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DH Winter: Serral Wins the Season Finals

Forum Index > SC2 General
106 CommentsPost a Reply
1 2 3 4 5 6 Next All
TL.net ESPORTS
Profile Joined July 2011
4 Posts
Last Edited: 2020-11-16 19:18:58
November 16 2020 19:17 GMT
#1

DreamHack Masters: Winter
Serral wins the Season Finals

Finland's Serral triumphed 4-2 over Stats in the grand finals of DreamHack Masters Winter, winning his first major title in nearly four months. For Serral fans, those four months might have felt four years, with Reynor and Clem rising to contend for the European throne while Serral fell to the wayside. Now, with Serral's victory in the Winter Finals, and Clem's earlier championship run in the European regional, the three-way race at the top of the European scene seems like it has reached its most competitive point yet.

While the bracket worked out so that Serral faced neither Reynor nor Clem in his Winter Finals run, the upcoming tournaments of ASUS ROG Online (Nov 27-29) and TeamLiquid Starleague 6 (Dec 5-20) presents him with opportunities to take them on head-to-head before the year is out.


Curiously enough, Serral's return to power may have only been the third most interesting storyline of the tournament. Stats fighting through the bracket and earning a finals match against frequent foe Serral was no surprise—despite his growing inconsistency, Stats' GSL games had shown that his peak-level skill was still championship-tier. The truly shocking thing was how poorly all the other Korean players performed. Reigning Code S champion TY went out in the quarterfinals, swept by the USA's Neeb. Code S runner-up Maru couldn't even make it out of the group stage, losing to Clem and Armani (who was eliminated in turn by Clem). INnoVation and Trap were also victims of shocking group stage upsets.

That brings us to the other major theme of the tournament: the remarkable success of North American players, coming at the cost of the GSL's finest. While NA only had two season finals representatives in the form of Neeb and Astrea, both players made a huge impact on the tournament. Neeb defeated Clem and Armani in the group stage, and then swept TY to earn a top four finish. Astrea eliminated Trap in the group stages, and took Stats to a full five-game series in the quarterfinals before bowing out.

[image loading]

DreamHack StarCraft 2 Masters 2020: Winter


Have we reached a period of unprecedented parity in competitive StarCraft II? Or was the Winter Finals simply the outlier among outliers, a fluke to never be repeated? Again, with ASUS ROG Online and TeamLiquid Starleague 6 coming up in the next few weeks, we may soon get some answers.

VODs on YouTube
(latest match uploads may be pending)


Semifinals and grand finals on Twitch


Grand Finals: Serral 4 - 2 Stats

Game 1 - Deathaura: The state of late-game PvZ has been a heated topic of debate as of late, and this limited one-game sample supported the side of 'Protoss OP.' The first half of this game was a quiet, most passive build-up, with neither player able to hamper each other's economy or growth. The second half of the game saw the end-game Protoss composition of Carriers + support face off against the Zerg's Corruptors and assorted spellcaster support. While such situations often lead to lengthy stalemates, Stats brought the game to a relatively quick end by burning his way through Zerg territory, fighting efficiently against the opposing Swarm, and eventually extracting the GG from Serral's hands.

Game 2- Jagannatha: Game two looked like it might be decided early, as Stats' micro mistake saw him lose his initial Oracle to Queens before it could do any damage. We've seen Serral slowly but surely snowball his way to victory off of smaller advantages—however, Stats skillfully played his way into an even mid-game, credibly threatening Serral with Glaive-Adepts and preventing the Zerg economy from getting out of control.

It seemed like Stats had gotten out of the early/mid-game on even terms with the Zerg, and would be free to make a transition to Carriers and try to take a late-game win once again. However, Serral wasn't about to sit back and let that happen. Combining a devastating Baneling drop with a frontal Hydralisk-Baneling attack, Serral shattered Stats' defenses just as he was trying to transition to Carriers, bringing the game to a jarring conclusion.

Game 3 - Pillars of Gold: Stats brought out the recently trending 3-Stargate Void Ray opener, and he ended up being able to show how well it performs against Spire tech. Despite catching whiff of the Void Rays, Serral decided to go for Mutalisks anyway—but only got seven kills Probe before Phoenixes rendered them useless. Serral then pumped out Corruptors to counter the Void Rays, but all his investment in air left him with a very weak ground force.

The Zest-style (or should it be credited to someone else?) Void Ray opener aims to make a rapid transition to a strong ground army after the initial group of Void Rays, and Stats soon had a ground army that was far scarier than Serral's hastily produced Roaches and Ravagers. Stats didn't let this advantage go to waste, and battered Serral with his superior ground forces to take his second win of the series.

Game 4 - Lightshade: Serral opened with a Pool-first build to start, which Stats scouted and held off without too much trouble. Both players macroed up after that, and looked to be on relatively even footing as they headed to another potential late-game battle. However, Serral once again found a window to kill off Stats before he could transition to Carriers, striking with another Hydralisk-Baneling army at max supply. Stats' "Shield of Aiur" reputation failed him in this instance, with his army getting caught defending in an awkward position where his Templars were barely able to get off any useful storms. Stats saw his forces get crushed, and he conceded the tying GG of the series.

Game 5 - Oxide: Stats brought out another Oracle opener, and once again failed to do much early game damage to Serral's economy. Nonetheless, Stats managed to set himself on three bases without much of a deficit, and aimed to go for a Blink-Stalker + Colossus composition. Interestingly enough, Serral had said in a prior interview that he finds this composition to be easy to face, and he eventually backed his words up.

But Serral had to navigate a crisis first, as his Roach-Ravager-Bane swarm fared poorly against Stats' initial major attack at +2 attack timing. While Serral survived the attack, the initiative had definitely gone over to Stats, who looked to mass more troops and finish Serral off with a second blow. However, Serral completely turned things around when Stats looked to attack with +3 attack upgrades, executing a devastating Zergling flank while fighting with Roaches and Ravagers at the front. This totally broke the high-tech core of the Protoss, and Serral was able finish Stats off not long after.

Game 6 - Submarine: Serral went for another Pool-first build on a short-distance map, and Stats once again held off the early Zerglings without much trouble. Stats then turned the tables on Serral and got aggressive himself, using Adepts to keep Serral contained on two bases for quite some time. Stats looked to keep the pressure up, transitioning into Glaive-Adepts and following up with Disruptor drops. Serral handled all of this calmly, ceding ground where needed but ultimately setting himself up on a reasonable economy. As for Stats himself, he was content to go up to four bases behind all this pressure, once again assembling a Stalker-Colossus army.

The game came to an abrupt end when Serral looked to attack Stats' warping fourth with Roach-Ravager-Baneling. While Stats' army looked like it was big enough to handle the attack, Stats' Force Field placement was less-than-perfect, allowing Banelings to squeeze through and get some huge detonations. With the Zerg Swarm trampling over the Protoss army, Stats had no choice but to concede the final GG.





Photos: DreamHack
Statistics: Liquipedia

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TL+ Member
dysenterymd
Profile Joined January 2019
1199 Posts
Last Edited: 2020-11-16 19:28:10
November 16 2020 19:25 GMT
#2
Very glad to see Serral win again.

I would still consider Serral in a slump until he wins about half of the tournaments he enters. This is an absurdly high standard, but Serral has shown that he can meet it. If he wins one of ASUS ROG or TSL6 and goes deep in the other I'll consider the slump over.
Serral | Inno | sOs | soO | Has | Classic
ZeeSC2
Profile Joined May 2011
United States134 Posts
November 16 2020 19:38 GMT
#3
The King is back! Really impressive tournament performance by Serral
Light1082
Profile Joined May 2020
18 Posts
November 16 2020 19:40 GMT
#4
Great tournament for sure!
Awesome performance from the non-korean representation. Lets see if they can keep it up moving into the future.
Serimek
Profile Joined August 2011
France2274 Posts
November 16 2020 19:58 GMT
#5
TIME performance is to be highlighted as well in my opinion. It is very much alike Astrea's.
SC2 is the best game to watch and was the best to play before I grew old and slow...
kawoq
Profile Joined November 2005
Guatemala357 Posts
November 16 2020 20:41 GMT
#6
On November 17 2020 04:58 Serimek wrote:
TIME performance is to be highlighted as well in my opinion. It is very much alike Astrea's.


x2, Time even took Serral to a 5th game.

Maru's last group finish was totally unexpected.
"It is not a shameful thing to be unable to reach the goal. It's becoming afraid and running away, even before considering the fact that the road is long and rough, that is truly cowardly." by - Lim Yo Hwan aka SlayerS_Boxer from "Crazy as me"
Locutos
Profile Joined January 2017
Brazil259 Posts
November 16 2020 20:46 GMT
#7
Time always puts a big fight against Serral. No surprise there
Weavel
Profile Joined January 2010
Finland9221 Posts
November 16 2020 21:07 GMT
#8
Good job Serral!
Life/Seed//Mvp/NaNiwa fighting! ZeNEX forever!
Locutos
Profile Joined January 2017
Brazil259 Posts
November 16 2020 21:22 GMT
#9
the GOAT is back on the top of the moutain
vyzion
Profile Joined August 2016
308 Posts
November 16 2020 22:13 GMT
#10
Lord and savior Serral, grace us with your presence!!!
Riner1212
Profile Joined November 2012
United States337 Posts
November 17 2020 02:00 GMT
#11
goat got saved cuz of stats lol

@locutos.
Sjow "pretty ez life as protoss"
Dave4
Profile Joined August 2018
494 Posts
Last Edited: 2020-11-17 02:35:26
November 17 2020 02:35 GMT
#12
Great job Serral. The GOAT has returned to his throne.
StalkyBear
Profile Joined October 2019
55 Posts
November 17 2020 04:27 GMT
#13
Maru last Loool
hyuu
Profile Joined August 2011
163 Posts
November 17 2020 07:53 GMT
#14
Have we reached a period of unprecedented parity in competitive StarCraft II? Or was the Winter Finals simply the outlier among outliers, a fluke to never be repeated? Again, with ASUS ROG Online and TeamLiquid Starleague 6 coming up in the next few weeks, we may soon get some answers


Writer, i like the way you hype
dbRic1203
Profile Joined July 2019
Germany2655 Posts
November 17 2020 08:46 GMT
#15
Amazing Performance from Neeb and Astrea in particular. The Euro Boys did pretty much as expected. And Time beating Inno isn t even that insane, After all he s the Kaizi ACE, while Inno is not
Jones aside, they are practisepartners for a very long time now and know each other Inside out. Obviously those games are going to be close. GGs
Lets hope the Koreans will surge Back strong in the next events with all their might.
The insane turnout on the Open cups indicates at least, that they will, nie the race for every Single EPT point is on. The final strech for Katowice will be great
MaxPax
Lazzarus
Profile Joined December 2008
Faroe Islands114 Posts
November 17 2020 10:01 GMT
#16
He's back baby!

TORILLE!

[image loading]

Locutos
Profile Joined January 2017
Brazil259 Posts
November 17 2020 11:59 GMT
#17
On November 17 2020 11:00 Riner1212 wrote:
goat got saved cuz of stats lol

@locutos.


Not Serrals fault
Fango
Profile Joined July 2016
United Kingdom8987 Posts
November 17 2020 12:06 GMT
#18
On November 17 2020 05:41 kawoq wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 17 2020 04:58 Serimek wrote:
TIME performance is to be highlighted as well in my opinion. It is very much alike Astrea's.


x2, Time even took Serral to a 5th game.

Maru's last group finish was totally unexpected.

I actually think TIME's performances against Serral are kinda overhyped. Serral gave away 2 of those games. Had he played his usual defensive standard he wins 3-0.

As for Maru, it was 100% expected. He's injured and unable to practice. You don't even have to go into the "online Maru" or "weekender Maru" usual lines.
Zest, sOs, PartinG, Dark, and Maru are the real champs. ROOT_herO is overrated. Snute, Serral, and Scarlett are the foreigner GOATs
661
Profile Joined May 2018
71 Posts
November 17 2020 16:19 GMT
#19
On November 17 2020 21:06 Fango wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 17 2020 05:41 kawoq wrote:
On November 17 2020 04:58 Serimek wrote:
TIME performance is to be highlighted as well in my opinion. It is very much alike Astrea's.


x2, Time even took Serral to a 5th game.

Maru's last group finish was totally unexpected.

I actually think TIME's performances against Serral are kinda overhyped. Serral gave away 2 of those games. Had he played his usual defensive standard he wins 3-0.

As for Maru, it was 100% expected. He's injured and unable to practice. You don't even have to go into the "online Maru" or "weekender Maru" usual lines.


I’ve to ask, whats are these weekender/online Maru lines?

Xain0n
Profile Joined November 2018
Italy3963 Posts
November 17 2020 16:28 GMT
#20
On November 18 2020 01:19 661 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 17 2020 21:06 Fango wrote:
On November 17 2020 05:41 kawoq wrote:
On November 17 2020 04:58 Serimek wrote:
TIME performance is to be highlighted as well in my opinion. It is very much alike Astrea's.


x2, Time even took Serral to a 5th game.

Maru's last group finish was totally unexpected.

I actually think TIME's performances against Serral are kinda overhyped. Serral gave away 2 of those games. Had he played his usual defensive standard he wins 3-0.

As for Maru, it was 100% expected. He's injured and unable to practice. You don't even have to go into the "online Maru" or "weekender Maru" usual lines.


I’ve to ask, whats are these weekender/online Maru lines?



Simple observations based on results. Maru performs generally worse during weekenders(compared to his standards) and very rarely wins them; the same can be said for online tournaments. It's also always interesting to remember he never won any tournament outside of Asia.
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