Classic vs herO (6-4 in maps, 2-2 in series)

Many believed that herO was the most likely candidate to make it to the Blizzcon finals. Who could blame them? He had the best form among the eight players in the top bracket and once he had gotten past the PvPs of MC and Classic it was expected he’d play only Terrans which was his best matchup at the time. So when he was up 2-1, all the world waited with baited breath as we expected the script to write itself. But Classic being no fool asked himself the age old question every Protoss has asked himself since IEM Cologne. What is herO to a 2 gate? Classic then went on to clean up the series 3-2 before losing to MMA in the semi-finals. While they haven’t met up much since that pivotal series, you can’t help but think that herO still holds a slight grudge for that 2 gate.

Stats:
Classic vs herO (2-0, 3-2, 0-1, 0-1)
Seminal Series: Blizzcon 2014 ro8

herO vs Rain (14-11 in maps, 7-4 in series)

Both players transferred over with Kespa and while Rain met immediate success, herO’s rise to the top was much more moderate and grew slowly over time. The most interesting thing about this rivalry is that both players have consistently blocked each other in some of their most pivotal career changing moments. herO after his IEM Katowice loss to sOs came back to Korea to play against Rain in the GSL ro8. There he lost 3-2 (one of which was a loss by proxy 2 gate). herO in turn denied Rain his first Premier win under the mYi tag as he beat Rain at IEM San Jose 4-3. Both also happen to be two of the strongest players in the field at IEM Taipei so a rematch seems likely.

Stats:
herO vs Rain (4-3, 0-2, 0-1, 2-3, 2-0, 1-0, 1-0 , 1-0, 1-2, 1-0, 1-0)
Seminal Series: Code S ro8, IEM San Jose Finals

Rain vs PartinG (8-7 in maps, 3-2 in series)

A more friendly rivalry than most, both players were known to be good friends after Rain’s initial transfer to SC2 from BW. They often gave thanks to each other as they would freely and liberally steal ideas and builds from each other during their reign as two of the three best Protosses at the end of WoL (the third being Creator). Afterwards, Parting joined Rain and though he was never able to take away the ace spot for Rain, he became the mascot and instigator of the best rivalries in Proleague. Afterwards, Parting left SKT to become as he put it “A wild ESF animal” and joined Yoe-FW. Rain followed suit as he got picked up by mYi. While they are both on different teams, you can’t help but feel that the two players are inextricably connected the same way Parting and Squirlte used to be on ST.

Stats:
Rain vs PartinG (2-0, 0-2, 1-4, 2-0, 3-1)
Seminal Series: Code S ro16, WCS 2012 Asia, WCS Korea 2012

Life vs ForGG (10-9 in maps, 2-3 in series)

The most recent rivalry to come into existence, it took center stage as one of the great finals of 2014 as ForGG and Life battled it out for the DH Winter Championship. Life had just gone on the run as the single scariest ZvT on the planet and one of the best players in the world after winning Blizzcon. ForGG had given into despair as the new WCS system was likely to kick him out of the system. Fortunately, Blizzard implemented the ForGG exception and riding on his emotions, ForGG destroyed Dreamhack and went on to win his first ever Premier in SC2. The battle between these two players is all the more anticipated as they can only ever meet at international lans.

Stats:
Life vs ForGG (3-0, 2-4, 2-3, 2-0, 1-2)
Seminal Series: DH Winter Finals

Has vs Good (13-8 in series)

The current incarnation of evil, Has has the distinct honor of being the most evil foreigner playing in the game today. While others like Naniwa or Nerchio rely on out of game smack talk to become villians, Has does it with his pure skill putting him above the pedestrian antics of those two. Whether it be 6 pylon walling Jaedong, proxy gating Bunny next to his CC or destroying MMA with a proxy oracle into proxy void ray into cannon contain into proxy tempest into expanding into MMA’s natural to win, Has is here to entertain the fans. So expect Has to ruin someone’s day At IEM Taipei.

Stats:
Won against: Bomber, DRG, ForGG, Bunny, Bomber, Sase, Nestea, MKP, Jaedong, MMA, TRUE, TLO, Harstem.
Lost against: Flash, Parting, Huk, HerO, Snute, Mvp, Scarlett, Innovation

Seminal Series: Has vs Jaedong WCS NA, Has vs MMA, Has vs Bunny

Maru vs Rain (4-4 in maps, 1-1 in series)

Despite being a relatively new rivalry, Rain vs Maru had all the makings of a classic David vs Goliath dynamic.
Rain first took the scene by storm in WoL, in a way no protoss had done till then. He refused to take unnecessary risks and played defensive, often falling behind in the early to mid game but winning in the late game trough brilliant decision making. He won the WCS Asia qualifier, and the first SC2 OSL, and when the 2013 OSL was announced all eyes turned towards Rain to defend his title. Maru was the exact opposite of Rain, he loved to take risks he loved winning through micro, often brute forcing his way towards victory. His lack of results and pedigree, made him an instant underdog. But to everyone's surprise Maru overcame all odds, defeating INnoVation in the semi-final and then defeating Rain in the grand final, thus becoming the youngest OSL champion.

While they never did play again, the series left a mark on Rain. He then went on to say Terran was the new bl/infestor and that Terran was certain to win all of the Premier Tournaments. In the same Code S, there were only three Terrans, Maru being the only one to advance. Maru had destroyed Rain so convincingly that Rain was forever scarred with a pathlogical fear of Terrans and Maru in particular.

Stats
Maru vs Rain: (4-2, 0-2)
Seminal Series: OSL 2013 Finals

Snute vs herO (5-6 in maps, 1-2 in series)

When Snute and herO met for the first time in IEM Toronto, little thought was given to how the games would go. herO was a top 5 Korean Protoss, Snute may have been the strongest foreigner, but he was still a foreigner. It was supposed to be a mismatch, another marker of Korean dominance as herO went on to win the open bracket. It was not to be as Snute showed he was completely capable of playing at that level and then went on to teach herO a lesson on the Swarmhost. For 3 games, they battled back and forth over and over with herO constantly trying to break Snute's defenses, but Snute had none of it as he kept shutting herO down. And in one of the biggest upsets of the year Snute beat herO 2-1 not once but twice. While herO was obviously disappointed, he took the back-to-back loss as a sign that his technique was in desperate need of improvement. Over the following months, herO’s style of PvZ was nearly invisible save a single Dreamhack.

When the two met again, Snute took the first two games with a similar swarm host style, and once again herO looked confounded. But by the third game, herO had found a way to crack the Swarmhosts of Snute. First he took Stardust's advice of just killing him before it got off the ground. In game 4 he gave up on the land game and took to the skies while constantly using warp prism to attack the immobility of Snute. In these three series alone, herO had evolved his play against Swarmhosts to an extremely refined degree because Snute had forced him to do so. herO then became one of, if not the best anti-SH PvZ's in Korea as he went on to beat Curious and Life. This time it will be Snute's turn to show how much he has adapted to herO's PvZ and see if he can't get his revenge.

Stats:
Snute vs herO (1-2, 1-2, 3-2)

Life vs Leenock (26-18 in maps, 11-4 in series)

What many remember about Life is his dominant run at the second half of 2012 to the beginning of 2013 when he won 5 of the 8 Premier tournaments he entered. What they don’t remember is that there was one player who had fought him the entire way. One player who had very nearly overtaken him in multiple critical series and had beaten him in lesser series. Leenock has been in the shadow of Life ever since Life came onto the scene as the great Zerg of 2012. During the latter half of 2012, both had fought constantly in every possible league (IPL, Code A, Code S, MLG, Iron Squid). While Life has won the majority of their encounters, Leenock has had some critical wins of his own in GSL and IPL. What makes this rivalry especially interesting is that they have have very similar approaches to the game. They are both extremely offense oriented and like to multi-task all across the map. Life likes to use lings and roaches, Leenock likes to use burrowed roaches and baneling mines. Because of this, whenever the two meet the match always ends up being an extremely fast paced aggressive all out micro war between the two as they fight and scrap for every inch upon the map. While ZvZ is often derided as a stale matchup, if these two meet it won’t be a matchup you will want to miss.

Stats:
Life vs Leenock (2-1, 2-0, 3-2, 2-0, 2-1, 0-1, 2-0, 0-2, 3-2, 3-1, 0-2, 4-3, 0-2, 2-1, 1-0)
Seminal Series: WCS KR S1, GSL ro16 2012, MLG Finals

Life vs DRG (8-9 in maps, 2-2 in series)

Before there was soO, there was Soulkey. Before there was Soulkey there was Life. Before there was Life there was DRG. Before there was DRG, there was Nestea. Zerg unlike the other two races has a clear lineage of when the current best Zerg in the world was taken over by the next incoming Zerg. DRG beat Nestea in one of the greatest series ever played to become the best Zerg in the world. Life reverse swept DRG at Iron Squid Finals and sent DRG’s career plummeting towards the bottom. Soulkey eliminated Life twice in GSL. soO eliminated Soulkey in the semi-finals. While these events alone usually do not precipatate a rivalry, in the case of DRG and Life it does. DRG became the first victim to ever lose a finals up 3-0 and his career has never been the same. After spending 2 years in hell, DRG has made something of a comeback in recent months, and has recently been beating Life in bo3’s making him a very dangerous opponent for one of the favorites of the tournament.

Stats:
Life vs DRG (1-2, 0-2, 4-3, 3-2)
Seminal Series: Iron Squid Finals

Life vs PartinG (12-14 in maps, 4-6 in series)

Team Startale used to be known as KongTale as they had a mass of 2nd place finishes in both the individual leagues and team leagues. All of that was seemingly about to change as Parting from the end of 2011 onwards slowly became the ace of the team and kept grinding his way closer and closer to a finals. Then Zenex merged with the team and Life instantly won a GSL. He then beat Parting in the Blizz Cup of that year 4-2 while destroying Parting’s Soul Train. Parting moved on to SKT and forced Life to join him in the group of death where he eliminated Life from the group before moving on. While not as heated as it once used to be, I can’t help but feel that Parting still gets a little heated thinking about how Life was one of only three players to ever beat his Soul Train in WoL.

Stats:
Life vs PartinG (1-2, 2-1, 0-2, 2-0, 1-2, 2-0, 4-2, 0-3, 0-1, 0-1)
Seminal Series: WCS KR 1 ro16, BlizzCup Finals

Polt vs DRG (12-11 in maps, 4-5 in series)

Polt and DRG have a very rich history of playing each other. Both are veterans of the scene, dating back to the early days of WoL, both have secured GSL championships, and both attended similar tournaments at around the same periods of time. The seeds of a rivalry were sown in the 2012 GSL season 4. DRG and Polt wound up in the same RO 32 group, DRG came out victorious advancing to the RO16 in first place, leaving Polt to crawl his way out in second. Then in RO16 group draft, DRG chose Polt for his group and claiming he would easily defeat him again. It would be Polt who would have the last laugh though, defeating DRG soundly and sending him to the losers match where he'd lose to an in form Taeja. Alas it was not to be, despite meeting several times in future tournaments, including NASL and Red Bull, it was always in a BO3 series. This could have been one of the classic rivalries had fate just been kind enough to allow them to meet in a BO5 or BO7 setting. Yet there is still hope, and thus our gaze turns to IEM Taipei, were we wait and hope, eagerly to see an epic clash between the two grizzled veterans, to see just what they can offer us on the biggest of stages.

Stats:
DRG vs Polt (1-0, 1-2, 0-2, 2-0, 1-2, 1-2, 0-2, 2-1, 2-0)

HerO vs Impact (DarkLordOlli vs TotalBiscuit)

Some rivalries come from great games. Some from parallel patterns. Others from trash talk or team rivalries. This came about because TotalBiscuit and DarklordOlli wanted to flame each other and the players. This eventually ended with Olli saying HerO is ten times the player Impact is, thus cursing HerO as Impact went on to win the decider match. It can be summed up with two posts:





Will HerO finally prove DLO right and prove he is 10x the player or will Impact continue to keep his membership in the 10x HerO club with other players like Xigua and Huk?