EPT
Who will win EWC 2025? - Page 5
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CicadaSC
United States1688 Posts
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rwala
297 Posts
On July 21 2025 00:46 Antithesis wrote: Yeah, saying that Clem "felt unstoppable" or entered EWC 2024 as the clear favorite is retrospective bias. The overwhelming favorite for EWC 2024 was Serral, who won both major events leading up to EWC, Katowice 2024 and Dallas 2024, without losing a single series. Also we must remember that Serral's Katowice 2024 win even included a clean 3-0 sweep over Clem himself. Clem became the favorite when it turned out that his TvZ was in peak form even by his standards and that he could avoid TvT altogether. Except Maru basically predicted it. I recall either during his stream or some pre-tournament content interviews he was asked who he thought would win and he said Clem. | ||
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PremoBeats
385 Posts
The bookie odds for Serral were catastrophically low and he was the clear favorite going into Riyad, having basically defeated every top 10 player in the tournaments leading up to EWC and clearing Kato and Dallas with only 3 map drops, while Clem was bested several times. Do you know if that video/stream was pre-bracket-announcement? Because I remember that it was talked about how good it was for him to avoid all Terrans that got seeded into the Terran-bracket. | ||
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mexbrock1
1 Post
A few weeks back, I said (half-jokingly) that Serral might go undefeated without dropping a map. While I wasn’t completely serious, I do think we’re about to see another incredible run from him, something he’s proven capable of many times before. | ||
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Harris1st
Germany6923 Posts
On July 19 2025 04:18 toinewx wrote: My guts tells me a korean will win this tournament. And it may very well be Classic or Maru, As for Clem and Serral, they will choke. That's my prediction. TLDR: Korean winning, Foreigners choking. Let's check back in 1 week The most choking player on a world stage clutching and the most clutch player on a world stage choking? Yeah I doubt that | ||
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rwala
297 Posts
On July 21 2025 15:45 PremoBeats wrote: I don't think one or two Pros predicting the eventual outcome is the same as Clem being perceived as "unstoppable" pre-EWC. The bookie odds for Serral were catastrophically low and he was the clear favorite going into Riyad, having basically defeated every top 10 player in the tournaments leading up to EWC and clearing Kato and Dallas with only 3 map drops, while Clem was bested several times. Do you know if that video/stream was pre-bracket-announcement? Because I remember that it was talked about how good it was for him to avoid all Terrans that got seeded into the Terran-bracket. I don’t remember. And I agree he wasn’t perceived as unstoppable. I just think sometimes (but not always) pros have an expert understanding of skill level or skill potential that transcends conventional wisdom. | ||
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WombaT
Northern Ireland25215 Posts
On July 21 2025 15:45 PremoBeats wrote: I don't think one or two Pros predicting the eventual outcome is the same as Clem being perceived as "unstoppable" pre-EWC. The bookie odds for Serral were catastrophically low and he was the clear favorite going into Riyad, having basically defeated every top 10 player in the tournaments leading up to EWC and clearing Kato and Dallas with only 3 map drops, while Clem was bested several times. Do you know if that video/stream was pre-bracket-announcement? Because I remember that it was talked about how good it was for him to avoid all Terrans that got seeded into the Terran-bracket. Retrospective can be an odd phenomenon, timeframes get blended and things go out of sequence. Serral was in god mode for huge chunks of the year, Clem was in very good form + was the only guy to give Serral some bruises. But he only entered god mode at EWC, and for a time after. From what I recall, the consensus was that Clem was one of the favourite contenders, but Serral was the favourite, which made sense just off results. Also it feels to me that simply by virtue of being battered in the EWC finals by a Clem playing out of his mind, Serral’s 2024 is oddly underrated. He lost something like 5 or 6 series of any kind in the entire year, and only one to somebody not named Clement, in Maru. Even then that loss wasn’t an elimination defeat and he recovered to win that tourney (Master’s Colosseum IIRC), revenge sweeping Maru on the way to doing so. This time around, I’m way less sure. Lack of more regular, biggish prize pool tournaments, differing levels of exposure to players’ gameplay etc it’s tricky to gauge. It’s trickier to gauge the state of balance at the top too, although we can get an idea. For me, it comes down to a few questions that we will have to wait a short period to get answered. 1. Has Serral been cooking solutions to some of his problems of the past while? Namely, well, Clem being a notable one. The second is the patch shifting his ZvP from basically invulnerable, to strong but mortal. He may get away from a 0/2 success rate if the bracket gods shine on him, but he’d be in a much more solid spot if he’s come up with some answers. 2. Can Clem’s PvT cut it in a big, high-stakes tournament that people have been prioritising preparation for? It’s obviously been shown to be pretty damn potent, but I find he plays a few styles very well indeed but doesn’t have the range that the Toss mains have built up. Doing similar things and mechanically outplaying his opponents is very much the Clem way, and it’s served him very well, but perhaps come crunch time someone may dig deep in their locker and take him out with fiendish planning. Maru perhaps. We haven’t seen much of him for chunks of this year, and Clem has put out a ton of games for him to study. I generally favour Serral because he rarely has off days, and across 3 matchups he doesn’t really have a vulnerability. Clem can lose to more people with more frequency, and his TvT was still strong but not impregnable. Maybe it’s just the last patch that might swing it a bit, in combination by slightly nerfing Serral’s ZvP, and Clem being confident enough to reliably dodge TvTs | ||
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Harris1st
Germany6923 Posts
 ![[image loading]](https://tl.net/staff/HawaiianPig/ellycrywall1920text.jpg) | ||
Poopi
France12839 Posts
On July 21 2025 23:19 Harris1st wrote: Less than 20 hours and no preview and no power rank? Sad elephant Afaik last year TL didn’t want anything to do with EWC because of the org / country behind it, might simply be the same this year? | ||
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WombaT
Northern Ireland25215 Posts
On July 21 2025 22:18 rwala wrote: I don’t remember. And I agree he wasn’t perceived as unstoppable. I just think sometimes (but not always) pros have an expert understanding of skill level or skill potential that transcends conventional wisdom. Didn’t Serral have the strongest player Top Trumps card at EWC? Quite enjoyed that downtime gimmick, gave some insight into how they all view each other’s levels and strengths/weaknesses. Not quite the same as a prediction of course, one may think x player is the most skilled but fancy another player to win for various reasons. If I’m misremembering and that was actually at Kato, obviously disregard! | ||
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Harris1st
Germany6923 Posts
On July 21 2025 23:25 Poopi wrote: Afaik last year TL didn’t want anything to do with EWC because of the org / country behind it, might simply be the same this year? I know I sound like an entitled little something here but then why have a frontpage poll, bracket reveal thread and so on? | ||
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