To many creative souls - which I believe most of us are to some extend -, the idea of making whacky, off-meta strategies work is the epitome of strategy games. Surprising others with our home-made concoction or trying your hand at mimicking some obscure build, you saw an old replay of; taking the opponent to unknown territory and out of their comfort zone.
However, many players I talk to seem to have an mental block from deviating from their own comfort-zone. We are creatures of habit and we like to play how we always play and how we see the pro players play. I think this one of the main hindrances for improvement among intermediate players.
A few years ago, I wrote an article complaining about the lazy design of Orb of Fire (OoF) . My main point of the article was, that unlike the other three race Orbs, OoF was in no shape or form aligned with its race's identity.
Since that article, the Orb has gotten a complete overhaul. This, I believe, warrants a new article on the topic.
With another year having passed that we can look back at, Helpstone has decided to do exactly that. Specifically by looking at the matchups' statistical bias, calculated with the data from W3Champions' season 12 and 13.
The entirety of the article below - including tables/plots - are created by Helpstone. It is a delightful read!
I hope y'all had a pleasant take-off to 2023. Happy reading!
When I first saw the picture in this articles' cover image, I had a good chuckle. An entire 2012 photoshoot of Neo in his early twenties: cigarette in hand, beanie on head, a mix of melancholic and goofy poses and - of course - WarCraft 3 on the monitor.
While creating the cover I was about the scrap the image, replacing it with one of the more up-to-date pictures of Neo. While a humorous picture, I did not find it representative of the current Neo... at first glance. Upon further thought, I realized it shows exactly who he is: an incredibly passionate person who through thick and thin (emphasis on the latter, unfortunately) has stayed and fought for the game and community he loves through the years.
With the announcement of RARALAND, an upcoming offline event organized by Neo, Frost Giants reveal of Stormgate and a packed tournament schedule to cast, Neo had a busy week last week. Yet, when I asked if he would indulge us with an interview, he answered with a prompt "Hell yeah!". So, please, go ahead and enjoy a great interview with Jannes "Neo" Tjarks:
An important factor when it comes to balance and the general flow of a matchup is the map. With heroes and creeps being characteristic to Warcraft 3, another level is added to the complexity of understanding and making maps. Arguably this has also led to a very conservative competitive map pool, with several years between map rotations (latest being Concealed Hill and Northern Isles replacing Ancient Isles and Turtle Rock in 2018).
In this article series I will try to highlight each map individually and see whether any conclusions can be drawn from the data we have, as well as ask competitive players and map makers of their opinion on maps to see if there is a general consensus on these maps - be it positive or negative.
The big winner of the upcoming patch looks to be Crypt Lord (granted the patch goes live unchanged). But even with him being buffed yet again, will he manage to find his way into the meta consistently or is he doomed to remain a niche hero?
In this article we will have a look at the potential usage of the hero and ask a real connoisseur about his opinion on the changes.
Bidoux has done and continues to do a lot for the American Warcraft 3 scene. Between managing Team DuSt and organizing the DuSt League, he gives the American players the opportunity to compete and prove themselves in their own region as well as fight alongside eachother to take on the European and Asian teams.
Bidoux agreed to do an interview where he talks about DuSt, their upcoming match with SWE, the nail biter match against LP Club, DuSt League and more!
Usually I take distance to drama in the community when writing articles. Reason simply being that I do not think it is healthy for the community if warcraft3info takes the role of a tabloid. Sometimes it is, however, also important that we point at the elephant in the room and take a stance together with the community.
Teams not paying players and tournament organizers not paying prize money, casters and admins is not unheard of when it comes to esport. In fact, it is common as has been so for a long time.
