It's been three years since IEM Katowice's format was changed to include a RO36 bracket/play-in stage, and I believe that the 2023 edition features the most competitive, closely matched field of players yet. Tier 5: Contending for a Group Stage Spot #34: Armani However, you need to put together three to four of those upsets to escape the RO36, and I just can't see either of these two pulling off that kind of underdog run. Like their regional peers, TeebuL and Coffee could very well win surprise victories that help send a player from a stronger region out of the tournament. As for the OCE #1 seed, Probe managed to eliminate Percival 2-0 in last year's Katowice play-in stage. That's not to say those seeds haven't scored upsets-previous China #2 seed Cyan took down Scarlett at Katowice 2021 and then defeated Has at Katowice 2022. Since the WCS-EPT transition, the #1 seed out of Oceania/Rest of Asia and #2 seed from China have never made it out of the IEM Katowice play-in stage. Unfortunately for TeebuL and Coffee, historic results force me to place them here in Tier 6. Tier 6: Looking for a Series Win #36: TeebuL I fully expect to be surprised by players who had very productive practice leading into Katowice, or those who are bringing effective new strategies to the competition. Thus, I'm leaning hard on previous performances, reputation-and for the lack of a better word- vibes for some of these placements. Also, a large chunk of the players in the competition haven't competed at all in 2023, leaving their form a mystery. A new patch and map pool was implemented in the last two months, and we've seen ZERO high-stakes events in the new setting. While all forms of Power Ranks are speculative, this one might take the cake. I'm not sure if they are simply going to skip the other modes or if similar changes are coming in a future patch, but it would certainly be a welcome addition as the same problems apply in team games as well.IEM Katowice 2023 is nigh! Before we begin, we embark on an ambitious project: Rank all 36 players. At least now I'll be able to play the Zerg without getting absolutely obliterated within minutes!ĭo bear in mind that this will only affect ranked 1v1 matches, the 'serious' competitive mode, while everything else will remain as it is. It may have taken them around 20 years to finally implement this quite obvious change, but I'm still incredibly happy they have done so. We’ve opted to give the Random race option it’s very own ranking as well, since people can identify with being “a random player” and we wanted to preserve the meaning and value behind choosing this race option. This rank is completely unaffected by any games you play as another race option, including ‘Random’. This will ensure that players who played as multiple races prior to this patch can receive accurate rankings for each individual race.Īs you complete your placement matches, you’ll receive a ranking for each of the race options. " When you first login after Patch 3.7 is applied, there will be a new season for which you will need to play five (5) placement matches before being placed for any given race, even if you placed into the ladder with that race during the previous season. If you're wondering how all of this works, here's a brief rundown from Blizzard themselves: Thankfully, Blizzard has finally decided to do something about it! The next Starcraft 2 update (3.7) will essentially separate your MMR (matchmaking rating) by race, so you'll never again need to worry about swapping over to your 'bad' races. No matter which way you go about it, the end result is quite clearly not ideal. As of right now, your options are either to get completely destroyed over and over again until you fall to your proper rating with the Terran race, or to simply never play them on the official ladder which means your skills will improve at a much slower pace, further propagating the problem. While you might be a Diamond Protoss player, your rank rank as a Terran could potentially be somewhere around Gold, purely due to the different mechanics and playstyles the races require. Learning one race takes months and months of dedication, during which you will slowly advance through the ranks and face off against players doing the same, but should you decide to switch to a race you know nearly nothing about. Starcraft 2's matchmaking system is pretty damn good at finding you equally skilled opponents, which is both a blessing and a curse.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |