A Brother’s Keeper

In another place, in another time, Serral would be considered a true child prodigy.

Coming from a family of competitors, Serral was already touring the scene’s tournaments from a very young age. At a time when StarCraft 2’s international popularity was peaking, his older brother Protosser was a familiar sight on the European tournament circuit. The two would travel to events together, with Serral soaking up as much as he could from other players. For a while, Protosser’s results were constantly on the rise, and the world was open for the two brothers.

But there is nothing quite as unrelenting as competitive StarCraft 2. Over time, as the scene waned, so did Protosser’s career. He was never quite able to break through to the upper echelons of the European scene, despite his obvious talent and work ethic. Other interests in his life beckoned, and the older brother finally decided to move on with his life.

The younger brother was just getting started on his own journey.

With Legacy of the Void, Serral joined the growing number of European Zerg players whose careers bloomed with the ever maturing expansion. After months of hype in late 2016, his breakout result of 2017 was at IEM Katowice, where he topped his group to reach the quarterfinals. Patience and Zest were big scalps in the round robin stage, and only a close loss to another European powerhouse in Nerchio kept him from a perfect sweep. The zergs were the only two non-Koreans to progress to the playoff stages in the 76-man competition, and the overnight hype for Serral built to a crescendo once Nerchio was knocked out in the Round of 12.

A sobering 0-3 loss against Dark was a stark reminder just how long the road to success can be.

Not one to be deterred by a single tournament, Serral recovered quickly, and set his sights on the rest of the WCS. He aced through the first WCS Circuit qualifiers, a feat he also repeated at the other three qualifiers of the year. There was palpable anticipation in the air. In 2016, Neeb had shown the world that the foreigner scene is capable of producing championship caliber players. Perhaps this upstart Finn was to follow suit. Serral had already taken down Koreans in both online and offline matches, showing his newfound prowess against the most fierce opponents in the entire scene.

In the end it was once again the quarterfinals that ended up being Serral’s undoing. The Flying Finn managed fairly deep runs in the four WCS Circuit events, but his single best result was a grand final loss against Neeb in Jönköping. Despite predictions to the contrary, he was time and again unable to break through the opposition's last lines of defense. His GSL vs the World run ended pretty much before it had even begun. The continued drought of results leads to interesting questions.

How far can one go on mere potential? When will the scene clamor for actual, tangible results? Are overeager fans simply crying out for a new savior to rally around?

Serral’s year so far has been a rollercoaster of ups and downs. His tournament results have been sorely lacking, and there’s assuredly no one else more cognizant of that disappointing fact. There’s no doubt that somewhere inside him, a champion is struggling to break free, but so far success has remained elusive.

And yet the offline results don’t tell the whole story. During a brief practice sojourn in Korea, and a mere month before BlizzCon, Serral reached the #1 rank on the Korean ladder. While opinions vary wildly on the importance of the ladder system itself, Korea is still widely considered to be the toughest region in the game. The achievement then is truly tangible evidence of singular skill and dedication to the craft. More importantly, it stands as a symbol of sheer hard work. Rogue’s incredible ladder performance heralded an explosive result in the GSL Super Tournament. Were Serral to display similar levels of sudden improvements, the scene would be in shock. And yet there’s still a chance that the Finn has picked up something special during his stay in Korea. Maybe he’s found the secret missing ingredient to turn him from a great player into one finally fighting for premier titles. Maybe he’s discovered a way to handle his nerves during stage matches. Maybe he’s discovered that whatever he was lacking previously was inside him all along.

Serral heads into BlizzCon as one of the most interesting non-Korean players of the year. His career has been on a steady upward trajectory for ages, and he currently stands tall above almost the entire rest of the foreigner scene. He’s third in the circuit standings, even without a single title, simply due to what can be considered a curse and a blessing. He has an uncanny knack for performing above average, but rarely to expectations.

It’s just that now, more than ever, Serral needs to quell his inner demons. He’s had plenty of practice over the year, going up against the likes of Dark, ByuN and Neeb on massive stages. His WCS group will be tough as nails, but the spark inside him is still burning as bright as ever. None of his opponents look truly insurmountable, and the Flying Finn may now pack just the right combination of tricks, skill and confidence up his sleeve. In order to thrive, he desperately needs to wield all three in perfect harmony.

Not one of us is our brother’s keeper. For Serral, this means that he’s free to forge his own path in the world, not bound by the failures or successes of his older brother. The Flying Finn has shown in glimpses that there’s the potential for something incredible lurking just beneath the surface.

As he enters his first ever BlizzCon, Serral just has to prove it.