A

study of the demographics of r/starcraft and the discovery of a possible Terran skill gap

w3asel Platinum League 1v1, Season 1; Currently Unplaced

Abstract This study intends to examine the races played and skill of community members of r/Starcraft (r/Starcrafters). Statistics were collected from rstarcraft.info and visual analyses were carried out on the data. r/Starcrafters have higher skill than non-community-members and play Protoss and Zerg much more than they play Terran. The author hopes this study will provoke discussion regarding the differences in skill levels between races, especially the differences in distribution of skill. Introduction Starcraft II is one of the most popular PC games on Reddit and perhaps in the world; further though, it is an E-Sport. Thusly for those who play competitively, information regarding opponents, play-style, and the state of the metagame is invaluable. Also, as a community, it is necessary for us to abet new players in their learning and confront Blizzard about any serious balance issues. Through examining the community members of r/Starcraft the author hopes to aid in accomplishing these things. Background regarding the Blizzard matchmaking system may be found in Assuming a balanced game and evenly distributed personal preference, the Excalibur_Zs Comprehensive Ladder Guide. author hypothesized that community members would play all races equally and that skill would be distributed evenly among races. Further, it was hypothesized that the "average" community member would be of higher skill than the average Starcraft (ladder) player considering the communitys increased level of immersion in the game. Methods Race and league statistics were collected from rstarcraft.info. Only 1v1 league statistics were considered. The results were rendered in Excel.

Results r/Starcrafters are, on average, of higher skill (as determined by league placement) than average ladderers as displayed in the figure below. The majority of r/Starcrafters place in Platinum, Diamond or Master league. There are eight registered community members in the Grandmaster league. Fig 1. Skill of r/Starcraft community members opposed with skill of average ladderers, divided by league
30 Active Ladder Players 25 r/Starcrafters

Percent Players

20

15

10

League

Skill (as determined by league placement) is not evenly distributed among and within races, as seen in Fig 2. While Protoss skill peaks slightly higher than Zerg skill (peaking at Diamond league and Platinum-Diamond, respectively), a higher proportion of Protoss players are placed in the lower leagues than Zerg players. The skill of Random and Zerg players seem most normally distributed, peaking at

Platinum and Platinum-Diamond league respectively and displaying relative symmetry throughout. Terran players present an anomaly. Terran league placement seems to peak at both Gold and Diamond leagues, dropping off in the intermediary Platinum division. Fig 2. Skill distribution of r/Starcrafters by (ascending) league, divided by race played
35 Percent Players of Respective Race 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Terran Zerg Protoss Random

League

Great disparity exists between the races played by community members, as displayed in Fig 3 bellow. Zerg players belong to the largest contingency with Protoss not far behind and Terran in a distant third. Random players occupy the smallest group.

Fig 3. Races played by r/Starcraft community member

1000 900 800 Number of Players 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 Terran Protoss Race Played Zerg Random

Discussion As predicted, skill of r/Starcrafters is greater than that of non-community- members. It seems likely to the author that increased interest and immersion in the game contributes to higher skill. The Terran Skill Gap and Fewer Terran Players: Connected? The Terran Skill Gap, the phenomenon exhibited in Fig 2, is curious in its exclusivity to the race. The bimodal skill distribution suggests some barrier to placement in the higher leagues for the Terran player that is non-existent for the other races. Further inquiry and input by players who may be faced with this barrier is required to determine the factuality of its existence and its cause. Another curiously exclusive phenomenon, exhibited in Fig 3 and also regarding the Terran race, is the lack of Terran players on r/Starcraft. Without proper statistics from Blizzard it is impossible to determine the nature of this phenomenon however the author has suspicion that it may be related to the skill gap. The authors hypothesized explanation is an exodus of mid-level Terran players

having trouble being promoted, resulting in a diaspora of prior Terrans among the other races. The lack of Terran players may be completely unrelated to the skill gap, however. It may instead be related to the lack of personalities who play Terran in EU/NA, the nature of the race, or any number of features of the game and meta- game. The author strongly believes that the Terran skill gap, supported by evidence from the sample of ~2500 registered users of rstarcraft.info, should be considered by this forum.