With a brutal 3-0 victory over Pusan, sSak's rise is now complete. Facing off against reigning champion Sea in a match-up which features two of the most in-form and talented players in the scene right now the former SKT Terran has taken his time to make it this far and regardless of the result looks set to feature in many more finals in the future.

In our Ro4 recap, KristofferAG is back again to fill you in on the exact nature of Sea and sSak's complete dismantling of their opponents in the Ro4, while I make my best efforts to figure out exactly how these two are going to match up in the grand final preview.

After the brilliance of SRT14, Sea has settled into the kind of rhythm we expected him to after his debut win earlier this year, looking poised and in control as he pummels some of the strongest players in the scene. sSak also is beginning to look like the player we hoped he could be, with his talent for TvP especially valuable in what looks set to become an increasingly Protoss heavy era of SOSPA competition.

Tune in on Tuesday night as the two neo kings of Afreeca Terran face off for their share of the largest SRT prizepool ever awarded; the iStar Mall 15th SOSPA Ranking Tournament.

We've arrived at the final four. Pusan, the last representative of the Protoss race, goes up against rising star sSak, both of them looking to take their first SRT championships. Pusan's come out of his slumber with this tournament, and has shown some seriously impressive play all throughout the tournament, while sSak has consistently smacked down whatever opposition he's met with. On the other side of the bracket, we have Sea is looking to become the first SRT champion. First, he has to go through hero.

Pusan kicks off the series with a proxy Gateway on Match Point. It goes unscouted, but Sea defends it nicely, denying the Zealots any access with nice building placement, and forcing Pusan out when his first tank pops out. While he clears out the Gateway outside his main, a single Vulture is sent across the map, placing two mines in Pusan's natural, before making it into the completely naked main base, killing Probes as it went. Pusan would proceed to lose his three Dragoons to those two mines, and the following push from sSak saw Pusan instantly gg out of the game.

With a failed aggressive cheese in game 1, Pusan went the direct opposite route, going for a Nexus first on Fighting Spirit. In the other corner of the map, sSak went straight into Factory and Starport, his final goal being a four Vulture drop into Pusan's main while grabbing his natural behind the pressure. The Vultures managed to grab a couple Probe kills and two Dragoons before it was cleaned up. Pusan went for an attack with a few Dragoons, but siege tech finished in time for sSak to defend it handsomely, while the Vulture drops kept going, picking up more Probe kills in Pusan's natural. There's a moment in every game where you discover what your opponent is doing, and go “waht.” For sSak that was scouting the two Fleet Beacons in Pusan's main with a Vulture drop, along with the single Stargate. Pusan was rushing for Carriers off two bases!


Ssak secured his third and starting preparing for the Carriers with Goliaths, while Pusan tried to establish a third of his own. The Reaver was dropped in sSak's third, but was unable to do any damage. The second time it went in, sSak easily cleaned it up with only a single SCV lost. While Pusan started attacking sSak's third with his Carriers, sSak managed to get Vultures into his main and natural again, killing even more Probes. Behind it, he was building up a handsome fleet of Wraiths to go with his Goliaths. When Pusan tried to go into sSak's third again, the Wraiths were shipped out, cloaked, killing all but a single Carrier, before going to harass Pusan's mineral lines. With the Carriers dead, Pusan no longer had anything to defend against sSak's ground army, and with the next push on the Protoss main, gg was called.

Just like in the Ro8, Pusan now finds himself in a situation where he has to win three games in a row to avoid elimination. On New Wind and Cloud both players opened with economical builds, with fast expansions being the goal. Ssak went up to a Starport with his expansion, while Pusan tried to get some Reaver harass in, which was instantly shut down by a Wraith. Ssak followed this up with a tank/Vulture push, distracting Pusan with Vultures in the main while sieging up in his natural. There was nothing Pusan could do at this point, with a far inferior army and no Reaver to defend with. The game and match would end quickly, sending sSak to the grand finals of the 15th SRT!


Our second semifinal would be between the current champion, Sea, and by.hero. The first attempt at Match Point ended in hero getting dropped before Sonic could save the game, forcing a regame. Both players went for early expansions, hero going up to three hatcheries before morphing in his Spawning Pool, while Sea went for an early expand into bio. Mutalisks were hero's unit of choice, but Sea was fairly prepared with Turrets, and over multiple engagements, Sea did a good job with targetting down the Mutalisks, not allowing hero to get up to a critical mass before Science Vessels were out. While hero went up to four bases, taking his left side of the map, Sea moved out into the middle with a large Marine/Medic force and multiple vessels as he took his third. An attempt at denying Sea's third was defended, and in a major engagement in the middle of the map Sea managed to take out all of hero's Lurkers and Mutalisks. Though hero did manage to get Defilers out, there was little he could do against Sea at this point, and gg was called.

If game 1 was anything to go by, this would be a rough road for hero. Sea is obviously on a roll, as he's proven over and over in this and the last SRT. On Fighting Spirit hero opened with a 9pool into expand, which Sea defended nicely with a block on the ramp before going for a CC on the highground. While Sea was busy getting his expansion up, hero started mass producing zerglings while going up to Lair. The upcoming attack took Sea completely by surprise, and the late SCV pull wasn't enough to defend. Game 2 went in hero's favor.


New Wind and Cloud saw hero going back to a fast expansion and Mutalisk play, while Sea once again went for the Marine/Medic composition of game 1. Once again Sea was able to get turrets up in his bases before the Mutalisk harass really started. Sea's first push was denied as a Lurker was around to defend along with sunkens. Sea was able to start pushing hero's natural when his siege tanks arrived, but once again hero managed to defend as his Defilers arrived in the nick of time. Behind this hero had morphed Guardians to lay siege to Sea's new third, but a couple of Wraiths were able to clean these up rather quickly. With a handful Firebats joining in, Sea finally saw fit to push into the natural of hero, while also sending Vultures to the hidden bottom left expansion of hero, to kill off most of the Drones. Though hero was able to defend the natural once again, Sea had taken a fourth base behind this, and was making the switch into mech. Though hero did manage to defend once again with his sudden muta switch, what followed was 5 minutes of hero's slow, inevitable death.


Moving on to Neo Requiem, hero is on the brink of death with Sea just one game away from another SRT finals. Sea goes for the marine pressure he's shown he loves, while hero goes for an early expansion into an early Lair, meaning he has no defenses other than a few zerglings. Though Sea would have enough Marines to break into hero's main, the threat of a speedling runby is too large, and the Terran player pulls back. As hero teched up to Mutalisks, he threw up a large amount of sunkens at his natural, while Sea prepared his defenses. Neither player looked comfortable moving out, but Sea was able to get a bunker up outside hero's natural, denying him from mining gas there. Meanwhile, hero would take a third base as Sea secured his natural. The Mutalisks of hero would continue trying to get damage done, but Sea already had turrets prepared, and with him going for a Marine heavy composition, hero was only able to grab a few SCV kills, flying between Sea's bases.

Still, hero kept massing up Mutalisks and soon enough was left with a terrifying air force. Science vessels were out, but with quick splits the irradiates did far less damage than what Sea was hoping for. Somehow, Sea still managed to stay completely on top of the Mutalisk defense, and eventually he had massed up a large, terryifying army. As he laid siege to hero's natural, a large amount of Lurkers stopped any reinforcements coming in from the back. As Sea went for a drop into hero's main, the zerg tried to break through the contain by running in the Lurkers from the back and front. With no Defilers, Sea was left with a still healthy army, and hero was forced to gg when his natural fell.

Building on his measured victory over Pusan in the Ro16, sSak easily defeated the old man Protoss in the semi-finals, further improving his already exceptional TvP record. Sea also advanced comfortably, but may have been slightly disappointed to drop a map against the ZvT efforts of hero. While the idea of a best of five TvT often fills the most devoted BW fan with dread, this is a match-up between by far the two most deserving finalists, and one that could see sSak ascend to a place amongst the SOSPA elite.

This is the second TvT Sea has played in an SRT final, with his first title coming off the back of a quite entertaining and close series with Mong. While Sea has always looked quite comfortable against top Afreeca Terran, his TvT has often lacked the clinical edge of his TvZ, resulting in a number of series running much closer than they ought to have done. This tendency for sloppiness has seen Sea drop games and series even when at the peak of his powers, with his recent 3-2 win over Mong the only moment of weakness in what was otherwise an utterly dominant performance in SRT14.


sSak's limited TvT record from SOSPA competition tells a similar story to Sea's, with some good wins over high level Terran opposition but with each series victory looking a little ragged and uncontrolled. Having never shown any particular talent for the Terran mirror during his career as a progamer, sSak's successes so far could mostly be put down to that little bit of mechanical and strategic edge that remains from his more recent time in the SKT team house. Regardless, this final represents validation for a player who, after a storming debut in SSL8, was beginning to slip back towards the middle of the pack.

Having cruised through this tournament without having to face anyone that truly resembled a challenge, there is some danger that Sea might be caught asleep at the wheel in this final. There is no doubt that sSak is dangerous opposition, and Sea's penchant for dropping games out of nowhere in TvT means that there will be ample opportunity for the former SKT Terran to make this series close. While this is massive opportunity for sSak to take a breakthrough tournament win, the prize money and chance to be the first to win three SRT titles means that Sea should be really up for this final. This is what is sure to be the first of many final appearances for sSak, but he's not ready for Sea yet.

Sea 3 - 2 sSak