"All players" can win at StarCraft II

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 28 June, 2010

Promises Blizzard.

Everybody will have a chance of winning in every game of StarCraft II they play, Blizzard has promised.

StarCraft II is an RTS. RTS games are harder than rocks.

But Blizzard's "goal" is to have 50/50 matchmaking in the upcoming real-time strategy game, which should help pair players up with those of equal skill level.

"There were some balancing issues when we first started the beta," lead producer Chris Sigaty told IGN.

"But our matchmaking has improved greatly since then. The ultimate goal is for 50/50 matching - all players should have a chance of winning in every game they play. We know that there are people out there who want to win all the time, but that's really no fun."

Sigarty warned players not to expect StarCraft II's single-player campaign, called Wings of Liberty, to teach them the mad skills needed to win at multiplayer.

Instead, the game will include challenges designed to give you a fighting chance.

"The single-player doesn't help with online much," Sigarty said.

"It just teaches the players the core basics - it doesn't try to tell them how to do it right. Beyond this, however, there are the challenges that will prepare players by helping them understand that having only eight units collecting minerals isn't enough, for example."

No matter how much time you put into StarCraft II, though, there will always be a South Korean who is better than you.

Game's out on PC and Mac on 27th July and it's looking aces.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (26) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • MiniAmin #1 2 years ago

    All players can win the lottery too...

    On a serious note, these matchmaking procedures sound good. Many good online games have been ruined by poor matchmaking, as someone who still plays Gears of War online I know this all too well.

  • Nuronv #2 2 years ago

    I can confirm from the Beta that it matches people very well, After a long losing streak of course :)

  • McBradders #3 2 years ago

    The Beta says otherwise, Blizzard.

  • CaptainQuint #4 2 years ago

    Cue the cries of a thousand "pro" players: "Fuck you Blizzard! Fuck you for pandering to the n00bs."

  • Entity #5 2 years ago

    £10 says that I would never win a game.

    I'll be happily ploughing stuff as fast as I can, but somehow other players will have a full-strength death squad, while I'm still rubbing sticks together.

    If Blizzard can keep this promise then I'll be surprised.

  • A1J2P3 #6 2 years ago

    why wouldnt we be able to win?
    Edited by A1J2P3 at 28/06/10 @ 14:32

  • photoboy #7 2 years ago

    That's good, because my only tactic in C&C is to keep building tanks until I've run out of money.

  • RexRunti #8 2 years ago

    What will win out: My hatred of all things Activision or my love of all things Starcraft?

  • duckncover #9 2 years ago

    Please ignore anyone referring to the beta, they clearly didn't read the multiple messages from Blizzard about how they had to relax the matchmaking rules due the lower number of people playing beta. They stated time and time again that this would happen, yet some people seem to have missed the message.

    Need to stop people that don't understand betas from getting on them.

  • Dylbot #10 2 years ago

    @photoboy

    There are other tactics in C&C?

  • Eraysor #11 2 years ago

    I'd never played StarCraft before playing the beta, but I've won a few matches and thoroughly enjoyed myself even when losing. The matchmaking is excellent to be honest.

  • kar #12 2 years ago

    I've been in on the beta since patch 6 or so. And let me say, the matchmaking in this game is very, very, very impressive.

    Matchmaking aside, Bnet 2.0, is a steaming pile of turd.

    But they got the matchmaking oh so right.

  • Lunaticorc #13 2 years ago

    @Entity

    Don't worry, there'll be plenty other stick-rubbers around for Bnet to match you with. Like me :p

  • Dizzy #14 2 years ago

    I hope so. In the beta I had about 5% chance of winning, I guess I just suck.

  • craziii #15 2 years ago

    when you are new, you have to prepare to lose alot in order to win some in the future.

    if you don't have the staying power, cannot learn, sucks to be you.

  • RandomRash #16 2 years ago

    like the dodgy guy at the local fair shouts, "have a play cause EEEEEEEEEEVERYONES A WINNERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR"

  • paulf #17 2 years ago

    no one has quite cracked the balancing issue in online games just yet, if Blizz can do this then its a bit of a holy grail, it will have to work loads better than the WoW matchmaking system mind

  • Timbercottage #18 2 years ago

    This game is making me wet

  • General_Zod #19 2 years ago

    "You missed one build order by 3 seconds in the 7th minute, automatic win for me kekekekekekekekekekekekekekeke"


    No thanks.

  • Tkozy #20 2 years ago

    Just watch videos on YouTube by HDstarcraft and Huskystarcraft.

    That's all you need to do to move up in the SC II world, aside from being Korean.

  • Rubarack #21 2 years ago

    Blizzard can do all the match-making they want, or more accurately talk crap about match-making all they want, but they can't actually control who plays.

  • nuanimal #22 2 years ago

    No matter how much time you put into StarCraft II, though, there will always be a South Korean who is better than you.

    As politcally incorrect as it sounds - the truth does hurt.

  • Dexter2015 #23 2 years ago

    Really everyone stop thinking that beta is the same as final product! Blizzard never release a bad game in the history. There old games still are on the most played in the world list! Have faith that Blizzard will release a good end product!

  • Mooglepies #24 2 years ago

    I'm sure it'll be very good, but I'm just not interested in the (core) multiplayer. I've played annihilation RTS for the last decade, and I think that's enough, personally. Roll on the interesting user-generated content and the campaign though.

  • abigsmurf #25 2 years ago

    The single player doesn't teach you the skills you need to play online, instead you get the fun of having to spend hours on end 'learning' to play before you can play online without having a miserable experience where you endlessly get steamrolled? That sounds...great?

    How's the matchmaking going to work when you'll have genuinely new players getting paired up against one of the hundreds of thousands of 'new' players who'd been in the beta or were SC1 players. I've little faith that the matchmaking system will hold up against the massive gulf between rubbish players and good players that Starcraft 1 featured.

    Rather than focusing on creating a hardcore RTS with all the balance focused at the elite players, how about creating a casual mode that levels the playing field a bit better and doesn't require perfect build orders and similar rubbish? Keep the seperate from a tournament mode which is balanced for the top end players.

  • neems #26 2 years ago

    I suppose if somebody could make an RTS that depended on actual strategy, that would help.

    Anyway, just because you can win, doesn't mean you will.