With BlizzCon just a few days away, everyone is getting hyped to watch the best StarCraft II players in the world fight it out on the big stage for the title of WCS champion.
But last year’s StarCraft: Remastered showmatch was one of our surprise favourite events at BlizzCon, and this showmatch is shaping up to be even better.
Last vs. Rain — KSL vs. ASL
This year’s match is on November 2nd at 6:30pm PDT, after the StarCraft II quarterfinals. Get ready to watch Seunghyun “Last” Kim, the reigning champion of the Korea StarCraft League (KSL), and Yoonjong “Rain” Jung, the current champion of the AfreecaTV Star League (ASL), compete in a best-of-five “KSL vs. ASL” exhibition match to decide who can claim the title of world’s best StarCraft player — at least for this year.
Last earned his title in the 2018 Korea StarCraft League Season 1, where he defeated Lee “Jaedong” Jae Dong in the finals in July. Rain became the champion of Season 5 of the Afreeca Starleague, in May, when he defeated Jang “Snow” Yoon Chul. Both players will be competing with the weight of these Broodwar leagues behind them, fighting not just to determine who is the best player, but also to show off the leagues they hold their titles in.
StarCraft: Remastered at its best
More importantly, though, this showmatch will give viewers a chance to experience StarCraft: Remastered at its best.
Jaedong and Kim “Bisu” Taek Yong played the showmatch last year, with Bisu winning over Jaedong, which was a great match to watch. So if you’re missing Broodwar gameplay you can enjoy that in the meantime. But what we think you’ll find most exciting about this year’s showmatch is that it overlaps with KSL Season 2. So if you come out of the best-of-five with a mighty need for more classic StarCraft gameplay, you can watch the best in the world fight to take the title away from Last right after he makes the most of it on the BlizzCon stage.
KSL Season 2
Round of 16 play for Season 2 of the KSL began on October 18th, and matches are broadcast every Thursday and Friday at 7:00PM KST (which is 3:00AM PDT — but you can also watch the VODs). Both Rain and Last are still in the KSL as of this moment and, personally, I have high hopes for some exciting grudge-match play in the KSL, no matter what the results of the BlizzCon showmatch are. But no matter what happens there is a lot of exciting StarCraft gameplay in our futures, and I can’t wait.
