Maru vs. Serral – ESL SC2 Masters: Spring 2024 Finals – Grand Final

You’re watching the ESL SC2 Masters: Spring 2024 Finals, broadcasted from May 31st to June 2nd

ESL SC2 Masters Spring is the penultimate event of the 23/24 season of ESL StarCraft II Pro Tour: new up & coming players joining the glorious StarCraft champions are ready to compete for a $100,000 prize pool and four direct slots in the record-breaking StarCraft II Championship at the Esports World Cup with $1,000,000 prize pool. The tournament is played across three days, from May 31st to June 2nd, at DreamHack Dallas.

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[Music] [Music] the rematch of imem Cavita 2024 is here we are getting into post youth for the first game of this best of seven it’s time to cry out loud guys for your fan favorites in the bottom left of post youth for team basilisk he is [Applause] military service has not slowed him down at all has looked very fantastic but his opponent in the top right he has just been like a hot knife through butter building up momentum as he’s played this tournament representing Vitality in the top right side of the map looking for Revenge from their last finals let’s see if he can do it everybody put your hands together for Maru the Undisputed greatest of alltime players right here you choose one or the other who will actually reign supreme here today as Maru starts off with a TX on this very unique map SEL starting off with a hatch first but then going into a very specific area for that spawning pool Pig yeah a little bit of a semi wall off there on the ramp the 15 Hatcher 15 pool means he’s going to be able to get out those Queens very early on which will help him to flect this early double Reaper aggression Maru wanted to put on that and he will be looking to of course delay s from that third base it’s such a big distance on this map down to the third and I think if Maru wants to commit even just to three Reapers if he wants to go up to four it’s going to take forever for S to get down there would not be surprised if SEL just kind of slowly takes his time on Four Queens works his way because keep in mind no gas for sterile just yet this is a super mineral focused opening and he’s looking to just kind of build up on his two base and not really let himself bother with worrying about Maru delaying the third base he’s like it’s fine I’ll build Four Queens I’ll make about a billion drones this is absolutely okay because Maru is delaying his Command Center by about 30 seconds to get that second Barracks up and s’s going to realize this that it is in fact two racks now keeping your overlord around to see exactly how many Reapers pop out is a dangerous t they could transfer over into Marines and actually try and get that Overlord kill thus also blinding the Zerg player for that mid game so as you said it could be three could be four could be five but if you go above three you’re kind of hoping for maybe straight up a canceled Hatchery which if yes SEL was comfortable not going for it uh would not be a problem but sarl actually does add on the Hatchery Maru can go ahead and check that in a seconds and then again the question can he get the cancel if he goes up to More Than Three Reaper oh risky Reaper move here will he get punish the Queen’s trying to of course sh it it into the corner Maru looking for damage get some momentum at the start of this already a drone does go down but the reapers are deep inside the territory second drone goes down no more sport tricks serl starting to slip up a little under pressure Maru starting this series off with a huge amount of momentum those drones pulling back the weak one several trying to make sure things don’t get out of hand nice Evo chamber block on the right side no getting out of there beautiful move right there with the drones being pulled in as well successful catch on the two Reapers two more still in play as Maro has added on not just a natural but also a third CC moving over into that factory right there so Maru decided to go for the Drone kills which really did limit his ability to even get to that Hatchery if he had gone to it immediately that would have been hopefully the cancel but he wed the drones he got three and then had a very unfortunate close in on those Evolution Chambers and that is a wonderful start uh well would don’t say wonderful but that was a wonderful move from SEL and an interesting start to both of these games both these players we got a Marauder on the way interesting ly enough which the Lings are about to see nibbling on the barracks as they are yeah an interesting choice the mar there it is a bit more expensive doesn’t shoot up either can’t deny overlords I don’t think there’s any real purpose to that not sure if it was a misclick or not sell only now starting to mine gas so he’s adding a second gas he’s up on 44 workers overall I think the way the dust settles is quite fine for sterile the fact that that third Hatchery went up unnoticed yeah Maru killed three drones delayed some mining but at the end of it your three Hatchery Gast this is such a greedy build and look how easily s bounces back from those early drone losses yeah absolutely Maro was supposed to have all of his Reapers together still four of them really being a pest here and actually just lost another one so it feels like things have quickly turned around on Maru who initially got up to that main base and seemed like he was have free rain he indeed did not Sims on the way starport as well Sarah is adding on the roach warn as I speak lir on the way too we did have some uh guesses to how this would look from for instance Rainer and we were talking about it in the Green Room to have SEL play a very safe game centered around roaches and getting to the lake game can be uh well his safe space right if Maro can actually break through that then more power to him but that is going to be the struggle that is upcoming no link speed just yet but already a gold Bas Hatchery starting for STL I think St sens that he’s ahead and this is a scary spot stl’s normally not a greedy player but if he gets ahead he will absolutely push that economy he will build that advantage and if you can get that gold base secured creep out in front of it to swarm with roach ravager can be a fearsome thing for Maru to worry about now Maru is going for that forward Third Base that sets him up for a lovely push angle right towards sel’s gold there’s a nice High Ground above it and usually this game the reason this map is Teran favored is it’s these Ledges it’s these choke points like tanks layered behind all these little bits of terrain it becomes very hard for Zerg to deal with however if you’re on Ling Bane it’s worse if you’ve got the ravages you can buy all those tanks kind of run in move in shoot them down and run away so I think s’s chosen a really nice St to open but I do expect melee carace this start we do see the melee it’s going to be like straight back into zerglings in the line yeah so it’s not going to be a huge swell of one-1 roaches guys for an all into Maru SEL is going to end up playing defensively minded Maru is the one who’s a tasked to try and get some damage done he does have a very short point from his third cc to that fourth hatch SEL of course knowledgeable about that knows that he has to be prepared constant scouting as well he’s not going to be um in without the know and so he even knows where the Army is tracking and roaches are on the job no problem so we got more axes on the way combat Shields as well sell already adding infestation pits as he has deflected the first drops no problem 16 worker Advantage for seral right now his banel now beginning and of course preparing to go for Hive and massling Bane as the next step Maru trailing in Supply but that is standard for a Terran player the question is what happens next You’ve Got 2 two you’ve got vehicle weapons fifth gas goes down is there a second Factory is there a fourth commen is Maru going to play the late game that he’s so famously excellent at but in the past has had mixed results against SEL you know Cel has been one of the few players who can take him down in the late game and he often focuses on timing attacks to try and put seral on the ropes early in the series and so far it doesn’t really seem like we we see a sign of like okay just a straight up all out commitment a few extra tech labs are coming in so there’s going to be a heavier mix of marauders than usual a very ala style so far sell did have experience against that but showed that it was a very dangerous build very dangerous style for him to go up against Al really pushed him to to the limits and Maru might a to push him a little bit more that would generally be the consensus of the community Sarah will have his 1-1 finish up but Maru is already on his way to 221 it is not going to be an eight RX all in from Aran fourth CC does get slapped down but it is still a more biofocus style of Play No second Factory as of yet there it does come down now but we already have those Marauders being added in scan on the hive there for Maro now he knows exactly where Sarah is Sarah wisely stopping at 76 drones I think we saw how hard it can be to defend these maxed out Teran armies when you’ve got 85 90 drones with how well they get positioned Ola caused a lot of problems for players and we saw this more like dark style of just mid 70s on the workers have a huge Army out that’s going to help make up for the fact that these roaches and ravages are somewhat Supply inefficient he’s chasing this down actually Maru wanting to get as much as possible ooh almost late to that pickup only loses a couple of units there beautiful defense I love the tank situation back at home for Maru hoping to also negate some of the potential runbys later on with a wall on the left side in Bunker as well additional Barracks now that you’ve got that fourth CC we could be going into a very long game indeed SEL still not building up a giant income he’s focusing on having a large standing army he wants Maru to push into him because if he does Sarah Will Spring a massive swarm of Zerg look at that army supply difference 35 oh there we go 40 40 armies toly difference 45 even for St that is ridic ridiculous if you go across and drop with three medac and s just goes for it he can probably bust in even with the tanks on The High Ground oh and that Ling just saw the medac as well three metax of units now away from the defense of Maru what is thos tro going to be play safe defend this first and foremost as Maru also knowing he got scouted just unloads we’re actually try and find this opening at the very least if you get Lings on top of the tank that could be very efficient but that is also a wall there to break down potentially not a full one s seems to be thinking about it breaking down the Rocks they close by he is getting some resources sunked into the upgrades burrow Juno glands and an ultral Cavern so he does need to be careful about pulling the trigger and going for a big attack but he had the option perhaps to at least scuffle with the fourth base doesn’t actually happen Maro played safe two as well once he was scouted he just pulls back I’m not sure if we saw vipers this game I’ve been wondering where they are normally that’s one of the first things you power up when the hive comes out but there they okay so they are hovering with the Army four blinding clouds available going to be very effective for nullifying a tank from firing believe it only lasts about 6 or 7 Seconds though it does wear off pretty quickly here we go s’s going to go for it the tank positioning is great up here Vikings out front as well which means those viers are going to start to get shut down Maru not watching for a moment though the Vikings fly right past yeah those Vikings had no idea what was going on it’s a big old Zerg Army heading right into maro’s fourth base pre-planetary gets the list as he cancels and tries to just pull back and back and back into three more tanks here we’re entirely off of creep with there’s still so much zg left over sterile Supply dominating currently is the SCV are forced into the military they don’t stand a chance Maru does not stand a chance STL decisive attack into game number one most likely Maru does not want to tap out yet but that was a devastating blow cherl built a massive Advantage off of his greedy opening and the early defense for the Reapers and now he is swarming in at the perfect moment Maru was just getting established it looked like he had good tank setups but the abduct pulling some of those tanks to the front immediately the Lings Banes roaches and ravages just overwhelmed you got to realize how overcharged and supercharged the power of Cal’s Army was morphing banelings like that just gives it such a bit of oomph and now he adds more drones adds ultas adds another Viper his three three upgrades are on the way and a Spire coming in s gets massive damage done but never does he feel like he’s stuck all in he’s always got a Next Step he’s going to go for it right now ultr and Z is going for this round no cloak on those ghosts available medat comes in with the hot pick up Maru he’s got so few units to defend and he has to tap out what a game from STL there probably went exactly out has land post the reaper desk what a game that was a dominating first game to really set the tone here in sell’s favor but Maru obviously a very experienced player been playing since he was 12 approximately and uh in the big leagues at that time too doesn’t usually let this shake him up but it is still nonetheless scary that Chell took such a dominating macro game on one of the shorter maps with that really scary middle base as well and Mar didn’t get a chance to really do anything against bar once those reapers are gone it was like the Teran just had to sit back and unfortunately that wasn’t good enough for Maro committing to two Rax Reaper at the start is not cheap and we got to see the numbers Advantage here Maru yeah he he didn’t look that far behind into the play but you got to realize he was a hidden workers he was down about you know 30 overalls to like a lot of his army was still in production coming out and he was just just way less stuff there’s another 30 Marines there there’s another few Widow mines the tanks might be a different story but remember no Widow mines were in the mix help deal with the massive zerglings specifically because he opened tanks to deal with the roach ravager didn’t have hellbats didn’t have Widow mines no great an of the Ling ban yeah it also really complicates the decision from the Zerg player to actually go in for the attack do they have the woodam mines prepared do I not see them are they HIIT behind the command center creates a little bit more of the confusion but absolutely none there he sized up the Army sized up the angle and decided that was the moment to go Mar also had a couple of tanks that weren’t going to be involved in the fight from the get-go that planetary while it lived cuz it could live maybe it would have been better if it had been able to Target fire a couple of the banelings that is game number one done and dusted Now we move on to another interesting map here it is going to be ghost River in the top right now up one for basilis he is THL and in the top left side a rough start in game one but that will not Shake him at all famous for being absolutely unshakable and this is the moment where he’s going to have to start to Rally this series representing team Vitality in the top left side it is [Applause] Maru ghost rers a map a lot of Ed to veto out but we saw s play it previously against Oliva he seems comfortable despite the short Rush distance the wide open areas in the middle and I think the the lack of as easily abusable features as some other maps have in terms of like very nasty choke points and weird High Ground low ground Ledges I think SEL says you know what I’m happy to play a short Rush distance map and this is something where he has actually had an interesting attribute he has a higher win rate on a lot of the supposedly bad for Zerg maps in zvt specifically than any other player he often has a higher win rate than on the so you know supposedly Zerg friendly map so he’s got this weird thing it goes all the way back to 2018 and earlier Maps like submarine Babylon whatever the short map is that most Z’s fear he would say yeah I don’t really like playing it and you’d look at his stats and you’d say you have an 89% win rate on that map like what do you how do you do so well he’s like yeah it’s really tough but there’s something about embracing the challenge of having very little room and he’s so good at like jumping on the Teran pushes when they move out not really letting him get established and we saw that beautiful Ling drop pick aart all of era on this map before that was so nice yeah exactly uh certainly the map that comes to mind for this discussion is Becket time where we thought was going to be heavily favored and actually by the end of it life life cycle overall Zerg had a slightly better win rate I’m sure that was helped by sell uh leading the way as he does for many of Zerg out there he is simply the best and Maro ditto on the Teran side even though oliv is able to push sell to the limits I have no doubt that Maro looked at that and said ol Vera you got something there man yeah okay I can definitely do that um and maybe even a little bit better because I am Maru uh not going to have to actually go for a building cancel there Trigger Discipline on that he’s like no I know this can tank two shots so I’m going to wait for you to shoot the one no you’re not going to shoot it you’re just going to leave okay doesn’t even need to waste the 17 minerals straight back to mining the two Lings across the map s two games in a row playing 155 this is an opening C does not like playing verse Clen very much we don’t see him use it that much people say oh it must not be good but he has famously use this over and over again vers Maru in a lot of their finals you go back to Master’s Coliseum he mixed it in in kavit as well he will mix in these 155 openings especially on small Maps because they’re very safe against the reaper he doesn’t need to build as many zerglings he has to do that little counter attack to mess him up and it just gives him the ability to be incredibly safe against proxy Barracks because that spawning pool is so much faster these two almost Gathering up $3 million between them in the prize pools and I’m sure we’ll get there with the upcoming Esports World Cup which these two will be going to and could very well have back to back to back finals in as well another roach horn coming down for SEL on ghost River as Maru once again added 3 cc obviously a slightly different start for him they do have Helens on on the way and a starport as well so 3cc into 111 that was the time when getting to $1 million in prize money was uh something most people could only dream of I’m now thinking it is actually possible within the next year or so if s keeps doing well and Maru these these are the two that could hit 2 million within the next year so it’s an insane amount of prize money they’ve racked up in their careers maru’s Helen reaper now going to poke in nice safe creep CH Miss spread on the left doesn’t risk spreading to the South until he knows it’s secure s does not like wasting Queen energy he likes to have the energy save up so the Queens have transfus in Cas there is something like a hell timing hitting a little later yeah yeah we did see some aggression from the Teran not just the eight racks but a couple early ones as well the Helens are going to get on into the natural that Queen can’t do very much about it roaches pop however very well timed trying to block things out as well three more Helens still going to one shot here the drones have to be careful it does look like this is going to be the tail end can they get one more shot Yes actually two more shots that is seven drones lost for the four hel very nice opening there damage for Maru serel not using an EVO chamber and a queen to wall off there skipping Ling speed of course so there’s that window when you don’t have roaches out yet there’s no Ling speed nothing to stop the Helens at the end of the day though Maru seeds a fair bit of map control this gives sah a lot more room to spread creep his third base is up he can drone very well and the Banshees got to be careful about overc committing because of course there’s the fear from Maru that a roach attack could just Blitz across this very small Rush distance that’s very true um and when it does come to these smaller Maps we can talk a lot about how that might fa tan as the more aggressive race a lot of the time but actually what it bowls down to whoever does want to be aggressive particular in the mid game then they’re going to have that they’re going to also be able to build that momentum but when momentum does fail it very quickly goes the other way right so roaches move across they don’t work suddenly boom maro’s on your side of the map instantly so that’s what you got to be really careful about for both parties that Banshee is going to help cover that to an extent as the roaches obviously do not shoot up they can will cover runbys later on as well but right now they are hoping to get a quick cancel on that Force it’s already over halfway done Queens are over here as well doesn’t look like they’ll get a cancel it’s way too healthy I remember an age when going roach me it was really hard to secure a quick third and fourth base off this sort of opening but sel’s forth is insanely early he’s Rock Solid against the Banshees and he’s already got an infestation pit yeah he’s uh he is maing up pretty hard here Maru is doing his thing back at home obviously so he wanted to try and get either that fourth hatch cancel if it was still a little uh light on the health maybe some creep swimmers that were over there unprotected or of course queens that did not quite have the overseer often times that overseer can be made in the main for instance slow getting over didn’t find anything the overseer was made a kind of a well-placed overlord and the roaches even backing away not going to let any silly kills happen immediately replanting the creep tumors as well both players really setting up here for the macro game often Road Trager has played off a lower work account but seral is so confident going to 79 workers and a quick Hive I would not be surprised to see a hydren I was about to say but actually Ling speed does start up so it does look to me like Sarah wants to go back towards that more standard like Ling Bane transition but for a second there I was thinking hey you’re going plus one range this might be straight to Lura Viper an old school style we don’t see that much it’s more of a timing attack oriented style but no s’s going to go infested for spash damage and and he’s going to go up into zerglings mixing in as those are a much more gaslike unit saving the gas for the spellcast as we might see two infestor two Viper very early that’s so good paired with roach ravager I am looking at maro’s production tab very intently does he have a fourth CC does he add the three racks so far no fourth he’s still working on combat Shields but an eight racks on one of these short Maps uh you know could make some sense banshe finally finding some success a might lose one but ideally you still save one again to guard against those runbys Scout as well into the main base and the Banshee does have an exit maybe that fourth base is there is there a queen as well could always hide over the ghost R Bor is there and the Banshee does grab a few extra drones but losing the Banshees is a problem because this means you don’t have that defensive power H normally you know the Zerg doesn’t have a lot of anti having a few banshees at home is so useful just mixed into your army or defending in general that banshe is going to hide directly over the ghost River the actual ghost River the map is named after the spirits of many lost zg and tan Souls do flow there Marines in the Southside going to find a fifth base that just started and that’s a kill no cancel lovely pick off for Maru yeah 300 plus the Drone is pretty nice but sell has a rock solid base elsewhere you know that fourth base not going to get broken he’s got a hive Ultra scav on the way maro’s fourth base that get slapped down but it’s really not that fast I mean we can see as fast as 7 Minutes certainly 6 and a half even and uh that wasn’t quite it so actually it’s going to feel similar last game despite the reaper opener not existing Overlord gets sniped on that right side but Terell is posturing to get anything that he can breaking down the Rocks if it tanks too far forward crosa biles will get it and of course if he does see an opening when he does max out which is is not yet and he will take it as he did last game have we seen no banelings so far right this this looks a lot like what he did on Golden Ora against Ola didn’t work out there but I mean the amount of gas you save for spell casters for Ultras eventually you want to add banelings always because they’re such a supply efficient way to bust through planetaries but right now this just seems so optimized six ultr is going to be out with kitness plaing just after 9 Minutes they’ll have one two upgrades breaking the rocks in the north as well seros are up the 203 Supply did a couple of Spore crawler tricks there building the spes and in them the ghost Academy started a sixth Command Center or fifth one on the way for Maru as well but maru’s trailing in that Supply it’s onl okay no that’s the fourth trying to get on location aling is scouting that and blocking it currently maru’s trying to get some type of control over the map as that creep spread starting to get real scary through the middle little lacking on the South but you know that that might give a possibility for the drop to do some damage unseen it’s still not the greatest attack point if Maro has to go diagonal across the map to actually get somewhere there’s not creep that’s going to take a very long time if this goes to late game what does terl do there’s no middle bases you cannot take resources from the opponent’s side of the map on ghost River it’ be such a smart time to play late game but oh this double drop getting a little bit risky here Maru uhoh big attack from St in the north catching Maru a little out of position Command Center is exposed picking off the CC and then pulling back would be a good move chasing in is this really something he can get away with the fungal only landing on a few Marines lots of Tanks down there crazy attack angle for sell this is like a dark move man he forced his way through a choke through the Sim City and now he on top of the army Maru trying his best to stop the ultra horde with just Marines is not a good feeling Marines with only one one versus King plating and plus two on the Ultras Maro Supply in the dumpster he is getting some damage done however on the other side of the map but is it really the equivalent Maru lost so much Army here those ultas with plus two carace well Maru only had plus one attack his Marines were just doing no damage at all the ghosts are coming out too little too late here for Maru several ahead of the curve skips banelings rushes to a mass ultral list timing and look at how excellent that was the fungal adding in there the ultra link getting on top Maru unable to weather the storm terl with utter domination so far Maru looking a little lost first game goes the way that it goes okay all right first game get a little warm up no problem second game goes in a very similar fashion slightly different build orders and compositions however at the end of the day STL once again maxes out sees an opportunity to push on through and he does those upgrades absolute bummer for Maru he had no Marauders which were also a little more helpful against those Ultras and you know what I wouldn’t be surprised if Maru was just shocked that he actually committed that was a crazy attack angle I mean he broke the rocks in Center television funnel the ultas and roaches and ravages through a choke point but it’s the confidence to understand where you are in the game don’t just look at the choke point and go oh it’s bad to go here say hey these Ultras are basically immune to Marine damage there’s a lot of the tanks are on the south they’re nowhere near you got six tanks firing right now from behind these Depot and on The High Ground it’s a different story but instead there’s what two tanks at the start now a third tank shooting a lot of the Marines getting caught and they just not doing anything against those ultral lists you need Marauders you need ghosts you need Libs Maru was setting up for the long game but it didn’t feel like he was rushing to the long game right he was just going oh okay we’re playing a slow game let’s do it okay I’ll start going in that direction but his 22 was so late not having 22 at 10 minutes not having the ghost out yet though lives backing it up so many tanks in the South and SEL takes advantage with an ultral list timing attack yeah I think you’re absolutely right this is uh it’s it feels like Maru is just behind you know and sometimes between really two good players it looks like it’s totally fine and normal between both of them pacing wise and then you realized that far better player is just much faster actually literally in getting their economy set up getting their Foundation set up and getting the opportunity to cely look at their army and decide how do I use it as opposed to uh you know thinking of everything else you still need to do macro wise s just seems better right now what can Maro do to offset him he’s going to have to do something magical because this man down here he has lost to his opponent before but when he loses to people in big tournaments he studies them down to a te he prepares his strategies in immaculate detail and he is looking to try and get another Master Class here down here in the bottom right side of golden aura representing basales hailed as the greatest player of all time looking to add to his legacy it is [Applause] Cel the lack of reaction on his face when he gets those wins just shows it is never over until it’s over incredible discipline in the top left certainly in need of Cheers here he is down 02 it is Vitality Maru [Applause] [Music] [Music] going to be going for a low ground Barracks expand for Maru a single barracks on the natural this is vulnerable to some all in attacks but it gives you a really nice easy kind of information denial you can lift the barracks to kill the overlord on the pillar outside your base which is such a big problem on this map and uh it does allow you to Simply hide what you’re doing Marine first indeed he’s going to go for that Overlord snipe unfortunately somehow serl is always three steps ahead he’s just looking for proxy Barracks his Overlord are not heading into that dangerous position yeah and by the time that they do it might be a little too dangerous for that Marine to still be out there so it is a one racks expand slightly less economical because SV has to transfer I suppose but yeah it is one racks expand and then I’m very much so looking forward to what follows is it another 3cc is it going to be something a little bit trickier is it going to be 3cc into 211 could get a little more action on the map before sell’s really ready to go something like that but the onus is on Maro he is down 02 he has been clobbered in the first two games and we know that’s just not uh the potential that Maro can actually achieve but there is certainly an effect from Sarah now much as the Koreans used to have back in the day where you look at him and say even though I think I’m a very good player I’m not sure I can beat that guy and already such a good start here for S he sees the Marines hunting but they don’t see him the overlord has longest range and it’s hiding on a pillar there hiding itself from their view he now moves it up into the right trying to get into position to scout in the future Zergling speeds on the way fallings moving across the map serl changed up his opening a more classic Hatchery gas pool opening and this is going to give him a really smooth just build up into the third base a very nice way to open into Ling Bane rather than the roach opening he favored so far good timing there uh Maru denying the scouts is worth the delay of the transfer he does not want him to see that he is actually just two base one one one right now and he didn’t want to have that block the Marines are doing other things he doesn’t get blocked for those Marines actually did not kill that Ling there we go Cyclones are going to be the first thing out here from that factory I love that the Ling also distracts the Marines so the overlords snuck up next to the main now for the sacrifice this is the little details I always feel like you know it’s so easy to look at several games and miss all of the tiny little things that he’s done in the early game but that is often you know when you see him just kind of run up and and roll over an army it’s these little things stacking up over many minutes building into an insurmountable advantage and it’s really the thing that Maru is going to have to lean into is Extreme aggression extreme greed he needs to find an edge it looks like aggression seems to be what he’s going for it’s a cyclone Helen pressure a liberator and extra B before third Command Center yeah guys this is abnormal 3cc that’s usually the way you go after the 111 but the barracks is being added on the overlord as you pointed out kind of snuck around however it’s going to get a very good scout into the main base it’s going to see that there is no third CC and you really wouldn’t be able to fit that anywhere else except the main base or on location which would be quite Brazen Cyclones trting to show something here and they will actually have some success they’re all very limited on the Lings oh no there they are so this is got to be very careful Cyclones on the their own little vulnerable to those Lings that’s why those hings have to be there to help it out where did the overlord stop well it didn’t it’s still in the main base it says everything this was all about denying information for Maru but he hasn’t been able to he’s even these marines to the front the overlord is seeing everything Maru is’s doing a very committed two Bas aggressive play but it’s being completely scouted there’s clearly no third Command Center and right now SEL has all the information he needs he’s going to go for a link counter attack he’s continuing to drone up and add Queens Lair is on the way oh he catches Al no good pullback by Maru those slick reactions for the Korean Teran yeah we do have Mara adding on a third CC now he knows that he’s been scouted he knows that these uh tricks as far as the build order is going is not really working out here so he’s going to have to hope that something on the actual field does something to offset sah and Sarah will probably be very keen as well to get that followup Scout that was be so good with particularly versus protos but definitely versus Taran and Zerg as well Bing that’s going to be the choice here not a roach game from SEL ooh Liberator going for the uh the front on Siege up that I hope you’re not looking maneuver uh the SP crawler is so quick and he takes massive damage all he does is a tiny bit of denied mining time things aren’t starting well from Maru in game three denying a little bit of creep is not what he was hoping for now to be fair serls respecting his play and not droning crazy hard right a 10 worker advantages is respectable is kind of what you’d expect in this match up but if you lose this Army to like a link around that’s when suddenly it’s massive Advantage for saru has to preserve these units and just keep poking around and keeping some form of pressure up yeah not to mention something that can actually protect his third as he moves on to other forms of aggression which are going to be those Marines in the Medevac Lings going to scout that now again I think sah still might be under the impression that it is could be it could be a two base attack eventually he will figure things out but it was very good to point out that sarl is respecting it now he gets the okay now he gets the Scout let’s just say he does those Barracks are a little too late um and so the this is a good information for sarl he can actually Focus up on what he needs to do well Maru is the one that kind of had to change things around a little bit but he did change it kind of back on course back to an almost typical looking tvz sarl does not have banelings currently just the Queens a lot of transfuse decent amount of Lings I believe as well Maru not expecting to gather too much there does go for the creep spread Queens pushing back that pressure for now of course Maru knows there’s a lot of Ling ban behind it that’s why he’s uh just being very careful yeah those a banelings were snuck off to the side somewhere ready to go if they were needed they were not needed the Queens did everything by themselves and they are already respreading all the creep that Maro is trying to stop he also tried stopping in the last two games didn’t quite work out there and the overseer is finally going to get taken out Maru now on the swing here he’s going one one three CC got a lot lot of extra Barracks coming up so remember that he had an odd number of Barracks usually it’s 1 3 58 I don’t even know what this was 1 two two whatever I think he’s going to six racks oh it is eight racks it is eight racks now good call this Z be I was just as confused as you were as it is a bit of an odd build maru’s doing because he keeps getting scouted so he’s trying to every time he gets scouted he’s trying to Pivot his build a little bit to surprise S and S just comes in and Scouts it again this is not a good feeling Maru was looking for surprise tactics and he hasn’t been able to find a way to make them work liberated did hunt down the Overseer in the back he’s got a ton of marine tank on the way the Lings are going to start to break down these rocks seral is up 17 workers he’s massing Ling Bane off 76 drones he does already have an army supply Advantage but his creep has been kept quite small this game so we’ve really got to pay tribute to just how well maru’s done for that if he can set up his tanks in a really good position with this eight Rax I mean he’s building 10 Marines at a time he’s got plus two weapons on the way reactors are still kicking in Maru could absolutely do this with a really nice Marine tag T but he’s got to get rid of that oh oh no there’s no lift there the tank was on it anyway now that tank is also going to be targeted banelings rolling in as well the stvs in some extreme danger actually that tank got at least one shot but there’s still so many banelings left over the SCV pool only somewhat successful Maru also forced to entirely pull back and now obviously revealing that he was indeed going to be doing an eight rack STL just gave him a huge amount of time to breathe and now sell is up 60 Supply oh there was no Depot on the left Mar was so focused on being the aggressor he had no contingency he didn’t have any spotters out to see those Lings and give himself warning and extra time to react more Lings coming in for the back step SEL is Relentless today sah woke up and chose violence this is a disgusting version of sah we are witnessing in this tournament he is barely dropping Max maps yes the semi-finals was hard it was a tough one but it seems like now he is just overwhelming Maru desperate with one big push but he is deep on creep his arm is isolated and he knows those bugs are going to be coming he can feel the Tremors in the ground the horde of Queen link ban is coming in here we go that is a lot of Zerg and not a lot of Teran Maru tries his best with what he has but it simply is not enough and there you have it cherl goes up 3 to zero in absolutely perfect fashion from start to finish in every single game it all goes to sell one of the great players of all time Rogue used to be called the hind killer but I feel like recently is trying to seal that title for himself the man that absolutely just rips his opponents apart this is the moment where Maru has to dig deep knuckle down and we need to see him play an extremely tight set of games winning four games in a row against terl to make the comeback is incredibly hard but at this point he’s going to have to play a bit risky take chances and just find a way to get some surprise off because so far sell’s openings are just so controlled he’s scouting he’s seeing everything the Finesse with the overlord early game to settle this up and that was a picture perfect Z vers Teran it was a lot of these games are if you can get these replays which will’ll be able to and actually copy this from start to finish congratulations you’re one of the best THS in the world that is easier said than done especially when Maro can usually be the one to really throw you off usually he’s got something going on the Helen do more damage than you expect double drop hits faster than you expect he is eight raxing and he thought he was 4 cing but nothing is surprising Sarah not in the build order not in the the Army placement not in the army use it’s I I’m not trying to be a sah fan girl here but he is really proving why he deserves the title of greatest of all time you’re not meant to be up 30-0 versus Maru like this I mean look at how good maru’s looked in this tournament so far I mean yeah dark took him M but most of those games Maru was like in charge looking large he took out hero in a TVP he smashed through the earlier stages this is an immense performance and we head into what could very well be the last map if you’re cheering for this guy you’re in a very good place we’re in Crimson court for game four in the top right up 3 to Zer for basilis hey is [Applause] terl and in a moment where he has to dig deeper than he’s ever dug before a moment where we know he’s not going to give up easily he’s going to have to have all of his energy Focus will and determination to make this reversible possible in the bottom left side of the map representing Vitality it’s Maru he’s made comebacks from pretty damn hard positions before but by golly this is an uphill battle some would say getting now a reverse sweep would be impossible it is very very rare over any best of seven that you might see even including some of the online ones you just don’t really see a lot of comebacks from the 3-0 but they have had and they’ve happened in very prestigious tournaments as well some famous ones in GSL I’m sure you all do know perhaps most famous Innovation versus sui and we also had Squirtle MVP which uh actually still ended in MVP’s favor but it is possible and Maro has witnessed many of them if not actually done a few of his reverse sweeps of his own so let’s hope that he can actually get the ball rolling here get into his Groove and start to contest in this series sarl no doubts Riding High after a near perfect 3-0 you can see Sarah already mining out the gold minerals in that first person view on the left side of your screen he’s gone back to the 1515 opening and much like dark who loves to open up with that gasless three Hatchery it looks like sell is opting for the same style and it served him pretty well these roach openings on this map you can wall off the front with a roach in an evolution chamber one Queen in the wall Helens can’t get in there so it’s it’s actually really tough to apply the standard types of pressure If you mine out and take that linear Third Base what other options are there for Maru big perfect late game I want to see a six-minute fourth Command Center I I want I honestly I I just don’t want to see Maru leaning to the aggression already gets the Drone that’s a good start that’s a very good start getting himself a drone it starts with little edges like that you’ve got to take it one game at a time the task seems impossible and it seems like the Mountain’s just so freaking you know how you going to get to the top like what do you do you just have to focus on one step put one foot in front of the other and right now that means focus on what he’s good at which is late game he is so good at late game I still think if Maru can get to the late game in a very very good spot it’s going to be difficult for serl to match him there I think serl dominates players in the late mid game he has a very good late game but I think maru’s when he’s on point he’s the best in the world so embrace it go to it look at that fast third Command Center you know go up into this take a fast fourth as well and just Turtle it out it would be nice to see that actually tested it is a 3cc into Barracks here this really the greediest thing that a tan can do not only do you have three CC but you have very few Tech units and then no other units otherwise until those Marine counts actually start to throw but sarl has not been throwing out attacks at any point and there doesn’t really seem to be a reason to although when you are up 3-0 you could try but Maro is thinking you know what he’s not going to attack me I can get away with this and I can get the ball rolling a little more on this bio production and actually get that going as opposed to the usual little steps with the Cyclones the helin and all that uh or Banshees for instance another game this is very very clean from Maru and sarl is going to rely on his roach game once again on Crimson courts he just has to win one more and he will be in a Championship uh number 10 I believe so he’s on nine currently that could be the story here yeah he’s been been dominating for years now and winning so many different events racking up those trophies anytime you see Sarah live streaming or doing an interview from his home it’s always nice seeing that trophy case in the background yeah it seems like they they seem to grow you know they’re like mushrooms those trophies just keep spawning other trophies maru’s got a fair few of his own to be fair I mean there’s so many TSL trophies that Mar’s got in that case yes g8l but Sarah with nine ESL International tournaments he’s looking pretty good one one away from another Sim is on the way for Maru Factory finally coming down as well fairly quick engineering Baye too so he will have the upgrade lead as sarl has he get to add on his Evolution Chambers just L up into that layer over is going to die and actually a little Supply block but Sarah’s already on top of it I like this little poke out just clear as an Overlord Maru knows where the three command stand ability he is not going to be doing much more than that he’s got his double upgrades on the way Factory now coming down we will see a starport and a reactor no doubt so we get some metac and overall economy wise well yeah sure s’s up 14 work CU he did a very greedy build gasless three handry but having three orbitals dropping Ms this early your third base starting to get saturated Maru can definitely match it he’s already got a huge lead on the upgrades yes yeah that’s going to be quite scary and we are going to see finally have Luci chamers added on for sarl Maro starport finally on the way he has been a little active on the map without those medx which in some cases can be dangerous but against what SEL is doing I don’t think it really is and he’s even being more on the map as well feeling the confidence of being able to run away from just slow roaches does make some sense a lot of ceilings on the field here so Maro is trying to be as in yourf face as possible even before medx which which really can be very very dangerous for Taran in this case perfectly on point grabs that fourth base cancel easy peasy we are on another map where the Zerg kind of expands towards the tan can make it a little awkward but again Sarah so aware of that in the first game will certainly be here in this one I love Mario’s ma ma this game this is exactly what I wanted to see Armory is going down at the exact right time so we can start 22 instantly he’s going Tech La so we can start building tanks perfect against roaches and uh I wouldn’t mind an early second Factory but like I said I want a fast fourth Command Center as well if he drops that in the next 30 seconds I’d be heavily pleased you know s’s making a lot of Ro Traver those units are good but they don’t scale that well into the late game so if Maru can just beine directly to Mass biot tank at the ghost out as well that’ll be great yeah he does have a decent amount of money but he is also about to start 22 so not sure about that for see quite yes yeah six and a half nicely done all right I think we both were on that as well it just felt like when he was getting into any of these macro games he was already one step behind but this is really what you want to have going alongside that 22 which he once again has resources for sarl changing things up okay I think we kind of maybe expected him play into the macro game but he is adding a nus worm guys no infestation fit just those one one roaches and a swm as well we’ve seen that win out a couple of games this tournament and sarl is looking to take game number four with this kind of cheesy build one one roach all in he’s got roach Speed The one- One upgrades done in 30 seconds overair on both sides of the map ready to start spotting Fortis maru’s pushing right now it’s a crazy move Maru should not be on the map he is he’s playing a fast forth Command Center into s Factory attacking right now is incredibly dangerous he sees the low drone count he realizes he’s got to get home and ttle up KN wor going for the main base right now it’s just barely in the edge of his Vision not sure if marvu notices it as he’s very busy in the middle of the map obviously he’s been playing a lot of his own games during this tournament he might have been aware but yes the tank pops out and it takes care of it that will not be the opening that SEL was looking for however many of the army units still on the front lines looking to dominate the third base Mara retreating with the SVS very scared of this push and trying to give himself the best possible situation respectful of this push beautiful play with the STV pool but only one tank it gets biled immediately I don’t think Maru should be fighting out here he should be pulling back and waiting for the other tanks he needs to get back and pull everything together but sarl Dives on top sees his moment and he seizes it sarl says I did it once but I’m going to do it even better the second time sarl absolutely dominating this best of seven just mere moments before the fourth game is his maru’s not going to give up with that one last fight but another tank does get taken down the one of The High Ground might be a little trickier to take care of but terl with an 100 Supply lead might just be able to go over there kill the tank and and overwhelmed Maru there you have it sarl with a perfect best of seven versus Maru some mens himself in history as the greatest of all time absolutely stunning [Music] [Applause]