Forum

There was a period in the life of a Heroes player...
...

All sorts of things happened. Figuring out what and why happened, and why things turned out the way they did, is a topic for casual conversation. But for strategic planning, it's important to analyze the current situation. And the current situation is as I described. Whether that's good or bad is a secondary concern. Right now, the situation is such that you can only earn a reputation as a good player by winning competitive tournaments on standard maps, with standard settings, and so on. You can win as much as you want on custom maps, and the attitude towards that will be at best, "yes, there's a player who does well on those." Custom maps need a very prestigious tournament (like a world championship or a CIS championship) for the title of winner to mean something. But the winner of even a mid-level competitive tournament immediately attracts public attention, simply because the participants in these tournaments are quite strong, and they don't let anyone win easily.