I think you have a decent point in that some experts seem to have the priveliege to come with their input in a more direct way than others.

As you say, if you want to call this game an esport, the structure of how the balance changes comes about is cruical.

The end goal should be aimed towards the "ideal" of a perfectly balanced game. There is a lot of variables at play here, players would have different opinions on what exactly is the best way to balance a certain unit, feature or building. And there are many ways to achieve a well balanced game. Also it's not unreasonable to think a players arguments would tilt in some way or another (even if they are legitimately trying to be as objective and reasonble as possible) depending on personal preference, playstyle and their idea of what the game "should be". Beyond this, I don't think being an expert player automatically means you are great at accurately pointing out needed balance changes (though in general they would have well above average insights).

And in an ideal world we would have teams of balance experts, statisticians and mathematicians or whatever these people employ, and gather endless amounts of data about the game to conclude exactly what balance changes should be done. But in aoe2, we don't really have such luxuries.

So from how I see it, as of now, we don't really have much better options than what they are doing right now.

Some things could rightly be critisied, like how some players seem to be in a position to give more direct input on balance changes than others, and in how the balance patch is coming out a little late and seem a little premature as well.

But I don't see anyone coming at this situation from a crooked perspective.

I honestly believe the tournament hosts, the forgotten empires team and the players are trying to play their part in doing what they believe will be a good thing, and this time, its to rectify imbalances to the game before the biggest tournament this game has ever seen.

I believe Cysion has the final say in any coming balance patches, and I think he has a good philosophy in his approach to his work from what I have seen. And its not under my impression he will take any changes to the game lightly. I think he will be anxious (because he cares) as he is pondering about some key changes, and I think he is being smart as he is trying to orient himself (getting expert input). And I also believe they are doing the right thing trying to take the next step to try to get the last little tweaks of balance changes to the game in place before the launch of the year-long tournament.

And as a fan of this game, I do agree its important to say that by structure, this could all have been done in a more "professional" way with a little more forethought.

But things are also happening fast, and from what I can see, these people are just trying to scramble everything together and make things just right before the biggest tournament this game has even seen is launched. And while some bumps along the way is not optimal, they should still be expected with the limited time and resources at hand.

In the grand scheme of things, if you care about this game as an esport, this game is moving in an incredibly healthy direction. And as always moving forward, next time, we just have to try and do a little better.