StarCraft 2: RANK 1 vs RANK 2 - Serral vs Maru!

Top level game of professional StarCraft 2 between Serral (Zerg) and Maru (Terran). This is a game of top level SC2 between the current number 1 and the number 2 pro gamers in the world.
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StarCraft 2 is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed and released by Blizzard Entertainment.
#StarCraft2 #SC2 #RTS
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[@helljack]

Brenda: *hit by a sniper round in the face while shi**ing out a tumor* Lowko: "That's how I would like to go." Jokes aside what an awesome match, Serral really did strangled Maru like a boa.

[@csmlouis]

I like how Serral and maru validating Lowko with their lone Raven or particular mining sequence.

[@webentwicklungmitrobinspan6935]

lowko is their couch, thats why they are so good

[@bujaksha]

It shows that lowko has a superb understanding of this game. Too bad he doesn't have 3 more hands, he could've gone pro

[@Komatik_]

I want them to validate me and get Burrow to heal Roaches. So many red health bugs in games that it'd pay itself back easy on that alone, nevermind Observerlings and forcing unnecessary detection on top of that.

[@joshuakim5240]

Plot twist: Lowko is actually Abathur who assimilated some random cool dude for his charisma and that's why he's been trying to advocate for more optimal strategies that push microing to its limits for so long during these casts.

[@Tom-yg7mi]

​@@joshuakim5240 that escalated quickly

[@ZeCroiSSanT950]

Serral has had Maru's number for a while now. Serral's entire playstyle is basically anti-Maru. The way he plays with zerg is just insane. Scout Terran, defend timing attack with equivalent micro, which forces Terran onto a defensive footing (via losing map control) the rest of the game that the Terran can never break out of, even if Serral is spending way more resources.

[@Name-ru1kt]

I never play terran so I might be wrong but the best counter to serral it seems as it. Is constant aggression as your lose a standard game cause he’s just too perfect. And just slow down his creep spread. Don’t get too aggressive but slow down his creep spread and economy. Siege up and just slowly drain him out since its hard to make efficient trades as zerg especially off creep

[@Bliss467]

It's kind of a beautiful unison of game design and an incredible player that your description of his play style is absolutely Zerg to its core

[@DarkArtz212]

Prisions are expensive to run ya know lol

[@tuck295q]

@@Name-ru1kt Constant agression? it's more like he seems to die from aggression timing early mid-game all the time no matter what race.

[@kkqueen8942]

No..zerg is better than terran..because they mine faster..bases cost less..creep they move across-the-faster.. if serral ACTUALLY PUT A FEW SPORES IN HIS BASES. Maru would get raped..with those cheesy drops. and the zerg is basically Ike fodder Germany couldn't beat Russia and Russia in ww2 was less trained and equipped. Yet with shear numbers and will they overran the Germans. Exhaust fatigue...will kill a solider before strategy will...and they killed the Germans will lesser weapon..surprise attacks...guerrilla war...

[@PotatoMussab]

What I like the most about Serral in this game is that he didn't go to a higher drone count. He knew that Terrans are used to Zergs going up to 100 workers in the lategame and trying to find damage with a smaller army but Serral was like "No Im just gonna stay on 80 workers so my army can penetrate deeper" which is a great decision on a map with not many bases like Waterfall

[@Name-ru1kt]

He also realized his terran friend was so low on economy that the only way he’ll lose is if he overextends or losses to one massive push

[@streamfun9228]

Serral is the ultimate Sc2 player. You rarely see him make any mistake and his strategies are scary effective. Plays like a robot.

[@TheRightToFilmPolice]

I think serral and zerg get way too much props, I think Terran is a much harder army to control and multitask with seeing as you constantly have to be on the look out for banelings and focus fire and do pickups with medivacs, siege un siege tanks and liberators etc.

[@DaddyDizz716]

He made Maru look like someone I could beat

[@WalterMangandid]

Spilled my oats all over my monitor XD

[@douglass1940]

Hahahaha bro

[@wedgeantilles8575]

Extremely underrated comment!

[@eduardodelapena7075]

You can beat Maru, if you believe in yourself and with the emotional support of your real friends.

[@DaddyDizz716]

@@eduardodelapena7075 the power of youth, heart of the cards, and friendship good call

[@frostnero1337]

Wow, that last move with the EMP friendly-fire on the ghost. Simply a straight slap in the face to them ghosts...

[@kingflashraptor]

Hey Lowko next week's mutation mission is Memorable Boss, which is considered hardest mutation ever so may i suggest playing that with random viewers because watching you and some random guy fail miserably for like an hour or two, then finally beating it would be satisfying to watch. ( When it first came out it was nearly impossible to beat but they patched it since then so it should be beatable, albeit difficult. )

[@vedranv3616]

That would be awesome for Friday's KZbin stream.

[@xandierxce3513]

nah lowko will call in CTG support, and beat 2nd try

[@jeremythemaxwell]

@@aceterdt2836 why is stet so good against it?

[@jeremythemaxwell]

@@aceterdt2836 just from the 10 damage shield and then run away during the moment of silence?

[@jeremythemaxwell]

@@aceterdt2836 yeah I love stet and those are all reasons he's great in general, but I meant specifically for that mutation?

[@ozthebeeman]

Mark takes his forth base: Serral already at his fifth: I'm three parallel universes ahead of you.

[@albertbergquist2113]

I love that Neural+EMP move! The first pro match i saw it was actually a SortOf game a couple of years ago.

[@b4ti1c]

this is insanely amazing. he calmly overgrew maru. there was no single decisive battle either. it was what would have been in real life. zerg at your doorstep. serral had the upper hand from the start and it was as if he just showed up his cards to maru and he was defeated without a fight. The ending where maru was mining 0 and serral 3K is a picture of dominance. look at this from a lore-centric perspective: he just ling-bane'd maru with an occasional hydra. just like in the cinematics. Humans/Terrans need to be aggressive against zerg if the disease is to be stopped. bunking up is not a solution because zerg'll overcome you. this cast Lowko, may not be the most fun zvt, but definitely is the most cinematic one... Best T is immensely overpowered by THE Z. He needs P support to overcome this. Now I definitely want to watch a 2v2 match between Serral + Dark/Reynor vs Maru + Hero/MaxPax

[@b4ti1c]

Actually, do you think can we fund it Lowko? Would they be interested? I find Zerg vs ALL very intriguing actually now that Serral has definitely grown into an overmind

[@goldensea03idk51]

anyone else really surprised when they saw max pax at #4?!?

[@vedranv3616]

Yes! I know he's good, but didn't know he's that good. Better Protoss than Hero!? Lowko obviously casts only the games where he loses! :D

[@N0noy1989]

​@@vedranv3616 Maxpax is the best PvP player in the world. and yes, better than HerO in PvP. not sure other matchups. Maxpax beat herO in a recent tournament. There was also an Archon match PvP where the main pilots was Showtime vs Maxpax. with full attention to micro, can see how godlike Maxpax in PvP is.

[@vedranv3616]

@@N0noy1989 that's awesome, I look forward to seeing more of his games. My main source of SC2 content is Lowko, I don't really follow it more closely so didn't know that.

[@blckdrgn8193]

Blessed with another Epic battle by an Epic commentator!! Thank you for the quality content. Keep it up.

[@thomaschevrierlaliberte5884]

Serral makes every zerg of the swarm look like they think individually.

[@grim3897]

I'm starting to believe that starcraft world is divided in two, Serral and the rest of the world

[@publicexpo]

What a monster of a game, it doesn't get any better than these two titans duking it out. Thanks Lowko!

[@Freshbreadthe2nd]

masterclass by Serral in this game. Really glad to see a Zerg doing the trick of mining risky bases first to preserve his safer economy for later on, I've been wondering for a long time why they did not do that (not that I have any lesson to give to pro players on my diamond level but still). Also, the drone count is something to note, instead of going 90-100 drones, he stayed between 70-80, making his attacks much more impactful, and anyway, since he had the control of most bases for the duration of the game, one has to wonder if those extra 20 population in drone are really worth sacrificing such a chunk of army. In high level matches, using zergling baneling composition, you know that 90% of your banes are not going to hit, the last 10% are making the difference, so why not adding 10% more population to your army ? There's a reason why his push have been more effective than before, and I think this is it. Great game, thank you.

[@cristhian3460]

I really believe Maru needed some mines in order to stop Serral harassment, make him reconsider his strategy and finally secure a new base. Also, I normally don't root for Zerg players but Zerral really commands respect.

[@paulgazeley4059]

Mines lose a lot of efficiency against players like Serral and reynor (although they split vs mines differently), serral will always be watching his lings somehow, stop split one off and only lose one… Obviously you can take minerals for ‘free’ but the issue is the supply cost of having 12-16 supply of mines all over the place and a weaker heads on army.

[@cristhian3460]

@@paulgazeley4059 What if placed in a row instead of a wall? That way they can't be triggered by small Ling groups if supported by tanks and marines. After all the goal would be deterring Serral from doing those Ling floods and buy time to secure a base. After all the main reason why Serral won (in my opinion) was because he didn't let Maru collect more minerals, not because he had a better exchange of units.

[@Krasses]

@@paulgazeley4059 Serral used to lose against Clem because Clem would use that spider mines and it just deleted the zerglings

[@MegaLqlq]

The zergling/bane micro is beyond me and when u add the lil bit of hydra and vipers m.. mm.. m.. honestly the fact that both of them have 100+ supply at min 7 is like woah i mean its crazy to even imagine playing sc2 like a piano not to mention those precise 0.5sec mouse boxings that are required... for sure the million they got is earned honorably not an easy task.

[@benjamineidam]

Starcraft is nice and all but Serral is creating art every game that he is part of. Just awesome!

[@etistyle96]

I've finished campain mode. Serral finished multiplayer mode

[@CMF412]

I loved that laugh at 18:00 over the burrowed zergling

[@jakobbrun6535]

Serral really is the embodiment of Zerg! The way his infestation just leaped across the map was scary to behold. Maru being able to stay in the game for a very long time due to his exceptional positioning of his defenses + strong ghost control, but in the end, Serrals style makes him run out of money JUST in time before Serral would also have run out :P I look forward to how Terrans are going to solve this, only for Serral to improve even further. What a time for SC2 this is.

[@mido5126]

serral is a monster!! Love his moves, his superiority and his bank account. Together with raynor and zest, my absolut favorit players

[@noxxtromonoctis5295]

Serral's style is perfectly tailored to meet Maru. I wonder, when Maru will finally adapt his style to best Serral.

[@harryschlotter3403]

incredible that those guys are still at the top

[@LobbeWOW]

Serral played that beautifully - he always had the amount of army he needed to reduce the standing terran army to less than Maru was comfortable moving out with, and from that he kept expanding. His win condition logic was so simple yet so incredibly hard to pull off mechanically that it's honestly unreal.

[@bingobangini]

It would be nice if you could put the tournament game in the description. Nice video though!

[@voodoo1094]

I've heard there's still pro level sc1 going on in Korea. Could be quite fun to see lowko casting one of those games for a change.

[@LowkoTV]

Yeah it's still pretty popular, definitely would like to learn the game more.

[@Devillionaire]

18:00 - Serral's slightly greater APM doesn't mean he's "faster" than Maru. Zerg is always automatically higher APM because making units is always 3 actions instead of 2. Select hatcheries, select larvae, select zerglings - something Winter always reminds us of, but I guess Lowko forgets.

[@Spartsou]

2:24 wait....MaxPax is #4 in the top ten SC2 players in the world?!?! man....he's come a long way........ Serral is great!

[@REgamesplayer]

I was telling zerg to surround them enemies for ages. Finally I see zerg players becoming good enough for that tactic. Serral's surrounds are beautiful. In this game we are also seeing a lot of improvements which we were telling pro players to do. 1) Terran player finally being able to afford a Raven? He must have taken a loan for that! 2) Zergs taking contested bases in mid game when they have map control and mining that? Jeez, how long we had to beat that fact over their heads? 3) Zerg player aggressively trading armies with a terran player and starving them out? How many games were lost when zerg just sat there with massive advantage and let terran to fully max out? Serral gameplay is impressive and this is why I'm his fan. I love how he continuously implements new strategies and tactics into his gameplay. However, a lot of these things are things which we as observers and commenters were mentioning to them for a really long time. I guess it takes time from it being first mentioned, becoming a common suggestion and finally someone good enough trying to make it work.

[@flowerzen5391]

Small thing but I love seeing the colors outside of red and blue. Something about it just makes my brain happy

[@titocristobal5573]

You know, I'm not an avid player of ranked games (I play mostly coop and arcade) and I am not a Protoss main either, but seeing Maxpax introducing Protoss on the top 5 is actually pretty awesome.

[@flaviusclaudius7510]

I've seen two Serral v Maru games on this map, and they've both been the same: Maru plays relatively passively as he likes to build up a big army at home & just does some harassment, so Serral takes 2/3 of the map so he'll always have double Maru's money and then just keeps throwing units at Maru in super cost-inefficient trades until Maru goes broke and loses. I think the combination of this map and Serral's playstyle just doesn't work well with Maru's playstyle.

[@TCPUDPATM]

I need a second display and an extra eye just to keep up with what they’re doin with full vision. Insane.

[@jayyrod1]

And he goes by the name ' The finish.... Serral' a.k.a the finisher!

[@bakerzstreet4205]

Been waiting for this epic matchup

[@kentekeroth]

Serral is the most fun to watch and Lowko is by far the best commentaror. Thanks!

[@bagahbread]

Lowko is casting a lot of Serral games recently. My wish came through

[@Arkeli5]

I think the key to this one, is bleeding out the bases that would usually be the terrans. I mean everyone focus's on how many minerals are involved in the fight trades but how many minerals did Serral steal in this match? It all counts.

[@miguelgutierrez853]

Serral has the upper hand, because the queens are completely OP.

[@xitaris5981]

My strat of mining risky bases and falling back to safer bases later is validated by the GOAT :) I mean might as well when you need macro hatches anyway with so many lings

[@kozatas]

That strat needs Serral-like confidence to execute imo. Further development of that strat: If mining from some of the bases which are considered Terran's. You are just stealing from his pocket, right? Why doesn't Serral bury as static defense what he steals from Terran? For example, you're at 180 supply. Just make spores and spines from there making it like a fortress which will cost Terran even more to clean it.

[@somaloll]

@@kozatas 1 nuke, any amount of seige tanks, any amount of medivacs invalidate static defense of that magnitude or make it terribly inefficient

[@polyacov_yury]

I honestly half-expected the re-enactment of Carlsen v. Nakamura double bongcloud €:

[@GotEmAll1337]

After 2 years quitting and ignoring this game completely and coming back to watch a cast by Lowko.... Still love this guy, but this game is so broken. Doesn't cease to amaze me how much harder Zerg has to work just to survive, let alone dominate like this. Serral is f****** inhuman with his skill.

[@luke7600]

At around 20:30, why would Maru pull back his ENTIRE military while he's trying to establish himself at the 3 o'clock? He needs those minerals and he just sends the SCVs to fend for themselves

[@N0noy1989]

During the TSL, Serral didn't even need to use his god mode in offline matches.

[@AntEksiler]

Feels like Maru should play 2 factories vs Serral each time.

[@yamilabugattas3895]

I think Maru could have used more blue flame hellbats a bit sooner, there were lots of zerglings since the beginning.

[@glennriter5965]

I love how watching Serral play you get to see zerglings just absolutely dominate against all the late game strats every other race is able to field. His unit composition here was like 80% ling, 15% bane, 5% whatever else. Yes yes I know I'm a salty non-zerg player complaining about how OP zergs are and that's an old story, but in fairness mass lings really is incredibly effective. They are without a doubt the best tier 1 units in the game, because they're extremely cheap, supply efficient, flexible, fast, and if you get them their upgrades they're extremely powerful. Side note I still want to see ghosts nerfed in exchange for various other terran units getting buffed - Terrans are just too boring to watch because they have so few viable approaches to winning a game. I'd like to see some protoss love too, but they're a bit harder to pick out a clear "that unit is too OP and is an absolute necessity because of that" which is creating a problem with variety for them. Still too few viable approaches to winning games, just...Not as easy to pick out a good fix.

[@thomaschang7996]

Great game, thank you!

[@ModrunOfficial]

i dont understand why zerg dont go like just 1 corruptor atleast or something to completely block terrans ability to hover medivac drops over the zerg bases/deadspace or use ravens? corruptor seems like a good unit in general to just get rid of medivacs in fights aswell

[@CubeItself]

i am still blown away and unsure how players like serral get 70+ drones at the 6 min mark and still have a little bit of defense and perfect amount of queens

[@TritonTv69420]

Part of that is what lowko calls the "gentleman's agreement" if you do that on the ladder about 70% of the time you will get rolled by cheese. I say this a lot but the games get better as your rank gets higher. Sure there is cheese at higher ranks/leagues (which is of course even more refined) but... there is more respect for skill. People play out "real games" more often. It allows you to focus more of perfect build timings. I noticed this when i first got above plat about 5-6 years ago.

[@wisesquirrel4986]

@@TritonTv69420 By "respect" are you referring to fear that the opponent will be easily to easily defend the cheese?

[@voodoo1094]

@@TritonTv69420 I somehow doubt that players really think "oh I could easily win teens of thousands of dollars with cheese, but instead I'll play fair" We've seen people go for cheese in pro level games and most of the time it's simply a losing strategy against players of serrals calibre.

[@hivetech4903]

@@TritonTv69420 No... Pro macro builds are specifically designed to be safe from cheese, that's why its so rare in tournaments. Players lose to cheese a lot below Masters because they aren't doing the builds correctly, or they react horribly to scouting.

[@paulgazeley4059]

@@TritonTv69420 the gentlemens agreement is only because of incredible scouting, this is one of the reasons so many cheeses/all ins work vs serral as he just sees everything and knows how to respond. I’m in low masters and see nothing and have no idea what to do vs half the all ins I face. All ins “should” be a good strategy vs serral since you don’t want to take it late and a crisp timing can beat better players… he just sees it coming

[@johnw3922]

That was what every imaged zerg is supposed to look like.

[@Deezo187]

great game and cast :)

[@Ilcka]

one of the thigns SC2 got right was that deep purple colour, so beautiful.

[@jirikunc1956]

maxpax no 4? wow

[@michaeljohnston4762]

Amazing as always

[@TritonTv69420]

Lowko! Ma boi. You should change your channel name to banger factory.

[@danielheikkila3352]

Imo even tho south-koreans are very good at video games, it's insulting to use these new made up terms "non-koreans". Nothing against koreans, just saying about this word. I think you can find master players everywhere. And yes there's a lot of koreans doing well in those competitions, but that doesn't mean we can separate people for koreans and "non-koreans". It doesn't matter which country is it. Non-chinese, non-finnish, non-brazilian, still same thing. That's just my opinion and just telling honestly. Btw love your videos Lowko! Thank you for making these🤩✨

[@ozthebeeman]

Idk I'd it's just me but for some reason the yellow zerg really triggers my tryptophobia

[@dylanmontanino4468]

My two favorite players, nice video ❤

[@normanwierdle6749]

Wow! Serral confidence is sky high

[@florin.lupascu]

Sometime in the future this statement will be scientifically proven: there is something intrinsically and ineffable pleasurable watching Serral playing SC2, but specifically when winning...

[@Erebus2075]

gotta see those names ^^ GWP and GoodCasting

[@Panda-cp9cs]

simple yet very enticing title

[@SaltpeterTaffy]

"That's how I want to go out one day." Pooping?

[@yosefshemesh5246]

Serral’s rinse and repeat strategy just kills Mary every time. Which sucks for me being a Maru fan.

[@ipotatoe_28]

I don't think the turtle style can work against high end Zergs on Waterfall. Map is too small, and Zergs can re-max way faster. Ling Bane is just too strong. 156 Lings on the unit tab after Serral's 2nd rush up in the top left... man knew how to break the turtle style!

[@darkmxk]

Thank you for the great content!!!!!!

[@gablp7257]

Hi Lowko, have you heard of Harstrem new zerg play?

[@montypython5521]

I feel like anti armor missile is under utilized with marine based armies.

[@Jdog-tt8qe]

i think mines instead of seige tanks wouldve helped a lot in this game. those vipers just shut down tanks. but maybe serral would counter mines with hydras instead.

[@Jdog-tt8qe]

but at least ghosts would be better agaiinst hydra/lurker than ling bane

[@jordanleighton6893]

I honestly think this was lost the second Maru chose that particular strat. I’m curious to see this matchup again now that Maru knows this way is an L. I suspect it’ll be a lot closer

[@JulianAcostaBuenosAires]

Hey I have a question, I'm not really into SC2 pro gaming matches. But this Serral guy is that good? Or Lowko almost always only cast Serral's wins???

[@ekspert12340]

Serral is a flippin' machine :)

[@tpunktepunkt1613]

Very impressive game by Serral.

[@pierrot-baptistelemee-joli820]

Honest question here. We know the repeat rate on keyboard boost the APM of Zergs a little bit due to their unit production mechanic. How much is a little bit? When Serral is a 490 avg APM and Maru is at 410, could this 80 apm difference be completely explained by the repeat rate?

[@binbobby]

This is a beautiful map

[@ZerglingLover]

Nice to know that Serral is still the GOAT

[@jankowalski1501]

TOTAL DOMINATION

[@harunora13]

I still dont understand why the players arent moving miners from the safe to mine bases to the more frontline-ish bases when they capped and got the money to remax. They can, most likely, just fall back and mine in safer bases when enemy pushes...?

[@N0noy1989]

Serral does that recently as a counter to turtle terran, so that when terran breaks out, they have nothing to farm. As to why they don't do it more often, and why Serral only started doing it recently? Dunno, maybe APM issues.

[@calvinfleetwood1645]

Wonder how many people realize starcraft was originally supposed to be a warhammer game. Zerg = tyronids. Terran = emperium of man. Protoss = eldar

[@clutchcure6821]

I feel that Terran are a little under powered man. Like the protoss and zerg both have great optoins and late game and Terran just get ghosts and thats it. If you do not go ghosts your screwed and if you do it can be countered in a way.

[@Erebus2075]

argument for serral is better; serral got zerg nerfed left and right, maru can't even get ghost nerfed with everything it has which deserves it so much :P therefore serral is clearly much better :P serral is also the only sc2 player i see constanttly evolving and doing things we have asked forever "why not do this" and he makes it really work ^^ his nydus play need to be far better though; like why not have nydus at all bases endgame so when runby come you move all drones into the nydus and auto safe the droneline for the price of 1 nydus (which can also be used for reinforcement when needed; the only stopper here is that it takes an insane! APM and overview of where everything is, but serral is the sc2 nr.1 surely he is the best to try and make it work ^^

[@dongdongqi2337]

This is from tsl9 final

[@Zanderb20]

Fun fact: Koreans take starcraft so seriously, to be allowed to marry a girl you first need to beat her father in a starcraft 1v1 match

[@Nukespeargaming]

Dancing drugged men with guns v hyped rolling green death balls Btw everyone is talking about how good their game is but no one is talking about 1:00 at the map look how insane their pov is...

[@zottffss]

Clearly, Serral is Maru's kryptonite!

[@hoschihoschikaja2986]

mega!!! wie geil ... götter des spiels

[@oza_lup]

Maru just stay in the game like 6 more min just bec he have 9 ghosts LMAO

[@himosiris]

Whole game was Maru losing slowly and painfully, I am sad. Its not like I don't like Serral, he is GOAT but I don't like no contest.

[@張家宸-z3e]

Serral owned this game, amazing

[@joeymorningstar2114]

Gj Lowko FOR AIUR!!!

[@aaronbiglow6573]

Serral is just scary. Such an impressive competitor. Just wish he played toss lol. 😅

[@lordlard2833]

"The very best in the 2 regions we have in SC2." Ouch. NA ousted.

[@thomasblanc3457]

I agree, the Koreans are still strong in many games although in League of Legends the Chinese LPL seems to be a stronger region, but if you take out the Korean players in the Chinese LPL, undoubtedly the LCK and Koreans are the strongest in the World atm

[@thelitepredator]

Only one game between them 😫😩😓😭😭😭

[@orangepearlf40]

Serral is scary man.

[@o8livion]

is that a reupload?

[@Zerir]

1 word "BEAUTIFUL"