WCS Map Balance in Season One

I took a look at racial performance on season one's WCS maps, keeping in mind this says nothing about the disparity in talent between the players in the matches (just R32 onward, the most frequently played to least; those in italics are maps that have been removed for season two, while those in bold heavily favoured one race over the other with the appropriate colour):

WCS Korea

ZvP (43-37)
Daedalus Point 11-9
Alterzim 9-4
Yeonsu 3-8
Polar Night 7-3
Habitation Station 4-6
Heavy Rain 6-4
Frost 3-3

PvT (10-8)
Heavy Rain 3-3
Frost 2-2
Alterzim 2-2
Yeonsu 1-1
Daedalus Point 1-0
Habitation Station 1-0

TvZ (7-10)
Yeonsu 1-4
Alterzim 2-2
Polar Night 2-1
Habitation Station 0-2
Heavy Rain 2-0
Frost 0-1

It's interesting that Daedalus Point, a map considered Zerg-favoured, was as balanced as it was; Alterzim (which remains in the season two pool) and Yeonsu were the most imbalanced in Korea, although it's hard to judge the Terran match-ups since there were so few.  The most frequently played maps were Alterzim (21) and Daedalus (21), while Frost (11), Polar Night (13), and Habitation Station (13) were the least.

WCS Europe

PvZ (24-25)
Frost 4-10
Heavy Rain 7-6
Polar Night 5-2
Alterzim 1-5
Habitation Station 4-0
Yeonsu 2-2
Daedalus Point 1-0

TvZ (24-13)
Frost 6-5
Heavy Rain 4-3
Polar Night 3-3
Habitation Station 4-1
Alterzim 4-0
Daedalus 3-0
Yeonsu 0-1

PvT (25-18)
Frost 7-5
Habitation Station 5-3
Alterzim 5-1
Yeonsu 1-5
Polar Night 4-1
Heavy Rain 1-2
Daedalus Point 2-1

Protoss struggled on the big maps against Zerg (both of which remain in season two); I'm not sure what to make of Terran mastery of Habitation and Alterzim, although the sample size is small; it's bizarre that one of the best blink-maps (Yeonsu) failed Protoss in WCS.  The most frequently played maps were Frost (37) and Heavy Rain (23), while Daedalus (7) and Yeonsu (11) were the least.

WCS America

PvZ (26-21)
Frost 8-5
Polar Night 7-5
Habitation Station 4-5
Heavy Rain 3-3
Alterzim 2-3
Yeonsu 2-0

TvZ (14-23)
Frost 4-8
Habitation Station 4-5
Polar Night 2-6
Heavy Rain 2-2
Daedalus Point 2-2

PvT (20-21)
Yeonsu 3-7
Habitation Station 5-5
Frost 3-5
Heavy Rain 4-2
Polar Night 4-2
Alterzim 1-0

It's an interesting dichotomy that despite the presence of several Code S caliber Terrans in the region that Zergs dominated the ZvT match-up.  Only Yeonsu (the blink map) heavily favoured Terrans (as it did in EU), while Zerg had a mastery over Terrans on Frost and Polar Night.  The most frequently played maps were Frost (33), Habitation Station (28), and Polar Night (26), while Alterzim (6) and Daedalus Point (4) the least.

Throughout all WCS regions (I bolded all the maps being retained for season two):

PvZ (93-89)
Frost 15-18
Polar Night 15-14
Heavy Rain 14-15
Alterzim 7-17
Habitation Station 14-9
Daedalus Point 11-10
Yeonsu 12-5

TvZ (45-46)
Frost 10-14
Polar Night 7-10
Habitation Station 8-8
Heavy Rain 8-5
Alterzim 6-2
Daedalus Point 5-2
Yeonsu 1-5

PvT (55-47)
Frost 12-12
Habitation Station 11-8
Yeonsu 5-13
Heavy Rain 8-7
Alterzim 8-3
Polar Night 8-3
Daedalus Point 3-1

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)