It's quite hard to believe that we are already halfway through the Ro16! The good news is that both Stork and Jaedong have advanced from their groups in first and second place respectively. Jaedong in particular, faced several challenges and still has a long way to go to reach his former self but his growth, much like Stork, has been wonderful to watch.

The addition of the map, Demian, has been a great idea and we have already been treated to some entertaining games so far. We can only hope to see more of the same as the Ro16 continues. The third group of the Ro16 group is set to be played in and features Bisu, hero, Last and Rush. Talk about a packed line-up! Expect more great games and strategies as they all try to best each other!

In the meantime, read on for a recap of the first two groups written by BigFan then check out the previews for the last two Ro16 groups written by BLinD-RawR and FlaShFTW respectively.


Group A featured the previous ASL winner Shuttle, the dragon Stork, GuemChi and Light. Shuttle opened up against GuemChi on Demian. Both players opened with a similar build and Shuttle went for pylon shenanigans as well as some light zealot aggression. After this failed, he retreated to his main and Guemchi saw an opportunity to expand while going for reavers. Shuttle had a similar idea though his expansion was delayed in comparison. As both players massed goons and reavers, Shuttle tried to attack but was repelled and instead, found himself facing down Guemchi's offensive which led to his defeat.


The second match of the night was between Stork and Light, also on Demian. Nothing eventful happened in the early game as both players looked towards establishing a strong economy. After a while, a sneaky probe planted a pylon and Stork finally made his move, carriers! His carriers would be scouted soon after much to his dismay. However, after the reveal, Stork opted to attack Light's expansion while Light went for a frontal attack on Stork's expansion and main. A base trade was in effect but Stork easily took the game after he took another base as his main, took out any remaining mining bases and destroyed any goliaths to advance to the winners' match.

The winners' match took place on Benzene between Stork and Guemchi. A small scuffle in the early game threatened to put Stork in a dangerous position as he expanded earlier than Guemchi. However, Guemchi chose not to attack for several reasons. As both players built up their economy and transitioned into the typical goon+reaver composition, Stork caught Guemchi's shuttle with one reaver in it then pushed out, pushing Guemchi back to his expansion. He used this opportunity to try and establish a third and added more gates. Eventually, he jousted for positioning with Guemchi, took a major engagement (gif) and attacked GuemChi's third for the win.


The losers' match saw Shuttle face off against Light on Benzene. Though Light's vP is considered his worst matchup by far, Light managed to beat Shuttle in quite the thriller. Some of his decisions were questionable and his control was sloppy at times, however, Light played well enough to best the previous ASL champion. No amounts of words can do the game justice, go watch it! The finals' match was another TvP, Light against Guemchi on Circuit Breaker. Light tried to erect a bunker but GuemChi easily defended. Light underestimated GuemChi's madness and lost many SCVs trying to defend his bunker at his expansion. Seeing an opportunity, GuemChi went for a bulldog where he dropped 2 zealots on the one tank on the low ground, a dt on the high ground sieged tank and simultaneously crashed in from the front. Light's defenses easily fell and his hopes of advancing were quickly dashed.


Group B promised to be another exciting group with previous ASL runner-up Sharp, Mind, Best and of course, Jaedong! Mind and Sharp played the first game, a TvT on Demian. Sharp started things off with a proxy 8 rax in the center of the map. It seemed like Mind had the same idea though he cancelled his own rax after scouting Sharp's rax and prevented a bunker from going up at his ramp. With his factory up earlier, Mind went on the offensive and managed to delay Sharp's expansion as he grabbed his own and increased his economical advantage. As the game progressed, Mind gained air superiority, harassed with wraiths, then denied Sharp's third while he grabbed his own third for an even greater advantage. From there, Mind slowly choked Sharp out, despite his resilience, by maintaining the upper hand through superior engagements and decision making skills as well as denying mining constantly.

In the second game between Jaedong and BeSt on Demian, Jaedong opened up with pool first to BeSt's gateway first. BeSt went for some zealot aggression at Jaedong's third but was completely shut down. It looked like Jaedong had the advantage until his hydra bust was shut down while a simultaneous dark templar drop in his main caught the Tyrant offguard. BeSt went on to take a hidden third after Jaedong took a fourth and tried to establish some map control as he searched for Jaedong's fourth. Several engagements unfold and BeSt managed to take a fourth to even up the base count. Finally, he managed to take down Jaedong's fourth to gain an insurmountable advantage and eventually took the game soon after.


This led to a winner's match between BeSt and Mind on Benzene. Mind opened up with a forward rax to the nexus first from BeSt and tried a bunker rush which failed. He opted for a drop behind BeSt's expansion but it was masterfully defended by BeSt with minimal damage. Mind used this opportunity to try and take a third on the back of three facs, however, this seems to have angered BeSt (see post-game interview) as he thought Mind was being greedy. He attacked the third while he grabbed his own and with great micro, easily caused the lift while disposing of Mind's tiny army in the process (pic). He would attack the third yet again as he tried to establish his own fourth prompting Mind to concede defeat with no third and barely an army left.


At this point, it was do or die for Jaedong. Having to face both Sharp and Mind is no easy feat, especially considering Mind's TvZ. However, this is exactly why what happened next is nothing short of amazing. A bit of background is in order. It seems that Jaedong commonly opens hatchery first on his stream and in elimination situations, Zergs usually opt for hatch first as explained by Sea (he was commentating on his stream). Furthermore, Jaedong loses quite a bit whenever he goes for pool first on stream. So, what does Jaedong decide to do in BOTH of his ZvTs? Yep, he opened pool first! On Benzene, Sharp opted for a proxy 8 rax and was completely caught off guard as he found himself with ONE SCV left after Jaedong's attack. He gg'd out after his small vulture attack did no damage. On Circuit Breaker, Mind opened with a forward 8 rax (Jaedong won't possibly repeat the same opening, right?) and mis-scouted Jaedong (see fpv) on top of that. His fate was pretty similar to Sharp. Mind games at their finest from the Tyrant and his reward is to advance to the Ro8!


What a group indeed with Bisu, Last, hero and Rush. This may not be the infamous Ro32 Group from the ABC Mart MSL but this is pretty close to it for the current era of the game. This may be the most exciting group for a lot of the fans, but boy is it hard for me But hey, that's the fun of it all, right? After all, tis' the season to be Jolly!

Bisu pretty much went on auto-pilot for his Ro24 group just cruising by Larva like it was just another day in the old SKT house and Ample just got crushed. Well now, he has got his just desserts. Since he dodged last season, he has been thrown into the shark cage and needs to fight for his life. Bisu's rivalry with hero is always entertaining because out of all the current players, hero always plays his best games against Bisu no matter how much people like to count him out. It's always going to play out this way. It's similar against someone like Last, except it's the other way around now where no matter how much of a beast Last has been all year, Bisu has been the one guy who has been over him consistently throughout the year in sponmatches.


These games likely won't be close. It might just end up being the rock paper scissors between hero last and bisu. hero vs Bisu, while should go to Bisu is going to be a tossup. Then again, I feel like the story of this season is that protoss have been better at figuring out what the zergs are trying to do and zergs are not adapting to it yet. The focus on getting that 4 base 4 gas turtle zerg has gone away. Maybe hero might bring it back against Bisu and show Jaedong how to deal with them or crumble away against bisu? Against Last, maybe it's time that he took a page from Jaedong's book.

Last has a lucky break since he might have to go up against either Bisu or hero in this group. Of course, this is assuming that he beats Rush since he has to play him first. Last has been a beast this past year and is well known for his TvT prowess. He is also no slouch in his other matchups. If he had to choose between Bisu or hero, he'd pick hero since hero's TvZ is still pretty weak despite a recorded improved practice regime and results so far since Jaedong's arrival in the afreeca scene.

I've mostly ignored Rush till here, not because he's a bad player by any stretch. Infact, mechanically, he's as strong as the the other 3 in this group. It does come down to experience that Rush lacks. Decision making was the one thing that has been keeping Rush from climbing the ranks of relevancy in the scene but now is the perfect time to prove himself!


Who advances?
uhh I dunno, the odds of a clear winner is hard for me,
oh what the hell

Bisu and Last to advance!


Group D's intense group headlines the Terminator, Flash, accompanied by a talent-filled roster of Sea, Movie, and Rain. Who will be able to topple the Terminator? Or who will succumb to God himself?

Sea has always been a pretty consistent and strong player ever sine the post KeSPA-era began. Last ASL, he took Sharp to the edge in the semifinals before ultimately losing, 2-3. This ASL, Sea looks to get revenge and climb his way to the top, and what better a test than first picking FlaSh into your group (and subsequently ruining Rush's plan to pick FlaSh into group C). That being said, Sea looks quite confident and this doesn't consider his past history of taking a game off FlaSh in the previous ASL. Needless to say, Sea believes he can go toe-to-toe against the Terminator especially in a BO1 where FlaSh is at his weakest. In a longer series, Sea lost to FlaSh, 1-2, in the Nal_Ra SL so maybe he even picked FlaSh to get some revenge for that loss. Sea's TvP hasn't looked too bad either, with a 61% winrate overall (though with weaker Protoss players in the post-KeSPA era and he had a 55% TvP in the KeSPA-era). However, it is his weakest matchup of the three and if he goes up against PvT sniper, Rain, it will be an incredibly close and interesting game.

Flash was probably shocked when he was picked in the first round, and no doubt feels disrespected by Sea. He'll definitely look to pack the heat in his match(es) against Sea, especially considering his pretty poor TvT form in the last ASL, where he went 1-4 overall. But FlaSh rebounded in the Nal_Ra Starleague by beating Sea, 2-1, and Mind in the finals, 2-1. But remember, this is a BO1 format where anything can happen so it will be a tense game. His TvP has continued to look solid, having beaten Bisu, 2-0, in the Nal_Ra Starleague and also went 78% in sponmatches in the month of November (Notables: 9-4 Bisu, 6-0 Best, 9-1 Shuttle and 3-2 Rain). That being said, he only went 3-2 against PvT specialist, Rain, so another potential BO1 upset is in play. Still, FlaSh is the obvious favorite from this group and it will be exciting to see what he brings to the table. If he happens to lose to Sea in the opener, I have full confidence that he'll be able to crush either Protoss on Benzene and move into the final match.

Movie is the underdog in this group and rightfully so. His best matchup, PvZ, is missing and he's stuck against two of the strongest Terrans and a rising Protoss. I don't have him favoured against either Terran, but his match against Rain will be another close match to watch, since both Rain and Movie are notoriously poor PvPers (Movie in KeSPA-era had 43.5%, Rain had 37%). Realistically, Movie's only path to advance is by beating Rain and praying Rain beats the Terran in the loser's match to have another PvP faceoff in the final match. But again, with how volatile PvP is, not even that path is a safe guarantee.

Rain should actually be pretty satisfied to have been put into this group. His best matchup is PvT, as was perfectly demonstrated by his incredible run through the Thrill Starleague to take 3rd (6-1 vT). While going against FlaSh will be a tough task ahead of him, he still showed he could go toe-to-toe with God, having a 2-3 record in the sponmatches. Sea should be a matchup Rain should have a lot more confidence to take. He just needs to watch out for Movie in the opener and I feel like his path out of this group looks reasonably safe.

Standard prediction:
Sea < Flash
Movie < Rain
Flash > Rain
Sea > Movie
Rain > Sea

FlaSh and Rain advance to the Quarterfinals!

+ Show Spoiler [BO1 upsets prediction] +

And somehow, Sea and Movie advance to the Quarterfinals.

Writers: BigFan, BLinD-RawR, FlaShFTW
Graphics: v1
Editors: BigFan
Photo Credits: Liquipedia, DailyEsports and Afreeca