by Wax
A controversial ESL Masters Summer tournament came to perhaps the least controversial ending possible in StarCraft II, with Serral dominating the field to win yet another championship. Even if World Champion Oliveira had competed, and even if the new format hadn’t been so unfavorable to open bracket players, the Finnish Phenom showed a level of play that suggested he might have won all the same. He went 5-0 in series with a lop-sided 14-3 map score, with two of those losses coming against finals opponent GuMiho.
The victory capped off a fantastic four month comeback stretch following IEM Katowice, where Serral had suffered shock elimination at the hands of RagnaroK in the quarterfinals. Since then, Serral has also won the EPT Europe Regional, carried Basilisk to second place midway through the WTL season with a 18-0 individual record, and put up a ridiculous 54-2 match record in all competitions.
Still, there was much more to the tournament than just Serral’s rampage. Similar to DreamHack Atlanta, where Bunny shined nearly as bright as champion herO, runner-up GuMiho almost stole the show from the tournament winner. After a rough first day where he lost to Cure and Dark in the winners’ bracket, GuMiho rallied back in the knockout bracket with a massive upset over Maru. He followed that with surprisingly one-sided victories over Cure and Solar in the playoffs, and he briefly took a 2-1 lead against Serral in a spirited grand finals outing. In particular, his game two victory on Ancient Cistern is likely to be remembered as the best game of the tournament, where he pulled back from an enormous economic deficit through sheer force of multi-tasking.
GuMiho wasn’t the only player to outperform expectations. Solar, long-considered a player who underperformed in live tournaments, made it all the way to the semifinals before he had to cede the way to GuMiho (a 3-2 over Dark was the highlight of his run). Also, Classic continued to build momentum in 2023, reaching the top 8 and earning the best finish among Protoss players. Unfortunately for Protoss fans, this came with the context of herO getting ignominiously bounced from the tournament in the open bracket, losing to Elazer and Creator.
A recap of ESL Summer wouldn’t be complete without mentioning its controversies. The competition was undeniably marred by ESL’s inability to obtain visas in time for Chinese players Oliveira and Coffee. Many fans wondered if Oliveira’s world championship run was more than just a once-in-a-lifetime miracle—unfortunately, we’ll have to wait until August’s Gamers8 to know the answer.
The newly changed format to ESL Summer drew some ire as well. While fans pointed to yet another change to an already complicated format, pros criticized how the open bracket players were put at an extreme disadvantage compared to seeded players.
Not all controversy was self-inflicted by ESL—ByuN’s wrist issues came to the fore again at DreamHack Summer, with the Shopify Terran even forfeiting an early series against Astrea for that reason. ByuN managed to stay in good enough shape to reach the quarterfinals, but ultimately lost 2-3 to Reynor due to a massive throw in game five. While we can’t conclusively say ByuN’s wrist issues directly caused the mistake that led to his defeat (ByuN asked for a wrist-related pause in game four), it was still a deflating conclusion to one of ByuN’s better offline showings.
Finals Recap
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Game One – Royal Blood (Serral win): GuMiho got off to a good start to the series, with his Hellion and Cloaked Banshee harassment putting a dent in Serral’s economy as the EU champ looked to go Roach-Ravager-Infestor. That set GuMiho up to apply intense pressure, doggedly denying his opponent from taking a fourth base.
It looked like GuMiho might grind out a slow, economy-based win, but the game flipped almost instantly once Serral got Vipers out on the field. Vipers helped Serral’s Lurker-Roach-Ling army take a decisive victory against GuMiho’s bio-tank force, all while he initiated backdoor attacks at GuMiho’s natural and third. The combination of losing a frontal battle and having his expansions gutted was too severe a blow for GuMiho to withstand and he GG’d out.
Game Two – Ancient Cistern (GuMiho win): The two players built up in relatively conventional fashion (or as conventional as it can be when GuMiho is involved), with GuMiho going for bio while Serral switched to a Ling-Bane comp. The two armies came to a head in the mid-game, and Serral made the pivotal decision to backdoor with a portion of his army while defending back at home. This backdoor didn’t pay off compared to the army investment, inviting GuMiho to keep pushing forward with bio, Tanks, and Liberators.
Serral kept committing to backdoor attacks, and these subsequent efforts went a lot better. Despite GuMiho holding the supply advantage initially, Serral fought his way back by barely holding the line at home and systematically undercutting GuMiho’s economy. Knowing that defending and trying to rebuild his economy would be pointless, GuMiho decided to use his temporary army advantage to go all-out on offense. This multi-directional barrage found a weakness in Serral’s vaunted defenses, and GuMiho was able to pick off the Baneling Nest (which had been placed in a precarious position in his natural wall).
The Baneling Nest kill was absolutely crucial for GuMiho as he was trailing massively in economy. He intensified his multi-prong bio attacks while Serral could make only Queens and Lings, which put the Finnish Phenom on the ropes. Serral did eventually rebuild his Baneling Nest, but GuMiho still found the knockout blow. The frenzied Terran offense found an empty Zerg main, and Marines gunned down the even more critical spawning pool. Unable to make reinforcements, Serral GG’d out with a 43-to-2 worker advantage.
Game Three – Dragon Scales (GuMiho win): GuMiho got cheesy in game three, opening with proxy-Barracks Reapers. While this tactic went unscouted, pulled off a reasonable defense and preserved his natural base.
However, the real problem for Serral were GuMiho’s follow-ups. He underestimated the strength of the continued Hellion-Reaper pressure, which forced him to cancel a too-hasty third base attempt.
The killer move behind all this was the TWO Starport Battlecruisers coming up, which Serral seemed largely unaware of despite scouting a single Starport. The first BC combined with Reapers to put a huge dent in Serral’s Drone count, and the follow-up BC’s and Hellions ended the game.
Game Four – Babylon (Serral win): Game four played out somewhat similarly to game one, with GuMiho playing bio against Serral’s Roach-Ravager and getting in some early Drone kills with nimble Hellion use. But, as in game one, being put on the back foot didn’t seem to perturb Serral. He simply hung back, absorbed GuMiho’s attacks, and waited until he had both Lurker and Viper tech online.
Once Serral had his full Hive force of Hydra-Roach-Lurker-Viper in the field, it was curtains for GuMiho. The Towel Terran was unable to take any sort of even fight, and he was soon forced to surrender.
Game Five – NeoHumanity (Serral win): Offense was on GuMiho’s mind in game three, as he opened with a 1/1/1-style strategy to get an early cancel on Serral’s third base (at the rich gas third on NeoHumanity). GuMiho didn’t stop there, and committed hard to a non-stim Marine-Tank push as a follow-up.
As it turned out, the third base cancel for Serral was just a minor nuisance, as he simply retook the base and proceeded as normal. When the Marine-Tank push came, he had more than enough Roach-Ravager to completely nullify the assault. In fact, he won so handily on defense that he was able to immediately counterattack with deadly force, wringing another GG out of GuMiho in under seven minutes.
Game Six – Altitude (Serral win): Fortune shined upon GuMiho as he won the build order battle with a CC-first against a toothless pool-first, which he soon after followed up with a Hellion run-by that toasted a handful of Serral’s drones. However, GuMiho did not go bio from this strong economic position, opting instead for his signature mech composition.
Being ahead on economy is usually a prerequisite and for beating mech as Zerg, and Serral seemed to be in a difficult spot with Roach-Ravager-Infestor against a very wealthy Terran. However, navigating out of difficult positions is a Serral specialty, and he fought off the initial Battlemech—and later Thors—to pull himself back onto decent footing. GuMiho himself remained in a good position, but he made the curious decision to tech further up into Battlecruisers while omitting Ghosts entirely—despite having seen plenty of Infestors on Serral’s side.
While we’ve seen other Infestor-equipped Zergs lose the A-move might of mass Thors, Serral refused to fall victim. Judicious use of Neural Parasite, as well as careful preservation of his Infestors, allowed him to take fantastic trades against the BC-Thor Terran force. Serral also found the breathing room to dispatch troops on runby attacks, eroding GuMiho’s economic foundation.
The once mighty mech Terran was slowly whittled down, and eventually reached the position where there were no resources left to remax. In a throwback to game two, GuMiho decided not to reestablish his economy, instead marshaling his forces for a last ditch offensive. However, there would be no reprise of the game two miracle, and Serral closed the series out to claim his second major championship of 2023.
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- Source: https://tl.net/forum/starcraft-2/613110-serral-wins-esl-masters-summer-23
