Playoff Recap
BASILISK win WTL Summer

Bracket and standings on Liquipedia

World Team League - 2024 Summer Season

by Nakajin and Wax

The five month journey of WTL Summer ended with BASILISK finally ascending to the throne.

When the superteam entered the WTL at the start of 2023, they were immediately pegged as top tier contenders. The combination of Reynor and Serral—the two best StarCraft 2 players of the 2020’s—looked simply unbeatable on paper, and they took #1 in TL.net's pre-season power rank three seasons in a row.

Yet, BASILISK's thorny road to a championship demonstrated all the quirks and intricacies of the WTL, somehow always going in their opponent's favor. In BASILISK's first playoff run, they were felled by a deadeye sniper in Solar. In their second attempt, they were crushed by the undeniable might of an on-fire ace player in Clem. However, as the saying goes, the third was the charm.

This time, all those factors worked to BASILISK's advantage. Reynor locked in and provided two key snipes against Team Liquid's Clem, while Serral went god-mode to all-kill the defending champions Vitality. It was the theoretical best version of BASILISK, finally manifested in reality.

The new kings of the WTL have arrived, and they may rule the World Team League for a very, very, long time.

(Shoutout to ShoWTimE and Trigger for chipping in with some regular season wins)

Playoffs Recap

Round 1:
PSISTORM-NAVI 4 - 1 Platinum Heroes-R8
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The playoffs began with another episode of the MaxPax show, with the PSISTORM ace nabbing three out of four kills in his team's victory.

The series started off with an enticing appetizer in Kelazhur vs Gerald, with the two players double-KO'ing each other in a pair of back-and-forth macro games.

With the two point men down, MaxPax and Nicoract took the field next. Nicoract took aim at the enemy ace with a pair of 2-base all-ins, but MaxPax took the 2-0 after deflecting both attempts. The fallen Nicoract passed the baton on to Goblin, who took the same approach as his teammate by attempting a pair of 1-base all-ins to try and upset the demure Dane. Unfortunately for the Heroes, the outcome was the same—MaxPax parried the attacks and put his team on the verge of victory.

Goblin was revived as the Heroes' final runner, and facing MaxPax again on Goldenaura, decided to give it a shot in a macro game. However, this approach did not work any better for Goblin and the Heroes, as MaxPax snowballed an early advantage gained by Stalkers into a comfortable mid-game victory.


Round 2:
Team Liquid 4 - 0 PSISTORM-NAVI
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PSISTORM had administered an ace-led beatdown in the playoff opener, but immediately learned what it felt like to be on the receiving end in their very next match.

Liquid opened strong with ace player Clem, while Spirit took on starter duties for PSISTORM. While TvT had often been the cause of Clem's downfall in previous WTL matches, he showed no sign of such weakness in the opener as he took down Spirit 2-0 in a pair of straight-up macro games.

PSISTORM decided to immediately play the MaxPax card, perhaps seeing some hidden edge on the next map in Crimson Court. However, this didn't work out at all for PSISTORM, as Clem used the map's terrain to severely delay MaxPax's fourth base in a slow, macro choke-out. Clem then showed his versatility to win game two, overcoming a slight early-game disadvantage by playing a passive, defensive style to perfection.

This forced PSISTORM to send out Gerald in an unenviable spot, and unsurprisingly, the Polish Protoss failed to pull off a miracle. Gerald tried to catch Clem off guard with 2-Stargate Phoenixes in game one, but Clem brushed off the harassment to win with a timely push. Gerald gave a much better account of himself in game two, but ultimately tapped out in a game that was largely spent defending on his own half of the map.

MaxPax was revived as PSISTORM's final hope, needing to pull off an impossible reverse all-kill. The task was impossible, indeed, as Clem throttled MaxPax on Goldenaura with a series of mid-game Marine-Marauder-Tank pushes.


Round 3:
Shopify Rebellion 2 - 4 Team Liquid
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The Clem buzzsaw continued to rev at maximum speed in Liquid's next match, with the TL ace slicing through three quarters of the Shopify Rebellion line-up.

Shopify made the bold move of sending ace player ByuN out as their starter, while Liquid went for a more measured approach by deploying SKillous to test the waters. Some viewers assumed ByuN would be reserved to snipe Clem at the most opportune time, but Shopify apparently had different plans.

In any case, things worked out for Shopify at first. ByuN took the first map of Ghost River with his signature Marine-Marauder-Medivac multitasking in the early game, and then dismantled SKillous in a longer macro game on Goldenaura.

However, the second match was where sending ByuN out early backfired on Shopify. Liquid had no need to expose their ace, and simply sent out an excellent Terran mirror player in Cure. It took just over 3 minutes for Cure to do his job, fatally punishing ByuN's greed with 2-Barracks Reapers (1 main 1 proxy) on Amphion. The two would then play a much more satisfying game on Post-Youth, where they would take it all the way past the 36 minute mark. ByuN played fantastic StarCraft to get the win, somehow recovering from a 5000/3000 resource deficit through great combat micro and positional play around the remaining expansions.

While Shopify led with three 'hit points' to Liquid's two at this point, that advantage must have felt rather insignificant knowing Clem was waiting in the wings. Indeed, the world champion was rock solid, fending off both Harstem's Blink-Stalker aggression and proxy-Void Ray harassment to take the 2-0. Next, Lambo was selected instead of Scarlett as the Zerg sacrifice to be offered up to Clem, but he did give us an interesting hint of what would come in later matches by playing Muta-Ling-Bane in game two.

With their postseason on the line, ByuN was revived to try and stem Clem's momentum. ByuN risked it all on 2-Barracks proxy Reapers, but Clem showed the same defensive prowess from his earlier playoff matches to completely shut down the cheese. Clem's TvT vulnerability was slightly exposed as he struggled somewhat to snowball his lead, with a poor mid-game fight giving ByuN a lifeline. However, ByuN overextended with drops in his attempt to further close the gap, allowing Clem to recover from the minor setback and seal his team's triumph.


Round 4:
Weibo Gaming 2 - 4 Team Liquid
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PirateTerran and MoustacheTerran got to take a rest against Weibo Gaming, with Cure, SKillous, and Clem all contributing in a great all-around victory for Team Liquid.

Like Shopify, Weibo made the curious choice of sending out their best Terran first, rather than saving him to snipe Clem. This played right into Liquid's hands, as Cure achieved a satisfactory double-KO versus Oliveira in the opening bout. Proxy Reapers were once again the key to success for Cure in game one, as he expertly snowballed his early game advantage into a mid-game win. Oliveira took Cure down with him in game two—capitalizing on a horribly botched Raven engagement—but Cure had already achieved his goal of removing a major threat to Clem.

TL continued to take things at a leisurely pace, giving SKillous a chance to play before unleashing the Clemperor. WBG handed the reins to Jieshi (with soO being the option passed over), and the two Protosses ended up splitting a couple of one-sided games in both directions.

With both teams down to two hit points, it was finally time for the respective aces to take the field. Even herO was averse to taking on Clem in a straight-up game, and started off by going for a 1-base proxy-Adept/DT drop cheese on Amphion (proxying nearly all of his production buildings). However, his build was just too suspicious for Clem to miss, and he scouted the proxy location before it was too late. Clem's safety Viking sniped herO's first Warp Prism seconds after it was produced, making the game unwinnable for the WBG ace. herO went back to a more traditional approach in game two, but it quickly became evident why he had avoided such a course of action as Clem's crisp 2.5-base push was impossible to stop.

Despite the fact that herO had lost six straight maps to Clem in EWC and WTL combined, Weibo still decided their revive was best spent on herO instead of Oliveira. Things went awry from the start, with Clem punishing herO's fast gold expansion on Dynasty with a Hellion runby that scorched over a dozen Probes. From there, Clem put on his Maru hat and played out his lead with excruciating patience, even letting herO recover to a position where both sides were maxed out. However, the supplies definitely didn't tell the whole story in this case, with Clem having a huge tech and positional advantage. When the time was right, Clem closed the game out with Liberators, extending his winning streak to 28 consecutive maps between EWC and WTL.


Semifinals:
BASILISK 5 - 4 Team Liquid
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Last season's playoffs saw these two teams collide in the exact same round, with Clem leading TL to victory with an incredible reverse all-kill performance. The rematch was just as exciting but for a different reason—the two sides fought tooth and nail until the very end, with BASILISK narrowly prevailing in a rare WTL playoff ace match.

TL once again went with Cure as the point man, while BASILISK made the intimidating move of sending Serral out first. The TL Terran gave it a go with standard play in game one, trying to play a defensive style on Amphion. However, the three-time world champion once again proved his mastery at this type of game, easily outgrowing and outpacing Cure in a one-sided victory. Nevertheless, TL got exactly what they wanted out of the series, as Cure's proxy 3-Rax Marine all-in on Crimson Court worked perfectly and tied the series (giving Serral his first map loss of the entire season).

With the BASILISK ace out and Ghost River coming up next, TL slammed on the accelerator and sent out Clem as their second runner. Meanwhile, BASILISK went for the logical choice of ShoWTimE as their next man up. The German Protoss gave Clem his biggest scare of the playoffs up to that point, getting off to a fantastic start by hitting with a devastating Storm drop while also fending off Clem's counter-push back at home. However, Clem showed that his world-best offense is now paired with the world-best defense, hunkering down and forcing a 50/50 map-split from his disadvantageous position. ShoWTimE just couldn't find a way to advance through Clem's line of Planetaries and Liberators, and Clem just slowly chipped away at ShoWTimE until he took his inevitable victory. In hindsight, ShoWTimE may have wanted to go all-in on busting Clem in the mid-game, but such decisions are never easy when playing against a player of Clem's caliber. Indeed, ShoWTimE actually did go for a mass Chargelot-Archon-Templar timing in game two (albeit, without the jump start of a massive Storm drop), but had to tap out to Ghosts after he failed to deal enough damage.

Clem was on a 30-map winning streak at this moment, and fittingly, it was bookended by his old rival Reynor. Succeeding where Serral had failed, the Italian Stallion brought back an old idea, going for a 2-base Spire play on Post-Youth. They proved to be very effective in game one, with their surprise appearance completely shutting down Clem's first move out with two Medivacs. Then, as the game went on, Reynor pivoted to extreme backdoor tactics, maximizing the mobility advantage of his Mutalisks. Clem could never get a sustained offensive going against Reynor's infuriating hit and run tactics, and eventually had to concede his first loss in thirty games. Not content to simply have ended Clem's streak, Reynor punctuated it with another win on Crimson Court—this time catching Clem unaware with a mass Ling-Queen drop in the early game.

SKillous made a brief appearance as Clem took a breather, as Reynor took the 2-0 with a fast Lurker attack on Oceanborn and a cheeky 12-pool Drone+Ling all-in on Goldenaura. That brought Clem right back out onto the battlefield, with Liquid using their revive on their superace.

Back for another go on Crimson Court, Clem brazenly went for a fast 3-CC build despite having lost to an all-in during the previous match. It seemed like Clem might pay the price again versus Reynor's Roach-Ling strike, but his defensive Banshees helped him hold it off with acceptable losses. From there, the two players played out a macro game, skirmishing through the mid-game before settling in for some late-game combat. Reynor initially seemed to have the advantage by getting out Lurkers before Clem was totally ready, but Clems showed his defensive chops by holding firm. Reynor tried to force an end to the game by committing to Hydra-Lurker, but eventually GG'd out against the growing ball of Ghosts. Clem then proceeded to get his own 2-0 against Reynor in an anticlimactic game two on Dynasty, displacing Reynor's walling Queens with a Reaper grenade and dealing crippling early game damage with Hellions.

BASILISK had an interesting choice between Reynor and Serral as their revived player, but they decided to go with Reynor who had kept things close against Clem in both EWC and WTL. Reynor began his third BO2 clash against Clem by going back to a Mutalisk opener, and the two ended up playing a high-octane game reminiscent of the old school TvZ's of WoL and HotS. Reynor's devilish Mutalisk harassment was the key to victory once more, with Clem unable to withstand the constant damage to his economy. Already KO'd for the second and final time, Clem chose the Crimson Court to try to bring Reynor down with him and force an ace match. Reynor went all out to try and finish TL, going for a more ground-centric Ultra-Line-Bane swarm on the narrow map. While the game was extremely close, Clem seemed just slightly more comfortable not having to deal with flocks of Mutalisks constantly raiding his mineral lines, and he ground out a victory at just before the 24 minute mark. With a 3-3 overall record against Clem, Reynor ultimately did end up being the '50/50 man' in a certain sense—but this time it was indisputably a good thing.

With Clem forcing a rarely seen WTL playoff ace match, the two teams were forced to go to their benches for their ace selections (you can't revive a player twice in a WTL playoff match). This gave BASILISK a clear edge, with Serral ready to go against a major underdog in Cure. The makeshift Liquid ace tried to replicate his earlier success with another aggressive strategy, albeit at a totally different timing with a 8-Barracks all-in. However, as is often the case, Serral's defense against such mid-game aggression was airtight, and he shut Cure down to send BASILISK to the grand finals.

Grand Finals:
Vitality 0 - 4 BASILISK
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In our playoffs preview, we said that the WTL championship would come down to match-ups. As it turned out, BASILISK's reward for surviving an extremely difficult match-up against Team Liquid was one of their most favorable match-ups in the finals. It's a bit odd to say anyone has a favorable match-up against the two-time WTL champions, but given the rosters at this point in time, that's just how it worked out for Serral and BASILISK.

Ryung, with no 'good' opponent to take on in the match-up, was sent out first. As for BASILISK, they opened confidently with Serral, with the Finnish Phenom favored against all three members of the Vitality squad. Ryung put up a respectable fight given his position, with his game one on Dynasty being a relatively close affair up until the mid-game. However, Serral's victory was never in doubt once the game reached the later phases, with his mastery of Hive units giving him a certain, if slow, victory. Ryung went for an 8-Rax attempt in game two, but Serral swatted it down easily to go up 2-0.

Maru was up next, looking to overcome his weakness against Serral in this crucial moment. However, there would be no breakthrough. Serral took game one on Oceanborn with ease, nullifying Maru's famed defense with unending swarms of Ling-Bane. Serral then did his best Reynor impression on Crimson Court, controlling the game with Mutalisks before finishing Maru off with overwhelming numbers.

Vitality’s hopes rested on Solar recreating his heroics from the WTL finals two seasons ago, where he sniped Serral and set up his teammates for victory. Unfortunately for Vitality, that was back when Solar was enjoying his brief run as possibly the best ZvZ player in the world, and much had changed since then. Game one saw the two players jump straight into early Roach-Ravager skirmishes, with Serral capitalizing on some poor positioning from Solar to take the victory. Solar then tried to cheese out Serral in game two, cutting Drones at 23 for a Ling-Bane all-in. However, Serral exercised appropriate caution, perfectly balancing Drones and units to win his third straight series.

Needing a reverse all-kill to win the championship, Vitality decided Maru was the best among bad options. Maru opened by trying to play a high-tempo Marine-Medivac style in the mid-game, but found himself stymied at every turn. On the other hand, Serral found openings to counterattack with Ling-Bane, opening up a significant lead. Seeing a chance to finish Maru outright, Serral morphed a number of Dropperlords for a combined air-ground Ling-Bane assault that finished Vitality off and gave BASILISK their first WTL championship.

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