‘Chiu on This’ is a short and regular opinion blast
This is something I’ve tossed around in my head a few times. For those who don’t know, INnoVation, along with players like Mvp, Rain, Soulkey, and soO, were all rising talents in one way or another nearing the end of Brood War (the end being the closing of OSL/last season of pure BW Proleague). INnoVation is the one I think about most, though, as he had an interview after he switched from BW to StarCraft 2. This was in his prime in 2013 and in the interview he said that the reason he was so dominant in SC2 unlike in BW was that in SC2 he only needed to rely on mechanics to win.
For the casual SC2 watcher, this may seem a strange statement to make as BW is often considered the more mechanically challenging game. Ergo someone with higher mechanics should have an easier time winning in a game with a higher mechanical ceiling. What the casual SC2 watcher may not realize is that BW is also deeper on a strategic and tactical level for all the non-mirror matchups and some of the mirror matchups (depending on which patch of SC2 you’re talking about). The tactical/strategic side of the game has always been an area that INnoVation has struggled in throughout his career relative to his other areas of strength. That is part of why he has never been able to win or find huge success in matchups or eras where Terran was weak.
This is why I think about what could have been if INnoVation played BW as forcing himself to play in a game where he must confront his weakness could have made him a stronger player, in a similar (but not as crazy) way Mvp dealing with his injuries made him an ascendant player.