Game 1 on Gladiator:
Best by all means had played a tactically tight game until the closing moments when his moves mattered the most.

Best in the top right opens a standard 1 gate robo while Rain in the bottom right has the more aggressively minded 2 gate. Adaptive for either aggression against 1 gate, or defense versus 3 gate, Rain's choice of build was versatile. Meanwhile, Best was playing safe, probably keeping in mind the possibility of DTs.

The notion of DTs was quickly dispelled upon Rain's alarming number of dragoons. Luckily Best's micro and positioning was good enough to defend. However, Rain simply took the opportunity to take hold of the top of Best's ramp. The dragoon siege appeared permanent until a series of flawless mind games and subtle tactical maneuvers by Best unraveled.

Rushing out the shuttle and with no need for an observer, Best ferried four dragoons out of his main. Rain, knowing the imminent danger of a backstab, reinforcements getting caught, or even the main siege being broken and surrounded, was pushed to respond. Best, meanwhile with no intention to attack merely wanted to strike fear and doubt into Rain's heart. He did that simply by moving his dragoons to the left side of the map out of sight of Rain. Rain, taking the conservative route retreated his dragoons to his natural. The top of the ramp now free, Best took the opportunity to move his units to the high ground. Then, on top of that, Best then reaver dropped Rain's exposed mineral line.

Rain's dragoons and reaver in-shuttle out of position, took the initiative to strike Best's main base. Unfortunately for Best, he had awkwardly placed his dragoon army on the high ground near the mineral only after fear of an apparent surround by Rain's army. Then, Best's house of cards in magnificent fashion came falling down.

Rain, now making a beeline to Best's base caught spawning dragoons. Best, knowing Rain's probe count was done for, knew he just had to defend Rain's attack to win. He hastily retreated his reaver, but decided to drop the reaver by itself without support of the main dragoon army. The reavers in the shuttle now dead, Best was only left with dragoons. They awkwardly hobbled down his own ramp to Rain who was now using it as a defensive choke. Rain's reaver and dragoons together in a symphony of disaster and chaos made little work of Best's segmented army to win game 1.



Game 2 on Polaris Rhapsody:
In game 2, the stars had aligned for Rain in the top left and Best in the bottom right to both open DTs.

Both players having a hunch that the other is going DT, both cautiously make cannons and expand. However, Rain goes nexus before forge knowing the latest time the DTs can come, delaying the cannons appropriately. Best meanwhile lacking that same subtlety due to paranoia or otherwise, goes nexus after making cannons.

Then matters take a turn for the worse as Rain dives with two DTs into Best's main, one managing to survive. Best hurriedly transfers probes but not before losing a few to the DTs swipes. Equipped with only storm, Best storms the DT while losing 3 of his probes. Rain somehow manages to deepen the knife further by doing a 3-storm drop that is pure excellence.


Rain now doubling Best's supply makes short work of Best briefly after in the KSL's most painful game yet.

Game 3 on Roadkill:
In a case of deja vu, Rain opens 2 gate at the 9 O'Clock while Best opens 1 gate robo at the 12 O'Clock. The courageous, or maybe just confused Best makes a misstep moving out to the top of Rain's ramp. Outmuscled by Rain's 2 gates worth of dragoons, Best's force withdraws, but is unable to retreat to his base. Rain, preying on the weakness of Best's divided forces quickly moves to the 12 O'Clock. The awkward positioning for Best leaves a few probes to die before Rain's dragoons are cleaned up. Best moves his dragoons out of position to take the highround above his third, which Rain abuses by dropping reavers in his main. Rain's superior sense of tactical positioning is clearly a rung better than Best. Rain regroups shortly after to finish Best's deserted natural before Best concedes.


Best having a decent performance in game 1 in the series once again fell victim to his weak mentality. In the second game, more fearful than calculating, he had a late Nexus. Then, out of clumsiness let the DT runby happen. Then the storms, and perhaps the sheer margin he was outclassed in game 2 may have affected his mentality. The third game was probably the height of Best's tilting, taking inexplicable risk after risk that backfired heavily. Despite Best's renowned macro, his performance during offline events and decision making is questionable. Meanwhile the confident Rain had a greater sense of map awareness, mentality, and positioning to show why he won ASL 5.

7 years ago, these two players once sat across from each other, poised and ready in their booths. Determined to win against the other in the PDPop MSL Ro8, they played at a time when the game was their life. Their love and tears were put into the game, and their training regimens consumed nearly every hour of their lives. Today, by fate or otherwise, they find themselves playing each other once again in their first Ro8 in a major tournament since then. And while the game hasn't changed beyond a new look, the players certainly have.

To get to where they are, the age-addled Jaedong has had a trying course of events. No longer knowing the dominant form of his past, Jaedong has made early exits in past ASLs, and barely exited from his group by the skin of his teeth in an incredibly close 3-2 series vs. Light. Indeed, he was not defeated, but he was mortal. In his best tournament run yet, he was presented with his hardest obstacle yet - facing the ASL 5 runner up, Snow. It was here at the scorched field of the Ro8 that Jaedong's spirit was tested to its greatest limits, treading upon the same haunted ground that led to his fall in the ASLs prior.

For the dormant Snow, once a small player, he has since rekindled the flames of promise as an upcoming rookie in the twilight years of professional Brood War. That moment of re-ignition truly came when he defeated Flash, albeit helped by the Protoss favored map pool. The storm of doubt would clear, with his keyboard and mouse alone, to make known his talent as he rose in the spon rankings and easily entered the Ro8 in the KSL. Now he plays in his weakest matchup versus Jaedong in his greatest display as a competitor yet.

Game 1 on Gladiator:
Jaedong in the top right opens 3 hatch hydra for the first game to begin making the fast forge expanding Snow in the bottom right paranoid. Unfortunately for our star Zerg, Snow manages to sneak a probe into the main to completely reveal JD's hand. Reminiscent of similar critical blunders made in past ASLs, the game appeared as if the ghost of losing past had returned once more. Caught between a rock and a hard place, both JD and Snow knew JD could either make no hydras, or attempt the hydra bust anyway, both of which could only end in Jaedong being behind.

Snow in his careful assessment is calculating, not panicked, holding off on cannons until the last second. All that is left to do is force Jaedong to entangle himself further in his own web. Jaedong doing a semi-bust is already more than foiled by Snow's already spawned reaver, a near hard counter against hydra busts. Jaedong's aggression failing to do any damage, JD admits defeat in an otherwise unnoteworthy game.

Game 2 on Blue Storm:
In the second game, Snow in the bottom left exhibits exemplary sense of series play. He adopts the use of the exquisite 2 stargate build versus Jaedong's 3 hatch spire. Jaedong in an unfortunate precursor to the air ownage to come makes 10 lings that do little more than pick off a few probes while losing many in the process. The clock ticking, one can only watch in anticipating horror as the corsair numbers grow in mass and the oblivious Jaedong makes mutas.


However, Jaedong turns a game on the verge of one-sided defeat on its head with a single move. Putting 2 pairs of scourge behind the main corsair fleet, Jaedong snipes two reinforcing corsairs. The move is what ultimately saves Jaedong for now as Snow cautiously retreats. Unfortunately, the damage has been done. Killing several overlords, delaying JD's upgrades and lowering the drone count, Snow's game plan sees its merry self to a comfortable late game.

Jaedong in the slight breath of relief that comes to follow attempts to abuse Snow's commitment to air by massing hydras to deny Snow's 3rd. However, the double edged sword of an attack results in the drone count getting severely cut into while Snow's 3rd stays standing. From there on out, Jaedong plays catchup attempting to micro his heart out with pure hydras and lings for the majority of the game.

Jaedong in the later half of the game holds the defensive line executing the most perfect unit spreads, scourge observer snipes, and leaving no unit left not attacking. He barely squeezes in hive tech, upgrades, drones, and a fifth base down to the penny among the chaos of Snow's repeated bombardment and abusive harassment. Eventually though, the damage incurred from the early game begins to take its toll. Snow, understanding his highly favorable position knows that in a war of attrition he will win. His armies blindly charge forward clogging Jaedong's arteries with the sheer number of Protoss bodies. Jaedong, unable to stomach the voluminous filling finally GGs.


Game 3 on Fighting Spirit:
Both players spawn cross positions from one another, Jaedong in the bottom left, and Snow in the top right. The locations lend Jaedong to drone up more than usual. Meanwhile, Snow's expand into fast templar archives misses several beats. First, the awkward move-out of slow zealots and DTs only left Snow's army battered. Then, Snow let his forge die to Jaedong's roaming pack of hydras. Jaedong making the minimum number of hydras was meanwhile droning up happily and grabbing an early fourth. Then, Jaedong puts an aggressive twist on the otherwise snore of a map, fighting spirit. He drops two lurkers in the main mineral line of Snow while distracting him with hydras poking at his third. Devastating damage is done, killing off half of the probes in the main.

Then, Snow in an inexplicable whoops moment has his probes return to mining too early.


Snow's only reprieve is his guerilla attack that denied JD's fourth. Otherwise, Snow was in the gutter. Snow's later frantic attempts to put a dent into the snowballing swarm are to no avail. While Snow is busy attacking JD's fourth, JD's coup de grace of the game burrows deeply into the heart of Snow's main. Snow's buildings now replaced by a crackling each and a sitting duck of an army finally push Snow to concede.


Game 4 on Circuit Breaker:
This game around Jaedong was pulling out the heavy artillery. Geared with the quick thinking of a seasoned veteran, Jaedong's next strategic play of deception lead Snow to fall right into his hands. Jaedong had spawned in the top left, while Snow spawned in the bottom left, a detail important on the map Circuit Breaker. When opponents spawn vertically from one another, the rush distance is the closest possible by a small stretch, important for Jaedong's strategy.

The unassuming Snow expands and makes a corsair to scout the inconspicuous base of JD's. He sees all of the signs of a classic 3 base spire into 5 hatch. Exactly what Jaedong was transitioning into though, whether it be hydras, mutas, or any other unit was where Jaedong lead Snow astray. Snow sees the spire, the fast 2nd gas, but no hydra den - all tell tale signs of mutas. The reality however is different. JD setting a trap with its maw wide open has sneakily made the hydra den towards the very top right of his base where he'd know Snow wouldn't scout. Snow, fooled into thinking 5 mutas are on the way makes a cannon at his natural mineral line in haste. Snow is caught like a fly without realizing, and all that's left is for Jaedong to pull the trigger.


While the corsairs sit idly by the natural, Snow only scouts the hydras with a lone DT. Alarms going off, cannons are only now starting as hydras slither their way to Snow's natural.


Clenched in the jaws of defeat, Snow like wild game desperately tries to wriggle free before Jaedong gives the final crunch to force the series to a fifth game.

Game 5 on Roadkill:
The series is finally evened up and the momentum for Jaedong only builds from the once thought near-insurmountable 0-2 start.

The game is as textbook as before, Snow forge expanding in the 6 O'Clock while Jaedong goes 3 hatch spire at the 12 O'Clock. Jaedong instead of a 5 hatch variant goes straight for a 6th hatch, probably due to spawning cross positions. More than that though, Jaedong's killer game sense is tingling off the charts. He understands that Snow has exhausted most of his options and for the final game he needs to pull out the best of his plays. Jaedong knows, he just knows Snow is pulling out the reaver corsair strategy. Why wouldn't he? On a map that has plenty of surface area fantastic for reaver drop harass and using the reaver, his signature unit, how couldn't Snow go for reaver sair as his last line of defense?

That line of thinking was further confirmed by a precise ling scout of the forge. Suiciding a single ling, Jaedong sees the forge not spinning at 6 minutes. That detail alone significantly narrows down what cards Snow is holding. So what could Snow be doing? Possibly DTs, and unlikely a repeat 2 stargate. The reaver build. Investing in speed shuttles, corsairs, +1 air weapons, the robotics facility, the support bay, and the reaver itself all amounts to intensive gas usage.

Jaedong the experienced player he is positioned an overlord precisely where Snow would most likely do a pre-reaver zealot drop with the shuttle, a common tactic. JD through and through anticipated and countered Snow with two scourge.


The misty neon blue after-smoke of the shuttle already spelled out Snow's demise.The loss of the shuttle was huge, lengthening the time until Snow could put pressure on JD by 55 seconds for another shuttle to complete. JD in the meantime took his sweet time abusively making another round of drones that Snow couldn't do any attacks to punish.

Snow forged on however, doing what damage he could inflict with the delayed harass. Knowing he needs to take risks, Snow makes several reaver drops, followup DT and storm drops, all increasingly frantic than the one before. All are amply defended by Jaedong. The heavy investment and inaction from Snow only climbed. Every second Snow stayed on 2 bases while Jaedong was on his third and fourth only widened the gap ever more urgently.

Jaedong twirling Snow around his fingers is picking off corsairs with scourge and sniping the reavers from Snow's dwindling army.

After Snow pokes up Jaedong's fourth and retreats, Jaedong stages the surround to seal the deal.


Snow, while having lost, still showed admirable calmness in game 1, strategic sharpness in game 2, and an attempt at a daring build in game 5. His strategic variety and series play to throw Jaedong off had partially worked, but just not enough. While definitely improved, his Achilles heel of vZ hampers him from becoming a full fledged competitor, but he still remains a worthy opponent for any Zerg out there.

Jaedong, rising where he had previously fallen in ASLs past did not choke in the heat of the moment. Instead, he snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, Jaedong's mental fortitude prevailing after falling behind 0-2. Ultimately, Jaedong's ability to play un-discouraged, and execute his plays "in the zone," unlike his previous blunders, won him the series vs. Snow. Through that same tenacity, he had won 3-2 vs. Snow 7 years ago in the PDPop MSL.

Game 1 on Polaris Rhapsody:
Game 1 features Soulkey in the top left using the 2 hatch muta build, but with a twist. He interestingly expands to the 9 O'Clock instead of to the top right corner. The main reason, despite the 2 gases provided by the top right, is due to the choke of the 9 O'Clock better suited for lurkers. That way Soulkey can focus less on pure defense, and perhaps cut more corners than he would have before. However, the largest hurdle is attempting to get a fourth gas which is a common challenge on 2 player maps.

Sharp on the other hand shows he's no slouch, entering the midgame while taking minimal losses to the muta harass. In the midgame he artfully protects his vessels from scourging and even gets an irradiate wave on four ultras.

Soulkey to get the multitudes of ultras off of only 3 gases and not the more prolific 4, is supported by the 2 hatch muta build that emphasizes an earlier 3rd gas.

Sharp while preserving his vessels sets himself up for the perfect attrition scenario to starve Zerg out on 3 bases. However, the tide begins to turn as the over eager Sharp gets BCs when he's applying little pressure to Soulkey. The calm of the game allows Soulkey to cost efficiently use his leftover mutas and scourge to make little work of the BCs. Sharp's lack of tactical depth doesn't consist of splitting Soulkey's attention by using his main army to drop or pressure at the front. His actions ultimately leave his BCs to be sinking gold mines while Soulkey is allowed time to recuperate.

The building momentum of Soulkey finally triggers in a decisive push. Complete with 5 ultras, a defiler, and 7 mutas, Soulkey kills plagued vessels and ravages Sharp's main army. The destruction of the vessels, the essential unit to contest Zerg in the late game, means almost certain defeat. Sharp's unorganized army control, marines at home not in the fight, and his timid BC usage is the recipe for the unfolding disaster. Defeat was merely a matter of time, waiting for Soulkey to build the ultralisk army, mutas waiting in the wings to cause disarray in Sharp's ranks.


Soulkey given free reign of the map has expanded to the mineral only and 2 gas base while shutting down Sharp's bases. Shortly after, Soulkey topples the next fledgling army Sharp could raise, claiming game 1.

Game 2 on Blue Storm:
In game 2, all was quiet in the dimly lit nightscape of Blue Storm when Soulkey quietly passed a drone into the consuming darkness. Plunged into the depths of uncertainty, the drone eagerly scouted for the infamous proxy 7 rax the lesser favored Sharp would be tempted to use. All suspicions came to naught however when no proxy had been found.

The ominous night grew more still yet as the drone drew closer to the Terran base. Finally, the drone had arrived, entering the man cave as the drone faded from vision into the billowing dark. Moments later, that same drone came back leaving behind in its wake a trail of the cursed and damned, destruction and agony, fire and brimstone made of the heaps of metal of the Terran base that once stood. The few souls that survived had then realized in a record breaking 2 minutes and 5 seconds, a drone had single handedly defeated Sharp. A candle light vigil was shortly held after for the fellow slain Terran.

Take what you will of the legend of Soulkey's drone, but the casters, the ASL studio audience, and yes, even myself, knew what they saw.

From an account of a survivor of the event, the drone reportedly started harassing the SCV building the barracks. The advanced tactics of the Zerg to eliminate the SCV constructing the building, to thereby delay the building itself proved shocking. Then, as an SCV was dispatched to deal with the threat, the drone possessed by demons and otherworldly creatures not of this plane had contorted and twisted the drone's body into shapes unimaginable. Spewing acid after abruptly turning backwards, the drone's moves evaded the pursuing SCV's attacks before becoming destroyed.


Terran technology had met its match, and there as the ASL studio witnessed, Soulkey had killed an SCV using micro alone. Such moves affecting a player mentally cannot be understated. In that moment, Sharp was a human looking up at a giant, defeated in soul and body.

Soulkey follows the flow of momentum, doing a ling all-in and followup 2 hatch mutas. Soulkey with lings alone kills all of Sharp's marines and his bunker. Soon enough Sharp's base is littered with unchecked zerglings. Knowing mutas are coming, Sharp GGs.

Game 3 on Roadkill:
Soulkey spawns at the 3 O'Clock attempting an ambitious 3 hatch lurker with early ling aggression. Unfortunately for Soulkey, he assumes all too readily that Sharp is going for fast engineering bay upgrades after expanding. He's met with a rude awakening upon seeing Sharp's 2 barracks worth of marines and medics headed his way. A disastrous ling surround and a last second creep colony leave Soulkey's drone count whittled down before finally cleaning up the bio army. Soulkey in the bitter aftermath can only afford 2 lurkers, both of which are made short work of by Sharp. After a moment of thought, Soulkey leaves as Sharp turns expectations.

Game 4 on Gladiator:
Sharp in game 4 does a proxy 8 rax in the center of the map in a valiant effort to mind game Soulkey. However, Soulkey is the one to reverse mind game Sharp, doing an early cross scout. This was a move not of guessing, but of absolute certainty for Soulkey to have scouted as early as he did on a four player map. Possibly, he was just confident that he could win in the longer game despite the economic hit. Either way, Sharp loses his first SCV, pulling a second to complete the barracks. However, in total domination Soulkey surrounds the first spawning marine with three drones. Subsequently, Sharp GGs - a second rax not even finished as Soulkey's lings are en route to his base.

A surprisingly deep run by Horang2 in the KSL was something very few expected, as the Protoss was almost unanimously labelled the weakest player of the competition. Last, who, despite being hyped up as one of the strongest Terrans in the Kongdoo/Afreeca era, hasn't delivered the results. As the semi-finals started to take shape with Rain reigning supreme over BeSt, Jaedong narrowly beating Snow, and Soulkey dismantling Sharp in a relatively one-sided series, the result of the last quarterfinal was yet to be determined.

Game 1 on Fortress:
The Confectioner of Daejon was off to a good start on Fortress, gaining an economic advantage over Tiger Toss with a gasless expansion that went unscouted for a good chunk of the early game. Opening with a 1 gate range expo himself, Horang2 had no way of punishing the greedy opener, throwing down a second gateway and following up with a robotics facility. The belated dragoon pressure, although forcing four SCVs off the mineral line, was eventually pushed back by the Terran's siege tanks, which compelled the Protoss to try and find another way in. Finding no chinks in Last's armor, Horang2 followed up with a third base, flying around the outskirts of the Terran's garrison, keeping him pinned down. Last, however, responded with a quick wraith.

Having scanned the third base, the former STX Soul superstar snuck a squadron of vultures out to try and intercept any maynarding probes. Trading two vults for a bunch of workers, Last followed up with a dropship, which found the third completely unprotected, almost completely resetting the probe count on the newly built Protoss base. Although the Terran player took his sweet time taking a third himself, the damage inflicted onto Horang2 was far more impactful, as the Protoss's carrier transition came too late to effectively snowball into the late game. As the two armies clashed with both players at roughly 190 supply, the unupgraded Protoss force literally melted under the onslaught of 2:1 Terran mech. Last's eco advantage allowed him to remax quicker, sealing the deal on map 1.

Game 2 on Roadkill:
Wary of the plight of Terrans against Protoss on maps with low ground mains, Last chose to open with a factory expansion on Roadkill, whereas Horang2 once again skimped on a probe scout, choosing to stick to his 1 gate expo build. The delayed dragoon scout, however, forced him into going for a much quicker robotics facility than on Fortress, skipping the second gateway and effectively giving up on any applying any pressure in the early game. Last, recognizing the likelihood of a reaver follow-up, moved out with 3 tanks and a handful of marines, reinforcing the push with vultures off of 2 factories. Hitting right as the reaver popped out, Last was forced to fully commit to the push, as Horang2's response was to send the reaver across the map and try to inflict as much eco damage in retaliation.

Unaware of Last's starport in the centre of the map, Horang2 overstayed his welcome in the Terran's base, losing the shuttle and the reaver, only finding roughly 15 SCVs worth of damage. Opting for a 2 base carrier transition, Horang2 was quickly outmacroed by Last, who had instead chosen to turtle up on three bases, utilizing the map's architecture to stave off any ground-based attacks. Pulling the trigger, Last closed the distance between the two players with a solid push, inching his way forward with the support of offensive missile turrets, putting himself on match point.



Game 3 on Gladiator:
Shaking things up on Gladiator, Horang2 threw down a 1 gate expansion with delayed gas and cyber core, sending out a zealot to keep the Terran busy. Although going in the right direction, the Protoss made the novice mistake of not going deep enough, failing to spot the Terran's actual spawning location. Last, however, having spotted the quick nexus, jumped on the opportunity to inflict some damage of his own. Moving out with a contingent of marines and SCVs, the Terran found himself in an advantageous offensive position, forcing the Protoss down into his main base, whilst constructing a bunker next to the nexus. Be that as it may, botched micro on Last's side allowed Horang2 to break out and reciprocate the aggression.

Forcing out a heavy commitment to tanks, Horang2 managed to keep the Terran on 1 base for a considerable amount of time, all the while comfortably macroing up on 2 bases. Delaying the robotics facility in favour of additional gateways, the Protoss quickly asserted dominance over a large chunk of the map. Last's response involved a hidden third, which, alas, got scouted before bringing in the dosh. Securing four bases without any opposition from the Terran, Horang2 followed up with arbiters to put himself on the board.



Game 4 on Blue Storm:
Hoping to throw Last off balance on Blue Storm, Horang2 opened with a gas steal followed by a quick nexus, forcing out a passive early game. As the game progressed with neither player pulling the trigger, Horang2's intent on heavy carrier play became apparent, as a second cyber core was thrown down. A 9-minute fourth base gave Horang2 the economic edge over Last, who, in response, applied pressure on the natural mineral line, splitting the map in half. Patiently building up his carrier count, the Protoss player pushed the Terran off the nook next to the natural, allowing himself to resume mining. After three minutes of poking and prodding, Last eventually found the right time to move up. With zealot speed finishing just in the nick of time, Horang2 pounced on the siege line, taking massive damage in the process. Luckily, the economic advantage he'd gained earlier on allowed him to remax faster than the Terran. Once again, though, Last's army overpowered Horang2's composition, evening out the supply.

Smelling blood in the water, Last quickly unsieged his entire army and pushed up, failing to spot the fresh reinforcement of zealots, which quickly closed the distance, allowing Horang2 to take a much more favourable trade. Alas, the Protoss force bounced off the siege line for the third time in a row. The game seemed all but over, with Last inching ever closer to Horang2's third. An overzealous approach from Last, however, suddenly turned the game upside down, as the supply drastically see-sawed in the defender's favour. Regaining control over the high ground area outside the third, Horang2 found himself with 11 carriers roaming around the map.

Denying the Terran's sixth up in the 12 o'clock position, Horang2, having also sniped the fifth in the 6 o'clock location, evened out the economic advantage Last had accrued during the gradual push up towards the Protoss's third. As the Terran geared up for a final engagement, he made a crucial mistake in positioning, leaving the tanks vulnerable.



With the Terran's composition thrown off balance, the dragoons got on top of the goliaths, allowing Horang2 to make a memorable comeback and bring us to game 5 on Circuit Breaker.

Game 5 on Circuit Breaker:
With everything on the line, would you risk it all on a gamble? For Horang2, apparently, the answer is yes. Throwing down a nexus first, the Protoss soon found himself in hot water, as Last, opening with a factory follow-up on the barracks, soon caught wind of his opponent's greed. Sending out a handful of marines and SCVs, the Confectioner overpowered the Protoss with ease, focusing down the crucial first dragoon, pushing Horang2 up his main ramp. With a bunker finished on the low ground, the nexus fell with little resistance from the Tiger Toss.

Falling back to a nearly finished command centre, the Terran found himself in a convenient situation, not having to worry about retaliation, and with a macro lead. Securing his third at a similar time as the Protoss, Last moved out with +1 attack done. Having 8 factories reinforcing the push, Last swiftly overpowered the Protoss force, only powered by 5 gateways. Horang2, left with no tools to break the Terran spearhead, tapped out. After a full 5 game series, Last advanced to the semi-finals of the first season of the KSL.

When Jaedong and Rain last met offline, they faced each other in the ASL 4 in a match that would decide who would move onto the Ro8. Jaedong ended up losing in an uncharacteristic display of poor micro and blunderous decision making. Fans were reminded of the same atmosphere that day when Jaedong lost his first two games against Snow. However, Jaedong against fate or otherwise reclaimed the reins of the series to climb back 3-2.

What's been made clear in previous tourneys, and reaffirmed in the KSL, is Jaedong is inconsistent. He is no longer the beast in the booth he was known as in his glory days. Polarizing, one game he displays incredible mind games and superb execution, only for the next game to be riddled with over extensions and disastrous misplays. Against Light, despite winning, he admitted in his post-win interview how sloppy the games were. In the series versus Snow, he was saved perhaps only by the format, a bit of luck, and the tenacity of his grizzled competitive spirit.

Now against Rain, one of, if not the best players, Jaedong must lay all of his best qualities bare. There are no exceptions. Rain won't make the same mistakes Snow did. The fatal errors, timidity, and risk taking Snow took wouldn't equate to the calculating Rain.

To emphasize the difference, take note of the mental shift in the 3rd game of Snow vs. Jaedong. A player's ability to manipulate and mold that intangible force is the epitome of what makes a great player. Their understanding of series play, risk taking, mind games, mentality, and dealing with the heat of competition is what defines their offline success. That's what makes Rain one of the best and it's where Jaedong just falls short in comparison

For Jaedong, he won't have a third game to begin turning the tables. The series will already have a jump start in game 1 and 2, and Rain certainly won't let up like Snow. In short, Jaedong will have to bring his A-game in every single set, fighting for every inch of ground. However, not even the best of pros can play their truly best game throughout an entire series, much less during a live event.

How then will Jaedong overcome the odds? We'll have to see Jaedong's best play yet. Better than his 2-3 vs. Flash, better than his 3-2 vs. Light, better than his 3-2 vs. Snow, and better than all of the other games of his past. That's looking likely as Jaedong's run in this tourney has been a miracle with every performance being better than the last. If there was ever a time where Jaedong can win, that time is now.

When the moment finally comes, Jaedong will have to match Rain's tenacity. In many games, Rain is at a disadvantage only to pull out a win at the slightest mistake from the opponent. When the game is plunged into chaos, Jaedong will have to embrace the thick of it. At the slightest sign of weakness, Jaedong needs to put on the heat. When Rain's suffocating mechanics stretch Jaedong to his limits, he needs to remain at his calmest. Most of all though, Jaedong can't overextend on aggression or fumble his unit control at decisive moments. On Tuesday, Jaedong will have to implement all of the ideas mentioned to beat Rain.

However, the person Jaedong has to worry about most isn't Rain. It'll be himself. For years, a curse has been coursing through Jaedong. The curse of aging. The ongoing struggle of losing plenty, as Jaedong has said himself, is an experience he's had to get used to. The accumulating mental weight of previous losses, his shadow of past success, and understanding his own limits are the inner struggles Jaedong faces. Perhaps Jaedong's more relaxed attitude in recent months and his successful KSL run are signs of his adaptation. Come Tuesday, Jaedong, win or lose, to have a chance of beating Rain, must conquer his inner demons. Jaedong's fans will simply have to hope then that the beast that dwells within will flourish.

Prediction: Jaedong 4-3 Rain

Last and Soulkey have almost always shown great games when going up against each other. With the stakes for both players being higher than ever in comparison to their previous encounters, this is going to be one exciting best-of-seven series.

Last has not made it to the Ro4 in an offline tournament since ASL1 in a time where he was the definite favorite to win the entire season, when he was in full AlphaGo mode. Since then, however, despite being hailed as the second best Terran overall, he has started to show signs of becoming human again, a trait seen even in this season of KSL. But those were TvPs, so what does his TvZ look like?

Honestly, we don’t know what his recent TvZ status has looked like for some time now. Last has only played one TvZ in August as far as sponmatches go (1-0 vs hero). However he was on a TvZ tear back in July, obviously having only had to play TvPs due to his Ro16 and Ro8 group. He has not been streaming as often or participating in sponmatches over August either, with just 16 games with hardly any time left in the month, but this should also make him all the more dangerous to Soulkey.

Last is similar to Flash since he's able to do it all when it comes to macro/micro and preparation for a series under most circumstances. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to have the mental preparation for the later stages of an offline tournament and this holds him back from showing his absolute best play that many of us have seen him display when he goes on a win streak in the KCM Survival Series.

Soulkey though has had a good run with his ZvT both online, and this KSL with his mostly manhandling of Sharp in the Ro8. He is in prime shape and what most would agree the favorite in the series. This will either signal that Soulkey has indeed arisen above all as the next best Zerg since Jaedong or it will signal the return of AlphaGo, or even a better version than that, one that doesn’t choke in the later stages of a tournament run.

Bo7 is such a rare sight in BW seeing as how hard it is to prepare for maps in general and adding more maps means that they would need to prepare less for each map increasing the chances of either cookie cutter standard builds or outright cheeses for a player to just get through it (depending on the score). However, having Fighting Spirit and Circuit Breaker does help with it being the former as FS especially tends to have players operate in an almost autopilot state.

Having every map in the pool playable without bans creates a new kind of preparation for both players, even though I would say the advantage lies with Soulkey. However, with Bo7 being overall different from Bo5 where trying to cinch one more game might tax the stamina, this might give someone like Last an opening. All I can say is it's a huge difference from a Bo5 and one more game makes a huge difference for either player.

Head: Soulkey 4-2 Last
Heart: Soulkey 4-3 Last

Sorry Last…...

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Writers: Ty2, Ziggy, BLinD-RawR, BigFan
Graphics: v1
Editors: BigFan
Photo Credits: Liquipedia