Rain rules over Group B

In the world of StarCraft, there is nothing more natural than seeing Rain win his group. Even with two Protosses and one very intelligent Terran in his group – meaning Rain would have to play his two worse match-ups – the SKT powerhouse was a clear favorite for a playoffs spot today. Seeing experts further explaining how Rain’s solid and safe playstyle would easily win him the top spot in Group B wasn’t a shocker either.

What was shocking is that a whole year after Rain’s break-out, he still manages to get away with what he likes best. Neither of his two opponents today was able to counter-act Rain’s conservative style and eventually fell victim to his macro and late-game proficiency.

Keen was the first of those victims. The MVP Terran opened with a small early marine/mine which could’ve worked against other Protosses but not against Rain’s defenses. His follow-up marine drop was also shut down, putting Rain in such an advantage that he could afford himself to safely go out and a-move through Keen for the 1:0.

Keen was able to abuse the drop-friendly Polar Night and sim-city Rain’s mid game army away but his triumph was short-lived. Although the first few minutes on Akilon Wastes went almost too well for him as he shut out all scouting by Rain and outraced the Protoss macro by getting an earlier third base, Keen would not properly use those advantages of his. Deciding to face Rain in a proper late-game was Terran’s undoing, this realization brutally imposed onto him by puncturing zealot harassments and burning storms.



Keen funnelling the Protoss army through immaculate sim city wall



With Keen defeated, Rain moved on to facing a fellow Protoss in Trap who had just came out of a dominating mirror against sOs. An adroit early-game player, the SouL Protoss rushed to a blink stalker tech and soon enough came knocking on Rain’s door, posing a real threat to his enemy’s wellbeing. His stalker army would not advance further than the atrium of Rain’s main, however. Holding Trap back with photo overcharge, Rain earned himself enough time to get his dark shrine up, infiltrate a DT in Trap’s main and force out a GG.

Game two of the winner’s match developed into a WoL-esque PvP after Rain’s strategy of proxying his entire tech – namely a stargate and a dark shrine - yielded only minimal results. As a result of this investment and also Trap’s blink counter pressure, Rain came into the late game robo mirror scenario slightly behind. His immortal and colossus numbers were lower as was his overall army supply and his high archon count was what helped him stay alive.

To his luck, that was all he needed to do. Once the supply gap was effaced as a result of Trap’s unwillingness to commit to an attack, Rain gladly accepted the maxed army stand-off, a turf he’s always felt most comfortable. Eventually, the moments of cat-and-mouse passivity escalated into Trap taking a lethally bad engagement and giftwrapping Rain the 2:0.



Trap walking into his death

Trap completes the Protoss triumph



Aside from his games against Rain, Trap’s adventures in Group B came down to two series against KeSPA Protoss sOs.

The opening face-off was a quick one, seeing Trap opening with a proxy stalker rush and completely outmicroing sOs to bring him the 1:0. Game two had the SouL Protoss go for a 3-gate plus proxy oracle, the latter baiting out a nexus cannon and killing a few probes for a cute early advantage. In response, sOs opted to bring the game into phoenix wars but Trap had anticipated the move and the 1:0 was quickly doubled.



sOs losing the stalker micro war

The second time sOs and Trap met was in the deciding match of the group, the series going into three games this time around. Trap opened game one with a simple blink tech to which sOs answered with charge and dark shrine. While this response seemed smart at the time, the doubt that the charge might’ve been a misclick grew with each passing second as sOs executed a series of questionable moves like sitting on suspiciously low zealot count for a charge strategy and having his stalkers out on the map for no reason. As his DT was sniped down as well, sOs typed a quick GG to close the first game.

sOs was able to tie the series on Bel’Shir Vestige but mostly due to Trap’s own mistakes. Going for a robo/expand build, sOs found himself besieged by Trap’s blink stalker and was looking to lose his expansion and the game under the heavy pressure but a slight miscontrol by Trap allowed the natural to live with two-digit HP. Sitting behind the photon overcharge, sOs was thus able to get a few immortals out and push Trap’s army back for the 1:1.

The final game of the series had the two Protosses going at each other in a passive macro game, leading up to massive tempest/immortal army (sOs) and archon/colossus death ball (Trap). Similarly to the Trap/Rain series from earlier, this one too ended in the blink of an eye and on the end of poorly picked engagement. Caught between a highground and Trap’s firepower, sOs watched helplessly as his army disappeared and with it his chances for a playoffs spot.



Trap will lose this battle but catching sOs out of position later will help him win the series

Rotator photo: Battle.net