Interested to see if the 'Maru plays poorly in online events' trend continues. From what we've seen so far in 2025, I wouldn't be shocked if he's continuously uninspiring until a tournament with $10k+ first place prize money comes around. SURELY THE RSL 2025 FINALS WILL INSPIRE HIM?
I have never balance whined in public, but seeing how Solar lost this 3rd map against Zoun made me feel almost disgust . It felt like the zerg outplayed him 10x this game. Denied his crucial expansions like 5-6 times, didn't look like that inefficient. Final engagement also seemed to me it should go his way.
On November 14 2025 03:59 Khabra wrote: I have never balance whined in public, but seeing how Solar lost this 3rd map against Zoun made me feel almost disgust . It felt like the zerg outplayed him 10x this game. Denied his crucial expansions like 5-6 times, didn't look like that inefficient. Final engagement also seemed to me it should go his way.
Solar was terrible at controlling his Corruptors, lost a bunch of them without focus-firing down the Mothership multiple times, even State said it during the broadcast.
On November 15 2025 12:42 Gescom wrote: Maxpax playing? Isn't the finals supposed to be in Korea at the studio? Surely he's not going to an offline event at this point, is he? o_O
The offline finals is a separate event. If Maxpax wins this Season 3 he would get an invite to offline finals and just decline his spot. PS: hoping some non-protoss players advance as well
On November 17 2025 04:28 Poopi wrote: Only one terran qualified? Maru actually tried? :o
one good performance doesn't wash away how bad he's been in the last couple of months, but I'm always hopeful that great players can recover their form
Classic making the decision to do a follow up attack after the Glaive Adepts were stopped was a bad choice. Reynor already had Hydralisks available, he was super all in with a bad unit comp.
Everything that happened after that didn't matter. Reynor won the match on defense. Classic probably still doesn't win if he tries to turtle to late game, but he had a better chance winning that way than doing what he did.
On November 20 2025 19:26 Vindicare605 wrote: LMAO how the fuck does maru win games like that?
yea that was kind of insane lol I thought he was dead with the first nydus in the main
Shin had basically mined him out of all of his bases. He somehow got a 4th base up and then somehow managed to sneak his army past Shin to his 4th and 5th bases. He knocked those out before the main army could even come home.
maru looking so good. Shin is no slouch but maru making him look like he has no business in his game. The record shows maru always dominates but it is still jarring for me to see him disable shin like this. IS MARU BACK???
On November 20 2025 20:01 CicadaSC wrote: also loving sortofs analysis. he was so on point that game, you see 100 supply for shin vs 60 and might think shin has a large enough edge but nope.
Bringing SortOf into the casting booth was an amazing idea.
herO took a terrible engagement in the final game against Reynor, but still managed to win because he's herO or something. I honestly don't know, I thought he was dead as all hell.
But I do think MaxPax took too long to transition into Skytoss units when he had a massive bank and plenty of time to do so. By the time he transitioned, Liberators had already done more than enough damage.
It should have been a massacre but Shin completely mis-control his BLord just dying to Spores, I am talking about ones that not get abducted by Vipers. Either way it doesnt matter in the end because of the econ advantage.
On November 22 2025 18:10 tigera6 wrote: It should have been a massacre but Shin completely mis-control his BLord just dying to Spores, I am talking about ones that not get abducted by Vipers. Either way it doesnt matter in the end because of the econ advantage.
It's not even hyperbole to say that Shin could probably win this tournament if it werent for the fact that Maru is in it. He's looked so good vs everyone else, but just looks helpless vs Maru.
On November 23 2025 19:48 MJG wrote: herO needed to cut workers at 1.5 base saturation and go up to 5 or 6 Gateways sooner. He was never holding that with the production he had.
It was a perfect storm of bad things for herO. He didn't have production. Even if he had production, he was supply blocked until Maru was in front of his natural. And his charge was too late to do anything as well.
On November 23 2025 21:54 MJG wrote: I'm sure Maru would've won if he committed to the first SCV pull.
he didn't have stim
Yeah but his force was much bigger than herO's and he went combat shields first to do that push (hence his stim being late). Mid-map with half your SCVs with the enemy in front of you is a strange time to question your own build order.
On November 23 2025 21:54 MJG wrote: I'm sure Maru would've won if he committed to the first SCV pull.
he didn't have stim
Yeah but his force was much bigger than herO's and he went combat shields first to do that push (hence his stim being late). Mid-map with half your SCVs with the enemy in front of you is a strange time to question your own build order.
Yeah I agree what he did was probably the worst sequence of decision-making possible. herO sees the pulled scvs and prepares for it, then Maru pulls the scv back and pulls them a minute later while herO could prepare the entire time with superior economy. But I'm sure he expected stim to be done when he pushed, otherwise that sequence makes zero sense
On November 23 2025 21:54 MJG wrote: I'm sure Maru would've won if he committed to the first SCV pull.
he didn't have stim
Yeah but his force was much bigger than herO's and he went combat shields first to do that push (hence his stim being late). Mid-map with half your SCVs with the enemy in front of you is a strange time to question your own build order.
Yeah I agree what he did was probably the worst sequence of decision-making possible. herO sees the pulled scvs and prepares for it, then Maru pulls the scv back and pulls them a minute later while herO could prepare the entire time with superior economy. But I'm sure he expected stim to be done when he pushed, otherwise that sequence makes zero sense
I don't think he would have won outright there but I do think he would have killed the 3rd even without stim. Was a very strange decision but the way the game played out was anything but ordinary, plus it was just a long exhausting series.
I'd chalk it up most to just being very unpracticed on the map, plus it being one of if not the hardest in the pool for that tournament for the all in.
On November 23 2025 21:54 MJG wrote: I'm sure Maru would've won if he committed to the first SCV pull.
he didn't have stim
Yeah but his force was much bigger than herO's and he went combat shields first to do that push (hence his stim being late). Mid-map with half your SCVs with the enemy in front of you is a strange time to question your own build order.
Yeah I agree what he did was probably the worst sequence of decision-making possible. herO sees the pulled scvs and prepares for it, then Maru pulls the scv back and pulls them a minute later while herO could prepare the entire time with superior economy. But I'm sure he expected stim to be done when he pushed, otherwise that sequence makes zero sense
I don't think he would have won outright there but I do think he would have killed the 3rd even without stim. Was a very strange decision but the way the game played out was anything but ordinary, plus it was just a long exhausting series.
I'd chalk it up most to just being very unpracticed on the map, plus it being one of if not the hardest in the pool for that tournament for the all in.
I think best would be if he waited the 30s for stim and then immediately attacked. As it is he waited another 30s-1min after stim finished for no reason