It will be a foreigner-filled final four at IEM Katowice, with Reynor, HeroMarine, Serral, and Rogue fighting through day one of the playoffs to earn spots in the final day of the tournament.
The surprise of the day was clearly HeroMarine, whose previous best finish at a world championship-tier event had been top 12 at last year's IEM Katowice. This time, he blew past his own personal record by reaching the semifinals. Big Gabe needed two, hard-fought victories against Zoun and Solar to get there, but he was able to clutch out victories in the end. His third game against Solar on Hardwire was particularly notable, with its frantic basetrade ending making it one of the candidates for most entertaining game of the tournament (VOD). With IEM Katowice 2022 producing an unusual number of exceptional matches, it will be hard to pick just one such game. It turned out to be a good day for HeroMarine in more ways than one, as his signature Series profile video also debuted at IEM.
Interestingly enough, HeroMarine was relatively pleased by his semifinal opponent: the reigning IEM Katowice champion Reynor. While HeroMarine has terribly one-sided records against some of the other title contenders, he's historically been able to take Reynor to close matches and has won a number of BO5 series against him. As for Reynor, he survived a very close call against Dark to reach the semifinal round. The series between the two ZvZ greats delivered back-to-back thrillers on Hardwire and Berlingrad (VOD), with Dark using his mastery over Lurkers and Vipers to earn two impossible comebacks against an impatient Reynor. Fortunately for Reynor, he adapted to Dark's defensive style in game five and beat him at his own game.
After going 10-0 in the group stage, Serral was faced with the considerable challenge of facing Maru in the quarterfinals. The Team NV Terran had come into IEM as one of the top title favorites, and had also defeated Serral months prior in the online King of Battles 2 finals. However, Serral had the upper hand in their first major live match, taking a convincing 3-1 victory. As it turned out, late-game Maru is still virtually invincible—Serral's sole loss came to Maru's clinical Ghost-mech play on Hardwire (VOD). But with a Baneling bust on Blackburn, and overwhelming mid-game Ling-Bane play on Pride of Altaris and Berlingrad, Serral was able to win the dream match and move onto the semifinals.
Rogue ended up being the only player to hold up Korea's pride in the tournament, though he earned that status by default due to coming out of an all-Korean quadrant of the bracket. The two-time IEM World Champion's run wasn't entirely convincing, as he was heavily pressured by two Terran underdogs in Ryung and Bunny. Yet, he was still able to eke wins out in the end—a testament to his much-renowned ability to perform under pressure. Rogue's best performance probably came on Blackburn against Bunny, where he overcame a poor start and eventually picked his opponent apart with Lurkers (VOD).
Other players who authored noteworthy matches included Dream, who earned the distinction of actually outplaying Maru and beating him in a late-game TvT (VOD), and Zoun, who fully leveraged the might of Disruptors to come from behind against HeroMarine (VOD).
IEM Katowice will conclude with the semifinals and grand finals on Sunday, Feb 27 9:45am GMT (GMT+00:00).
Reynor is now tied at 4-4 (W-L) series overall vs. Dark, very impressive. Was quite a surprise to see HeroMarine advance indeed, but Solar is very beatable; predicting for Reynor to 3-1 or 3-0 him, though.
Also that game 2 of Serral vs. Maru was one for the ages. Rogue is now Korea's only hope.
Not to discredit the three Europeans, but I wonder if the flight from Korea to Katowice, Poland may have affected the Korean players even slightly as well. I know for sure when traditional sports of traveling from East Coast to West Coast (moreso than from West to East) it can have a toll on the athletes.
On February 27 2022 12:22 tommey.liang wrote: Reynor is now tied at 4-4 (W-L) series overall vs. Dark, very impressive. Was quite a surprise to see HeroMarine advance indeed, but Solar is very beatable; predicting for Reynor to 3-1 or 3-0 him, though.
Also that game 2 of Serral vs. Maru was one for the ages. Rogue is now Korea's only hope.
Not to discredit the three Europeans, but I wonder if the flight from Korea to Katowice, Poland may have affected the Korean players even slightly as well. I know for sure when traditional sports of traveling from East Coast to West Coast (moreso than from West to East) it can have a toll on the athletes.
no, this time there is no excuse no server issues no sleeping problems because of late hours ore what so ever the koreans did not arrive 1 day before the tournament start but more like 1 week to avoid any possible jetlag problems
On February 27 2022 12:22 tommey.liang wrote: Reynor is now tied at 4-4 (W-L) series overall vs. Dark, very impressive. Was quite a surprise to see HeroMarine advance indeed, but Solar is very beatable; predicting for Reynor to 3-1 or 3-0 him, though.
Also that game 2 of Serral vs. Maru was one for the ages. Rogue is now Korea's only hope.
Not to discredit the three Europeans, but I wonder if the flight from Korea to Katowice, Poland may have affected the Korean players even slightly as well. I know for sure when traditional sports of traveling from East Coast to West Coast (moreso than from West to East) it can have a toll on the athletes.
Aside from TIME and Cyan all the Asian players arrive a few days before group stage so they got plenty of rest.
funny how even now the korean elitists try to find excuses. i rooted for maru against serral but i can admit that serral just was the better player. sure, maru could have been more crisp on berlingrad and i dont understand not vetoeing altaris, but i cant imagine maru taking this bo5 with serral beeing so 100% on point.
On February 27 2022 17:16 DarkGamer wrote: funny how even now the korean elitists try to find excuses. i rooted for maru against serral but i can admit that serral just was the better player. sure, maru could have been more crisp on berlingrad and i dont understand not vetoeing altaris, but i cant imagine maru taking this bo5 with serral beeing so 100% on point.
I mean there's only 2 possibilities that caused this upset:
1. Matchfixing 2. Maru was simply tired and his wrists hurt. Zerg is infinitely easier to play than Terran, hence why a lot of the "top" foreigners are Zerg, and Maru came all the way from Korea. Jetlag affects everyone differently. It seems to affect Maru more which is why he performed so well when traveling to China or playing online. I can guarantee you that Maru wins an easy 3-0 if Serral had to go to Korea
On February 27 2022 12:22 tommey.liang wrote: Reynor is now tied at 4-4 (W-L) series overall vs. Dark, very impressive. Was quite a surprise to see HeroMarine advance indeed, but Solar is very beatable; predicting for Reynor to 3-1 or 3-0 him, though.
Also that game 2 of Serral vs. Maru was one for the ages. Rogue is now Korea's only hope.
Not to discredit the three Europeans, but I wonder if the flight from Korea to Katowice, Poland may have affected the Korean players even slightly as well. I know for sure when traditional sports of traveling from East Coast to West Coast (moreso than from West to East) it can have a toll on the athletes.
Aside from TIME and Cyan all the Asian players arrive a few days before group stage so they got plenty of rest.
It takes one day of full rest per timezone when traveling east to west. A few days aren't enough on top of the Koreans practicing and Maru needing to worry about being in the group of death and "others" having the luxury of no jetlag or being in a stacked group
On February 27 2022 17:16 DarkGamer wrote: funny how even now the korean elitists try to find excuses. i rooted for maru against serral but i can admit that serral just was the better player. sure, maru could have been more crisp on berlingrad and i dont understand not vetoeing altaris, but i cant imagine maru taking this bo5 with serral beeing so 100% on point.
Well we all seen the top 4 zergs are unbeatable in important tournaments, Maru was the last hope but as I said it would have taken a miracle on the current map pool
just to clarify , since mid 2018 when serral become the best until now serral was/is the favorite to win vs maru (despite what many, even casters say)
serral vs maru matches all time 8 vs 4 serral maru map score all time 18 vs 14
historical score/score vs opposing race/form/form vs opposing race/score vs each other. in all category serral is ahead
serral is also a higher favorite to win vs any protoss and now you maybe thinking, ok but at least vs the top korean zergs maru has a higher chance of winning but no even in that category serral has the higher % chance (alligulacc.com)
and for the statistic and alligulac denier just check the bookmakers , they dont give money away for free the bookmakers should be the ultimate proof and they always think serral is the favorite to win no matter if the game is online ore live no matter if it is in korea ore europe no matter if it is a bo1 ore bo7 you always did get the worse betting odds if you bet on serral instead of maru in this tournament it was serral 1.7 vs maru 2.0 odds (if you bet 1$ on serral you win 70cent if you bet 1$ on maru u did win 1$)
Yesterday was honestly the best day of SC2 I've seen in many years. It's so great to see everyone back and playing offline, and the players really did not disappoint!
On February 27 2022 17:16 DarkGamer wrote: funny how even now the korean elitists try to find excuses. i rooted for maru against serral but i can admit that serral just was the better player. sure, maru could have been more crisp on berlingrad and i dont understand not vetoeing altaris, but i cant imagine maru taking this bo5 with serral beeing so 100% on point.
I mean there's only 2 possibilities that caused this upset:
1. Matchfixing 2. Maru was simply tired and his wrists hurt. Zerg is infinitely easier to play than Terran, hence why a lot of the "top" foreigners are Zerg, and Maru came all the way from Korea. Jetlag affects everyone differently. It seems to affect Maru more which is why he performed so well when traveling to China or playing online. I can guarantee you that Maru wins an easy 3-0 if Serral had to go to Korea
On February 27 2022 12:22 tommey.liang wrote: Reynor is now tied at 4-4 (W-L) series overall vs. Dark, very impressive. Was quite a surprise to see HeroMarine advance indeed, but Solar is very beatable; predicting for Reynor to 3-1 or 3-0 him, though.
Also that game 2 of Serral vs. Maru was one for the ages. Rogue is now Korea's only hope.
Not to discredit the three Europeans, but I wonder if the flight from Korea to Katowice, Poland may have affected the Korean players even slightly as well. I know for sure when traditional sports of traveling from East Coast to West Coast (moreso than from West to East) it can have a toll on the athletes.
Aside from TIME and Cyan all the Asian players arrive a few days before group stage so they got plenty of rest.
It takes one day of full rest per timezone when traveling east to west. A few days aren't enough on top of the Koreans practicing and Maru needing to worry about being in the group of death and "others" having the luxury of no jetlag or being in a stacked group
So you are saying Maru is a bad pro-gamer, either because he is matchfixer-scum or because he only can win when literally everything is perfect for him? Damn, you don't need to insult him that hard, the kid just lost a big tournament against a clear better player, give him some slack
EPT
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/EPT/Katowice2022/ro12bracket_2.png)
Reynor, 
