This was a very highly anticipated series as Bisu, the revolutionist faced against lazy but genius Sea for a chance to advance to the semifinals. Alas, despite all the hype, the games were pretty disappointing overall due to bad decisions and sloppy micro on Bisu's part. In contrast, Sea played very solid games with perfect reaction to what he scouted. This triumph over Bisu in 3-0 fashion got Sea closer to clinching his first major offline tournament victory in several years since the early SSL days.

On Eye of the Storm, Bisu opted for 1 gate core and expanded soon after while Sea went for 1 rax FE and bunkered down to repel the usual goon pressure. Sea ended up adding a factory and then another which he floated outside his base while Bisu's goons were busy at his front. With three speed vultures, he snuck past Bisu's goons at his natural and took out 8 probes. Once he had a sizable army, he tried to push up Bisu's ramp (gif). He was denied and ended up camping right outside it. Bisu seized this opportunity to run some goons using the bottom path into Sea's natural and took out the bunker and many SCVs, however, this provided to be a fatal mistake as Sea really contained Bisu. Despite multiple attempts, Bisu was unable to break the contain and gg'd as his natural probes were pulled to fight.


Sea changed things up with a factory expand while Bisu stuck to his usual gateway expand in the second game on Demian. After scouting Bisu's main, Sea went for a small attack (several marines+2 tanks+vulture) but was repelled. Bisu countered with his own dt shuttle drop and picked off several turrets and workers before retreating. The game settled down as both players macroed up fearsome armies. As Sea went to take his third (Bisu was taking his fourth), Bisu attacked into his army but he defended (gif). With his third mining, Sea pushed toward Bisu's natural. Despite facing heavy pressure, he managed to really close the distance. It was at this point that Bisu decided to recall most of his army into Sea's main, even with the threat of his own natural being sieged. The recall caused no damage and left him with barely an army at home. Unable to halt Sea's advance, he had no choice but to tap out.


Two games down, Bisu opened with a nexus first to Sea's 1 rax fac opening on Circuit Breaker. After scouting this opening, Sea decided to grab some SCVs and went for a bunker rush with several marines+vulture support. A huge micro error on Bisu's part saw his probes dance on the bridge while his 3 zealots had a bit of a hard time reaching the marines+vulture. Sea kept reinforcing his push and managed to plant two bunkers, one at the natural and one at the ramp. Once the first tank came out and with mine support, Sea easily pushed Bisu's remaining goons in his main back (range not finished yet) to take game 3 and quite the series.




While the Brood War New Year started with fireworks smoking Bisu out of the building, BeSt used some of his former teammate's essence to convincingly demolish a ZvP God in four games.

Game 1: Circuit Breaker
One of the defining moments of BeSt's career was a certain finals bout with another ex-STX Zerg player. Vicious all-ins that produced a golden mouse and a gaping mouth probably played into him going for the good ol' hardcore 2-gate zealot. Well either that or he was playing the current metagame where Zerg players go speedling to counter gate-first aggression. Playing this way forced hero to stay on two bases. Hero faked mass hydras as a response and BeSt didn't know about it until his corsairs saw the mutas. He was only really saved when the mutas were deterred by a cannon in the natural and then speed zealots provided the best distraction by wreaking havoc inside the zerg main. Hero took his third while it was safe and prepared a huge mass of hydras and lurkers to assault BeSt's yet to be built third base. Soon after setting down the nexus, every unit came out like some army from Mordor but then this happened.


The losses incurred were too great to overcome and Hero just crumbled to a dragoon push.

Game 2: Eye of the Storm
This game was more standard but it felt almost like a build-order win from Best. After the usual FFE and a hatch after pool, BeSt pulled out a double stargate build and immediately began massing corsairs. The corsairs were used very effectively in conjunction with couple of dark templars. This coordinated attack essentially handed BeSt the game as he took down not one but two hatcheries and gobbled up a monster load of zerglings and eggs. Hero on the other hand did not go down without a fight and pulled out one of the best defenses ever to save his third from a rampaging zealot train. My stream actually froze the moment they made contact and resigned to the prediction that was the killing blow.


Hero resorted to camping with a truck-load of sunkens but that was no match for archons and reavers. And if that was not enough, four dark templars ninja'd their way out of Shine's observer screen and sniped everything in the main.

Game 3: Benzene
In this game, Hero decided he's seen enough and exploited Benzene's backdoor with lurkers. BeSt was well prepared but zerglings and lurkers were able to force their way through and harass the sides of the mineral lines. Dohsairs also made their debut in the series after what seemed like forever (two games!!?). Hydras and lurkers then took to the field and contained the protoss base. BeSt however wasn't content with just sitting around and amassing for a break and instead exploited the lack of zerg air to harass Hero with drops. The drops produced decent results with several drone kills and a spire snipe. However, Hero had the timing correctly and produced game-winning mutas. The mutas flew to BeSt's fledgeling third base and went all-kamikaze in a bid to snipe templars. It worked which allowed hydras to flood and swarm the base under clear skies. The blow sent BeSt reeling and he gg'd out in the next futile battle.


Game 4: Demian
Hero showed signs of life in an action-packed game where he deviated from the norm. On Demian however, he let go of that creativity and decided to stick to what worked the last time around -3-hatch hydra all-in. The all-in wasn't very well hidden and it allowed BeSt to place cannons in his natural just in time. With the timing window shut, BeSt did two attempts to capitalize on Hero's lack of economic power. Both attempts were defended solidly with masses of hydras. It was followed up by a two pronged attack; a drop at the main that sniped the nexus and a ground attack on BeSt's third. What seemed like Hero clawing his way out of the hole of his failed all-in created was just an illusion, as demonstrated by the monster army that overwhelmed his puny in the minute thereafter. BeSt advanced to meet Sea in the semifinals.

The first matchup in the other half of the bracket in the Round of 8. The video above should pretty much be a representation of what happens in this series, but if you feel like the video was not a good enough preview, please continue to read on!

Flash advanced to the Round of 8 in pretty convincing fashion, having swept both of his group stage groups, 2-0. His Ro24 group was a surgical dispatch of 2 Zergs, TerrOr and Soulkey, while his Ro16 group was a demonstration of cool and collected strategical play, defeating both Sea and Movie. Now in his Round of 8 matchup, God himself plays against Guemchi. FlaSh has played only a few TvP games in tournaments thus far, with his only extended BoX series being a clean 2-0 sweep over Bisu in the Nal_Ra SL. However, in those games, he showed he still had both his early game tank pushes as well as his deathball 2/1 pushes down pat. His game against Movie in the Ro16 showed to the world that FlaSh's goliaths are still broken against carriers.


Without too many games being played in the post-KeSPA, we turn to FlaSh’s sponmatches as some indicator for how the Terminator has been doing with his matchups. Insider information (AKA classicyellow83, here’s a shoutout for you) reveals that in the month of December, FlaSh is 38-8 (82.3%) in PvTs with notable records against top Protoss like Bisu 4-1, Best 3-2, Shuttle 12-3 and Stork 6-0. If he keeps up this trend, I don’t see how he loses to a mere A-level Protoss. In the KeSPA era, FlaSh also had an astounding 69.7% in the matchup that is unfavorable for Terran. Oh, and let’s not forget that he is also 20-4 against Guemchi in sponmatches. FlaSh is on a roll right now and the only possible way to stop FlaSh is hope that roll-out misses.

GuemChi’s road to the Round of 8 has been a pretty tough tooth and nail fight. In the Round of 24, he fought Ample in the decider match with some cute shuttle reaver play to advance to the Round of 16 with a score of 2-1. There, he beat Shuttle and pulled off a pretty sick bulldog on Light to advance. That is to say, Guemchi’s shuttle play in the PvT matchup has been pretty good lately. He’s gone for shuttles in every single one of his games so far in this tournament against Terran and mainly has been able to pull off the bulldog strategy. That being said, it seems like his only game plan is to try to bust the Terran in the mid-game with his shuttles and doesn’t want to let the game drag on into the end-game. Look for Guemchi to be very generous with shuttle play throughout this series.


Guemchi has pretty much never been able to beat Terran in a BoX series. He beat Mind 2-1 once in the Hosic BJ SL back in 2014 and Sharp 2-0 in the PianO SL but in his entire career of Starcraft, he’s 2-6 (I’m not counting terrible amateurs because who the hell is M[fOu]?). Surprisingly, PvT is actually his best matchup in his career with a record of 49.1% and 52.5% in the KeSPA and post-KeSPA era respectively. But let’s be honest here, is this enough to defeat FlaSh? He’s been shying away from the late-game which does not bode well especially against pretty much the mastermind of late game TvP and his early game has been a mix of shenanigans of forward gates and shuttle play. Guemchi is going to really need to diversify his cheese play to be able to catch FlaSh off-guard, because even if he does manage to take a game off of FlaSh, FlaSh is known for his insane preparation and mental fortitude to adapt in a longer BoX series. It will be an entertaining matchup for the spectators, but for Guemchi, he’s locked in a cage with God and it will not be pretty. At least he’ll have his standard perfect gateway build placements, right?


Eye of the Storm will be our repeat map for the series and honestly, this is probably the best map for Guemchi to play on. The reason being this map doesn’t favor FlaSh’s expansionist style like the other maps will. Not to mention Guemchi has favored shuttle play in his last few games against Terran in the ASL and this map isn’t too bad for them with close-by-air spawns as well as the weird wall around the main. FlaSh will probably look to do some early 2 fact timing so Guemchi should open with an aggressive build to counter.


Circuit Breaker, while statistically good for Protoss in the KeSPA era, has shown that maybe it’s not as great of a map as it seems, with an incredibly low 46.3% record post-KeSPA. FlaSh’s greedy base play will be showcased on this map especially, with the close mineral only bases practically designed for him. Guemchi is going to need to try to out-expand FlaSh on this map using the refugee Protoss strategy and force base trades while expanding to the opposite corners of the map to hide from FlaSh’s unstoppable mech ball.


Demian is a very interesting map but I feel like it plays similar to Roadrunner with an extra low-ground gas base. And if FlaSh has an extra base to expand to, well, I can’t help but fathom that this map is pretty FlaSh favored. He was 4-0 on Roadrunner in the KeSPA era and Roadrunner was also a horrid map in PvT, with Protoss only winning 30% of the games. Guemchi should probably try some shuttle play here since the main is so open to air.


Benzene has been a very interesting map, with the community arguing if this is Terran or Protoss favored map. Many think Arbiters are decent on this map while carriers seem to lack, but FlaSh says otherwise, saying this map is a perfect map for carriers (Stork agrees). That being said, FlaSh is also 6-0 on this map in PvTs and it’s no secret why. The forward mineral-only is a great tool for FlaSh to get a faster third, and the extra bases scattered around the map just beg to be taken by FlaSh. If the Protoss dares to attempt carriers on this map, well, FlaSh has shown numerous times, specifically on this map, why his goliaths are the scariest unit in his arsenal. Guemchi is going to need a miracle on this map to defeat FlaSh, and yet again, I think he’d need to pull off some crazy cheese to win here. However, if it’s any confidence booster for him, this is also the map that Flash thumbed down for being picked twice so maybe FlaSh will show some weakness here.

Flash <Eye of the Storm> GuemChi
Flash <Circuit Breaker> GuemChi
Flash <Demian> GuemChi
Flash <Benzene> GuemChi
Flash <Eye of the Storm> GuemChi

Flash advances 3-0!


About 10 years ago, a young Lee Jae Dong walked the royal road in the EVER 2007 OSL beating players like NaDa, Hwasin, Light, UpMaGiC before toppling Stork in the grand finals, showing that the reign of the Tyrant had begun. A rivalry was born, with continuous epic back and forth battles in OSLs/Proleague and WCG. Since the KeSPA scene ended, both have gone their separate ways with Jaedong travelling to new lands with SCII and Stork becoming a playing coach into head coach in SCII for Samsung. Now, here we stand with them returning to their roots in BW once again with both players walking their own royal roads in the post-KeSPA scene. Who will pull forward?

Stork has been surprising me with his play. After very little practice prior to ASL, he has already made it to the Ro8 beating guys like Light and Guemchi in the Ro16. While we have yet to see Stork play an official PvZ, his games on stream have been a good indicator of the quality of games to expect out of him, especially against Jaedong on Demian. For now though, let's see what happens when it's on a live stage, because for all the ladder games and sponmatches in the world, what happens in the booth is the only thing that matters in a tournament.

Jaedong's ZvP leaves a lot to be desired (but so did every other zerg in this ASL) in both his games against BeSt. He has been unsuccessful in varying degrees with his mid-game hydra busts leading the protoss to break him before he can get his 4 gas economy up to set himself for the late game. Jaedong's preparation has to be better than his group stage matches or we'll see Stork continue to surprise us by moving forward to the Ro4.


Its always interesting to see the new map be the repeat map in a Bo5. It means that both players are comfortable with playing on it despite the little time they had with it. This is certainly the case with Jaedong because despite all the results so far, I still feel that Demian is a great map for zerg. Jaedong should just not try to do a close 3rd hatch and go for a hydra bust. This will play great into Stork's actions of trying to go for Sair/Reaver on this map.


If there was ever a map that was made for Jaedong's playstyle in general, it would be Circuit Breaker. Everything that makes it so Zerg favored is because of the aggressive style that Jaedong plays. The mineral only, 12 and 6 o'clock bases are open for flanks as well so Jaedong's speedlings are free to terrorize. It is going to be a treat to see the tyrant in his full element. Knowing this, Stork is going to have to sit on 2 bases (8 gate goon) a bit longer than he would like and go for a strong early game army to punish Jaedong's aggressiveness.


Eye of the storm is going to be Stork's map to control, most likely going for a heavy Sair/DT play. More specifically, just having shuttles with templars to take advantage of the terrain and thin walls in the mains. Jaedong will have to make sure that his scourge game is on point because shuttle speed will come out very soon on this map and drop harass is going to be a big deal.


Unlike matchpoint, Benzene is a bit more of an economical map because in a split map scenario, either player has 5 bases, not just 4, so the tension is a lot more cut. It can give a bit more of a macro feel even for a 2 player map. That said, games on this map rarely ever go that far fundamentally because controlling the high ground pods isn't as crucial as controlling the bridges in front of the mineral only bases which prevents players from expanding further than their 3rd gas. As such, it is better if Jaedong opts to play a longer game while Stork should look to cripple Jaedong early on before trying to go for a longer game. Reason is that as the game progresses, it is going to get much harder for Stork to get a read on where Jaedong is going to strike from.

Jaedong (LWWW) advances to the semifinals!