StarCraft II - king of the competitive RTS

[OsaX Nymloth]

Ok, recently there's been even a small article about how it feels to win a competitive match in SC2.
So who is still playing it? Or did you play but stopped for some reason? Maybe you never tried and don't know it's multiplayer component and first campaign are free to play?

My story: playing since february 2012, going all the way from bronze league up to master 1. Never really good or anything, but played few "big names" in community here and there. Got introduced to the scene by a friend who managed to get diamond playing random as his main - which by then was quite a feat actually - and you know how? By sending me videos of When Cheese Fails series on Youtube. This is how I started to think how cool it was if I could do such blink stalkers micro or attacking at multiple places at the same time. And this still gives me quite the enjoyment when I execute multipronged attack even with my "old man's" multitasking and abilities.

Campaigns were fun too obviously, to this day I don't think anything compares to them, but competetive 1vs1 is the main thing in SC2 for me. That and it's esports scene which I follow constantly. #passion.

Come on, I can't be the only one here, right? ;]

 

[zSCHIZOz]

While I've never been very good at SC, I've played SC, Brood War and a bit of SC2. I like the game, story and lore of it all but I just couldn't get myself past a part in Wings of Liberty.

The mission were you have to destroy some trains with enemy forces getting stronger and stronger. Yeah, couldn't get past that so I stopped playing the Campaign. Played a little bit of 1V1 against bots but never against a player since I'm not great at RTS.

I'll give it another go some time in the future but I'm busy playing other titles at the moment.

 

[Pifanjr]

I tried SC2 1v1 twice and got cheesed twice. It's just not the game for me.

 

[OsaX Nymloth]

I tried SC2 1v1 twice and got cheesed twice. It's just not the game for me.

2 games it's like nothing tho. Even to get started you need to play 5 ranked games to get put into some league and then it takes another 25 games to calibrate your mmr. Judging "game is not for me" just from two matches played seems silly imho.

 

[Pifanjr]

2 games it's like nothing tho. Even to get started you need to play 5 ranked games to get put into some league and then it takes another 25 games to calibrate your mmr. Judging "game is not for me" just from two matches played seems silly imho.

Absolutely true. But I didn't feel to put in the effort to discover whether the game was for me or not. It's like telling someone a series will get good after the first (or second or third) season. That's quite a lot of time to put into something just to see if you'll like it.

I had other games I also wanted to play that I was (pretty) sure I would actually like, so I just moved on.

 

[OsaX Nymloth]

First big tournament in SC2 esports scene is on! Intel Extreme Masters Katowice, right now the offline qualifiers are on and games are goooood. If anybody is interested, official twitch stream is here (twitch.tv/esl_sc2) and more info obviously at TL.net.

Heromarine and Showtime just played incredible series. And Korean players showed up and went on a rampage in first bracket.

 

[Gvaedyn]

Is SC2 still popular in the competitive scene? TotalBiscuit (RIP) used to do a lot of commentary on it, but that stopped. There was a guy called Husky, I think, and he seemed to drop off the face of the earth for awhile.

I loved it when it first came out, couldn't stop playing!

 

[OsaX Nymloth]

Is SC2 still popular in the competitive scene? TotalBiscuit (RIP) used to do a lot of commentary on it, but that stopped. There was a guy called Husky, I think, and he seemed to drop off the face of the earth for awhile.

I loved it when it first came out, couldn't stop playing!

Well right now there's big tournament going on and the competetive scene is secured for at least 3 more years. Main hub of everything SC2 related is obviously TL.net - you'll see which tournaments are happening now or soon, who from the pro of celebs is streaming right now etc.

Losing TB one year and next year losing inControl was a huge blow to the scene Husky have distanced himself from it, some old school people are still in it tho like Dimaga, Artosis & Tasteless, some old pros show up like Supernova, MC, even Mvp was streaming for a while.

It ain't huge as it used to be, but there's still a lot of people playing, watching and enjoying some good SC2. Passion is strong in this community.

 

[OsaX Nymloth]

Bumping thread because of the newest change to the competitive scene. No offline events because of obvious reasons, but more online stuff, bigger prize pool and system that is a bit of throwback to WCS 2013 with Season Finals. Katowice remains as year's finale.

Sadly the recent balance changes by Blizzard are mostly missing the point, I wish they would outsource the balance to ESL as well ~~

https://twitter.com/x/status/1260585592515067910

View: https://twitter.com/ESLSC2/status/1260585592515067910


Thread on TL: https://tl.net/forum/starcraft-2/55...al-divisions-season-finals-bigger-weekly-cups

 

[Dakkon]

Loved Starcraft 1 & 2 but couldn't get into it competitively. Just lack the skill and the speed of those who call multiplayer their home.

 

[Synack]

Well technically ESL could do it themselves. They would just have to customize the stats and save the maps as custom. Make them official and only allow those maps.

It would be susceptible to possible tampering, but if they had proper checks before matches it could work. Maybe setting up some hash check or something. Or encrypted vaults with the files that don't come into play until the match.

Like placing items into a lockbox until it's ready.

The encryption keys being available only to a ref or panel judges. And if tampering is found having a system in place to deal with it.

 

[OsaX Nymloth]

Making custom mod is a way but I can't imagine it working. Pros would need access to these maps/mod just so they could practice - and normal ladder players would feel alienated if they had to play different version of the game. What if some master player like me wanted to play some games with new balance? Well if the map is kept closed then tough luck - other option is having it enabled publicly like WCS Gameheart mod, but there's still problem of normal ladder being different version of the game.

Blizzard recently updated the map editor quite heavily, I wonder if that's a sign they're not done yet with the game.

 

[Synack]

If a game has a large enough following and it makes money it'll continue to get support. Gotta keep the bean counters happy.

I played last night and immediately went from bronze to silver after one match. And frankly the other team a noob player so they got creamed.

But I'm sure there is way they could get this map thing sorted out

 

[OsaX Nymloth]

GSL Code S 2020 Season 2 finals are ON right now.
Rouge vs Stats.
Zerg vs Protoss.

Can protoss win first big tournament in years? Who will become two times GSL champion? How many Swarmhosts will Rouge make?

Watch here:

View: https://youtu.be/grTt3OdrvTA

 

[zSCHIZOz]

I picked up all three campaigns for 50% off about a two weeks ago for the 10th Anniversary of SC2. Am very much enjoying the storyline! I've always been a fan of Starcraft since it was released decades ago but have just recently found the urge to slay some Zerg.

 

[Pifanjr]

I still have to play the last campaign. I really loved the first two.

One day I'll get around to my backlog. One day.

 

[Dakkon]

I still have to play the last campaign. I really loved the first two..

You still haven't played Legacy of the Void?
Campaign of the Protoss, the master race?
Just skip on epilogue and you're golden

 

[Pifanjr]

You still haven't played Legacy of the Void?
Campaign of the Protoss, the master race?
Just skip on epilogue and you're golden

You don't have to rub it in

 

[Synack]

I picked up all three campaigns for 50% off about a two weeks ago for the 10th Anniversary of SC2. Am very much enjoying the storyline! I've always been a fan of Starcraft since it was released decades ago but have just recently found the urge to slay some Zerg.

The Zerg is actually a great race to play. I've recently gotten better. But if get rushed by 'rines it's over. You can counter but better have enough hives to overwhelm. And never under estimate the usefulness of upgrades. Great micro with upgrades can turn the tide.

 

[zSCHIZOz]

I'll play Zerg once I complete Wings of Liberty and then Protoss with Legacy of the Void. I'm the worst Protoss player ever but Zerg is fun to play. Terran is my preference however. I've only played Terran so far with SC2 but back in the day with Brood War I wasn't too shabby with Zerg as well as Terran.

😈 "Need a light?" 😈​