Rogue became the first player in StarCraft II history to imprint his name on the IEM Katowice championship trophy twice, winning a decisive 4-1 victory over Zest in the finals of the 2020 edition of the tournament. The Jin Air Zerg looked impressive from start to finish in the grand finals, deflecting Zest's harassment and ripping through his defenses with ease.
Zest had entered the finals after upsetting Serral 3-2 in the semis, an exclamation point in a brilliant comeback run where he played some of his best StarCraft II in years. Unfortunately for Zest, his five PvZ sets over the course of the tournament seemed to catch up to him in the grand finals, with Rogue's reads and gambles hitting with remarkable accuracy.
Serral had started off his series against Zest with a 2-1 lead, defending solidly against the glaive-adept play Zest had favored throughout the competition. However, he abruptly came undone in game four, being caught completely off guard by yet another twist on glaive-adepts from Zest. Zest closed the series out in game five, splitting Serral's defenses with warp prism tactics before overpowering him with chargelot-archon.
Somehow, Rogue entered the final day of matches as a somewhat understated championship candidate, despite accumulating a tournament-best 13-2 map record over the course of the group stage and quarterfinals. After topping his group to earn a bye to the quarterfinals, he had also crushed BlizzCon champ Dark 3-0 to secure his spot on the Spodek stage.
Rogue had to face teammate Maru in the semifinal match on his side of the bracket, with the two players trading blows in an offensive-minded series. The series ended in a traditional clash between muta-ling-bane and marine-medivac-mine, with Rogue able to overpower his teammate to secure the 3-2 victory.
Zest's five consecutive PvZ match victories—including one against Rogue in the group stage—may have made him look the favorite on paper, but in the end it only made him overexposed. Early game aggression was the name of the game for the finals, with most of the matches either being decided outright in the first few minutes, or seeing one player take an insurmountable advantage. Zest drew first blood with a quick cannon rush into proxy-robo immortal drop on Ephemeron, but that would prove to be his only win of the series. Be it by simply defending against Zest's glaive-adept timings or exploiting Zest's porous early-game defense with quick zergling attacks, Rogue steamrollered his way to four straight wins to claim the mantle of two-time IEM Katowice champion.
With his win in Poland, Rogue secured himself a seed at the Masters Championship at IEM Katowice 2021, and another $150,000 to add to his already significant career earnings. At the end of a playoffs where many expected either Maru or Serral to further their legacies, we've instead been left to wonder where Rogue must rank on the list of all-time greats.
Congrats Rogue. You looked villain to some due to your aggressive and unorthodox game plays, but you still managed to claim the throne more than others can do. Arguably the best Zerg player in the modern times.
On March 02 2020 01:47 Ej_ wrote: It is a very peculiar talent of Rogue to make every final he particilates in shit. And he wins them too!
5 of those were ZvP and I can't remember the last time that was a non-terrible match up. The other 2 were ZvZ and that's never been a non-terrible match up.
Never talk about Maru vs Serral again: Kaelaris and Artosis both had to go and open their big mouths. Although Maynarde looking visibly pissed on the desk was a fun photo grab after we knew we’d lost it again.
Maru vs Serral is now like Fight Club. And you do not talk about Fight Club.
On March 02 2020 01:41 Boggyb wrote: Rogue is both the best and sexiest SC2 player alive. An impressive accomplishment for someone TL labeled a patch Zerg.
He practically labeled himself a patchzerg last year
On March 02 2020 01:47 Ej_ wrote: It is a very peculiar talent of Rogue to make every final he particilates in shit. And he wins them too!
It's like he saw what soO did and thought "Imagine that but winning" :D
Rogue is the exact opposite of soO, he seems to be working less than everyone else, stomp all of his final and he pretty much has no fans, and someday he's going to finally lose a final and everyone will be ecstatic lol.
On March 02 2020 01:47 Ej_ wrote: It is a very peculiar talent of Rogue to make every final he particilates in shit. And he wins them too!
It's like he saw what soO did and thought "Imagine that but winning" :D
Rogue is the exact opposite of soO, he seems to be working less than everyone else, stomp all of his final and he pretty much has no fans, and someday he's going to finally lose a final and everyone will be ecstatic lol.
Rogue was one of my favourite players during HotS and he pretty much stayed there until he actually started winning tournaments in 2017.
Rogue is underrated. This guy can take ANYONE out, can play with a poker face while being down 0-2 to reverse sweep and he's (from what I read) is unbeatable in bo7. Sexy boy rising!
Another Torney won by Z... Looks like Z is still dominating the very high world class ranks - the current patch looks more balanced than the one before, though. Therefore I assume the current direction is the best one
EPT
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/ept2020_21/eptbanner734.jpg)
Rogue became the first player in StarCraft II history to imprint his name on the IEM Katowice championship trophy twice, winning a decisive 4-1 victory over 
