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TSL7 - Week 3 - The Finish Line

Forum Index > SC2 General
13 CommentsPost a Reply

TSL7 - Week 3 - The Finish Line

Text byTL.net ESPORTS
June 24th, 2021 07:53 GMT
Week 2 Recap
& Best Games

Dark stuns Clem in lower bracket

Week 3 Preview
Every match worthy of a grand final

Brackets and standings on (Wiki)Liquipedia

VODs on Twitch
Day 1 - Day 2
Day 3 - Day 4

Week 2 Review: Dark Threatens a Repeat

by Wax

After two weeks of play in TeamLiquid Starleague 7, only six players remain to contend for the title. It's the most top-heavy roster of players we've seen going into a TSL championship weekend, with every match being worthy of a grand final.

The stand-out match of week two was Dark's 4-2 upset over Clem, with the world's top TvZ player bowing out of the tournament at the end of a thrilling series. While three of the games were rather dull, being decided on the success or failure of early game attacks, the other three bouts were intense macro games played at the pinnacle of the match-up. On the whole, Dark proved to be faster, more precise, and more decisive than Clem—something that seemed impossible after the multiple TvZ beatdowns Clem had administered to Serral and Reynor over the last year..

In retrospect, one could argue that the result wasn't really a surprise. While Dark's short-term form wasn't great heading into TSL7, we should have remembered he was in a similar position when he entered TSL6—and he ended up going on a world-beating run to win the entire tournament! Perhaps we shouldn't have doubted Dark's ability to up his game in a key moment.

Click for full bracket on Liquipedia
[image loading]


Alas, the earlier upper-bracket matches that led to Dark and Clem's deadly duel weren't quite as exciting. Dark vs Reynor featured mostly short and one-sided games, except for a forty-five minute marathon match on Jagannatha which seemed cosmically ordained to prove TLO's "Not a single match will go over 12 minutes of game time" prediction wrong. Clem vs Cure was also a succession of one-sided matches, with Cure ultimately reaffirming concerns about the French Terran's ability in top-tier TvT matches.

Down in the lower bracket, none of the underdogs (besides Dark, if we count him) were able to disrupt the tournament with an upset. HeroMarine and SpeCial were at least able to save face by taking a map a piece against Dark and Serral, but Armani and Zoun were brutalized by Clem and Serral.

The six remaining players in the tournament were all ranked within the top seven of our pre-tournament Power Rank, which is a good indicator of how 'orderly' this tournament has been. While that's a disappointment to fans who looked forward to a star-making run from an underdog, they'll surely be excited for the string of top-tier matches to come in week three.

Recommended Games

Games of the week: TvZ was sorely missed in week one, but the fan-favorite match-up made a worthy return to the TSL stage with Clem vs Dark (not so much the case with Serral vs Armani and HeroMarine vs Dark). Their brawl on Romanticide is now the front-runner for game of the tournament, featuring the constant action and explosive plays that have made TvZ so beloved.

Dark and Reynor's marathon game on Jagannatha also deserves mention. While the game threatened to turn into an interminable late-game stand-off between lines of Lurkers, Spores, and Vipers (okay, it sort of did devolve into that), the two players stayed active and jostled for position, trying to find small gains in the margins. It's quite the change of pace from the unrelenting carnage of Dark vs Clem, which some fans might appreciate.

  • Dark vs Clem - Romanticide: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1062049674?t=5h18m
  • Dark vs Clem - Blackburn: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1062049674?t=4h42m
  • Dark vs Reynor - Jagannatha - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1061044532?t=1h3m


God of Predictions: Wardi

This week's GOD OF PREDICTIONS is the venerable (Wiki)Wardi, whose 7/10 record in predictions gives him a 70% accuracy rate on the week. While the casters were largely of a mind with their predictions, Wardi edged out ZombieGrub and RotterdaM by correctly picking Reynor to beat Dark, and Cure to beat Clem in the two crucial upper bracket matches.

Day 3 Caster Predictions - Day 4 Caster Predictions

Now, TLO should technically win this award, as he had a higher accuracy rate than Wardi at 75%—a benefit of picking only four matches on Sunday. However, TLO has also gone 0/6 in his True or False contest predictions, and has thus been disqualified from winning GOD OF PREDICTIONS (ironically, TLO predicted Wardi to have 50% or less accuracy).

Once again, there is no reward for winning GOD OF PREDICTIONS, except the smug satisfaction of knowing that you're much, much smarter than your caster peers, and probably smell nicer too.

Week 3 Preview: The Finish Line

As mentioned above, we're left with six elite players contending for the TSL7 championship. It's a line-up so stacked that you'd hardly even miss the absence of Clem, as long as we're getting championship Dark in return.

[image loading]

To begin, we should briefly reacquaint ourselves with the Protoss duo who got to take the last week off, due to the somewhat unorthodox scheduling in the earlier rounds. Trap, the #1 player in TL.net's pre-tournament power rank, has been proving himself worthy of such praise, reaching the finals of NeXT Season 1. In fact, he may even have won the championship by the time you read this article. Trap has already won a mountain of championships in the $20,000~$30,000 prize-pool tier of events, and winning NeXT Season 1 would give him his sixth championship in a little over half a year. There was a time when Trap had trouble against the European Zerg duo of Reynor and Serral, but his 3-1 victory over Serral in NeXT was a reminder that he's long since overcome that weakness. While all the matches between the remaining six contenders should be close, Trap still appears to be the slight favorite to go all the way.

As for Zest, things took a turn for the worst since he upset Serral in Week 1 of TSL. He headed into his Code A match against PartinG as a heavy favorite to advance, but instead gave up a 0-3 sweep to a player he had historically used as a punching bag. While one can't read too deeply into the result of a single series in isolation, it does fit in with the big picture view of Zest as a championship-caliber player with consistency issues. Some fans might see this tournament ending up as a repeat of TSL6, with an underrated Dark going berserk and rampaging his way to the championship. But Zest fans will be hoping that it's more like TSL5, with Zest following in soO's footsteps and claiming one last championship before military service.

Somehow, reigning IEM World Champion Reynor has become overshadowed in TSL7, but it's not due to any fault of his own. While other players were creating drama and upsets, all Reynor did was beat the players who were put in front of him. In fact, he was the one who beat Dark in the first place, sending him down to face Clem in the losers bracket. Now, with Clem out of the picture, it seems like Reynor has a golden opportunity to win his second major championship of the year. Mind you, it's really only Clem who's had Reynor's number in recent tournaments—against anyone else, Reynor should enter the match on at least even terms.

Cure fans might be filled with a familiar feeling of mixed dread and hope headed into the weekend. It's another chance for the mighty online-Cure to go all the way and finally win a championship!... or it's another chance for him to fall short at the final step. The thing is, for all the praise we lavish upon online-Cure and the amazing games he occasionally plays, he still hasn't won anything online. The closest he came was back in King of Battles 2020, where he placed runner-up after losing to Maru. More recently, Cure lost 2-3 to Trap in the semifinals of NeXT Season 1—the kind of impressive but ultimately fruitless performance that's become typical of Cure. Can he turn things around in TSL7 and string together the three series wins he needs to get over the hump and win a major title?

Down in the lower bracket we have Serral and Dark, the 2018 and 2019 WCS Global Champions. Throughout his long career, Dark has shown that while he might go through some small slumps, he always has it in him to return to championship form. It feels like the once-dominant Serral is entering a similar stage of his career, as he's currently going through his longest slump yet. Seven months without a title would hardly constitute a slump for anyone else, but that's just the cost of making world championships his standard. It wouldn't be wrong to say Serral is the weakest player left in the tournament simply going by recent tournament performances—even Cure outperformed him in NeXT. However, Serral could easily turn TSL7 into his 'comeback' stage.

As for Dark, what more needs to be said? No matter what his remaining TSL7 matches are, his path still won't be as difficult as the hellish gauntlet he had to go through in TSL6: Rogue, Reynor, ShoWTimE, Maru, ByuN, and Serral (partly due to TSL6 simply having more players). Of course, just because Dark pulled off a miracle once doesn't mean he can repeat the feat at will. But he'll certainly have the belief—not that he was ever lacking confidence—that he can overcome the odds again, and become the first back-to-back champion in TSL history.





Writer: Wax
Images: TeamLiquid
Statistics and records: Liquipedia and Aligulac.com

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TL+ Member
Waxangel
Profile Blog Joined September 2002
United States33347 Posts
June 24 2021 07:54 GMT
#2
Or could it be... the Finnish line?
AdministratorHey HP can you redo everything youve ever done because i have a small complaint?
Tommy131313
Profile Joined May 2016
Germany153 Posts
June 24 2021 08:34 GMT
#3
On June 24 2021 16:54 Waxangel wrote:
Or could it be... the Finnish line?


Argonauta
Profile Joined July 2016
Spain4906 Posts
Last Edited: 2021-06-24 08:56:22
June 24 2021 08:56 GMT
#4
Doesn't matter if Cure wins a finals or not, he, more often than his peers, ends placed high in tournaments and with solid performances. 2nd best Terran.
Rogue | Maru | Scarlett | Trap
TL+ Member
Harris1st
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Germany6900 Posts
Last Edited: 2021-06-24 10:05:52
June 24 2021 10:05 GMT
#5
On June 24 2021 16:54 Waxangel wrote:
Or could it be... the Finnish line?


You wrote that whole article just for that one pun, didn't you? Cudos to you
Go Serral! GG EZ for Ence. Flashbang dance FTW
sneakyfox
Profile Joined January 2017
8216 Posts
June 24 2021 12:38 GMT
#6
On June 24 2021 19:05 Harris1st wrote:
Show nested quote +
On June 24 2021 16:54 Waxangel wrote:
Or could it be... the Finnish line?


You wrote that whole article just for that one pun, didn't you? Cudos to you


Truly an Expert.
"I saw what sneakyfox wrote on TL.net and it made me furious" - PartinG
tommey.liang
Profile Joined November 2020
United States362 Posts
June 24 2021 13:15 GMT
#7
Only the top 6 remain. After Clem lost to Dark, 2-4, I wasn't planning on tuning in as much for the final weekend. But TSL7 is only happening once forever, so I'll tune in to the ESL SC2 Twitch channel as much as possible.

Either Trap or Dark will win it all.
FF, KH, Persona, Uncharted, Yakuza | Porter, Illenium, MitiS, Dabin, Seven Lions, Petit Biscuit | Diablo II, SC2 | Pho, sushi, tacos
Cricketer12
Profile Blog Joined May 2012
United States13974 Posts
June 24 2021 18:14 GMT
#8
Reynor > Zest > Trap
Kaina + Drones Linkcro Summon Cupsie Yummy Way
conormcgregor156
Profile Joined June 2020
22 Posts
June 24 2021 18:47 GMT
#9
Clem the best TvZ in the world? I hope whoever wrote this article doesn't say so because he beat Reynor and Serral. Because then Cure, Maru, Bunny, Innovation and Byun are also the best TvZ in the world.
starvingbox
Profile Joined August 2020
United States44 Posts
June 24 2021 19:11 GMT
#10
hey just FYI this is on the TL channel, not ESL
Waxangel
Profile Blog Joined September 2002
United States33347 Posts
June 24 2021 19:42 GMT
#11
On June 25 2021 04:11 starvingbox wrote:
hey just FYI this is on the TL channel, not ESL


not so https://tl.net/forum/starcraft-2/574637-tsl-7-shopifys-true-or-false-with-tlo-week-3
AdministratorHey HP can you redo everything youve ever done because i have a small complaint?
tommey.liang
Profile Joined November 2020
United States362 Posts
June 25 2021 01:27 GMT
#12
On June 25 2021 04:42 Waxangel wrote:
Show nested quote +
On June 25 2021 04:11 starvingbox wrote:
hey just FYI this is on the TL channel, not ESL


not so https://tl.net/forum/starcraft-2/574637-tsl-7-shopifys-true-or-false-with-tlo-week-3


Retweet Waxangel - I did my research!
FF, KH, Persona, Uncharted, Yakuza | Porter, Illenium, MitiS, Dabin, Seven Lions, Petit Biscuit | Diablo II, SC2 | Pho, sushi, tacos
parksonsc
Profile Joined May 2019
175 Posts
June 25 2021 09:27 GMT
#13
On June 25 2021 03:47 conormcgregor156 wrote:
Clem the best TvZ in the world? I hope whoever wrote this article doesn't say so because he beat Reynor and Serral. Because then Cure, Maru, Bunny, Innovation and Byun are also the best TvZ in the world.


Dunno about Cure and Bunny but Maru and Inno's TvZ looks strangely bad in cross-server play.
Nakajin
Profile Blog Joined September 2014
Canada8989 Posts
Last Edited: 2021-06-25 13:09:22
June 25 2021 13:08 GMT
#14
On June 25 2021 04:42 Waxangel wrote:
Show nested quote +
On June 25 2021 04:11 starvingbox wrote:
hey just FYI this is on the TL channel, not ESL


not so https://tl.net/forum/starcraft-2/574637-tsl-7-shopifys-true-or-false-with-tlo-week-3


Sexual pride over Starcraft pride, someone need to rethink their priority.
Writerhttp://i.imgur.com/9p6ufcB.jpg
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