The Greatest Players of All Time

#10: Rain

By: Mizenhauer

• The best domestic league player during his career (2012-2015)
• Pioneer of macro-style Protoss play
• Vanguard of the KeSPA revolution

Notable tournament finishes

• 2012 WCS Asia: 1st place
  
• 2012 OnGameNet Starleague: 1st place
  
• 2013 OnGameNet Starleague: 2nd place
  
• 2013 GSL Hot6ix Cup: 1st place
  
• 2015 IEM San Jose: 2nd place
  
• 2015 Code S Season 2: 1st place
  
• 2015 HomeStory Cup 11: 1st place

Rain's StarCraft II career is one of the shortest among the players appearing on this list, but he still distinguished himself as one of the greatest SC2 players ever during a 43 month span from 2012 to 2015. In that time, he achieved a rare combination of both unwavering consistency and dominant peaks that earned him a place in the top ten.

Starting off in an era where Protoss was firmly associated with trickery and all-ins, Rain rose as the first of the great macro Protoss players. His impenetrable defensive style made him dominant during his initial 2012 to 2013 peak, with his victory in the first ever SC2 OnGameNet Starleague being the high point. From there, Rain weathered a brief slump to evolve into an all-arounder, and secured his second Korean major title in Code S Season 2 of 2015.

Winning two 'Korean Individual Leagues' (Code S, OSL, SSL) was very difficult during the height of the KeSPA era, and only INnoVation, Classic, and Maru matched that count during Rain's active career. However, none of them could match him in terms of consistency, and Rain's overall Korean tournament track record paints him as the best domestic league player of this highly competitive era.

Rain also changed expectations for career longevity in StarCraft II by winning his OSL and Code S titles three years apart. This kind of long term consistency may have become normal now, but it was extremely uncommon in the turbulent, early years of SC2.

In a sense, Rain was the first modern great. He represented the KeSPA takeover of the Korean scene, he played a sophisticated macro style, and he showed that great players could stay at a championship level for several years on end.

Career Overview: Burning Brief but Bright

Rain began his StarCraft II career as one of the bulls at the fore of the KeSPA "elephant" invasion. Just five months after KeSPA began its official transition to StarCraft II in May of 2012, Rain became the first association player to win a premier-tier SC2 tournament at the WCS Asia Finals. Just two weeks later, he followed that up by winning the first SC2 version of the legendary OnGameNet Starleague. Compared to most of Rain's KeSPA peers, that was a remarkable speed of adjustment to a new game. Even the two other fast-adapters in Soulkey and INnoVation took approximately nine months to earn their first major titles in Code S and WCS. It would take sOs over a year in SC2 before he won the 2013 WCS Global Finals at BlizzCon.


With the OSL title in his possession, Rain immediately validated his performance by reaching the semifinals in Season 4 of Code S 2012. In doing so he became the highest placing KeSPA player in two of the three Korean Individual Leagues in which they were first eligible to participate. He followed that up by placing third place in the 2012 Battle.net World Championship in Shanghai (the precursor to the WCS Global Finals at BlizzCon), cementing his position as one of the best SC2 players in the world within a year of his debut.

Rain continued to play top-tier StarCraft in 2013, reaching the OnGameNet Starleague finals once more. And, while Rain had to settle for second place after being defeated by Maru, it did not dim his star. During his 2012-2013 peak, Rain was the overall best Protoss player, and arguably the best player in the world for certain stretches.

After rounding out 2013 by winning the Hot6ix Cup, Rain slumped in 2014. His best finish in Korean Individual Leagues during 2014 was a Round of 8 exit from the third season of Code S, and his best overall result was a runner-up finish at a soft IEM San Jose event (losing to herO). His commitment to the game seemed to be wavering, and a later interview revealed he had even considered retirement.


At the time, it would not have been especially disappointing if Rain had slowly faded away. The StarCraft scene of 2014 was very different from that of 2023, especially in terms of career arcs and player longevity. In Brood War, a typical Korean career might see a player debut at around age 18, peak at 19-20, and then trail off into a slow decline before retiring in their early 20's. While StarCraft II didn't favor youth quite as much as Brood War, it did seem to inherit the concept of a limited prime. As Rain headed into 2015, the longest period of time between Korean Individual League wins for a player was less than a year (eight months between Mvp's Code S titles)—no one had come close to pulling off Nada's feat of winning OSL titles three years apart.

However, instead of fading away, Rain had a remarkable career renaissance in 2015. In Code S Season 2 of 2015, Rain shattered the notion that he was doomed to an inevitable, if respectable, decline. He started by 4-0’ing his Round of 32 group (wins vs GuMiho and Sorry), and then beat top-five Terrans INnoVation and Bbyong in the RO16. Rain's RO8 opponent Maru was viewed by many in the community as the best player in the world after an impressive stretch where he won the inaugural SSL and finished second at IEM Taipei, but Rain upset him in a convincing 3-1 series. With Maru out of the way, Rain dispatched Curious in the semifinals, before defeating ByuL (the best Zerg during the second half of 2015) 4-1 in a one-sided finals.

Throughout the event, Rain displayed all the skills that had made him so imperious in 2012-13, while adding an edge of aggressiveness he had lacked earlier in his career. He had always been more of a strong all-arounder than a specialist in any single area, but over the course of Season 2 of Code S, he added the final touches and evolved into a complete Protoss.

Rain’s Code S victory was made all the more impressive by the fact that he did so while representing European team mYinsanity—a feat that had yet to be accomplished in StarCraft II up to that point. Most of the non-KeSPA players skilled enough to contend for a Code S title were shrewdly competing in the easier WCS instead (notably Polt, Bomber, and TaeJa). The idea that someone could win a premier-tier Korean league while not representing a KeSPA team was almost unimaginable. And, yet, Rain did just that, proving once more that his career existed beyond common bounds. (It must be mentioned that in 2014, INnoVation had won Code S during a season in which he mostly played for Acer until signing with SK Telecom the day before the semifinals.)

Again, it is essential to recall the environment in Korea at the time. By 2015, the KeSPA elephants had cemented themselves as the powerhouses of the scene and were dominating the most prestigious competitions. The heavily disciplined environments and management from coaches who resembled modern day taskmasters were key to the success experienced by big names like INnoVation, Zest, and Maru. However, KeSPA’s methods had also alienated top stars like Jaedong, who sought out the relaxed conditions on foreign teams. Thus, when Rain joined Swiss team mYinsanity in late 2014, fans could not be blamed for assuming he would never again play at the absolute highest level.

Rain’s excellent form continued into the second half of 2015. He made it all the way to the round-of-4 in Season 3 of SSL, but lost to herO in a best-of-7 that went the distance. Had Rain managed to swing the result in his favor, he would have been the heavy favorite to defeat ByuL in the finals for the second time in 2015. Doing so would have made him the first player since Mvp to win two Korean Individual Leagues in a calendar year.

From there, Rain capped off the year by winning Homestory Cup 11 before falling to eventual champion sOs in the round-of-8 at the WCS Global Finals. It cannot have been the result Rain had hoped for, but even in elimination, his class was on full display.


When it comes to Proleague, Rain was a core member of a strong SK Telecom T1 squad during his SC2 stint with the team during 2012-2014 (he had been with SKT since 2010 in Brood War). Over his two seasons, he was ranked among the league leaders in terms of both map wins and win-rate. He led the team with 21 wins during the 2014 season, helping his team to the finals (it was not exactly a one-man-carry job, as the SKT superteam also got 20 wins from Soulkey and 19 from PartinG).

Unlike so many progamers whose careers ended after a prolonged downward slide, Rain’s fate was different. When Rain retired at the end of 2015, he did so at the peak of his powers. For all of his evident quality, his desire to play StarCraft II had petered out. After taking a break to recover from a liver donation to his father, Rain called an end to his brief but bright SC2 career on his own terms. The RTS talent, however, never went away. In 2016, Rain returned to the post-KeSPA Brood War scene, and went on to win ASL Season 5 (2018) and KSL Season 3 (2019).

The Tools: Defense and Adaptability

Rain is one of those players who makes it hard to pin down exactly what made him an all-time great. He didn't have a flashy playstyle, and like most dominant macro players, many of his wins felt both uninteresting and inevitable (the era's micro savants like MC, PartinG, and herO played the more exciting Protoss games). In fact, a fair number of Rain’s WoL victories were the archetypical “macro and whoever wins the first fight wins the game” performances that are looked upon poorly to this day.

What was it then that allowed Rain to dominate his opponents so thoroughly and with such regularity? Mechanically speaking, Rain rivaled Soulkey and INnoVation as the best macro players of 2013. He regained that position in 2015, during his second prime. But, what really set Rain apart was his ability to read the game and make adjustments. Up to that time, Rain was the StarCraft II player who made the best use of the Observer. By always staying a step ahead of his opponents, Rain could respond to any move and continue to play for the big picture win. In that regard, despite playing different races, Serral may be Rain's closest modern day comparison in terms of style.

Much of Protoss strategy is enabled by the threat of incisive all-ins, and Rain was also became quite capable in that department. He could display the subtlety and guile that one would expect from sOs, or pull out the creative, non-standard builds that brought Classic so much success. Most impressively, he could transition from one style to another within the same game—taking advantage of the constant flow of information coming from his opponent to assume whatever form was necessary to win the game.

The Numbers: Heralding the Golden Age of Protoss

Rain qualified for Season 5 of Code S in 2015, but he forfeited his round-of-32 group in order to attend the MLG Fall Championships.


*Includes one SSL qualification during a season where the tournament started in the RO16.

Selected players represent the best overall Korean Individual League performers during the period.

Rain’s career took place during the early to middle KeSPA era, when the Korean scene was at its deepest and its reign of terror over other regions was uncontested. Code S went 32 players deep, and it was not uncommon to see former champions occasionally miss the cut. Despite the presence of so many incredible players, Rain’s natural talent allowed him to reach rarified air during his prime.

More than any other attribute, Rain's consistently strong performances in Korean Individual Leagues offers the most robust argument for his inclusion in the GOAT list. During Rain's short but brilliant career from mid 2012 to 2015, only four other players in Maru, INnoVation and Classic won two Korean Individual Leagues. Rain also achieved a RO8+ result eight times, a result only matched by INnoVation and Maru during his career. Also, Rain only failed to qualify for a Korean Individual League on three occasions whereas even a player like INnoVation fell short five times.

During his 43-month career, Rain had the most wins in Korean Individual Leagues with 51, and he recorded the highest match win-rate at 71.8% (3% above Maru's 68.8%). In terms of map score, he recorded 124 wins and 78 losses for a 61.3% win-rate, which was second only to INnoVation's 62.4% during the period.



Rain only played in two seasons of SC2 Proleague, but he was among the best players in the league while he was active. SKT's depth meant he shouldered less of a burden than some of the extreme workhorses, but Rain was near the top of the league in both total map wins and map win-rate during the 2012/13 and 2014 seasons.


a: Rain qualified for Season 5 of Code S in 2015, but he forfeited his round-of-32 group in order to attend the MLG Fall Championships.
b: Includes two SSL qualifications during a season where the tournament started in the RO16.
c: Includes one SSL qualification during a season where the tournament started in the RO16.


It's worth pointing out that Rain compares especially well against his Protoss peers. His career overlapped with a Protoss golden age, where the race won 7 out of 16 seasons of Korean Individual Leagues and 4 out of 5 world championship-tier events (6 of 7 if you include the less competitive 2012 Battle.net World Championship and 2013 IEM World Championship events). Players like PartinG, Zest, sOs, Dear, herO, Trap, and Classic all showed finalist level play at some point during this time, making it an age of extreme depth for Protoss. Among them, Rain was the most consistent, high-level player in domestic competitions, and only triple-world champion sOs can really challenge him for the title of best Protoss during this time.

The Games

Games were selected primarily based on how well they represented a players' style, not entertainment value.

Rain vs Maru: 2013 OnGameNet Starleague Finals - Game 1 (August 10, 2013)



Game one of the 2013 OSL finals was as comprehensive a beatdown as one will ever see in a high-level, professional game of StarCraft II. Rain played out his macro gameplan with barely any disruption, put together his ultimate army, and ended the game in a single fight. No, it's not an entertaining game, but it's a very typical Rain game.

Rain vs Bbyong: 2014 Proleague Playoffs - SKT vs CJ Entus (July 20, 2014)



On day one of the SKT vs CJ Entus playoff series (each playoff series was a multi-day affair during this period of Proleague), Bbyong shocked the SC2 world by defeating Classic with mech—a composition rarely seen against Protoss. After losing to PartinG with bio on day two, Bbyong decided to roll with mech once more when it was time to face Rain on day three. While the CJ's Terran ace had been able to steal a game against Classic with his unorthodox strategy, it was sheer folly to try it against Rain—especially after the master of scouting and adaptation had already seen it once.

Rain vs Maru: 2015 Season 2 Code S Quarterfinals - Game 1 (June 12, 2015)



In the opening game of their Round of 8 showdown, Maru and Rain played a TvP so entertaining that it's already been written about on TL.net. This was the actually good version of the Rain vs Maru match above, featuring half an hour of constant fighting and back-and-forth momentum swings. Rain's defense ultimately prevailed over Maru's offense, and Rain went on to win the series 3-1.

Rain vs Rogue: 2015 StarCraft 2 Starleague Season 3 Quarterfinals - (August 27, 2015)



It will probably induce some PTSD in old-school Zergs to watch a Protoss scam their way to a victory with a deathball + forcefields, but that's just how you played winning StarCraft II during this time. And, if nothing else, Rain was definitely a winner.

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