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The world may have changed overnight due to the current pandemic, but some things just stay the same: after two days of tough competition, the Finnish Phenom
Serral faced the Korean Machine INnoVation in the Grand Finals of yet another TakeTV event. This time it was Stay At HomeStory Cup, an online replacement event for what was supposed to be the first HSC of the year. Offline or online, these two always seem to come up big when the words "HomeStory Cup" are involved.INnoVation got off to a great start into the finals, winning an impressive macro game against Serral on Simulacrum by never letting go of his advantage after his cloaked Banshee opening had killed 15 Drones. The chairman of the Terran Reserve Bank kept the Marine printer running at max capacity, and his parade pushes forced a GG out of Serral.
After that, things went downhill quickly for INnoVation. Serral defended much better in game two on Nightshade, keeping his economy intact and crushing INnoVation’s offensives with the perfectly executed flanking maneuvers we are so used to from him. With the series tied 1-1, the Machine finally seemed to run out of steam after pulling an all-nighter and playing a good twelve hours of StarCraft 2 (granted, Serral played for a similar length of time, just with a more favorable time zone). INnoVation went for his favorite desperation move of proxy-raxing in game three, but was shut down by Serral. After that, INnoVation couldn't put up much more resistance. Serral took control with masterful Muta-Ling-Bane in games four and five, securing his fourth HomeStory Cup title in a row with a 4-1 finals victory.
The finals highlighted a splendid playoff run from Serral, who had actually struggled earlier in the group stage. He lost a cheesy series to
Elazer—who himself had a fantastic tournament run—and played a very strange set of builds against Neeb which he later confirmed to be the brainchild of his Finnish compatriot ZhuGeLiang. The experimenting nearly saw him get eliminated, but he advanced after defeating Neeb 2-1 in the group decider match.With Serral's near-perfect playoff run—INnoVation was the only one to take a map off of him—there's little doubt that this lacklustre group stage performance was no more than an anomaly. Serral, despite his reluctance to compete in online tournaments, can still be expected to be the championship favorite when he does show up.
Aside from Serral, Elazer and INnoVation delivered the stand-out performances of the tournament. Over the weekend, Elazer repeatedly said that he feels very solid in his gameplay right now, and it definitely showed in his results. The Polish Zerg eliminated both
Bunny and Zest in the Ro32, won his Ro16 group in first place ahead of Serral and Neeb, and was incehs away from facing Serral again in the finals. Unfortunately for Elazer, he gave up a 0-2 lead against INnoVation in the semifinals, losing in a reverse-sweep. Still, with such a strong overall performance and his dangerous mix of very solid and very cheesy play, Elazer will be someone to keep an eye on in upcoming tournaments. INnoVation, sleep-deprived as he must have been, had one of his best showings in recent memory. He looked especially brilliant on the second day of the tournament, shining in his matches against
Clem and Reynor in the Ro16, against online-king Cure in the Ro8 (Game 1 is another must-watch!), and then during his reverse-sweep against Elazer in the semi-finals (even keeping a cool head in the face of the Polish Zerg’s proxy-hatch build). Game 1 of the finals was a masterclass in how to snowball a small advantage—certainly worth a VOD review for Terran players.If you only have time to re-watch a single group from this tournament, I would recommend you to check out Group A from the Ro16: non-stop action awaits you as INnoVation, Reynor, Clem, and
Dream battle it out in consistently awesome series.Stay At HomeStory Cup couldn’t entirely replicate the atmosphere of a regular HSC—hardly a surprise given the circumstances. But with a plethora of guest commentators joining HSC mainstay RotterdaM on the main stream, providing their expertise and banter, SAHSC retained the tournament's unique flavor. And, guess what—a second one is coming up soon!
Written by TheOneAboveU
