Today marked the start of Season 4 of the StarCraft II Ladder. While previous Seasons started out with a new patch or some balance changes, Season 4 arrived with relatively few changes. Basically the only change, aside from the ladder resetting, is the map pool. Three of the least popular map Typhon peaks, Backwater Gulch, and Searing Crater have been cut from the map pool. In their place Blizzard has brought back the old favorite Metalopolis, this time with close spawns removed. The popular map Shattered Temple has also had close spawns removed.
For those of you who may not have been around when the last ladder season came to a close, let me walk you though the process as it can be a tad bit confusing to new blood. Basically you’ll be required to play one more placement match like the ones you were forced to play when you first created your account. You’ll see people posting on sites like reddit.com/r/starcraft or teamliquid.net that they’ve been either promoted or demoted a league after their new placement match. Don’t worry too much about this, it’s based on your MMR from the last season. These players would have normally been promoted or demoted had the ladder not be locked for the last few weeks. Other than the placement match, there really isn’t much else to the new season.
Now that the new season is here, what do you guys think about the removal of Typhon peaks, Backwater Gulch, and Searing Crater? What about the re-adding of Metalopolis? Personally I think it’s a good move by Blizzard. Now you can thumbs down Abyssal Caverns and Nerazim Crypt and only play maps that are in major tournaments. Let us know what you think about these changes by leaving a comment below.