herO wins the StarCraft II All-Star Invitational

by Wax

After fifteen years of competitive StarCraft, it's now clear which player picked the most appropriate ID. At the StarCraft II All-Star Invitational in Hangzhou, herO once again rescued Protoss by proving the faction could still win at the highest level, even when facing the undisputed best players in the world.

It was the natural extension of herO's, well, heriocs from last May, when he ended Protoss' three-year winless streak in major tournaments by winning Code S Season 1. If the diminished scale of GSL and lack of top international competitors left some lingering questions about that victory's validity, then herO blew those doubts away at All-Star by crushing reigning world champion Serral 3-0, taking down top Korean Zerg Solar 3-1, and defeating the resurgent 2021 world champion Reynor 4-3 in the finals.

Of course, all this has occurred as part of a greater saga where herO is also the protagonist—his return to active play after military service and redefinition of what's possible for such players.



herO's championship quality was on full display from his very first series of the tournament, where he took a stunning 3-0 quarterfinal sweep over reigning EWC champion Serral. Until the All-Star Invitational, the Finnish Phenom had defeated herO in virtually every single match of consequence throughout their careers. Even though herO had shown enough fight in those losses to suggest he might one day get the upper hand, few expected him to break his losing streak in such a one-sided series. herO took this key victory in classic Protoss fashion, catching Serral off guard with three consecutive variations on an Archon-Chargelot timing. It echoed Serral's shocking loss to Zest's fast Glaives years ago at IEM Katowice 2020, where the world's best defensive player was toppled by strategies prepared especially for a major event.

Having knocked off the world champion and best ZvP player in the world, it felt almost natural that herO went on to defeat Solar in the semifinals. herO's 0-3 upset loss to Solar at EWC 2025 was a concern heading into the match, but it was quickly made to feel like a distant footnote. Despite Solar's considerable online success in ZvP through his deep playbook of aggressive builds, few of his attacks hit the mark as he surrendered a 1-3 defeat. Offense and defense melded together for herO as he chose to make unusually large numbers of Stargate units early, allowing him to both pressure Solar and have extra firepower against Zerg timings.

That left herO with just one more PvZ test to overcome in Reynor. Unlike herO, Reynor had earned his finals berth by proving his quality in an entirely different match-up. With 3-2 victories over Maru and Clem, the reinvigorated Reynor had shown his ZvT was undoubtedly world class—but what about his ZvP?

Going against the all-in heavy approach at the center of the meta ZvP, Reynor forged his own path by playing a Lurker-centric, macro style. By taking herO to seven games in the finals, Reynor showed his ZvP was definitely championship-caliber—but just not title-worthy on that particular day.

The grand finals was a celebration of herO, and not just because he flipped a cartwheel and lifted the trophy at the end. The gameplay itself was the ultimate expression of herO's audacious offence, with the weight of the moment giving him no pause in swinging that double-edged sword with reckless abandon.

In some games, like the opener on Winter Madness, herO's overaggression was more of a charming quirk than fatal flaw. Despite a questionable engagement delaying his victory, herO's late-game army still rolled over Reynor in the end. On the other hand, Reynor's series-tying game six win reminded us of how herO's hot-headedness can sometimes be his defining weakness, with a suicidal Adept shade-in leading directly to defeat.

However, in the all-important game seven, herO's unique temperament proved to be more blessing than curse. During the pivotal sequence of the game, another failed attack from herO seemed to swing the game in Reynor's favor. Conventional wisdom would have dictated that he slow down the pace of the game and try to gradually recover, but herO opted for even more offense. In a wonderfully baffling way, this ended up being the winning move. Reynor welcomed more combat against his seemingly weakened opponent, but flipped the situation on its head to clutch out a victory in a key battle. Having gained the advantage, herO did everything in his power not to win a normal, snowballing Protoss victory with his superior economy and tech. Instead, he was thrust into a chaotic basetrade, where his Tempests eventually won out over Reynor's groundbound forces. At the end of the day, it was victory all the same—or, perhaps, victory made even sweeter by its firm grounding in herO's personal style.

The tone has now been set for 2026. With herO taking the first major title and Reynor reentering the championship picture, the top level of competitive StarCraft II is looking as even and as unpredictable as ever. Still, one must recall that the outlook was similar in the first half of 2025, before Serral showed his class to win the world championship. While the competitive calendar for 2026 remains unclear, StarCraft fans will be hoping that the top players get more opportunities to see the year's story through.

Grand Finals Recap

Game One - Winter Madness (herO win): herO began the series by looking to test Reynor's defense, opening Void Ray, skipping Oracles, and preparing a mass +1 Chargelot attack. Reynor played well to parry this attack with Hydras and Zerglings despite not having Banelings done in time, and proceeded to tech up to Lurkers without incident.

The situation looked slightly dicey for herO with Reynor getting ahead on tech, but Reynor failed to make hay with his Lurkers due to good defensive engagements from herO. In a familiar pattern from 2025, the situation turned grim for Reynor once Protoss started assembling a Tempest deathball off a four-base economy, and a slow Zerg demise looked to be on the horizon. A bad overextension from herO allowed Reynor to survive for longer than expected, but eventually he had to GG out as he had no answer for the high-tech Protoss army.

Game Two - Old Republic (herO win): herO opened with a more standard 3-Oracle start this time around, but went for another unusual follow-up by going quickly into Chargelot-Colossus-Archon. Reynor modified his approach slightly to focus on Hydralisks-Bane for a bit longer in the mid-game, but still had the same goal of stabilizing on Lurkers.

herO's big mid-game attack with Chargelot-Colossus-Archon looked like it might have game-ending potential, but it fell apart when he split his army up and allowed Reynor to divide and conquer both halves. Still, herO had established a solid economy in the meanwhile and was able to reload for another attack.

With Lurkers now out to enable a stalling defense at home, Reynor decided to go for a semi-basetrade when herO moved out once more. This initially seemed to work out for Reynor as his entrenched Lurkers slowed herO down as intended, but when he was forced to reposition them, herO jumped on the Lurkers and blew the baserace wide open.

After much bloodshed and razing of bases, both players were left on 1.5 bases and much diminished armies. The saving grace for herO was that he had been able to get Tempests out in the meanwhile, giving him a big edge in the low-econ, small-army scenario. herO teased a throw by taking a bad engagement where he failed to Revelate Reynor's Lurkers, but in the end, the sieging power of his Tempests won out over Reynor's lack of credible anti-air defense.

Game Three - Ruby Rock (Reynor win): herO went for his most normal opening thus far in the series, playing the trusty ol' Oracles into Blink Stalkers. Reynor kept the same general game plan from the previous two games, playing Hydras into Lurkers.

herO's gave his mid-game plan another twist, staying on a mostly Stalker-Zealot army (with some Archon support) while teching quickly up to Tempests. herO tried to use his mass Gateway units to keep Reynor at bay, but he found little success against Reynor's quickly assembled Hydra-Lurker composition.

Unable to buy any time with his ground army, herO soon found himself desperately trying to fend off a superior Hydra-Lurker army that was easily shredding his ground forces. By the time herO got a meaningful number of Tempests out, Reynor had already razed too many bases and killed off most of Protoss' ground support units. herO's desperation attack with poorly supported Tempests amounted to nothing, and he conceded his first loss of the series.

Game Four - 10000 Feet (Reynor win): herO got off to a solid start to game four, getting in some decent damage with early Oracle-Adept harassment and following up with Blink-Stalker pressure. This kept Reynor pinned back as herO teched to a Robo-centric composition, adding both Colossus and Disruptors.

However, the situation ended up being not all that bad for Reynor, as he still reached his desired Lurker tech without much delay. Seeing his opponent's composition, Reynor also added Vipers as a crucial counter.

Forgoing Tempests for high-tech ground units meant herO needed to inflict some meaningful damage with his first big attack, but he struggled to achieve anything against Reynor's well-composed force. Instead, it was actually Reynor who got to go on the offensive, utilizing a great two-prong attack to disorient herO and take down a vital fourth base.

herO decided to go semi all-in with his standing army rather than try and reestablish a fourth base, but his Colossus and Disruptors just couldn't make enough away against Reynor's thorny Lurker-Viper defenses (even worse, herO also suffered several Zerg runbys throughout). Even the late arrival of Tempests couldn't turn the tide given the state of herO's economy, and he was eventually forced to GG after running out of steam.

Game Five - Celestial Enclave (herO win): We got another strategical mixup from herO in game five, as he followed his initial Oracles with his first Glaive-Adept tech of the series. However, good scouting and defense from Reynor forced herO to use his Adepts to merely poke around the edges of Zerg territory instead of going for aggressive dives.

Reynor decided to throw herO a curveball this time, transitioning from defensive Roaches into a fast Spire. Unfortunately for him, herO was blind countering him by adding a second Stargate and rushing to a Fleet Beacon—once he scouted the Spire with Oracles, it was simple for him to crank out Phoenixes and totally shut down the first group of Mutas.

With his initial Spire gambit shut down, Reynor changed course by adding several Corruptors to cover for a Roach-Zergling drop. However, herO's constantly probing Phoenixes sniffed out the dropperlords early on, and he delayed the drop for long enough that newly built Void Rays and Carriers could easily mop it up.

This left Reynor in a difficult position, with all of his Lair-tech moves having failed while herO was assembling a Skytoss armada at an extremely accelerated pace. While Reynor hurried to catch up with Hive units, herO was still far ahead of him in adding the Archons and Void Rays to supplement his Carrier force.

Even though Reynor managed to catch herO's army in a poor formation during the game ending fight, the difference in army composition strength couldn't be overcome.

Game Six - White Rabbit (Reynor win): herO decided to give Oracles into Glaives another shot, but once again Reynor caught wind of the strategy and was prepared with defensive Roaches. However, herO still managed to get some key pickoffs against some stray Queens, which seemed to embolden him to continue Adept production and keep up the pressure.

While this did succeed at forcing a Hatchery cancel at the Zerg fourth, herO ended up pushing his aggression a bridge too far (more like all 32 bridges of the Han river too far), suicidally shading his Adepts on top of Reynor's Hydra-Roach force. Reynor welcomed the unexpected gift and counterattacked to get his easiest victory of the series.

Game Seven - Tourmaline (herO win): With only so many unique strategies one can play across fourteen ZvP games, herO looked back to his RO8 match against Serral and went for a Chargelot-Archon timing. With the benefit of having watched herO's previous series, Reynor didn't take any undue damage from the attack, while herO showed some rare moderation and was content to just destroy one of Reynor's outlying bases. From there, herO added Templars and prepped for a Zealot-Archon-Templar strike, while Reynor delayed his Lurker tech slightly to focus on Hydra-Bane play in the mid-game.

herO's attack with Templar support hit a tight window just before Baneling speed was completed, but the advantage was negated as he advanced onto Creep and invited an enveloping engagement from Reynor. herO's force was wiped out, but some well-placed Stasis Wards halted Reynor's counterattack until he could stabilize.

A strong economy kept herO in a decent position despite his army losses, and he looked to go back on the offensive as soon as possible. His two-prong attack while down thirty-some supply seemed unnecessarily risky at first, and it indeed backfired as the detachment of Zealots sent for a runby was massacred by awaiting Zerg defenders. The main portion of the Protoss army with Templars, Immortals, and Archons couldn't find any opening to attack either, and herO ordered them to make a hasty retreat.

At this crucial juncture, herO's mind-virus infected his opponent, and it became Reynor's turn to overextend himself. Seeing a chance to mop up a weakened Protoss army, Reynor gave chase with his Hydralisks and Zerglings. However, Reynor chased down herO for too long and too far off Creep, which resulted in his forces being blanketed by Psionic Storms. herO's reinforcing Zealots quickly arrived on the scene to wipe out the weakened Zerg swarm. The ensuing counterattack from herO (counter-counterattack?) inflicted serious damage to Reynor, giving herO the space to comfortably secure five bases and climb to late-game tech.

Given the tone of the series, it was almost required for herO for to gift Reynor a partial lifeline after taking a commanding lead. A few reckless ground attacks from herO gave Reynor just enough of an opening to try and flip the game in a daring basetrade, where he could hope for a truly fatal mistake from herO. Unfortunately for Reynor, the life preserver herO had thrown him was full of concrete. herO had switched to Tempest production just in time, and just like in previous games in the series, it gave him a huge edge against Reynor's Hydra-Lurker forces.

Even though Reynor did well to get the game down to a 1 base vs 1 base situation, he was hopelessly outmatched when it came to the remaining armies. After vainly chasing after herO's Tempests, Reynor surrendered the final GG.

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