The title pretty much says what I am wondering. I have watched a number of the tournament videos and it was a big deal when I saw someone pick The Operative, but I never ever see Proletariat. Why is that?
Short answer: Proletariat is essentially the Absolute Zero of the Tactics set, a high complexity character who is not as instinctively easily to "grok" as many of the other characters. Also, because he is so positioning dependant, he is at the mercy of the map setup more so than most other charcters since he is melee only.
That being said, he's extremely powerfull when played by someone who knows how and I expect we will see him more in tournaments that have more experienced players
If you ask Pydro nicely, he will link a few of the threads that just recently talked about this very issue! It's a hot button topic but I feel like I said all I can in other places.
On mobile right now or I'd link it myself
EDIT: Actually, not much there.
EDIT2: Actually, have to go now, so someone else can find them. In the rules forums, there are some questions regarding Prol that turns into strategy discussions.
I think the meta and maps have a lot to do with prole not being used.
What we need to see is one really good Beacon-Prole match, but I don't know if anyone is going to be able to pull it off in a big match on the current map style.
Proletariat is a great stall and finish character, but in wide open maps his natural tendency to cluster makes him pretty easy to control.
He is also pretty easy to counterpick, Baron, Operative and AZ all can just crush Prole through defensive sacrifice or shared burden.
I wonder if we'll see Prole at all really, because we are going to add a ton of characters to the roster, and Prole is already limited in scope of use.
Thanks for all the answers. I did go back and find some of those threads where this issue was discussed previously. I just like the concept of proletariat and wanted to get some information on his use. It was also an attempt to get an idea as to whether there are character balance issues in the game. The fact that there are some characters that rarely or never see play concerns me. I do however agree that as more and more people develop experience the harder to play characters might see a little more use.