u/Careless-Goat-3130

https://preview.redd.it/x78j6fig1ibh1.png?width=355&format=png&auto=webp&s=b715c09bb56026cf95537a65793841629f2f5016

3 zergs in the semifinals. Intern won again!

Clem barely beat Reynor who plays a lot of LoL and lost 6-0 to Serral. Perhaps the intern should look at this and think about the larva buff. A weaker early game due to 8 worker start should not be compensated by a larva change that benefits the zerg from the beginning to the end. Clem played decently and made several mistakes throughout the game. But the swarminess was quite noticable. Without the widow mine buff, clem would have lost earlier and uglier. You can make a race to be swarmy without removing the identity of the two races. Warp gate rework was a huge mistake.

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That zerg spike recently should be a tell.

Top 20 ladder now

Top 20 ladder previous season.

herO's zerg is top 20 in the ladder. What are we doing?

Look at the MMR ranking below. Apparently, not only serral and reynor can do this, the zerg cabal is rearing its head again.

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The toe was slightly offside.

We're back to rebalancing the live version of the game with hotfixes, with more likely to follow to compensate for those changes. That raises a simple question: what was the point of the PTR? If balance is going to be adjusted and released without feedback, why bother with the PTR?

I am also struggling to understand the philosophy behind this latest hotfix. Why are we bringing back the soul train strategy again?

In the current meta, protoss is increasingly encouraged to camp and transition into Skytoss in PvZ due to the gateway rework and the strength of zerg early game, which is exactly the style we've been trying to move away from for the past several patches. Fast pylons across the map also create problems in PvT. Terran's mid game already feels fragile in the previous patch, and now Protoss effectively has multiple Warp Prisms through forward pylons scattered everywhere, making warp-ins far easier to execute. If the meta settles around Skytoss and 10 Hatch openings, don't be surprised if more players lose interest. That was the same toxic meta that drove people away in the past.

If the goal is to bring players back, I think the effort would be better spent on meaningful gameplay additions rather than another round of balance tweaks. Adding a few new abilities to existing units or introducing a couple of new units for each race would generate far more excitement and fresh strategic possibilities. I was skeptical about the 8-worker start when it was introduced, and I am just as skeptical now.

vamos!

Amazing job Blizzard. Keep up the good work. Zerg 9-0 protoss/terran. Larva spawn rate increased from 10.7s to 9s. Queen mineral cost decreased from 175 to 150. /s

You have:

• Direct subway access to Manhattan via the 1 train
• Metro-North nearby at Marble Hill
• Van Cortlandt Park right next door
• Walkable retail corridor along Broadway
• Housing that is still relatively affordable compared to much of the city

I'm not saying Kingsbridge is going to turn into Williamsburg, Park Slope, LIC overnight, but it feels like the fundamentals are there. The biggest thing holding it back seems to be perception rather than location or amenities. For those who have lived in the area for a long time, have you noticed meaningful changes over the last 5 to 10 years? Or is it just wishful thinking from me?

The new patch has been far less popular among active players, streamers, and professional players than many people expected. On Twitch, the word "variety" has become a running joke rather than a compliment. While the stated goal of the patch was to create more strategic diversity, it has instead increased the number of frustrating and low-quality games. A few strategies are genuinely entertaining, but a large portion of the new meta is not. For example, one base ghost-play has become one of the most discussed examples. Watching a relatively unknown Terran player defeat Krystianer might be hilarious for the viewer but not that fun for Krystainer.

What is striking is the disconnect between different parts of the community. On Twitch, among active caster and among pro-players, criticism of the patch is very common. On Reddit, however, many users appear enthusiastic about the changes. The problem is that a significant portion of Reddit users no longer play the game regularly and many do not actively follow professional matches. Not that it is a bad thing, we are all adults now and we all have life to take care of. As a result, discussions often focus on the ideals rather than the day-to-day reality of how the games actually play out. Variety sounds appealing in theory, but not all forms of variety produce entertaining gameplay.

The argument that shaking up the meta would automatically bring players and viewers back to StarCraft II also appears unfounded. The SC2 Twitch category has not experienced a noticeable increase in viewers that would suggest large numbers of former fans have returned. 500 viewers at the time of writing. Only three streamers with PTR on the title so the rest are probably laddering. Ask yourself. How many of you have actually redownloaded and reinstalled SC2 if you are for the change? If the justification for balance changes was that they would revitalize the game, the evidence so far does not support that claim. Instead, the community appears more divided than ever before. People left comments attack streamers who dare to even voice their disagreement.

Change for its own sake is not necessarily beneficial. I think this patch (if it goes through) will go down one of the unhelpful patches that further catalyzes the downfall of SC2. Almost like the queen range increase patch and the patch the enable broodlord infestor and massvoid.

\"Variety\" screenshot found on NeWHoriZonS' twitter

I counted. I have to go through 7-8 different animations/pages (complete screen with three bars, +1 monthly progress, triple click for "rare" drop, ads, gem, add to streak, streak).

i guess the userbase must be declining and AI must be finally coming for the app, right?

I know that bearlike has been in charge of developing the game. Dreamhaven joined later. What is the role of Dreamhaven? Did they do anything to promote the game and the competitive scene?

The gentrification of South Bronx needs to move northward faster. The faster it reaches the van courtlandt Park boundary the better. make South Bronx the new LIC. YIMBYISM all across bronx and beyond.

The meta has become so stale that every caster has been complaining about it. Every PvT is just like any other PvT. The previous two patches have in my opinion been not working well. There is simply no reason why tank is unabductable, ghost is 2 supply, storm is effectively like a zoning/disengaging tool for protoss. Warcraft has gotten many patches for the past year.

Why are we not getting any patch yet this year? Blizzard. please. save your own game.

820K with a property tax of 16K (with a huge majority of it goes to school tax) The schools nearby have great school ratings of a 4/10 and 3/10. Where did the money go? Happy to pay taxes if they are spent judiciously and outcomes assessed for effectiveness.

I often get matched such that the two high MMR players are on one team and the two low MMR players are on the other, instead of mixing high and low MMR. It has happened so many times that I think there might be a bug in match making.

What is happening?