Both players are prodigies. For years, Serral has been dominating not because he plays Zerg, but because as many casters and analysts have said, he simply does things no one else is capable of doing and pretty much was playing Zerg at an optimal level.
Clem has been on the rise for years and IMO was already the best overall Terran prior to this tournament. He seemingly patched up any remaining shortcomings in his play and has proven that without a doubt in this performance.
That said, I would say both players are now head and shoulders above the rest, and one can argue they are equal. But now that Serral is finally up against an opponent of equal skill, you start to see all the balance issues in TvZ that lower level players have complained about for the longest time surface.
To sum things up, the main issues are, on Terran side:
- Terran having the most initiative in almost all engagements, especially vs Zerg (AKA Terran is almost always the one on the offensive, forcing a reaction). Given equal skill and APM, it’s easier to only worry about what you have to do vs worrying about how to react to the opponent.
- Terran having the most tools, with many units being multi-purpose and hitting both ground and air.
- Flexibility of Terran units, with many able to be used in multiple situations from straight up offensive, to slow push, to harassment, to area denial and defense.
- Cost-efficiency of Terran units, where many key units can only be taken out via heavy investment and losses from the opponent, barring blatant mistakes from the Terran player. Simultaneously, where MMM in particular has easy extraction method without any significant penalties (They are basically Muta harass without the heavy cost).
- Second-best macro mechanic in MULES despite all aforementioned advantages.
On Zerg side:
- Not having great early game defense options. Zerglings are too weak, Roaches are too slow and low DPS, Banelings are too expensive on larvae. Queens at best only help stabilize the game into late-game, and generally don’t win games. This may be balanced considering Queens are more of a macro mechanic, but all of it is by design and still places Zerg perpetually in a defensive position and gives initiative to the opponent.
- To add to point 1, any attempt at early aggression from Zerg ends up being close to an all-in because Zerg macro mechanic is tied to their production mechanic, whereas it’s separate for T and P. Zerg is the most heavily impacted race from not making workers. This tends to make Zerg play pattern somewhat 1-dimensional and predictable. Serral lost 2 games in the final series from attempting a Queen push, the second of which did decent damage, but more economic damage to himself.
- Zerg has no easy ways to harass. Mutas are too expensive and fragile, though still the overall best option. Infested Terrans are gone. Swarm Hosts are absolutely gutted and pigeon-holed into a very specific strategy if used. Drops and Nydus are easily shut down if scouted, as Nydus can’t be cancelled and Overlords don’t benefit from long-range loading or speed boost. One can argue that having to upgrade each OL individually to be a dropship was an overall nerf as well. A failed Terran drop can simply escape and be integrated into the main army, whereas a failed Zerg harass almost always results in total unit loss.
- Because of Zerg’s reliance on macro, Zerg tech on average arrives later than tech for other races. When people complain that Zerg just spams T1 units, they fail to account for the fact that it’s virtually impossible for Zerg to stay on equal tech and still have a robust economy. This also makes it easier for other races to have the appropriate answers when a Zerg attack finally does arrive.
All these issues compound to Zerg basically having to sit back and wait to get attacked while trying to reach critical mass in the majority of games. It is a forced playstyle that doesn’t have a solid game plan, and can go wrong in a large number of ways.
What you saw was both players using their races to maximum potential and Zerg simply not having an answer to what Terran is fully capable of.
Could Serral have done something different to get an edge? Maybe… Perhaps he could have tried for some macro hatches since his far bases kept getting denied. But looking at the resources tab, both players were spending optimally, so I’m not sure he even had the minerals to do so. All the Queens Zerg needs for early defense also puts a dent in that strategy.
I think Clem played very well and deserved the win. If you want to see things from an equity standpoint, certainly Serral has dominated for a long time and it was time to let someone else shine. But this finals was extremely one-sided, and against arguably the best SC2 player in the world, no less. When such a drastic shift in performance occurs between two players who have faced each other many times before, I think it’s far less likely that one suddenly improved THAT much (especially considering Serral was still dominating all other competition), and more likely that Clem has finally learned to exploit a particular weakness in Zerg play pattern in general.