During Dreamhack: Austin, theScore esports had a chance to talk to Paulo "CatZ" Vizcarra, the co-founder and captain of ROOT Gaming. CatZ spoke to us about balance, the StarCraft scene as a whole, and the challenges of managing a team.
There's been some talk recently about the struggles faced by teams in SC2. Do you have any thoughts to share as the leader of one of North America's most established StarCraft 2 rosters?
Absolutely. I think that StarCraft hasn't been as good as it could have been at promoting players and teams, but having said that, they have started using for example the launcher to promote community initiatives, and I think that's the right way to go.
If we can see more of that, and things on top of that in the same direction, I think that will be really good for the game in the long run. I think the game is here for the long run, Blizzard is very committed to keeping StarCraft alive, and I think they will.
How do you feel about the current state of balance and the meta right now?
I think that the game is well balanced. As a Zerg, I have a lot of options. I have my own frustrations, but it's difficult to say whether they are personal or global issues. So I don't like commenting on balance unless I am discussing it with another progamer who can give me their side of the story, if we're talking about ZvP or ZvT for instance.
In terms of design, most of the complaints I've heard are from Terran players, saying that they have to rely on Liberators too often, which makes the game a little one-dimensional for them. So we might want to diversify Terran a little bit. Other than that, I think the game is in the best spot it's ever been in terms of how fun it is and how many options there.
What about the discussion of upcoming balance changes, which include changes to Liberators, Thors and Swarm Hosts? [Editor's Note: The changes Catz is responding to were the original Blizzard changes, not the finalized changes.]
I don't know how the changes are going to play out. I actually wrote an article on Swarm Hosts, I'm sure many of you [reading] this have read it ... It should be featured on the front page. I think that my change for the Swarm Host was a little bit more sensible than what David Kim is proposing, just because my change was a lot smaller, only changing the resource costs by a tiny bit, but it would be a better synergy.
What I proposed essentially was that they flip the costs of the Gas and Minerals, and that they add a way to have Locusts on the ground. ... My thinking is that it's not going to help the Swarm Host that much, but it's going to make it a powerful unit when you are able to get it.
The problem with Swarm Hosts is that they are not very versatile, because you need the Infestation Pit for them, and they cost mostly minerals, which is already counter intuitive, because to get to a quick Lair and Infestation Pit you need a lot of Gas. What I proposed was to have the Infestor and the Swarm Host have a similar gas to mineral ratio with each other in terms of cost. So that one can decide to go either Infestors or Swarm Hosts. For example in ZvP, if the Protoss goes for a Stargate opener, you can decide to go Infestors, if not you can go Swarm Hosts.
What they are proposing [instead] is a huge change, its like a 20% decrease in the cost of the unit. But the problem with the unit is that if you're planning to go Swarm Hosts you need to mine more Minerals than Gas, and if you're going Infestors you need to mine more Gas than minerals, so there's no flexibility there. So you kind of have to decide going in, and that's bad for Swarm Hosts because they get hard-countered: they can't shoot up, and they're very expensive. So I don't like the change. They will be a lot stronger, but it will make them a gambly unit.
In terms of the Liberator, I don't know how it will pan out, but I'm guessing Corruptors with +1 Armor with be a little too strong against Terran, because Liberators will do less damage, and Marines also have low damage against Corruptors. So Corruptors will be super hard to kill for Terran and I can see how that would be a problem, because now you have to add either Vikings or Thors, maybe? So I'm not a giant fan but we'll see how it turns out.
What do you think about the map pool this season? Is it better or worse than last season?
I love the map pool this season. A lot of people don't like it, but I completely disagree. I think that we have a lot of very unique maps.
If you watch my series against FireCake [Sébastien "FireCake" Lebbe], for example, we played five different maps, and I did five different strategies. They were really fun games. Like I said, the game is very versatile, and how different the maps are allows us to show different strengths and tactics. A lot of people don't really like that, they like to play the same style. I personally like strategy and real-time strategy, what StarCraft is meant to be.
Are there any maps you would switch out to make it even better?
I think one of the most important things is to keep the map pool fresh. I wouldn't mind rotating all the maps. Just because I think the game needs to stay fresh and bring in new people. Or at least, retain the people we have until we have a chance to grow. Potential to grow will be there for StarCraft in the future, its just a matter of Blizzard and the community getting together and both pushing forward.
On the whole, how successful has the WCS system been so far, or is it too early to tell?
I actually also wrote an article on this. A lot of the things I proposed were added to the new system, things like region-locking and the ladder qualifiers. I think that it is working really well. In terms of Korean skill to foreigner skill, the gap has never been closer. It was perfect to start in Legacy of the Void because it's a new game and it resets everything. Not having as many Koreans makes it possible for foreigners to win, which means they're going to practice more.
And it shows. Polt, for example, [dropped out of DH Austin], and he's a world caliber player. Snute beat Zest just recently online before Zest destroyed everyone in Korea, and they were playing on NA. A lot of people were saying, "Oh, it's the ping," but that's not true. Foreigners are really good right now, and I think we have the WCS system to thank for that.
Now we just have to get hyped for the foreigners, and to believe in the foreigners, and for the foreigners to keep it up. We're not quite caught up, but the gap is about the closest it's ever been.
On that note, who do you think is the strongest foreigner right now?
Ah, I'll be boring and say Neeb, because he just is. The thing with Neeb is that, in my opinion, he is incredibly predictable if you study him. Like, he wouldn't do very well in the GSL right now. But as he diversifies, because he's a young talent and is only truly breaking into the scene now with Legacy of the Void, I think he can become invincible.
Editor's note: A previous version of this story said CatZ's proposed change to Swarm Hosts would be to allow a player "to go either Gas or Swarm Hosts." CatZ contacted theScore esports after publication to say that he misspoke, it now specifies he suggests a choice between Infestors and Swarm Hosts. We regret any confusion that may have been caused.
Christian Paas-Lang is an esports journalist from Toronto currently powering up for the Korean league cross-finals. You can follow him on Twitter.
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