[ASL7] Grand Finals - Mini vs Last

On March 19 2019 11:47 Letmelose wrote:


Mini packs a stronger aggressive punch due to his stellar micro-management that can throw more well rounded players off guard, but Rain has a tendency to rely less on unlikely outplays, and bases his games on decisions built on sound reasoning. Mini plays a more elaborate playstyle, while Rain keeps things less volatile, but what you see on screen are not representative of how deep their thought processes are for the games. Rain has some of the best understanding of the game from a protoss player, and this aspect is something Mini has always respected Rain for. Even during their Discord chat sessions, Mini has once jokingly said to Rain (but with a grain of truth) that protoss race as a whole was doomed because the brightest player (Rain), is not motivated enough to push the race forward.

In what may be a bad analogy, Mini is like the dude who strikes harder but isn't that well organized in how he fights, while Rain plays like Floyd Mayweather Junior (obviously not at that level), he approaches the game methodically and there's great intellectual prowess going on behind what may seem like a commonplace gaming style.

As an example, in game three of the finals, Mini had a picture perfect dragoon micro-management in the initial stages of the game, but invested into shuttles and units instead of powering up in terms of economy and tech, and Flash (who was spectating the finals alongside Rain) couldn't understand why Mini was doing this. He said BeSt would quite easily find a way to win from this already advantageous position without needing to pull off the aggressive play Mini was setting himself up for. Rain then said that Mini has this tendency to produce units with no purpose other than to playmake himself into an advantageous position with those units, often putting himself into unfavourable positions if he can't make full use of his units. It is just how Mini functions. He makes proactive plays with his units, and there's great skill involved in such plays, but there's sometimes zero logic in what Mini does other than he thinks he can outplay the opponent.

I find Mini much more electric as a spectator than Rain, but personal tastes aside, Rain's credentials speak for themselves. He has been putting forth much more consistent and reliable results as a player in comparison to Mini, both online (he is the highest rated protoss player in terms of ELO points from online sponsored matches) and in tournaments over a lengthy period of time (he is the only player in the scene to have at least made the quarter-finals or above for every single ASL or KSL from 2018 onwards). I think you are under-valuing Rain due to his style of play, rather than his lack of competitive results.

On March 19 2019 15:05 Jaeyun wrote:
Letmelose hit the nail on the head in his analysis of Rain and Mini. Rain’s not the sexiest Protoss like a Bisu but his understanding and consistency really should speak for itself. Just go back to the last 4-5 ASL/KSL’s - and try to find the list of players that put up better cumulative results than him and you’ll be left with a very elite group of players.

In regards to his lack of playmaking - less confident players are way more likely to pull out crazier plays and all in builds than the better ones, because they know in the long game they’ll fall apart. Rain plays conservative, yes, but he plays solid because he knows he can go head to head with just about anybody. He had plenty of cool plays this ASL, including his wildcard match vs. Sharp (proxy robo vs Larva, hidden nexus vs. Horang2, 7:30 4 gate DT vs. Sharp). Watch his stream more often for a larger sample size or listen to what other pros say about him.

All that aside, Mini has been my favorite Protoss for many months now because he plays a really exciting and distinct style. My description of Mini is that he’s easily the most dangerous Protoss in a 3 or 5 game series, but in no way is he as rounded of a player like Rain. I applaud him for besting Effort this season but he intended on going the distance in none of those 5 games.