EPTAfter reading this week's proleague lineup (http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=408340) I started thinking about how teams chose their players for each match. Proleague is unlike any other competition because each player only needs to prepare for a single game against a known opponent; the choice of which player to send out for each map is obviously important. So I thought I would do a bit of data mining and try to find out what kind of tendencies teams have when sending out players. I've created 10 pie charts which show the race distribution sent out for every map, as well as the total race distribution, and the race distribution for ace matches. I discovered some interesting things; some ideas about map balance seem correct, others seem dubious.
Before you look at the data, keep a few things in mind. Firstly, I'm interested in perceptions of map balance, rather than map balance itself. As such, my data contains all 6 games for every match, including the games which were not played (which means 6 games times 7 matches per week times 3 weeks times 2 players per match = 252 players sent out). I've also not bothered to compile data as to the win distribution by race, if you're interested in that you can check TLPD. Additionally, I have not included ace games in my data (except of course for the ace chart) because I decided that ace games were more about sending out your best player (e.g. Flash) or sending out someone to snipe their best player (oh god who do we have who can kill Flash?), rather than the map.
Anyway, without further ado here is the data:
Week 4:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/rziGoDb.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/lrz18S9.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Xrg4NZe.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/CQ8SOWC.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/DjjN1kq.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ASFi5L8.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/PEReQul.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/byNGlZb.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Cpy2Tv4.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/8buKLJi.png)
Not a great deal to say about the new data, the trends have continued from last week. The only thing to really note is that both Whirwind and Neo Planet S have lost a bit of their balance, with the former tending towards zerg more heavily and the latter tending towards protoss more heavily.
Old Data (note colours have changed)
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/gcxQG1V.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/yuCJs9H.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/sMdrojF.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/QAdNHky.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/mNMlOpU.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/UtxYuun.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ABEgZRV.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/IDUHJpK.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/tihhQ7o.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/gONpDva.png)
(Apologies for the poor formatting of the graphs, I edited it in paint lol)
Commentary on the data:
The most obvious (and to me, surprising) thing is how many protosses have been sent out. 46% of players sent out were protoss players; even without doing any statistical analysis it is clear that this is far above what could happen by chance. Whether or not this is due Naro Station, Akilon Wastes and Fighting Spirit being perceived as 'protoss maps', or teams genuinely thinking they have more good protoss than zergs or terrans is unknown. I will not speculate.
The other thing that jumped out at me was that Whirlwind turns out to be perceived as one of the more balanced maps, despite its reputation as a zerg map. Zergs are sent out more frequently on Whirlwind, however it has the most balanced race distribution out of any map (it ties with Neo Planet S).
The last thing I want to ask is: Why so few terrans? There have been twice as many protosses sent out as terrans, only 22% of players sent out to play have been terran players. Again, I will not speculate on the reasons.
I will try to update this thread weekly as the new lineups come out.
