Which SC2 expansion had the most entertaining esports?
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TL.net Bot
TL.net125 Posts
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Chris_Havoc
United States588 Posts
Miss some of the maps from the HotS-era too like Overgrowth, King Sejong Station, Frost LE, and Habitation Station. | ||
Fango
United Kingdom8973 Posts
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dysenterymd
1150 Posts
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. | ||
Cricketer12
United States13948 Posts
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Charoisaur
Germany15826 Posts
On July 04 2024 22:21 dysenterymd wrote: 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 | ||
radracer
United States67 Posts
When Barcrafts were happening all the time and SC2 was the most popular esport on the planet: it's WoL. | ||
Xamo
Spain872 Posts
There were so many tournaments, with almost all historically relevant players participating... and on top of it felt nicely balanced. | ||
Starcloud
134 Posts
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
103 Posts
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
South Africa252 Posts
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. | ||
FataLe
New Zealand4452 Posts
LotV > WoL > HotS | ||
Riquiz
Netherlands398 Posts
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) | ||
AirbladeOrange
United States2571 Posts
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geokilla
Canada8213 Posts
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
Northern Ireland22975 Posts
WoL had novelty which was nice, HotS had probs the peak of competitivity and Legacy probably had the best game state. | ||
Mizenhauer
United States1757 Posts
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BisuDagger
Bisutopia19137 Posts
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. | ||
Creager
Germany1874 Posts
On July 05 2024 10:21 geokilla wrote: 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. | ||
Creager
Germany1874 Posts
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. | ||
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