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![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/a5cy9R9.jpg)
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/wZsakCL.jpg)
Hi guys,
Happy to announce the result of the GSL style group selection undertaken by Clem and our qualified players!
The selection process (displayed above) was via a snake draft starting with Clem as the top seed (highest EPT points). Clem then had a swap option at the end which he used, replacing Solar's choice Cure with HeRoMaRiNe who was Maru's choice! Interestingly herO picked Serral instead of ByuN!
Main event starts tomorrow so be sure to tune in! Looks like some massive showdowns are coming up!
Liquipedia page -  AfreecaTV Champions Cup
ScheduleThursday, Nov 3rd 8pm KST | 12pm CET - Group B followed by Group A Friday, Nov 4th 8pm KST | 12pm CET - Group D followed by Group C Saturday, Nov 5th 8pm KST | 12pm CET - Quarterfinals Sunday, Nov 6th 8pm KST | 12pm CET - Semifinals and Finals Full match schedule here!All VODs will be uploaded to our Youtube should you not be able to catch the matches live!Streams AlphaX  IntoTheClan  Indy  kabyraGewith Maddox translating winner interviews! MatcherinoOur tournament will also be on Matcherino! Check it out and support it if you feel like it. Replay pack for the entire tournament (Main event and casted qualifier matches) available at $10 via the matcherino page.We appreciate any support in purchasing our replay pack where proceeds go towards production & staff costs. A big thank you to main sponsor AfreecaTV for making this happen! Do give them a follow after all their support for SC2!
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United States4126 Posts
Too bad this is online, but will be exciting to watch nonetheless.
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Very nice -- looking forward to some SC2 over the weekend. Feels like its been a minute since GSL + DH.
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Clean job by Maru, no surprises
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France12875 Posts
Couldn’t watch live, but Maru seemed to deliver with the clean 4-0 as expected. Maybe this is the season for him to finally win the world championship? Don’t give me too much hopium Maru, it might hurt!
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On November 03 2022 22:14 Poopi wrote:
Couldn’t watch live, but Maru seemed to deliver with the clean 4-0 as expected. Maybe this is the season for him to finally win the world championship? Don’t give me too much hopium Maru, it might hurt!
Right now only Serral has a >50% change of beating Maru in a Bo5/7 (more like 70% imo). So as long as Serral is on the other side of the bracket with other Zergs then Maru definitely got a shot to win IEM on this map pool.
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Maru's performance vs Zergs currently is irrelevant to how he'll do at IEM. The top Zergs clearly don't put as much effort into the game when there's no big money available while Maru seems to try to be in great form all the time and even with that he still hasn't done amazing in TvZ. The top 3 Zergs will be unbeatable again come IEM. The only real chance all T/P have is if all the Zergs are on the same side of the bracket and players like Ragnarok/DRG/Solar score ZvZ upsets.
Just look at what happened last year. Zerg did poorly in the lead up to IEM. Maru was on a winstreak vs all of the top Zergs including Serral and not only did he get bopped but the top 4 Zergs did not lose a single match that wasn't ZvZ..
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France12875 Posts
On November 04 2022 01:14 JJH777 wrote:
Maru's performance vs Zergs currently is irrelevant to how he'll do at IEM. The top Zergs clearly don't put as much effort into the game when there's no big money available while Maru seems to try to be in great form all the time and even with that he still hasn't done amazing in TvZ. The top 3 Zergs will be unbeatable again come IEM. The only real chance all T/P have is if all the Zergs are on the same side of the bracket and players like Ragnarok/DRG/Solar score ZvZ upsets.
Just look at what happened last year. Zerg did poorly in the lead up to IEM. Maru was on a winstreak vs all of the top Zergs including Serral and not only did he get bopped but the top 4 Zergs did not lose a single match that wasn't ZvZ..
Yeah that’s perfectly on point, but since Maru is the only player in the game able to play above the maximum human level (at least in my humble opinion), I always get my hopes up that he will be able to do a miracle and win! That’s the beauty of witnessing him play
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On November 04 2022 01:14 JJH777 wrote:
Maru's performance vs Zergs currently is irrelevant to how he'll do at IEM. The top Zergs clearly don't put as much effort into the game when there's no big money available while Maru seems to try to be in great form all the time and even with that he still hasn't done amazing in TvZ. The top 3 Zergs will be unbeatable again come IEM. The only real chance all T/P have is if all the Zergs are on the same side of the bracket and players like Ragnarok/DRG/Solar score ZvZ upsets.
Just look at what happened last year. Zerg did poorly in the lead up to IEM. Maru was on a winstreak vs all of the top Zergs including Serral and not only did he get bopped but the top 4 Zergs did not lose a single match that wasn't ZvZ..
Jesus, what a tragic tale of woe and inevitable, doomed fate that you paint. Another quality post.
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On November 04 2022 01:14 JJH777 wrote:
Maru's performance vs Zergs currently is irrelevant to how he'll do at IEM. The top Zergs clearly don't put as much effort into the game when there's no big money available while Maru seems to try to be in great form all the time and even with that he still hasn't done amazing in TvZ. The top 3 Zergs will be unbeatable again come IEM. The only real chance all T/P have is if all the Zergs are on the same side of the bracket and players like Ragnarok/DRG/Solar score ZvZ upsets.
Just look at what happened last year. Zerg did poorly in the lead up to IEM. Maru was on a winstreak vs all of the top Zergs including Serral and not only did he get bopped but the top 4 Zergs did not lose a single match that wasn't ZvZ..
To be fair, it was a shitty map pool for TvZ despite Maru winning a couple tournament on it. Most of us, who watched the game, knew Zerg was going dominate in the recent IEM when they get the practice and planning in. This map pool, however does look more Terran favored, similar to the IEM from last year where Reynor had to play out of his mind to win against all the top opponent. And that was when we saw Clem beat Serral, and Maru bopped Rogue as well. So I hope something like that will happen again this time.
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Missed the games, but those results are very unsurprising. Maru continues to be the most dominant player of any match up in SC2. I can't think of another player who has ever been as dominant in a single match up as Maru is in TvT.
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On November 04 2022 03:09 tigera6 wrote:Show nested quote +On November 04 2022 01:14 JJH777 wrote:
Maru's performance vs Zergs currently is irrelevant to how he'll do at IEM. The top Zergs clearly don't put as much effort into the game when there's no big money available while Maru seems to try to be in great form all the time and even with that he still hasn't done amazing in TvZ. The top 3 Zergs will be unbeatable again come IEM. The only real chance all T/P have is if all the Zergs are on the same side of the bracket and players like Ragnarok/DRG/Solar score ZvZ upsets.
Just look at what happened last year. Zerg did poorly in the lead up to IEM. Maru was on a winstreak vs all of the top Zergs including Serral and not only did he get bopped but the top 4 Zergs did not lose a single match that wasn't ZvZ.. To be fair, it was a shitty map pool for TvZ despite Maru winning a couple tournament on it. Most of us, who watched the game, knew Zerg was going dominate in the recent IEM when they get the practice and planning in. This map pool, however does look more Terran favored, similar to the IEM from last year where Reynor had to play out of his mind to win against all the top opponent. And that was when we saw Clem beat Serral, and Maru bopped Rogue as well. So I hope something like that will happen again this time.
It wasn't just Maru winning several tournaments that gave me hope in the lead up to the last IEM. It was Zest beating Rogue in an offline bo7 leading to a PvT GSL finals. It was also the 1 Zerg top 4 in last chance a tournament which all of the top 4 Zergs participated in. Something like that basically never happens when they all participate in something and that was only a bit over a month before IEM. They still stomped at IEM though.
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On November 04 2022 03:09 tigera6 wrote:Show nested quote +On November 04 2022 01:14 JJH777 wrote:
Maru's performance vs Zergs currently is irrelevant to how he'll do at IEM. The top Zergs clearly don't put as much effort into the game when there's no big money available while Maru seems to try to be in great form all the time and even with that he still hasn't done amazing in TvZ. The top 3 Zergs will be unbeatable again come IEM. The only real chance all T/P have is if all the Zergs are on the same side of the bracket and players like Ragnarok/DRG/Solar score ZvZ upsets.
Just look at what happened last year. Zerg did poorly in the lead up to IEM. Maru was on a winstreak vs all of the top Zergs including Serral and not only did he get bopped but the top 4 Zergs did not lose a single match that wasn't ZvZ.. To be fair, it was a shitty map pool for TvZ
Understatement.
That map pool looked like something out of 2019. It was fucking atrocious.
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On November 04 2022 09:54 Vindicare605 wrote:Show nested quote +On November 04 2022 03:09 tigera6 wrote:On November 04 2022 01:14 JJH777 wrote:
Maru's performance vs Zergs currently is irrelevant to how he'll do at IEM. The top Zergs clearly don't put as much effort into the game when there's no big money available while Maru seems to try to be in great form all the time and even with that he still hasn't done amazing in TvZ. The top 3 Zergs will be unbeatable again come IEM. The only real chance all T/P have is if all the Zergs are on the same side of the bracket and players like Ragnarok/DRG/Solar score ZvZ upsets.
Just look at what happened last year. Zerg did poorly in the lead up to IEM. Maru was on a winstreak vs all of the top Zergs including Serral and not only did he get bopped but the top 4 Zergs did not lose a single match that wasn't ZvZ.. To be fair, it was a shitty map pool for TvZ Understatement. That map pool looked like something out of 2019. It was fucking atrocious.
Honestly the existence of Dark, Rogue, Serral, and Reynor would have had zerg the favourite to win even if you handpicked bad zerg maps from sc2s history. The fact blizzard still let those giant maps fill the pool made it not even a contest.
The hope for every global tournament is still to have the 3 of them on one side of the bracket and Maru/herO on the other lol
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On November 04 2022 10:57 Fango wrote:Show nested quote +On November 04 2022 09:54 Vindicare605 wrote:On November 04 2022 03:09 tigera6 wrote:On November 04 2022 01:14 JJH777 wrote:
Maru's performance vs Zergs currently is irrelevant to how he'll do at IEM. The top Zergs clearly don't put as much effort into the game when there's no big money available while Maru seems to try to be in great form all the time and even with that he still hasn't done amazing in TvZ. The top 3 Zergs will be unbeatable again come IEM. The only real chance all T/P have is if all the Zergs are on the same side of the bracket and players like Ragnarok/DRG/Solar score ZvZ upsets.
Just look at what happened last year. Zerg did poorly in the lead up to IEM. Maru was on a winstreak vs all of the top Zergs including Serral and not only did he get bopped but the top 4 Zergs did not lose a single match that wasn't ZvZ.. To be fair, it was a shitty map pool for TvZ Understatement. That map pool looked like something out of 2019. It was fucking atrocious. Honestly the existence of Dark, Rogue, Serral, and Reynor would have had zerg the favourite to win even if you handpicked bad zerg maps from sc2s history. The fact blizzard still let those giant maps fill the pool made it not even a contest. The hope for every global tournament is still to have the 3 of them on one side of the bracket and Maru/herO on the other lol
It wasn't just that as well. The lead-up to IEM was about 6 weeks if I remember correctly, and with that particular map pool having been in play for close to 4(?) months (I can't remember the exact length). I knew that when Maru won DH Last Chance that he wouldn't do well in IEM itself because his style of play (and the maps!) will be studied and countered given how much time has passed. Whenever the Zergs have a chance to optimise their play and strats in maps, they always do well.
That's why I'm in favour of what DH Valencia did, with all new map pool for the tournament.
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On November 04 2022 10:57 Fango wrote:Show nested quote +On November 04 2022 09:54 Vindicare605 wrote:On November 04 2022 03:09 tigera6 wrote:On November 04 2022 01:14 JJH777 wrote:
Maru's performance vs Zergs currently is irrelevant to how he'll do at IEM. The top Zergs clearly don't put as much effort into the game when there's no big money available while Maru seems to try to be in great form all the time and even with that he still hasn't done amazing in TvZ. The top 3 Zergs will be unbeatable again come IEM. The only real chance all T/P have is if all the Zergs are on the same side of the bracket and players like Ragnarok/DRG/Solar score ZvZ upsets.
Just look at what happened last year. Zerg did poorly in the lead up to IEM. Maru was on a winstreak vs all of the top Zergs including Serral and not only did he get bopped but the top 4 Zergs did not lose a single match that wasn't ZvZ.. To be fair, it was a shitty map pool for TvZ Understatement. That map pool looked like something out of 2019. It was fucking atrocious. Honestly the existence of Dark, Rogue, Serral, and Reynor would have had zerg the favourite to win even if you handpicked bad zerg maps from sc2s history. The fact blizzard still let those giant maps fill the pool made it not even a contest. The hope for every global tournament is still to have the 3 of them on one side of the bracket and Maru/herO on the other lol
Yeah, you need a bit of both for other race to win IEM, a non-Zerg-favourable map pool, and the bracket luck where other races dont have to face all the top Zerg to win the tournament. Even if Maru had beaten Serral in IEM, he would had to face Rogue, and then Reynor/Dark. Its just not possible, or require a miracle, for anyone to beat 3 out of the top 4 Zerg in a row.
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On November 04 2022 10:57 Fango wrote:Show nested quote +On November 04 2022 09:54 Vindicare605 wrote:On November 04 2022 03:09 tigera6 wrote:On November 04 2022 01:14 JJH777 wrote:
Maru's performance vs Zergs currently is irrelevant to how he'll do at IEM. The top Zergs clearly don't put as much effort into the game when there's no big money available while Maru seems to try to be in great form all the time and even with that he still hasn't done amazing in TvZ. The top 3 Zergs will be unbeatable again come IEM. The only real chance all T/P have is if all the Zergs are on the same side of the bracket and players like Ragnarok/DRG/Solar score ZvZ upsets.
Just look at what happened last year. Zerg did poorly in the lead up to IEM. Maru was on a winstreak vs all of the top Zergs including Serral and not only did he get bopped but the top 4 Zergs did not lose a single match that wasn't ZvZ.. To be fair, it was a shitty map pool for TvZ Understatement. That map pool looked like something out of 2019. It was fucking atrocious. Honestly the existence of Dark, Rogue, Serral, and Reynor would have had zerg the favourite to win even if you handpicked bad zerg maps from sc2s history. The fact blizzard still let those giant maps fill the pool made it not even a contest. The hope for every global tournament is still to have the 3 of them on one side of the bracket and Maru/herO on the other lol
And that's the thing too. I'm not mad that Zerg has 5 or 6 Elite players and Terran and Protoss each have one.
I'm mad that tournaments are looking at that disparity, and not doing anything about it, and I'm mad that this is the same trend that has been happening since Wings of Liberty.
It's ok if Zerg is dominating everything because if Zerg is dominating it means a non-Korean player can win. If it's Protoss or Terran dominating, then it's guaranteed to be a Korean winning.
It's shitty priorities, and it happens to be something that in my opinion WAY too many Starcraft 2 fans care about more. They'd rather see Serral or Reynor win another ZvZ final, in another Zerg favored map pool, with another set of groups that somehow even though they are supposed to be random, fuck over several of the top Koreans and give one or both of them an easier ride to a higher seed in the tournament. .As long as they are holding the trophy, these fans are happy. Doesn't matter if it's a fair trophy or not. Doesn't matter if it's at the expense of sacrificing the quality of the games.
It's been this way since Idra, Destiny and Stephano cemented that Zerg was going to be the foreigner race in SC2. Except back then foreigners actually needed the handicap. They don't anymore, and yet we're still watching tournaments allow Zerg favor to pollute the tournaments.
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Showtime comes into this match looking to play macro lategame, Dark "gently" said no
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EPT
