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Master's Coliseum 8: Playoffs Week 1 Preview

Forum Index > SC2 General
7 CommentsPost a Reply

Master's Coliseum 8: Playoffs Week 1 Preview

Text byTL.net ESPORTS
January 10th, 2025 05:59 GMT

Master's Coliseum #8

Playoffs - Week 1 Preview

Jan 10-12, 12:00 GMT (+00:00)

by Wax

After a tumultuous group stage that saw both Clem and Maru get eliminated, eight players have advanced to the playoffs of Master's Coliseum 8. Will Serral breeze to victory now that his bête noire has been removed from the equation? Or can the other seven players scrounge together the two wins needed to remove the Finnish Phenom from the double-elimination bracket?

The first weekend of playoff competition will see both the upper and lower bracket first rounds completed, eliminating two players from the competition.

Master's Coliseum #8

[image loading]


Upper Bracket Quarterfinals #1: herO vs Astrea

The dominance of the Clem-MaxPax-herO online trinity overshadowed nearly all other players during the off-season, but Astrea also enjoyed a sneaky-good winter. He picked up a number of quality wins against players like ByuN, Dark, and even MaxPax himself, and that good form culminated in Group A of MC8 where he took down SHIN and CURE to advance in second place behind Serral (even giving Serral his only map loss).

Unfortunately, Astrea has been given a nasty draw in his opening match. There's a three tier system in PvP at the moment, with MaxPax on top, herO in second, and everyone else battling it out beneath them. Furthermore, the historical record for Astrea versus herO is extremely bleak, which makes this look like an easy win for the Korean Protoss.

Upper Bracket Quarterfinals #2: Reynor vs Spirit

The perennially underrated Spirit proved his abilities once more in the group stages, breaking Clem's PvT hot streak and helping eliminate the world champion from the tournament. Unfortunately, Spirit won't be able to utilize those TvP skills in the first round of the playoffs, as he goes up against a fearsome Zerg in Reynor.

There's been some talk around Reynor's commitment to SC2 and the amount of time he spends playing League of Legends (including from Reynor himself), but it proved to be idle chatter in Group B where Reynor comfortably advanced with a 3-0 record. While tougher tests lie ahead, he did look to be in pretty solid form—and that bodes rather poorly for Spirit who has historically fared quite poorly against Reynor (including an ongoing 4-match losing streak).

Upper Bracket Quarterfinals #3: Zoun vs MaxPax

MaxPax's quest to prove himself as more than a weekly cup bully got off to a okay-ish start in the group stages, as he advanced from his group in second place while dropping a series to the big tournament veteran Reynor. While I remain skeptical about MaxPax's ability to perform in a high-stakes BO5 against the best players in the world, he at least gets a chance to ease his way into the playoffs with a relatively soft match against Zoun.

Zoun has been surprisingly good for someone just four months removed from military service, and some of his micro against Clem in Group D actually looked better than during his pre-military days (despite his 1-2 loss). While Zoun did look sharp, MaxPax has been such a dominant force in PvP over the last few years that I can't give the upset any serious consideration just yet. Still, Zoun tends to raise his game for important matches, so I expect him to put up a respectable fight.

Upper Bracket Quarterfinals #4: Serral vs GuMiho

Unfortunately for GuMiho, he looks to be the victim in the most lopsided match of the first round. Serral hasn't lost to a non-Clem Terran in almost a year, last losing to Maru in the group stages of Master's Coliseum #7 (yes, Maru CAN beat Serral in limited circumstances). If you remove both Maru and Clem from the equation, then Serral hasn't lost to a different Terran since 2022 (losing to ByuN at HomeStory Cup). Only world championship-class TvZ players can hope to take Serral down, and GuMiho just isn't on that level at the moment.


Predictions

The first round of the playoffs looks to be pretty straight-forward, pitting underdogs against heavy favorites. A few years ago, two PvP's would have triggered an upset warning, but MaxPax and herO have played so well in the mirror that they've shattered its reputation for being a coinflip.

If the favorites win as expected, then we should get some close lower-round matches on Sunday. There's really not much separating Spirit, Astrea, Zoun, and GuMiho, making their matches the real coinflips of the first playoff weekend.

herO 3 - 1 Astrea
Reynor 3 - 1 Spirit
MaxPax 3 - 2 Zoun
Serral 3 - 0 GuMiho

Spirit 3 - 2 Astrea
Zoun 3 - 2 GuMiho




Credits and acknowledgements

Writer: Wax
Images: SCBOY
Records and Statistics: Aligulac.com and Liquipedia

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TL+ Member
onPHYRE
Profile Joined October 2010
Bulgaria923 Posts
January 10 2025 07:36 GMT
#2
Serral gonna roll.
Livin' this life like it was written.
digmouse
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
China6329 Posts
January 10 2025 08:04 GMT
#3
Can't see anyone stopping the Finn since Clem isn't here.
TranslatorIf you want to ask anything about Chinese esports, send me a PM or follow me @nerddigmouse.
Harris1st
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Germany6945 Posts
January 10 2025 10:16 GMT
#4
Serral did lose to herO 1:2 the other day so it's possible. Unlikely though that two players (or one player twice) will win against Serral
Go Serral! GG EZ for Ence. Flashbang dance FTW
PremoBeats
Profile Joined March 2024
497 Posts
Last Edited: 2025-01-11 10:28:30
January 11 2025 10:24 GMT
#5
On January 10 2025 19:16 Harris1st wrote:
Serral did lose to herO 1:2 the other day so it's possible. Unlikely though that two players (or one player twice) will win against Serral

Who knows... The GOAT seems much more human in 2025, having lost to the same amount of players in 10 days as in the entirety of 2024 :D
The first losses against Protoss since nearly two years. Mostly unimportant tournaments/show matches, but still. It's gonna be an interesting MC8 playoff.
Antithesis
Profile Joined August 2010
Germany1199 Posts
January 12 2025 16:33 GMT
#6
I really enjoy following this tournament and reading these write-ups. Thanks for those.

So the upper bracket quarterfinals were even more one-sided than one might have guessed, four straight 3-0s. Probably the only surprise is Astrea's 3-0 over Spirit in the lower bracket.

Now it will be exciting to see how the Serral vs. MaxPax rematch in the semifinals will turn out, considering the outcome of last Friday's BBB showmatch.
Mutation complete.
LauraScott
Profile Joined January 2025
1 Post
February 03 2025 05:12 GMT
#7
I really enjoy this tournament.
go88engineer
Profile Joined February 2025
1 Post
Last Edited: 2025-02-03 16:19:51
February 03 2025 13:50 GMT
#8
Bot edit.

User was banned for this post.
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