Solar TRICKS Serral... Again! (StarCraft 2)

[@hizamaruaelon427]

As long as Serral doesn't use nukes, then Solar can find a way.

[@starfyre59]

what is this in reference to?

[@marshallgarey2913]

Solar is famous for getting his army nuked. It's happened several times.

[@starfyre59]

@@marshallgarey2913 Oh I see lol

[@mido5126]

this is a good one xD

[@ownedpilot4324]

Question for western Lowko viewers here: Are you guys familiar with SC2 five elements charts from Chinese SC2 community(星际五行)? It is basically a funny pentagon chart that shows how build orders would counter each other given that the contestants are at similar skill level. Most build order can be put into the five categories: Steady: Defensive macro. Ordinary build orders that focus on defence and building eco lead for big late game push. (Serral's go to build). Steal: Economy focused. Maximize eco growth with little to no early game combat units. The goal is to create eco lead during mid game with more units to crush the enemy with shear numbers. Aggro cheese: Proxy barracks, Star gate, Cannon rush. etc. Early game aggro that can be potentially devastating to both sides. Basically gambling with life. Rush: Early to mid game all in. Funny: "If I do not know what I am doing, my opponent will not either." Funny build orders that catch people off guard. (Planetary Fortress Rush) The strong counter relationship goes from bottom up: Funny→Rush→Aggro Cheese→Steal→Steady→Funny. There is also weak counter relationship with basically skips one element down the ring: Funny→Aggro Cheese→Steady→Rush→Steal→Funny.

[@Taznak]

Nah, never seen something like that before

[@pirosopus9497]

Nop. Not aware of this.

[@kingsgambit7098]

These are common concepts across all RTS games. They are not build orders. They are simple strategies. They usually counter each other. I'm sure there are ideal unit compositions to have for each strategy, but these are very old concepts dating back to the first games of the genre.

[@craigcombes]

Kind of weird that I was thinking if this exists today

[@Tribuneoftheplebs]

Chinese are on another level when it comes to video game theories 🧐

[@pondering1716]

Lowko some day you ought to organize your own tournament. Make it kind of goofy and casual - get the players to cast with you. "The Lowko cup"

[@wehabagde8159]

well, make the player cast their own match.

[@thatonedavid123]

He already has done a couple

[@davidholland4713]

I was rooting for the underdog Serral. He clearly needs the support. Great video.

[@consolescrub4031]

They should buff Zerg to help him. Just double the time contaminate lasts, make burrowed lings take an extra half second to reveal when scanned and give infestors double energy regen. What could go wrong?

[@awrawrwar]

Honestly, I truly enjoy it when players play the opponent instead of the map, because you get to see some truly amazing things that wouldn't work on any other player, but would work only specifically for this one player.

[@consolescrub4031]

Indeed. I can't out-macro Serral but I don't think he will win if I mug him outside the gas station and injure his hands so I just have to map select for there. (Watch as it turns out Serral just has Kerrigan's psychic powers and turns any potential muggers to paste with his mind)

[@xandara75]

@@consolescrub4031 lets be honest, he would still beat us over the head using his toes instead of fingers

[@consolescrub4031]

@@xandara75Watch him win with a text to speech device connected into his input or by just face mashing across the keyboard which somehow creates a perfect drone split because it's Serral.

[@icecream6256]

Actually as a serral fan, im happy that solar can be his training partner and let solar improve serral's zvz 😂😂 a wierd feeling for sure

[@anotherplatypus]

When you explained they'd defensively made units to fight... but didn't want to engage each other in that first game, it really helped bring the battle into perspective. I honestly wouldn't have realized it if you hadn't said that (I don't play the game, but I do avidly watch y'all's videos.) Anyways thanks Lowko, and keep it up.

[@robinspanier7017]

Serral wins 70 of his games. the 2nd best 64 and then it goes down in very small steps. let that sink in. he is not just a little better. he is in his own league 😮

[@wedgeantilles8575]

Simply the GOAT.

[@nommy210]

Is that 70%?

[@jacobsvensson8193]

@@nommy210 yes, 70% of his games played, but last I looked he had won like 94-95 out of his last 100 best of 3/5/7 series. So a decent amount of people are able to win a single map vs him, but very few are able to do it more than once in a bo3 series. And if you dont count ZvZ, I think that those 70% of total games won would be closer to 80%. And you can also add that Serral very rarely plays in any small tournaments, so it's quite rare for him to play against anybody outside of the top 50 best in the world, while other pro players who compete in almost everything can stack up a lot of win percentage against much lower level competition

[@tigera6]

@@jacobsvensson8193 Well, Serral does play in Europe, so in whatever regional event he usually doesnt lose until the Ro4/8 when its Clem/Raynor/MaxPax. Also its not entire about win rate, its about being able to get the big win at the right moment. Rogue and Reynor doesnt have the same winrate as Serral, but they have won as much, if not more, than Serral in bigger tournament in their career.

[@wedgeantilles8575]

@@tigera6 Price-money wise Serral is approx. 20% ahead of Rogue (while participating in 30% less tournaments) and 80% ahead of Reynor (but Reynor is younger of course). So if we consider tournaments, Serral won quite a lot more money per tournament than Rogue did. Rogue won 4227 Dollar / tournament he played Serral won 7673 Dollar / tournament he played. IMO your argument that Rogue won "as much if not more" tournaments than Serral seems questionable and is not backed up by their earnings.

[@LostMekkaSoft]

can confirm that most pro gamers remember all of their tournament games. i was a top 5 planetary annihilation player for about 3 years and i still remember every game i played in tournaments, even though i retired 5 years ago by now. i especially vividly remember the tournaments that took place shortly after balance patches, as they usually gave me the chance to whip out some very unorthodox strategies. fun times ^^

[@celestrius9197]

7:15 lowko thinking about the classic pro gamer casting couch xD

[@Arkeli5]

Great series. I think Serral is sometimes a victim of his own brilliance. He seems to think he can win with 20 less army and then have the advantage thanks to his drone dominance. Unfortunately he hasn't been listening to Lowko, who will remind many of us that, more stuff beats less stuff 😜

[@consolescrub4031]

I feel like he sometimes does it. He relies on having really cost efficient defence early on which is great until someone walks 20 roaches into his natural.

[@braydenswinhart]

I think the 15 hatch was a long con by serrel, he knew the big tournaments were coming up that allow your opponent a lot of time to counter your builds so he made them waste time on a certain build order that he never planned to go for. Idk just a guess though

[@tigera6]

He has played it a lot more than you think.

[@Ge_n_Ge]

Only 1 race left good balance

[@AdmiralBison]

I don't think there's been any real *consistent* rival to Serral as they seem to have come and gone over the years.

[@alexCh-ln2gw]

blame the military. Imagine if rogue kept on his own winning streak.

[@tigera6]

You are acting like Serral has been there forever or something. His reign just started in 2018, and he got lots of competition, mostly from other top Zerg like Reynor, Rogue and Dark.

[@consolescrub4031]

@@tigera6 In fairness, that's getting close to half the game's current life cycle. Legacy of the Void was 2015 so he's on top (if contested) for the majority of the expansion.

[@AdmiralBison]

@@tigera6 Yes and he has been dominant for those 5 years. Has mostly been rated the top SCII player globally. Highest MMR...Maru is second Has one four back to backs and a WCS global. Has won most of the tournament he enters. Reynor, Rogue and Dark do not dominate as consistently as Serral, they have rival and even beaten him..but they were few and not consistent and no longer considered his rivals. As much as some don't want to admit it, even the Serral haters that are not willing to credit his skills, he is the SCII Goat. Also Reynor himself said in one of his streams that Serral is the goat.

[@tigera6]

@@AdmiralBison No he hasnt dominated for 5 years, he dominated in 2018, and then start to fall off since 2019 until his 2nd championship in 2022. Then he was up and down a bit until the beginning of this year, now hes looking dominant again,outside of his ZvZ. Skill-wise Serral is probably the best, unless Reynor start to train like mad again, but that has always given him the "dominant" status over the rest of the players because he still get beaten more than you think. The Bulls was dominant because they wont 6 Rings in 8 years, Federer was dominant because he won like 15 GS in 6 years. Serral didnt get to that level of dominance after his 2018, and that doesnt mean hes not an all time great. But people need to stop acting like Serral has won 70% of the tournament or something. He does have competition, mostly from the Zerg race itself. Personally, I would take Reynor as having the best chance of making the GOAT case if SC2 esport last for 2 more years with big tournaments coming.

[@markvon9727]

Serral could face MaxPax in SC2 Masters 2023 Winter: Europe! Lowko made me an MP fan Also, here is my like and comment.

[@ofajoel]

3rd match Serral actually overtook Solar in upgrades. He nearly finished +2 Armor before Solar’s +1 was finished. Big roach push bought time for hydras which bought time for him to catch up on +2 missile and get a lead on +1 Armor.

[@laverdieremath]

What word does he say after blue or red zerb in the intro, I hear pieces but still wondering what he's actually saying. Thanks!

[@danielli3239]

0:16 he says playing with the red Zerg pieces

[@ProfessorPicke]

that decision to hold minerals for roaches was perfect

[@manuelperez-hv4je]

What a good freaking game!

[@displacedicon7643]

I will say that if bly uses that starting strategy it'd be his opponents gold.

[@xandara75]

damn that would have been magnificent

[@starcraft2replaysstrategie180]

Lowko videos make my day better. Thanks lowko

[@hisazul]

Well... time to coach Serral, gl grampa Lowko.

[@nativat]

european gamers: plays safely korean gamers: if i can outsmart the other player, im gonna win

[@maxpekar4141]

I got so incredibly thrown of by the UI not there in the beginning

[@boliveto]

13:00 spore op, counters terran and protoss confirmed

[@video.denali564]

what was that about pro gamers on the casting couch???

[@Michael-uk3pj]

Maybe Serral should switch race against Solar or in all ZvZ... Seems to be working for Reynor...

[@wanaan]

Just imagine if you were being cheeky with Protoss instead.. Serral would've won anyway. Time to buff Protoss.

[@ilitar_II]

ZvZ is just so explosive

[@ilitar_II]

Like a deadly green landmines

[@gardianx5293]

Amazing that that reference is still alive!

[@alexCh-ln2gw]

most razor's edge matchup based highly on build order wins. Also, players who spawn top of the map vs bottom of the map have natural slight advantage because larvae spawn below the hatchery. It's like having an extremely minor "natural proxy barracks" based on doing nothing at all.

[@REgamesplayer]

Hydras + Roaches are strong? Really? For ages I saw pro players absolutely refusing to mix in hydras with their roach armies. As it turns out, it makes roach army better. Who could had thought.

[@FreddiePinheiro]

People who say "yuge" instead of "huge" - Donald Trump - No one - Lowko

[@gamerone4154]

half of the Serral videos I just skip on the end and just learn Serral wins

[@consolescrub4031]

Probably could do it for more than half if you don't care about viewer retention. They're great for falling asleep to because most of the time, you don't need to see the end screen to know the outcome.

[@ThomasLuna1989]

That's it

[@deathezz]

gg

[@tomleonhartITC]

Spoiler alert: Zerg wins.

[@xandara75]

zerg has a literal 100% winrate in ZvZ. We need to nerf Z and buff v.

[@crippletime]

Algorithm comment

[@burgesj7]

Zerg bores me

[@عليالعراقي-ع2ت3ي]

علي موحان💋🏆💋🏆🤝🏆🤝💯🏆💯🏆💯👏💯👏💖💖👏💖👏💟🏆💟👏💖🏆🏆💖👏💖👏💖👏💟👏💟👏💟👏💟👏💖💖👏💖👏💖👏💖👏💖🏆💖💖💚💖🏆💖🏆💖💚💚

[@JavierMartinez-oe3qk]

😶‍🌫

[@TheMasterhomaster]

LowKo eats a COUPLE of boogers for breakfast 🍳

[@benjamineidam]

Said it before and say it again: As soon as Serral has consistent win-rates against zerg like in his other matchups, he is probably the GOAT. Rigth now he is the 2/3 - 3/4 GOAT in my mind. But great play by him this time!

[@marcelbenner993]

I don't know much about SC2 but I recently read a chart where it said that Serral won over 90% of his games against the top Terrans and Toss. The 2nd players were mostly at close to 70%. And even in the mirror he only came 2nd to dark with having a win rate that is similar to other top players' "normal" win rates. If you removed Serral from the Stats it seems like Toss is having more issues with Terran and not Zerg. I did not find any info about other players achieving something similar, but as I said, I do not know too much about the game... still these numbers are impressive as fuck.

[@N0noy1989]

Serral is the GOAT because there's no other SC2 player even close to him. Greatest Of All Time. Maru, who's second best, is very very far from Serral. Not sure what your GOAT is, but you probably have a different meaning. There has to be a GOAT because it's a comparison thing.

[@tigera6]

@@N0noy1989 by not even close to him, what you mean? Serral won 2 world title, several EU regional tournament and online tournament, Maru won zero world title but got a couple second place, did win WESG (megaprize) and 7 GSL with some online tournaments as well. Rogue won 3 world title, 4 GSL and online tournaments. Reynor already won 1 world title , 2 second place and just won Gamers8 (megaprize) with several online tournament as well. So I ask again, what you mean by not even close? To me GOAT is about accomplishment, tournament won, prize money got and so forth, and it is CLOSE at the moment. Or you have a completely different view on this then please share.

[@marcelbenner993]

Had some free time and looked at the numbers from Aligulac and the Premier Tournaments of Liquipedia, as I was curious about the statement "As soon as Serral has consistent win-rates against zerg (...)”. I think there are only 3 major contenders for the GOAT title in SC2 when looking at win rates, tournament wins and consistency. Maru, Rogue and Serral. This is simply looking at numbers, no feelings involved. I looked at 2015-2023. 1. Tournament wins. I looked at Premier Tournaments as they are the most prestigious and the best players (except MaxPax) attend normally. From 2015-2023, these are the wins and runner ups of the respective players. For Maru and Serral I wrote down their stats until August of 2022 in brackets, when Rogue went inactive due to his military service. Maru 13-10 (10-9). Meaning 13 wins, 10 2nd places, respectively 10 and 9 until August 2022. Rogue 10-1. Serral 23-12 (20-12). Serral won by far the most Premier Events. Maru and him both won 3 in 2023. Rogue played extremely often in Minor Tourneys, but at the prestigious ones, his name does not appear too often, even if we only look at Maru’s 10-9 and Serral’s 20-12. 2. Consistency Rogue had 3 extremely good years but his win rates of games according to Aligulac were at most 5% higher than, for example, Maru’s. Maru in comparison had much more stability and had better consistency over the same time frame. Serral’s win rates were equally consistent but didn’t drop below 70% since 2016. Since 2018, Serral has always been in the top 2 on Aligulac. Consistency wise, Maru and Serral can be rated higher than Rogue, and I’d give Serral the clear edge here. 3. Win rates Rogue’s win rates in regards to games were in the 60%s for 3 years (2017, 2018, 2019), other than that he was below 60% and he peaked at 64,33% in 2019. Maru peaked at 73% in 2021, which was the only year so far, where he finished above 70%. This year he is at 70,33% so far. Serral’s win rates in regards to games were above 70% since 2017. This year (now speaking of matches, not games), he won over 90% of his matches 122 - 111 to 11. Serral’s win rate this year is absolutely unprecedented and I couldn’t find any other player who achieved something similar. It is literally unseen and no one even came close to being this dominant ever before (the closest was Serral himself in 2018). He won 80,30% of the games he played in 2023 and 90,98% of his matches. Even if you consider only Korean tournaments, he won 84,09% of his 43 matches… absolutely insane. Although he won the most Premier Tournaments by far and had higher win rates for longer periods than the other two, this fact alone makes Serral the GOAT in my opinion. This dominance is - simply put - ridiculous and nowhere I looked, did I find someone winning this much over a 10 month period. Serral has the highest rating of any player on Aligulac in history. Rank 2 - 10 are normally 3200 - 3450 points. Serral stands at over 3600, nearly 200 points ahead of everyone else. Bonus metric - 4. Weakness I do not want to dive too deep into this issue. But looking at Serral’s “weakness”: He had consistent win rates vs Zerg for two years of around 69%. This win rate is higher than any single year of Rogue - in all matchups. Zerg is also Maru’s weakest matchup, but his stats vs the Swarm are worse than Serral’s. So Serral’s “weakness” is only a weakness because he is so strong in the other matchups. He simply has the same win rates as other pro players do all together. As of today (06.11.2023), Serral’s rating as the best player vs Toss is 3745, the runner up being Clem with 3568 - a difference of nearly 200 (Dark being 3rd at 3426). His rating vs Terran is 3848 (!!!), Maru being 2nd at 3471 - nearly 400 points difference (Dark being 3rd at 3461). In his weakest matchup he ranks 6th (3331). Clem being first vs Zerg at 3534; again a nearly 200 points difference. Overall he ranks first with 3641 - 183 points more than Maru with 3458. So yes, Zerg is Serral’s weakest matchup, but only because he is so dominant vs Toss and Terran. I would also argue that his win rates are pretty consistent and much more consistent than anything I encountered while looking at the stats. Thus, combined with all the other statistical facts like tournament wins or his unprecedented reign(s), he can be called the GOAT without much worries imo. Now roast me.

[@benjamineidam]

So Serral is basically 2/3 of the Greatest of the last 5 years? What about old absolute mad mans like flash, MVP or innovation? But very cool stats, you updated me there definitly! Thanks!@@marcelbenner993

[@janl5242]

Third or so :D Third like trarii

[@darrellaveril4699]

first like here mate

[@SmilefaceManga]

Im First

[@Weehawk]

1st

[@phileas007]

zerg is so OP that the only one who can beat it is zerg itself.

[@ypa0316]

serral boring

[@zebulonreynaud919]

cant watch zvz

[@mittensdacat9220]

Solar wins are the best though

[@SebastianBlix]

Same. Every game is ling/bane v ling/bane with roaches sprinkled in. No creep spread (no need), rarely any higher tier units, and no advanced strats. Zvz is Zzz 🥱

[@zebulonreynaud919]

@@SebastianBlix i don't watch mirors match in general, but zvz is the worst zvp for me is the best for the moment, and after tvp tvz is great but i eated too much of it

[@jonalban4349]

I hate seeing serral win. Hes a nice enough guy, i just think dominance like this is uninteresting.

[@TheMasterhomaster]

You’re uninteresting.

[@tigera6]

But he hasnt dominated, this was the first win he got from Solar after losing to him 3 straight matches.

[@jonalban4349]

@@tigera6 I know, which is why I was hoping solar could keep it up!

[@RavagHer]

maybe serral just doesnt like ZvZ like a normal person. in terms of every other match up solar is worst at. not to mention a lot of ZvZ turns into either cheese or roach wars. serral often doesnt use roaches as his go to

[@tigera6]

Serral bread-and-butter build in ZvZ is Roach with Burrow and Tunneling Claws. He win lots of match with just that, the issue in current ZvZ is its gambling nature at the moment, any player can just cut worker and make extra 15-20 army supply at any moment and if you dont scout it early enough to react, you are dead. But if you play safe by cutting worker yourself too early, you are behind in economy, its just hard to play that mind game.