The Nurture Aspect
As you read just above in the introduction, the nurture of Protoss deals represents the life of the race in the current metagame and how is it managed by its users and how does it do when facing the other two species.
One must consider the fact, that the environment always plays a role in all situations and as it changes so do the outcomes and results of one's actions. We boldly tried to look into the future in Part 1 of this article when trying to predict if genetics of Protoss will impose a permanent (or at least a long-lasting) effect on its performance, but here we will turn our gaze solely to the current state of the game.
Fighting Mechanus
When looking at the current race pool in most major tournaments, one cannot deny one simple fact - there are quite a lot of Terrans out there. And while this is NOT an implication of Terran being overpowered, imbalanced, retarded or anything you can think of, the fact that PvT is the harder match-up among the non-mirrors stands true. And when pure statistics start talking there is not much place to hide - Protosses are forced to play the match they don't like much, much more than the one they do like.
As of now, it is much more up to the Protosses to find solutions to their problems. And although such have started to appear - the 4-gate pressure continues to be diversified by new ways of doing it and a safe way to early expand has also been found - there are still some troubles that they face past at the mid-game. The Colossus builds are still very fragile at times due to being easily countered by on-time scouting and a Viking switch, and pro-gamers in the better part still seem to count Storm builds as Plan B. The latter might be because of fear of EMP but overall Chargelot/Storm builds seem more stable than Colossus ones.
How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Drop
This one element of the Protoss play is especially connected to the nature aspects we discussed in Part 1. Protoss players seems to be the only one that do not care for harassing enemies' economies and try to come ahead in the simpler way by just overexpanding and overprobing their opponents. And while in many games that would be a viable strategy, in highest level of competition this is sometimes not an option. What BroodWar and SC2 players alike have found is that you can rarely get away with a new Nexus when one is behind in some way, especially army-wise.
Every race faces such situations at least several times in each tournament and so far Zergs and Terrans seem to be the only one using economy harassment to uppermost effectiveness by doing Zergling run-byes, Mutalisk harass, Medivac drops and early Banshee pressure. Which baffles me because Protosses certainly possess the means to do economy damage with the newly buffed Phoenixes and the Psi Storm drop (which, although weaker than in BroodWar, can still cause significant havoc) but which even top players often neglect.
Warp in, Warp out
As rare sight the Prism usage might be, I still get shocked by the inability of many players to do it correctly. As far as the majority of the Protoss users are concerned, the Warp Prism is considered much more a flying Pylon than an actual dropship so they will fly to the location, phase the Prism, start warping-in units and then proceed with their plan, completely stultifying the mobility of the unit. And while this is fine for some situations, that is not the case while trying to harass mineral lines. When a top-tier player needs less then two seconds to spot a red dot on his map and react, one cannot afford to spend thrice the time before the harass actually begins.
That leads to the inevitable sniping of the whole operation and Protoss feels far behind as the Warp Prism play has already cost both money and Robo build time.
The Subtle Art of Being Predictable
At the end of the day, the biggest mistakes Protoss users make is being obvious. Despite the vast options of tech deviations Protosses have before themselves and almost all of them viable and competitive, they keep sticking to only several openers and mid-game plans which pro-gamers have learned to successfully read even with partial scouting. Robo tech seems to be the choice of the majority of players and, while strong, it remains easily countered by proper timings and good micro management from the opponent. 4-Gate pressures also enjoy a high percentage among Protoss users but suffer the same cons as the Robo tech - they are easily scoutable, extremely predictable and, in addition, have a semi all-in aspect because of the economy restrictions they impose on the player.
With his unique early pressures, MC managed to claim the first GSL title for his race and many Protosses have high hopes that he will continue to lead them further.
The players might not be the only one that are to blame for the choices they make. One might argue that it is the metagame that forces them to take certain tech paths because the alternatives are far less effective, but I believe that the roots are in the gamers themselves, who impose a virtual stagnation upon their race.
This is all for the time being, of course. As we mentioned above, Protosses keep finding new ways to battle their opponents but a steady evolution might just not be enough in the current situation. With the pro-scene developing ever so rapidly, one strongly feels the need of a new Bisu or Nal_ra to turn the race upside-down and bring upon a revolution that will have its effect for years to come.
So What Now?
In the end, it is always hard to determine the winner in this debate. But for what it's worth I would put my money in the 'Nurture' basket as the main perpetrator of the Protosses' misfortunes. The race clearly has huge potential and is by no means weaker than the other two, but it seems to be used improperly for the better part of high-tier matches. It remains to be seen when or if a diversification in playstyles will occur and how the future build orders will change the placement of Protoss overall.
As you read just above in the introduction, the nurture of Protoss deals represents the life of the race in the current metagame and how is it managed by its users and how does it do when facing the other two species.
One must consider the fact, that the environment always plays a role in all situations and as it changes so do the outcomes and results of one's actions. We boldly tried to look into the future in Part 1 of this article when trying to predict if genetics of Protoss will impose a permanent (or at least a long-lasting) effect on its performance, but here we will turn our gaze solely to the current state of the game.
Fighting Mechanus
When looking at the current race pool in most major tournaments, one cannot deny one simple fact - there are quite a lot of Terrans out there. And while this is NOT an implication of Terran being overpowered, imbalanced, retarded or anything you can think of, the fact that PvT is the harder match-up among the non-mirrors stands true. And when pure statistics start talking there is not much place to hide - Protosses are forced to play the match they don't like much, much more than the one they do like.
As of now, it is much more up to the Protosses to find solutions to their problems. And although such have started to appear - the 4-gate pressure continues to be diversified by new ways of doing it and a safe way to early expand has also been found - there are still some troubles that they face past at the mid-game. The Colossus builds are still very fragile at times due to being easily countered by on-time scouting and a Viking switch, and pro-gamers in the better part still seem to count Storm builds as Plan B. The latter might be because of fear of EMP but overall Chargelot/Storm builds seem more stable than Colossus ones.
How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Drop
This one element of the Protoss play is especially connected to the nature aspects we discussed in Part 1. Protoss players seems to be the only one that do not care for harassing enemies' economies and try to come ahead in the simpler way by just overexpanding and overprobing their opponents. And while in many games that would be a viable strategy, in highest level of competition this is sometimes not an option. What BroodWar and SC2 players alike have found is that you can rarely get away with a new Nexus when one is behind in some way, especially army-wise.
Every race faces such situations at least several times in each tournament and so far Zergs and Terrans seem to be the only one using economy harassment to uppermost effectiveness by doing Zergling run-byes, Mutalisk harass, Medivac drops and early Banshee pressure. Which baffles me because Protosses certainly possess the means to do economy damage with the newly buffed Phoenixes and the Psi Storm drop (which, although weaker than in BroodWar, can still cause significant havoc) but which even top players often neglect.
Warp in, Warp out
As rare sight the Prism usage might be, I still get shocked by the inability of many players to do it correctly. As far as the majority of the Protoss users are concerned, the Warp Prism is considered much more a flying Pylon than an actual dropship so they will fly to the location, phase the Prism, start warping-in units and then proceed with their plan, completely stultifying the mobility of the unit. And while this is fine for some situations, that is not the case while trying to harass mineral lines. When a top-tier player needs less then two seconds to spot a red dot on his map and react, one cannot afford to spend thrice the time before the harass actually begins.
That leads to the inevitable sniping of the whole operation and Protoss feels far behind as the Warp Prism play has already cost both money and Robo build time.
The Subtle Art of Being Predictable
At the end of the day, the biggest mistakes Protoss users make is being obvious. Despite the vast options of tech deviations Protosses have before themselves and almost all of them viable and competitive, they keep sticking to only several openers and mid-game plans which pro-gamers have learned to successfully read even with partial scouting. Robo tech seems to be the choice of the majority of players and, while strong, it remains easily countered by proper timings and good micro management from the opponent. 4-Gate pressures also enjoy a high percentage among Protoss users but suffer the same cons as the Robo tech - they are easily scoutable, extremely predictable and, in addition, have a semi all-in aspect because of the economy restrictions they impose on the player.
With his unique early pressures, MC managed to claim the first GSL title for his race and many Protosses have high hopes that he will continue to lead them further.
The players might not be the only one that are to blame for the choices they make. One might argue that it is the metagame that forces them to take certain tech paths because the alternatives are far less effective, but I believe that the roots are in the gamers themselves, who impose a virtual stagnation upon their race.
This is all for the time being, of course. As we mentioned above, Protosses keep finding new ways to battle their opponents but a steady evolution might just not be enough in the current situation. With the pro-scene developing ever so rapidly, one strongly feels the need of a new Bisu or Nal_ra to turn the race upside-down and bring upon a revolution that will have its effect for years to come.
So What Now?
In the end, it is always hard to determine the winner in this debate. But for what it's worth I would put my money in the 'Nurture' basket as the main perpetrator of the Protosses' misfortunes. The race clearly has huge potential and is by no means weaker than the other two, but it seems to be used improperly for the better part of high-tier matches. It remains to be seen when or if a diversification in playstyles will occur and how the future build orders will change the placement of Protoss overall.
