StarCraft 2: EXTREME APM - Serral vs Reynor! (Best-of-5)

Best-of-5 series of top level StarCraft 2 between Serral and Reynor. This series of SC2 was played during HomeStory Cup 23.
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StarCraft 2 is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed and released by Blizzard Entertainment.
Kijkwijzer (Dutch viewer guide): 6, violence, fear
#StarCraft2 #SC2 #RTS
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[@celrak7667]

ZvZ really looks like a knife fight in a phone booth

[@i_am_ergo]

It's looked like that since 2010, and I personally wouldn't have it any other way.

[@zachariastsampasidis8880]

Late game zvz and tvt are the best matchups and it's not even close imo

[@tohothewriter8002]

ZvZ be like that for both SC1 & SC2. A typical ZvZ historicly lasts no more than seven minutes on average. Longer than that are outlier games.

[@tommydoez]

@@tohothewriter8002 ZergGeorge

[@knowledgeispower3212]

Shut up that was what they use to say in tournaments when they were casting

[@jjjarod1]

You can really hear Lowko going full caster to keep up with the players apm. Full words per minute to match! Really good cast Lowko, felt like a radio host I didnt even need to watch I could see it in my head. Applause!

[@ttl2aydar]

2nd and 3rd game Reynor just had Serral on the palm of his hand. He played flawlessly, but he was also playing mind games to control the opponent. Amazing games.

[@stevenhorstgeorg5728]

Game number one was so sick. Forcing Serral to pull some of his army 4 times or so in the row and winning with it was so nice to see. Crazy Fights too

[@Muaahaa]

That bane hit in the first fight was actually pretty important I think. Nearly all surviving roaches were half hp or less after that. Meant that pulling drones to fight was actually feasible.

[@retsu4262]

That was an insanely well done cast Lowko! You matched their speed of gameplay in casting speed, which is incredible. What also was incredible, Reynors sheer dominance. It seemed like he read through Serral like an open book, his micro was just so good. His cheeky little runbys, which he is known for, won this series.

[@gsuberland]

Reynor looking so damn good these days. Incredible game sense.

[@TheyForcedMyHandLE]

Incredible play on both sides. For what it's worth, I may elect game 1 as Game of the Year. The play from both sides was the highest level.

[@Zergling.]

Very well done by Reynor, he really did have a strategy to fight Serral, be the aggressor and control the game, that seems too really work on Serral.

[@Daniel-rd6st]

Well ZvZ seems still to be Serrals greatest and pretty much only weaknes. Which is intresting, because there was a time when in my opinion it was his strongest matchup - until Reynor appeared on the stage, who often seems to have Serrals number.

[@tuck295q]

@@Daniel-rd6stenerally timing aggression is Serral’s biggest counter no matter what race. So many games that Serral lost to it. Not rush, not cheese, it’s timing aggression especially early mid game.

[@ZekesFunnyvideos]

@@tuck295q yeah that makes sense I saw uthermal and serral in a best of 3 match, uthermal lost it badly because he was to defensive and passive.

[@Rezey7930]

Love watching these 2 plays, now that they're teammates they must have practiced against each other a ton. Crazy how the last time they meet in ESL Serral won 3-0 and now Raynor returns the favour.

[@Daniel-rd6st]

@@tuck295q True and i thought he got recently a lot better at being the agressor himself in zvz. But sadly you didnt see a lot of it in the series here.

[@michaelcarnevale5620]

Reynor been mastering his anti-serral game from the beginning

[@KCY4LUNG]

Too bad he can't improve his game overall and can't win anything not named serral.

[@michaelcarnevale5620]

@@KCY4LUNG Im not following the scene too closely but it seems like reynor performs pretty well and consistently ... You think his game is lacking? He def depends mostly on his speed, whereas serral's game is more comprehensive

[@OnigoroshiZero]

@@KCY4LUNG he just destroyed Maru's ass in the recent ESL Masters: Summer 2023. edit: Plus he is a world champion, and two times runner-up. So, maybe you should just stop talking bs about the 2nd best player in the history of the game.

[@arachnid4910]

@@OnigoroshiZerohe’s barely in the top ten ATM

[@thatcorpse]

I appreciate the research insert at the end!

[@sesionesmermelada8293]

oh my ! 5 years without a 3-0 loss.... My (serral) god!

[@Spartsou]

holy crap, that game 1! great game by Raynor, great initial hold by Serral *impressive, most impressive*

[@bigeteum]

The amount of action around the 18:00 mark was just amazing.

[@KristjanHreinn]

"Hello everyone, my name is Lowko" - how hard is that!?!

[@paulypauly2062]

love the backstory early in game...

[@alinmeleandra3175]

Serral is my all time favorite SC2 player (with Reynor being second), but sometime I just love seeing getting his ass handed to him for the sole reason to remind everyone that he is still a "mortal"... Anyway this was an incredible set of games...

[@userasdf]

Yeah, Flash absolutely dominating BW kind of broke the game. Wouldn't want that happening to SC2.

[@sugarcultthe2nd]

Woah, such a control and attention to detail. Crazy!

[@kibateo]

28:05 oh lowko, the right side of the map is where Reynor is located not Dark.

[@Erebus2075]

36:09 maan tha's why his the boss:P

[@Erebus2075]

36:50 but he badly need to built like 10 spores to completely shut down the muta efficiency and prepare for late game ^^ so much lost by not just having 3+ spores on all important points, maybe even some queens within range for heals if they don't one shot

[@syntheticfunky6700]

Absolutely incredible series, and superb commentating.

[@iskandar7688]

great cast Lowko ! Thank you :) It makes me think though, what do you think about watching the games you're gonna cast once before ? I feel like it gives you an easier way of explaining the strats, especially going in detail. I mean, I get that live casting is the harder challenge and I'm amazed at how well you do but I feel like your analysis was significantly better this time around. Also, it might even win you some time as I know you delete some casts you've done cuz the games were not good enough in the end. Something that would not happen if you would pre watch them at a fast speed :)

[@anotuselessmovie]

GGs and thanks for casting it! Great matchup and fights

[@userasdf]

Reynor's ling bane micro was amazing here. He's moving so fast even caster eyes can't follow him...

[@AliceLiFuTay]

crazy to think how Reynor hasn't even peaked yet. He's still so young

[@userasdf]

This isn't even his final form.

[@goatmeal5241]

11:21 their average APM is literally tied o.O

[@Airbag888]

Reynor not only had the highest APM but he was putting it to good use too ... insane to keep up even as a spectator

[@paviad]

What a BEAST of a player!!

[@Neloish]

This is why I love SC2.

[@Arkeli5]

I always get nervous for Serral, when he goes up against Reynor. I really like both players but I also love seeing someone who dominates, continue to do so just to see how long they can keep it going. Reynor is the arrow to Serrals heel 😀

[@Erebus2075]

4:34 ofc serral is the first to understand how strong defensive structures are; just spam them up if you are going to defend a spot; they will always pay for themselves, even in delayed time; Z could do the same, and sometime they do, they could bring overlords with 1 queen and 4 drones, to start creep, lay tumor and put down 3spines surrounding 1 spore; it's a pretty small investment that can do a lot with very little backup, especially if you leave the queen there to gather energy for heals; you could even surround the queen with the defensive buildings make it much harder to get to it. and a couple of heals can really do a ton when talking about like 20 lings trying to get rid of 3spines,1spore,1queen tugged in a save spot; yes then baneiing could roll in and get value on 2 spines and a queen at one explosion, but you will happily trade the value off bane for the dmg they will do, and if you are fast you throw heals before your queen dies, making it even more cost efficient; and keep in mind this is 2 supply worth of unit taking on mid size hitsquads and potentially winning (if you leave the dropperlord you can even snatch away the queen, that would be so cool :D etc. just statics are so good in the game period where people constantly float 500+ minerals and fight after fight would be much much better had they had any kind of static to back up into. goes for all 3 races, Like why not an offensive planetary while you do parade pushes in mid game? its reasonably cheat to get up and it would be an AMAZING backup hold spot to trade value. you could even use the turrets you set up, it should get 4, as a funnel with some depo's etc. you can easily make a crossroad an awesome fortress to fight out from... P is self-explanatory ^^

[@Obsidian0Knight]

hsc was awesome this year

[@antto9218]

really enjoy seeing raynor play

[@OnigoroshiZero]

If you want to watch the highest level of SC2, you just need to put these two against each other. Serral is the GOAT and a true God at the game, but Reynor is the only one that can convincingly beat him at his best. Amazing games, amazing casting.

[@HeyThreshold]

Reynor finished the Finnisher! 🇮🇹❤ Oh and Lowko... the inhabitants of Finland are called Finns NOT Finnishers! (I know you expect it so there it is! 😛)

[@sirmudkipactually]

Take my like good sir, thanks for the daily content

[@SmokeJam]

Reynor coming in with a strategy, Serral somewhat in a holiday mood apparently^^ Fun match-up with a rare 3-0 result, lovely stuff

[@eldra2179]

Lowkorren, Lowk Worren Lowko ren :) 31:30 it's 2023 alright

[@DaevorTheDevoted]

I knew it had to be Maru! 😁

[@i_am_ergo]

My favorite kind of intro.

[@eXileris]

holy moly! I had to rewind just to take in whats going on.

[@jorgezxcvb]

If I may to offer a suggestion. When you comment a game you already watched, then you have to be tripple careful with spoilers. You mentioned certain comments that already tell who wins the match, that takes away a lot of the magic of this videos. The rest is awesome I enjoy a lot your videos 😀

[@etistyle96]

the first gamewas clearly the quickest of sc2 of all time no doubt. that was so quick it even exhausted myself to watch it xD

[@GenAndrei]

Wow! This was insane!

[@jeremiahdela9461]

Hey loko had an idea. Could u try a game with nydus worm in all your wall offs. Maybe mass muta with ling, roach, queen?

[@justsaying102]

Serral needs to improve his ZvZ skills. Some tactics he can use: 1. Burrowed roach healing. The cost of the upgrade pays for itself after the first skirmish and only costs 2 apm. Burrow, Unburrow. No tunneling claws needed. 2. Hatchery sniping with roaches. 15 upgraded roaches can snipe or damage a hatchery easily and ignore the defenders and get out alive usually. If you only damage then rotate and kill it 30 seconds later. With Terran and Toss it is more difficult because scv repair and battery overcharge. Reynor understood this and checkmated Serral in Game 1 by sniping 2 hatcheries. Ragnarok did that with lings to Serral's hive at IEM 2023. Serral, on the other hand, rarely uses this technique and has not used it in a tournament game in 2023, yet.

[@tohothewriter8002]

To me, Serral approaches ZvZ like any other match-up, and doesn't adjust his playstyle from game to game in response to his opponent. What I mean is, he prioritizes economy over everything else because he can out macro any non-zerg opponent. Game 2 is indicative of that mentality, by making 15+ drones after defending Reynor's first ling attack. There was no consideration of a possible second or third attack at the time and got punished hard for it! A supply block and lacking vision while teching into banelings was a direct consequence of those 15 drones getting made.

[@Erebus2075]

4:44 from this to 4:54 that. 13 roach shots and 2 lings have gone into those building spines; that's 6+ drones that should have been those shots+ whatever 2 ling does in 10 seconds off attacking or dying ^^ and here 5:05 he would really want to studder step out of there but bc the spines are now up there is 0 chance they will get out that low; so his forced to just sacrifice them trading lings on good surround ^^ 5:15 zerglings has to just give up the haras bc the support of 2 spines will shut their micro down fast. Build Statics! i keep yelling it, and here they didn't even get up in time so "0" dmg gone by them but just the fact they tanked 13 roach shots(was 4 then later 3 roaches attacking the wrong thing and not being helpful in the front) and 2 lings for 10 seconds. and should there come a follow up the defenses are really strong when backed up. so why not get them right ^^

[@Erebus2075]

also its 6 drone losses, bc 3 was turned into spines. but I keep yelling skip some drones or units to get some static bc losing those workers later and wasting apm is more expensive if you could have slowly built up proper defenses over a long game off increased value bc you don't fight dumbly and you got static to fall back upon to get a better fight

[@Erebus2075]

7:43 thats 12 zerglings that just died TRYING to kill a spine, it even survived without healing and bruised heavily from earlier; but you should heal these, it's like a very strong extra shield skill. 12=300 mineral that's 2 spines, throw them down immediately if the fight goes on they do their job if not then they are nearly free bc off that ONE act of drawing 12 zerglings straight to their death and stressing reynors micro so hard doing it he lost them to 1-2 banes ^^ worth 150minerals? that's not even a terran Scan in price... seriously every time T scans you should throw down a spine or a spore, bc you know he wasted 200 minerals now you can "freely" supply an extra defensive you yourself ^^

[@Erebus2075]

8:27 look at that insane work from just 3 spines early; its soo strong when used by someone who can micro his units around it efficiently

[@Erebus2075]

21:18 if only he had kept building statics..

[@TheRyepoog]

dude... how?? so much activity everywhere all the time. I can't even remember that thing

[@Vic98Ho]

I miss the lowko opening

[@Thevisualcube]

Congratulations Lowko... Netherlands made it to the cricket world cup in India 2023... Meanwhile South Korea, Italy, Finland or Denmark did NOT :P

[@CassidyAWaters]

The Anomaly Series

[@calculatorade]

SERRAL NEWB OWNED

[@jeremyduke4938]

Why arent they creep spreading? I get it would make it an equal advantage for speed, but vision would be useful, no?

[@parkerdixon-word6295]

I think overlords are the main source of vision in ZvZ. Since neither of them teched into Hydras for basically the entire game, overlords were basically safe (besides the odd Ravager sniper to keep eachother honest) to fan out and provide both players with most of the vision they needed with minimal risk of reprisal.

[@tohothewriter8002]

Creep spread requires at least one Queen, which is locked behind the Spawning Pool, if I'm not mistaken. It is more larva efficient in ZvZ to use zerglings and overlords for vision than creep tumors. Essentially, creep is inconsequencial in ZvZ. I mean, which is faster for vision between a tumor, slow ling, and ovie? Tumor is the slowest of all three to obtain vision with, meaning you could have 30 zerglings run pass your natural by the time your first creep tumor is placed.

[@jeremyduke4938]

@@tohothewriter8002 interesting. I would still think it would be useful for late game vision. But these are the two best zerg players in the world IMO so the answer is probably whatever they do is the best decision.

[@zachariastsampasidis8880]

@@tohothewriter8002 you mean it's more larva efficient (but not mineral efficient, though realistically it doesn't come into play in time) to just mass zerglings and spread them around by using few queens and their energy on injects I assume Indirectly, you are right I guess

[@jkkim6928]

1) you get vision from ovis 2) *** creep provides speed zone to your opponent, which makes you vulnerable to unexpected rush

[@Fusiondax1]

what are the symbols in the top right of the screen at the start of the video? there's a "6", a fist, and a spider...

[@T-adams]

mmmmmokay - Lowko

[@bass2564]

EXTRFME

[@szybkilewyprostyf231]

Exelent game😊

[@icecream6256]

First game looks similar to some parts of tvt😂😂

[@maximesavard-beaudoin560]

i see new lowko video :D its a zerg vs zerg D:

[@borcsokszilveszter2566]

ZvZ the only matchup where zerg is challenged in the late game

[@Josh-99]

Serral looking downright mortal here. I'm not surprised to hear that the last person to 3-0 Serral was Maru.

[@tonypoter2459]

Serral está de bajada 😭

[@TheMasterhomaster]

LowKo eats a COUPLE of boogers.

[@michaelschmid4039]

Beste Paarung !!!

[@Big5ocks]

There is only one solution: nerf Serral! 😈

[@randomuser6294]

Thats not a Real ZvZ, in a Real ZvZ you don t Q a single Drone and you just spam Lings till 1 Player ragequits in min 4.

[@merlin_plays]

how you guys choose a race to play in this game? im just curious..

[@dannes22]

I chose zerg because of the speed, I dislike being slow in any game so it was a natural choice.

[@Synthetic_geth]

Mainly your play style

[@gage6355]

Wow big alien robots look cool, let's learn them

[@merlin_plays]

@@gage6355 to be honest this is like me lol.

[@merlin_plays]

but when i play longer. im still thinking if is the protoss really the race for me?

[@ezequieltellez9082]

ggs

[@imaguy7070]

I like turtles

[@jmsssx]

OMG

[@Shardarki]

Reynor so hot right now

[@coderentity2079]

It's a bit loud.

[@pattarapontantichaiyakul395]

serral รอบนี้กาวๆ

[@michaelschmid4039]

Reynor played so well

[@Chris-wf2lr]

23rd

[@reaper8113]

Day 20 of asking Lowko to review/play Dune Spice wars

[@hunterthenoob6622]

Third 😂

[@tiberiusx22]

Spoiler: zerg wins

[@eigentensor]

*starts video* *intensely loud shouting* *closes video*

[@lvo9197]

This match proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that zerg is imba.

[@NeoStorm123]

It’s a mirror matchup it can’t be more balanced.

[@kindlin]

@@NeoStorm123 It's obviously so imba, zerg won every game this match. It wasn't even close, it looked like zerg was going to win from the very beginning.

[@michaelcarnevale5620]

Ya the odds were stacked against zerg but zerg still won too OP

[@OnigoroshiZero]

Just another salty Terran that loses even with his race's cheats.

[@streamfun9228]

Na, you didn't really read this comment

[@Zekses]

god that first game was boring as hell and dragged forever

[@mistaking12]

69 views..

[@mirainokiokuha]

Scuffed intro, bring back the chime or the classic

[@dustinmcdonald1784]

ZvZ boringgggggg

[@user-jh6jv9ny4m]

If they have that high of apm. They don't have a life out side of life. If I had that much time on my hands. I think I could get that fast myself. My apm is only around 100 apm right now. :(

[@jdspencer60]

First

[@philmianus614]

first

[@tohothewriter8002]

Serral got soooo greedy in that second game, made a bunch of drones after defending the initial ling attack and got punished for it. Fifteen drones won't win against ten zerglings. Perfectly highlights how explosive the ZvZ match-up has been for over 25 years. Every larva matter and is the difference between defending the second or third run-by and get ahead in the eco game. Less drones could mean more army, faster tech, better defense, etc.

[@Scawtsauce]

why tf serral not buying level 2 carapace? in silver 3 and i could easily beat serral because i go 3/3 missle /armor by 7 minutes in the game then j buy 13 infestor after 10 minutes and then i use the magic spell to spawn 100 infested terran so i can shoot rocket 🚀 launchers at the overlord and then i use the spy spell so i have 600 zerglings pretending to be on reynord team. then i build a wall with them. once im maxed out i build 60 spine crawlers per minute. they do 50 damage per hit, and they have like 600 health vs zergling has 35 health. soine crawler can 1v1 40 zeglings in a row. ok guys before you get mad that im just giving out this information for free, dont get mad ok? i purposely didnt tell all my secret tactics. this is a new meta i made after the new patch. i do coaching for very cheaply. if you are rich i charge only 60 dollars for the first session. if you are poor i charge only 40 dollars. after that round 2 coaching i will coach you doing ladder. only 20 dollars per game

[@RavagHer]

i can see why a lot of player would rather just change to another race than do a zvz. mirror matchups in general is just aids but zvz is probably the worst of them in terms of balancing.