An unfortunate COVID infection leaves us with only one Ro8 match this week, but while the card may be unstacked what we are left with is still a doozy with Soma and Rush making another climb to the top, but only one can go through to earn the seed for the next season and keep their dreams for this season alive.

Soma, Rush, and JyJ, while veterans of the game, are still in the sophomore class when it comes to premier tournaments. Season 13 highlights more than ever the salt and pepper divide between seasoned veterans struggling to stay qualified in the tournament and fresh new faces looking to become the new stalwarts. Two players have defined themselves as new faces more than anyone else and that brings us to Soma and Rush.

This series is a rematch of last season’s round of 8 between the two players. Rush brought to the table a new series of strong macro bio builds. An exhausting amount of unit production and militia movement proved too powerful for Soma and he lost the series 1-3. Rush is Soma’s most difficult opponent remaining. Rush is winning 66% of his TvZ matches this year. Soma over the past month has dropped below a 50% win rate in ZvT and has also lost 9 of his past 15 games versus Rush. Soma is going to need to put together his best series ever if he wants to find his way back to the finals stage again.

Game 1 will be playing out on Monopoly. This fresh 3 player map is going to be all about spawn positions. The 3 o’clock base offers huge protections when it comes to turret placements and muta defense. However, Soma has become an expert at mineral boosting and if Soma spawns at the 6 o’clock position the closer by ground way the 3 position will enable him to begin with aggressive speedling harassment. This is just the tip of many advantages and disadvantages spawns open up on this map. It will be exciting to listen in on Scan and Nyoken’s expert analysis as the match starts. The uneasiness of this map almost guarantees one player will open with a cheese build to gain a huge advantage or even end the game quickly. The edge goes to Soma here because of how efficient he has become in ZvT openings.

Game 2 is played on the map Butter. Butter is also a very new map that provides more short-to-medium length games and has yet to be played out into a long game that ends with a fight for the 9 o’clock base. Two things we know already, Rush was beat by Action on this map in the previous round and Soma was able to defeat Bisu here while also mineral boosting heavily in the early game. This map is also very vulnerable to mutalisk harassment, a skill Soma showed off well in his match versus sSak. The feeling here is that Soma would want to take advantage of his bonus minerals here and have his most aggressive opener prepared versus Rush. Rush won’t have a chance to develop his macro machine before being taken out.

Game 3 is played on the perfect Terran map, Vermeer. This 4-player map has a familiar layout and that comfy jungle ruins tile set that makes every Terran player feel at home. If Rush really does lose his first two games here, this will be a challenge of the mind and not his skills. The first two expansions are easily accessible and defensible with the bonus of a gas at the third. Rush will dominate this map if he can maintain the true center of this map. If Terran holds the center, then the bio macro machine can work effectively at attacking Soma whenever his army is out of place. By ground or by dropship, Rush will show how much of a better player he is when playing on familiar territory.

The home field advantage continues with Allegro. The very simple map design offers strong quarters for a macro Terran like Rush. With a less accessible 3rd base, Rush will have an opportunity to have Soma relive nightmares of two base pure bio pushes. Cross-spawns might be the single most important start for Soma. Creating space and buying time will be a challenge for Soma. Soma will have to execute perfect mutalisk harassment and take down at least 6-7 scvs in his first attack if he wants to win this game. Rush will have his best defense ever and take game 4.

From a series prediction that could really have been a 3-0 for Soma, ends with a discussion of Metaverse. This map is such a clever mix of weird features while also looking completely standard. ZerO brought us a brief glimpse of what alternate strategies were available in the PvZ matchup. Terrans, no doubt, have their own memories of temples being torn down as lurkers invade their base through a back door. Think back to the legendary Electric Circuit days. The past two maps, Rush was given a huge advantage due to the overall standardness of the map. The immediate advantage again goes to Rush on metaverse, but Soma also gains an advantage for creativity. There are so many ways for Soma to out think his opponent that this is going to make the win very challenging for Rush. Rush may plan a defense that prevents a lurker backstab, but Soma may hide the overlord drop upgrade rush and instead go directly for the main. No matter what, this looks to be the messiest map yet and when things get out of control, you have to pick Soma to be the eventual winner.

Soma 3-2 Rush

Soma Advances to the Ro4!

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Writers: BisuDagger
Graphics: v1
Editors: BLinD-RawR