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SKT_Rain wins the GSL Hot6ix Cup

Forum Index > SC2 General
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SKT_Rain wins the GSL Hot6ix Cup

Text byTL.net ESPORTS
December 10th, 2013 09:39 GMT
Photos: GomTV and ThisIsGame
2013 not WCS

GOMTV Hot6ix Cup



Brackets and standings on
Liquipedia

Rain wins the Hot6ix Cup

by Christelle and Waxangel

(P)SKT_Rain ended 2012 as one of the best Protoss players in the world. The journey has been anything but easy, but he is in the same position at the end of 2013. With a 4-2 victory over (Z)Woongjin_Soulkey in the finals of the Hot6ix Cup, Rain claimed his first championship in a year that saw him both struggle and thrive in the new HotS expansion.

The first half of 2013 was forgettable for Rain, as he failed to make it past the Ro32 in Code S and flopped in his one overseas opportunity of MLG Winter. However, he made a run from out of nowhere in the only OnGameNet Starleague of the year, looking dominant as he reached the finals. However, he was unable to cap it all off with a victory, instead falling 2-4 to Maru. Rain only achieved middling results after, finishing in the top eight of Code S and missing out on qualification for BlizzCon. Rain attributed his decline in form to a loss of interest in the game, his long hours of practice meaningless without the right mindset to go behind it.

[image loading]

But with newly regained passion, the Rain of old returned in time for the Hot6ix Cup, to which he had earned an invitation for his OSL run. During his slump, his safety-first style had made him predictable and weak. In the Hot6ix Cup, it made him solid as a rock, once again the living, breathing embodiment of textbook Protoss play.

Going up against the Zerg equivalent of textbook perfection in Soulkey, Rain seemed to have found an equally capable opponent as the first four maps were split 2-2. However, the series tilted in Rain's favor on the fifth map of Bel'Shir Vestige, where an all-or-nothing Dark Templar gambit saw Rain overcome what had seemed like an unwinnable position and take an unlikely victory. Soulkey was unable to recover from the mental blow of such a devastating loss and gave up the sixth and final map easily.

As 2013 ends, Rain has regained his old prestige and standing. He knows from experience that his position is anything but secure, and he'll need to keep his focus to keep being a dominant player in 2014. He has all the talent required to do it, the rest is just up to him.

4

SKT_Rain

(P)Rain < Yeonsu > (Z)Soulkey
(P)Rain < Star Station > (Z)Soulkey
(P)Rain < Frost > (Z)Soulkey
(P)Rain < Whirlwind > (Z)Soulkey
(P)Rain < Bel'Shir Vestige > (Z)Soulkey
(P)Rain < Polar Night > (Z)Soulkey

Rain wins the Hot6ix Cup
2

Woongjin_Soulkey



Game 1 – Yeonsu

Rain opened up the series with the first fake-cannon rush of many, but failed to fool Soulkey who went straight on to 1/1 speedlings. This seemed to be a good choice for Soulkey early on as Rain went for a standard third expansion after opening phoenixes, but things quickly took a turn for the worse as his ling force was shattered by zealots and forcefields in spite of the upgrade difference.

Being faced with such a heavy zealot defense, Soulkey quickly opted for swarm hosts, hoping to be able to use their cost-efficiency to catch up with Rain with whom he was on equal bases. Although it was another idea that seemed good at the time, Soulkey's economy was not strong enough to adequately support his expensive units, especially in the face of Rain's dogged phoenix harassment. Soulkey did manage to hold off the Rain's initial push at his third base with 9 corruptors spawning just in time to fight off the 4 colossi with blink-stalker support. However, an attack on another front dealt Soulkey a crippling blow, with a zealot warp-in resulting in the destruction of both Soulkey's lair and spawning pool. Rain kept up the pressure until the end of the game, sending consistent Zealot runbyes to finish Soulkey off. Soulkey could not fight off the approaching Colossus/Templar/Void Ray-army while defending his naked expansions at the same time, and he was forced to waive the white flag.

Game 2 – Star Station

Game 2 was a tale of scouting, tech-countering and more tech-countering. Rain would once again open up with his fake cannon-rush, which was seen through by Soulkey who casually went up to three bases early on, not overreacting to proxy-pylons or MSC/stalker-aggression. After that, the game appeared to enter an uneventful lull as the players built up their forces, but there were plenty of machinations going on inside the players' heads.

It began with Soulkey scouting Rain's colossus tech so quickly that he was able to start his hive and viper-production before any actual colossi were on the field. This was in turn was scouted by the hallucinated phoenixes of Rain, who was able to switch tech-paths accordingly to immortals and high templar. Subsequently, when Rain finally launched his attack at Soulkey’s fourth base, hydralisks, roaches and vipers faced a superior force of stalkers, immortals and high templar. Despite some decent blinding clouds from Soulkey, it was Rain's psi storms that dominated the battlefield as Rain took another victory.

Game 3 – Frost

It’s a cannon rush! After having faked it for two games in a row, we finally saw Rain open up with a forge in game 3, hoping to find a naked natural expansion on Soulkey's side of the map. Unfortunately for Rain, it was as if Soulkey knew all along that Frost was the map where the true cannon rush would be brought out, and thus his natural expansion was guarded by drones ready to repel the initial probe.

With Soulkey's defense being established so early, Rain ditched his plan and went for a simple Forge Fast Expand. As the third hatchery of Soulkey was getting saturated and the signature phoenix harassment of Rain was being initiated, the SK Telecom 1 Protoss revealed his back-up plan to the viewers – a proxy-pylon hidden right under Soulkey's nose that allowed for two rounds of +1 zealot’s to be warped in mere inches away from Soulkey's third base. However, in spite of being caught utterly off guard, Soulkey managed to repel the attack with nothing but a handful of roaches, drones and flawless micro, proving why his defense is known as the best in world.

Having defended against both of Rain's initial attacks, Soulkey found himself at an economic advantage, which he was able to ride all the way to victory. Rain had followed up by going for blink stalkers, which were no answer to Soulkey's composition of swarm hosts, hydras and roaches. With locusts creeping deeper and deeper into his territory, Rain GG'd out.

Game 4 – Whirlwind:

Game four provided the late-game slugfest between heavyweights that everyone had been waiting for. Once again Rain opened up the game by attempting a cannon rush, which was again converted into a forge FE after Soulkey shut it down with drones. However, this time around Rain opted for an oracle as the first unit out of his quick stargate, which safely made its way to Soulkey's third base and killed off eight drones before being chased off. Brushing off the early blow, Soulkey stockpiled his resources for mutalisk tech, hoping to surprise Rain with 13 mutalisks. However, not only did Rain scout the spire, but had already blindly been going for blink tech in the meanwhile.

While that meant Soulkey would fail to deal the devastating damage he had hoped to do, the investment still payed off as he bought himself more than enough time to establish his economy and transition to swarm hosts before Rain could keep up with the tech switch. Rain then managed to buy himself precious time with Warp Prism harass in Soulkey's main base, temporarily stopping the onslaught of locusts and giving himself the breathing room to put together a late game army.

With gas heavy units finally at his disposal, Rain finally began moving outside of his 4th base, and after feeling each other out, the two armies finally clashed in a skirmish between brood lords, corruptors, infestors and swarm hosts, and tempests, void rays and colossi. At first, Rain seemed to come out on top as he temporarily pushed Soulkey back, but a lack of anti-air firepower allowed Soulkey's mass corruptors to overpower Rain's force. With the colossi and void rays wiped out, the swarm hosts were left to raze Rain's bases uncontested. After some desperation zealot warp-ins, Rain conceded defeat to tie up the series at two games a piece.

Game 5 – Bel’Shir Vestige

After a one-sided start, game five turned out to be one of the greatest comebacks of 2013. Soulkey managed to yet again see right through yet another fake cannon rush, going for an early zergling rush to punish Rain's greedy gateway expansion. After Soulkey successfully killed off Rain's expansion and several of his defending units, the SKT Protoss seemed all but done for with nothing going for him except a higher probe count.

However, it Rain would make all the right moves as the game went on while Soulkey would end up making the mistakes he absolutely could not afford to make. After having his third canceled by a roach runby, Rain decided it was time go all or nothing, teching up to dark templars and sending one each to three different bases while zealots went to a fourth. While splitting his forces up would have meant doing no damage against a prepared opponent, Rain hit a grand slam as Soulkey was caught completely unprepared. The DTs brought Soulkey's drone count down into the 30's while the zealots killed off Soulkey's fourth base. In less than a minute, Rain had taken the lead.

Against all odds, Rain found himself in a situation where he could successfully engage the swarm hosts and corruptors of Soulkey with an even greater number of stalkers and colossi, moving out on the map without restriction. A second warp in of three dark templars put Soulkey even further behind before Rain finally closed the game out with his superior army.

Game 6 – Polar Night

With Soulkey shaken up after taking such a demoralizing loss, the sixth and final game ended up being all about Rain. After easily repelling the initial zerglings from Soulkey and establishing his Stargate, Rain started some phoenix-harassment that would go on all game long. Meanwhile, Soulkey went for a strange 2-base hydralisk build, failing to accomplish much except stunting his own economy.

After establishing himself on two bases, Rain embarked on some relentless warp prism harassment, killing off key structures as Soulkey started to crack on defense. Soulkey failed to keep up with Rain who kept pressuring him on multiple fronts, his units constantly out of position as Rain slowly extended his advantage. At the end of the game, there was no great final battle, but rather a slow but steady Colossi-push moving its way closer and closer to the heart of Soulkey's base, eventually breaking the front lines and earning Rain the victory at the Hot6ix Cup Grand Finals.

Writers: Christelle, Waxangel.
Graphics: shiroiusagi.
Photos: GomTV, Silverfire and ThisIsGame.
Editor: Waxangel.
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TL+ Member
mishimaBeef
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
Canada2259 Posts
December 10 2013 09:48 GMT
#2
Thanks, nice battle report. Too bad no pics.
Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
General Nuke Em
Profile Joined March 2008
United States680 Posts
December 10 2013 09:51 GMT
#3
Game 5: When behind, dark shrine.
althaz
Profile Joined May 2010
Australia1001 Posts
December 10 2013 10:06 GMT
#4
Good write-up, but doesn't do the series justice. For Starcraft purists, this was one of the best PvZ series you'll ever see. Both players were INCREDIBLE. Fantastic games.
The first rule we don't talk about race conditions. of race conditions is
digmouse
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
China6329 Posts
December 10 2013 10:26 GMT
#5
On December 10 2013 18:51 General Nuke Em wrote:
Game 5: When behind, dark shrine.

Day9 would be proud.
TranslatorIf you want to ask anything about Chinese esports, send me a PM or follow me @nerddigmouse.
zenkicker
Profile Joined December 2008
257 Posts
December 10 2013 11:12 GMT
#6
Similar to when behind: mutalisk by Zerg.
I you cant beat them, join them.
Grovbolle
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
Denmark3805 Posts
December 10 2013 11:19 GMT
#7
Sad that Soulkey insisted on playing Hydra-Swarmhost. It seemed like it was really weak vs. all the warpprism drops. I was literally yelling: "LING MUTA" at the screen during some of the games.
Lies, damned lies and statistics: http://aligulac.com
growlizing
Profile Joined February 2011
Norway122 Posts
December 10 2013 13:25 GMT
#8
On December 10 2013 20:12 zenkicker wrote:
Similar to when behind: mutalisk by Zerg.

Except that you actually need to be ahead to go into mutas..
absinthfee
Profile Joined October 2010
Germany718 Posts
December 10 2013 13:59 GMT
#9
On December 10 2013 20:12 zenkicker wrote:
Similar to when behind: mutalisk by Zerg.

This almost never works.
boxerfred
Profile Blog Joined December 2012
Germany8360 Posts
December 10 2013 16:09 GMT
#10
On December 10 2013 22:59 absinthfee wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 10 2013 20:12 zenkicker wrote:
Similar to when behind: mutalisk by Zerg.

This almost never works.


Zerg is more "when behind, die to 3/3 or protoss deathball" :/
Assirra
Profile Joined August 2010
Belgium4169 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-12-10 18:54:14
December 10 2013 16:22 GMT
#11
On December 10 2013 20:12 zenkicker wrote:
Similar to when behind: mutalisk by Zerg.

And how would you even afford them when you are behind without outright dying?
LockeTazeline
Profile Blog Joined June 2012
2390 Posts
December 10 2013 16:46 GMT
#12
Rain fighting in 2014!
Jormundr
Profile Joined July 2011
United States1678 Posts
December 10 2013 17:05 GMT
#13
And so his rain of terror begins anew...
Capitalism is beneficial for people who work harder than other people. Under capitalism the only way to make more money is to work harder then your competitors whether they be other companies or workers. ~ Vegetarian
prabhbhambra13
Profile Joined April 2011
United Kingdom424 Posts
December 10 2013 20:38 GMT
#14
Rain is playing the best Protoss that I've seen in a long time. He seems to have solved his predictability problem.
SECO SECO SECO
Valikyr
Profile Joined June 2010
Sweden2653 Posts
December 10 2013 21:00 GMT
#15
On December 11 2013 01:22 Assirra wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 10 2013 20:12 zenkicker wrote:
Similar to when behind: mutalisk by Zerg.

And how would you even afford them when you are behind without outright dying?

The Silver League banks are gigantic.
Seeker *
Profile Blog Joined April 2005
Where dat snitch at?37021 Posts
December 10 2013 21:03 GMT
#16
When you're behind, get even more behind.
ModeratorPeople ask me, "Seeker, what are you seeking?" My answer? "Sleep, damn it! Always sleep!"
TL+ Member
Faruko
Profile Joined April 2013
Chile34171 Posts
December 10 2013 21:51 GMT
#17
sOs, Parting, Dear and Rain... cant remember a time where we would have 4 top protoss players at the same time

i only remember (at the same time) MC and Seed, but never more than 2

(SC2)
Ross was right // "Jesus Christ nahaz is doing shots before my eyes" (Sn0_Man, 2018)
LastManProductions
Profile Joined September 2013
United States252 Posts
December 10 2013 22:02 GMT
#18
On December 11 2013 06:51 Faruko wrote:
sOs, Parting, Dear and Rain... cant remember a time where we would have 4 top protoss players at the same time

i only remember (at the same time) MC and Seed, but never more than 2

(SC2)


That's what happens when you continually buff protoss lol
Graphicshttp://mattlast.wix.com/lastmanproduction
Kitai
Profile Joined June 2012
United States873 Posts
December 11 2013 01:08 GMT
#19
Are there any free VoDs of this series out there?
"You know, I don't care if soO got 100 second places in a row. Anyone who doesn't think that he's going to win blizzcon watching this series is a fool" - Artosis, Blizzcon 2014 soO vs TaeJa
sweffymo
Profile Joined March 2013
United States62 Posts
December 11 2013 02:18 GMT
#20
I don't wanna be that guy, but I guess I am going to be anyway: In the Game 1 section it should say "wave the white flag" instead of "waive."
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