TSL_Rain vs 
HongUnPrimeGame 1 @ Metalopolis. Seeing that they have spawned at cross positions, both players opened with a macro build, taking their naturals relatively quickly. From that point on Rain took the safer path of the solid Bio/Medivac army while Hong approached things more interestingly by going double Forge upgrades with a transition into Twilight Council.
The first offensive came from Rain who went for a small Stim timing attack at Hong’s natural but the Force Fields of the Protoss player did their job, cut the Terran army in half and Rain was forced to retreat with whatever forces he had left. Hong continued his tech path, warping in a Templar Archives while researching Zealot Charge.
The pace picked up from the late mid-game on and multiple battles occurred across the field. The Protoss, who by that time had the solid economy necessary to sustain a relatively big High Templar count, started to win battle after battle with beautiful usage of Psi Storms and Feedbacks, keeping the bio army in the red. Unable to amass a healthy and threatening army, the Terran typed out when HongUn charged to his natural and did huge damage to Rain’s economy.
8/10   |
Interesting decision from Hong to go double upgrades. This, along with the fact that there was almost a constant aggression from both players, raises the grade a bit high.
Game 2 @ Xel’Naga Caverns. The second game on Caverns began with aggressive 1-base openings from both players. HongUn was opting to utilize his signature Void Ray rush but he was delayed a bit after Rain, who was going for a quick Stim timing attack, marched towards the Protoss base. Rain also started a CC along with this aggression but made the dire mistake to climb Hong’s ramp. Trapping the Terran forces inside, HongUn used his Gateway units and the newly produced Void Ray to slaughter Rain’s army and immediately went for the counter attack.
But with the Void Ray revealed, Rain had just enough time to prepare for the upcoming assault. He started a mass Marine production and when HongUn’s forces arrived they faced quite the resistance. The Void Rays were quickly lost and with an expo behind and his tech completely outmatched, HongUn had to GG out.
| 5/10 |
Nothing extraordinary, just your normal every day PvT.
Game 3 @ Lost Temple. Being denied all scouting, HongUn’s only choice to gather some intel was to go for a quick Hallucination. Army-wise, he decided to put his eggs in the Blink basket, knowing that his hallucinations will provide quite nice vision onto highgrounds and other areas of interest. However, it was probably not the best decision the Protoss could make, because Rain was already building a solid Marine/Tank army and had his Starport up in case he needed to get some fancy units out.
The first mistake from Hong came around the 5-minute mark when the Protoss player thought it was appropriate to blink into the obviously larger and stronger army of Rain. Losing every single Stalker, Hong had to think fast, because Rain was coming for a counter-offensive. However, Rain’s aggression was far from perfect as well and although he had a nice Marine count and Siege tech, he had no means to spot the highground. Being very patient, Hong waited for the exact perfect moment when Rain’s tanks were unsieging and the marines were out of position and Blink-sniped three of the four Siege Tanks, putting an end to the contain.
It was now a reckoning time and both players had to decide what their next move should be. Rain chose to go for an expo and Hong put down a Dark Shrine in an attempt to force unnecessary scans. Although the DTs did not do any damage (Rain already had a Raven out), Hong used his Stalkers to full extent, blinking around the map and sniping whatever he can. Rain, though, had a clear advantage and even though the Protoss somehow managed to add a few Colossi to his army, the Terran just pushed forward and steamrolled his opponent, coming ahead 2-1.
| 8/10 |
Hong’s Stalker control was brilliant this game and he made some moves that deserve a round of applause.
Game 4 @ Delta Quadrant. The game on Quadrant gave a green light to the following series of short games that actually concluded this Bo7. Everyone was waiting for Rain to do those all-in moves that he so effectively used in the Ro8 and the time came at last. Opening with a triple Rax, Rain started rallying Marines to Hong’s base while sending over half of his SCVs to help with the pressure. The critical point was when Rain managed to complete a Bunker into the Protoss main and, using it as a main defense position, started to apply pressure to buildings, Probes and even Stalkers. HongUn tried his best to push the Terran back but the stream of Marines seemed to be unending. Despite the great micro from Hong, Rain kept sniping Probes and building and eventually won the game.
| 7/10 |
Nice micro from both players and a pretty intense game as a whole. Worth watching!
Game 5 @ Scrap Station. It was now HongUn’s turn to try and get a revenge via all-in. Going for the oh-so-classic 4-Gate, HongUn had the intention to win as early as possible. But things looked good for Rain as he had a nice Rax set-up plus he had bunkered up his ramp pretty solidly so it seemed that the 4-gate will fail. However, Rain was a bit indecisive with the Bunker repair and when he realized that the situation was serious it was already too late: his Bunkers were burning and Hong was warping more and more units. Unable to stop the constant reinforcements, Rain had to surrender the game.
| 5/10 |
Critical hesitation by Rain. I don’t know what possessed him to not send his SCVs on time, he could’ve won the series there and then.
Game 6 @ Blistering Sands. HongUn is a weird guy! One would probably make this assumption after seeing what he did on Blistering Sands. While Rain was going for the standard 3-Rax/CC, HongUn opened 4-Gate with an immediate… Charge tech. To confirm our suspicions that the Protoss is going for the riskiest all-in ever, HongUn even stopped mining gas and focused all his attention to Zealot production. Trying to hide his Zealot count as much as possible, Hong started breaking Rain’s back rocks and eventually took them down, opening a huge path for his Zealots. However, Rain knew that this was coming and was doing a quite nice sim-city defense, throwing Raxes and Bunkers to hinder Zealots’ mobility options, and switching from Marauders to the higher DPS Marines. Being forced to fight in small alleys instead on wide open grounds, Hong’s Zealots started evaporating with vexatious frequency. Realizing that the Charge tech is no-go, Hong desperately started mining gas again in a desperate hope to build up a Sentry army; unfortunately, it was way too late and Rain roflstomped him, winning the series 4-2.
| 7/10 |
Really peculiar opening from HongUn! Had he won, it would be an astonishing victory indeed, but the on-time reactions from Rain were just too good.
Thus ended the first Semi-Final series and we have our first finalist – the Terran superstar Rain, who showed us that he can play something else behind cheep cheese all-ins. Incredible play from both players indeed.
Rain will face the winner of Jinro vs MC who will be determined tomorrow!
