On May 25 2020 04:47 Starcloud wrote: Man its so frustrating watching Serral play nowadays. At times his thinking seems crisp and he seems to dominate like he used to, but then again he has tendency to "throw" games more often and even seems to be prone to reverse sweeps. Like some people said in the TLS-thread, he seems to be very aggressive and trying out some weird strategies instead of playing standard. In addition he seems to try to "force" game to end too aggressively too, while either leaving behind in tech or going for some reason to ultras, which seem to be always wrong option especially in zvz.
Those all are things that Serral used to take advantage of towards his opponents, while he kept his head calm and played standard with excellent defense and impeccable scouting. Of course its good to throw a cheese or non standard builds in every once in a while to keep opponents in their toes, but why try to force them when his micro, macro and scouting is still mostly top class ? In addition, his MMR is still very high and what I have understood and the little I saw he still crushes in ladder like he used to.
Anybody has a theory what has happened ? I think skillwise he is mostly on point still, but does Serral overthink the game too much or has the oh so popular "pro-gaming-thinking" of "hey, I lost 2 drones, im so behind, have to all-in!!" got to him somehow ? Any thoughts ?
My thoughts are pretty simple - he's been the target of everyone especially EU pros so they've built entire strategies and builds against him just to survive with a do or die mentality. Because of this, he can never be too sure of what to expect and tries to be a step or two ahead. Part of being 1 or 2 steps ahead is to be more unpredictable. This works sometimes and other times it doesn't. I think he's currently in an experimental phase. Mechanics are still top notch, it's just the mind game that he's playing around with at the moment. So, not so much overthinking, but learning how to think to transcend to the next level.
If there’s ever a time for such experimentation it’s now, I’d agree with you there.
Not that he never mixed it up but Serral hit monster levels in playing straight up, playing for a macro game and winning in those macro games by mechanical excellence and consistently making the right decisions.
How much scarier is he if he has a whole bunch of other strings to his bow?
Part of why Dark had such a great year is that while being a monster in macro games, you also had to account for him being aggressive or outright cheesy.
Serral’s at a level and has enough money in the bank that he can tank a bit and experiment, his practice regimen and approach to the game has worked very well for him in the past.
Super excited to see him unleashed when the serious prestige tournaments are on the go again.
On May 25 2020 04:47 Starcloud wrote: Man its so frustrating watching Serral play nowadays. At times his thinking seems crisp and he seems to dominate like he used to, but then again he has tendency to "throw" games more often and even seems to be prone to reverse sweeps. Like some people said in the TLS-thread, he seems to be very aggressive and trying out some weird strategies instead of playing standard. In addition he seems to try to "force" game to end too aggressively too, while either leaving behind in tech or going for some reason to ultras, which seem to be always wrong option especially in zvz.
Those all are things that Serral used to take advantage of towards his opponents, while he kept his head calm and played standard with excellent defense and impeccable scouting. Of course its good to throw a cheese or non standard builds in every once in a while to keep opponents in their toes, but why try to force them when his micro, macro and scouting is still mostly top class ? In addition, his MMR is still very high and what I have understood and the little I saw he still crushes in ladder like he used to.
Anybody has a theory what has happened ? I think skillwise he is mostly on point still, but does Serral overthink the game too much or has the oh so popular "pro-gaming-thinking" of "hey, I lost 2 drones, im so behind, have to all-in!!" got to him somehow ? Any thoughts ?
My thoughts are pretty simple - he's been the target of everyone especially EU pros so they've built entire strategies and builds against him just to survive with a do or die mentality. Because of this, he can never be too sure of what to expect and tries to be a step or two ahead. Part of being 1 or 2 steps ahead is to be more unpredictable. This works sometimes and other times it doesn't. I think he's currently in an experimental phase. Mechanics are still top notch, it's just the mind game that he's playing around with at the moment. So, not so much overthinking, but learning how to think to transcend to the next level.
If there’s ever a time for such experimentation it’s now, I’d agree with you there.
Not that he never mixed it up but Serral hit monster levels in playing straight up, playing for a macro game and winning in those macro games by mechanical excellence and consistently making the right decisions.
How much scarier is he if he has a whole bunch of other strings to his bow?
Part of why Dark had such a great year is that while being a monster in macro games, you also had to account for him being aggressive or outright cheesy.
Serral’s at a level and has enough money in the bank that he can tank a bit and experiment, his practice regimen and approach to the game has worked very well for him in the past.
Super excited to see him unleashed when the serious prestige tournaments are on the go again.
Seriously! So excited, can't wait to see...during his interview after winning SAHSC2, he mentioned that he's been trying all-ins and it hasn't been working out great for him but he's going to continue working on them...but he's mostly happy that the current maps which promote a lot more standard play which he's most comfortable with.
On July 20 2020 23:58 Harris1st wrote: Serral has unstoppable activated again. The loss to Reynor has him really pissed of I guess ^^
Serral very seldom gets a loss-win deficit of 3 maps. He had one in 2018 vs Neeb in an online tourney, and then Innovation at HSC XX (before getting a 3-0 revenge vs Inno in the lower bracket). So ya, I'd imagine that loss to Reynor really lit his fire.
On July 20 2020 23:58 Harris1st wrote: Serral has unstoppable activated again. The loss to Reynor has him really pissed of I guess ^^
Serral very seldom gets a loss-win deficit of 3 maps. He had one in 2018 vs Neeb in an online tourney, and then Innovation at HSC XX (before getting a 3-0 revenge vs Inno in the lower bracket). So ya, I'd imagine that loss to Reynor really lit his fire.
He lost 1-3 to Inno, the previous one was against Maru at WESG.
On July 20 2020 23:58 Harris1st wrote: Serral has unstoppable activated again. The loss to Reynor has him really pissed of I guess ^^
Serral very seldom gets a loss-win deficit of 3 maps. He had one in 2018 vs Neeb in an online tourney, and then Innovation at HSC XX (before getting a 3-0 revenge vs Inno in the lower bracket). So ya, I'd imagine that loss to Reynor really lit his fire.
He lost 1-3 to Inno, the previous one was against Maru at WESG.
Indeed. I don't bother mentioning his pre-prime stats; there's no point.
Last I saw with him that someone uploaded to YouTube thankfully had him commentating and playing for a few hours. Frequently saying he was making terrible moves. Think he might have only dropped one game.
On July 21 2020 09:55 Wombat_NI wrote: Oh for some more Serral streams one day.
Last I saw with him that someone uploaded to YouTube thankfully had him commentating and playing for a few hours. Frequently saying he was making terrible moves. Think he might have only dropped one game.
Doesn't he have pretty bad Wi-Fi at home, meaning he can only stream from the ENCE office or something? I think that was one of the many reasons he streams rarely.
But yeah, I definitely watched the hell out of that stream. He only lost his last game to Clem iirc
Can someone please do a supercut of all the webcam footage of Serral yelling at the screen playing DH SC2 Masters 2020 Fall: Europe? It's incredible how emotional he gets.
On November 26 2020 20:06 Elche wrote: Why is it that all the other players fanclubs have such cool banners and Serral has that ridiculous abomination?
EPT
Douyu Cup/2020![[image loading]](https://sportsbet.imgix.net/news/1A%20Sports/StarCraft-SerralNumberOne.jpg?w=1200&auto=compress,enhance,format)
