzcon etc
Zest, sOs, PartinG, Dark, and Maru are the real champs. ROOT_herO is overrated. Snute, Serral, and Scarlett are the foreigner GOATs
dysenterymd
Profile Joined January 2019
1250 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-07-04 13:25:20
July 04 2024 13:21 GMT
#4
On July 04 2024 22:13 Fango wrote:
HotS did, but not necessarily because the game was always in the best state. We just had a much bigger scene, and Proleague was always the most entertaining Starcraft tournament. Plus the larger WCS circuit, Blizzcon etc

100%, even though HotS had multiple metas that were a complete mess (mainly Swarmhosts and hellbats being the main culprits, though early 2014 TvP was also miserable), everything besides the meta itself was so much more exciting. By the second half of 2015 the HotS meta was pretty good though (I never minded the mine-out mech games, but maybe I'm in the minority there), wouldn't have minded if it lasted a little longer.

The game itself has been in its best state since 2020 though, sad that that coincided with the scene shrinking so much. Proleague in this gamestate would be amazing.
Serral | Inno | sOs | soO | Has | Classic
Cricketer12
Profile Blog Joined May 2012
United States14000 Posts
July 04 2024 17:30 GMT
#5
HotS > WoL > LotV
Engage, Zero target Engage, Engage, Kagari target Engage, Engage.
Charoisaur
Profile Joined August 2014
Germany16078 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-07-04 18:08:17
July 04 2024 17:55 GMT
#6
On July 04 2024 22:21 dysenterymd wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 04 2024 22:13 Fango wrote:
HotS did, but not necessarily because the game was always in the best state. We just had a much bigger scene, and Proleague was always the most entertaining Starcraft tournament. Plus the larger WCS circuit, Blizzcon etc

100%, even though HotS had multiple metas that were a complete mess (mainly Swarmhosts and hellbats being the main culprits, though early 2014 TvP was also miserable), everything besides the meta itself was so much more exciting. By the second half of 2015 the HotS meta was pretty good though (I never minded the mine-out mech games, but maybe I'm in the minority there), wouldn't have minded if it lasted a little longer.

The game itself has been in its best state since 2020 though, sad that that coincided with the scene shrinking so much. Proleague in this gamestate would be amazing.

I think 2017/2018 had just as good of a gamestate as 2020 onwards and the scene was in a much healthier state.
Although there was no Proleague anymore, 2017/2018 still had a strong, exciting GSL and the story of emerging strong foreigners (Neeb, then Serral) and I think the circuit system was better (WCS EU and WCS NA being a battle of "washed up" koreans was a bit of a mess).

Overall, my vote goes to LotV because of 2017/2018 being my favorite sc2 years.

2016 and 2019 unfortunately had a much worse gamestate, then Covid happened and after that the scene basically was a shadow of its former self
Many of the coolest moments in sc2 happen due to worker harassment
radracer
Profile Joined March 2020
United States75 Posts
July 04 2024 18:38 GMT
#7
PURELY Entertaining? It's gotta be when the game was new/fresh/hype

When Barcrafts were happening all the time and SC2 was the most popular esport on the planet: it's WoL.
old
Xamo
Profile Joined April 2012
Spain886 Posts
July 04 2024 19:19 GMT
#8
HotS, specifically the second half of HotS, is the clear winner for me.
There were so many tournaments, with almost all historically relevant players participating... and on top of it felt nicely balanced.
My life for Aiur. You got a piece of me, baby. IIIIIIiiiiiii.
Starcloud
Profile Joined September 2018
138 Posts
July 04 2024 20:08 GMT
#9
On July 05 2024 03:38 radracer wrote:
PURELY Entertaining? It's gotta be when the game was new/fresh/hype

When Barcrafts were happening all the time and SC2 was the most popular esport on the planet: it's WoL.


Yeah, agree 100% on this. Everything was new. HYPE was good. New strategies emerged all the time. Playerbase was in its peak and new talents were coming/going frequently. Very entertaining and surprising. Only thing missing was foreingers success, which we had to wait for bit too long to emerge.

As I loved the zerg and especially the single player campaign in HOTS, the majority of it was pretty dissapointing in terms of e-sports. Of course all remember the dreaded BL/Infestor-era, which we would gladly erase from SC2 history if given the choice. The end of expansion started to be bit better if I recall right.

LOTV is kinda divided expansion for me. I think nowadays the balance is and has been actually pretty good, though terran is bit favoured especially in TvZ. Nothing major though. Bit downside is, that early game and proper cheeses have almost gone and the lategame seem to be a bit dull at times.

So all in all, for me its; WOTL -------------> LOTV---------> HOTS.


SUGGESTION::: Nowadays seems that nostalgia is the name of the game in gaming industry; WOW, Fortnite, PUBG, WC3 etc. seem to bring the OG-maps and gameplays back and they seem to be very popular. What IF there would be a chance to play with WOTL maps and units etc. ? With different server ? Would that bring back players or create any hype ?
Blitzball04
Profile Joined June 2024
191 Posts
July 04 2024 21:08 GMT
#10
Definitely LoTV in terms of viewing experience and skill level

WOL and HOTS was literally boring especially the first couple minutes of just building workers. HOtS definitely was the worst due to some of the most cancer build such as swarm host vs swarm host.

Or turtle mass raven/mech hiding in their main and trying to make the game into a draw
Ciaus237
Profile Joined July 2015
South Africa288 Posts
July 04 2024 21:46 GMT
#11
On July 05 2024 06:08 Blitzball04 wrote:Definitely LoTV in terms of viewing experience and skill level

WOL and HOTS was literally boring especially the first couple minutes of just building workers. HOtS definitely was the worst due to some of the most cancer build such as swarm host vs swarm host.

Or turtle mass raven/mech hiding in their main and trying to make the game into a draw


100% this.

Going back to watch old blizzcon and gsl videos is, despite the nostalgia, a bit painful. The pacing just feels slow, and the number of genuinely awful late-games in HotS is just too high for me to rank it above LotV in viewing experience.

Helps that LotV has also been around long enough to collect a lot of good games.
The time that we kill keeps us alive
FataLe
Profile Joined November 2010
New Zealand4547 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-07-04 23:57:20
July 04 2024 23:04 GMT
#12
If I take away the shiny new toy syndome of WoL then by a landslide it's got to be LotV. Game feels far more fluid and dynamic, games develop quicker and it's fairly balanced at the highest level. HotS was the era I stopped playing and watching because I couldn't take anymore swarm host meta. But I otherwise really enjoyed HotS as an expansion and without that specific meta era, I may have it my 2nd place. WoL was always the time I'm most fond of however, staying up reeeeally late just to watch Fruit Dealer take the first GSL using a dynamic and varied playstyle all on a grainy, pixelated viewport. Or watching Tester fend off a proxy 2 gate with just 1 gate of his own. Or watching San Zenith make Artosis eat his own words by playing by far the highest level P v T game we had seen at that time. So many core memories made during that era. It's the expansion i'll remember most but ultimately, LotV is a far more entertaining game to watch.

LotV > WoL > HotS
hi. big fan.
Riquiz
Profile Joined June 2011
Netherlands402 Posts
July 04 2024 23:41 GMT
#13
Depends on what you enjoy the most I think.

If you enjoyed the flourishing of the scene and lots of people learning about starcraft and all of its inticracies together with the whole esports scene + twitch exploding? Yeah WoL and HotS take the cake.

Do you enjoy high level high quality starcraft with foreigners slowly creeping up on the koreans? LotV

I have a lot of nostalgia for WoL and HotS - as a player I enjoyed HotS the most - but I think LotV is just arms and shoulders above its predecessors. (although the WoL campaign still kicks ass)
Caster man does casting on yt/RiquizCasts
AirbladeOrange
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
United States2574 Posts
July 05 2024 00:37 GMT
#14
Can't beat the hype, craziness, and drama of the early years. Wings of Liberty had terrible maps and frustrating strategies, but it was a magical time.
geokilla
Profile Joined May 2011
Canada8247 Posts
July 05 2024 01:21 GMT
#15
On July 04 2024 22:13 Fango wrote:
HotS did, but not necessarily because the game was always in the best state. We just had a much bigger scene, and Proleague was always the most entertaining Starcraft tournament. Plus the larger WCS circuit, Blizzcon etc

I'd like to also add that with HotS, we actually had an early and mid game. Now there's no early game and mid game lasts for about 3 minutes and late game kicks in at 10 minutes. The game is way too fast for it to be entertaining to watch.

With Legacy of the Void, the game doesn't feel as entertaining to watch anymore. A lot of players do the same strats as everyone else and it all comes down to who can macro and micro better. I'm sure other players who are more knowledgeable in the game disagree but that's what it feels like when I watch now. I find CS2 and LoL to be more entertaining to watch nowadays, and I was never a LoL fan.
WombaT
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Northern Ireland27014 Posts
July 05 2024 01:52 GMT
#16
As with much of SC2 if I could bottle various elements from different eras that’d be nifty

WoL had novelty which was nice, HotS had probs the peak of competitivity and Legacy probably had the best game state.
'You'll always be the cuddly marsupial of my heart, despite the inherent flaws of your ancestry' - Squat
Mizenhauer
Profile Blog Joined February 2015
United States1934 Posts
July 05 2024 01:58 GMT
#17
https://tl.net/forum/starcraft-2/561920-2015-the-renaissance-and-golden-age-of-korean-sc2
┗|∵|┓Second Place in LB 28, Third Place in LB 29 and Destined to Be a Kong
BisuDagger
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
Bisutopia19367 Posts
July 05 2024 11:27 GMT
#18
WoL was peak entertainment given all the personalities involved between players, casters, event organizers, and shows in between.
LOTV is peak in game entertainment. The flow to the game has vastly improved over the past couple years.

HoTS is barely memorable. What I remember are just the boring stalemate games.
ModeratorFormer Afreeca Starleague Caster: http://afreeca.tv/ASL2ENG2
Creager
Profile Joined February 2011
Germany1941 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-07-05 11:41:20
July 05 2024 11:40 GMT
#19
On July 05 2024 10:21 geokilla wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 04 2024 22:13 Fango wrote:
HotS did, but not necessarily because the game was always in the best state. We just had a much bigger scene, and Proleague was always the most entertaining Starcraft tournament. Plus the larger WCS circuit, Blizzcon etc

I'd like to also add that with HotS, we actually had an early and mid game. Now there's no early game and mid game lasts for about 3 minutes and late game kicks in at 10 minutes. The game is way too fast for it to be entertaining to watch.

With Legacy of the Void, the game doesn't feel as entertaining to watch anymore. A lot of players do the same strats as everyone else and it all comes down to who can macro and micro better. I'm sure other players who are more knowledgeable in the game disagree but that's what it feels like when I watch now. I find CS2 and LoL to be more entertaining to watch nowadays, and I was never a LoL fan.


Wings was definitely the most entertaining era for me, balance issues and relative skill level (compared to today) aside, especially with the sheer volume of events/tournaments, much better player diversity paired with the general novelty/popularity of the game.

I 100% agree that the 12 worker start made the game less entertaining to watch overall.
... einmal mit Profis spielen!
Creager
Profile Joined February 2011
Germany1941 Posts
July 05 2024 11:43 GMT
#20
On July 05 2024 08:41 Riquiz wrote:
Depends on what you enjoy the most I think.

If you enjoyed the flourishing of the scene and lots of people learning about starcraft and all of its inticracies together with the whole esports scene + twitch exploding? Yeah WoL and HotS take the cake.

Do you enjoy high level high quality starcraft with foreigners slowly creeping up on the koreans? LotV

I have a lot of nostalgia for WoL and HotS - as a player I enjoyed HotS the most - but I think LotV is just arms and shoulders above its predecessors. (although the WoL campaign still kicks ass)


Haha, same, as a more defensive Terran player with a mech affinity HotS just offered the best environment for me to play, by far.
... einmal mit Profis spielen!
1 2 3 4 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
WardiTV Spring Champion…
11:00
Playoffs
TaKeTV 131
WardiTV109
TKL 60
IntoTheiNu 54
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
SHIN 114
trigger 69
TKL 60
StarCraft: Brood War
Mini 2001
Horang2 787
Hyuk 656
firebathero 548
EffOrt 284
actioN 272
Soulkey 154
Last 148
NaDa 138
Pusan 83
[ Show more ]
Free 58
sorry 58
Light 57
Mong 52
JulyZerg 47
yabsab 29
Sharp 24
Shine 20
Hm[arnc] 20
Movie 18
Noble 12
HiyA 10
Bale 9
Dota 2
Gorgc5772
Fuzer 126
XcaliburYe125
Counter-Strike
x6flipin431
Sick248
Other Games
Pyrionflax273
Hui .227
B2W.Neo175
KnowMe174
XlorD86
amsayoshi67
Organizations
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Secondary Stream8450
PGL Dota 2 - Main Stream4416
Other Games
gamesdonequick708
StarCraft: Brood War
UltimateBattle 33
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 12 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH264
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• lizZardDota243
Upcoming Events
GSL
1h
Maru vs Reynor
Lambo vs Solar
SHIN 114
IPSL
5h
Hawk vs Julia
Patches Events
6h
BSL22 NKC (BSL vs China)
8h
Dewalt vs Messiah
Bonyth vs Mihu
TerrOr vs XuanXuan
eOnzErG vs Messiah
Jaystar vs Mihu
Dewalt vs XuanXuan
Bonyth vs TerrOr
Replay Cast
13h
WardiTV Weekly
1d
Monday Night Weeklies
1d 5h
Sparkling Tuna Cup
1d 23h
The PondCast
2 days
Douyu Cup 2020
3 days
Oliveira vs Trap
Jieshi vs XY
soO vs FanTaSy
TY vs Coffee
[ Show More ]
Douyu Cup 2020
4 days
Neeb vs Impact
MacSed vs Cyan
Scarlett vs Kelazhur
INnoVation vs Dear
Douyu Cup 2020
5 days
Maestros of the Game
6 days
herO vs Classic
Maru vs Serral
BSL22 NKC (BSL vs China)
6 days
Douyu Cup 2020
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-06-19
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Heroes Pulsing #2

Ongoing

IPSL Spring 2026
Acropolis #4
CSCL: Masked Kings S4
YSL S3
BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
CSL Season 21: Qualifier 1
SCTL 2026 Spring
Maestros of the Game 2
WardiTV Spring 2026
Murky Cup 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026

Upcoming

CSL Season 21: Qualifier 2
CSL 2026 Summer (S21)
CSLAN 4
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Revival: Season 6
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
HSC XXIX
Douyu Cup 2026
BCC 2026
Light HT
Heroes Pulsing #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
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 © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.