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Serral wins IEM Katowice 2024 - Page 2

Forum Index > SC2 General
89 CommentsPost a Reply
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LostUsername100
Profile Joined April 2022
95 Posts
February 15 2024 14:18 GMT
#21
Maru was saving builds for GSL.

Nasigil
Profile Joined July 2023
137 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-02-15 20:21:04
February 15 2024 14:50 GMT
#22
Other games worth recommending:

herO vs Cure G3 - unbelievable micro to hold push being down 40 army supply and comeback
Byun vs Gumiho G2 - just all around entertaining TvT
Maru vs Cyan G2 - surprising upset in a late game PvT no less, Cyan played out of his mind
herO vs Reynor G2 - all around entertaining high level late game PvZ
FFXthebest
Profile Joined February 2024
75 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-02-15 14:55:32
February 15 2024 14:54 GMT
#23
On February 15 2024 23:04 Itsxjoeyy wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 15 2024 22:19 Yoshi Kirishima wrote:
On February 15 2024 22:04 UnLarva wrote:
On February 15 2024 21:08 Lambertus wrote:
Very nice summary Wax! And I agree wholeheartly with your assessment of Serrals State of the Game...I will not use the word we all lovehate. Just wow, what a run...


Lovehate of that word comes from the way of common usage of it: it is taken as timeless absolute, something unchangeable once carved to a stone.

SC2 servers, all copies of game, every possible way to play the game must be EMP'd and erased out from existence before the final question of lovehate word can be assessed as really absolute, and I suspect not even then as 100% consensus.

If Maru hack'and'slash through next few international premiers including RIadh and emerges victorious from them, personally I have no big problems to change attachment of the lovehate word from Serral to him then. But I'm content and happy with current emerging consensus of that tag and to whom it is attached. It is unofficial honorary title and holder of it can change if reality itself force to make changes to placement of lovehate, based on merit and success, both always unavoidably someway recency biased.

...

I got some kind of psychosomatized PTSD-like angst symptoms after Katowice 2022 when I finally realized that tournament's recap was somehow "forgotten" for whatever reasons. It was perceived unfairness because of lack of proper publication. This article redeems a lot from that complex. So, thanks again Waxangel. :D


Not sure if he we can 100% concensus taht Serral is the lovehate word though cus he did drop a game to herO in his last 21 games or so (MC7 and Kato), and Maru is better than herO, so Serral might lose to Maru sometime, and because Katowice doesn't give as much money anymore I'm not sure if everyone was trying hard for it, compared to GSL

Actually since this is post-kespa era, even if Serral racks up 7 WCs (cus WC = 1 GSL or slightly more), i'm not sure if he will ever be able to be above koreans like Maru

I can't tell if you're trolling or just on some really hard drugs...$150,000 for 1st place but no one was trying hard for it? and so because serral dropped map to hero that makes Maru better than serral now? even though serral wins almost every series they play? serral is the undisputed goat, there is no more debate.



It’s just Maru fans coping. Funny how he brings up post kespa, yet Maru won majority of his post kespa against a super weak Koreans in GSL

Serral has been stomping Maru for 4-5 years already. Serral has already lapped the field once-twice already. Everyone is just competing for 2nd


And most importantly, thank you Wax for a fantastic write up
bela.mervado
Profile Joined December 2008
Hungary395 Posts
February 15 2024 15:04 GMT
#24
posting to show some love for ByuN and ShoWTimE,
both played very well <3
was sad to see them eliminated
Comedy
Profile Joined March 2016
456 Posts
February 15 2024 15:07 GMT
#25
Undisputed GOAT that's right. He already had that title but only amongst pros. Now everyone can't help but agree.
onPHYRE
Profile Joined October 2010
Bulgaria923 Posts
February 15 2024 15:15 GMT
#26
On February 15 2024 23:06 yezzir88 wrote:
Still can't claim GOAT without a single Code S title.


You can when all of your titles are coming against the same players. If Serral’s only goal was to win a Code S title in 2024, he would easily get it. All of his peers would tell you the same, and multiple Koreans have made similar comments. If you think otherwise you don’t know the game.

There is no value to him sacrificing months living there for such a small prize pool.
Livin' this life like it was written.
SharkStarcraft
Profile Joined April 2011
Austria2231 Posts
February 15 2024 15:20 GMT
#27
Great writeup! Serral is definitely the GOAT. In my book, he already was before, but now I can hardly see anyone making a point for Maru
Cogito, ergo Toss
Durnuu
Profile Joined September 2013
13320 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-02-15 15:22:48
February 15 2024 15:21 GMT
#28
On February 15 2024 23:06 yezzir88 wrote:
Still can't claim GOAT without a single Code S title.

As someone who agrees somewhat with this take*, would it really make a difference at this stage, considering code S can't even be filled with 16 good korean players? It wouldn't matter one bit imho. Even the argument of preparation vs weekender no longer matters to me, with the meta being so stale ansmd every game looking like the next, even in code S.

*As in, yes code S is still by far the most competitive tournament and prep > weekender
BUNNYYYYYYYYY https://i.imgur.com/BiCF577.png
Antithesis
Profile Joined August 2010
Germany1198 Posts
February 15 2024 15:35 GMT
#29
Great article for an amazing tournament.

Congratulations again to Serral. He's the GoaT.
Mutation complete.
WombaT
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Northern Ireland25613 Posts
February 15 2024 15:40 GMT
#30
On February 16 2024 00:21 Durnuu wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 15 2024 23:06 yezzir88 wrote:
Still can't claim GOAT without a single Code S title.

As someone who agrees somewhat with this take*, would it really make a difference at this stage, considering code S can't even be filled with 16 good korean players? It wouldn't matter one bit imho. Even the argument of preparation vs weekender no longer matters to me, with the meta being so stale ansmd every game looking like the next, even in code S.

*As in, yes code S is still by far the most competitive tournament and prep > weekender

Odd given same genre, same company but I’m reminded of Happy in WC3. He wasn’t the man in the times where your Grubbys and Moons of the world were duking it out for things like WCG in WC3’s peak. But in latter day WC3 he very much has been, and his numbers are frankly absurd, but in a game whose heyday has past.

I think in both cases comparisons across eras are just impossible to do, so I pick the copout option and think it’s fair to crown them both BOATs (best of…), where the GOAT question remains unanswered, and perhaps unanswerable.

If you had to pick one dude to play a Bo69 against some egotistical alien overlord for the fate of the Earth, and they allow us to travel back in time to grab folks in their prime in the interests of fairness. A year for hardcore prep time, who you picking?

I’m probably going Serral/Happy for their respective games.

And yeah 100% agreed, the player pool dropping sucked, but the worst aspect of recent GSL changes is combining the Ro4/finals day. It really erodes that prep aspect which is the USP of GSL.
'You'll always be the cuddly marsupial of my heart, despite the inherent flaws of your ancestry' - Squat
Durnuu
Profile Joined September 2013
13320 Posts
February 15 2024 15:52 GMT
#31
On February 16 2024 00:40 WombaT wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 16 2024 00:21 Durnuu wrote:
On February 15 2024 23:06 yezzir88 wrote:
Still can't claim GOAT without a single Code S title.

As someone who agrees somewhat with this take*, would it really make a difference at this stage, considering code S can't even be filled with 16 good korean players? It wouldn't matter one bit imho. Even the argument of preparation vs weekender no longer matters to me, with the meta being so stale ansmd every game looking like the next, even in code S.

*As in, yes code S is still by far the most competitive tournament and prep > weekender

Odd given same genre, same company but I’m reminded of Happy in WC3. He wasn’t the man in the times where your Grubbys and Moons of the world were duking it out for things like WCG in WC3’s peak. But in latter day WC3 he very much has been, and his numbers are frankly absurd, but in a game whose heyday has past.

I think in both cases comparisons across eras are just impossible to do, so I pick the copout option and think it’s fair to crown them both BOATs (best of…), where the GOAT question remains unanswered, and perhaps unanswerable.

If you had to pick one dude to play a Bo69 against some egotistical alien overlord for the fate of the Earth, and they allow us to travel back in time to grab folks in their prime in the interests of fairness. A year for hardcore prep time, who you picking?

I’m probably going Serral/Happy for their respective games.

And yeah 100% agreed, the player pool dropping sucked, but the worst aspect of recent GSL changes is combining the Ro4/finals day. It really erodes that prep aspect which is the USP of GSL.

Oh yeah great point, I forgot about the combined ro4 and finals.
BUNNYYYYYYYYY https://i.imgur.com/BiCF577.png
Glorfindelio
Profile Joined October 2022
213 Posts
February 15 2024 15:59 GMT
#32
Listen, if you want to believe Maru is the GOAT, it can still be a reasonable take. He's an utterly amazing player and has been for a very, very long time. I've been dreaming of Maru and Serral meeting in an offline tournament since 2018 (at a Katowice, no less!) so the result swayed me. Serral delivered a victory that displayed his brilliance to the highest degree--as he said, this was his full performance. He's still a mechanical monster with singular scouting, control and multi-tasking. But his ability now to plan out a series and execute tailored builds makes him truly terrifying. The old Serral lacked that versatility and would've let Dark or Maru dictate the games while trying to out-macro them every time.

On GSL--I used to hold this against him quite a bit as well. However, he's been remarkably consistent about his stance, in that it doesn't make sense for him personally or professionally or financially. Very rarely in life do people that are singularly great at anything (sports, music, business, etc.) do things they don't want to do, simply for the sake of others. And based on his results, I can't really say he's wrong.

Thank you, Wax, for the article.
bagstone
Profile Joined November 2016
8 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-02-15 16:20:23
February 15 2024 16:20 GMT
#33
On February 15 2024 22:19 Yoshi Kirishima wrote:
and because Katowice doesn't give as much money anymore I'm not sure if everyone was trying hard for it, compared to GSL


Yes, Koreans aren't interested in the IEM Katowice $150,000 first place money and are saving builds for the $3,755 GSL win. Makes total sense now!
Durnuu
Profile Joined September 2013
13320 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-02-15 16:27:12
February 15 2024 16:26 GMT
#34
I think we should do a study on the IQ of the average Serral fan vs people that are more skeptical, because the amount of people that got baited by Yoshi has me flabbergasted.
BUNNYYYYYYYYY https://i.imgur.com/BiCF577.png
Itsxjoeyy
Profile Joined April 2020
30 Posts
February 15 2024 16:28 GMT
#35
Anyone who continues to make excuses for the Koreans, mostly maru, are lying to themselves...when talking about the goat there are no excuses. If you show up ready to play You either get it done or you don't. Period. Some say maru didn't have a chance to prepare...oh for the tournament with $500k that he knew about for months? Lol stop with the excuses. Serrals the goat.
Glorfindelio
Profile Joined October 2022
213 Posts
February 15 2024 16:38 GMT
#36
On February 16 2024 01:26 Durnuu wrote:
I think we should do a study on the IQ of the average Serral fan vs people that are more skeptical, because the amount of people that got baited by Yoshi has me flabbergasted.


People are so thirsty to discredit and disrespect the man (forgive me, aren't there three separate forum topics attempting to do so?) that I chalk it up to reaping what you sow.
argonautdice
Profile Joined January 2013
Canada2719 Posts
February 15 2024 16:46 GMT
#37
Thus, by now having three of StarCraft II's greatest prizes in hand, and having been the most daunting presence in the competitive scene from 2018 to 2024, I believe the title of "GOAT" is now Serral's undisputed honor.


Serral is undeniably GOAT 2018-2024 just by pure consistency winning at least 2 "competitive" Premier tournaments (aka beating at least two Koreans in tournament, offline if possible) per year for 6 years. Here's the data:

2018:
GSL vs World > Innovation, Dark, Stats
Blizzcon > sOs, Zest, Dark, Rogue, Stats
HomeStory Cup > soO, Trap, Bunny x 2, Taeja, Innovation

2019:
GSL vs World > TY, Trap, Classic
HomeStory Cup > soO, Trap, Zest, Innovation

2020 (online only due to COVID):
Dreamhack Summer > Innovation, TY, Cure, Trap
Dreamhack Winter > Trap, Stats

2021 (online only due to COVID):
Dreamhack Fall > Zoun, Trap x 2, Bunny
NeXT Masters > Classic, Zest

2022:
IEM Katowice > Dark, Ryung, Maru, Rogue
HomeStory Cup > Ryung, Creator, soO
TSL 9 (online/offline) > Solar, Gumiho, Maru

2023:
ESL Summer > Dark, Classic, Gumiho
Master's Coliseum (online) > Maru x 2, Gumiho, Dark, ByuN, Cure

2024 so far:
Master's Coliseum (online) > Solar x 2, Maru, Cure, herO
IEM Katowice > ByuN, Dark, Maru

This is not including all the times Serral beat world-class foreigners like Reynor and Clem especially in the ESL Europe or region-locked Dreamhacks in 2018-2019.

Another way to put it: Serral participated in 61 Premier tournaments from 2018 till now (~10 tournaments a year), and has only not made top 8 three times. He has 25 gold, 11 silver, 10 semifinal, and 12 quarterfinal finishes, so the chance of Serral winning a Premier tournament since 2018 on average is 41%, 59% to make it to the grand final, 75% to reach at least top 4, 95% to reach at least top 8.

This is basically saying for at least 6 years now, when Serral enters a Premier tournament:
- he's almost guaranteed to reach top 8
- once top 8, his chance to advance to top 4 is more than 3 in 4
- once top 4, his chance to advance to the grand final is about 4 in 5
- and once he's in the grand final, his chance to win it all is more than 2 in 3.

Lastly, according to Aligulac, Serral's win rate against Koreans since 2018 is 69% in games and 79% in matches. If you narrow it down to just offline Bo3+, it's 68% in games and 78% in matches.
very illegal and very uncool
LostUsername100
Profile Joined April 2022
95 Posts
February 15 2024 17:08 GMT
#38
On February 16 2024 01:26 Durnuu wrote:
I think we should do a study on the IQ of the average Serral fan vs people that are more skeptical, because the amount of people that got baited by Yoshi has me flabbergasted.


To be fair, for the longest time it was impossible to tell if the korean fans were trolling.

It's been 6 years and the cope is still going strong.
argonautdice
Profile Joined January 2013
Canada2719 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-02-15 17:25:31
February 15 2024 17:08 GMT
#39
Btw no one from 2018 till now has a winning record against Serral, including any one on the GOAT list, Reynor, Clem, or any other top Koreans (Edit: technically DRG has a winning match record 4-3 but losing game record 8-11). In fact, no one had a more than 40% Bo3+ match win rate against Serral except Hurricane (only one match played), DRG, and Rogue, who has an exactly 50% Bo3+ match win rate against Serral, but all of those wins were online and Rogue has never won against Serral offline in a Bo3+. On the other hand, the only person who has winning record against Serral offline Bo3+ (outside of only facing off one time offline like DRG and Hurricane) is Solar at 2-1, but they've only faced off 3 times.
very illegal and very uncool
UnLarva
Profile Joined March 2019
458 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-02-15 17:31:20
February 15 2024 17:30 GMT
#40
There are also those much harder to evaluate intangibles. How to measure Serral's impact to the SC2 scene generally and to the rise of Euro scene particularly? In both cases Serral's touch have some real revigorating influence. The decline of the scene would've likely started an year or two earlier. The CPR was successfully conducted by The Finnisher.

Also, of all Top Players, It was Serral who was picked to play against AI.

Etc. Etc.
Part-time Serralogist
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