IglooBob

I've been listening to Three Moves Ahead for a long while and just started listening to Esports Today. I guess you could call me "long time listener, first time poster." I'm generally a fan of you guys and appreciate the content. Indeed, often I listen to 3MA episodes for games I know I'll never play just because hearing the discussion is super interesting! So all that being said, I just wanted to followup on ome of the things you guys discussed in the podcast (it's criticism, but hopefully constructive). I felt Rob's criticism of MarineLorD's turtle mech was entirely inappropriate and I was surprised to hear it from him. The idea that players should be blamed for picking winning strategies and that it somehow says something about their person is really awful and generally considered toxic in any competitive community. When you call someone's play "the most nerveless play I've ever had the displeasure of watching," or say "because you're a crap player" this is really ridiculous and misplaced. A core tenet of competitive gaming is that if something is boring to watch or even degenerate, it is the game's fault and not the player's. A player's only job is to play in a style most likely to win him the game. If that means turtle mech on a small amount of bases, then that's what he should do. To suggest that a player is wrong for picking a successful strategy misplaces criticism, because the only fault is the game design or current balance that allows that to work. You guys were also off base in saying that turtle mech is not effective vs top Koreans, as within the last two weeks we've seen multiple examples of turtle mech being successful in Code S. It's not a strategy of "just hope your opponent is an idiot and attack move into your defenses again and again." Indeed, one of the interesting parts of the matchups in the last few weeks has been how people have played mech vs Zerg - there was a player recently who would get an advantage after a battle, press his advantage too far, and end up losing it because he couldn't land the killing blow. Playing defensive, whittling down your opponent's resources, and slowly grinding your way to a win is better than throwing the game away because you wanted to please the crowd. It's fine not to root for anyone if you dislike their play. But moving past that into insult territory, things like "you are a crap player" is beyond appropriate and is not fit for the otherwise high quality of work you guys do. Thanks for reading and I'll continue to listen. I think you guys are putting on a quality show, and just hope you can minimize that kind of thing in the future.