• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 05:33
CET 11:33
KST 19:33
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL22] Finals Preview: Sweet Victory!12[ASL22] Ro4 Preview: Mirror Mirror6[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: Within Reach5[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy11[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5
Community News
Weekly Cups (Oct 26 - Nov 1): MaxPax, herO, Solar win0Weekly Cups (October 19-25): Clem triples first in 5.0.175Evil Geniuses - shutting down23ISSL (IntoTheTV x SOOP SC2 League): Premier7Weekly Cups (October 12-18): 5.0.17 era begins1
StarCraft 2
General
[D] Hacker peak in sc2 ? No more SC2 streamers on team liquid? Liquibets sc2 season 30 Evil Geniuses - shutting down Weekly Cups (Oct 26 - Nov 1): MaxPax, herO, Solar win
Tourneys
Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament WardiTV Mondays ISSL (IntoTheTV x SOOP SC2 League): Premier Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20) RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-22
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
Starcraft 2 Advance [D] the control group Simple Questions/Answers [G] How to playtest arcade maps
External Content
Mutation # 550 Graveyard Shift The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 549 Endless Sparkles Mutation # 548 Shining Bright
Brood War
General
Recent recommended BW games BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ BW General Discussion Rollback Netcode in Brood War SC4ALL II Brood War Complete Invited Player Lineup
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues Small VOD Thread 2.0 [$1250] International ShieldBattery League KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 4
Strategy
50,000-Word Terran Builds Memo 2026-10-22 Cliff Jump Revisited (1 in a 1000 strategy) Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Deus Ex 3!? Nintendo Switch Thread Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Armies of Exigo - YesYes?
Dota 2
Dota 2 Champions League Season 3 Begins April 25!
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
Dating: How's your luck? Trading/Investing Thread US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Canadian Politics Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
Fan Club Resource Thread Reynor Fan Club The Flash Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
Why I built Repalyzer (1.1.…
BlueStar
Innovate or Game Over?
TrAiDoS
ShieldBattery on Mac
Kraekkling
[ASL22] Ro4 Day1 Ticket Giv…
bITt.mAN
Can Bots Beat Pros?? Starcr…
namkraft
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 11037 users

Maru eliminated in IEM Katowice Group Stage (Ro24 Day 1) -…

Forum Index > SC2 General
137 CommentsPost a Reply
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next All
dysenterymd
Profile Joined January 2019
1250 Posts
March 01 2019 09:34 GMT
#81
I think Maru and Serral are both simultaneously over and under hyped at this point. Some people think Serral is a GOAT contender which is absurd (Serral needs 2-3 more titles like blizzcon/iem/gsl to be in that conversation, though I wouldn't be surprised if he reaches that point), others don't recognizes his absurd offline win streak as one of the greatest achievements in SC2 history, even if it ends today. On the other hand, bashing Maru (whose 3 consecutive GSL wins are historic) just because "Korea above all else" fans are dismissive of Serral is quite common, whereas the Maru >>>> Serral case made by some people is obvious overhype.
Serral | Inno | sOs | soO | Has | Classic
Xain0n
Profile Joined November 2018
Italy3963 Posts
March 01 2019 09:34 GMT
#82
On March 01 2019 17:37 deacon.frost wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 01 2019 17:35 Harris1st wrote:
On March 01 2019 17:27 deacon.frost wrote:
On March 01 2019 15:04 digmouse wrote:
On March 01 2019 14:37 Togekiss wrote:
I can admit straight up I am the biggest Maru fanboy, but I will say this: His play today was simply put, flat. He continually made uncharacteristically sloppy mistakes in his games like not unloading one of his medivacs during a multi-medivac drop, or losing important units in a battle due to bad control etc etc. Maru rarely makes these kind of control mistakes, but today, it's as if nothing was going right for him, and everything that could possibly go wrong, did go wrong.

It's really easy for people to say that the hype around him is unjustified after watching his performance today (if you don't or haven't really closely followed his games in the past), but honestly, his play today was nowhere near what it is when he's playing in Korea. Maybe travelling abroad just really isn't in his comfort zone, and without his familiar home environment he is unable to play up to his potential? Maybe not having the food he is used to eating, or his regular bed to sleep in really has a bigger impact on him than we realize?

We all know by now that he typically struggles in the weekender format tournaments, but again, for all those out there who are just looking for reasons to write him off entirely, it's blatantly obvious he wasn't on his game today and it was a very VERY bad day for him (which we don't really see in GSL for whatever reason).

Here's to hoping Maru can rebound and show everyone what he's capable of at WESG...


All the previous best players of world are capable of doing well in both weekenders and GSLs.

Even Serral? The best player of 2018?

edit> Fok, double post, sry



Aaaaaaand the bait again. And yes, you started it (again)

Funny thing is, I'm pretty sure deep down you yourself think that Serral would reach at least semifinals in GSL if he tried.

Well I'm not the one who claimed that the best player of the world has to be good at both GSLs and weekenders.

And I said multiple times that Serral is in my eyes top4 player, but hey, let's talk about the best player of the world which has to be good at both weekenders and preparational tournaments. Serral is not that player and Maru is not that player either. Damn.


Serral is the first non korean since beta who is the best player in the world, so the comparison here seems a bit silly; he is unsurprisingly playing in his region of birth, there is no Code S in Europe. He might take into consideration to reside in Korea for three months with the only purpose of playing in GSL but it was silly to do so last year and it seems he is not willing to do it this year(at least, that was his opinion after HSC).

Maru is instead korean indeed and he can more easily be compared to his predecessors; for him to play Code S is essentially mandatory and he excels in such a competition(despite not reaching a single final for more than seven years, the fact he was able to win it three straight times is outstanding).
He doesn't shine in weekenders, losing a little too often to Protoss and teammates and exhibiting a certain obstination to try to proxy and cheese even when he's the best macro player and would probably win playing it safe.

SpaWnvERtiGO
Profile Joined November 2016
110 Posts
March 01 2019 09:37 GMT
#83
I think the Trap series really threw him off....

He played it like someone who was tired of being eliminated from huge tourneys by players who know his style inside and out....

Kinda like Katowice last year.... Maru was dominating the macro games... So Rogue just nydus cheesed him out.
Kinda similar to sOs too.

I think mentally he was fucked playing another teammate. If he played standard, he probably felt vulnerable to an all in. It's like he was playing the meta inside his Team house and not the ACTUAL meta....

That was my take anyway....

And Maru WAS the FIRST Terran I ever saw do the banshee hyper flight rotor mech build. In like, I dunno whatever the last year of Proleague was. He did it vs Solar.
He also was the first Terran to really figure out Ravens were broken...

Marcus greatest strength after micro/ army control is his game sense. It's usually second to none... but here he was just off, like the 3rd CC after the proxy. He was too in his own head.....
alpenrahm
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
Germany629 Posts
March 01 2019 09:39 GMT
#84
Btw, how come Taeja isn´t playing at IEM?
Poopi
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
France13023 Posts
March 01 2019 09:49 GMT
#85
On March 01 2019 18:34 dysenterymd wrote:
I think Maru and Serral are both simultaneously over and under hyped at this point. Some people think Serral is a GOAT contender which is absurd (Serral needs 2-3 more titles like blizzcon/iem/gsl to be in that conversation, though I wouldn't be surprised if he reaches that point), others don't recognizes his absurd offline win streak as one of the greatest achievements in SC2 history, even if it ends today. On the other hand, bashing Maru (whose 3 consecutive GSL wins are historic) just because "Korea above all else" fans are dismissive of Serral is quite common, whereas the Maru >>>> Serral case made by some people is obvious overhype.

The problem with Serral streak is that it was mostly against foreign competition, and as we have seen foreigners still get crushed when there are as many koreans as them in the tournament (blizzcon, and IEM -> reynor prodigy couldn't even take out Creator who himself got trashed in the brutal groupstages...). The other obvious problem with Serral, is that his best achievements (GSL vs the world / BlizzCon) happened in a very favorable patch for zerg, so all in all his streak is roughly the same as Rogue 2017, except we didn't get to see if Rogue could win 4 WCS in a row: good form in later GSL side event, win BlizzCon while zerg is in a good spot.

That's already a superb achievement, especially since no foreigner was able to win BlizzCon in spite of KR competition, but it will be interesting to see how Serral fares across patches in premier tournaments.
WriterMaru
Xain0n
Profile Joined November 2018
Italy3963 Posts
March 01 2019 09:51 GMT
#86
On March 01 2019 18:13 Charoisaur wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 01 2019 17:35 Harris1st wrote:
On March 01 2019 17:27 deacon.frost wrote:
On March 01 2019 15:04 digmouse wrote:
On March 01 2019 14:37 Togekiss wrote:
I can admit straight up I am the biggest Maru fanboy, but I will say this: His play today was simply put, flat. He continually made uncharacteristically sloppy mistakes in his games like not unloading one of his medivacs during a multi-medivac drop, or losing important units in a battle due to bad control etc etc. Maru rarely makes these kind of control mistakes, but today, it's as if nothing was going right for him, and everything that could possibly go wrong, did go wrong.

It's really easy for people to say that the hype around him is unjustified after watching his performance today (if you don't or haven't really closely followed his games in the past), but honestly, his play today was nowhere near what it is when he's playing in Korea. Maybe travelling abroad just really isn't in his comfort zone, and without his familiar home environment he is unable to play up to his potential? Maybe not having the food he is used to eating, or his regular bed to sleep in really has a bigger impact on him than we realize?

We all know by now that he typically struggles in the weekender format tournaments, but again, for all those out there who are just looking for reasons to write him off entirely, it's blatantly obvious he wasn't on his game today and it was a very VERY bad day for him (which we don't really see in GSL for whatever reason).

Here's to hoping Maru can rebound and show everyone what he's capable of at WESG...


All the previous best players of world are capable of doing well in both weekenders and GSLs.

Even Serral? The best player of 2018?

edit> Fok, double post, sry



Aaaaaaand the bait again. And yes, you started it (again)

Funny thing is, I'm pretty sure deep down you yourself think that Serral would reach at least semifinals in GSL if he tried.

I'd also think Rogue would be able to reach at least the ro4 of GSL yet he hasn't done that yet.


Trying and failing multiple times in a certain tournament can't be equated to never playing it.

Serral is overhyped to your eyes because of your disregard for WCS, nothing else; a very little minority of his fans actually overvalue his current achievements because of the resonance of him being a non-korean.

Maru is overhyped because he performs too poorly in international tournaments in comparison to his own Code S dominance, unlike the previous best players in the world.
Clazziquai10
Profile Blog Joined August 2011
Singapore1949 Posts
March 01 2019 09:53 GMT
#87
Maru seems pretty useless at weekender tourneys
Xain0n
Profile Joined November 2018
Italy3963 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-03-01 10:02:49
March 01 2019 10:01 GMT
#88
On March 01 2019 18:49 Poopi wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 01 2019 18:34 dysenterymd wrote:
I think Maru and Serral are both simultaneously over and under hyped at this point. Some people think Serral is a GOAT contender which is absurd (Serral needs 2-3 more titles like blizzcon/iem/gsl to be in that conversation, though I wouldn't be surprised if he reaches that point), others don't recognizes his absurd offline win streak as one of the greatest achievements in SC2 history, even if it ends today. On the other hand, bashing Maru (whose 3 consecutive GSL wins are historic) just because "Korea above all else" fans are dismissive of Serral is quite common, whereas the Maru >>>> Serral case made by some people is obvious overhype.

The problem with Serral streak is that it was mostly against foreign competition, and as we have seen foreigners still get crushed when there are as many koreans as them in the tournament (blizzcon, and IEM -> reynor prodigy couldn't even take out Creator who himself got trashed in the brutal groupstages...). The other obvious problem with Serral, is that his best achievements (GSL vs the world / BlizzCon) happened in a very favorable patch for zerg, so all in all his streak is roughly the same as Rogue 2017, except we didn't get to see if Rogue could win 4 WCS in a row: good form in later GSL side event, win BlizzCon while zerg is in a good spot.

That's already a superb achievement, especially since no foreigner was able to win BlizzCon in spite of KR competition, but it will be interesting to see how Serral fares across patches in premier tournaments.


Even if you exclude the victory against foreigners, Serral's is still the best offline streak against korean players(the majority of this being top contenders, not Code S ro32 material).

To win four straight WCS you have to be insanely consistent as they span across over eight months; not even considering the level of the competition, being in a tournament winning shape for such a long time is something very few could achieve.

He ascended in a patch good for Zerg, that's true, but he was vastly superior to his peers; only Reynor in WCS reached a final as Zerg during that patch with Maru winning Code S against T and Classic winning super tournament against P.
Not to mention Serral won HSC right after a new patch was released and Zerg was struggling immensely against Terran to the point Rogue would have caused NoRegreat to eat a shoe...


Poopi
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
France13023 Posts
March 01 2019 10:01 GMT
#89
On March 01 2019 18:51 Xain0n wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 01 2019 18:13 Charoisaur wrote:
On March 01 2019 17:35 Harris1st wrote:
On March 01 2019 17:27 deacon.frost wrote:
On March 01 2019 15:04 digmouse wrote:
On March 01 2019 14:37 Togekiss wrote:
I can admit straight up I am the biggest Maru fanboy, but I will say this: His play today was simply put, flat. He continually made uncharacteristically sloppy mistakes in his games like not unloading one of his medivacs during a multi-medivac drop, or losing important units in a battle due to bad control etc etc. Maru rarely makes these kind of control mistakes, but today, it's as if nothing was going right for him, and everything that could possibly go wrong, did go wrong.

It's really easy for people to say that the hype around him is unjustified after watching his performance today (if you don't or haven't really closely followed his games in the past), but honestly, his play today was nowhere near what it is when he's playing in Korea. Maybe travelling abroad just really isn't in his comfort zone, and without his familiar home environment he is unable to play up to his potential? Maybe not having the food he is used to eating, or his regular bed to sleep in really has a bigger impact on him than we realize?

We all know by now that he typically struggles in the weekender format tournaments, but again, for all those out there who are just looking for reasons to write him off entirely, it's blatantly obvious he wasn't on his game today and it was a very VERY bad day for him (which we don't really see in GSL for whatever reason).

Here's to hoping Maru can rebound and show everyone what he's capable of at WESG...


All the previous best players of world are capable of doing well in both weekenders and GSLs.

Even Serral? The best player of 2018?

edit> Fok, double post, sry



Aaaaaaand the bait again. And yes, you started it (again)

Funny thing is, I'm pretty sure deep down you yourself think that Serral would reach at least semifinals in GSL if he tried.

I'd also think Rogue would be able to reach at least the ro4 of GSL yet he hasn't done that yet.


Trying and failing multiple times in a certain tournament can't be equated to never playing it.

Serral is overhyped to your eyes because of your disregard for WCS, nothing else; a very little minority of his fans actually overvalue his current achievements because of the resonance of him being a non-korean.

Maru is overhyped because he performs too poorly in international tournaments in comparison to his own Code S dominance, unlike the previous best players in the world.

I dunno about that, winning WESG and top 4 at IEM seems like a good international performance to me in 2018 while he was winning GSL.
WriterMaru
Xain0n
Profile Joined November 2018
Italy3963 Posts
March 01 2019 10:10 GMT
#90
On March 01 2019 19:01 Poopi wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 01 2019 18:51 Xain0n wrote:
On March 01 2019 18:13 Charoisaur wrote:
On March 01 2019 17:35 Harris1st wrote:
On March 01 2019 17:27 deacon.frost wrote:
On March 01 2019 15:04 digmouse wrote:
On March 01 2019 14:37 Togekiss wrote:
I can admit straight up I am the biggest Maru fanboy, but I will say this: His play today was simply put, flat. He continually made uncharacteristically sloppy mistakes in his games like not unloading one of his medivacs during a multi-medivac drop, or losing important units in a battle due to bad control etc etc. Maru rarely makes these kind of control mistakes, but today, it's as if nothing was going right for him, and everything that could possibly go wrong, did go wrong.

It's really easy for people to say that the hype around him is unjustified after watching his performance today (if you don't or haven't really closely followed his games in the past), but honestly, his play today was nowhere near what it is when he's playing in Korea. Maybe travelling abroad just really isn't in his comfort zone, and without his familiar home environment he is unable to play up to his potential? Maybe not having the food he is used to eating, or his regular bed to sleep in really has a bigger impact on him than we realize?

We all know by now that he typically struggles in the weekender format tournaments, but again, for all those out there who are just looking for reasons to write him off entirely, it's blatantly obvious he wasn't on his game today and it was a very VERY bad day for him (which we don't really see in GSL for whatever reason).

Here's to hoping Maru can rebound and show everyone what he's capable of at WESG...


All the previous best players of world are capable of doing well in both weekenders and GSLs.

Even Serral? The best player of 2018?

edit> Fok, double post, sry



Aaaaaaand the bait again. And yes, you started it (again)

Funny thing is, I'm pretty sure deep down you yourself think that Serral would reach at least semifinals in GSL if he tried.

I'd also think Rogue would be able to reach at least the ro4 of GSL yet he hasn't done that yet.


Trying and failing multiple times in a certain tournament can't be equated to never playing it.

Serral is overhyped to your eyes because of your disregard for WCS, nothing else; a very little minority of his fans actually overvalue his current achievements because of the resonance of him being a non-korean.

Maru is overhyped because he performs too poorly in international tournaments in comparison to his own Code S dominance, unlike the previous best players in the world.

I dunno about that, winning WESG and top 4 at IEM seems like a good international performance to me in 2018 while he was winning GSL.


Those were impressive results, there is no doubt he was the best player at the time; since the first Super Tournament in April, however, Maru did not make it to a final in the next four weekenders.
It's still more than enough to say that he was the best korean player in and to argue that he had the best achievement overall in 2018(not my opinion but I can at least understand the claim); it doesn't seem appropriate to me to think he is the best player in the world at the moment.
Waxangel
Profile Blog Joined September 2002
United States33713 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-03-01 10:11:24
March 01 2019 10:10 GMT
#91
TFW people forget Maru 3-0'd Serral at WESG on the way to winning $200,000. Yes, it's probably true that Serral wasn't 'full-strength' at that tournament, but that's not a relevant argument when measuring who was the best player in 2018 ;o (I still give it to Serral, but I think it's incredibly close and not at all an obvious choice)
AdministratorHey HP can you redo everything youve ever done because i have a small complaint?
Poopi
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
France13023 Posts
March 01 2019 10:17 GMT
#92
On March 01 2019 19:10 Waxangel wrote:
TFW people forget Maru 3-0'd Serral at WESG on the way to winning $200,000. Yes, it's probably true that Serral wasn't 'full-strength' at that tournament, but that's not a relevant argument when measuring who was the best player in 2018 ;o (I still give it to Serral, but I think it's incredibly close and not at all an obvious choice)

sOs robbed us of the answer unfortunately

WriterMaru
MrFreeman
Profile Joined January 2015
207 Posts
March 01 2019 10:21 GMT
#93
Maru has quite a specific style. Very active with his units, hitting in multiple places at once all the time, never leaving you the room to breathe. It just seemed that his opponents were ready for it this time and knew how to deal with it. And even though his aggression did some damage, he usually traded ineffectively and the opponent just edged ahead, split his army to defend multiple locations and counter attack once they reached the critical mass.
deacon.frost
Profile Joined February 2013
Czech Republic12134 Posts
March 01 2019 10:22 GMT
#94
On March 01 2019 19:17 Poopi wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 01 2019 19:10 Waxangel wrote:
TFW people forget Maru 3-0'd Serral at WESG on the way to winning $200,000. Yes, it's probably true that Serral wasn't 'full-strength' at that tournament, but that's not a relevant argument when measuring who was the best player in 2018 ;o (I still give it to Serral, but I think it's incredibly close and not at all an obvious choice)

sOs robbed us of the answer unfortunately


It was a punishment for Blizzard retarded rule they invented on the spot.
I imagine France should be able to take this unless Lilbow is busy practicing for Starcraft III. | KadaverBB is my fairy ban mother.
Xain0n
Profile Joined November 2018
Italy3963 Posts
March 01 2019 10:23 GMT
#95
On March 01 2019 19:10 Waxangel wrote:
TFW people forget Maru 3-0'd Serral at WESG on the way to winning $200,000. Yes, it's probably true that Serral wasn't 'full-strength' at that tournament, but that's not a relevant argument when measuring who was the best player in 2018 ;o (I still give it to Serral, but I think it's incredibly close and not at all an obvious choice)


Serral definitely had not reached his best level while Maru rose to his top form in that tournament; Dark was clearly better than Serral at the time: he reached finals where he lost 3-4 against putting up a much better fight.

However, speaking of international results, Maru peaked at WESG then went downhill while Serral ended the year winning every single tournament he entered; he couldn't face Maru anymore because of the eliminations the latter suffered, even if we had a peek of the dream match during the team event of GSL vs the World.
Poopi
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
France13023 Posts
March 01 2019 10:25 GMT
#96
On March 01 2019 19:23 Xain0n wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 01 2019 19:10 Waxangel wrote:
TFW people forget Maru 3-0'd Serral at WESG on the way to winning $200,000. Yes, it's probably true that Serral wasn't 'full-strength' at that tournament, but that's not a relevant argument when measuring who was the best player in 2018 ;o (I still give it to Serral, but I think it's incredibly close and not at all an obvious choice)


Serral definitely had not reached his best level while Maru rose to his top form in that tournament; Dark was clearly better than Serral at the time: he reached finals where he lost 3-4 against putting up a much better fight.

However, speaking of international results, Maru peaked at WESG then went downhill while Serral ended the year winning every single tournament he entered; he couldn't face Maru anymore because of the eliminations the latter suffered, even if we had a peek of the dream match during the team event of GSL vs the World.

I don't think we can know for sure Serral didn't reach his best level at WESG, precisely because he went fucking untested in ZvT (minus foreign kids) after that. Plus the raven nerf. Maru didn't go downhill after WESG, he kept on winning GSLs. I don't think we'll see that ever again as long as there as 8-10 top players still in the KR scene
WriterMaru
deacon.frost
Profile Joined February 2013
Czech Republic12134 Posts
March 01 2019 10:28 GMT
#97
On March 01 2019 19:23 Xain0n wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 01 2019 19:10 Waxangel wrote:
TFW people forget Maru 3-0'd Serral at WESG on the way to winning $200,000. Yes, it's probably true that Serral wasn't 'full-strength' at that tournament, but that's not a relevant argument when measuring who was the best player in 2018 ;o (I still give it to Serral, but I think it's incredibly close and not at all an obvious choice)


Serral definitely had not reached his best level while Maru rose to his top form in that tournament; Dark was clearly better than Serral at the time: he reached finals where he lost 3-4 against putting up a much better fight.

However, speaking of international results, Maru peaked at WESG then went downhill while Serral ended the year winning every single tournament he entered; he couldn't face Maru anymore because of the eliminations the latter suffered, even if we had a peek of the dream match during the team event of GSL vs the World.

At the same time it's easier for Serral to go for GSL than for Maru to go to WCS.

At the end of the year Serral was qualified for Blizzcon multiple times. Obviously he didn't want to go to GSL. He could have even payed for his stay from his prize money. Screw prize money, I wouldn't be surprised if Afreeca would have payed for him at that time, NoShoe's house was just a benefit.
I imagine France should be able to take this unless Lilbow is busy practicing for Starcraft III. | KadaverBB is my fairy ban mother.
pvsnp
Profile Joined January 2017
7676 Posts
March 01 2019 10:33 GMT
#98
Maru and Serral again? Maru's already out of IEM and I sincerely hope that Serral bombs out too, so people will finally start talking about literally any of the other players.
Denominator of the Universe
TL+ Member
Waxangel
Profile Blog Joined September 2002
United States33713 Posts
March 01 2019 10:35 GMT
#99
On March 01 2019 19:28 deacon.frost wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 01 2019 19:23 Xain0n wrote:
On March 01 2019 19:10 Waxangel wrote:
TFW people forget Maru 3-0'd Serral at WESG on the way to winning $200,000. Yes, it's probably true that Serral wasn't 'full-strength' at that tournament, but that's not a relevant argument when measuring who was the best player in 2018 ;o (I still give it to Serral, but I think it's incredibly close and not at all an obvious choice)


Serral definitely had not reached his best level while Maru rose to his top form in that tournament; Dark was clearly better than Serral at the time: he reached finals where he lost 3-4 against putting up a much better fight.

However, speaking of international results, Maru peaked at WESG then went downhill while Serral ended the year winning every single tournament he entered; he couldn't face Maru anymore because of the eliminations the latter suffered, even if we had a peek of the dream match during the team event of GSL vs the World.

At the same time it's easier for Serral to go for GSL than for Maru to go to WCS.

At the end of the year Serral was qualified for Blizzcon multiple times. Obviously he didn't want to go to GSL. He could have even payed for his stay from his prize money. Screw prize money, I wouldn't be surprised if Afreeca would have payed for him at that time, NoShoe's house was just a benefit.


He gets to keep his preferred lifestyle (living with family in Finland) and still gets to win a lot of prize money and be the best player in the world. I feel like there would have to be a considerable financial incentive for him to go out to Korea for a full GSL cycle. (Or maybe he gets super bored and says 'I wanna try winning a GSL' one day )
AdministratorHey HP can you redo everything youve ever done because i have a small complaint?
fronkschnonk
Profile Joined November 2011
Germany622 Posts
March 01 2019 10:36 GMT
#100
Weird how a lackluster performance of Maru makes so many people question his performances in 2018. If he isn't that good right now that tells nothing about his skilllevel of 2018. Maru showed to be the best player over a big part of 2018 (and had in my opinion greater achievements than Serral with a longer period of domination facing tougher competition more often, while Serral obviously arose to be the best player in the end of 2018).

I mean, what is this illguided idea that every time a great player stops performing his achievements get belittled. It was the same with Rogue being called a Patchzerg, Byun being called a reaper-abuser. If you dig deep enough, you find a reason to downplay the success of every champion we ever had. Maru was the only terran that was able to do what he did in 2018. Only TY got close for a view months. He demolished great zergs even post raven nerf won 3 GSLs in a row vs the toughest competition there is.

So, yeah, it seems Maru's great time is over for now. But we saw his potential and it's really not that unlikely that he will live up to it again, considering that he never really lost his status as a championship contender after his first starleague success.
Furthermore, I consider that some kind of Code A must be reestablished.
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 1d
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft: Brood War
Calm 4472
Rain 3262
firebathero 748
Horang2 587
BeSt 444
Bisu 422
Shuttle 390
Light 283
Zeus 253
Soma 202
[ Show more ]
Mong 179
ProTech146
Rush 141
sOs 115
Dewaltoss 111
Pusan 89
Soulkey 79
ZerO 77
Hyun 65
actioN 60
Killer 34
hero 28
Free 26
Barracks 22
Shinee 22
Sharp 21
soO 16
Noble 15
sorry 15
Aegong 10
HiyA 9
Terrorterran 8
Dota 2
ODPixel529
League of Legends
Reynor71
Counter-Strike
fl0m3146
olofmeister648
allub191
Other Games
ceh9613
B2W.Neo557
JimRising 297
Lowko294
Fuzer 250
crisheroes158
syndereN111
NeuroSwarm86
ViBE49
Railgan20
ZerO(Twitch)4
Organizations
Other Games
ComeBackTV 214
Counter-Strike
PGL116
[ Show 11 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Laughngamez YouTube
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• iopq 7
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• lizZardDota2392
Upcoming Events
IntoTheTV X SOOP
1d
Reynor vs Solar
ByuN vs SHIN
Clem vs MaxPax
herO vs Rogue
IPSL
1d 6h
WorsT vs nOmaD
Dewalt vs andersOn
AI Arena Tournament
1d 8h
IntoTheTV X SOOP
2 days
IPSL
2 days
Azhi_Dahaki vs ggnore13
Double vs WIZARD
Replay Cast
2 days
Replay Cast
3 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3 days
WardiTV Invitational
4 days
YoungYakov vs Lambo
SHIN vs TBD
Percival vs Shameless
Solar vs TBD
PiGosaur Cup
4 days
[ Show More ]
The PondCast
5 days
KCM Race Survival
5 days
WardiTV Invitational
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-11-05
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
HCC Season 3

Ongoing

Acropolis #5
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 4
International ShieldBattery League
BSL Season 23
IPSL Winter 2026-27
Calamity Cup Div. A Season 8
IEM Beijing 2026
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026

Upcoming

Sector 951
SC4ALL II: Brood War
BSL 23: Non-Korean Championship
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
Underdog Cup 2026 Div 2-3
PGL Bucharest 2027
BLAST Bounty Winter 2027
eXTREMESLAND 2026
PGL Major Singapore 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.