Here is a matchup that feels so right, it has to be wrong. In a year where the only tournament guarantee was a Korean would stand triumphant on top of the body heap, a SKT_Rain vs Woongjin_Soulkey final seems overly quaint. For once we weren’t treated to a stunning upset or inexplicable collapse (although Bomber almost gave us both in one night). Finalists aren't always what we expect them to be, but in this case both Soulkey and Rain look the part. They're the kind of low-flash, high-efficiency macro players that a young Artosis might have hung up posters of in his bedroom, the players who play the game the "right" way if such a thing could be said to exist. For a series of textbook excellence, we need to look no further.
Winning here won’t automatically prove Soulkey is the best Zerg in the world. The question itself is plagued with doubts over competition, personal evaluations of gameplay, and indeterminate methods to account for opportunity. Does an 8-man invitational measure up to Dreamhack Winter in terms of assembled opponents? Would Soulkey be more accomplished than Jaedong if he could fly around the world too? How much can we forgive him for that 0-4 loss against Dear in the WCS Season 3 Finals? All of these are legitimate queries and unfortunately they don’t have easy answers. There are too many tournaments, too many variables, too much information processed and disseminated throughout the competitive community for a clear response.
I doubt Soulkey is troubled over his ranking in the cosmic hierarchy. Being the top dog or 47th on the list doesn’t change much. He’s a Zerg dedicated to playing in Korea and he faces the same problems as the rest of his kin: long waits between tournaments, few chances at exposure, and brutal online qualifiers just to nab a spot at the next IEM. For now he must be content with thoughts about holding another 1st place trophy. Fresh off a relatively easy win at WCG, Soulkey comes into the finals with some serious momentum and confidence. His ZvP has looked excellent lately and this time, there’s no Innovation or Dear standing in his way.
Whether you attribute his decline to laziness (words from the man himself) or a changing metagame, SKT_Rain’s fall came at a very unfortunate time. At the end of WoL he was a revolutionary player who was changing the way we thought about Protoss; the additions of HotS promised to make his style even stronger. The mothership core, oracles, death rays, a useful late-game air unit… all of these should’ve make Rain’s playstyle nearly unstoppable. Yet when the expansion arrived, Rain unexpectedly turned invisible. Besides a strong run in WCS Season 2 he hasn’t made much noise in 2013. Much of this can be blamed on his limited appearances: Rain has only been in 6 tournaments all year, 5 of them purely Korean affairs. Yet there has been no shortage of challengers trying to fill his unoccupied throne either. Back in 2012 Rain’s approach to PvX was something unique, only shared by Creator. Today Parting, sOs, Trap, Dear, Sora, herO and many others excel as balancing offense and defense using Protoss 2.0. Rain’s resurgence inevitably means he must conquer these interlopers.
While Rain is no longer the paradigm of conservative macro play, he never stopped being relevant even at the nadir of his career. His careful mixture of passive buildup and periodic harassment has been the gold standard throughout the year, refracted through so many different lenses it can no longer be called ‘his’ anymore. Almost every successful protoss, whether it’s Dear reenacting the Theodosian Walls or Trap dropping HTs all over the place, the same principle remains: Protoss uses all-ins but it doesn’t need all-ins to succeed. They are merely traps to punish the idle and strikes to cripple morale. Tonight Rain will try to prove all that 2-base nonsense is overrated. One only needs lasers and storms to take out the best.
Overall Outlook and Prediction
Tonight is a chance for Rain to get even. Soulkey brushed him aside during the quarterfinals of WCS Season 3, and now would be the perfect time to avenge that defeat. But is he ready to tackle this challenge? His utter domination of Symbol may not translate into a hard obstacle for the Woongjin Zerg. After all, Symbol played rather predictably and his roach/hydra/viper strategy gave him few chances to mess with Rain’s economy.
Soulkey’s main concern is whether Rain was paying attention to his history against Bomber. He tends to struggle against unpredictable patterns and Rain is supposedly all about safe predictability. There are plenty of ways Rain can use that Ro8 series to his advantage. Stargate transitions, DT timings, a very quick 3rd base, almost any deviation could mess with SK’s careful preparation.
On December 08 2013 13:09 Arceus wrote: 1 GSL gold, 1 GSL silver 1 WCG and top1 WCS ranking playing in Korea doesnt qualify SoulKey as the best zerg (& arguably best player) in 2013?
Winning this doesn't automatically prove he is the best zerg because it has already been proven beforehand.
The general hype generated by the community is somewhat lukewarm and lacklustre for an event such as this. To me, despite the small amount of participants (only 8), the level of competition is as close to a WCS Korea knockout stage level (and naturally so, as it gathers the year's winners and runners-up, including current top players like Maru, Soulkey, Bomber and Dear). Yet, a LR hasn't been created yet, and a tourney like ASUS, with arguably less top players, attracts more attention.
Maybe it's the timing. But I feel it's like ASUS has more fan favourites, hence why more people watch and follow it. It feels like more people tuning in to watch a normal Masters over the season-ending World Tour Finals (for tennis) or Europa League over the Champions League (for football). Which shouldn't happen, by right. If I had a choice between watching Federer (whom I like the most) playing against a lesser opponent (whom I shall not name, out of courtesy), and watching Djokovic and Nadal (both of whom I don't really like) - I would still watch the latter.
I'm not really complaining, just observing. It's not my position to say what other people should watch, or should not watch. But I can't help myself but saying this - it's a bit disturbing for the e-sports scene, if my hunch about fan favouritism is true.
In any event, kudos for the TL writers - they watch and hype everything! #faithrestored #wp #gj
On December 08 2013 14:17 Duckman wrote: Does anyone know where in Seoul finals will be held? I am in the city and would love to go watch live!
Gom Studio in Gangnam bro...not far from the subway exit number 4!!~~~ Go, go, go!!
I don't think this is right, most threads about live events in Korea say that finals are almost always held in a different place than the group stages. I THINK I've discovered that it's in Sejong University in Gunja-Dong, can anyone confirm this? Also, does anyone know how early I should aim to show up? I've missed the boat on reserve tickets; if I show up too late will I probably be screwed for a seat?
Yeah but we don't really like Zerg winning around here. Call it the order of things, or something. I for one am rooting for Rain. Because not a lot of Rain winning recently :D
On December 08 2013 15:52 LingBlingBling wrote: So it's for sure today? I'm on GOM tv site and they have a counter strike thing all night follow by world of tanks.
I don't see anything listed in a hour from now for hotsix sc2. Gom for the most part always has dates in advanced for all planned events.
that is because it will be streamed on twitch not gom
On December 08 2013 15:52 LingBlingBling wrote: So it's for sure today? I'm on GOM tv site and they have a counter strike thing all night follow by world of tanks.
I don't see anything listed in a hour from now for hotsix sc2. Gom for the most part always has dates in advanced for all planned events.
that is because it will be streamed on twitch not gom
dang GOM stream has a lot better quality then the twitch one. O well.
On December 08 2013 19:29 nAgeDitto wrote: Is it just me, or does the picture of soulkey on the main TL page look like Ambition (of cj entus lol team) ?
YES YES YES as much as all the jd fanboys was happy yesterday, i am happy now rain for the win !!!
On December 08 2013 19:29 nAgeDitto wrote: Is it just me, or does the picture of soulkey on the main TL page look like Ambition (of cj entus lol team) ?
i have never seen a single lol players, who cares, it can be ambition looks like soulkey ^^ he was first xD
Winning here won’t automatically prove Soulkey is the best Zerg in the world. The question itself is plagued with doubts over competition, personal evaluations of gameplay, and indeterminate methods to account for opportunity. Does an 8-man invitational measure up to Dreamhack Winter in terms of assembled opponents? Would Soulkey be more accomplished than Jaedong if he could fly around the world too? How much can we forgive him for that 0-4 loss against Dear in the WCS Season 3 Finals? All of these are legitimate queries and unfortunately they don’t have easy answers. There are too many tournaments, too many variables, too much information processed and disseminated throughout the competitive community for a clear response.
Yes it would. He's already been the most impressive Zerg of 2013, and a win would cement that.