Maru claims his fifth GSL title at 2022 GSL Season 3

Last weekend on Saturday, South Korean Star Craft II player Cho “Maru” Seong-ju claimed his fifth GSL title after defeating Shin “RagnaroK” Hee-beom in the Grand Final of the 2022 Global StarCraft II League Season 3. This marked Maru’s second consecutive appearance in GSL finals and eighth overall final appearance.

Semifinals recap

Coming into the Grand Final, RagnaroK had to take down Koh “GuMiho” Byung-jae in the semifinals to secure his slot and he did it dramatically, in a 3-2 fashion. His opponent GuMiho had climbed to the semi-finals stage of the tournament by winning two reverse-sweep series back to back in the previous round. GuMiho may have seemed to pull an uno reverse card more than once prior to the series. However, when he needed it the most, GuMiho’s luck had run out. Even though he tried to pull the game back to his favor from an 0-2 start. RagnaroK came prepared and had the perfect answer for GuMiho’s signature mech in the deciding game, starting off with early Roach pressure and finishing him with a Swarm Host timing.

Maru on the other hand, had to take down Kim “herO” Joon-ho and avenge his defeat from GSL Season 2 to secure his slot in the Grand Final, where RagnaroK was waiting for him. Learning from his prior defeat, Maru prioritized his defense from the start so that he eventually became too strong for herO to break through. The only loss Maru had in the series was game three on Waterfall, where Maru took an uncalculated risk that blew back at his face.

Grand Final

In the Grand Final series, Maru asserted dominance, which is reflected in the 4-0 clean sweep. Game one on Moondance and game two on Inside and Out were both fast, as Maru came prepared, proven by his gameplay and tactics being effective from the get-go.

However, in game three, which was played on Waterfall, RagnaroK used a cheesy tactic by playing an early Ravager rush and Maru had to address it. After stopping the rush, Maru split the map moving forward with his macro game turning the tides in his favor. The two players then followed by trading attacks, after which Maru’s Ghosts started sniping RagnaroK’s elite units until RagnaroK tapped out, resulting in the match in Maru’s favor.

The fourth and final game was played on Cosmic Sapphire, where Maru first built Banshees, sensing that RagnaroK would try to counter this strategy with Mutalisks and Corruptors. Maru came prepared to counter this with Thors and closed in on RagnaroK impending defeat.

Thanks to this win, Maru secured his fifth GSL title,  making him the only player to do so. in an interview following the victory, Maru commented:

“It took me a long time to win five championships. I’d like to thank my family and the fans who continued to cheer for me and trusted me. I won’t be satisfied with this win, and I’ll win five more GSL championships so that anyone would mention me when they talk about Starcraft 2 Terran players.”

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