• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 10:39
CEST 16:39
KST 23:39
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Code S Season 1 - RO8 Preview1[ASL21] Ro8 Preview Pt2: Progenitors8Code S Season 1 - RO12 Group A: Rogue, Percival, Solar, Zoun13[ASL21] Ro8 Preview Pt1: Inheritors16[ASL21] Ro16 Preview Pt2: All Star10
Community News
Weekly Cups (April 27-May 4): Clem takes triple0RSL Revival: Season 5 - Qualifiers and Main Event11Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO12 Results12026 GSL Season 1 Qualifiers25Maestros of the Game 2 announced9
StarCraft 2
General
Code S Season 1 - RO8 Preview Behind the Blue - Team Liquid History Book Weekly Cups (April 27-May 4): Clem takes triple Blizzard Classic Cup @ BlizzCon 2026 - $100k prize pool Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO12 Results
Tourneys
GSL Code S Season 1 (2026) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament RSL Revival: Season 5 - Qualifiers and Main Event StarCraft Evolution League (SC Evo Biweekly) 2026 GSL Season 2 Qualifiers
Strategy
Custom Maps
[D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3 [A] Nemrods 1/4 players [M] (2) Frigid Storage
External Content
Mutation # 524 Death and Taxes The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 523 Firewall Mutation # 522 Flip My Base
Brood War
General
BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ (Spoiler) Asl ro8 D winner interview BW General Discussion Do we have a pimpest plays list? AI Question
Tourneys
[ASL21] Ro8 Day 4 [ASL21] Ro8 Day 3 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL21] Ro8 Day 2
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Fighting Spirit mining rates What's the deal with APM & what's its true value Any training maps people recommend?
Other Games
General Games
Dawn of War IV Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread OutLive 25 (RTS Game) Daigo vs Menard Best of 10 Nintendo Switch Thread
Dota 2
The Story of Wings Gaming
League of Legends
G2 just beat GenG in First stand
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas TL Mafia Community Thread Five o'clock TL Mafia
Community
General
European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread 3D technology/software discussion Canadian Politics Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
The IdrA Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread [Manga] One Piece [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion McBoner: A hockey love story
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
streaming software Strange computer issues (software) [G] How to Block Livestream Ads
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Movie Stars In Video Games: …
TrAiDoS
ramps on octagon
StaticNine
Broowar part 2
qwaykee
Funny Nicknames
LUCKY_NOOB
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1852 users

Serral wins IEM Katowice 2024 - Page 3

Forum Index > SC2 General
89 CommentsPost a Reply
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 Next All
Poopi
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
France12912 Posts
February 15 2024 17:33 GMT
#41
On February 16 2024 01:38 Glorfindelio wrote:
Show nested quote +
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.

Nobody disrespects Serral actually
WriterMaru
Yoshi Kirishima
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
United States10366 Posts
February 15 2024 17:50 GMT
#42
On February 16 2024 02:08 LostUsername100 wrote:
Show nested quote +
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.


Tbf, the GSL is a really hard tournament cus it gives so much prep time. You really want to save your best builds for GSL if you want to win that ~$4k (actually it's quite big cus with patreon it's like $8k!!). If Serral qualified, all KRs would prepare so hard for him, he will have a really hard time trying to win
Mid-master streaming MECH ONLY + commentary www.twitch.tv/yoshikirishima +++ "If all-in fails, all-in again."
Mizenhauer
Profile Blog Joined February 2015
United States1923 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-02-15 17:59:38
February 15 2024 17:59 GMT
#43
Few articles have aged better than the one we did after he won Blizzcon
┗|∵|┓Second Place in LB 28, Third Place in LB 29 and Destined to Be a Kong
Antithesis
Profile Joined August 2010
Germany1236 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-02-15 18:19:36
February 15 2024 18:15 GMT
#44
On February 16 2024 02:59 Mizenhauer wrote:
Few articles have aged better than the one we did after he won Blizzcon

Great article indeed, and history is really coming full circle with the second comment back then on Serral's 2018 being this:

On November 08 2018 20:08 jy_9876543210 wrote:
The only thing missing for this year is a BO7 of Serral vs Maru.
Mutation complete.
UnLarva
Profile Joined March 2019
458 Posts
February 15 2024 18:41 GMT
#45
There is that only Katowice 2022 recap of tl.net that exists as far as I know. I had to write myself because.... of reasons. It's in Finnish.

https://tl.net/forum/starcraft-2/587041-iem-katowice-2022-final-four-players-set-for-sunday?page=3#56

But luckily 100 weeks of traumatic waiting is now finally over. Added here for... reasons, and for convenience. Freedom!
Part-time Serralogist
Kitai
Profile Joined June 2012
United States880 Posts
February 15 2024 20:05 GMT
#46
Serral was truly the GOAT (greatest of all tournament) here.
"You know, I don't care if soO got 100 second places in a row. Anyone who doesn't think that he's going to win blizzcon watching this series is a fool" - Artosis, Blizzcon 2014 soO vs TaeJa
Pandain
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States12989 Posts
February 15 2024 20:26 GMT
#47
As someone who thinks Serral is probably the GOAT now, it still surprises me that it seems like the entire community has reached that consensus as well after IEM Katowice. Mostly because Maru still made a consecutive world finals (!!!) and in doing so smashed pretty much everyone but Serral. And a lot of the same arguments against Serral (playing in diminished competitive scene to at least some extent) are obviously at their most potent in 2024.

I suppose its because of just how dominant he was and the fact he 4-0'd his GOAT rival in the finals. The narrative that comes from that is just so strong.
LemonyTang
Profile Joined March 2011
United Kingdom430 Posts
February 15 2024 20:45 GMT
#48
Frankly it's undisputable that Serral is the greatest player of StarCraft 2 we have ever seen.

Personally for me the most significant will always be Mvp. Without him I never would have fallen in love with this game or spent so much time and money supporting it and the organisations involved in it. His place in the pantheon of SC2 greats will never be eroded.

But the way Serral has entirely defined international competition over the last six+ years goes beyond anything else this game, or almost any other game or sport, has seen. The comparisons to Magnus Carlsen are apt, and not just because they're both from Scandinavia!
Mvp #1
JJH777
Profile Joined January 2011
United States4418 Posts
February 15 2024 20:53 GMT
#49
On February 16 2024 05:26 Pandain wrote:
As someone who thinks Serral is probably the GOAT now, it still surprises me that it seems like the entire community has reached that consensus as well after IEM Katowice. Mostly because Maru still made a consecutive world finals (!!!) and in doing so smashed pretty much everyone but Serral. And a lot of the same arguments against Serral (playing in diminished competitive scene to at least some extent) are obviously at their most potent in 2024.

I suppose its because of just how dominant he was and the fact he 4-0'd his GOAT rival in the finals. The narrative that comes from that is just so strong.


Aside from his dominance in this tournament the biggest thing for me is the fact that even if you remove Serral and Maru from the scene this Kato probably ends in a TvT finals. In a Maru-less world Dark could upset that but I don't give him a high percent win chance vs Clem and he's only 50-50 vs Byun and Cure as well. If Solar beat Clem and Reynor was in the top 4 as well I don't think this event would have made Serral the goat because he would still have the balance asterisk most of his other wins have. For the first time since like early 2017 it seems Zerg might actually not be the strongest race and yet Serral looks more dominant than ever.

Still hope Maru takes back the crown at the world cup though.
Nakajin
Profile Blog Joined September 2014
Canada8990 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-02-15 21:54:22
February 15 2024 21:54 GMT
#50
Great read, congrats to Serral, undisputed goat! (until Miz say otherwise )
Writerhttp://i.imgur.com/9p6ufcB.jpg
RPR_Tempest
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Australia7798 Posts
February 15 2024 22:59 GMT
#51
On February 15 2024 18:22 TL.net ESPORTS wrote:
Even though IEM Katowice lost its official "world championship" status in 2024 (that title being passed onto the Esports World Cup), its profound legacy and $500,000 prize pool surely imparted it with the prestige of a world championship. Thus, the victory gave Serral his third world championship-tier title overall—

Well, no. That's not really how that works. If it isn't the World Championship, it isn't the World Championship. You don't get to arbitrarily call it "World Championship tier", it either is or it isn't. This was just another premier.
Soundwave, Zerg player from Canberra, Australia. @SoundwaveSC
Poopi
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
France12912 Posts
February 15 2024 23:40 GMT
#52
On February 16 2024 07:59 RPR_Tempest wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 15 2024 18:22 TL.net ESPORTS wrote:
Even though IEM Katowice lost its official "world championship" status in 2024 (that title being passed onto the Esports World Cup), its profound legacy and $500,000 prize pool surely imparted it with the prestige of a world championship. Thus, the victory gave Serral his third world championship-tier title overall—

Well, no. That's not really how that works. If it isn't the World Championship, it isn't the World Championship. You don't get to arbitrarily call it "World Championship tier", it either is or it isn't. This was just another premier.

BlizzCon was the official WC before but IEM Katowice was a WC as well. Not that it matters much either way
WriterMaru
RPR_Tempest
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Australia7798 Posts
February 15 2024 23:59 GMT
#53
On February 16 2024 08:40 Poopi wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 16 2024 07:59 RPR_Tempest wrote:
On February 15 2024 18:22 TL.net ESPORTS wrote:
Even though IEM Katowice lost its official "world championship" status in 2024 (that title being passed onto the Esports World Cup), its profound legacy and $500,000 prize pool surely imparted it with the prestige of a world championship. Thus, the victory gave Serral his third world championship-tier title overall—

Well, no. That's not really how that works. If it isn't the World Championship, it isn't the World Championship. You don't get to arbitrarily call it "World Championship tier", it either is or it isn't. This was just another premier.

BlizzCon was the official WC before but IEM Katowice was a WC as well. Not that it matters much either way

I just never ever considered Katowice to be a World Championship while Blizzcon was going on and laughed it off whenever people tried to claim it was.
Soundwave, Zerg player from Canberra, Australia. @SoundwaveSC
Locutos
Profile Joined January 2017
Brazil273 Posts
February 16 2024 00:06 GMT
#54
On February 16 2024 02:59 Mizenhauer wrote:
Few articles have aged better than the one we did after he won Blizzcon


Indeed.
dysenterymd
Profile Joined January 2019
1250 Posts
February 16 2024 00:22 GMT
#55
On February 16 2024 07:59 RPR_Tempest wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 15 2024 18:22 TL.net ESPORTS wrote:
Even though IEM Katowice lost its official "world championship" status in 2024 (that title being passed onto the Esports World Cup), its profound legacy and $500,000 prize pool surely imparted it with the prestige of a world championship. Thus, the victory gave Serral his third world championship-tier title overall—

Well, no. That's not really how that works. If it isn't the World Championship, it isn't the World Championship. You don't get to arbitrarily call it "World Championship tier", it either is or it isn't. This was just another premier.

It isn't the world championship but it's as prestigious as a world championship. Every top player (except Maxpax) wanted to play Katowice, almost all qualified, and there was a prize pool commensurate with a world championship.

I agree that there can only be one world champion at a time and that Oliveira is still world champ, but IEM Katowice is worth just as much as a world championship (and was worth as much as a Blizzcon when Blizzcon was world championship.)
Serral | Inno | sOs | soO | Has | Classic
dbv25
Profile Joined February 2024
2 Posts
February 16 2024 01:00 GMT
#56
On February 16 2024 07:59 RPR_Tempest wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 15 2024 18:22 TL.net ESPORTS wrote:
Even though IEM Katowice lost its official "world championship" status in 2024 (that title being passed onto the Esports World Cup), its profound legacy and $500,000 prize pool surely imparted it with the prestige of a world championship. Thus, the victory gave Serral his third world championship-tier title overall—

Well, no. That's not really how that works. If it isn't the World Championship, it isn't the World Championship. You don't get to arbitrarily call it "World Championship tier", it either is or it isn't. This was just another premier.


Thank god we didn’t make you in charge of whether it works like that or not
dbv25
Profile Joined February 2024
2 Posts
February 16 2024 01:01 GMT
#57
On February 16 2024 09:22 dysenterymd wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 16 2024 07:59 RPR_Tempest wrote:
On February 15 2024 18:22 TL.net ESPORTS wrote:
Even though IEM Katowice lost its official "world championship" status in 2024 (that title being passed onto the Esports World Cup), its profound legacy and $500,000 prize pool surely imparted it with the prestige of a world championship. Thus, the victory gave Serral his third world championship-tier title overall—

Well, no. That's not really how that works. If it isn't the World Championship, it isn't the World Championship. You don't get to arbitrarily call it "World Championship tier", it either is or it isn't. This was just another premier.

It isn't the world championship but it's as prestigious as a world championship. Every top player (except Maxpax) wanted to play Katowice, almost all qualified, and there was a prize pool commensurate with a world championship.

I agree that there can only be one world champion at a time and that Oliveira is still world champ, but IEM Katowice is worth just as much as a world championship (and was worth as much as a Blizzcon when Blizzcon was world championship.)



Olivera is still the world champ? What? That makes absolutely no sense.

You do realise there can be more than one world championship tournament per year, right?
UnLarva
Profile Joined March 2019
458 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-02-16 01:22:57
February 16 2024 01:16 GMT
#58
In a future we may don't have anything World Championship worthy at all, even if tournament's relative prestige would increase within a season (higher proportion to absolute best participate, insane prize pools, quadruple elimination bracket after double all vs all round robin). Such scenario would need SC2 to become some kind of fetish for some super rich dude, and much lower amount of active players, tho.

Multiple WCs per year is indeed possible, GSL code S was once handled as such and held high in terms of prestige.
Part-time Serralogist
Balnazza
Profile Joined January 2018
Germany1284 Posts
February 16 2024 01:31 GMT
#59
On February 16 2024 10:16 UnLarva wrote:
In a future we may don't have anything World Championship worthy at all, even if tournament's relative prestige would increase within a season (higher proportion to absolute best participate, insane prize pools, quadruple elimination bracket after double all vs all round robin). Such scenario would need SC2 to become some kind of fetish for some super rich dude, and much lower amount of active players, tho.

Multiple WCs per year is indeed possible, GSL code S was once handled as such and held high in terms of prestige.


It just feels a bit odd, like we don't have a word for these kind of tournaments. IEM being a "World Championship" (or Global Championship) is basically just a relict from the start, when IEM was an actual circuit with finals at the end. I think they don't even call it IEM World Championship anymore? It is "just" IEM Katowice.
Clearly though, there is a difference between Katowice and lets say ESL Winter. So calling Katowice "just another Premier" doesn't sound particular correct either.

In the end, it comes down to preference. For me, THE World Championship is the Circuit-Finisher (be it BlizzCon, Katowice or soon the EWC). Katowice, Gamers8, WESG and what not are...uff, idk. Grand Slam Tournaments? Majors? Pseudo-WCs? Doesn't exactly roll of the tongue, does it?
"Wenn die Zauberin runter geht, dann macht sie die Beine breit" - Khaldor, trying to cast WC3 German-only
UnLarva
Profile Joined March 2019
458 Posts
February 16 2024 01:43 GMT
#60
On February 16 2024 10:31 Balnazza wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 16 2024 10:16 UnLarva wrote:
In a future we may don't have anything World Championship worthy at all, even if tournament's relative prestige would increase within a season (higher proportion to absolute best participate, insane prize pools, quadruple elimination bracket after double all vs all round robin). Such scenario would need SC2 to become some kind of fetish for some super rich dude, and much lower amount of active players, tho.

Multiple WCs per year is indeed possible, GSL code S was once handled as such and held high in terms of prestige.


It just feels a bit odd, like we don't have a word for these kind of tournaments. IEM being a "World Championship" (or Global Championship) is basically just a relict from the start, when IEM was an actual circuit with finals at the end. I think they don't even call it IEM World Championship anymore? It is "just" IEM Katowice.
Clearly though, there is a difference between Katowice and lets say ESL Winter. So calling Katowice "just another Premier" doesn't sound particular correct either.

In the end, it comes down to preference. For me, THE World Championship is the Circuit-Finisher (be it BlizzCon, Katowice or soon the EWC). Katowice, Gamers8, WESG and what not are...uff, idk. Grand Slam Tournaments? Majors? Pseudo-WCs? Doesn't exactly roll of the tongue, does it?


Yep. Biggest problem to me is that the status of the WC was removed in a middle of season rather illegitimately.

Like a shopping pay-to-win WC-skin microtransaction of probably multiple millions. Of course you cannot buy prestige of IEM Katowise that way unless you really buy it. But in that case you cannot just drop in a middle of Arabian desert and still call it Katowise. But even then it is hard to imagine why that hyper rich SC2 fetishistic Saudi-Prince couldn't just rename some site as "Katowice"...

Just writing in hopes there really would happen some kind of flip in Elon Musk's head. Rate of his spending is such high that expenses of few extra decades of high level SC2 would just disappear to a balance sheets.
Part-time Serralogist
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 18h 51m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Ryung 787
trigger 65
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 47340
Calm 7387
Horang2 998
BeSt 816
EffOrt 787
Soma 696
Larva 453
Hyuk 437
Mini 436
actioN 433
[ Show more ]
Stork 431
ggaemo 391
Snow 327
ZerO 316
Rush 252
Soulkey 229
hero 121
Mind 112
Mong 97
Killer 85
Hyun 84
Dewaltoss 76
Pusan 64
sorry 58
Shine 58
Backho 52
sSak 43
Barracks 41
Aegong 37
Bale 28
Sacsri 22
Rock 20
yabsab 17
Terrorterran 17
soO 14
IntoTheRainbow 13
ajuk12(nOOB) 10
GoRush 10
Dota 2
qojqva2623
syndereN469
monkeys_forever293
XcaliburYe69
Counter-Strike
byalli640
Other Games
singsing2433
B2W.Neo927
hiko794
Lowko366
DeMusliM307
mouzStarbuck275
Liquid`VortiX178
ArmadaUGS125
RotterdaM84
ZerO(Twitch)25
Organizations
StarCraft: Brood War
UltimateBattle 1306
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Main Stream30
StarCraft: Brood War
Kim Chul Min (afreeca) 8
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 17 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• StrangeGG 77
• poizon28 27
• iHatsuTV 14
• Migwel
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• sooper7s
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
StarCraft: Brood War
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• lizZardDota245
League of Legends
• Jankos1591
Other Games
• WagamamaTV326
• Shiphtur122
Upcoming Events
GSL
18h 51m
SHIN vs Zoun
ByuN vs herO
OSC
20h 21m
OSC
22h 21m
Replay Cast
1d 9h
Escore
1d 19h
The PondCast
1d 19h
WardiTV Invitational
1d 20h
Zoun vs Ryung
Lambo vs ShoWTimE
OSC
2 days
Replay Cast
2 days
CranKy Ducklings
2 days
[ Show More ]
RSL Revival
2 days
SHIN vs Bunny
ByuN vs Shameless
WardiTV Invitational
2 days
Krystianer vs TriGGeR
Cure vs Rogue
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
3 days
BSL
3 days
Replay Cast
3 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3 days
RSL Revival
3 days
Cure vs Zoun
Clem vs Lambo
WardiTV Invitational
3 days
BSL
4 days
GSL
4 days
Afreeca Starleague
4 days
Soma vs Leta
Monday Night Weeklies
5 days
CranKy Ducklings
5 days
Afreeca Starleague
5 days
Light vs Flash
Replay Cast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-05-05
WardiTV TLMC #16
Nations Cup 2026

Ongoing

BSL Season 22
ASL Season 21
CSL 2026 SPRING (S20)
IPSL Spring 2026
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 2
Acropolis #4
YSL S3
SCTL 2026 Spring
RSL Revival: Season 5
2026 GSL S1
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League S23 Finals
ESL Pro League S23 Stage 1&2
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S2: W6
KK 2v2 League Season 1
BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
Escore Tournament S2: W7
Escore Tournament S2: W8
CSLAN 4
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Maestros of the Game 2
2026 GSL S2
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
PGL Astana 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.