by The_Templar

Dream’s path to relevancy was far less recognized and fulfilling than his opponent’s. Although he was one of the youngest players that made it to Code A in the first year of Starcraft II, Dream failed to take advantage of his position as potentially one of the next greats and was instead overshadowed by more adept competitors who took over and became the standard. Dream had flashes of brilliance that allowed him to occasionally beat the very best—who can forget his upset against Rain in Code A?—but could never sustain this level of ability for long enough to put together a deep run. Instead of making an impressive entrance into Code A and later Code S, he languished in the first few rounds for years, drowning in a veritable sea of often unremarkable players.

Failure in the GSL led to a drop in activity in Korea, and Dream started to try his luck abroad. He started finding success at the end of WoL, beginning with a second place finish at IEM Katowice in early 2013. Yet this lone tournament run failed to inspire anything more than a single, short-lived Code S qualification later that year. Meanwhile, in the Acer Teamstory Cup, Dream became a key player for MVP; his 18-10 record was capped off by five wins against Acer in the playoffs. One of his defining victories, against Scarlett on Red City, displayed a distinctive and effective style based around heavy aggression as well as his ability to micro with precision in the face of utter chaos. Although he was finding success in the European team league, Dream still failed to make a mark in the GSL, and eventually the MVP player was confined to team leagues after an extremely close and heart-wrenching tiebreaker denied him a second attempt at Code S.

After a promising start to HotS, 2014 was a letdown in multiple ways. After missing out on 2014’s first Code S by the slimmest of margins, Dream failed to re-qualify for the rest of the year. A lack of other individual league results, combined with MVP’s withdrawal from the ATC, meant that Dream’s only real results came from miscellaneous qualifiers and Proleague. His Proleague record across four rounds was only 6-6, and he was frequently rotated in and out of MVP’s lineup, trading spots with Billowy and a fallen Sniper. While he was hardly playing poorly, the moments in which Dream seemed like one of the strongest players in the world were few and far between, and his accomplishments in Korea became nonexistent.

As such, it seemed like a surprise and a colossal mismatch when Dream joined SKT and then managed to qualify for both of 2015’s premier Korean events. His NSSL challenger opponent, Solar, was one of the strongest players of 2014. While Terran was the Samsung Zerg’s weakness, Solar still had a 70% win rate in matches against Dream’s race in the three months leading up to their Challenger match. Even though Dream had to have some proof of consistency and skill to even get picked up by SKT, most expected Solar to easily take the series, forcing his opponent into obscurity once again.

Dream destroyed him. Playing a fairly active TvZ style, Dream patiently ran up a 2-0 lead on the back of excellent textbook play. His style was additionally distinctive, as he continuously saved thors from near-certain death with medivacs, and one of 2014’s breakout players looked like the clearly inferior player. Even though Solar managed to avoid a 3-0 by repelling Dream’s drops in one game, Dream hardly looked troubled as he took the fourth map in a similar way. While he managed to squeak through his GSL group, attention on Dream was centered around his NSSL run, as he followed up his victory by topping a group of death including Dark and the other finalist, Maru.



Many veterans of the scene who finally achieve a playoff run in a league such as WCS or GSL quickly succumb for one reason or another, whether it’s due to nerves, a mental block, or just running into a championship contender. Dream, instead of following suit, has instead re-enacted Maru’s lost OSL run. After dismantling a mid-tier player in the Ro8, both players found themselves facing the strongest player in the world—Maru was challenged by a dominant INnoVation while Dream had to match his promising TvZ against a player who had established himself as the player to beat in Korea who aimed for a simultaneous GSL, NSSL, and IEM title, Life. Similarly to Maru, Dream took a quick lead and played the series of his life in order to upset the triple championship threat and make it to the finals against a player that he isn’t really expected to beat.

Even though Dream has already far exceeded everyone’s expectations in this tournament, losing in the finals would still be a disappointment. His run’s parallels to Maru’s in the OSL two years ago are striking, and he faces similar odds going into this finals. If Maru defeats Dream, not only does Maru show that he is the superior of the two, but Dream also fails to become anything that Maru became. By taking the match, Dream won’t necessarily be Maru’s equal historically, but he would emerge as another successful prodigy from the early stages of Starcraft II and would become a newer, different version of Maru, able to stand by himself as one of the best players in the world.

---

Writers: The_Templar, Destructicon
Graphics: shiroiusagi, v1.
Photo Credit: silverfire, R1CH.
Editors: lichter