Serral: "I would be pretty confident going up against Maru…

Serral has won just about every major tournament in StarCraft II, and is unquestionably one of the greatest players of all time. However, the IEM World Championship still eludes him. When TL.net talked to Serral ahead of IEM Katowice, he seemed more confident than ever—though he wouldn't go so far as to declare that he'd win the event.

Read on to learn about Serral's thoughts about a potential rematch against Maru in late-game ZvT, why playing offline might help cure some of his ZvZ woes, and if there's anything special about Katowice that causes him to 'underperform' there (an idea he took umbrage to).

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This interview has been edited and condensed.

TL.net (Waxangel): How are you feeling about your form headed into Katowice?

I'm feeling pretty good, I think in general practice went pretty well. I think my ZvT and ZvP especially are extremely good right now; I'm not really worried about anyone from those races.

ZvZ is still... I'm trying to work on it but it's still a bit of a rocky match-up for me. But I think I can absolutely beat anyone there. It just doesn't really fit my strengths so well, so I guess it doesn't matter how much I adjust to that match-up. It's always gonna be a little bit challenging to me, when I just have to go to a little bit uncomfortable areas for myself.

But otherwise I think practicing went really well and I'm really satisfied with how everything went. So pretty confident in general.

Q: Did you change up your practice habits? More customs? More customs against varied opponents?

Yeah, well not too much, but obviously I played… I played some custom games with people I didn't really play with much before, but in general not too much. I did play a good amount more.

Well, I mean, I feel like I didn't play too much more than what I would do normally. When LAN events were still happening I always practiced around this amount for offline events. Just a pretty standard amount of practice. And I did play with some new people, and just the same old people that I always play with.

Ladder still a little bit dead, so— *laughs*—going there isn't the best practice, but I always try that as well since I think ladder is actually quite a good place to practice. Because people kind of like those ladder points and they come with pretty nasty builds sometimes.

Q: Some European players practice with Koreans on the NA server—did you do that as well?

I've done it a couple of times but not too often. If this Katowice was online again, that's one of the things I probably would have done way more this year, because last year I didn't do it that much.

If this Katowice would have been online I probably would have practiced a lot on NA in general; I guess that would probably mean playing against the Koreans because they would be more interested.

But now, I didn't do it too much because there isn't a real use to getting used to the ping. And obviously the Korean players would be really good practice, but it always takes a little bit to go there and I'm not really interested in playing too much with ping. But I did play a little bit with the Korean players as well.

Q: People are talking about how the offline environment affects play. Some fans think going back to the offline environment is better for Terran—what do you think?

I mean, I think it's pretty equal. Maybe, I do think there's a chance that it affects Terrans the most or something, but… I don't know, I think it's pretty equal to everyone.

For me, at least, it's just that everything gets a bit harder, just everything happens a bit later. Even though it's a really simple action you're doing, it's just a bit annoying and a bit harder to do somehow. So I think… ionno, I think it just affects everyone about the same.

And I do think playing on non-ping environments is really good for me. Especially in ZvZ, it might help me because I play a really reactionary style in general. I think executing an attack is easier than actually reading into that attack and getting the right preparations done, which is harder. So I think in that way, ping might help me in that matchup. But, yeah, I don't even know about that, I just think it... obviously not having ping helps everyone.

Q: Okay let's talk about the specific match-ups since we're already getting into it. You said you were really confident in your ZvT—

AND ZvP.

Q: Yes, your ZvP does seem really dominant at the moment, but let's talk about ZvT first. You said you're very confident, but a lot of fans will have the late-game matches you lost against Maru on their minds. How do you feel about those games, and how would you feel going into a rematch?

Well, first off, I have already forgotten about those games, so it's hard to say what I think about them.

But what I do know is that I'm way better at those situations right now, and I think I can take Maru at least down, if necessary. Maru is always one of the hardest players to kill, and I obviously haven't practiced against his caliber of player, but I think I absolutely have improved a lot.

ZvT is probably the match-up that I didn't really necessarily mean to practice the most, but it kinda just happened that I ended up practicing the match-up the most, and I'm really just really confident in it, in all the phases really.

Yeah I would be, I would be pretty confident going up against Maru now as well.

Q: What changed about your late game play? Did you theorycraft more about army compositions? Or was it just about getting more practice and experience in it?

Yeah, it was just more about playing it and getting army movement and army compositions generally correct. I don't think I was doing anything massively wrong on the theory side before, but there were some execution errors for sure, and things I could improve on.

What I remember from the games that I lost against Maru before. I didn't really do too many things at once or anything, so he kind of just… Well, I was just kind of bad at…

Let's just put it this way: I was kind of bad at looking for opportunities for anything. I was just kind of maxing out and going for it all the time, and he just kind of stood there with his army. But I think I got a lot better at looking for weaknesses and opportunities in the longer games, and that way getting the lead.

Q: How would you feel about a rematch against Clem, who knocked you out of the last Katowice event?

Well, like I said, I'm really confident in my ZvT so I think I would have a good shot there. Obviously Clem's still really good and it's never gonna be easy, but I would be relatively confident there.

I mean, I was pretty confident last year as well and it didn't go my way. But if I was to get this match now I'd be confident again, and I actually think I would have a really good shot because I'm really confident there.

I feel like Clem's always a little bit of a wild card, because he hasn't really played a big—well, he has played big offline events, but it's one of the first offline events for him where he's actually one of the higher ranked players so it'll be interesting to see how well he can do there. But hopefully for the foreigners, he can do well.

Q: Okay so I checked Aligulac and your ZvP rating is about 300 points higher than the second highest player. And it does feel like you're totally unstoppable except for maybe Zest at his absolute best. How do you feel about the match-up?

Well it's actually surprisingly easy to lose a ZvP, it doesn't take much. Just one movement mistake or anything. Every time I play a ZvP, I always feel like there is an opportunity for my opponents to win, so I'm not like 'I actually can't lose.'

But I think if I play as I usually do and don't give any opportunities to my opponent, I don't really see myself losing to too many people at least. And I would be confident going up against Zest as well.

Q: Zest did take you out at IEM Katowice 2020 with his new take on Glaive Adept openers—do you think you could adapt to someone bringing out a new look like that?

Well, it depends a little bit on what people would bring, but basically I'll do my best to adapt to everything. It's hard to say if I can adapt to everything; if there WILL be any new stuff, that's also—*laughs*. I don't think there's going to be that much new stuff coming to be honest. At least in the ZvP match-up.

But, I mean, I think I can adapt pretty well, especially if I get a little bit of time. Maybe if someone plays something new in my series against me, maybe I'm not gonna be fast enough to adapt in that series, but if I get some time to think about it, I think I'll be fine.

Q: Let's move on to ZvZ. Is that still a problem? You didn't make it sound like the situation was too great.

Well, it is a little bit of a problem, but like I said I'm still pretty confident. I mean I know what to do, it's just that… I mean, if you look at my ZvZ's, it's just me dying a lot of the time, so that kind of has been the theme of my ZvZ's.

I mean I know what to do, and it's just if I can execute my plans. If the game doesn't get too scrappy or anything, I always think I'm going to be fine. But yeah, just need to not die to everything people throw at me, I guess.

Q: Looking back at some of your big BO7 ZvZ losses, were they mostly about build order wins and inherent variance in the match-up? Or do you see ways you can reduce that variance and be more stable?

Well, sometimes it feels a little bit that there wasn't much I could do with the build orders that happened. But in general, I think a lot of the time, especially the series that I have played, there were a lot of things that I could have done better, a lot of the things to improve on.

Yeah, obviously sometimes, ZvZ does have a little bit of that rock-paper-scissors kind of thingie going on but... I don't think that has been happening to me too much, I just think it's poor play from my side and poor reactions to what my opponent is doing a lot of the time.

Or not necessarily poor reactions, just a bit too slow. That's what I mean by not having ping might help me a little bit in that match-up. Just because a lot of the time things happen so fast there. For example, a small map like Berlingrad or something, if the lings start running across you don't really have too much time to react to anything. So you need to do everything in such a small time that it might help—or maybe it doesn't.

Yeah, in general, a lot of things to improve on for sure, I don't really look on a series as lost because of a build order too often.

Q: Who are the most dangerous opponents for you then? Sounds like you're more worried about players like Dark, Reynor, and Rogue than Maru.

Yeah, I'd say so.

Well, I mean I think people like Maru, Zest, Clem are all really dangerous but I feel like I would be more confident against them for sure, than against someone like Dark, Rogue, or Reynor; maybe even like Solar. Just because I'm not extremely confident, I don't have the same confidence in that match-up. That might also be the problem why it's a little bit weaker, because I'm not confident enough *laughs*. Yeah, I would say the Zergs are the scariest opponents for me.

Q: You seem like the favorite to top your group. How do you feel about your chances of taking first place and earning that direct seed into the quarterfinals?

I like my group a lot, I was happy that TIME made it as well. It would have been sad... just because I feel like ZvT… I can do nicely there.

I think against ShoWTimE I always have pretty nice results in general, ZvP is always nice. And both of the Terrans—like, I think ZvT is relatively easy to play safe and sound and just let the confidence carry you, so in general I like the group quite a lot.

Obviously Dark is there. Dark's the hardest one there, but I did my preparation on him and I'm pretty confident I can take him down. And that's obviously what I'm aiming for, since getting the straight top 8 seed is pretty big.

Q: It feels like IEM Katowice hasn't gone well for you over the years, even when you've been in great form in all the other tournaments. Is there any particular reason, or is it just the normal randomness of StarCraft?

Yeah I agree, top four is kinda bad. Should always be first place. It's the Finnish attitude, right? You've somehow gained it.

Silver medal is bad, and if you are third you are absolutely awful, if you're fourth you're completely useless. Only winning matters, that's the Finnish attitude.

Q: Okay, I get your point that the expectations on you are ridiculously high, but at the same time I feel like some of those results were upsets. For example, people would have favored you against Zest in 2020, or against soO in 2019.

Yeah, but they were pretty close series, it's not like I got bopped, I just lost 2-3. And I even mentioned that there were some errors done, maybe nerves came or something.

Well not as much the Zest series, I guess, that was just more the Glaives winning it for him. But especially like the soO series, I felt like I didn't play my best there.

I don't think there's anything special in the event that's why I'm not doing so-to-speak "well" here. But, yeah, it's hard to say.

Q: So you seem pretty confident overall. Are you willing to put it out there that you're going to win it all? Will you say it?

No, I'm not gonna say that, and I think the chances that I'm gonna win aren't over 50%, so I think saying that wouldn't be smart. Instead I'm just going to say that I think I have a decent shot at winning and I hope to make the finals at the very least.

Q: I thought it was always 50/50: win or lose.

That's what I like to think as well.

Q: Any final comments?

Watch the games on Thursday and I'll try my best there, cheer for me, I guess. Also, shoutout to ENCE.

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You can follow Serral on Twitch at Twitch.tv/serral (not like he streams much) and on Twitter at @ENCE_Serral.