Homestory Cup XX Final Day: Serral defeats Rival Reynor

The sun has set on Homestory Cup XX, and what an epic way for a tournament to end than an all-out battle between two esport rivals. Serral after 8 games going back and forth with Reynor ultimately prevailed.

After losing to Reynor in the Blizzard World Series, Serral has managed to avenge his loss against his rival and friend Reynor in an epic Grand Final for the history books. The last day of the Homestory Cup XX left no StarCraft fan disappointed. A day of epic losses and epic comebacks has finally come to a close, and the best StarCraft players of the event gave it their all.

Semi-Finals Winner’s

INnoVation brought some credibility back to the Terran, as he knocked Serral down to the loser brackets. In game 4, INnoVation used a combined Marauder, Marine and Medivac army. The killing blow came when Serral attempted to destroy INnoVation’s bio army with a flanking swarm of Banelings. Unfortunately for Serral, the Banelings failed to connect and inflict enough damage to INnoVation’s army losing Serral the match-up.

Reynor once again proved his current Starcraft prowess. In a complete 3-0 shut-out against Zest, Reynor managed to counter most of Zest’s strategies. Starting out in game 1, Zest went for a heavy Archon army which Reynor countered with a solid army of Roaches and Ravagers. Game 2 would end up being even more exciting, as Zest paired up Carriers with a Protoss Mothership. Similar to Reynor’s battle with Cure, Reynor used Vipers to rope in Zest’s large Carrier fleet and pick them of one by one. Game 3 would end with a zerg rush and a failed attempt by Zest to wall off Reynor’s lings before they wiped out his Probes.

Reynor went on to beat INnoVation’s Terran forces in the Winner’s finals with another perfect 3-0 score. This set up a re-match between Serral and INnoVation in the Loser’s bracket.

Loser’s Finals: Serral and INnoVation Re-match

Where Serral largely screwed up against INnoVation in their previous match, he hugely made up for it in this one. His first match relied on a heavy use of Zergling and Banglings and ultimately won with the introduction of Ultralisks into his army. Serral’s Baneling use would prove to be even more impressive in Game 2 with even more impressive hits against INnoVation, devastating his army. Most impressive was a perfect Baneling hit against a group of fleeing SCVs, killing all of them instantly.

Serral would go on to quickly beat INnoVation in Game 3, winning the match-up and sending Serral head-to-head with formal Blizzard World Cup rival Reynor.

Championship: Duel of the Fates- Reynor vs. Serral

The Championship is definitely the stuff of dreams as Reynor faced down his rival Serral. The last time these two met was at The Blizzard World Cup 2019 where Serral was defeated by Reynor in the semi-finals. It could’ve easily been any other match up in the finals, but it seems like fate itself deemed Homestory XX would end this way.

The Championship would be a best of 5 where if Reynor, since he was champion of the winner’s bracket, would automatically win if he got 3 wins before Serral. However, if Serral got 3 wins before Reynor the score would reset, and Reynor and Serral would have to battle it out in a best of 3.

Serral ended the first match straight away with a Nydus tunnel, and a group of roaches straight into Reynor’s base. In Game 2 Reyor quickly matched Serral’s Roaches and Ravagers with his own. After a tense attack on Reynor’s main base where it seemed Reynor would be handed his second loss, he managed to repel Serral’s attack and send his army routing. Serral would concede after his offensive completely collapsed. Game 3 would go to Reynor in a far more expansive match. Using a combination of Lurkers, Mutalisks and Vipers to repel Serral’s army made up of hydras and Roaches.

Game 4 would prove to be an epic match with Reynor and Serral going back and forth with their army of Roaches and Lurkers. In the winning move of the game Serral surrounded Reynor’s army on all sides destroying it and scoring the win.

Sudden Death

Finally in Game 5, Serral would drive the Championship into an epic best of 3 sudden death when he drove a large group of roaches straight into his base destroying valuable hatcheries and drones. Despite Reynor having mutalisks, Serral used nydus tunnels to bring in queens and chase off any hope of Reynor crushing Serral’s offensive.

The best of 3 match-up to decide the champion kicked off its Game 6 with more Baneling attacks by Serral and even more roaches going head-to-head. Reynor would win Game 6 hitting his bases in multiple places. Despite this, Serral would drop-jaws in Game 7 with a war on all fronts with the help of Mutalisks harassing Reynors bases while his main army was distracted. Serral would take the win and bring the championship into a tie-breaking Game 8.

In the epic Game 8, Serral would bring out Corrupters against Reynor’s Mutalisks and ultimately prevailed in the battle for air superiority winning the final battle for the Championship.

Serral had fallen to the Loser’s bracket after losing to INnoVation earlier in the day, but he rose to win the Homestory Cup XX trophy.