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Brood War is a beloved game that has stood the test of time. With each year, the players improved their skills greatly, and strategies evolved owing to the sheer depth of the game. Notable players who made a mark on the Racepicking scene such as Joyo, Testie, and Savior were recognized for their skill. As the years rolled on, BSL emerged, and the fans were treated to off-race battles thanks to Dandy and DragOn, with game quality reaching its foreseeable peak. It was the good times until the Racepicking scandal reared its ugly head, with the Alt-F4 bug fixed in 2018. While some players retreated for private lobbies and others learned to play mirror matchups, many disappeared into the darkest depths of TeamLiquid. Slowly, but surely, the shitpost scene rose from the ashes, much like a phoenix. Reborn and re-energized, the meta evolved further as more players returned. The environment may have changed with the revival, but there was one factor that remained mostly unchanged for the last 17 years. That was balance, and foremost, a question: Does Racepicking Exist? Throughout the history of BW, the topic of balance came up many times whenever a certain races were picked. Seeing as BW's balance rests on a needle tip, this was quite understandable. Even more so, most players are biased towards the races they play, and will join the chorus when they lose in a matchup that they deem imbalanced. As it stands, one topic that has always dominated balance talks and spawned many vocal critics over the years is that of Racepicking. The idea that picking a race is imbalanced. These discussions were always had whenever a Racepicking player was encountered, be it during the early days during the iCCup ladder or later during the Matchmaking era when Racepickers were Alt-F4ing a third of their matches. Is there some truth to these claims? Does Racepicking Exist? If not, is it possible that these claims only surfaced due to the new Matchmaking? This article, which is part editorial and part factual, aims to explore the topic of Racepicking and its prevalence in the post-Remastered era.
Is Random Racepicking?
Coming off the heels of Warcraft II which was lambasted by critics for its mostly symmetric design, Starcraft was designed to be a totally asymmetric RTS experience featuring three distinct races that shared only key concepts in common. The expansion, Brood War, ended up adding several units for each race as well as making important modifications to the game. The development team relased 1.08, the last balance patch, back in 2001, and each of the three races had several important changes made to some of their core units.
Suffice to say, such a design by definition throws the topic of Random out the window. If there are only three races, how can Matchmaking match players up against anything other than the existent races? As far as we know, there are only three races in Brood War: Terran, Protoss and Zerg.
As a thought experiment, let us imagine that Random really does exist. In this world, where it is possible to play against this "fourth race", would Random be a form of Racepicking? Many players do not want to play against a Random race, much like they do not want to play against a Race-picked race. Players have only recently been unable to avoid playing against Random, so it may be too early to say, but Random may in fact be another form of Racepicking.
Is Matchmaking Racepicking?
When discussing the results earlier, I made several references to Matchmaking. I'm going to coin the term, the Matchmaking Effect here and the name gives you the gist of it. When Matchmaking returned to the scene in 2017, it's advent was a huge boon for all of the races. It helped move the meta along, bringing back a number of players that were lost during the dark ages of Brood War.
But Matchmaking was not universally well received. Players were unhappy when they lost, and often attributed losing to factors such as latency, Koreans, and Random. Matchmaking, like Racepicking, was a source of frustration for players when they lost. Thus, it is very possible that Matchmaking is just another form of Racepicking.
Is Picking A Race Racepicking?
When players join a private lobby, or even when they queue for Matchmaking, they are forced to "Pick" a "Race", or Racepick. Could picking a race be yet another form of Racepicking?
If you look closely, you will find that some players prefer not to play against members of their own race. If possible, they would prefer to avoid playing these players altogether, much like they might try to avoid playing against Racepickers.
The smoking gun: Players feel bad when they lose a race that has been picked. This is particularly evident when a player is playing the "unfavored" race in a non-mirror matchup, but this feeling of discontent can also be brought about when losing to picked races in a mirror or even "favored" matchup.
Does Racepicking Exist?
The possible existance of Racepicking leads to a number of far-reaching questions. Is Racepicking against the rules? What separates a Racepicker from the common thief? Would you let your children play in same lobby as a Racepicker? Should we build a separate (but equal) ladder for racepickers?
But before we address questions such as these, we must deal with the crux of the issue: how can we know that Racepicking really, truly exists? Perhaps there are subtle tells in the way a Racepicker plays, or perhaps you can tell by the way that they act. If there are no clear distinctions, then there may Racepickers hiding in our midst, deviously joining lobbies and picking their favorite race.
Or could it be possible that Racepicking does not really exist? Perhaps Racepickers were finally wiped out by the Alt-F4 bugfix, and that subtle, sinking feeling triggered by a loss serves only as a gentle reminder of a bygone era.
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Should racepickers have a separate (but equal) ladder?
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i propose everybody who racepicks on the ladder should get an instant penalty of 100mmr for each time they play a game and are racepicking
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only random should be allowed on a ladder or tourney in order to ensure 50% chance to win for all players kappa
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If racepicking was an option, I would play sometimes.
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On February 01 2019 09:49 Dead9 wrote:
Is Picking A Race Racepicking?
When players join a private lobby, or even when they queue for Matchmaking, they are forced to "Pick" a "Race", or Racepick. Could picking a race be yet another form of Racepicking?
5 stars
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On February 02 2019 22:51 Navane wrote: is this satire?
it should be, i hope
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It is a no. Racepicking as an independent action performed by a free-willing subject is a long-standing myth. It is thus made clear:
1. Join a game of the Brood Wars 2. Pick Night Elf 3. See??
The subject's choices are crucially limited by always-already existent and immediate boundaries that limit the flow of the desiring subject's libidinal energy. The energy vis a vis the real sublimates over against a pre-structured differing desire assembled a new: the subject is thrust towards becoming Zerg, Terran or Protoss. The phantasy of being-Night-Elf remains unfulfilled and jouissance never attained.
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If it existed and were allowed I'd pick asian-korean to boost my skill.
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On February 03 2019 03:00 Highgamer wrote: If it existed and were allowed I'd pick asian-korean to boost my skill. i prefer the argonian but in the end it does not matter, you win or you won't 50/50
edit: i guess you can also draw if you both roll scissors?? not sure the math gets a bit fuzzy here
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I haven't played BW in years. Now after SCR being released and having no random on ladder, does this mean you get TvT regularly? Maybe it's time to return.
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On February 03 2019 03:21 L1ghtning wrote: I haven't played BW in years. Now after SCR being released and having no random on ladder, does this mean you get TvT regularly? Maybe it's time to return.
What u mean? Random is an option on ladder, just not race-picking (or so this thread suggests) because you don't host ladder games yourself any more and don't have no lobby pre-game.
People can still dodge TvT by disconnecting before the match starts when you get displayed your opponent shortly.
On second thought, maybe I'd pick this kind of race if I could:
+ Show Spoiler +
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repeat after me: noobs pick race PROS KICK FACE
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On February 03 2019 03:22 Highgamer wrote: People can still dodge TvT by disconnecting before the match starts when you get displayed your opponent shortly.
I think you lose points for that now and it counts as a loss?
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On February 03 2019 04:56 jello_biafra wrote:Show nested quote +On February 03 2019 03:22 Highgamer wrote: People can still dodge TvT by disconnecting before the match starts when you get displayed your opponent shortly.
I think you lose points for that now and it counts as a loss?
Really? I had people do this multiple times in a row to me so I thought there wasn't a penalty but mb they just didn't care.
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On February 03 2019 05:51 Highgamer wrote:Show nested quote +On February 03 2019 04:56 jello_biafra wrote:On February 03 2019 03:22 Highgamer wrote: People can still dodge TvT by disconnecting before the match starts when you get displayed your opponent shortly.
I think you lose points for that now and it counts as a loss? Really? I had people do this multiple times in a row to me so I thought there wasn't a penalty but mb they just didn't care. Yeah I think they implemented that in the patch before this latest one, a few weeks ago or whenever it was.
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This might be a little controversial but why not just have the bnet developers block mirror matchups from ever getting paired up together? The whole point of racepicking is to avoid mirror matchups. And ZvZ TvT PvP TZvTZ PZvPZ ZZxZZ are the most boring matchups. I’m just throwing that possibility out there. I wish I never had to get matched up against PZ when I am playing PZ because of it being a mirror matchup and very boring.
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I don't find mirror matchups boring. PvP maybe, but I don't understand that one well enough to judge.
Admittedly, it's likely to be true that the mirror matchups are the least popular across the board, but that doesn't mean that they're unpopular in general. It's more accurate to say that a (more or less strong) minority dislikes them, but that's not reason enough to artificially exclude 1/3 of the possible matchups from the game.
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