After the Rain

On December 19th, Rain officially retired from his pro-gaming career. He told journalists privately at Flash’s retirement and told them to announce his retirement one day after. Many speculated that his recent liver donation to his father was the main reason for hanging up his mouse and keyboard. However, in an interview released shortly there afterwards, Rain revealed that he had already decided that this would be his final year. In fact, he would have retired a year earlier after leaving SKT, but the lure of life on a foreign team—and all the invaluable experiences it entailed—convinced him to delay his retirement. His final words were both a parting shot about his own greatness as well as advice to future pros to always ask themselves if they still have the passion to keep on playing.

Rain’s career was one of excellence. Rain had already shown glimpses of real potential in BW as he was named rookie of the year and was a contributor for SKT in Proleague. Sadly that potential was never realized in BW as KeSPA forcefully switched from BW to SC2.

It was in SC2 that Rain found his natural talent. All of the initial hype was built around the greats of BW; players like Flash, Jeadong, Bisu, Stork, FanTaSy, and JangBi. They were the elite, and everyone expected their skills to translate into a new game and form a new era of dominance. They were supposed to be the vanguard of KeSPA.

Yet rather than them, it was the rising stars of BW that really brought the thunder. Players like Soulkey, INnoVation, Zest and soO. And the very first to storm the arena was Rain. Rain hit the SC2 scene like a clap of lightning as he rocketed to stardom. He quickly became the de facto star of SKT and almost instantly became an elite player. He then proved that potential by winning OSL 2012 and WCS Asia, while placing well by getting a Top 4 in GSL and a 3rd at 2012 WCS WC. He left an indelible mark on the game by solving the mess that was WoL PvP, writing the blueprint for an entire matchup in the process. He taught everyone how to consistently get to the mid and late game in PvP and his innovations continue to be the bedrock of the matchup in Legacy of the Void.

Since vaulting to the top, many predicted Rain to be the new face of Protoss, possibly the heir to MC’s throne. However while Rain remained between Top 5 to Top 1 Protoss for the rest of his career, he was never able to dominate for a long period of time as we had expected. He still won numerous tournaments and got multiple high placings such as: a 2nd at OSL 2013, 1st Hot6IX Cup, and another Top 4 GSL in 2014. Yet he lacked that extra spark that turned champions into dominant legends. Which was why his GSL victory in 2015 was all the more significant.

Rain’s greatest weakness in the early days of his SC2 career was his predictability. During 2012, he was a defensive macro monster that was near the peak level of mechanical skill. However, he could get tricked and was mind gamed hard by Mvp during his GSL run in 2012. He fixed this going into 2013-2014 as he started mixing in a significant amount of cheese and aggression into his repertoire. Unfortunately, other players had caught up with him in skill and matchup knowledge, and he no longer had the edge to create an era of dominance. Still, he stayed ahead of the curve because he had evolved into an incredibly clean player with high mechanical prowess that had a large variety of builds and counters.



So then, what changed in 2015? Aside from joining mYi, I’d argue that in 2015, his mechanical skill declined. His game wasn’t nearly as clean or as detailed. However, his series planning, build order choice and player scouting seemed much stronger. In many ways it paralleled Mvp’s own victory against Rain back in Rain’s 2012 GSL run where Mvp defeated Rain despite the large mechanical skill difference and matchup expertise. While not nearly as extreme as that (as Rain was still a top level player), the loss of skill he suffered was more than made up for by his change in approach and mentality towards his Bo3/Bo5 play.

This is what makes Rain’s retirement all the sadder. If Rain had rejoined a KeSPA team, we could have been able to use this new found strength and combine it with his earlier mechanical skill. We could have seen a reborn Rain in LotV. Even on a foreign team, Rain still had the skill and mindset to play at a very high level in SC2. It's not difficult to imagine what his stronger mentality could have achieved with more structure.

That is why it was all the more surprising to hear that Rain had decided to retire. Unlike other retirees like MMA or Flash, he was still a championship contender in every tournament he attended. This is one of the few retirements that felt too soon as it was clear that Rain still had more to give.



However it is his choice and few players get the luxury of choice to retire when and how they want. Rain will be remembered as one of the all-time great Protoss players, a player that had saved PvP when it was at its worst, a genius that gave us some of the greatest games we’ve seen in SC2

However, all storm ends. The rain cannot pour down forever and though it seems premature in this case, at least Rain was able to end his career on his own terms. Too many times we’ve seen players get squeezed out of the scene because of a lack of support, opportunity or skill. Rain left of his own accord as his passion for the game had finally run out. In the clear light of day, we can see what Rain’s legacy is: One of SC2’s greatest Champions, one of the absolute best Protoss players, and a great thinker of the game.

In many ways Rain’s retirement from SC2 parallels his early exit from BW. At the end of BW he was clearly on the path to becoming one of the best Protoss in the game. With enough time, he could have even joined the elite ranks of Brood War players. Now, he retires after finally conquering Code S and lifting a foreign tournament trophy. That he leaves us still close to his peak will forever leave us with the question, "What if he had continued playing?"

What if.