The 2nd round of the Ultimate Series global playoffs will be played on Saturday, Oct 20 5:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) and will content four Best of 5 matches between the players from the different regions. More details below.

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Round of 8 matches:

uThermal (T) vs Rail (P)
HellraiseR (P) vs Elazer (Z)
MaNa (P) vs MaSa (T)
Neeb (P) vs Serral (Z)

Broadcast will start on Saturday, Oct 20 5:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)

Alex007 (RU)
Wardi (EN)
Winter (EN)
Mintcrystal (DE)

View on Liquipedia

HolydaKing

21254 Posts

October 20 2018 10:49 GMT

Neeb vs Serral is pretty damn nice. Although I could imagine both of them won't show they best plays.

VanCaspel

Netherlands250 Posts

October 20 2018 16:56 GMT

Yeah - looking forward to this. Go go uThermal!

stardog

556 Posts

October 20 2018 18:15 GMT

Solid groups, some great matchups in the bracket and Major tier in liquipedia - a really nice tournament! It could use more promotion, though.

First time listening to Winter's casting, it's pretty good.

sudete

Singapore3054 Posts

October 20 2018 19:07 GMT

I guess it's kinda interesting to see what their non-hidden builds are

Poopi

France12999 Posts

October 20 2018 19:27 GMT

Neeb too good

argonautdice

Canada2720 Posts

October 20 2018 19:31 GMT

On October 21 2018 04:07 sudete wrote:
I guess it's kinda interesting to see what their non-hidden builds are

Looks like Serral only has hidden builds

Nakajin

Canada8990 Posts

October 20 2018 19:31 GMT

What the fuck happen, did Serral just played shit build?

sudete

Singapore3054 Posts

October 20 2018 19:45 GMT

On October 21 2018 04:31 Nakajin wrote:
What the fuck happen, did Serral just played shit build?

Based on reddit comments - a combination of cross-server lag (played in EU) and focusing on dominating blizzcon. Builds for game 1 and 2 were fairly standard, but his game 3 all-in was very not serral-tier at all

Alex007

Ukraine211 Posts

October 20 2018 20:12 GMT

#10

Based on reddit comments - a combination of cross-server lag (played in EU)

Serral is in Europe, he played with minor ping advantage which Neeb has agreed for.

SetGuitarsToKill

Canada28396 Posts

October 20 2018 20:16 GMT

#11

Serral confirmed washed

FataLe

New Zealand4553 Posts

October 20 2018 20:27 GMT

#12

On October 21 2018 04:45 sudete wrote:

Show nested quote +

Well reddit are notorious apologists. Worse than TL. There is an argument for saving builds for blizzcon. Always. But watch how every series "upset" between players attending blizzcon will always be chalked up to saving for blizzcon.

FataLe

New Zealand4553 Posts

October 20 2018 20:31 GMT

#13

On October 21 2018 05:16 SetGuitarsToKill wrote:
Serral confirmed washed

the wcs finals that we have been robbed of all year.

I wanted the torch to be directly passed dammmit

HolydaKing

21254 Posts

October 20 2018 20:34 GMT

#14

With 2 protoss players in his group at Blizzcon it shouldn't surprise anyone he lost here. Not to take anything away from Neeb of course. Neeb in a good shape can always beat Serral, but the timing of this just doesn't make it very likely Serral would try hard.

FataLe

New Zealand4553 Posts

October 20 2018 20:43 GMT

#15

On October 21 2018 05:34 HolydaKing wrote:
With 2 protoss players in his group at Blizzcon it shouldn't surprise anyone he lost here. Not to take anything away from Neeb of course. Neeb in a good shape can always beat Serral, but the timing of this just doesn't make it very likely Serral would try hard.

All very true. Let's no forget Lambo said that he felt Neeb might just be the best PvZ player on the planet. He also merked Rogue in GSL in a bo 5. So i'm not so sure that blizzcon is the only factor at play here.

Yonnua

United Kingdom2331 Posts

October 20 2018 21:44 GMT

#16

I find it really interesting that people are applying the logic of Serral "not trying his hardest to save his effort" to this loss, when lots of the hype around him relies on ignoring those arguments for some of his opponents at the GSL vs the world special event he competed in.

It can't be both ways: either he's not competed against the best when they're trying their hardest, or he isn't unbeatable in best of 5s against foreigners. Either way, it shows that he still has a lot to prove at Blizzcon.

stardog

556 Posts

October 20 2018 23:48 GMT

#17

The first game was symptomatic. Serral seemed to have a very good start, he killed Neeb's scouting adept and cancelled his third. Next was phoenix harassment, Serral's defense was not perfect but OK. And then he died to a timing attack.

All in all a fairly standard game, if it was e.g. Nerchio playing nobody would bat an eye but Serral isn't expected to loose in such fashion. Impossible to tell if it's a slump or if he was holding back.

Fango

United Kingdom8987 Posts

October 21 2018 00:29 GMT

#18

Neeb is good enough to beat Serral if he still has the form he showed a couple months ago. People think he's not but he is.

That being said, given these guys are 2 days away from flying to blizzcon, it's hard to take any results seriously. You could argue it's worth losing at this point to try and hide builds/learning those of other contenders.