GSL Season Three
Code S

This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both of Us
Zest vs Rain

Our Long National Nightmare Isn't Over Yet
Stats vs soO

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

by DarkLordOlli

The GSL is considered the most prestigious tournament in the world for good reason. Only here can countless summits of the best of the world regularly convene. When someone proves their mettle against the toughest opposition, that's when they transcend their status as a mere 'top player'. They can become the equivalent of a household name, someone whose achievements and games will be remembered long after they retire. Who could forget the insane PvP group with three SKT protoss or the ultimate group of death with INnoVation, Flash, Life and PartinG?

In a few instances, there's even more on the line. Sometimes the two best players of a race are drawn against each other. Suddenly, we get more than just a one-time duel between two great players. In the eyes of many, that match unofficially decides who is the best representative of their race at the moment. The concept behind it is simple: if both are doing great, let's see who wins if they play each other. That idea applies to an even bigger occasion as well - when the two best players in the world clash. Mvp vs NesTea, DRG vs MarineKing, INnoVation vs Soulkey. This is the ultimate showdown, the true clash of the titans, the one that settles it.

And in the rarest of cases, those two events overlap. When the two best players of their race are the two best players in the world (Mvp vs MMA, DRG vs NesTea), it creates something special. Between the most recent KeSPA Cup champion and the undisputed ace player of the most stacked Korean team, who deserves to call themselves the best protoss in the world? Who deserves to call themselves the best player in the world?

Rain and Zest meet under these rarest of circumstances.

Zests Dead

Not long ago, there was no dispute about either of those titles; Zest had an iron grip on both. With the best PvP in a scene dominated by protoss, killer PvZ to eliminate the toughest zergs, and PvT heavily in favor of protoss for a long time, Zest slayed one contender after another to take the crown. He covered the road to his throne with the blood of his enemies.

The Kingslayer's rise to power was one of the most astounding feats of dominance in recent memory. It began with his all-kill of SKT's star lineup of Rain, PartinG, soO and Soulkey. Most players would stop there, leaving their triumph as a once-in-a-lifetime fluke, but not Zest. He proceeded to go on one of the most impressive Code S runs in GSL history. Trap, Leenock, Soulkey, Dear, sOs, Rain and soO were left bleeding in the dust as Zest climbed the throne. They tried to challenge him again but the fools hadn't learned. It took another demonstration of power at the GSL Global Championship to cement his place as the undisputed best player in the world.

As is often the case with those who stand in the brightest light, the tiniest mistakes immediately woke up his doubters. There's no denying he's had a slight hiccup in his overall shape recently. With losses to TRUE, TaeJa, Cure and a demoralizing defeat to Flash at IEM Toronto, questions were inevitably raised. Zest answered those doubts in style, putting on an impressive show to take KeSPA Cup.

Zest is still the same player as the Royal Roader who claimed WCS Korea Season 1. He still terrorizes SKT like no one else. He still competes at the absolute pinnacle of the Korean scene. He just won Kespa Cup after making the final of a stacked IEM. So how, you might ask, can there be any competition for his throne?

Because Zest made a mistake.

The One That Got Away

Not everyone reacted to defeat the same way. Some licked their wounds, got up and immediately went at it again. soO tried it and failed. PartinG did it and he failed. Soulkey did - do I need to tell you how that turned out? All of SKT kept trying to take on Zest, trying to get revenge for their defeats. Everyone disappointed...except Rain.

When Zest took down Rain in the semifinals of WCS Korea Season 1, it symbolized the passing of the protoss torch for many. Such a loss would be rough for most players to digest. It was a bitter defeat against a seemingly indomitable foe. Rain didn't lose from lack of trying or bad luck - during that series, his opponent simply outplayed him. When Zest took the torch from Rain's cold, dying hands, he set something in motion.

Rain got back up, but he didn't charge at Zest straight away. He recovered and learned from the loss, examining its circumstances until he was satisfied. When they met again in Proleague, the fruits of his labor began to show: Rain beat Zest. When they encountered each other in the PL playoffs, Rain won again. Ditto for their Ro32 scuffle at the beginning of this season. Zest, who inflicted two incredibly painful defeats on him in Proleague and GSL, is now beginning to feel the heat. Since his 2-4 loss to Zest, Rain has accumulated a ridiculous 76% match winrate against exclusively Korean opponents. He went undefeated throughout the Proleague Playoffs as SKT's ace player. Today he is the only protoss to rival Zest's level of play. Some would argue that he's even stronger than the Kingslayer.

Zest stole his torch, his throne and his crown. On this, the biggest stage in SC2, Rain will finally attempt to take them all back.

There Can Be Only One

The StarCraft audience implictly longs for some kind of hierarchy. There needs to be a best player in the world, a best Zerg/Terran/Protoss, a best foreigner. Dominance may create boredom but it also creates an inestimable tension and clearly delineated eras. They are titles that can sustain excitement behind the game's competition and create storylines to give events meaning. Bisu's legend would not have been so poignant if he had used his infamous build against anyone else but Savior. We needed MMA to fall in order to crown Mvp the King of Wings. In order for DRG to be heralded as the next great era, he needed a Nestea to overcome.

The ascension of a new power is rarely a slow and steady process. The most anticipated showdowns draw the most attention and can single-handedly forge impressions that change our perception of a player. Often it is possible to trace back those impressions to a single series. Sometimes the "best player in the world" is decided through a single series.

This match is the ultimate showdown of protoss. It will decide who leaves as the best protoss, perhaps even the best player in the world. Whoever wins between Rain and Zest has a remarkable shot of winning GSL and everything that stems from it.

May the best protoss win.

Rain 3 - 2 Zest

by CosmicSpiral

Similar to terran during the first year of SC2 and zerg in the last six months of WoL, Korean protosses have recently fallen into an embarrassment of riches. Between Zest’s Royal Road during WCS Korea Season 1 and Pigbaby’s startling victory at WCS America Season 2, the Aiur race seemed nearly invincible. 12 premier tournaments were held within that period; 10 of them were won by a protoss player. Protoss players filled up 6 runner-up spots while occupying 22 total spots in the Round of 4. No one could ostensively point to a single facet that resulted in this calamity. Was it the blatant unfairness of the mothership core? The pew-pew doom shots of the tempest? Or was protoss an amorphous blob of anti-fun, condemned to be interesting only when fighting other blobs? All of these contributed to a general exhaustion and loathing of protosses’ winning ways. Players like Classic suffered the worst from the backlash, their victories and reputation soiled by a trend entirely out of their control.

Their ubiquitous presence seemed to be a local phenomenon though. Outside of Korea, the expatriates had done a less than commendable job of robbing tournaments blind. The following 12 tournaments oversaw a radical shift in the winner category, with terrans quickly supplanting protosses as champions. Empowered by the sun’s rays, TaeJa put on his costume and captured 3 events in 2 months. Admittedly some of these events were unwinnable from the start. Taiwan Open had Has squaring off against 13 zergs, Bomber, and TaeJa. The same thing happened at Dreamhack Moscow, Red Bull Atlanta, and to an inverted extreme at WEC. Nevertheless, it seems like the protoss dominance so complained about is exclusively reserved for Seoul.

Tonight, another protoss plans to ride that gravy train to sweet victory. This time he’s not a prodigy but a familiar face that’s been overlooked for far too long. His opponent is the best zerg in the world at the moment. He should be happy about that designation but is actually disgruntled, being the butt of distasteful jokes.

Party Pooper Extraordinaire

Stats picked a distasteful time to start making noise. Right now he’s the equivalent of the partygoer who showed up late with a 6-pack of warm beer. Don’t you know the festivities are already over? All the protosses are going home, their reign of debauched terror effectively ended. We now know Zest was the real deal, Classic was good but a tad overrated, and ParalyzE leaned on Lady Luck to make that quarterfinals appearance. Why couldn’t you be good 3 months ago? At least you would have been a known quantity. Instead, we’re in danger of raising all the old complaints again. People will inevitably wonder how Stats, an old-timer who made his bones being remarkably unremarkable, beat out all the hot talent to claim this spot. There will assuredly questions concerning whether he really is that good, whether he deserves to be recognized.

Then again, Stats has made a career out of gentle surprises. He’s been an underdog performer ever since he debuted on KT back in July 2009. He was never supposed to advance from the NATE MSL group stage. A relative nobody was fresh meat against the likes of Jaedong, July, and Crazy-Hydra. Lo and behold, he beat July twice to get out in second place. Unfortunately the poor bastard had to face JangBi in the Ro16. Surely Stats was finished this time. Even with some shaky showings in Proleague, JangBi was a 3-time finalist. Stats had the wrong race and the wrong proclivities for race to exploit his opponent’s PvZ. I’ll leave to you to guess the outcome.

It’s the same story 5 years later. All that time Stats remained the lovable Chintoss, that KT player you should never underestimate but never put your hopes on. The difference now is he can’t be placed within that box of kindly irrelevance anymore. Since July 1st Stats has accrued a 45-15 (75.00%) record purely against Korean competition. He’s taken out his share of heavy hitters over the summer but let’s address the most relevant statistic for tonight’s match: over those 3 months he is 19-3 (86.36%) in PvZ. His most prominent victims include Life, Rogue, TRUE, and Solar. He defeated Soulkey twice within a week, first in the Proleague finals and again in Code S Ro32. It’s been 5 months since he’s lost a Bo3 in PvZ. Only Rain (20-4) and Zest (15-3) have comparable records in that area. Without much flourish, Stats has become one of the greatest PvZ players in the world. Against his opponent, this ought to prove especially fortuitous.

No, No, Not the Ps!

Only the most disparaging cynic wouldn’t have been surprised by soO’s rapid exit from KeSPA Cup. Most people predicted he would run into serious trouble in the second round; in most scenarios he would have met Flash, whom he defeated in Code S Ro16. He looked completely in control during that series, yet repeating the same result would have been hard against a player of Flash’s caliber. Few guessed that soO would be watching the quarterfinals from the sidelines. Instead, a yuppity upstart (if a 4 year veteran could ever be called that) called Super sat in his booth, only to be sacrificed on the altar of the Ultimate Weapon.

It would be folly to dismiss Super’s 3-1 victory over soO as an unlucky aberration. He stuck to what he knew best, 3 base sentry/stalker/robo accentuated by magnificent forcefields and impeccable positioning. He made the 3-time GSL finalist look helpless, a feat that deserves great praise. But there was no doubt the SKT zerg did some contributing to the upset. Throughout the night soO was distracted and hesitant. He lacked panache and style, opting for the straightforward roach/hydra composition. More importantly, he didn’t display a shred of stealth when it came to his approach. Besides his hatch shenanigans in Game 3, every strategy he attempted stunk of raw, desperate force.

soO’s frustration is understandable if not productive. ZvP has always been the one matchup he could never master, not even for a short period of time. His career record is decent: 98-88 (52.69%) in games and 42-38 (52.50%) in matches. soO’s accomplishments throughout that span are as patchy as the numbers imply. He’s never shouldered a burden as ugly as PartinG’s legendary streak of ineptitude, and similarly he’s never had a stretch when he crushed all adversaries. His best showing was a respectable run in WCS Korea Season 1, as he defeated Panic, sOs, Trap, and PartinG only to narrowly lose to Zest in the grand finals. That last part has been the common theme of his silver mining: no matter how many times he reaches the final boss, it's always the race he can't beat. soO is always up for a challenge and can tackle great opponents, but consistently beating the best is not within his ability.

Yet there still remains one immutable fact: one doesn’t become a Kong by dropping the ball before the finals. soO’s record is undoubtedly mediocre but he always delivers before he fails on the big stage. When he played Trust in the Ro32, he didn’t look especially good but took the win anyway. Last season he was placed in a group of 3 protosses, all brilliant opponents, and had to best PartinG and herO[jOin] to survive. Even going back to Season 3 of last year, soO was plagued by alien hordes as he climbed to the top. Say what you will about his nerves at the end of the season, the SKT zerg has the fortitude to redeem himself if he can overcome this particular challenge.

Prediction:

soO has so much on the line, it’s hard to believe he won’t arrive to the studio at 110% form. Unless he does outstandingly well at Dreamhack Stockholm (and one never knows how well KeSPA players can deal with travel fatigue), a loss here could end his chances at Blizzcon. The fact that soO even arranged for a Stockholm spot means 2 things: either he’s pragmatic enough to diversify his portfolio, or he’s not that confident he can win tonight. I’m willing to bet it’s both.

Stats 3-1 soO

Writers: DarkLordOlli, CosmicSpiral
Editors: CosmicSpiral, DarkLordOlli
Graphics: Meru.
Photo: GOMeXP.