StarCraft 2: The World Championship GRAND FINALS! (Best-of-7)

Serral versus Reynor in a best-of-7 series of top level StarCraft 2. This series is the Grand Finals of IEM Katowice, and with that the finals of the World Championships. The winner of this match is the current World Champion of StarCraft 2.
IEM Katowice 2022 on Liquipedia: liquipedia.net...
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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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[@nimamotamedi4544]

Excellent cast, Lowko. You could feel the tension especially in the last game. I especially love that you give no hints to who would win. Truly felt like it could have gone either way until the end. Cheers!

[@ShanePhoenix5558]

Yo I was thinking the same thing I’m like this guy is a pro caster. He knows who wins but yet never drops any hints to who it was an acts surprised the whole way just as much as anyone else watching it for the first time

[@IrishLegacy93]

@@ShanePhoenix5558 he is literally a pro caster my guy :)

[@mostafapanahi3240]

Yea! I tried hard to predict based on lowko's cast. No hint was given. Lowko is a great caster.

[@ShanePhoenix5558]

@@mostafapanahi3240 yea I know lol I just mean even being a pro caster you would think he would make a slip up but no he didn’t which makes him the apex of pro casters cause like I said the man made no mistakes.

[@st.eve4939]

No hints...? The video thumbnail literally gives away who wins

[@PandaRizzArg]

Im glad to see that Lowko is recovering from the "game of the year tittle syndrom"

[@jkkim6928]

This gotta be “the comment of the year”

[@brabhamfreaman166]

As we all are.

[@cameronmiller6240]

Tittle teehee

[@sanggonyi8889]

Really love watching Lowko's cast on these games cause he provides so much analysis and makes it easy even for people who are unfamiliar of the matchup to understand the key points to watch out for throughout the series. My number 1 starcraft channel, thank you LowkoTV

[@cyberhikikomori5326]

Your commentary really elevated the tension Lowko. I especially love how you sprinkled in those little bits: Serral's goal for IEM Katowice, how Reynor must be thinking, etc. Plus the neutral but hype-filled delivery. I totally felt that tension mounting til the end. Great cast.

[@LowkoTV]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@csmlouis]

Congrats to the first SC2 millionaire! By prize earning anyway. Everybody knows LowkoTV is the first SC2 millionaire from Iowa, US according to YTanalytic.

[@simonl1135]

As for Serral "literally never" losing 4 games in a row, he did very much lose just that (0-4) in 2020 against Dark in the final of TSL 6 and it was against another Zerg... Of course this year when he faced Dark it was quite different.

[@mostafapanahi3240]

He was busy fanboying about serrel he forgot to fact check that one😁

[@quezocoatl1420]

And Serral lost to Trap in a bo7 after leading 3:0 I don't remeber whether it was in 2020 or 2021

[@WalterMangandid]

I am soooooo happy for Serral. He truly deserves to be titled the world champion of Starcraft 2!! His bracket was super hard and I truly feared the worst. There was a moment during the stream of him against Maru, I think, where you can see Joona shaking when drinking water 😳 Man, you can tell it was intense.

[@1KamaronConClase]

This series was amazing! What a delight to watch. I waited for the Lowko cast, and was not disappointed. Very well done!

[@aNugget100]

Mr Lowko - You need to cast the Spirit vs Niiice Series. The most mental game I've ever seen is the second game in the Bo3. Please cast you wont be disappointed.

[@justinbowen4193]

It was a Bo5, and definitely needs a full cast from Lowko... It's the best series of the A stream for the whole tournament, and better than any of the C stream series I've seen. It's also one of the best series I've seen in my nearly decade of watching SC2... up there with TY vs Maru in 2018 GSL Season 3 finals

[@AngelDMunoz]

Oh yes! I was waiting for the Lowko cast sauce for this exquisite series

[@heat76ers]

thanks for casting this Mr Lowko. any chance you'll do game 3 of Maru Serral?

[@GorastMK]

Yes! That game was epic!

[@Nutella150]

regarding these guys handling the pressure to play so cleanly at this level, my hands used to shake while presenting to work groups so much it was tough to navigate a powerpoint xD I can't imagine trying to micro speedlings and banelines

[@acehughj4527]

At the grandest stage and for 7 whole games at that...

[@etistyle96]

me playing zerg under stress : "damn !! where is my nexus !!?"

[@PenguinIceDelta]

I mean all of that on top of it being ZvZ which is absolutely the most chaotic matchup in the game

[@colossaldonut5190]

What an absolutely amazing series! Lots of little tricks from both sides. I really liked Serral's Tunneling Roaches doing runbys and in that last game using the Ventral Sacs Overlords doing some Terran-like Roach Drops. You could really see how each player improved after every engagement, especially in that last game which was absolutely intense!

[@marshallgarey2913]

This was a fantastic series and very worthy of the grand finals. The winner certainly deserves it! However, I was rooting for the loser.

[@alfo149]

I was also rooting for the loser. The Zerg just did better it seems.

[@nitrodixx]

I too was rooting for the loser, and because Lowko casts so well i didnt even know i was till the very end. Congrats winner. definitely a well played match

[@magnusbjarni]

I was constantly changing my stance, cause both played so incredibly well that it was impossible to see who was the underdog after game 4 and 6. Really glad about the results, since I've been a fan of his for a while now. But god damn did they both play well. Rarely seen such fun games, let alone a finale like that

[@xitaris5981]

I watched the semi-finals on Twitch on game day, but I waited to watch the Final cast by you, Lowko, because I prefer your casting style. :D I didn't mean to simp, I just thought you might like to know.

[@ballboys607]

Spoiler alert Zerg wins

[@itsjustaline]

Dam it ! ZERG OP . NEFT ZERG NERF ZERG

[@mho...]

Friggin Spoil0r ppl, must u ruin everything?! 😪

[@testedtech]

I mean, I know it's a joke but actually I do think currently Zerg is the strongest race...Protoss is the weakest. The difference is slight, but it is there.

[@PenguinIceDelta]

@@testedtech think it's dependent on level. Gold to low GM it is without a doubt protoss. At the tippy top it's Zerg followed closely by Terran. Protoss gets diminishing returns with increased micro which hurts them.

[@cottonpage26]

Bruh spoiler alert you should be cancelled

[@Erik-sx2of]

Incredible game. Raynor and Serral are def my favorite players in SC2. Great job in the commentary. Great game

[@Late0NightPC]

Your mention after Reynor's third win of "going for the most insane cheese" is actually the best thing you can do in that situation most of the time. Whenever you are judging what kind of play you want to make, you plot it on a sliding scale between two extremes. Risky plays, which could give you a huge lead, or make you drop back really far if you lose, and safe plays, which give you a small lead, but if lost won't make you lose much. When you are ahead and winning a ton, there isn't much reason to go for risky plays as you're already winning, that big lead isn't really needed and if you mess up, you lose a ton of momentum, so go for the safer plays most of the time. You don't need to go for absolutely maximum safe plays, but at the very least don't over-extend yourself to the degree that, if you mess up, you lose the advantage you currently have. When behind on the other hand, safer plays won't give you nearly enough of a boost to get you back into the fight. You're already losing if we are being honest, so it's not like you can "lose more" if a risky play doesn't work out, however if it does work, you could get that boost you need to get back into the race. So when you are behind and still seriously trying to win, go for the cheese play. If you mess up, you were already losing, but maybe the sheer "WTF" factor of it can give you the edge you need to win a match and get back into the fight. On the other hand, like in the next game Serral got really greedy and went for a risky Muta play when he really didn't need to, presumably hoping to get a cool over-the-top win, and ended up losing that match, and then in the match after where it was all on the line, he swapped to playing extremely safely since he knew he couldn't risk anything anymore, and he almost went too far as well as he missed a few possible chances to win and made the last game drag on for way longer. Sad to see Reynor lost, but I'm looking forward to seeing what he has for the next big game he's in.

[@zaksmith1035]

Lowko: Serral hits "gg" on the keyboard. Me: Didn't you just explain APM tricks? He hit 'g'.

[@lorenzogentiluomo9039]

Being Italian I was cheering for Reynor.. but i have to admit a part of my heart was hoping for Serral to take home the GOAT title :) I am really happy for him.. Great games!

[@shiron1076]

Man I love seeing zergling micro all the pulling and attacking is so satisfying to see

[@donnerrr]

Can`t play starcraft... but love to watch... your channel is my go to. Keep the excelent work!

[@DrewLevitt]

16:40 "Zerg players in general don't really think about their building positioning as much as, well, for example, Terran and Protoss" "For example, the only two other races"

[@xitaris5981]

I feel like some Protoss players are going to point out that only 2 Protoss made it to the top 12 and 3/4 of the semi-finalists were zerg, but let's not forget that 42% of GMs are Protoss while only 24% are Zerg. So there's definitely more nuance to the conversations than "Zerg OP" or "Buff Toss"

[@MagpieMew]

Because most protoss proplayer is still serving in Korea military right now.

[@MoonlightLunaMoonlight]

agreed

[@GojiraSC]

trap did a not so good job in iem this year unfortunately

[@PandaRizzArg]

Zerg op. Buff toss.

[@arturosanchospottorno5256]

As a Zerg I want to say that sc2 is banced around pro play and there were 0 Protoss in the top 8 so they need a buff in the competitive scene

[@toddwholmes]

OMG!! "a knife fight in a phone booth" Laughed out Loud.

[@_fisheater1027]

Watched this live on Twitch. I was preparing food after game 1 only to return with a victory screen for game 2. I thought the stream glitched or something. Not expecting a quick game from Serral. 😅

[@drewwalbeck6006]

What a series! This guy that guy you can always argue about who's the GOAT. These two are both legendary

[@Diogenes2077]

I hate the whole GOAT talk anyway. I think it is not reasonable to compare the achievements of a champion player from 2012 with those of a champion today. Serral may be the greatest player of his time, but seeing the age difference Reynor may still become the greatest player of his time.

[@shoebaccalaccayo3766]

LOWKO you got me back into SC2 my ADHD makes it hard to play well, but its still a good game to play whenever im not working. :) thank you for being awesome.

[@bubbasbigblast8563]

Maru's first two games against Serral were shockingly bad: it was like watching a Master league player trying to win a world championship.

[@GorastMK]

Indeed... For some reason Maru didn't play that well this tournament. He got defeated couple of times even in the group stage. It's worth menthoning that he also did play some incredible games aswell, but I think still, this was like 80% of Maru.

[@mz5805]

yeah that was a let down

[@PotniMuzik]

Well, have u ever reached at least this results?) (My eng bad )

[@sienile]

Serral born in '98, the same year StarCraft was released. So he's been able to practice since birth. That explains a lot. :P

[@simonl1135]

I am the Swarm. Armies will be shattered. Worlds will burn. Now, at last, on this world, vengeance shall be mine. For I am the King of Blades.

[@aarongazzaniga1929]

Serral said invest Reynor said Lamborghini

[@martinatanasov999]

Simply brilliant! Both of these guys are, in my opinion, the best in the world right now.

[@You-ul8qw]

Hey lowko I know this is not related to the current video, but would you be interested in perhaps trying a playthrough of the terran campaign in real scale? Considering you enjoyed the 1v1 real scale mod so much 4 years ago, and those videos are the ones that have gained you more views than any other videos... I thought perhaps it'd be a good idea? You can find the first 5 missions in the custom campaigns if you search 'Real Scale', and most of the others in the Arcade section also under 'Real Scale'. They haven't quite released all of the missions yet however I think it'd be good to try the first couple to see how you like it or not. GiantGrantGames released a video on it on his main channel and is currently testing a real scale heart of the swarm if you enjoy it enough to continue with future campaigns. *Disclaimer:* There are real scale voidrays.

[@BroccodiIe]

Amazing thumbnail, Lowko! Congratulations to those 13 Corruptors for winning the Grand Finals!!

[@matheusmotaavelino]

Now we talking, nice and long (bo7) pro match cast! ty !!

[@Ben_R4mZ]

to think that both these players are younger than me, Serral by 1 year, Reynor by over 5, but are playing for the title of "World Champion" mad respect to both of them. I do feel that a lot of the pressure goes away once you have the headphones on and are looking at a familiar screen, familiar maps, and your main race.

[@squiddlykicks8327]

great vid and commentary!

[@IrishLegacy93]

I have re watched this atlesst 5 6 times man! This is insanity. At first i thought ez clap, then thought overturn then was just left on edge of seat goin holy fuck. Insane ending

[@cesarverduga5966]

Great match, worthy of being the final. TY Lowko for the cast

[@kobenhavnerhvidogblaa8696]

Seriously great job commentating a game you already saw. Only game where it was noticable that you knew what would happen, was in game 2, where you just waited for that drone-pull :D But really nice.

[@ioplop2943]

34:15 I remember raynor saying he would buy a lambo, because "it would be the ultimate flex" 🤣

[@Ghi102]

Once you pointed out how similar the build orders are (sometimes within basically milliseconds of each other) :O

[@Dragunov0511]

I'm proud of him. Serral deserves the title and the money. Fantastic player with incredible skill and also a humble, down-to-earth attitude, unlike his opponent. Finnisher all the way!!

[@JamesAugust5]

Seeing the start of games you could see Serral actually pumps out units and structures a bit faster than Reynor, neat little detail there.

[@khalilomar6364]

56:45. my favorite map and I never knew about those rocks XD

[@davidjagt9627]

Brilliant series, Lowko!

[@TritonTv69420]

Lowko ma man

[@ight_of_heart]

Excellent cast

[@youngyan3817]

when lowko said this game makes him sad in game 7, i was so nervous about the result of this game....... Thank you for the excellent casting!

[@Uksidorgje]

Going from "worse than bronze" to "world championship" in two videos, thats the true full spectrum!

[@user-lb3tg2qx8b]

Lowko says game of drones, I start humming the theme...

[@Mathin3D]

That prize is beyond anything I own.

[@Spartsou]

Oh! An hour, the grand finals, vid, yes! Thanks Lowko!

[@whats82]

Watched this live, it was incredible, and I'll watch it here again because it's that good

[@Ghost-dx8mm]

Thank you for posting :)

[@KingsNerdCave]

Amazing match between 2 of the best. Serral proving why he is rightfully the top player in the world.

[@MichaelNatrin]

Intense matches! Great video.

[@chir0pter]

happy for Serral, nice to have some confirmation of his GOAT status here. Reynor's great but it would be a bit debatable to call him the GOAT evening winning IEM back to back

[@TKirahvi2]

The first title being from offline tournament, I wouldn't count that

[@wtfill]

Lowko, can you cast Sprit vs Nice from Round of 36? They had crazy serries with amazing builds and ridiculous multitasking

[@gamezoid1234]

I really thought towards the end that serral would choke by being to conservative. Good to see I was wrong.

[@alesholman801]

Best of 7 with 7 games and the last one being a macro one, we could not ask for better series

[@SaltpeterTaffy]

The moment I saw mutas one-shotting corruptors, I knew who I was gonna root for.

[@Nosfer13]

Commentary on point as always.

[@Fishbro]

Gold bases *ARE NOT WORTH TAKING* as you see raynor and serral both lose when they take it. Few things to note: 1). Gold bases don't give increased gas, only minerals, 2). The increase in minerals is off-set by the decrease in mineral nodes 3). You get 40% more minerals from gold (5 vs 7) so you calculate the mineral income as 6 * 2 * 1.4 = 16.8 workers worth of minerals for 12 workers. End Result: *You free up 4 population and profit 0.8 mineral/worker more than a normal base when you take a gold base, at the cost of extremely exposing your 2nd base* 4). Your natural is easy to defend, both nat + main bases are easy to synchronize together, protect, less travel time for fights/worker transfers/etc and last but not least 5). Gold bases mine out much faster and the enemy gold base is also available for them later in the game when they naturally transition into a 4th/5th and take that gold base.

[@hivetech4903]

A big part of the reason Zerg does it is for attack staging (closer production & forward creep). On Blackburn that's not the case but Serral was 2 games up so might as well take the risk. It does work in many pro games.

[@Fishbro]

@@hivetech4903 My OP was in regards to ZvZ and this match. It's a different story if you can take map control with it and avoid punishment for it vs terrain and protest.

[@billywd-phd5052]

What an awesome final!

[@RedInside_live]

Soooooo glad Serral did it again!! I don't play Sc2 and I watched only becasue Serral was World Champion at Blitzcon powering thou all the South Korean players.

[@magnusk4352]

I have to give this to you, your English is great, even for a northerner. Keep up the good work.

[@gabraeld]

You know Serral is taking this match seriously when, in the finals of a premier tournament, he resorts to cheese. Damn man, that's something you almost never see.

[@OSU2010]

What happened to Maru??

[@domacleod]

First 2 mins first match, they both do the same thing but serral is just slightly faster. What a madlad.

[@rodrigo.sindona]

43:05 okay that was insane

[@wesley-skyehayes26]

holy cow that last match! ma heart

[@scvz9wolf9]

24:30 “Game Of Drones”

[@doomhammer4577]

Hey lowko hear anything about bly?

[@arturosanchospottorno5256]

I love reynor and serral both fantastic player who deserve to be in the finals due to sheer skill, that said, 2 zergs in the finals 0 protos in the top 8 and only 3 terrans

[@spartan0013]

Damm professional games are so much different from what I am used to.

[@tungnse]

Nice comeback from Serral, I mean his entire career. There were many anti-serral comments on youtube saying his GOAT is a bluff and he's all washed up. Notably that *tigera6* just disappeared no where to be seen in this comment section. Anyway, expect more "ZERG OP PLS REMOVE RACE" whining after this.

[@sorinrobinson9237]

Last game was good. I wanted the other where they rushed lurkers out to go longer. I usually root for the non zerg team so seeing vipers using abduction against each other was fun

[@calebrobinson6406]

Holy crap! My fingernails are all gone with that last game

[@swoop986]

Another great cast. Thanks Lowko.

[@yourname6553]

Seeing these to play is like Mozart vs Beethoven

[@swoop986]

@@yourname6553 Gotta say I'm a fan of Serral and Scarlett. Always look forward to their matches.

[@GraueHerren]

another great season of "game of drones"

[@Amoeby]

"Game of Drones" XD

[@TubeTAG]

Oh man... Map 7, and I can't help but check the remaining video length... 20 minutes on map 7? Jeebus, this is gonna be one of *those* series. See you guys on the other side!

[@EdgarTheOnion]

Insane ZvZ !

[@miked3723]

The thumbnail gives away the winner wtf lowko

[@notkruger7347]

I don't understand the constant going forward and backward why not just fight?

[@howlingdin9332]

They prefer to be as certain as possible that attacking will be to their advantage in the face of incomplete information on their opponent. You see the same thing in nature: With the exception of competing with their own species over mating, animals prefer as one-sided a fight as possible to minimize their chance of being hurt or wasting energy.

[@lazuardikabut]

LETS GOOOOOO SERRAL!!!

[@Fummy007]

I was there. legendary match up

[@tamirleibovich]

12:20 game of drones

[@Willdreynolds870621]

A game of drones. Creep is coming lol

[@ВалентинДолгалев]

пожалуйста, скажите мне, если хочу ли я играть в эту игру, а затем я начинаю с нуля и нажимаю сетевую игру и обучение, а затем нажимаю ИИ, если я хорошо сражался с ИИ, а затем с командой и хорошо сражался с Игроком, а затем я участвовал в турнир?

[@joelillo09]

Hello wonderful people. This is a great example of what Sun Tzu was talking about.

[@OriginalMicycle]

48:43 Giggity!

[@omshanti1394]

@Lowko: why are you telling me in the thumbnail who wins the game?!? Took out all the fun :(

[@kentekeroth]

You plan to show games on the road to the finals? Would be great for instance to follow serials road to the finals or reynors or other players until they’re knocked out.

[@LowkoTV]

I don't plan on recasting all the games leading up to the finals, but I will cast the best ones from the tournament.

[@yourname6553]

War is for video games guys, lets appreciate that

[@vape_monkey]

This is just like Federer vs Nadal

[@parkerdixon-word6295]

Lowko, I'm suddenly overcome with disappointment that you haven't used a "Game of Drones"/Game of Thrones pun for a video title yet (to my knowledge), because that's top-notch Starcraft pun bullshit.

[@chir0pter]

17:00 just realized you probably explained the concept of "knife fight in a phonebooth" because younger viewers don't know what phonebooth is 😒