Keeping up with the metagame

Hello everyone! ProfSc here, and I just wanted to pose a question: How do you keep up with the metagame? With many of us being students or members of the workforce, not everyone has the luxury of time to tune into livestreams or the GSL—and if we do, we tend to gravitate towards the players who use races we can identify with.

As a long-term goal, I hope that Team LXG can develop a centralized resource for players to consult regarding the metagame. A "history" of sorts, if you will. In other words, the builds from the Beta are generally far from those utilized in Season 2 of the GSL. But how did we get there?

Through answering these questions, I believe there are a number of benefits.

1. The community and the players who participate in team league play can develop build-order related feedback loops. In this way, the community can help support its team members by hunting down strategic information—pro replay packs, watching livestreams, etc, which can then help inform the team league players of what they can expect.

2. Newer players would benefit from this resource because they would be able to see the rise and fall of strategies over the last couple years. Why were some successful? Why are some popular?

3. Such a resource could potentially enhance every community member's understanding of major tournaments and their dynamics. Do pro-level players develop these strategies in vacuums before debut? Why do we see a prevalence of some strategies rather than others?

These are just some of the many benefits of answering the questions: What makes up the metagame? What period of time does the metagame refer to? Who defines the metagame?

These thoughts and more as the year goes on.

Cheers for now!
ProfSc.946

Awesome post ProfSc my vote went for the Professional scene (MLG,GSL,IPL) isn't that the same as the tournament scene though??
That is where I keep up the most with the meta game, watching the Professional tournaments as well as players streams. I also lump in Day[9] and other SC2 commentators into this category.

TeamLiquid's "SC2 Strategy" forum = Garbage imo there is probably about 1 good post out of 100 random crap.

The Ladder: Only really applies to the highest level (Diamond-GM is where you can really see how the meta develops and shifts) But even so with the ladder it has a trickle down effect Korea-EU-NA

Team LXG (chat channel, forum, VODs, streams) Communities like LXG and other SC clans/teams is a good way as well to keep up by playing practice games with players watching vods from the tourneys things of that nature

Hi Nan! Thanks for your reply! I absolutely agree with everything that you say—you really have to dig to find the gems on the TL sc2 strategy forum, and, by extension, Liquipedia.

As for the difference between the professional scene and other tournaments, I was getting at how there's a growing non-professional (I guess amataur or minor?) scene with clan tournaments, clan leagues, playhem tournaments, company tournaments, etc., which may have pros participating in them but aren't considered "professional tournaments."

As for the ladder, I think your analysis is dead-on, though it would be really cool if in the future the ladders were characterized by separate "personalities" just so that it wouldn't have to be considered that KR > EU > NA. If you have ever seen "Planet B-Boys," breakdancing is yet another area where Korea dominate, but they dominate through what are called "power moves," with breakdancers from other countries specializing in other aspects. If Sc2 were more like that, where it was possible to specialize, with each division having its own specific "flavor" (other than a cheesy kind), I feel that more players would begin to participate.

As Team LXG grows and more interaction occurs between players, I'm sure that metagame discussions will eventually become central (especially once LXG members begin participating in the pro scene). In anticipation of that, I hope that we can start developing an idea of what kinds of builds, uses of maps, etc., make up the "metagame."