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The original was posted on /r/starcraft by /u/dr4kun on 2024-10-24 07:22:23+00:00.

It feels like zerg is balanced around Serral, protoss is balanced around ladder, and terran is balanced around the wishes of the loudest members on the council - who happen to play terran in tournaments they win money at.

Some of the patch elements a while ago were clearly designed to challenge Serral in a targeted manner, but there were no changes to protoss to target-help top protoss players in areas they’re struggling.

A core argument when we see no protoss buffs is that any buffs to protoss will upset the whole ladder, where protoss is already overrepresented, but any nerfs or changes done to zerg seem to completely ignore the existance of the ladder and non-pro players.

The overrepresentation of protoss on ladder seems to be a concern, but the overrepresentation of terran in pro tournaments is completely ignored.

In the past, after zerg players won main tournaments, the next balance patch would aim to tone down or at least change some of the key elements that were used on their path to victory. Not necessarily nerf but shake the meta and force strategy adaptation. After terran won 5-0 in the world finals, terran got buffed and none of the elements that helped secure that 5-0 were touched - not even nerfed, just altered enough to shake the meta and force adaptation from top terrans.

Tempest has been changed multiple times in search of its identity and place in matchups, but all of those changes feel like done with one hand tied. Cyclone was redesigned with strong buffs, both direct and indirect, including the upcoming buff to blue flame being a huge benefit for the mobile mech army - the patch notes mention two-shotting all workers, but new blue flame hellions will be excellent bodyguards for cyclones against lings.

Zerg casters are deemed too strong and in need of nerfing or at least slight toning down, all while terran has an all-in-one caster that counters almost all late-game compositions of both zerg and protoss. Terran players keep refusing to make a single raven for mobile detection because of how expensive in gas and how unwieldy in micro it is; well, zerg has two juggle two spellcasters, one flying that uses different pathing, with high gas costs and neural behind an upgrade, after multiple redesigns and nerfs to their spells - and apparently that’s fine.

It’s clear that any balance decisions have not been data-driven or based on the same goals / reasons / justification. It feels like specific points of data have been used to argue for or against some changes but they’ve been used with no consistency whatsoever. Whatever supports the argument the loudest council member is trying to make, and let’s just pretend nothing else exists.