EPT
The Grand Finals at last! Since ASL5 started on March 11th, few would've guessed that the two finalists would be protoss players, despite a favourable map pool. Both players have different approaches to the game and made it through to the finals on their skills, defeating an ASL4 finalist on the way. These two players are none other than Snow and Rain.
In the first semifinals, Rain defeated hero, the last remaining zerg hope in one-sided fashion. It was brutality at its finest against the best zerg player on the planet with hero only managing to grab a single game on Gladiator. A sad day for hero fans as he prepares to head off to the military. The second semifinals saw Snow up against Mini. An emotional series for Mini who much like hero, only managed to win a single game. Albeit, Snow had to work extremely hard for the win. For more details, please read Ty2's recaps below.
With the finals set to start in , it's time to see who will take home first place. As an up-and-coming player towards the end of the KeSPA era, Rain finally has the chance to grab a BW championship for himself. Will he finally do it? On the other hand, Snow has continued to impress this ASL and was the main reason that Flash was eliminated. Can he go all the way after completing such a feat in the quarterfinals? Only one way to find! Read the preview of the finals by FlaShFTW and let's get ready to rumbleeeeeeeeeee!
Table of contents
Liquipedia
A Hero's Cry
Game 1 on Transistor:
hero opens a standard 3 hatch spire against 
Rain's nexus first into +1 corsair/+1 speedlot.
![[image loading]](https://imgur.com/6q0Q64D.jpg)
Hero makes several scourges and mutas, picking off several of Rain's corsairs in his own base, and defending zealot attacks. Rain goes on the aggressive with a midgame army of dragoons and zealots, which find an anchor at Hero's fourth. Hero rushes to reinforce, losing the base in the process, but trading armies. Hero subsequently expands twice to make up for the loss, defending Rain's constant guerilla speedlot attacks and drops.
![[image loading]](https://imgur.com/XwZCj87.jpg)
All goes well until a single attack at Hero's remade fourth topples his economy for good, a group of four clumped lurkers his undoing. Rain's army pulls ahead to eventually overwhelm hero.
Game 2 on Third World:
Rain makes a single proxy gateway at the bottom right of the map, pressuring an overpooling Hero. The zealots then block the ramp, unable to breach Hero's sunken defense. Hero takes an expansion on the other side quickly, while teching to spire.
Hero attempts a drone drill that fails, forced to send his drones back to mining in embarrassment. Hero's followup of 6 mutas fails to do any damage to the well-prepared Rain. Rain progresses steadily to a larger corsair fleet off of 2 stargates.
![[image loading]](https://imgur.com/55SAgLy.jpg)
A decisive engagement is held at the center of the map that Hero loses, his scourge evaporating. Slowly, but surely, Hero falls apart from the reaver drops, speed zealot attacks, and dominating corsairs.
Game 3 on Gladiator:
Rain opens 1 gate fast expand against Hero's 3 hatch speedling into 4 hatch. Hero defends the initial aggression, following up with a three hatch hydra into macro transition. However, Rain has made no more than four cannons, putting him at a slight advantage. The subsequent zealot and high templar attack pulls Hero thin, wasting several drones and hydras at Hero's third. Rain then opts for a 2 base all-in, adding on gateway after gateway. Hero manages to buy time with a muta switch, leaving the flustered Rain to move his clunky dragoons all the way back to his main base.
After the initial defense, Rain pushes forth into Hero's territory. The Lurkers morphing in the midst of battle barely hold for Hero as Hero cuts off protoss reinforcements with mutas and hydras. Rain constantly shifts back and forth, his units in disarray.
![[image loading]](https://imgur.com/FwG2N83.jpg)
Eventually, Hero gains the upper advantage, taking a decisive engagement that kills the last of Rain's contingent army. Hero swiftly wins, taking out Rain's desperation third.
Game 4 on Sparkle:
Both players open the typical macro openers, Hero going fast spire and hydras, and Rain going corsairs and robotics facility. Hero in a close call just barely misses the chance to kill Rain's first shuttle from taking an expansion. Rain's later corsairs clean up several fledgling scourge.
Hero strikes back with a three hydra drop that shuts down any of Rain's potential expansions. The victory is short lived, as Rain does a devastating double shuttle drop at Hero's natural. Hero in a vain effort sends hydra after hydra only to lose them all. Just as Hero's hydras are all but gone, Rain sends in another shuttle full of reavers, killing the majority of Hero's drones. Hero's fourth follows a similar fate, Rain winning the series 3-1.
A sad fate for Hero, this was a heartbreaking series to watch. One may be quick to blame the maps, but Hero undoubtedly made a few mistakes that could've been better. The series was well fought by Rain.
hero opens a standard 3 hatch spire against Rain's nexus first into +1 corsair/+1 speedlot. Hero makes several scourges and mutas, picking off several of Rain's corsairs in his own base, and defending zealot attacks. Rain goes on the aggressive with a midgame army of dragoons and zealots, which find an anchor at Hero's fourth. Hero rushes to reinforce, losing the base in the process, but trading armies. Hero subsequently expands twice to make up for the loss, defending Rain's constant guerilla speedlot attacks and drops.
All goes well until a single attack at Hero's remade fourth topples his economy for good, a group of four clumped lurkers his undoing. Rain's army pulls ahead to eventually overwhelm hero.
Game 2 on Third World:
Rain makes a single proxy gateway at the bottom right of the map, pressuring an overpooling Hero. The zealots then block the ramp, unable to breach Hero's sunken defense. Hero takes an expansion on the other side quickly, while teching to spire.
Hero attempts a drone drill that fails, forced to send his drones back to mining in embarrassment. Hero's followup of 6 mutas fails to do any damage to the well-prepared Rain. Rain progresses steadily to a larger corsair fleet off of 2 stargates.
A decisive engagement is held at the center of the map that Hero loses, his scourge evaporating. Slowly, but surely, Hero falls apart from the reaver drops, speed zealot attacks, and dominating corsairs.
Game 3 on Gladiator:
Rain opens 1 gate fast expand against Hero's 3 hatch speedling into 4 hatch. Hero defends the initial aggression, following up with a three hatch hydra into macro transition. However, Rain has made no more than four cannons, putting him at a slight advantage. The subsequent zealot and high templar attack pulls Hero thin, wasting several drones and hydras at Hero's third. Rain then opts for a 2 base all-in, adding on gateway after gateway. Hero manages to buy time with a muta switch, leaving the flustered Rain to move his clunky dragoons all the way back to his main base.
After the initial defense, Rain pushes forth into Hero's territory. The Lurkers morphing in the midst of battle barely hold for Hero as Hero cuts off protoss reinforcements with mutas and hydras. Rain constantly shifts back and forth, his units in disarray.
Eventually, Hero gains the upper advantage, taking a decisive engagement that kills the last of Rain's contingent army. Hero swiftly wins, taking out Rain's desperation third.
Game 4 on Sparkle:
Both players open the typical macro openers, Hero going fast spire and hydras, and Rain going corsairs and robotics facility. Hero in a close call just barely misses the chance to kill Rain's first shuttle from taking an expansion. Rain's later corsairs clean up several fledgling scourge.
Hero strikes back with a three hydra drop that shuts down any of Rain's potential expansions. The victory is short lived, as Rain does a devastating double shuttle drop at Hero's natural. Hero in a vain effort sends hydra after hydra only to lose them all. Just as Hero's hydras are all but gone, Rain sends in another shuttle full of reavers, killing the majority of Hero's drones. Hero's fourth follows a similar fate, Rain winning the series 3-1.
A sad fate for Hero, this was a heartbreaking series to watch. One may be quick to blame the maps, but Hero undoubtedly made a few mistakes that could've been better. The series was well fought by Rain.
Room For Two
Game 1 on Transistor:
Snow and Mini both open the typical 1 gate into expand. However, Snow gains the upper hand, threatening to deny Mini's expand with his probe. Luring Mini's zealot to ward off the nuisance, Snow takes the opportunity to send his zealot across to Mini. Now, Mini dealing with a zealot in his mineral line, has already retreated his scouting probe.
Mini growing paranoid of the darkened battlefield hastens to make a fast observer, while the clever Snow feeding off of such fear goes for an incredibly fast third. The base goes unnoticed by Mini all too long before Mini finally goes on the offensive. A brief skirmish is held between both players' dragoon armies before Snow disengages to regroup with reinforcements. Shortly after, Mini's attempted drop is later intercepted by Snow's well positioned dragoons.
![[image loading]](https://imgur.com/jXKB1T7.jpg)
Just as the tide looks to favor Snow, repeated engagements between the two players' armies favor Mini. Mini's forces overwhelm to the point of breaching deep into Snow's territory, destroying Snow's fourth. However, the arrival of an arbiter pushes Mini back, letting Snow quickly stabilize. Meanwhile, Snow has entrenched the other main base, a decisive position, with rows of cannons.
![[image loading]](https://imgur.com/4AuGUMB.jpg)
Mini's next major movement is up Snow's main base ramp. The push is halted, units awkwardly trying to force their way up against storms, dragoons, and zealots.
Unable to expand above five bases, the possibility of starvation dawns on Mini. He desperately tries to attack the other main base. Yet again, he is stopped by a single stasis that blocks the ramp. A runby of zealots into Snow's main similarly proves unsuccessful.
![[image loading]](https://imgur.com/UEnbYnf.jpg)
Snow, finally biting back, does a recall at Mini's main base. Mini, pressed to act, sends his units to counter Snow's fourth base. Mini gambles the entire game on the one attack only to be thwarted by a well-placed stasis that stops his army, and the alarming lack of an observer.
With Mini's main base totalled, his bank dwarfed by Snow's, and his army a speck of dust, Mini concedes.
Game 2 on Gladiator:
Snow to begin the game scouts Mini first, while Mini unfortunately scouts last. Mini cautiously makes a fast robo while Snow aims to dominate early making two gateways. A tense engagement takes place at Mini's natural. Despite both having the same units, Mini's mismicro leaves Snow the victor with two dragoons and a zealot.
Luckily, Mini turns the tables in a later engagement, his forces bolstered by two additional gateways. A grave miscalculation by Snow, the game is now made even once more. Snow transitions with a robotics facility and an expansion. Mini, with one gateway more, initiates the decisive battle at Snow's natural.
![[image loading]](https://imgur.com/mA7tmVk.jpg)
Snow meticulously microes his reavers, but leaves many of his dragoons not fighting. The battle is incredibly close, but Mini's later reinforcements make short work of an overzealous Snow. After toppling Snow's army, Mini moves into the mineral line to even the series 1-1.
Game 3 on Sparkle:
Mini opts for an aggressive reaver drop, while Snow opens the standard Nexus first and makes a stargate soon after. Mini, loading the reaver into the shuttle is already greeted by Snow's first arriving corsair. Mini in desperation tries to ferry the shuttle over, but manages to only reach halfway to Snow's base before being forced to unload the reaver.
Snow later drops four zealots in Mini's completely undefended base. Mini has suffered what may be the most underwhelming defeat this season.
Game 4 on Third World:
Snow and Mini open normally, both racing to kill each other's scouting workers. After a frustratingly long amount of time, both players' workers die. Snow deceivingly goes for delayed DTs while Mini makes a fast expansion, and then observers.
The DTs now warped in, Snow's attack begins. He sends his army of dragoons and zealots to serve as a distraction while the DTs slip into Mini's main unnoticed. The wary Mini however notices soon enough, losing a few too many probes to the DTs, but saves enough.
Mini, making use of his larger dragoon count puts pressure onto Snow. Snow attempts an awkward defense, his army split into two. Mini also fakes a reaver shuttle, having only a single dragoon inside to draw fire. In a too ambitious sandwich maneuver, Mini's army swings one way, then the other to trade decently with Snow's two dwindling halves. Mini, while still behind, has evened the game up.
![[image loading]](https://imgur.com/PJdIi9t.jpg)
Looking to press the attack, Mini follows up with two reavers in a newly made Shuttle. Snow, however, also prepared and has lifted two dragoons onto the high ground ridge near his natural. A panicked Mini takes several reaver shots and forces an engagement with the two ferried dragoons, losing several units in the process. Mini's riskier reaver harass ends up with a dead shuttle with the two reavers inside.
![[image loading]](https://imgur.com/LW91oSp.jpg)
![[image loading]](https://imgur.com/9vrsoe0.jpg)
Now fended off, Mini braces himself for Snow's coming wrath. In one swift motion, Snow's army crushes Mini's, one too many juicy reaver shots winning the day.
Snow wins 3-1 and advances to the finals!
Snow and Mini both open the typical 1 gate into expand. However, Snow gains the upper hand, threatening to deny Mini's expand with his probe. Luring Mini's zealot to ward off the nuisance, Snow takes the opportunity to send his zealot across to Mini. Now, Mini dealing with a zealot in his mineral line, has already retreated his scouting probe. Mini growing paranoid of the darkened battlefield hastens to make a fast observer, while the clever Snow feeding off of such fear goes for an incredibly fast third. The base goes unnoticed by Mini all too long before Mini finally goes on the offensive. A brief skirmish is held between both players' dragoon armies before Snow disengages to regroup with reinforcements. Shortly after, Mini's attempted drop is later intercepted by Snow's well positioned dragoons.
Just as the tide looks to favor Snow, repeated engagements between the two players' armies favor Mini. Mini's forces overwhelm to the point of breaching deep into Snow's territory, destroying Snow's fourth. However, the arrival of an arbiter pushes Mini back, letting Snow quickly stabilize. Meanwhile, Snow has entrenched the other main base, a decisive position, with rows of cannons.
Mini's next major movement is up Snow's main base ramp. The push is halted, units awkwardly trying to force their way up against storms, dragoons, and zealots.
Unable to expand above five bases, the possibility of starvation dawns on Mini. He desperately tries to attack the other main base. Yet again, he is stopped by a single stasis that blocks the ramp. A runby of zealots into Snow's main similarly proves unsuccessful.
Snow, finally biting back, does a recall at Mini's main base. Mini, pressed to act, sends his units to counter Snow's fourth base. Mini gambles the entire game on the one attack only to be thwarted by a well-placed stasis that stops his army, and the alarming lack of an observer.
With Mini's main base totalled, his bank dwarfed by Snow's, and his army a speck of dust, Mini concedes.
Game 2 on Gladiator:
Snow to begin the game scouts Mini first, while Mini unfortunately scouts last. Mini cautiously makes a fast robo while Snow aims to dominate early making two gateways. A tense engagement takes place at Mini's natural. Despite both having the same units, Mini's mismicro leaves Snow the victor with two dragoons and a zealot.
Luckily, Mini turns the tables in a later engagement, his forces bolstered by two additional gateways. A grave miscalculation by Snow, the game is now made even once more. Snow transitions with a robotics facility and an expansion. Mini, with one gateway more, initiates the decisive battle at Snow's natural.
Snow meticulously microes his reavers, but leaves many of his dragoons not fighting. The battle is incredibly close, but Mini's later reinforcements make short work of an overzealous Snow. After toppling Snow's army, Mini moves into the mineral line to even the series 1-1.
Game 3 on Sparkle:
Mini opts for an aggressive reaver drop, while Snow opens the standard Nexus first and makes a stargate soon after. Mini, loading the reaver into the shuttle is already greeted by Snow's first arriving corsair. Mini in desperation tries to ferry the shuttle over, but manages to only reach halfway to Snow's base before being forced to unload the reaver.
Snow later drops four zealots in Mini's completely undefended base. Mini has suffered what may be the most underwhelming defeat this season.
Game 4 on Third World:
Snow and Mini open normally, both racing to kill each other's scouting workers. After a frustratingly long amount of time, both players' workers die. Snow deceivingly goes for delayed DTs while Mini makes a fast expansion, and then observers.
The DTs now warped in, Snow's attack begins. He sends his army of dragoons and zealots to serve as a distraction while the DTs slip into Mini's main unnoticed. The wary Mini however notices soon enough, losing a few too many probes to the DTs, but saves enough.
Mini, making use of his larger dragoon count puts pressure onto Snow. Snow attempts an awkward defense, his army split into two. Mini also fakes a reaver shuttle, having only a single dragoon inside to draw fire. In a too ambitious sandwich maneuver, Mini's army swings one way, then the other to trade decently with Snow's two dwindling halves. Mini, while still behind, has evened the game up.
Looking to press the attack, Mini follows up with two reavers in a newly made Shuttle. Snow, however, also prepared and has lifted two dragoons onto the high ground ridge near his natural. A panicked Mini takes several reaver shots and forces an engagement with the two ferried dragoons, losing several units in the process. Mini's riskier reaver harass ends up with a dead shuttle with the two reavers inside.
Now fended off, Mini braces himself for Snow's coming wrath. In one swift motion, Snow's army crushes Mini's, one too many juicy reaver shots winning the day.
Snow wins 3-1 and advances to the finals!
Crowning a new Dragon
The culmination of what has been an incredible tournament, filled with upsets and a wonky map pool, ends with a battle between two protoss players that have risen to the top. Neither of these two protoss players were featured in the era of the 6 Dragons, but after this ASL5, there will be a new protoss champion to join Shuttle in the winner’s circle, and etch his name into Starcraft history. Will it be Rain, the man who made a successful transition into Starcraft 2 only to come back to Brood War, wanting to redeem himself, or Snow, a protoss plagued by inconsistent results who finally managed to break through in this tournament to create one of the greatest upsets in Starcraft?
Torrential Downpour:
Rain’s journey to the finals was not an easy path. He managed to qualify for the 4th seed in the wildcard qualifier to replace Bisu’s vacated spot after he went to the military by defeating both Killer and Soulkey. After waiting for the rest of the players to join him in the Round of 16, he managed to squeak out of a group consisting of eventual 4th place finisher, Mini, Movie, and Action. His next challenge was his match up against Shuttle, where he utilized his cunning tactics and superior micro to overpower the former ASL champ. His semifinal match against hero was similar, abusing his phenomenal corsair/shuttle micro to constrict his hopeless Zerg opponent. Now, he only has one more protoss that stands in his way on his path to the throne.
Playstyle
Rain has always been a strong Protoss vs Terran player, used specifically as a Terran sniper in the proleague era. His macro and army control is impeccable, and his seemingly always has the right answers to what his opponent may do. Dragoon micro in the early game has also been quite solid, as we’ve seen him gain small incremental advantages with it to put himself in an optimal position to transition into the mid and late game. We’ve seen him also be very creative in PvP, showing off his excellent corsair early-game on maps like Sparkle to solidify an advantage to turn it into mass reaver/archon drops to destroy the island bases. What he has seemingly struggled with may be drop defense, which we know Snow will attempt to do countless times as seen in the FlaSh series. He will need to be on his toes and constantly scanning the minimap for any potential reaver or storm drops into his mineral lines.
Avalanche:
Snow’s journey to the finals was an impressive, yet arduous path. After making his way through qualifiers, he was plagued by his poor PvZ, dropping games to both Where and hero in the group stages. But where his versus Zerg was lacking, he made up in spades with his solid PvP and PvT. He easily maneuvered his way around Terran foes, Mong and Last, in the Round of 24 and then decimated Stork and BeSt in the Round of 16. Then came his biggest challenge ever, getting paired against FlaSh in the Round of 8. Where most people believed FlaSh would only lose due to the unorthodox map pool, Snow proved everyone wrong, defeating FlaSh 3-2 in a back and forth, epic series that is a front-runner for the best of 5 series of the year. His excellent shuttle/reaver play, coupled with his meticulous army management and carrier micro, aided to his victory. From there, he defeated Mini in a back-and-forth series to advance to the finals, 3-1.
Playstyle
Much like Rain, Snow has always had an excellent Protoss vs Terran, boasting an incredible 65% in KeSPA. He also managed to defeat FlaSh in the Round of 8 due to his incredible reaver drops. Snow’s strength in his shuttle play will be what he must rely on to win this finals, as his early game dragoon micro has not always been the best, as we saw in Game 2 vs Mini on Gladiator. His shuttle micro itself has also been a little bit suspect, not poor by any means, but not excellent like a Bisu. His Game 1 vs Mini was also very shaky, and possibly indicative that his late-game army control is not up to par in PvP. We saw him try to utilize arbiter recalls to end the game when he couldn’t break through the center with his army. Watch him attempt to win the war-of-attrition while stabilizing himself in the mid to late game to fend off Rain’s relentless macro style.
Map pool:
Third World
Third World will be our repeat map, and both players have shown solid performances on it. The map emphasizes crispy decision making of when to go for reaver drops and how well you micro them in mid-game engagements. Both players have shown their strengths in reaver micro, but Snow has looked a bit more shaky on his dragoon control. Expect one player to try to open with a proxy robotics facility in the Third World to get out a faster reaver harass that may prove fatal.
Transistor
PvP has been seeing the 1 gate gas-less expand as the go-to build on this map, seeing as how the high ground is quite easily defended with just zealots in the early game. I don’t expect either player to deviate from this strategy, as there is really no build that truly hard counters it. We saw Snow do a clever fast 2nd gas into double robotics bay to elevator units from the low-ground into the natural base of Stork in the Round of 16, but with Rain’s micro, the elevator strategy will prove much more difficult. Both players will most likely opt for fast 3rds, as both did so in their respective PvP matches in the bracket. A longer macro game should favor Rain, as his overall large army control has been better than Snow’s who had trouble closing out Mini in their game 1.
Gladiator
We have seen some DT rushes on this map that attempt to end games rather quickly, with varied success. Rain pulled it out against Shuttle and managed to eliminate 18 probes and easily cleaned up the game while Snow defended BeSt’s attempt in the Round of 16. I’m expecting Rain to attempt a DT rush with perhaps a proxy gateway on the map to force Snow to play defensively for fear of a DT runby. Still, Snow should be able to defend and utilize his economic advantage to out-maneuver Rain. A late game macro fest with Snow having an advantage will prove too much for Rain.
Sparkle
Both protoss players seem to favor the corsair tech rather than brute force their way with just shuttles, so this game will feature epic sky battles with constant reaver/archon carpet bombs. Given Rain’s longer matches and more play while Snow hasn’t shown too much on this map (his game with Mini ended rather abruptly with a swift zealot drop followed by corsairs camping the robotics facility to kill the shuttle with a reaver inside), I expect Rain to be able to take this map. His theorycrafting is superior to Snow and that is what Sparkle emphasizes.
Prediction: Rain 3-1 Snow
Rain to become your ASL5 Champion!
Torrential Downpour:
Rain’s journey to the finals was not an easy path. He managed to qualify for the 4th seed in the wildcard qualifier to replace Bisu’s vacated spot after he went to the military by defeating both Killer and Soulkey. After waiting for the rest of the players to join him in the Round of 16, he managed to squeak out of a group consisting of eventual 4th place finisher, Mini, Movie, and Action. His next challenge was his match up against Shuttle, where he utilized his cunning tactics and superior micro to overpower the former ASL champ. His semifinal match against hero was similar, abusing his phenomenal corsair/shuttle micro to constrict his hopeless Zerg opponent. Now, he only has one more protoss that stands in his way on his path to the throne.
Playstyle
Rain has always been a strong Protoss vs Terran player, used specifically as a Terran sniper in the proleague era. His macro and army control is impeccable, and his seemingly always has the right answers to what his opponent may do. Dragoon micro in the early game has also been quite solid, as we’ve seen him gain small incremental advantages with it to put himself in an optimal position to transition into the mid and late game. We’ve seen him also be very creative in PvP, showing off his excellent corsair early-game on maps like Sparkle to solidify an advantage to turn it into mass reaver/archon drops to destroy the island bases. What he has seemingly struggled with may be drop defense, which we know Snow will attempt to do countless times as seen in the FlaSh series. He will need to be on his toes and constantly scanning the minimap for any potential reaver or storm drops into his mineral lines.
Avalanche:
Snow’s journey to the finals was an impressive, yet arduous path. After making his way through qualifiers, he was plagued by his poor PvZ, dropping games to both Where and hero in the group stages. But where his versus Zerg was lacking, he made up in spades with his solid PvP and PvT. He easily maneuvered his way around Terran foes, Mong and Last, in the Round of 24 and then decimated Stork and BeSt in the Round of 16. Then came his biggest challenge ever, getting paired against FlaSh in the Round of 8. Where most people believed FlaSh would only lose due to the unorthodox map pool, Snow proved everyone wrong, defeating FlaSh 3-2 in a back and forth, epic series that is a front-runner for the best of 5 series of the year. His excellent shuttle/reaver play, coupled with his meticulous army management and carrier micro, aided to his victory. From there, he defeated Mini in a back-and-forth series to advance to the finals, 3-1.
Playstyle
Much like Rain, Snow has always had an excellent Protoss vs Terran, boasting an incredible 65% in KeSPA. He also managed to defeat FlaSh in the Round of 8 due to his incredible reaver drops. Snow’s strength in his shuttle play will be what he must rely on to win this finals, as his early game dragoon micro has not always been the best, as we saw in Game 2 vs Mini on Gladiator. His shuttle micro itself has also been a little bit suspect, not poor by any means, but not excellent like a Bisu. His Game 1 vs Mini was also very shaky, and possibly indicative that his late-game army control is not up to par in PvP. We saw him try to utilize arbiter recalls to end the game when he couldn’t break through the center with his army. Watch him attempt to win the war-of-attrition while stabilizing himself in the mid to late game to fend off Rain’s relentless macro style.
Map pool:
Third World
Third World will be our repeat map, and both players have shown solid performances on it. The map emphasizes crispy decision making of when to go for reaver drops and how well you micro them in mid-game engagements. Both players have shown their strengths in reaver micro, but Snow has looked a bit more shaky on his dragoon control. Expect one player to try to open with a proxy robotics facility in the Third World to get out a faster reaver harass that may prove fatal.
Transistor
PvP has been seeing the 1 gate gas-less expand as the go-to build on this map, seeing as how the high ground is quite easily defended with just zealots in the early game. I don’t expect either player to deviate from this strategy, as there is really no build that truly hard counters it. We saw Snow do a clever fast 2nd gas into double robotics bay to elevator units from the low-ground into the natural base of Stork in the Round of 16, but with Rain’s micro, the elevator strategy will prove much more difficult. Both players will most likely opt for fast 3rds, as both did so in their respective PvP matches in the bracket. A longer macro game should favor Rain, as his overall large army control has been better than Snow’s who had trouble closing out Mini in their game 1.
Gladiator
We have seen some DT rushes on this map that attempt to end games rather quickly, with varied success. Rain pulled it out against Shuttle and managed to eliminate 18 probes and easily cleaned up the game while Snow defended BeSt’s attempt in the Round of 16. I’m expecting Rain to attempt a DT rush with perhaps a proxy gateway on the map to force Snow to play defensively for fear of a DT runby. Still, Snow should be able to defend and utilize his economic advantage to out-maneuver Rain. A late game macro fest with Snow having an advantage will prove too much for Rain.
Sparkle
Both protoss players seem to favor the corsair tech rather than brute force their way with just shuttles, so this game will feature epic sky battles with constant reaver/archon carpet bombs. Given Rain’s longer matches and more play while Snow hasn’t shown too much on this map (his game with Mini ended rather abruptly with a swift zealot drop followed by corsairs camping the robotics facility to kill the shuttle with a reaver inside), I expect Rain to be able to take this map. His theorycrafting is superior to Snow and that is what Sparkle emphasizes.
Prediction: Rain 3-1 Snow
Rain to become your ASL5 Champion!
