ASL is back! But thats not the only thing thats back because so are Bisu, Rain and Jaedong! Two of whom we will see in action this week as we speed along the Ro24 in the new broadcast format for 3 groups this week and the next.

If there ever was a group that truly encapsulated the ASL tier ranking, it would be this group, or at least it does with how much of a Tier 1 player BeSt is compared to beast, Shuttle and BarrackS.

BeSt has been on a roll lately, not just performing great as a team leader, leading his team into the ASTL finals but also aside from that, actually winning every match he played up until the finals, if you look at BeSt’s sponbbang stats since the start of the year, his form has been consistently good, however that just buries the underlying problem he has.


He’s been doing great when it comes to online play, all of the sponmatches, the daily team matches, even the regular season of the ASTL was all played online, and the moment we got to his match in the ASTL finals which was in the Afreeca studio he couldn’t pull from his amazing online form, now here we are in the ASL where its all played offline in the studio, will he buckle under the pressure again? Maybe, probably not in this stage against this group, definitely not against beast in the opening match.

beast has been a consistent part of the ASL Ro24 for quite a few seasons and of course he broke into the Ro16 last season going over Action and Leta, this is definitely a tougher go this time around, especially starting off against BeSt, but it should be noted that beast is pretty good at planning his strategies, if he can catch his opponents off guard in these Bo1s he could pull through again like last season.

Both Shuttle and BarrackS so far this year have been pretty much equaled in their head to head, over all about the same winrate against other opponents in the matchup and at a even 2-2 against each other, this match could go either way even their stats against zerg are so similar I had to double check a few times if I was looking at the right person’s stats. By sheer number of games and availability of practice partner I’m going to pick Shuttle over BarrackS and beast but it could honestly go either way.

BeSt and Shuttle to Advance to the Ro16!

Group B resembles an almost fibonacci ranking of players. Light ranks number one on sponbang despite having a really rough go of it in 2021. After his run in 2019 and early 2020, Light looked like he would finally dominate Starleagues. Bisu ranks a little lower and sits in tenth place. This is not a bad place for him to be considering Bisu wasn’t even ranked when ASL12 finished. Now he returns from retirement and looks to move past coingate. Sacrsi is ranked a respectable 21st place. And joining the movement of old protoss gamers, Tyson makes his return to ASL at rank 41.

Light versus Tyson face off first. Light is in a transition phase where he can return to being a Zerg killer. While his TvZ rate has risen some since November, his performance against Protoss has taken a 10% dive. That’s doesn’t mean a 59% winrate is bad, but Light is focusing less on this match up as he sets his sights on later rounds in the tournament. Tyson on the other hand, is just hoping not to get humiliated against the toughest Terran opponent in the league. He has a 0% winrate in spon matches, but he still beat Flash that one time during Flash’s prime, so he will still be a fan favorite in the opening match. Hope and Carriers won’t be enough this time and Light will advance to the winner’s match.

Protoss versus Zerg would be in such a sad state if Mini didn’t become our most recent champion. Bisu comes into the ASL barely winning half his matches versus Zerg on Sponbang. The candle is poorly lit for the old dragon, but maybe his return from retirement will spark a fierce competitiveness that hasn’t been seen since 2011. Sacrsi’s torch is burning brightly. He has a great record over the past two months, smashing 40 of the past 56 PvZs for a 71% winrate. While some may remember Sacsri as a WeMadeFox rookie, he is a former teammate of Bisu. Bisu has an outstanding record against all former teammates, but no record against Sacsri. They haven’t even fought each other recently in spon matches. This time will be different from other former teammates, and Sacrsri will defeat Bisu in a game for the ages (or a hydra bust).

Light looks to meet his first TvZ challenge facing Sacsri in the winner’s match. With a 63% winrate in the matchup and a perfect record versus Sacsri, things are looking optimistic for Light. Sacsri is looking at the group matchups and smiling because he knows he only has to win versus Protoss to escape this group. With a 41% winrate against Terran, including an 0-8 record versus Sharp, he just doesn’t have the talent right now to win the winner’s match. Light will advance to the next group stage 2-0.

Bisu is laughing too, because being the elimination match versus Tyson is one of the biggest boosts he could get. Bisu currently owns an 85.7% winrate in PvP and has only lost three games versus Protoss since 2013. Tyson’s only win versus Bisu was during the hybrid proleague in 2012. This will be the shortest preview of a match because this is an automatic win for Bisu.

Sacsri versus Bisu rematch is awesome. Whether Bisu won the first time or not, it is almost a sure thing that these two are in a rematch. Bisu has never lost to the same player twice in a group stage setting and Bisu is undefeated against Zergs in the Loser’s final match. Add to that, he is 11-3 against former teammate Larva. Since 2016, Bisu has also only lost once to a Zerg two times in a row. When you look at the odds, the stats, and the pedigree of Bisu, there is no other pick then Bisu to win and advance second out of this group.

Light and Bisu Advance to the Ro16!

Rain’s big ASL making it his first season since ASL Season 8, despite his 2 year long absence due to his accumulated ASL points he’s been placed as the Tier 1 player on this ASL group, but is he truly still in form or are Horang2, Action and BishOp going to prove too much for him.

Rain has definitely been playing a lot more starcraft as of late so it wasn’t so surprising that he had the itch to compete, but coming into this ASL hes already clocked in over a 100 sponmatches since the start of the month and while his winrate against the top active pros may not be the best he can certainly make for a good run past the Ro24, his PvT in particular is no joke and he should easily be able to take the opening game over BishOp considering the quality of opponents.

The winner’s game might be a challenge though, Rain has been avoiding PvP(although this could also be a symptom of nobody wanting to pay to see a PvP, but that might just be my bias) and his PvZ isn’t where it used to be either, he’d be at a manageable disadvantage against Action.

The only thing of note I can really say about BishOp is that while all his stats aren’t great he is tied up against Jaedong 6-6 in sponmatches so I wouldn’t be surprised if he eliminates action if they met in the loser’s game.

Speaking of Action, he’s been playing a lot of ZvP ahead of this group, his opening opponent is Horang2 they both have a close head to head going on since the start of the year with 13 games between them and Action being up 7-6 aside from that Horang2 is not doing so hot against Zerg, if Action can change up his strats a bit he should take the game from Horang2. A match against Rain could go either way if they met in the winner’s game, and I would thing a rematch against Horang2 would yield a win for Action again.

This puts Horang2 in a tough situation, beating Action and Rain is going to be tough looking at his sponmatch performance at least, obviously trading wins does mean he has a shot at beating Action but his overall performance against zerg just isn’t good right now. If Action advances 1st and he meets Rain in the final match he may have a decent shot at advancing 2nd.

Rain and Action to Advance to the Ro16!

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Writers: BisuDagger, BLinD-RawR
Graphics: v1
Editors: BLinD-RawR