Auction OSL - Grand Finals Preview

The first SC2 OSL finals are upon us. While a bit underappreciated in the modern tournament-saturated world of international SC2, it is important that we not forget that the OSL has historically been the premiere tournament in Korean ESPORTS™. Fortunately enough, the finals have also played out to become the largest stage for a battle between KeSPA and Starcraft’s newer generation, with By.Rain taking on DongRaeGu in a hopefully thrilling best of seven.

Representing Aiur, KeSPA, and SK Telecom T1, we have By.Rain, who has now undoubtedly proven himself to be the best of the elephants thus far and a contender to the throne of the best Protoss in the world (some would argue he already is). Recently adding a WCS Asia gold to his trophy case, Rain has been a force in the past couple months in Korea, destroying everyone in sight (except Mvp). Rain has achieved at least a top four finish in all three of the most competitive Korean tournaments over the last month or two, and has looked stellar even in defeat. His list of recent victims has grown too vast to list, and really, we don’t need to list them as if they’re upsets or surprises – he has now cemented himself as a top competitor in the SC2 world.

In the OSL, Rain has come through in the clutch a couple times, always managing to get in control and advance through every hurdle. After a miraculous comeback versus MarineKing to open the tournament, Rain has fought his way through DRG, JangBi, PartinG, and a nailbiting series versus Last to make it to the finals. His semifinal against Last was especially impressive, as he showed a solid understanding of versatile Protoss gameplay in taking four straight sets after quickly falling behind 0-3. While of course we can’t just ignore the first three games and say he’s flawless, but it’s pretty clear that when Rain is on his game, he’s extremely tough to beat.

Representing the Swarm, eSF, GSL, MVP, and his seaside hometown, we have DongRaeGu. Once hailed as the best Zerg in the world (and possibly even best player), DongRaeGu hasn’t been quite as impressive as in his glory days, but he’s managed to fight his way to an OSL final. As I said last week, it’s really a testament to our expectations that we can manage to claim DRG is in a slump as he fights through the later stages of a major tournament, and if we look at it objectively, he’s not doing THAT bad – he just isn’t winning everything that he could. Still, making it to the finals after a decisive victory over MC has definitely done a lot for our confidence in him, and hopefully his confidence in himself as well. He did still fall painfully to RorO in Code A, but ZvZ is ZvZ and RorO isn’t really an embarrassing player to lose to – again, it’s just our expectations.

DongRaeGu’s OSL has progressed with relatively little fanfare, despite advancement through every stage. Coming from a Brood War fandom background, I’d think being in the OSL finals is pretty damn important, but the GSL had quite a head start on them, and had some of the best narratives of the fall, including the rise of the prodigy Life, Mvp's quest for a fifth title, and an epic KeSPA vs. Gom duel between Rain and Mvp. If Mvp hadn't already taken the honor of felling Rain on behalf of his GomTV compatriots, then surely this match would have been the center of attention.

DongRaeGu's loss to Rain in the group stage was disappointing, but he has otherwise overcome every obstacle on the way to the finals, with comfortable victories over Oz and MC in the playoffs. DRG has conquered his momentarily shaky ZvP, and with a third ZvP on the block against Rain this week, DRG will be pushed to his limit in the matchup as he duels the KeSPA superstar.

Taking a look at the maps, we see that as in the semifinals, we’ll see a seven game series play out on only four maps, with Antiga Shipyard, Entombed Valley, Ohana, and Daybreak in the map order, with the first three repeating. The map pool again is fairly even, with only the Protoss-friendly Entombed Valley sticking out as a possible danger zone for DRG. Map balance has traditionally been easily defied in a long series with plenty of time to prepare, as good preparation and mind games can offset any features of the map that may be disadvantageous. Still, if I were a Zerg, I wouldn’t want to go up against Rain on Entombed Valley with an 0-1 or 2-3 disadvantage, so they do serve as a bit of an obstacle for DRG to overcome.

Rain and DRG did meet in the group stage earlier, with Rain taking the victory in a straightforward Bo1 where DRG just kind of rolled over and died after a bit of macroing up. Rain has only looked more and more impressive since then, proving his mettle in all three matchups and continuing to slap down big names left and right. Maybe if DRG was in top shape we’d call it a really even match, but Rain just has all the momentum behind him and quite frankly has looked like the better player as of late. I’d pick Rain to win it fairly confidently, and I’d be slightly surprised if DRG dismantled Rain in the same decisive fashion as his last two victims. Whoever wins this match will be crowned the first SC2 OSL champion, so there’s certainly a lot on the line here, and hopefully we’ll see a fantastic match from these two excellent players.

Prediction: By.Rain 4 – 2 DongRaeGu