With the conclusion of the round of 12 and quarterfinals, we are finally left with the final four competitors for the IEM Katowice 2020 championship: Serral, Zest, Rogue, and Maru.
INnoVation booked a quarterfinal match against Serral after winning a decisive victory over ShoWTimE in the RO12, with the German Protoss looking outclassed against the Machine Terran. While ShoWTimE's strong PvZ and PvP earned him a playoff berth, he was pulled apart again and again by the Korean Terran's drop-play and army movements. However, Serral administered a similar beating to INnoVation in their quarterfinal match, with the Finnish Phenom looking every bit the superior player. He blew INnoVation out of the water in every macro game, with INnoVation stealing a single map with a hidden blue-flame-hellion all-in. Despite having enjoyed some success against Serral with late-game play in 2019 (IEM Katowice and WESG), INnoVation's choice to go for a bio-based 'mid-game all-in' style at Katowice 2020 ultimately ended up being less effective.
Zest continued his resurrection in 2020 with a quick dismantling of Hurricane and Dear in subsequent rounds. Hurricane offered little resistance to Zest's PvP prowess and looked thoroughly outclassed in all facets of play. It was similar for Dear, with Zest simply out-muscling or out-braining whatever Dear had planned for his games, be it fast-expands or peculiar unit compositions. Zest did have one major lapse in execution, ceding one map to Dear after a laughable attempt to force his way up his opponent's ramp. But all-around, Zest proved to be an overwhelming player in PvP, deserving to be called the current best PvP-er in the world.
The other double-mirror quadrant of the bracket ended with Rogue crushing Dark to advance to the semifinals. Dark started the day off strong with a 3-1 victory over Solar in the RO12, showcasing his strengths in a variety of styles—be it muta-line-bane, roach ravager mid-games, or lurker-viper management in the late game. However, Dark was unable to continue his momentum against Rogue. As easily as Dark beat Solar, so did Rogue with Dark, taking calculated risks and attacking aggressively. Dark seemed a beat slower in his decision making—as when he made Drones while enemy forces marched under a scouting overlord—or was simply taken completely off guard.
The last quadrant of the bracket ended with a Jin Air Team kill and the rekindling of much hype, as Maru coming out on top. sOs eked out a win in an odd series against Stats, where despite going the full five games ended up being the shortest in terms of game time. sOs using dark templars to varying degrees of effectiveness, while Stats either punished sOs or coming up short against him. However, Maru put a stop to sOs' shenanigans with much more efficiency, punishing his team-mate for choosing builds like proxy gateways, dark templars and glaive adepts.
The hope of a Maru-Serral grand finals burns in the hearts of StarCraft II fans once more. While Zest's poor record against Serral suggests the Finnish Phenom will hold up his end of the bargain, the match between Rogue and Maru could be a much tighter affair. IEM Katowice concludes on March 1st with the semifinals and grand finals.
Some people just want to watch the world burn, drown, freeze, suffocate, get crushed and blown up all at the same time.
Serral 3-0 Zest Maru 3-1 Rogue ?????????????????
Zest doesn't know how to play PvZ, and I think Maru is all of: on a roll, historically favored vs Rogue, and has Rogue's sympathies. I wonder if Rogue will intentionally play cheesy against Maru so that Maru can hide strats in the final, though maybe he'll accidentally cheese Maru out...
In any case, praying for Serral vs Maru, not just b/c of historical hype, but b/c Serral has already gone through Cure, TY, and INnoVation, and is well on his way to silencing the "but he doesn't play against KR Terrans" crowd. Especially as Dark keeps combusting randomly (and can't play ZvZ - sad Dark fan), it will be nice to have a more stable zerg advance the ZvT meta.
Edit: I realize that a lot of people will say that ZvT isn't exactly the hardest matchup these days. Even so, it would be cool to see how Serral would handle Maru's huge dynamic range.
I think Maru vs Rogue will be close no matter who takes it. Zest vs Serral on the other hand? Looking at their matchup historically, you could say Serral is going to crush. And fair enough, but I really would like to see Zest's killer ZvP he showcased in the group shine here.
It's easy to look at the bracket and say Zest just PvP'd his way there and will lose to zerg. But he actually looks damn good at this event. And historically he performs better in bigger matches.
On March 01 2020 07:32 Fango wrote: It's easy to look at the bracket and say Zest just PvP'd his way there and will lose to zerg. But he actually looks damn good at this event. And historically he performs better in bigger matches.
he PvZd out of his 4Z group actually, his one loss came from pvp in the groups. I think it s not just the numbers, his PvZ is looking better than ever, he hinted to some special builds, he could take it.
So hyped for Maru vs Rogue. Both players look to be on a roll ! I would say Maru is slightly favored as his TvZ is just absolutely best in the world and Rogue tends to struggle in the matchup, but in the teamkill stats do not matter that much.
Some people just want to watch the world burn, drown, freeze, suffocate, get crushed and blown up all at the same time.
Or Rogue is literally my second favorite player behind sOs and ahead of Maru and is the ONLY Zerg I'll root for ever. (I'll root against certain players when they are playing a Zerg I dislike less) Also, my hatred of Serral has overtaken my previous hatred of Zest.
Personally not gonna get excited until that matchup is confirmed- I was SURE we’d get to see it in BlizzCon Group B last year and I think we all remember what happened there.
I’m not too worried about Serral. He’s proven solid and reliable and he’s going against Zest who, lets face it, is pretty terrible at PvZ in general. Maybe he’s gotten better but good enough for Serral?
I’m a lot more concerned because I can easily see Maru falling to Rogue. It would, after all, be the Maru thing to do and Rogue is one heck of a Zerg beast when he’s on point.
Still, one can dream... but don’t give me hope... Don’t do it... I might start to believe it could happen and we all know what happens next. 😬
On March 01 2020 11:05 StarcraftSquall wrote: I’m not too worried about Serral. He’s proven solid and reliable and he’s going against Zest who, lets face it, is pretty terrible at PvZ in general. Maybe he’s gotten better but good enough for Serral?
Zest went 4-0 in series and 8-1 in maps against Rogue, Reynor, soO, and Armani. In case you've forgotten who those players are: Rogue is a 2-time world champion (Blizzcon and Katowice) plus the reigning GSL champion. Reynor is someone who beat Serral 3 times last year to either win tournaments or advance to the finals over him. soO a world champion and someone known for being unbeatable until the finals. Armani is a luxury Italian fashion brand.
On March 01 2020 07:11 watchlulu wrote: I too think that Zest is probably the hardest opponent for Serral. After Zest there's probably Maru, then Reynor (obv. already out)
You must be kidding. Zest is pretty much a walkover for Serral who is now effectively seeded into the final. Maru and Rogue are much bigger challenges for him and Maru is probably the most difficult opponent in the world he could face.
On March 01 2020 07:11 watchlulu wrote: I too think that Zest is probably the hardest opponent for Serral. After Zest there's probably Maru, then Reynor (obv. already out)
You must be kidding. Zest is pretty much a walkover for Serral who is now effectively seeded into the final. Maru and Rogue are much bigger challenges for him and Maru is probably the most difficult opponent in the world he could face.
You know Serral just lost 0-2 to freaking Hurricane right? I'm not saying the same thing will happen now but Zest have played a lot better so I feel he definitely have a chance.
On March 01 2020 07:11 watchlulu wrote: I too think that Zest is probably the hardest opponent for Serral. After Zest there's probably Maru, then Reynor (obv. already out)
You must be kidding. Zest is pretty much a walkover for Serral who is now effectively seeded into the final. Maru and Rogue are much bigger challenges for him and Maru is probably the most difficult opponent in the world he could face.
If Maru takes out Rogue, he's got a case for one of Serral's hardest possible opponents. Maru's bracket is interesting. He's kind of facing down a lot of demons from his past runs. First sOs, then Rogue, then facing Serral in an IEM finals has to bring back memories of his finals vs Life... If Maru actually takes this tournament, that's at least 3 redemptions in one!
On March 01 2020 11:05 StarcraftSquall wrote: I’m not too worried about Serral. He’s proven solid and reliable and he’s going against Zest who, lets face it, is pretty terrible at PvZ in general. Maybe he’s gotten better but good enough for Serral?
Zest went 4-0 in series and 8-1 in maps against Rogue, Reynor, soO, and Armani. In case you've forgotten who those players are: Rogue is a 2-time world champion (Blizzcon and Katowice) plus the reigning GSL champion. Reynor is someone who beat Serral 3 times last year to either win tournaments or advance to the finals over him. soO a world champion and someone known for being unbeatable until the finals. Armani is a luxury Italian fashion brand.
Armani isn't that good. SoO is okay. Zest's combined score against Reynor and Rogue is 4-2, hardly a complete walk-over. Saying if someone can beat Reynor and Rogue, then they can beat Serral, is like saying if they can beat Ragnarok and soO, then they can beat Rogue. Bo5 is much less unpredictable than Bo3.
On March 01 2020 11:05 StarcraftSquall wrote: I’m not too worried about Serral. He’s proven solid and reliable and he’s going against Zest who, lets face it, is pretty terrible at PvZ in general. Maybe he’s gotten better but good enough for Serral?
Zest went 4-0 in series and 8-1 in maps against Rogue, Reynor, soO, and Armani. In case you've forgotten who those players are: Rogue is a 2-time world champion (Blizzcon and Katowice) plus the reigning GSL champion. Reynor is someone who beat Serral 3 times last year to either win tournaments or advance to the finals over him. soO a world champion and someone known for being unbeatable until the finals. Armani is a luxury Italian fashion brand.
Armani isn't that good. SoO is okay. Zest's combined score against Reynor and Rogue is 4-2, hardly a complete walk-over. Saying if someone can beat Reynor and Rogue, then they can beat Serral, is like saying if they can beat Ragnarok and soO, then they can beat Rogue. Bo5 is much less unpredictable than Bo3.
So in your world it simply doesn't matter how good anyone does against other players, because Serral is just simply better than every other player in the world so you cant compare? So by your logic no plasyer will ever have a have a chance against Serral because they haven't beaten Serral yet which is the only criteria you would find acceptable for arguing that anyone has a chance against Serral.
Zest defeated bloody soO, Reynor and Rogue, three of the best zergs in the world. They are not second rate, Rogue is S rate ffs. Plus Serral shgowed weakness in ZvP by getting defeated by Hurricane.
Bo5 makes it more likely Serral can take it that is true but its still an even match based on the recent performances we have seen.
Some people just want to watch the world burn, drown, freeze, suffocate, get crushed and blown up all at the same time.
Serral 3-0 Zest Maru 3-1 Rogue ?????????????????
Zest doesn't know how to play PvZ, and I think Maru is all of: on a roll, historically favored vs Rogue, and has Rogue's sympathies. I wonder if Rogue will intentionally play cheesy against Maru so that Maru can hide strats in the final, though maybe he'll accidentally cheese Maru out...
In any case, praying for Serral vs Maru, not just b/c of historical hype, but b/c Serral has already gone through Cure, TY, and INnoVation, and is well on his way to silencing the "but he doesn't play against KR Terrans" crowd. Especially as Dark keeps combusting randomly (and can't play ZvZ - sad Dark fan), it will be nice to have a more stable zerg advance the ZvT meta.
Edit: I realize that a lot of people will say that ZvT isn't exactly the hardest matchup these days. Even so, it would be cool to see how Serral would handle Maru's huge dynamic range.
Zest def knows how to PVZ, like Hurricane he knows trying to beat zerg in a straight up game is suicide :D
On March 01 2020 11:05 StarcraftSquall wrote: I’m not too worried about Serral. He’s proven solid and reliable and he’s going against Zest who, lets face it, is pretty terrible at PvZ in general. Maybe he’s gotten better but good enough for Serral?
Zest went 4-0 in series and 8-1 in maps against Rogue, Reynor, soO, and Armani. In case you've forgotten who those players are: Rogue is a 2-time world champion (Blizzcon and Katowice) plus the reigning GSL champion. Reynor is someone who beat Serral 3 times last year to either win tournaments or advance to the finals over him. soO a world champion and someone known for being unbeatable until the finals. Armani is a luxury Italian fashion brand.
Armani isn't that good. SoO is okay. Zest's combined score against Reynor and Rogue is 4-2, hardly a complete walk-over. Saying if someone can beat Reynor and Rogue, then they can beat Serral, is like saying if they can beat Ragnarok and soO, then they can beat Rogue. Bo5 is much less unpredictable than Bo3.
So in your world it simply doesn't matter how good anyone does against other players, because Serral is just simply better than every other player in the world so you cant compare? So by your logic no plasyer will ever have a have a chance against Serral because they haven't beaten Serral yet which is the only criteria you would find acceptable for arguing that anyone has a chance against Serral.
Zest defeated bloody soO, Reynor and Rogue, three of the best zergs in the world. They are not second rate, Rogue is S rate ffs. Plus Serral shgowed weakness in ZvP by getting defeated by Hurricane.
Bo5 makes it more likely Serral can take it that is true but its still an even match based on the recent performances we have seen.
How did you infer all of that from what I said? Anyone has a chance against Serral. Having a chance doesn't mean the chance is anywhere close to 50%.
"S rate" means little. Numerical rating based on statistics is much more descriptive. If you're basing Serral's current ZvP on a single Bo3, you have very little to work with. Since 2019, Zest is 25-20 vs Rogue. Obviously, he understands Rogue very well. 2-1 is almost expected for Zest. He's 0-9 against Serral since 2018. Maybe he will manage to defeat Serral. Maybe not. Your prediction of an even match is still misguided either way.
On March 01 2020 11:05 StarcraftSquall wrote: I’m not too worried about Serral. He’s proven solid and reliable and he’s going against Zest who, lets face it, is pretty terrible at PvZ in general. Maybe he’s gotten better but good enough for Serral?
Zest went 4-0 in series and 8-1 in maps against Rogue, Reynor, soO, and Armani. In case you've forgotten who those players are: Rogue is a 2-time world champion (Blizzcon and Katowice) plus the reigning GSL champion. Reynor is someone who beat Serral 3 times last year to either win tournaments or advance to the finals over him. soO a world champion and someone known for being unbeatable until the finals. Armani is a luxury Italian fashion brand.
Armani isn't that good. SoO is okay. Zest's combined score against Reynor and Rogue is 4-2, hardly a complete walk-over. Saying if someone can beat Reynor and Rogue, then they can beat Serral, is like saying if they can beat Ragnarok and soO, then they can beat Rogue. Bo5 is much less unpredictable than Bo3.
So in your world it simply doesn't matter how good anyone does against other players, because Serral is just simply better than every other player in the world so you cant compare? So by your logic no plasyer will ever have a have a chance against Serral because they haven't beaten Serral yet which is the only criteria you would find acceptable for arguing that anyone has a chance against Serral.
Zest defeated bloody soO, Reynor and Rogue, three of the best zergs in the world. They are not second rate, Rogue is S rate ffs. Plus Serral shgowed weakness in ZvP by getting defeated by Hurricane.
Bo5 makes it more likely Serral can take it that is true but its still an even match based on the recent performances we have seen.
How did you infer all of that from what I said? Anyone has a chance against Serral. Having a chance doesn't mean the chance is anywhere close to 50%.
"S rate" means little. Numerical rating based on statistics is much more descriptive. If you're basing Serral's current ZvP on a single Bo3, you have very little to work with. Since 2019, Zest is 25-20 vs Rogue. Obviously, he understands Rogue very well. 2-1 is almost expected for Zest. He's 0-9 against Serral since 2018. Maybe he will manage to defeat Serral. Maybe not. Your prediction of an even match is still misguided either way.
On March 01 2020 11:05 StarcraftSquall wrote: I’m not too worried about Serral. He’s proven solid and reliable and he’s going against Zest who, lets face it, is pretty terrible at PvZ in general. Maybe he’s gotten better but good enough for Serral?
Zest went 4-0 in series and 8-1 in maps against Rogue, Reynor, soO, and Armani. In case you've forgotten who those players are: Rogue is a 2-time world champion (Blizzcon and Katowice) plus the reigning GSL champion. Reynor is someone who beat Serral 3 times last year to either win tournaments or advance to the finals over him. soO a world champion and someone known for being unbeatable until the finals. Armani is a luxury Italian fashion brand.
Armani isn't that good. SoO is okay. Zest's combined score against Reynor and Rogue is 4-2, hardly a complete walk-over. Saying if someone can beat Reynor and Rogue, then they can beat Serral, is like saying if they can beat Ragnarok and soO, then they can beat Rogue. Bo5 is much less unpredictable than Bo3.
So in your world it simply doesn't matter how good anyone does against other players, because Serral is just simply better than every other player in the world so you cant compare? So by your logic no plasyer will ever have a have a chance against Serral because they haven't beaten Serral yet which is the only criteria you would find acceptable for arguing that anyone has a chance against Serral.
Zest defeated bloody soO, Reynor and Rogue, three of the best zergs in the world. They are not second rate, Rogue is S rate ffs. Plus Serral shgowed weakness in ZvP by getting defeated by Hurricane.
Bo5 makes it more likely Serral can take it that is true but its still an even match based on the recent performances we have seen.
How did you infer all of that from what I said? Anyone has a chance against Serral. Having a chance doesn't mean the chance is anywhere close to 50%.
"S rate" means little. Numerical rating based on statistics is much more descriptive. If you're basing Serral's current ZvP on a single Bo3, you have very little to work with. Since 2019, Zest is 25-20 vs Rogue. Obviously, he understands Rogue very well. 2-1 is almost expected for Zest. He's 0-9 against Serral since 2018. Maybe he will manage to defeat Serral. Maybe not. Your prediction of an even match is still misguided either way.
It is possible I am misguided but I really donät think head to head in the past means much. Zest hasn't played as good as he does now in years, do you really think it mattered Serral beat him when he was slumping? That statistic means nothing.
Such bs as Zest being 25-20 against Rogue means he knows Rogues current style? Not true ither, players adapt and change, they dont stay the same players statically for a year. You just want easy statistics to use when in fact almost no stats we have are useful because the previous big tournament was months ago. The only relevant stats we have to judge CURRENT form is previous matches at IEM and there Zest looks good and Serrals looks mortal.
On March 01 2020 23:16 Doink wrote: I took a break from SC2. Glad to see nothing has changed and Terrans are still whining as strong as ever, despite a Terran making 3rd place
On March 01 2020 23:16 Doink wrote: I took a break from SC2. Glad to see nothing has changed and Terrans are still whining as strong as ever, despite a Terran making 3rd place
lol and u think that a big achievement?
2 terrans in ro12 and 1 terran top 4 is far better than the 1 terran in ro12 and 1 top 8 from last year IEM for sure
On March 01 2020 23:16 Doink wrote: I took a break from SC2. Glad to see nothing has changed and Terrans are still whining as strong as ever, despite a Terran making 3rd place
Maru is the exception not the norm. Terran has done horrible for the last few years. In premier events they only make up about 20% of the top 8s since 2018. That's atrocious for a game with 3 races. If you remove Maru that percentage drops considerably. For Z/P there's no single player you can remove that hurts them as much as removing Maru.
On March 01 2020 11:05 StarcraftSquall wrote: I’m not too worried about Serral. He’s proven solid and reliable and he’s going against Zest who, lets face it, is pretty terrible at PvZ in general. Maybe he’s gotten better but good enough for Serral?
What happened to Serral in game 4?
He spotted warp prism and blindly started building 2 spore crawlers then noticed 8 adepts and 4 more warping in next to his third while he has 4 zerglings and just started first 5 roaches.
Feels like Serral hallucinated seeing a dark shrine building.
On March 01 2020 07:11 watchlulu wrote: I too think that Zest is probably the hardest opponent for Serral. After Zest there's probably Maru, then Reynor (obv. already out)
You must be kidding. Zest is pretty much a walkover for Serral who is now effectively seeded into the final.
Damn Zest missed the memo, and I wanted to see Rogue vs Serral finals.
EPT
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/ept2020_21/katowice2020/ro12bracket1_1.png)
Serral, 
