Reigning world champion Serral was conspicuously missing at DreamHack Valencia, but he was right back in championship form when he returned at HomeStory Cup XXI. With a combined 5-1 victory against Clem in the grand finals, the Finnish Phenom claimed his 18th major tournament championship as well as his 4th championship in the HomeStory Cup series of tournaments.
When Serral was eliminated from DHM: Europe in 5th/6th place back in June, fans were left to wonder if it was the start of his first serious slump since his ascent to greatness in 2018. The early signs at HSC21 were indeed worrisome, as Serral only finished 3rd place in his round-of-32 group after suffering 0-2 upsets at the hands of both GuMiho and ShoWTimE—quite a shock for a player who has gone perfect in his DHM: Europe group on prior occasions. This condemned the Team ENCE Zerg to start the playoffs in the lower bracket, where just one series loss would send him out for good.
However, Serral set about putting any concerns to rest by blazing a path of destruction through the lower bracket. He crushed his opponents in the first three matches, taking down soO (3-0), Spirit (3-1), and ShoWTimE in a rematch (3-1). A match against Neeb proved to be quite perilous, with the recently surging American Protoss actually going up 2-0 to start the series. However, a 45-minute-long victory on Moondance was the impetus for a turnaround, and Serral survived the elimination scare to win in a 3-2 reverse sweep.
As it turned out, Neeb ended up being the thorniest obstacle for Serral in his playoff run, as the Finnish Zerg proceeded to defeat Lambo and Astrea by 3-1 scores to reach the grand finals. Clem, despite having won the most recent season of DHM: Europe by wielding his world-class TvZ against Reynor, was no match for Serral in this grand finals. Serral won by a combined 5-1 scoreline, winning 3-1 in the initial BO5 series to 'reset' the double-elimination bracket, and then winning 2-0 in the final BO3 to cinch the trophy. Amusingly enough, it was the much-maligned Hellbat-timing strategy that allowed Clem to take his only map—otherwise, he was overpowered by Serral's overwhelming Ling-Bane style in the mid-game.
Now, Serral can say he's won a championship every which way, from being completely dominant throughout the tournament, to scrapping it out from the bottom of the losers bracket.
The World Strikes Back? Back at DreamHack Valencia, Korean players took advantage of Serral's absence to assert their dominance and take all top four spots. At HomeStory Cup, the top international players achieved the same by shutting the Koreans out of the top four. Zoun was the only GSL player who even managed to crack the top eight, while recent Code S finalist Creator found himself going out in the group stages.
The global balance of power appears to be quite even at the moment, which makes TSL9 all the more intriguing. While Dark and Rogue are unfortunately missing from the line-up of that event, the presence of Serral, Reynor, Clem, Maru, and herO lays the groundwork for a thrilling conclusion at the Dutch finals.
Astrea's Breakout Tournament: American Protoss Astrea has been one of the fastest rising players since 2020, becoming a North American DreamHack champion and turning his region into a three-way race alongside Neeb and Scarlett. However, despite showing flashes of top-level play in international events—even going 2-3 in consecutive IEM Katowice group stages—he was never able to make a real impact up until HSC XXI.
Astrea was really able to up his game in Krefeld, finishing 2nd place in his RO32 group before scoring a remarkable 3-2 upset over Reynor in the playoffs. He went as far as to call it the biggest victory of his career, and with apologies to DHM: North America, most fans are probably inclined to agree. Astrea followed that up with a 3-0 sweep against Neeb—a player who has frequently stymied him in NA competition—to earn a career-best 3rd place finish in an international major.
Reynor's Off-Race Escapades: Having already defeated Solar with his Protoss in Valencia, Reynor repeated that feat against his KaiZi Gaming teammate in HSC XXI. From the outside, this seems like a great hedge against variance in ZvZ, and he seemed to agree as he initially picked Protoss against Elazer in their lower bracket match.
Unfortunately for Reynor, he couldn't quite handle all-ins from the famously aggressive Polish Zerg, and he went down 0-2 as Protoss to start. While he managed to recover two maps after switching back to Zerg, Elazer was able to take the one map needed to win a 3-2 victory.
Will two lost maps be enough for Reynor to slam the door on his off-racing escapades? Or will he come back with a more solid, more refined version of his Protoss at the next big event?
On July 30 2022 10:09 pandorasheep wrote: Congrats but this tournament is nothing compared to the most recent events like GSL and DH
No way :O The event that only gave out a third of the EPT points compared to DH:Valencia isn't as important? Still highly impressive and promising lots of foreigner action in the next DH event. Dark, Serral, Reynor, herO and Clem battling it out sounds super-exciting. Who knows, maybe Maru decides to show up in form for once...and if Astrea and Neeb can bring their A-game again, even better
Great article btw, really captures Serrals nerve-wrecking run through the gauntlet. However, it is in fact his fourth consecutive win, not his third. Making him the only one who won four (or six) HSCs. And obviouly the only one who ever win four in a row.
On July 30 2022 10:09 pandorasheep wrote: Congrats but this tournament is nothing compared to the most recent events like GSL and DH
No way :O The event that only gave out a third of the EPT points compared to DH:Valencia isn't as important? Still highly impressive and promising lots of foreigner action in the next DH event. Dark, Serral, Reynor, herO and Clem battling it out sounds super-exciting. Who knows, maybe Maru decides to show up in form for once...and if Astrea and Neeb can bring their A-game again, even better
Great article btw, really captures Serrals nerve-wrecking run through the gauntlet. However, it is in fact his fourth consecutive win, not his third. Making him the only one who won four (or six) HSCs. And obviouly the only one who ever win four in a row.
Good point, I should clarify the diff between liquipedia premier and what HSC considers a "major" HSC
On July 30 2022 10:09 pandorasheep wrote: Congrats but this tournament is nothing compared to the most recent events like GSL and DH
Those tournaments are nothing like homestory cup, I mean they didn't even have Serral, the best player.
I don't agree that Serral has necessarily always dominated, he was the favourite, but so often he was down 2-0 or something similar in many tournaments. The difference at that point was that even when he was down, I would be sure he would turn it around, not sure how, but he just had that atmosphere about him. Whereas now, I wasn't as certain, but maybe that's on me and I'm just not a strong enough believer. Certainly Clem should've been the favourite in the finals, with how brutal that format is. Winning 5-1 is soooo impressive.
@waxangel Good summary, was some really exciting games.
I think a bracket for Astrea got turned around or misplaced. "As it turned out, Neeb ended up being the thorniest obstacle for Serral in his playoff run, as he proceeded to defeat (Wiki)Lambo and ]wiki2]Astrea "
It was a really good lower bracket run, although more of a feat of endurance than a gauntlet of champions.
I think one of the undervalued storylines here is Serral's prowess at offline events. People naturally think of Rogue as the ultimate closer/crusher of offline events, and rightly so, but Serral is not too far behind.
So far Serral has won two offline premiers this year while looking comparatively average in the two online ones he played (Last Chance and Dreamhack EU). Obviously this is a small sample size, but I just looked up the stats on Liquipedia and Serral's record in premier tier finals is 13-4 in offline events and 5-7 in online events.
I don't think it's a coincidence that his most dominant performance against Clem of all time came in their first major offline meeting. It's hard to say how much of this is Serral lifting his game and how much is his opponents succumbing to pressure or nerves, but there seems to be good evidence that he gains an edge relative to the competition at offline events.
If this is true, then while the common narrative is that Terrans, and Korean Terrans in particular, suffered the most during the online era because of ping, I think there's a strong argument that having to run everything offline for more than two years was a greater disservice to Serral than most other players.
On July 30 2022 21:38 FuRong wrote: I think one of the undervalued storylines here is Serral's prowess at offline events. People naturally think of Rogue as the ultimate closer/crusher of offline events, and rightly so, but Serral is not too far behind.
I don't think it's a coincidence that his most dominant performance against Clem of all time came in their first major offline meeting. It's hard to say how much of this is Serral lifting his game and how much is his opponents succumbing to pressure or nerves, but there seems to be good evidence that he gains an edge relative to the competition at offline events.
I think there's a strong argument that having to run everything offline for more than two years was a greater disservice to Serral than most other players.
Same goes for Elazer honestly, he seems to be way better offline than online.Some pros like Harstem or Lambo even talked about it while casting. Beeing able to handle nerves and pressure is defnatly a thing
Serral is the king. Too bad he missed some serious earning from Valencia but a good vacation is worth a lot for him I'm sure. It was very nice to see Serral play through the lower bracket. The Neeb match was a nail-biter. Shame the final did not end up being that memorable, but it was so late already that I was glad it did not go on for too long. Congrats once more Serral, 4X offline HSC champ, another World-first to his name!
Up to now he shared the crown with Taeja, who won in 2013-14 three times in a row. But with his four consecutive HSC title in the years 2018-22 Serral probably has a record for the eternity.
And for the Serral online/offline discussion: comparing offline HSC (4 title) with online Stay@HSC (2 title, 2 runner-up) tells its own tale.
On July 31 2022 05:01 Azhrak wrote: Serral is the king. Too bad he missed some serious earning from Valencia but a good vacation is worth a lot for him I'm sure. It was very nice to see Serral play through the lower bracket. The Neeb match was a nail-biter. Shame the final did not end up being that memorable, but it was so late already that I was glad it did not go on for too long. Congrats once more Serral, 4X offline HSC champ, another World-first to his name!
Again, impressive feat. However HSC has nothing on ESL/DH/GSL. Winning 4x of these is like winning 4x of EPT weekly cups. Again, good on Serral but he needs to step up and at least attempt GSL to be taken seriously. Scarlett, Idra, Huk, Stephano, Neeb, etc tried for GSL and while they lost, at least they tried so we can call them legit players.
Congrats to Serral once again for storming through the losers' bracket of HSC XXI and winning it in convincingly, dominant fashion.
Super sad for Clem, though, as I was rooting for him to secure his first-ever offline HomeStory Cup. He had won the previous and last StayAtHomeStory Cup.
Also if Reynor hadn't used Protoss for his first two matches vs. Miko he probably would've won the series and had continued his run.
On July 31 2022 05:01 Azhrak wrote: Serral is the king. Too bad he missed some serious earning from Valencia but a good vacation is worth a lot for him I'm sure. It was very nice to see Serral play through the lower bracket. The Neeb match was a nail-biter. Shame the final did not end up being that memorable, but it was so late already that I was glad it did not go on for too long. Congrats once more Serral, 4X offline HSC champ, another World-first to his name!
Again, impressive feat. However HSC has nothing on ESL/DH/GSL. Winning 4x of these is like winning 4x of EPT weekly cups. Again, good on Serral but he needs to step up and at least attempt GSL to be taken seriously. Scarlett, Idra, Huk, Stephano, Neeb, etc tried for GSL and while they lost, at least they tried so we can call them legit players.
Thats just a moronic take. Serral not legit, Reynor not legit etc
EPT
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/homestorycup/hsc21serralbanner.jpg)
Serral was conspicuously missing at DreamHack Valencia, but he was right back in championship form when he returned at HomeStory Cup XXI. With a combined 5-1 victory against ![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/homestorycup/hsc21bracket.png)
