In his first season after returning from the military, Bisu has already made it to the Ro8 and is rapidly regaining form, eager to polish his already formidable mechanics to complement his immense experience. And he’ll need every last ounce of both because in the other corner awaits up-and-coming (ex-)amateur star Soma, who is yet to lose an offline game against Protoss.

Legendary status aside, Bisu does look in pretty good condition, although it’s questionable if he’s close to his pre-military chops. His return was rough. He plunged right in the midst of the “9734” Zerg build hype that left Protoss players without an answer for a while and turned into a punching bag for Zero in particular. But eventually he hit his stride and was back on the winning track. He even had to take a break in January after several months of merciless grinding. As far as results go, he sits at a decent 59.6% in PvZ in 2020 sponmatches, which is actually quite high considering the recent surge in Zerg power (For reference, Best is at 50%; Mini, 51.2%; Snow, 53.7%; Stork,38.5%). The only player Bisu has a losing record against is Zero…and Zero is insane right now.

Stylistically, things look familiar. Bisu’s signature relentless, multitasking-heavy expand-like-mad-behind-aggression approach is still destroying the opposition more often than not. He will look for every nook and cranny in a Zerg’s armour (chitinous plating?) and abuse them to wreak havoc in their carefully constructed economy while powering up himself. Macro-based games with a hydralisk bust thrown in every now and then seem popular with top Zergs lately. Bisu has fine-tuned his damaging builds accordingly. Defending against aggression is another matter, though. A significant portion of his most recent sponmatch losses are due to early damage caused by lings. There are chinks in his armour, too, and this opponent will definitely look for them.

Soma, while in the shadow of ZerO’s incredible recent form, has been on fire himself. So far he has not lost a single game against Protoss in his premier tournament matches, including brutal 3-0 thrashings of Snow and Best in the KSL4. Considering that ZvP is his arguably least favorite matchup, this is scary by itself. Moreover, these two matches were part of a 10-game win streak in that tournament. His online results look less intimidating: a 54.8% win rate against Protoss in 2020 and a 6-10 score against Bisu. Evidently though, online results do not paint the whole picture.

He is mostly known for his smoking hot mutalisk micro and aggressive playstyle (drawing comparisons to Jaedong to the extent of him being called Fake JD on occasion), but what he showed against Best and Snow was some next-level mindgaming instead. He likes to throw off the opposition with weird builds and force inappropriate reactions while building his economy and tech up to strike at a precise timing. This is not to say that Soma is defenseless in a more standard game. His fundamentals are still very strong, and his map movement is particularly impressive.

Most recently, he took down Best from a disadvantageous position by smart tactical movement which repeatedly denied a third base and ultimately starved his opponent. But the real danger lies with his really polished, carefully crafted builds. He suspiciously went under the radar for around a week after the Ro8 draw and while he just might have needed a break, I’m more inclined to think he was indulging in evil Zerg scheming.

Map-wise, analysis is somewhat tough. All relevant map statistics are skewed towards Zerg to some degree, with the most balanced being Match Point. One could argue there is bias because of the strong Zerg performances lately, but with the new maps it’s somewhat hard to tell. Hitchhiker is a significant outlier because of its peculiar geography, and Sylphid has been a bit Zerg favored for a while now. A common theme among those maps is the harder third gas base for Protoss, which pushes them into gate-heavy 2-base play; but if there’s one player I’d bet on to take bases while exerting pressure, that’s Bisu.

Ultimately, this match would more likely than not come down to a battle of wits. Both players possess immense tactical prowess and tend to set up solid mid-game positions to win, albeit with somewhat different approaches. Bisu is not very likely to fall victim to the deathball syndrome that got Best in his match versus Soma. He relies too much on that hectic, multitasking-intensive style to create and abuse openings in different spots in a very short timeframe. Soma, on the other hand, has been pretty successful at outmaneuvering his opponents with clever movement and can turn a game on its head.

However, I cannot help but recall how Bisu got eliminated by Shine back in ASL3. He was consistently denied scouting, threw away corsairs, or just refused to scout and was ultimately defeated by the Bag of Builds. He would do well not to fall victim to that sort of hubris again. Soma has already shown his own build arsenal is no less impressive. He’s especially dangerous in a best-of setting because he tends to carefully prepare a mix of tailored builds, standard openers, and plain all-ins. Scouting will be key.

Bisu might be the favorite on paper with better stats in the matchup, not to mention being a PvZ legend, but Soma is an extremely dangerous foe. This could easily go either way. I’ll go with my heart and predict a hard-fought win for Bisu.


Bisu > Soma on Polypoid
Bisu < Soma on Match Point
Bisu < Soma on Escalade
Bisu > Soma on Hitchhiker
Bisu > Soma on Sylphid

Bisu advances to the Ro4 3-2!