Byun Was So Dominant With Reapers That They Had To Be Nerfed?

While an official statement was never made, many fans attribute the nerfs Reapers in StarCraft II at least in part the result of a series of dominant performances by StarCraft pro player Byun at tournaments such as IEM Katowice.
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#esports #gaming #starcraft

[@KrisKrisKrisKrisKris]

I've never played StarCraft in my life but damn if a single player made them double the cooldown on an ability....

[@azentra7560]

And half the damage on the ability in a later patch because he was still dominating with them😂

[@rozmarinideas5340]

To be fair, the ability makes them basically uncatchable if you're a micro God like Byun. He's STILL good with them

[@yemen242]

Oh you've never seen Serral. He got the entire Zerg race nerfed

[@andrejchalas6799]

​@@yemen242several times

[@Cookie_n.666]

and halved its damage

[@GruppeSechs]

Imagine if this man's wrists weren't garbage. It was god's way of balancing his OP micro.

[@sgtsaldl]

He has bad wrists? that's insane with the level he plays on

[@GruppeSechs]

@@sgtsaldl I'm sure the two things are related.

[@glados4765]

It's so sad watching him dominate and then have to forfeit because his wrists start to give out.

[@mckendrick7672]

​@@sgtsaldlIt's a mental thing - he does fine in online tournaments but in offline tournaments he gets worked up because he's on camera.

[@meow-mi333]

He’s still my favourite, then Gumiho

[@arthasmenethil-ww6uu]

Man that wrist injury of ByuN's is such a bummer. He's already playing pretty great with it that one can only imagine what kind of a beast he will be without it. Nevertheless he still one of my favorite terran players alongside Maru and Clem.

[@anthonnyminanotacanga5399]

Gumiho is good!

[@tiagomota4734]

Play BW If you are a man not this ...girly thing

[@TheRogueminator]

LOL! Nostalgia butthurt much?@@tiagomota4734

[@archwaldo]

the wrist injury is more of a mental than a physical thing for ByuN. his wrist hurts during live matches on-stage, but he's alright in online tournaments.

[@Giimasu]

Also as Tasteless said, "And they heal!!" However, if I'm not mistaken, the day before the nerf arrived, Byun try the mass Reaper style against Rogue, but this time the opponent has already a counter for it. So the mass reaper era closed it curtain with a loss. But true that, Byun's micro is still godly even with the nerfed reaper. Let's hope his wrist injury will heal, just like his favorite unit.

[@CodeNameLL]

The weist injury is pain to watch especially when he's in a winning position and gets rurned over. I hope he can go get a proper check up andaybe do some physical therapy.

[@JohnhaighS]

that is why I hate that nerf

[@tomrod2569]

Artosis: why cant reapers shoot up? Tasteless: they can if they lie on their back

[@mwperk02]

Mira Han: I like the way you think.

[@l4unchp4dgaming38]

He's BYUNBELIEVABLE!

[@Blaze_Raven]

Midgame? There is no midgame.

[@lmntsgames3848]

Ahh yes.. I remember seeing Byun for the first time in Lowko's channel and that reaper control is just so good.. tossing multiple grenades, microing to put low health units behind, even managing to juggle a queen out of the crypt killing it in the process..

[@SquallLionhart409]

Something else about how far ahead Byun was in reaper control... when Byun was winning GSL with his reapers, Maru tried to copy him in a Bo7 for the first three games, losing all three. Then he just played normally and won.

[@christopherpumphrey7023]

2016 Byun was the most exciting esports story that I followed. He will always be my favorite SC2 player.

[@tedthetonberry225]

I don't watch competitive Starcraft games, but seeing somebody dominate with one of my favorite units just puts a massive smile on my face. Love me a Reaper game~

[@samwellcirilo6486]

I was there live, if you can see his monitor while micro controlling reapers. His monitor will trigger episode of epilepsy I can say. Thats how his monitor changes. We were not allowed to take video of it. 😢

[@HrHaakon]

You can just download a replay pack, and follow his camera.

[@glados4765]

He got reapers nerfed three times in one year. The unit was written off by the community as a trash unit too. The following year blizzard nerfed reapers a fourth time, albeit tiny. ByuN isn't called Micro Jackson for no reason.

[@stevenhetzel6483]

Remember when they did 30 damage to buildings?

[@krzysztofputerko1943]

ye, but they didn't have their push grenades back then so they were much worse to micro

[@CitizenWea]

It is not the only nerf, this unit used to do bonus damage against light units and also used explosives against buildings instead of his guns.

[@darkmagician4697]

I saw the title and just said Byun to my self

[@Muledragon]

There's few things cooler than when you're so good at what you do the rules literally have to be changed to give the other players a chance. Like how the NBA had to make several rule changes to account for Shaq.

[@kenbryson2240]

I'd argue Uthermal had a hand in it he was a monster.

[@aaabatteries9948]

Uthermal claims that he came up with this build but its a lie. Almost all builds (that werent trash) came from Koreans.

[@Ynox54321]

@@aaabatteries9948 He can still have come up with it. Get this: The wheel was invented in different places of the world. Same goes for swords, spears and bows. Or houses. Craaaazy, I know.

[@aaabatteries9948]

@@Ynox54321How are you comparing the wheel to a starcraft 2 build order? They are completely 2 entirely different things?! And by that logic i can just copy someone's work or ideas to the letter and just say i came up with it as well? There's a reason things get patented or licensed so other people can't do this.

[@skychaos87]

@@Ynox54321 I also thought of the MMO concept like World of Warcraft before blizzard made it. But in the end its Blizzard who made it and got the world knowing about it and playing it. Of course anyone can think of something, i'm sure there must already be someone who thought of the build even before Byun and Uthermal, but its Byun who made it work at the highest level possible. Even if Uthermal thought of it, his version and control is not as good as Byun he might not get the same level of success for the build to be this popular back then and got Blizzard to nerf it.

[@isaacsim9235]

Un-Nerfed reapers is like spawning 2 units for the price of 1

[@upgr3eyedd933]

Bro the loop is seamless

[@eiryukun]

Imagine you are so good at something that you single handedly force a nerf. Insane

[@azentra7560]

So good that at something that you single handedly force a nerf, twice.

[@Regunes]

This unit had it coming a loooong time, can't understand it took Byun to pretty much rolfstomp a tourney for people to realise

[@epicsensi]

hahaha Marc has entered the chat

[@epicsensi]

uthermal is a killer with these units too

[@IntooleranceRieg]

The best thing for me is : Even after the nerf, he still used them. AHAHAHA

[@TheWorstshoe]

This guy's micro is insane

[@hyperN1337]

And to think that this was already the reaper in a nerfed state, so they just ended up nerfing them more. Rip +Light and anti building damage.

[@davidnighten5553]

What a great StarCraft short

[@Entropic0]

Nah, reapers were nerfed because they dominated 95% of TvX games. At one point, a top korean lost to a foreign terran in a TvT, despite there being very obvious differences in skill. Shortly thereafter, it was nerfed. It was dominating the meta in all Terran matchups. To this day, reaper openers are still the most common build in all terran matchups.

[@XfStef]

let's not forget about Thermie

[@natecw4164]

Memba when you could kill off a pool with 6 reapers? Pepperidge Farms remembers.

[@Dohyden2]

I really appreciate that sc2 is balanced from the top down, showing people that things are good because of ehat they can be and not because of your own personal ability

[@gallaros9]

Byun is a God amongst mortals when it comes to Terran Micro

[@deathcraft2299]

StarCraft :D

[@dehdesh]

Threaper opening still sees play

[@eannliska423]

Not only is he responsible for it getting nerfed, but responsible for it getting nerfed three separate times

[@awesomelad]

good loop is good

[@shutup11337]

How is this game for the casual player? I remember grinding sc2 when I was 14 and reaching around diamond. Im 27 now and wonder if it’s still worth getting into it just for casual ranked matches

[@sindobrandnew]

Oooh it repeats seamless.

[@taestott]

Honestly if these matches weren't recorded nobody would believe them

[@christophkuntz8523]

balancing must go back, at least 3 years.

[@tosemusername]

He's also responsible for the +5 health buff added to Centrifugal Hooks after popularizing the notion that with decent micro, you can just shred the banelings after Stim is finished.

[@mwperk02]

I remember when blizzard wanted itto be a plus 10 hp buff. Absolutely insane.

[@craftysmithkeith3653]

Man, blowing himself up to prevent a total surround was some cool shit

[@NecronLordship]

This is why he deserves the nickname micro jackson

[@Grubnar]

"GOD DAMN IT! BYUN IS GONNA GET REAPERS NERFED AGAIN!" - Winters

[@icecream6256]

It's like AWP with KennyS

[@Valks-1912]

Byun also arguably got the sieged Siege Tank Medivac pickup nerfed. That’s how he won GSL

[@user-pe6ct7ut8t]

Thats definitly not a 1 player impact such as for reapers.

[@Malod1997]

Oracle unit was nerfed by the same reason. But nobody nerfed Forge rush since Starcraft 1.

[@SerLava]

Trust me it wasn't just that one guy

[@MsHojat]

Yeah I don't know how reapers were allowed to exist like that in the first place. Same with when they had a high damage attack vs structures. It was obvious how much of a problem they were even before in my opinion.

[@bygone8676]

All the comments saying uthermal, but not a single mention of the original nerf forced by Morrow when reapers were actually unstoppable for z

[@timm7100]

This is not true and has never been true While Byun may have been the best at it many other Terran players had great success in abusing reapers back in 2016. Uthermal famously won his one and only premier tournament by getting drawn into the zerg heavy side of the bracket and proceeding to 3 rax reaper all of them

[@renardnoir2581]

So... basically they removed them from being competitive for everyone else in an attempt to nerf the person who specializes with them. An they still failed.

[@sirmudkipactually]

Wait, but I see reapers on almost all competitive starcraft games yet

[@HandfulofComments]

Just like swan said They’re seriously badass

[@seastand12]

I mean Serral and Reynor got zerg nerfed into the ground like 3 years in a row

[@leoritchie9635]

Rainbow Six siege nerfed a fundamental game mechanic (leaning to the side) because of 1 player (Beaulo), affecting how everyone takes gunfights

[@BlueGoblin1]

when the players skill was the issue not the unit itself. yet they still keep the nerfs.

[@fran13r]

if the game is nerfed just because of you, thats like the devs admitting you're the best in the world

[@Palad1n20]

simple fix is nerf the movement speed then make the jet pack ability researchable. once complete we get the reaper were familiar with.

[@krzysztofputerko1943]

it would kill the unit completely. Reapers are only strong at the beginning of the game and they fall off very quickly making jetpacks researchable would mean that you don't have enough time with them to make that quick GG. And if you fail your reaper cheese than you can GG yourself

[@maximooze3196]

yeah when the "pros" fuck the scene up for mortals like me..

[@KJParadise]

But the entire Zerg race has to get nerfed again and again to keep Serral down.

[@soongwanjun9381]

Also you didn't mention he is famous for Micro Jackson

[@leereredone9418]

Ruff, for one, does amasing things with reapers. and ghosts and banshees and hellions and battlecruisers and planetary fortresses Watch Ruff

[@MKotnis]

This is the sort of design philosophy that killed this game

[@sage4670]

There is a bit more context to this that people not in the scene may not realize. Blizzard is quick to nerf Terran units even when only one player makes them look overpowered. Clearly we have the Byun reapers, but we also have the Maru ravens. I can't remember seeing Blizzard being so quick to nerf an overpowered unit that another race, say Zerg, uses

[@krzysztofputerko1943]

I think it's mainly because terran benefits the most from micro-heavy gameplay. Meaning that strong units in other races don't break the game that hard because microing them perfectly doesn't give that much of an advantage

[@MKu64]

Half of the Zerg army got nerfed multiple times over thanks to Serral 😂

[@rialvita7141]

Okay, where are my husbandos

[@phenel]

it's a cool story and all but i'm fairly certain that every single person playing live service games or games that have updates that include nerfs, have been a victim of that one f#cking guy exploiting a single mechanic and it's the other 99.999999999% of people that have to just accept it.

[@ronmartinez7809]

Byun still doing this to this day. You gotta build a certain way to stop it. Don't ask me how to build gotta ask players dark, maru, Chem, hero, hero marine, etc.

[@Sv_Ascendance]

Honestly the cooldown is not a nerf yes less use but once you get 14 reapers it matters not on using the ability 1 sec in rotation with all reapers plus its more as a buff longer cooldown mean more energy regen even though less use. Damage in it was never a thing either I played SC2 when it come out we used them for their dps.

[@snowdrop9810]

They still make a lot of reapers, apparently the nerfs werent enough

[@conorcarrigan5543]

Nerfed the unit, as the top zergs were already doing great against it. That is how on top of things blizzard is.

[@User_Bennymaru009]

i remember when i was a kid i 1v1my that iwas a zerg and i love spamming the 2 creatures per egg i forgot what name it is but yea i spam them them and this littary happen my that just using reapers or jet pack dudes as what i call them :D also i lost that round as always

[@HrHaakon]

Then there's Serral and roaches.

[@mwperk02]

Is thatwhy my roaches dont regen faster anymore?

[@mrholysoup8498]

The only nerf he got is his wirst

[@lukeedge9557]

You cant nerf a players skill

[@yinongxu9355]

OFC it was b'cuz of the Micro Jackson, what would you expect

[@f1shze4lot]

Changing the game based on the one player is a bad idea

[@nebei3740]

Thats wrong if high skill stuff is op people will exclusively learn the mechanics around it disregarding other mechanics since focusing on the op stuff will give you more of an competetive adcantage and that is very unhealthy for the game and community. If stuff like this doesnt get dealt with fast enough poeple will get mad as more people reach the skill lvl to pull it off and when it eventually gets nerfed the people that invested so much time focusing on the mechanics that are now more ore less useless are mad.

[@lawranced7000]

looking at the new Blizzard did to diablo series, i doubt a good starcraft will be coming out.

[@Oliveria663]

Thought that was a halo grunt

[@DX413RB8]

550+APM..

[@funkymonke2771]

byun

[@SD-jf7nb]

Reapers were so spud until Byun. Ketrock maybe was the one that got Ravens, OP for years on the ladder, nerfed. Finally. Lol.

[@nestorarturo6948]

Micro Jackson

[@Dancel2021]

Like the master uThermal

[@skywalker6078]

Micro jackson

[@Starlight-yk7pk]

... this is why i dont do pvp..... When you straight up cheese it, its never fun I like challenges but cheese and cheating (theres a difference) ruins fun....

[@tyrellwreleck4226]

Reapers aren't good against 5 roach opening.

[@supayota7265]

They need to Nerf Byun

[@andreymontag]

That's the reason why cybersports sucks. Games shouldn't be balanced around 800 GMs

[@rangefighter4038]

dont def. atk base also while building def structures in the mine. so sad the philippines not interested in sc anymore. when sc1 came out. here in the ph would play everyday with other people. sc2 come out. people not interested. you want to change the game? make all miners start from 4 only.

[@EmperorAttila]

its get 2 times nerfed because of Byun.

[@cogtheprotogen6671]

Naw those are terminators

[@angry_eck]

JPBs are cooler

[@krkgr]

Stop posting so many shorts oh my god

[@keihoito1881]

저그유저로서 개빡치네

[@unowno123]

so much fun, a hyper micro heavy game, who actually enjoys starcraft?

[@rozmarinideas5340]

What? The micro is part of the fun.

[@koushuu]

@@rozmarinideas5340 It's just his way of saying "skill issue" to himself

[@bittersweet4074]

"omg this game is so hard and it's because people are so good in it, I don't want to improve myself but let's whinning" Translated by ChatGPT-4.0

[@unowno123]

So much malding in the comments Just because you play a lame game doesnt mean being good at it makes it worthwhile Id never waste my life trying to learn a dying game

[@unowno123]

@adolfhitler-by2qx nice profile picture buddy

[@spoonhoa6886]

no not from ONE single player but from a few for sure

[@ricardovalle960]

Yes it was him only that cause the nerf. He almost never lost with reapers.

[@andrewkamoha4666]

SC2 sucks !!! Long live SC1 !!!!