I am very much enjoying Starcraft 2.  I think Blizzard’s concept on leagues is very cool too.  I just wish I understood the execution of said leagues.

I was originally placed in copper because heck, I had no idea what I was doing during my original placement matches.  Clearly, I played a lot and eventually figured out how to play and got to #1. Then they reset it.

The second time around, I won 3 of my 5 placements and got into bronze (I lost against people in “Platinum” league). That’s cool though except for one thing: How it determines an “even” match.  An “even” match for me is playing against someone in silver. If I play against someone in bronze I’m slightly favored and if I play against someone in copper I’m obviously favored. If I play against someone in gold they tend to be “slightly favored”.

Now, I think their system of determining this works pretty well. The bummer has to do with league promotions. Call me a nerdite but there’s a bit of a stigma being in copper or even bronze when you’re talking to your friends (it doesn’t help if a lot of your friends are in the game industry who are in silver and gold).  But if the game has clearly decided that I have to be placed against silver people to be evenly matched why not just bump me up there?

Here’s my profile for what it’s worth (feel free to friend me).

Anyway, I must say that I am incredibly impressed with Starcraft 2. Admittedly, I was a Starcraft 1 fanatic back in the day (I even got Blizzard to let us make an authorized expansion pack Starcraft: Retribution).

Starcraft 2 at first seems just like Starcraft 1 warmed over. But that’s not true at all.  The balance, while always in flux and never quite perfect, is better than any other game I’ve played. This is important because once you know the game well, you always know why and how you lost and what you should have done (in my case, I need to suck less).