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The original was posted on /r/starcraft by /u/himmelfried11 on 2024-06-03 15:16:18+00:00.
I’m still kind of in shock about yesterday’s grand finals: How is this even possible? Yes, we all know that Serral is really good, maybe really better than any other pro. But how can it be that he stomps the second best player in such a manner? It wasn’t just a clear win, it was - for the second time - a brutal, ridiculous, devastating stomp. Like someone in masters against a platinum player, as if there were several leagues between the two. But this doesn’t add up with other matches of both players: Oliviera was kind of close to ebating Serral, Maru beat Dark (!) 3-1 in the semifinals - what is the specific asymmetry in Serral vs Maru?
I have some hypothesis and am very interested in your takes:
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Maru does not prepare for Serral: He doesn’t play him often, does not train against him, is used to other zerg strats and for some reason does not specifically prepare for Serral. But why?? Any info on that?
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Serral reads Maru so much better than the other way round, manoeuvring him into desperate / impossible situations with perfect counter play - yet, yesterday Maru didn’t even clearly fail with some super special strats: he simply got stomped every game as if his macro was three leagues worse than Serral - how??
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Trauma / Serral-specific PTSD on the side of Maru
Maybe Serral is Maru’s nemesis, gives him nightmares and tilts him in a offline grand finals in such a way that Maru simply cannot play at his true level anymore. After all, he was the GOAT and then came Serral and took it from him. I think this is pretty plausible, especially after the katowice stomp. But still: how can you be as good as Maru, consistently win tournaments, not get tilted under high pressure, but completely implode against one specific opponent / style? I really can’t wrap my head around it.
Please share your thoughts and insights.