After Montreal I wrote that Serral had become the New England Patriots of Starcraft, not just because of his skill and consistency, but how his skill and dominance puts so much pressure on his opponent they play sub-optimally. Serral vs Reynor seemed to follow this script.

Game 1 Serral plays his game and picks Reynor apart, out-positioning and out multi-tasking him to death. It was Serral’s 10th map win in a row and step 1 of an inevitable march to the finals and a back to back championship.

Game 2 was a loss for the Fin but nothing surprising here, Reynor typically gets a game in these meetings, and here it was. Good timing attack to catch Serral playing a bit too conservatively. Are you worried for Serral, not really it’s a best of 3 and he is the best player in the world. And then in game 3 we start to see some actual cracks. Reynor continues applying pressure and just like that the tournament favorite is down match point.

It is here that I want to give Serral some real props, this series ended in disaster and there are questions, but game 4, back against the wall, with no momentum, Serral turned back into Serral. Reynor has Mutas and yet somehow Serral is the one getting harass and economic damage with roaches. This was the player that we all wanted to see. Flawless defense on one side, and just enough units bled off the cause problems for Reynor. And we are at game 5.

At this point the Serral fan in me has breathed a sigh of release, yes, the series is tied, but Serral has looked like the better player, grabbed momentum back and you know the Blizzcon champion isn’t going to be phased by match point of the semi-finals. Right away the tables are turned and Serral is the one with Mutas, but unlike Reynor on game 4 he is getting damage, there are no units for Reynor on the map. Tom brady has the ball, with a chance to put the game away. What we have seen countless times. He might lose this, but it won’t be because he made the mental mistake. But the reason we watch sports is sometimes the script has a twist in it. Sometimes the greatest QB of all time holds the ball too long and watches the superbowl fall out of his hand. And sometimes, even the vaunted Serral doesn’t know what to do in late game.

I am always hesitant to say a top player didn’t know what to do. Serral is at least 7 orders of magnitude better than me. (7 levels of players who I couldn’t win 1 game against so on and so forth), and I don’t preface to be a ZvZ late game tactician. But for 2 weeks I’ve been trying to figure out what Serral was doing, and for the life of me I don’t get it. Everything went as close to perfect for him as it could have. Reynor was pinned, losing drones and hatcheries. Exactly as Serral’s Muta ling style was designed to do. Yes you can tunnel vision, I do it all the time, but how have you not thought about a transition? How is your answer Ultras which just cannot trade with lurkers? If this wasn’t Serral, ok late game ZvZ can get weird and players make mistakes, but the Finnish Phenom was different, or at least we thought he was.