The first day of group stage matches saw Solar, Rogue, and Dream advance to the playoffs from Group A, while Serral, Dark, and Ryung came out of Group B.
Serral was easily the most dominating player on the day, taking first place in his group with a perfect 10-0 record. He became the fourth player to do so in IEM World Championship history, with AcE (2011), MMA (2012), and Dark (2012) having accomplished the same in the past. AcE went on to win the championship, while MMA and Dark failed to even reach the finals—one must wonder what Serral's trajectory will be after such an impressive day of games. Interestingly enough, Serral may have only been a co-star in Group B due to the ongoing miracle run of Ryung. Having come to Katowice as a last-minute replacement player, Ryung survived not only the RO36 bracket but also the RO24 groups to reach the playoffs as a massive underdog. Of course, a little bit of luck had to go his way—it's not often that a player with a sub 50% win-rate survives the groups. But Ryung also played some fantastic StarCraft over the past two days, and is a worthy 3rd place advancer.
Meanwhile, Group A saw Solar narrowly seize the #1 seed ahead of Rogue on the difference of a single map won, earning himself a precious direct ticket into the quarterfinal round. It didn't come as the biggest surprise to some viewers and casters, as Solar's prowess in the group stages of tournaments is well-known. The bigger surprise ended up being Dream, who upset Cure to clinch the 3rd place spot out of the group. The format of IEM means that the contest for a playoff spot rarely comes down to a head-to-head, winner-take-all duel, but that's precisely what happened as Cure and Dream played the final match of the group on the main stage. In one of the best games of the night (VOD), Dream bested Cure in a frantic base-trade to lock in his playoff spot.
In one final bit of underdog news, Polish Terran Spirit made a momentary splash by defeating Solar in his initial match, but was unable to follow-up with the wins needed to advance any further.
IEM Katowice continues with Groups C & D of the RO24 on Friday, Feb 25 10:45am GMT (GMT+00:00).
On February 25 2022 08:04 HyperONE wrote: Ryung coming in clutch by telling SpeCial he'll buy him Korean BBQ if he snipes TIME. /s
Honestly TIME losing to Special isn't that surprising. TIME's style works really well in TvP and TvZ but his constant aggression is not so good in TvT which has the strongest defender's advantage of any matchup.
He's really strong in TvZ, possibly top 5 in the world, but he's playing Dark and Serral.
On February 25 2022 08:59 Beelzebub1 wrote: Yea Serral was playing pretty impeccably today, he's like Maru.
When he's behind he's even, when he's even he's ahead, when he's ahead it's over.
not sure I agree.
He just manages to be almost always ahead, but I don't think he's really famous for doing crazy comebacks like Maru or Dark sometimes. In the group yesterday he was never in any trouble
On February 25 2022 08:59 Beelzebub1 wrote: Yea Serral was playing pretty impeccably today, he's like Maru.
When he's behind he's even, when he's even he's ahead, when he's ahead it's over.
not sure I agree.
He just manages to be almost always ahead, but I don't think he's really famous for doing crazy comebacks like Maru or Dark sometimes. In the group yesterday he was never in any trouble
I would agree. Serral for me is about perfect control. Like when he hits his stride, I feel like he is the best player that ever touched this game, completly undefeatable. But comebacks? Or those very gritty knife-fights that come down to the wire? Definetly not his prime suit.
On February 25 2022 08:59 Beelzebub1 wrote: Yea Serral was playing pretty impeccably today, he's like Maru.
When he's behind he's even, when he's even he's ahead, when he's ahead it's over.
Nah Serral just doesn't get behind. Players like Dark and Maru will do terrible openers because they're comfortable in playing from behind. Serral plays pretty much perfect from the start.
On February 26 2022 00:40 koalabro wrote: Serral's 10-0 was nothing. If he was in group D or A this wouldn't have happened
Well, going 10:0 in a group with Dark, Showtime, Special, Ryung and Time surely is a piece of cake... Man, you don't have to like Serral to recognize his achievement. What's so hard about being fair to a player? After all this is sports. I assume the other players would very well ackknowledge Serrals yet flawless run.
On February 26 2022 00:40 koalabro wrote: Serral's 10-0 was nothing. If he was in group D or A this wouldn't have happened
Well, going 10:0 in a group with Dark, Showtime, Special, Ryung and Time surely is a piece of cake... Man, you don't have to like Serral to recognize his achievement. What's so hard about being fair to a player? After all this is sports. I assume the other players would very well ackknowledge Serrals yet flawless run.
Half the community started calling him a GOAT candidate after two important wins. People are more than fair to him. The extreme opposite opinions are simply a reactionary force to the obscene level of praise Serral receives that his results don't justify.
On February 26 2022 00:40 koalabro wrote: Serral's 10-0 was nothing. If he was in group D or A this wouldn't have happened
Well, going 10:0 in a group with Dark, Showtime, Special, Ryung and Time surely is a piece of cake... Man, you don't have to like Serral to recognize his achievement. What's so hard about being fair to a player? After all this is sports. I assume the other players would very well ackknowledge Serrals yet flawless run.
Half the community started calling him a GOAT candidate after two important wins. People are more than fair to him. The extreme opposite opinions are simply a reactionary force to the obscene level of praise Serral receives that his results don't justify.
The extreme opposite opinions would also be a „reactionary force“ also if serral would win this and the next katowice without dropping a map;-)
The Cure vs Dream match was very entertaining. When it came down to the final map it was truly intense. In the play in post they said that Spirit vs Nice is a candidate for "most entertaining series of the year". I nominate Cure vs Dream map 3 as the "most entertaining game of the year". It wasn't the highest tier play but it was very entertaining.
I also liked how the ESLsc2 B stream became the Ryung hype stream. During group A there were a lot of comments in the chat about the casters being biased. In group B they took that to heart and made it all about Ryung. Well played, Steadfast and Beowulf! Well played!
EPT
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