The championship run by Oliveira is still the most unbelievable achievement in SC2 History. Serral's dominance in this tournament is testament to his Goat status.
maru played particularly well here. the games were increadibly even. Serral just never made any mistakes and eventually came out on top every time. he could have easily lost many maps, but he just never did. plenty of times he was on equal supply and upgrades with pure ling bane vs T in the mid game, which is right before the point of no return for zerg.
this series and the one vs Clem actually had many games that were very close, often with Serral having equal supply in the midgame vs terran, which is not a good position for a zerg to be in, but he never made a mistake at those critical moments and eventually won out. in this tournament he was particularly consistent and on point.
I have never seen Serral play this good. This is like God-mode Serral. He was doing everything all over the map. Those infestors play was so deadly. Those queens spreading creep in overlord was a nice touch. The constant harass with lings and nydus too kept Maru on the backfoot. Serral used all the zerg units to perfection, he had the perfect combination of ground units and air units. Serral made Zerg look like it has no flaws. Serral is now officially the Goat.
@@motoboy6666 imagine calling someone the goat but he hasn't won a gsl. that'd be like me saying Jonah Lomu is the greatest winger of all time, but he never won a world cup lol.
@@mis8866 lmao he's been the best by far since 2018, through many zerg nerfs and times where he's the only zerg doing well. the "he hasnt won a gsl" argument is stupid because he doesn't compete in GSL but has stomped GSL champions every time they've played. you're just coping and seething
@naruto7554 Eh. I doubt it. He lost badly to Shin, who then lost to Maru, who then placed 2nd. Oliveira was unstoppable. It was his time, not Serral's.
@@ZC.Andrew the point is, he didnt lose to Shin since he had won game 5 already and left the game for any weird reason. And what happens when he faces Marwho... well we know it know at least. Oliveira was lucky enough not to face Serral in the finals
Serral singlehandedly reviving my excitement for a once considered dead game/scene. More than 70 thousand concurrent viewers tuned in for the finals (42k on main channel + tens of thousands recasts in other languages + youtube livestream). SC2 is more hype than it has ever been. On to the summer World Championship lads, I cannot contain my excitement!
If it wasn't already official, Serral is the Flash of Starcraft 2. Any talk of Maru being the best falls flat watching this. Wasn't even close. 4-0 sweep. Serral is truly the goat.
He truly is. Going 20-1 in a big tournament including the top Koreans and 4-0'ing king Maru is just absolutely baffling. All that's left for Serral is to play random in all future tournaments.
I've mostly been following korean SC2 for the last 10 years or so, but I obviously know the names of some of the best foreign SC2-players. I just didn't realize how much of a BEAST Serral actually is, holy crap.
Not the first time he slapped maru, they go back and forth usually, sadly when serral hit his prime was around the same time maru had wrist injuries and we never saw them at peak preformance (by that i mean at the highlights of their career, not wether or not they gotten better or not)
@@gabapc Yeah that's actually very spot on and I have been out of the loop since the most recent patch. I'm really enjoying his playstyle and I'm definetely going to see if I can't get around to watching more tourneys again.
@@kayDawgTV yea man i could tell you missed it cuz 2018 serral was wild, he went like 8 months without losing a single series, in premier tournaments. For us who followed that domination this tournament wasnt anything new. I havent been watching these last few years but this video was on my recommended so i watched it and he seems even better than back then
Without a doubt, the BEST SC2 player of all time. The man that made me a fan of Starcraft in the first place. Serral. Very well played, Maru. Im happy u were his opponent and undeniably the best Terran. I was praying Clem didnt make it to finals and I thoroughly enjoyed this due to that. I hope to see The GOAT vs Maru matchups again in the future
@@TM-vd3df tbf they should nerf zerg into the ground, they have NO weakness at all currently, theres a reason why MOST tournaments in the last 3 years have been won by zerg. Zerg has more tournament wins then toss AND terran combined. If you swap from P/T you also swap to Z, its never a Zerg player swapping races to say Protoss whys that? Because zerg are the best race in the game.
Serral doing his thing, making Zerg feel like the stuff of nightmares. But damn, Maru was holding on like crazy, even when he was super far behind! The micro from both players on stuff like ghosts, infestors, and little details was just beautiful.
Yeah based on the late game I actually feel like if Maru could have gotten to the late game with an advantage he’d have smashed. Serral has an insane middle game lately
I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but Serral has slowed down from his frantic style of 2018. He has however more than made up for that by making every click precise and with intention, so he is even more deadly now that in his "prime". Every click has thought behind it. The man is truly a beast.
then why were there more terran than zerg in the top 12? and reynor losing most of his games and solar losing to clem if it is 'zerg op' and not 'serral op'? @@GustavAlbrecht-q4e
3/4 top 4 players are terran at kato again and terrans still cant accept their race is strong and their losses are skill issue lol @@GustavAlbrecht-q4e
@@GustavAlbrecht-q4e There are way too many in the moment adjustments in every game for it to be "machine". He has to constantly adjust to massive pressure especially against top end terrans. Every single game vs Maru was on a knife's edge, and he made the plays. It sounds to me like you're more upset that zerg can actually make plays vs terran instead of a critical mass of ghost making for an unwinnable late game.
@@Kassadinftw sorry i have to disagree. imho zerg is just a machine race much more than the others. zerg players can literally play the same strategy every game and win when executed well. just open with queens and roaches and you're safe against everything, then macro expand and overwhelm. they have to scout that's true but they have the best scouting options and the decisions resulting out of scouting are simply whether to continue to drone or not. that's not a hard decision. a terran can't go into games with always the same builds because zerg can abuse predictability more than every other race because of their insane flexibility in macro.
@@drBenyy Maru was bad in game 2, if not for the broken Turtle Terran, he would have lost at least 3 times earlier. Maru's performance was mediocre, Clem played much better.
wooohooo !!! GG Serral!! this guy is an alien.. a machine, I love it! 20-1 the entire tournament.. I am in amazement how he manages to make great players look so small
Game 2 was such a treat for all fans. Dat broodlord transition with the last of Serral's bank and defending with like 10+ ghosts still around was cool to watch. When you're seeing infestors fungaling mules at the last base of the map it had to be a good game. Yeah the score line was 4-0, but everything was super close. Serral just kept making plays, like in game 4 when Maru set up with 13 siege tanks approaching the 3rd, Serral kept counterattacking with just enough. He earned this so hard, Maru threw the kitchen sink at him. Or game 3 pushing into 3 bunkers, I thought that push was never going to break through but it ended the game.
Was not a close series at all. In g2, maru was always behind. G3 is a stomp. G4, you know whenever the surround on cyclones happens, serral gets ahead. Serral is a beast. Maru played well but it was not close.
The SCOURGE of Koreans! I wonder what the top Koreans are thinking seeing someone SO UNSTOPPABLE. There's no waaaaaay anyone would think they could possibly match this man.. He single handedly got the world TREMBLING! 🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮
Haven't watched SC for the last 3 years or so. Coming back to this now seeing Serral still going strong is great! 😊 Some of my favorite games of all time were him vs Showtime. Totally different styles but both were awesome.
the production value was up there with the best if not the best ive seen for SC2 all the picture in pictures and first person cams was really awesome! more first person and more shots from behind the players. very cool to see them actually playing and be able to see there screens too!
Agreed, although Gamers8 might have been the highest production value I have ever seen. Sportswashing or not, the influx of Saudi money is reviving the once considered dead scene of SC2 and I'm all here for it.
I just saw serral reaplays from this and against oliveira. serral is a machine. this guy is unreal. I already knew it from the start when he started his carreer that he is different and will become the best non korean. but he became even better.
Serral vs. Maru, all-time Zerg GOAT vs. Terran GOAT, with great casting, especially from PiG. What an epic series in this grand final match and an era of Starcraft II to witness. The strategies, which these 2 players pulled off during the entire tournament, were phenomenal and defined their incredible style of playing Starcraft.
Despite the loss, round 2 just shows how OP Maru is! Any other Terran would have lost by a 15 minute mark at best under such an onslaught by the Zerg. And it's not even obvious if Maru had to tap out yet given the fact he missed those several minerals at one of his bases.
he could have easily won that game. if he had been able to mine a bit more during the game, he would have won. they had a similar game a few weeks ago that was even closer, and Serral also won just because he barely mined enough to have enough units to win. think about how many tiny decisions along a 30 min game need to consitently go right to win just by having a couple of thousand resources more after the map is mined out. Serral had basically the same resources lost while mining more bases, but never was able to finish him and emptied his whole bank. if he had not made brood lords and infestors with his last resources, he would have lost the game. the level of performance in that game on both sides was absolutely insane.
@@sshreddderr9409 it was smart of Serral to get those minerals close to being mined out before transitioning to Brood lords. He kept the pressure going on till the late stages so Maru have no more minerals to mine later on
@@sshreddderr9409 This is proof that at the highest peak of any sort of competition, the tiniest of details make the difference. There's a lot of minuscule things that could have caused Serral to lose had he not done them. But he has done them, hence he just edged the game.
@@raducora7159 yeah. think about that last game vs the cyclones. he lost because he was repeatedly out of position for multiple ling backstabs. earlier there was an almost identical game on that same map, I believe it was raynor vs clem. the zerg had the same starting position, same army composition, same bases, against cyclone hellion into mass tanks, with similar timings, creep, supply count etc. the reason why raynor lost that game and Serral won is because Serral got into the terrans bases multiple times and disrupted the terran enough to barely be able to push him back right before too many tanks could siege. raynor did not, so the tank count got out of control and once they siege between the bases, its over.
What an incredibly wild tournament this was. A huge congrats to all the players and individuals who helped make Katowice one of the craziest esports tournaments we've seen
What on earth happened to Maru's multitasking in this series? It seemed like every ling run-by had him dragging his entire army back home. Against any other opponent, Maru shows he's confident in his ability to split up his forces appropriately and continue a game-winning push. The intimidation factor is unreal here and the "I don't play better, everyone else just plays worse" comment from Serral is spot on.
I thought Serral might lose the game in Radhuset Station, seeing his minerals dropping straight from 10k to even less than Maru's but he shows once again he could be so calm and steer through the storms. That game might have broke Maru's confidence.
That series was the true finals. Clem pushed Serral to the limit in all 3 games, while Maru just dragged game 2 by turtling making it almost impossible for Serral to kill him, and was destroyed in the other 3 games.
@@OnigoroshiZeroyou are biased. If you understand the difficulty of Terran vs Zerg in Radhuset then you would know that even survive with turtling is difficult against Serral of all people. The truth is, Serral destroyed Clem as much as he destroyed Maru. Clem matches look exciting because both Serral and Clem agree to head to a mid game macro, but Clem never had a chance in all 3 games. Maru know he cannot beat Serral like that so he tried to beat Serral tactical wise, but also had no chance as well.
@@OnigoroshiZero In game 4 there were points where Maru could take it, but than it felt he was mentally struck after 0-3, like couldn't deal with ling runbys.
Being the best SC2 player in 2024 is far more impressive than being the best during SC2 peak popularity years. The game has constantly evolved as players learn from each-other and fine tune the meta game. Being the best right now means having far greater knowledge of the game and being able to apply all this knowledge consistently. It's the same as with games like chess where the maximum MMR is constantly growing with the years. Serral achieved 7460 MMR which is the clearest and most infallible measurement of skill gap there is.
well said! I think people often conflate "peak popularity", "peak prize money" and "peak no. of players" with "peak skill". today's players are far above what was considered top-notch in 2014.
I would not have expected a 4:0 though. all those longer games were very close up to a point, they just all went Serrals way eventually. Same with the 3:0 over Clem. he could have easily lost both series as most games involved him having equal supply in the mid game with similar upgrades, which is very dangerous for the zerg. none of those games looked easy, he just played very well and just never made a mistake at a critical moment.
@@Anthony92815Byun is nowhere close to Serral in terms of skill. raynor, clem, dark, and maru are the only players that are good enough to realistically win a series against Serral. given Serrals consitency and past performance, he is always the favorite cause he is in every sense the best player without any doubt no matter the metric you look at. him going 3:0 against Clem, 4:0 against Maru and 3:1 against Dark is rather surprising, but all of those games were very competitive and close and he could have easily lost a few of those games. he just happened to play particularly well this tournament, and he is statistically expected to win anyway.
@@sshreddderr9409 if you can turtle as zerg in the starting of the game, you are most likely to win the game due to spell casters. Terran never stood a change and don't even think about toss being competitive.
Serral's macro game was nuts, fighting multiple battles and constantly running lings into the workers at the same time was damn near perfect execution.
I feel like all top players do this but he is above the pack: puts himself in the terran mindset (where would I scan in this area?) and puts the infestors in just the right place. Check again, you will see he also lost a lot of infestors, but he was bullying with them the whole game and I suspect it really psyches you out as the opponent. The one infestor was chillin right next to a turret for a while
Oddly enough, Serral has transitioned to all sorts of different ways of doing things over the years with all the zerg nerfs, but never really fell out of contention.
@@marcelbenner993 if they will indicate that they are locked to one unit with delay and u can push it away from others to avoid splash - yes they can :)
stop crying. banelings are already nerfed to the ground. it's just impossible to get a connection now if terran is playing bio. zergs still have to play banelings because there is literally nothing else they can do. @@infomonitor1
Be carefull what you wish for, or you will see 50 banlings buried all over the map :p In my eyes widowmines are the most OP unit in the game, followed by ghosts. Mostly because it takes little focus to set them up but a lot to remove them, while they can do devastating damage for little cost. Honestly, the main cost of a widowmine is the factory productiontime it takes up. The few games i see Serral losing vs Terran, its usually because of widowmines blowing away huge chunks of ling bane. @@infomonitor1
Spoiler!! I cant believe Serral has won AGAIN! Wow and against Maru rightfully So. Amazing performance from both sides, game 2 was crazy. SERRAL IS THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME
Each race should have their own goat maybe. I'm a fan of Maru too. Because of the way he plays and the way the race is designed. He's resilient, he's calm and collected, emotionless at 99% of the time. And his rare occasional smirk when he knows he screwed up is just the cherry on top. As a Terran player, he'll always be my hero.
That morning Joona had awoken from a sleep of exactly eight hours and 15 minutes, as planned. He got out of bed at an exact 90 degree angle, brushed his teeth for exactly 3 and a half minutes, went to the kitchen and poured himself exactly half a litre of pulpless orange juice, all as planned. The temperature is perfect, there are no dietary, hormonal or bacterial imbalances in Joona's body at this time and on his way to the tournament Joona stops to get exactly one coffee and one blueberry muffin, both things he has commissioned the cafe in advance to prepare to his exact meticulous standards each time, this is all exactly as planned. Joona arrives at the tournament in his optimal competitive condition and as planned his music, Eine kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart, has ended the instant he steps into the venue, all according to plan. There are no inconsistencies in Joona's morning, so why wouldn't he 4-0 Maru?
People don't understand the Clem vs. Maru thing. Clem is not on Maru's level; his style is just simply a better matchup vs. Serral. The best 2 players in SC history made it to the finals and the better of the 2 won.
@@HenriqueRJchikisaying zerg is OP undermines the preparation, planning and practice that Serral did to get to this point. Zerg is not OP it’s just that Serral is literally the best SC 2 player right now.
Serral had the same look and attitude with my Tekken rival. Skinny, shy and introverted. My friend played like a machine in Tekken. reflex is out of this world and he was a champion as well in Tekken.
Yeah thats what happens when you play Zerg. Literal braindead race, A move spam, build 3 units the entire game, Zerg is literal why most people quit the game, you just have everything, you have great early, great mid, great end game, great control, flooding capabilty, you outbuild every other race, you can remax instantly after losing an army, banelings can literally destroy a 8k mineral/gas army, burrow, nydas, creep that heals + makes you move quick, impressive holding capabilty with Queens, injection, healing, fast expansion, more expansions, full map control. Meanwhile the other races have weaknesses, Zerg does not.
@@mis8866 The thing about being the best SC2 player of all time (not only subjectively but objectively according to statistics) is that no matter what race you play, you make it seem broken and OP.
name 3 huge open maps in this map pool? hecate, alcyone, oceanborn, goldenaura and hard lead are all terran favoured and full of bridges ramps and chokes. they played one open map and it's the one maru did best on. @@sojourner3300
It was so close, it could have easily been Maru 4-0. Every game had swing moments. Scouting and player decisions defined the results more than any other factor.
serral would crush life i think, the players today are far more skilled and the meta has evolved a lot since then, maru isn't worse than back then and zerg is actually much weaker vs terran now than in life's time
Serral dismantled Clem before this so I knew if he come face to face with Maru, Maru has no chance. Clem is the best terran right now. The only matchup that I think Serral will lose to is if he match up against Solar which has a solid zvz.
I recently had a conversation with someone about Serral. I talked about how he "used to be the number one zerg" and how he hadn't really kept that reputation up lately. I'm ashamed of myself. Apparently Serral just took a small break from really going hard. The way he's dominated these finals shows that he's still the best Zerg in the world.
Unstoppable. Such a fantastic thing to witness. Map 2 especially was a nailbiter right to the end, but that perfect switch to brood lords sealed the deal. Also that greedy gold base with the wall off. Such a nice prepared build. Serral is complete as a player. He has it all.
I heard it said serral said, "at this point, all i do is sit and think about the game, mostly." (Or something along those lines) The only way to beat serral is if your meditation in sc2 is beyond pro level. He had to lose to clem, that last major turney, in order to adapt, learn. He wouldn't go down for mistakes in 2024 katowice. Bcuz Clem was the closest. Battoned down the hatches. Easily the best. Serral. Blue steel. Strategor of strategies. Micro of the macros.. Congrats, 2024, no surprise, u are a beast, the champ.
If Serral himself says he couldnt do any better, you sure as hell know it was peak performance as he is super self critical.
Word
@@marcelbenner993 Excel
Yeah but he could do better because he lost one map. xD
@@elnino221 Sc2 is a game of imperfect information. Sometimes you have to take a gamble.
@@elnino221 It was ZvZ, so its like almost not that :p
Maru is an absolutely inredible player. And that is what makes Serral's achievement unbeliveable.
The championship run by Oliveira is still the most unbelievable achievement in SC2 History. Serral's dominance in this tournament is testament to his Goat status.
@@walden6272 Yea Oliveira last year was somethign else :D
maru played particularly well here. the games were increadibly even. Serral just never made any mistakes and eventually came out on top every time. he could have easily lost many maps, but he just never did. plenty of times he was on equal supply and upgrades with pure ling bane vs T in the mid game, which is right before the point of no return for zerg.
maru第二局为什么不使用渡鸦反隐？
Next to serral he is … ok ☺️
20-1 during the whole tournament, unbelievable.
He has no equal.
this series and the one vs Clem actually had many games that were very close, often with Serral having equal supply in the midgame vs terran, which is not a good position for a zerg to be in, but he never made a mistake at those critical moments and eventually won out. in this tournament he was particularly consistent and on point.
OP
@@sshreddderr9409 Equal supply is completely normal in the midgame against Terran when you're playing ling bane
@@sshreddderr9409 equal supply is bad? Did you consider the economy, the upgrades, the bank going with it?
I have never seen Serral play this good. This is like God-mode Serral. He was doing everything all over the map. Those infestors play was so deadly. Those queens spreading creep in overlord was a nice touch. The constant harass with lings and nydus too kept Maru on the backfoot. Serral used all the zerg units to perfection, he had the perfect combination of ground units and air units. Serral made Zerg look like it has no flaws. Serral is now officially the Goat.
He has been the goat for years
his infestor control is as if he has someone else on another computer just controlling the infestors it's insane
He looks like a god because the race he is playing is fucking DISGUSTING atm.
When zerg was actually balanced, serral wasnt even in the top 15 lol.
@@motoboy6666 imagine calling someone the goat but he hasn't won a gsl.
that'd be like me saying Jonah Lomu is the greatest winger of all time, but he never won a world cup lol.
@@mis8866 lmao he's been the best by far since 2018, through many zerg nerfs and times where he's the only zerg doing well. the "he hasnt won a gsl" argument is stupid because he doesn't compete in GSL but has stomped GSL champions every time they've played. you're just coping and seething
Serral is a freaking grinding machine.. Unstoppable. Strikes back after last year's Katowice...
i bet he would have won last year as well if he knew he had won against Shin already 😢
@naruto7554 Eh. I doubt it. He lost badly to Shin, who then lost to Maru, who then placed 2nd. Oliveira was unstoppable. It was his time, not Serral's.
@@ZC.Andrew the point is, he didnt lose to Shin since he had won game 5 already and left the game for any weird reason. And what happens when he faces Marwho... well we know it know at least. Oliveira was lucky enough not to face Serral in the finals
He plays the broken race so ofc
im so glad too see sc2 esports still going...there nothing like watching sc2. brings back so many memories. no esports matches the same feeling
Serral singlehandedly reviving my excitement for a once considered dead game/scene. More than 70 thousand concurrent viewers tuned in for the finals (42k on main channel + tens of thousands recasts in other languages + youtube livestream). SC2 is more hype than it has ever been. On to the summer World Championship lads, I cannot contain my excitement!
Game 2 is legendary
Maru's smile at 39:03 says everything
It wasn't a smile. It was painful convulsion out of frustration.
Dat infestor got him good
omg amazing pickup thanks. gah the 2 goats
For real.
That game 2 was insane.
If it wasn't already official, Serral is the Flash of Starcraft 2. Any talk of Maru being the best falls flat watching this.
Wasn't even close. 4-0 sweep. Serral is truly the goat.
He truly is. Going 20-1 in a big tournament including the top Koreans and 4-0'ing king Maru is just absolutely baffling. All that's left for Serral is to play random in all future tournaments.
Wouldn’t it be more accurate to say he is the Jaedong of SC2, since he is Zerg?
@@OHOHOHCOME He's not just the best zerg player, he's the best player out of all three races. Flash's Terran was also the best out of all three races.
@@OHOHOHCOME hes saying that serral is as dominant as flash was.
You mean the Jaedong of sc2 … Zerg you know. Flash is Terran
Serral is by far the greatest sc2 player of all time
Rogue is the greatest SC2 player of all time.
😅😅😅😅🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂😂@@jameson5508
@@jameson5508nope, serral is , much more achievements
@@jameson5508 who is rogue?
@@jameson5508 Rouge...
I've mostly been following korean SC2 for the last 10 years or so, but I obviously know the names of some of the best foreign SC2-players. I just didn't realize how much of a BEAST Serral actually is, holy crap.
Not the first time he slapped maru, they go back and forth usually, sadly when serral hit his prime was around the same time maru had wrist injuries and we never saw them at peak preformance (by that i mean at the highlights of their career, not wether or not they gotten better or not)
Serral is the GOAT
Maybe you took a break around 2018?
@@gabapc Yeah that's actually very spot on and I have been out of the loop since the most recent patch. I'm really enjoying his playstyle and I'm definetely going to see if I can't get around to watching more tourneys again.
@@kayDawgTV yea man i could tell you missed it cuz 2018 serral was wild, he went like 8 months without losing a single series, in premier tournaments. For us who followed that domination this tournament wasnt anything new. I havent been watching these last few years but this video was on my recommended so i watched it and he seems even better than back then
Without a doubt, the BEST SC2 player of all time. The man that made me a fan of Starcraft in the first place. Serral.
Very well played, Maru. Im happy u were his opponent and undeniably the best Terran. I was praying Clem didnt make it to finals and I thoroughly enjoyed this due to that. I hope to see The GOAT vs Maru matchups again in the future
Definitely appreciate having the post game interview. Makes the ending satisfying.
The winner was predictable, but holy shit is Serral playing on god mode. Absolutely insane. It feels like he's on a tier of his own.
Blizzard: "time to balance-patch this guy "
@@TM-vd3df haven't they done that already?
@@TM-vd3dfif player == Serral al units los 10% health
S+++++
@@TM-vd3df tbf they should nerf zerg into the ground, they have NO weakness at all currently, theres a reason why MOST tournaments in the last 3 years have been won by zerg.
Zerg has more tournament wins then toss AND terran combined.
If you swap from P/T you also swap to Z, its never a Zerg player swapping races to say Protoss whys that? Because zerg are the best race in the game.
Serral doing his thing, making Zerg feel like the stuff of nightmares. But damn, Maru was holding on like crazy, even when he was super far behind! The micro from both players on stuff like ghosts, infestors, and little details was just beautiful.
Yeah based on the late game I actually feel like if Maru could have gotten to the late game with an advantage he’d have smashed. Serral has an insane middle game lately
I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but Serral has slowed down from his frantic style of 2018. He has however more than made up for that by making every click precise and with intention, so he is even more deadly now that in his "prime". Every click has thought behind it. The man is truly a beast.
i don't like this playstyle i have to admit it's too machine and the problem is zerg
then why were there more terran than zerg in the top 12? and reynor losing most of his games and solar losing to clem if it is 'zerg op' and not 'serral op'? @@GustavAlbrecht-q4e
3/4 top 4 players are terran at kato again and terrans still cant accept their race is strong and their losses are skill issue lol @@GustavAlbrecht-q4e
@@GustavAlbrecht-q4e There are way too many in the moment adjustments in every game for it to be "machine". He has to constantly adjust to massive pressure especially against top end terrans. Every single game vs Maru was on a knife's edge, and he made the plays. It sounds to me like you're more upset that zerg can actually make plays vs terran instead of a critical mass of ghost making for an unwinnable late game.
@@Kassadinftw sorry i have to disagree. imho zerg is just a machine race much more than the others. zerg players can literally play the same strategy every game and win when executed well. just open with queens and roaches and you're safe against everything, then macro expand and overwhelm. they have to scout that's true but they have the best scouting options and the decisions resulting out of scouting are simply whether to continue to drone or not. that's not a hard decision. a terran can't go into games with always the same builds because zerg can abuse predictability more than every other race because of their insane flexibility in macro.
Game 2 was epic!❤
he still got spanked 4-0. Didnt matter.
It’s actually ridiculous how well Maru played that game and STILL lost.
@@drBenyyIt's more ridiculous how Serral 4-0'ed the best Terran in the world in the supposed Terran patch.
@@drBenyy Maru was bad in game 2, if not for the broken Turtle Terran, he would have lost at least 3 times earlier. Maru's performance was mediocre, Clem played much better.
@@shapowlow 'supposed' Terran patch? TvZ in GM right now is about 56% WR for Terran. There's no 'supposed' here.
As someone who watched early HOTS but haven't in a while, it's wild to see these OG's still duking it out
wooohooo !!! GG Serral!! this guy is an alien.. a machine, I love it! 20-1 the entire tournament.. I am in amazement how he manages to make great players look so small
Game 2 was such a treat for all fans. Dat broodlord transition with the last of Serral's bank and defending with like 10+ ghosts still around was cool to watch. When you're seeing infestors fungaling mules at the last base of the map it had to be a good game. Yeah the score line was 4-0, but everything was super close. Serral just kept making plays, like in game 4 when Maru set up with 13 siege tanks approaching the 3rd, Serral kept counterattacking with just enough. He earned this so hard, Maru threw the kitchen sink at him. Or game 3 pushing into 3 bunkers, I thought that push was never going to break through but it ended the game.
Was not a close series at all. In g2, maru was always behind.
G3 is a stomp.
G4, you know whenever the surround on cyclones happens, serral gets ahead.
Serral is a beast. Maru played well but it was not close.
Serral doesn't forget upgrades. Just assume it's part of the plan every time xD
who else is watching this instead of the super bowl?
Who else is not a US American who thinks the world revolves around them?
lol, super bowl.
I'm american and i also agree, superbowl is overrated.
Me
@@victorerzikoff1203 Who else isn't in the mood to make jerk comments for literally zero reason ✋
The SCOURGE of Koreans! I wonder what the top Koreans are thinking seeing someone SO UNSTOPPABLE. There's no waaaaaay anyone would think they could possibly match this man..
He single handedly got the world TREMBLING! 🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮
Haven't watched SC for the last 3 years or so. Coming back to this now seeing Serral still going strong is great! 😊 Some of my favorite games of all time were him vs Showtime. Totally different styles but both were awesome.
When you go 0-3 clem its gameover for everyone..
Fact
0:4 Maru 😱
It also surprised me and I thought Clem just had a bad day. It turns out Serral is just so much better than anyone else.
The only other person in world history who has gone 0-3 against Clem in recent times is MaxPax and he is literally a Protoss Prince so....
0-3 Clem is one thing especially when Clem is in top form... but 0-4ing Maru is flat insane.
I think that's the first time I have ever seen Radhuset Station getting mined out. Insane series.
the production value was up there with the best if not the best ive seen for SC2 all the picture in pictures and first person cams was really awesome! more first person and more shots from behind the players. very cool to see them actually playing and be able to see there screens too!
Agreed, although Gamers8 might have been the highest production value I have ever seen. Sportswashing or not, the influx of Saudi money is reviving the once considered dead scene of SC2 and I'm all here for it.
I just saw serral reaplays from this and against oliveira. serral is a machine. this guy is unreal. I already knew it from the start when he started his carreer that he is different and will become the best non korean. but he became even better.
Congrats Serral... 4-0 is just an amazing result in GF
Its the third time i've seen this grand final... Definetly one of the greatest series of the history of SC2
When I watched first game, it was amazing. Didn’t expect 2nd game to be phenomenal!
Serral vs. Maru, all-time Zerg GOAT vs. Terran GOAT, with great casting, especially from PiG. What an epic series in this grand final match and an era of Starcraft II to witness. The strategies, which these 2 players pulled off during the entire tournament, were phenomenal and defined their incredible style of playing Starcraft.
Although it looks the opposite from the score, the competition is really intense. Both masters are unbelievable. Respects to Serral.
It's been so long since the last time these 2 met in a finals! What a great series!
Despite the loss, round 2 just shows how OP Maru is! Any other Terran would have lost by a 15 minute mark at best under such an onslaught by the Zerg. And it's not even obvious if Maru had to tap out yet given the fact he missed those several minerals at one of his bases.
he could have easily won that game. if he had been able to mine a bit more during the game, he would have won. they had a similar game a few weeks ago that was even closer, and Serral also won just because he barely mined enough to have enough units to win.
think about how many tiny decisions along a 30 min game need to consitently go right to win just by having a couple of thousand resources more after the map is mined out. Serral had basically the same resources lost while mining more bases, but never was able to finish him and emptied his whole bank. if he had not made brood lords and infestors with his last resources, he would have lost the game. the level of performance in that game on both sides was absolutely insane.
@@sshreddderr9409 it was smart of Serral to get those minerals close to being mined out before transitioning to Brood lords. He kept the pressure going on till the late stages so Maru have no more minerals to mine later on
@@sshreddderr9409 This is proof that at the highest peak of any sort of competition, the tiniest of details make the difference. There's a lot of minuscule things that could have caused Serral to lose had he not done them. But he has done them, hence he just edged the game.
@@raducora7159 yeah. think about that last game vs the cyclones. he lost because he was repeatedly out of position for multiple ling backstabs. earlier there was an almost identical game on that same map, I believe it was raynor vs clem. the zerg had the same starting position, same army composition, same bases, against cyclone hellion into mass tanks, with similar timings, creep, supply count etc. the reason why raynor lost that game and Serral won is because Serral got into the terrans bases multiple times and disrupted the terran enough to barely be able to push him back right before too many tanks could siege. raynor did not, so the tank count got out of control and once they siege between the bases, its over.
What an incredibly wild tournament this was. A huge congrats to all the players and individuals who helped make Katowice one of the craziest esports tournaments we've seen
What on earth happened to Maru's multitasking in this series? It seemed like every ling run-by had him dragging his entire army back home. Against any other opponent, Maru shows he's confident in his ability to split up his forces appropriately and continue a game-winning push. The intimidation factor is unreal here and the "I don't play better, everyone else just plays worse" comment from Serral is spot on.
felt like mentally checked out after game 2, played his peak and wasn't enough, threw half his army away defending g3, didn't care about runbys.
maybe live stage
unreal player Serral is a freak ... Like this guy is unbelievable. Bravo and very entertaining to watch !!
The fighting for the last minerals on the second map was phenomenal
Amazing to see serral in prime form, 6 years after his blizzcon victory, humble and amazing champion.
I thought Serral might lose the game in Radhuset Station, seeing his minerals dropping straight from 10k to even less than Maru's but he shows once again he could be so calm and steer through the storms. That game might have broke Maru's confidence.
To be expected. Serral was a beast leading up to IEM. As soon as Serral beat Clem i knew he will be champion.
That series was the true finals.
Clem pushed Serral to the limit in all 3 games, while Maru just dragged game 2 by turtling making it almost impossible for Serral to kill him, and was destroyed in the other 3 games.
@@OnigoroshiZeroyou are biased. If you understand the difficulty of Terran vs Zerg in Radhuset then you would know that even survive with turtling is difficult against Serral of all people. The truth is, Serral destroyed Clem as much as he destroyed Maru. Clem matches look exciting because both Serral and Clem agree to head to a mid game macro, but Clem never had a chance in all 3 games. Maru know he cannot beat Serral like that so he tried to beat Serral tactical wise, but also had no chance as well.
@@OnigoroshiZero In game 4 there were points where Maru could take it, but than it felt he was mentally struck after 0-3, like couldn't deal with ling runbys.
Being the best SC2 player in 2024 is far more impressive than being the best during SC2 peak popularity years. The game has constantly evolved as players learn from each-other and fine tune the meta game. Being the best right now means having far greater knowledge of the game and being able to apply all this knowledge consistently. It's the same as with games like chess where the maximum MMR is constantly growing with the years. Serral achieved 7460 MMR which is the clearest and most infallible measurement of skill gap there is.
well said! I think people often conflate "peak popularity", "peak prize money" and "peak no. of players" with "peak skill". today's players are far above what was considered top-notch in 2014.
Spoiler alert!!! Like to que to top.
Too late, 😢
I know same here 😞
Great
Maru and Serral dominated this tournament. Serral dominating Maru is just WOW.
Easy to forget just how good he is. Bravo sir!
So many fans wanted Serral vs Maru, well there you have it.
I always knew this will be the result.
🐐🐐🐐🐐
I would not have expected a 4:0 though. all those longer games were very close up to a point, they just all went Serrals way eventually. Same with the 3:0 over Clem. he could have easily lost both series as most games involved him having equal supply in the mid game with similar upgrades, which is very dangerous for the zerg. none of those games looked easy, he just played very well and just never made a mistake at a critical moment.
@@sshreddderr9409 Lets not forgot that Serral also annihilated Byun 2-0 in the group.
@@Anthony92815Byun is nowhere close to Serral in terms of skill. raynor, clem, dark, and maru are the only players that are good enough to realistically win a series against Serral. given Serrals consitency and past performance, he is always the favorite cause he is in every sense the best player without any doubt no matter the metric you look at.
him going 3:0 against Clem, 4:0 against Maru and 3:1 against Dark is rather surprising, but all of those games were very competitive and close and he could have easily lost a few of those games. he just happened to play particularly well this tournament, and he is statistically expected to win anyway.
@@sshreddderr9409 if you can turtle as zerg in the starting of the game, you are most likely to win the game due to spell casters. Terran never stood a change and don't even think about toss being competitive.
Watching these two play is just a gift to all of us.
Serral the GOAT, confirmed once again. Devastating high skill.
Serral's macro game was nuts, fighting multiple battles and constantly running lings into the workers at the same time was damn near perfect execution.
Serral makes me proud for Finland
To beat Maru like this, so crushing, in MMR this should be the equivalent to 8K MMR. So perfect
when you scan the entire map ... except one little tiny spot that so happens to be where Serral is hiding his Infestor... of course haha
I feel like all top players do this but he is above the pack: puts himself in the terran mindset (where would I scan in this area?) and puts the infestors in just the right place. Check again, you will see he also lost a lot of infestors, but he was bullying with them the whole game and I suspect it really psyches you out as the opponent. The one infestor was chillin right next to a turret for a while
seeing him not once just build a raven to follow his army around had me scratching my head
5/8 in ro8 was terran. Angry platinum terrans: “uhhhh zerg soooo ”imbaaaaaaa” 😢😢😢😢
What the f. Maru didn’t even get to play the way he likes. What a monster Serral has become. Congratulations to Serral.
Oddly enough, Serral has transitioned to all sorts of different ways of doing things over the years with all the zerg nerfs, but never really fell out of contention.
Wooohooo ! We are allowed to see production from time to time !
Serral will get zerg nerfed up to the point that they can only build workers. And still he'll win pretty much everything out there :)
Just make banelings do friendly fire dmg like mines and youll see where all best zergs will end up ;)
@@infomonitor1
So banes then will also be able to burrow and auto-shot bypassing enemies?
@@marcelbenner993 if they will indicate that they are locked to one unit with delay and u can push it away from others to avoid splash - yes they can :)
stop crying. banelings are already nerfed to the ground. it's just impossible to get a connection now if terran is playing bio. zergs still have to play banelings because there is literally nothing else they can do. @@infomonitor1
Be carefull what you wish for, or you will see 50 banlings buried all over the map :p
In my eyes widowmines are the most OP unit in the game, followed by ghosts. Mostly because it takes little focus to set them up but a lot to remove them, while they can do devastating damage for little cost. Honestly, the main cost of a widowmine is the factory productiontime it takes up. The few games i see Serral losing vs Terran, its usually because of widowmines blowing away huge chunks of ling bane. @@infomonitor1
GG maru the game 2 is simpli epic
PERKELE!
The title is in Europe, what a performance Serral is the greatest
This serral dude is really good at SC2, he should try going pro
The finnish-korean war is real.
Spoiler!!
I cant believe Serral has won AGAIN! Wow and against Maru rightfully So. Amazing performance from both sides, game 2 was crazy. SERRAL IS THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME
If he will win with every race then Yes, for now zerg is best and statistixs filmów that
@infomonitor1 if that was true, why is was not a ZvZ?
@@davidandino3799 because they fought in semifinals? :) ladder was 'made' this way that ZvZ was not possible in finals.
@@infomonitor1 i see
Each race should have their own goat maybe. I'm a fan of Maru too. Because of the way he plays and the way the race is designed. He's resilient, he's calm and collected, emotionless at 99% of the time. And his rare occasional smirk when he knows he screwed up is just the cherry on top. As a Terran player, he'll always be my hero.
Agree, Maru is very good and calm as a player, and i, as a zerg player am a bit sad that Serral didnt even shake Marus hand :(
These 2 are the clear goats for their races. Poor protoss doesn't win enough tournaments for me to have a solid grasp on who the goat toss is 😂
The man is a machine!
That morning Joona had awoken from a sleep of exactly eight hours and 15 minutes, as planned. He got out of bed at an exact 90 degree angle, brushed his teeth for exactly 3 and a half minutes, went to the kitchen and poured himself exactly half a litre of pulpless orange juice, all as planned. The temperature is perfect, there are no dietary, hormonal or bacterial imbalances in Joona's body at this time and on his way to the tournament Joona stops to get exactly one coffee and one blueberry muffin, both things he has commissioned the cafe in advance to prepare to his exact meticulous standards each time, this is all exactly as planned.
Joona arrives at the tournament in his optimal competitive condition and as planned his music, Eine kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart, has ended the instant he steps into the venue, all according to plan.
There are no inconsistencies in Joona's morning, so why wouldn't he 4-0 Maru?
Mew2king LOL
Game 2 was epic holy
dang that infestors. both are super amazing . serral is like a map hack it self. what a player.
People don't understand the Clem vs. Maru thing. Clem is not on Maru's level; his style is just simply a better matchup vs. Serral. The best 2 players in SC history made it to the finals and the better of the 2 won.
Clem is insane but nowhere near Maru’s skill level. Maybe in another year or two if the scene continues
Goat tournament run, mesmerizing to watch.
This is my Super Bowl
holy crap !! Serral just unlocked God Mode .
all tournament long he just slapped everyone around like they were nothing ! 😮
Serral just once and for all proven he is the GOAT.
Only proving Zerg is overpowered shrug
@@HenriqueRJchikisaying zerg is OP undermines the preparation, planning and practice that Serral did to get to this point. Zerg is not OP it’s just that Serral is literally the best SC 2 player right now.
@@neuralgiant Nah, zerg is op.
@@HenriqueRJchiki 5 of the top 8 this tourney were Terran.
@@HenriqueRJchiki5/8 terran in ro 8 “zerg op” lmao. Angry platinum terran spotted
Serral had the same look and attitude with my Tekken rival. Skinny, shy and introverted. My friend played like a machine in Tekken. reflex is out of this world and he was a champion as well in Tekken.
Serral's form is unbelievable right now, pretty sure he's unbeatable in any series
GG - wish it lasted a little longer but at the same time, i'm glad my boi serral stomped the best terran ever.
The hardest part of the tourney for Serral was lifting the trophy.
Haha that made me chuckle
Yeah thats what happens when you play Zerg.
Literal braindead race, A move spam, build 3 units the entire game, Zerg is literal why most people quit the game, you just have everything, you have great early, great mid, great end game, great control, flooding capabilty, you outbuild every other race, you can remax instantly after losing an army, banelings can literally destroy a 8k mineral/gas army, burrow, nydas, creep that heals + makes you move quick, impressive holding capabilty with Queens, injection, healing, fast expansion, more expansions, full map control.
Meanwhile the other races have weaknesses, Zerg does not.
@@mis8866 5 terrans 3 zergs on quarter finals. Wonder how that happened. Not only that but the least played race in the tourney was Zerg. Weird.
@mis8866 There are no other top Zergs who can do what Serral just did against Maru. Yes Zerg is OP. But Serral is even more OP.
@@mis8866 The thing about being the best SC2 player of all time (not only subjectively but objectively according to statistics) is that no matter what race you play, you make it seem broken and OP.
Love seing Serral win with Zerg. Usually Terran is too efficient against Zerg, so fun to see Zerg being able to win against Terran
When a lot of the maps are huge open maps, terrains are at significant disadvantage w/o choke points
name 3 huge open maps in this map pool? hecate, alcyone, oceanborn, goldenaura and hard lead are all terran favoured and full of bridges ramps and chokes. they played one open map and it's the one maru did best on. @@sojourner3300
Unstoppable. Serral play in GSL.
Amazing video. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you
What a series.
Once again Serral proving he's the best on the planet.
Big fan but F Serral man - Zerg just gets nerfed because of him and I'm just a lowly fck***ng zergling out there being punished because of him lol
He was responsible for many zerg nerf I believe.
It's like serral contols every single unit.. amazing.
What.a machine... Serral.is the magnus carlsen of SC2
Serral is a beast, still expected that series would be a bit more equal. Maru slipped a tiny bit recently, but still is super strong
It was so close, it could have easily been Maru 4-0. Every game had swing moments. Scouting and player decisions defined the results more than any other factor.
Agree, seen maru play much better. But was it because serral gave him no room to play his game? Fans of both, Gratz to serral
I just wish there was a Serral vs Life in my Lifetime... just too bad
Yeah, me too! 🎉
Man life I feel so old still remember life vs maru 2015 iem was one of the best series ever.
serral would crush life i think, the players today are far more skilled and the meta has evolved a lot since then, maru isn't worse than back then and zerg is actually much weaker vs terran now than in life's time
Nah ZvT way more I interesting than a ZvZ
it doesn't make sense, it's like wanting to watch magnus carlsen crush paul morphy
This is what it looks like when the GOAT goes GOD mode.
Going 20-1 the whole tournament. Impossible!
Serral dismantled Clem before this so I knew if he come face to face with Maru, Maru has no chance. Clem is the best terran right now. The only matchup that I think Serral will lose to is if he match up against Solar which has a solid zvz.
Amazing series, clem, dark, maru. Wow. Gj serral!
I recently had a conversation with someone about Serral. I talked about how he "used to be the number one zerg" and how he hadn't really kept that reputation up lately. I'm ashamed of myself. Apparently Serral just took a small break from really going hard. The way he's dominated these finals shows that he's still the best Zerg in the world.
Nice combo casting :) PiG for the win, good synergy with Wardi. High tier. There should be caster names in screen
Unstoppable. Such a fantastic thing to witness. Map 2 especially was a nailbiter right to the end, but that perfect switch to brood lords sealed the deal.
Also that greedy gold base with the wall off. Such a nice prepared build. Serral is complete as a player. He has it all.
Well at this point i would say. Serral is the best Sc2 player EVER !
I could watch Serral win every day :)
It’s unbelievable how good Serral is at this game. He would win 90% of GSLs if he participated in them
I heard it said serral said, "at this point, all i do is sit and think about the game, mostly." (Or something along those lines)
The only way to beat serral is if your meditation in sc2 is beyond pro level.
He had to lose to clem, that last major turney, in order to adapt, learn.
He wouldn't go down for mistakes in 2024 katowice.
Bcuz Clem was the closest.
Battoned down the hatches.
Easily the best.
Serral.
Blue steel. Strategor of strategies. Micro of the macros..
Congrats, 2024, no surprise, u are a beast, the champ.
He also was sick (like some Koreans) in Atlanta... there, he couldn't play his A-game.
Amazing 2024 those guys are still playing at their top game.
Serral is the overmind
Damn Serral is too strong! What a formidable player!!