[vkou]

> Three quarters of players are below masters/diamond, so presumably it's reasonably accessible even below those tiers.

Yes, but how engaged are they with the game?

I had a lot of RTS experience, so when SC2 launched, I placed Diamond/Master pretty quickly. I enjoyed it for about a thousand matches.

It's unclear how enjoyable people placing in Bronze and Silver found it. One friend of mine did grind out ~2000 games, and eventually made it from Bronze into Platinum, but I don't know anyone else who started in the lower brackets, and stuck with the game like he did.

[giblaz]

I had many friends who grinded from Bronze/Silver/Gold up to higher ranks playing thousands of hours. Frankly though, I think these players would've been better served with more fun casual time killing modes, but like I stated in my original post, the game was not released with this emphasised in the beginning.

[SandwichTeeth]

I started in bronze, managed to grind all the way up to diamond with all 3 races. I enjoyed it because I also followed the esport scene around it. Honestly, it was the esport scene that drew me in initially back in 2011ish. It was fun to watch pro games, become inspired to play better, and then immediately jump on the ladder and try out new things I've learned. I took a big break partway through HotS due to the very stale metagame that made it boring to play and watch, but I recently picked it up again and managed to get diamond again with all 3 races. I think it's in the best shape it has ever been.

[cjbprime]

I've gone Bronze to Diamond recently with no prior RTS. Probably wouldn't have got there without watching lots of GSL/WCS/Proleague/Lowko/PiG videos, but needing to be engaged in learning like that is true of anything difficult.