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[ASL14] Ro8 Preview Pt.1 : The Hard Part

Forum Index > BW General
17 CommentsPost a Reply

[ASL14] Ro8 Preview Pt.1 : The Hard Part

Text byTL.net ESPORTS
Graphics byv1
September 13th, 2022 02:58 GMT
ASL11 Main Image
Here we are, the Ro8, the Homestretch for the ASL season has begun, and the first two Bo5s are absolutely packed with excitement, (T)Royal vs (Z)Shine proves to be an intriguing matchup if not a little unexpected as it has been a long time since Shine has made it this far in a tournament.

On the other side (P)Bisu vs (Z)Soulkey, seems like an instant classic on paper that is sure to get fans packed into the Afreeca Studio and many more tuning in to watch how it unfolds, Do not miss it.

Group A Preview

The King And I


Two very opposite players are meeting in the first quarterfinals series. (T)Royal has become a player of excellence due to longer and harder practice hours then any other players in the league. (Z)Shine is a professional in game observer for ASL and SC2’s GSL. When Shine broke into the Kespa scene, Royal was still a child watching OSL’s live from his Elementary School classroom. Royal’s path with winning this ASL will require him to beat one Brood War super veteran after another in order to claim the title champion. Shine’s path to becoming a champion is through a series of fools who haven’t learned how to stop themselves from falling for Shine’s traps.

(T)Royal is undefeated in this tournament against Zergs, defeating (Z)by.hero, (Z)Action, and (Z)MisO. In fact, it will be 3 season and almost exactly a year since Royal lost a single match against a Zerg player. His last loss was against (Z)Shine! Royal holds a 2-1 winning record against Shine. Since his debut in ASL Season 9, Royal has only lost a single map in 9 meetings against Zerg opponents. Royal is well on his way to becoming one of the best TvZ ASL players of all time.

(Wiki)Allegro is the first map of the series and has a surprisingly favorable win rate for Zerg players. The style of Zerg being played this ASL is for more aggressive then it has ever been. Terran players have been doing a poor job of dictating early game flow. Allegro emphasizes this by having pretty quick rush distances by ground and air (in most spawn positions). This is advantage needs to really help (Z)Shine. Shine has done everything from lurker rushes to guardian rushes.His best play is to continue disguising low-eco rushes as standard builds. The sane mind predicts (T)Royal to win game 1, but Shine cause the mind to be anything but sane.

If (Z)Shine can win game 1, he might just go up 2-0 right away. Map 2, (Wiki)Arkanoid, has been nothing but frustrating for viewership. The wild and unpredictable long games have been stifled with heartless Zergs opting for rushes and all-ins. There’s absolutely no advantage for Shine to play it safely into the mid/late game. Shine will come up with a genius cheese that no one knew was possible on this map. Still, (T)Royal will not commit to an econ opener knowing who his opponent is and will come out on top once again.

Map 3, (Wiki)Vermeer, is a fantastic macro map for both players. (Z)Shine’s latest sparring partners, (T)Rush and (T)Light, have been helping bring Shine’s late game up a level. However, Shine has lost every game against them this month. It’s possible that Shine is only using those game as ways to find Terran weaknesses, but will he really find something new that will let him defeat an opponent at a much higher level then him? When (T)Royal was interviewed, he was asked who he’d like to play. His resounding answer was, “Shine”. Without a doubt Royal will show us exactly why Shine was his pick for the quarterfinals in an easy 3-0 showing.

(T)Royal Advances To The Ro4!

Group B Preview

Round The Bend


Over their long careers (P)Bisu and (Z)Soulkey have shown some great games in the protoss vs zerg matchup, especially some of the games that they've had against each other. We fully expect that trend to continue this series as well.

Neither (P)Bisu nor (Z)Soulkey have had the opportunity to showcase their play in the matchup this season, with (Z)Soulkey aside from the one game with (T)sSak in the Ro24 has only been in ZvZ matches which makes it surprise that he’s made it this far considering how (Z)Soulkey has historically floundered in ZvZ, especially in the ASL.

(P)Bisu on the other hand was already seeded into the Ro16 and only had to face his former SKT teammates (T)sSak and (P)Best, which other than a single build order loss to (P)Best was smooth sailing on his part to the Ro8.

One interesting thing going into this match is that it has been a little over 5 years since (P)Bisu and (Z)Soulkey have faced off in an ASL and this will be the first time since remastered launched, with both their series being in ASL3 where (Z)Soulkey won their Ro16 encounter(back when Ro16 was still Bo1) and again in the third place match where (P)Bisu won 3-1.

Theres very few people that can actually claim advantage over (P)Bisu in a Bo5 though, (Z)Soulkey does come close but I’d still give that to (P)Bisu plus its (P)Bisu vs Zerg and thats just a whole new level of hard for (Z)Soulkey to overcome.

(Z)Soulkey will need to have an iron wall defense against whatever (P)Bisu has to cook up in this series because (P)Bisu will need to be the aggressor, as (Z)Soulkey’s late game control catches up to (P)Bisu’s.

Overall looking at the map pool one of the more stand out points for this series is the lack of Allegro and Neo Arkanoid, both maps skew wildly towards one particular race((Wiki)Allegro for protoss and (Wiki)Neo Arkanoid for Zerg), not sure if its a measure of respect or just both players having banned the maps but expect this to be a fierce matchup every set of the way, with an advantage for (P)Bisu because its still BvZ and Bisu continues to be the hardest opponent to any zerg in the game.

(P)Bisu Advances To The Ro4 3-1!



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

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TL+ Member
prosatan
Profile Joined September 2009
Romania7981 Posts
September 13 2022 07:40 GMT
#2
Good analysis! My predictions are also Royal and Bisu.
If I were Royal I'll put 2 / 3 bunkers at my natural just to prevent any lurker all in. Then I'll go into a macro game.
Lee JaeDong Fighting! The only church that illuminates is the one that burns.
moktira *
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
Ireland1543 Posts
September 13 2022 07:41 GMT
#3
Shine’s path to becoming a champion is through a series of fools who haven’t learned how to stop themselves from falling for Shine’s traps.

I laughed, but harsh!!
If in doubt, differentiate and set equal to zero
RKC
Profile Joined June 2012
2848 Posts
Last Edited: 2022-09-13 08:36:57
September 13 2022 08:36 GMT
#4
Really enjoy these ASL write ups. The thread title and match sub-titles always have a catchy episodic ring like a TV series.

Is there a TL policy that prohibits BisuDagger from covering Bisu matches though?
gg no re thx
Peeano
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
Netherlands4985 Posts
September 13 2022 09:12 GMT
#5
On September 13 2022 17:36 RKC wrote:
Really enjoy these ASL write ups. The thread title and match sub-titles always have a catchy episodic ring like a TV series.

Is there a TL policy that prohibits BisuDagger from covering Bisu matches though?

Nope, in fact he wrote the Ro16 preview for Bisu's group. That said BD prefers to not write for Bisu because he doesn't want to come off as biased. BD is simply that humble.


If we want BD to write for Bisu's next match we should just let him hear our voice
FBH #1!
ggrrg
Profile Blog Joined September 2009
Bulgaria2716 Posts
September 13 2022 09:30 GMT
#6
Thanks for the writeup!

When Bisu is up in the grand final, BD should absolutely be the one to write the preview for it!
BLinD-RawR
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
ALLEYCAT BLUES50114 Posts
September 13 2022 10:37 GMT
#7
On September 13 2022 17:36 RKC wrote:
Really enjoy these ASL write ups. The thread title and match sub-titles always have a catchy episodic ring like a TV series.

Is there a TL policy that prohibits BisuDagger from covering Bisu matches though?


there isn't any policy like that just personal stances, for a long time I used to avoid writing Flash previews.
Brood War EICWoo Jung Ho, never forget.| Twitter: @BLinDRawR
TL+ Member
BisuDagger
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
Bisutopia19229 Posts
September 13 2022 12:12 GMT
#8
On September 13 2022 18:30 ggrrg wrote:
Thanks for the writeup!

When Bisu is up in the grand final, BD should absolutely be the one to write the preview for it!

You guys are going to make me shed a tear! <3
ModeratorFormer Afreeca Starleague Caster: http://afreeca.tv/ASL2ENG2
BLinD-RawR
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
ALLEYCAT BLUES50114 Posts
Last Edited: 2022-09-13 12:41:06
September 13 2022 12:36 GMT
#9
On September 13 2022 21:12 BisuDagger wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 13 2022 18:30 ggrrg wrote:
Thanks for the writeup!

When Bisu is up in the grand final, BD should absolutely be the one to write the preview for it!

You guys are going to make me shed a tear! <3


you should do the coverage, would make my life easier.
Brood War EICWoo Jung Ho, never forget.| Twitter: @BLinDRawR
TL+ Member
BisuDagger
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
Bisutopia19229 Posts
September 13 2022 12:45 GMT
#10
On September 13 2022 21:36 BLinD-RawR wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 13 2022 21:12 BisuDagger wrote:
On September 13 2022 18:30 ggrrg wrote:
Thanks for the writeup!

When Bisu is up in the grand final, BD should absolutely be the one to write the preview for it!

You guys are going to make me shed a tear! <3


you should do the coverage, would make my life easier.

We need to recruit more edgy and biased writers or more controversial ones like GGNoRe.
ModeratorFormer Afreeca Starleague Caster: http://afreeca.tv/ASL2ENG2
TMNT
Profile Joined January 2021
2656 Posts
September 13 2022 17:54 GMT
#11
Writer seems to miss one important fact that Bisu record vs Soulkey since his coming back is extremely poor. It's standing at 36.5% for now and just last week Soulkey just beat Bisu 8-2 during practice. The thing is, Bisu record vs other Zergs is still really good so this is really a case of one particular player has his number.

This is literally the worst draw Bisu can get. The best hope for him is Soulkey choking on the offline stage. 3-0 wouldn't be a surprising result.
LUCKY_NOOB
Profile Blog Joined June 2013
Bulgaria1424 Posts
September 13 2022 20:14 GMT
#12
I am very worried!
ko-fi.com/luckynoob
ThunderJunk
Profile Joined December 2015
United States677 Posts
September 14 2022 01:21 GMT
#13
Watching Bisu vs Jaedong like 10 years ago was what got me into professional Broodwar. The fact that Bisu is still the best PvZ player in the game is mind-blowing to me.

I'm not sure how well Soulkey is prepared. I know they had some practice games... but I also saw Bisu wrecking Larva game after game in practice (at least until Larva took his shirt off and started shadow boxing). His zealots always seem to find positions that get him extra hits and prevent lings from getting good surface area.

Maybe Soulkey is on a level higher than he has been in the past, but Bisu looks just as strong as ever this season.
I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.
angry_maia
Profile Joined August 2020
311 Posts
September 14 2022 02:08 GMT
#14
On September 14 2022 02:54 TMNT wrote:
Writer seems to miss one important fact that Bisu record vs Soulkey since his coming back is extremely poor. It's standing at 36.5% for now and just last week Soulkey just beat Bisu 8-2 during practice. The thing is, Bisu record vs other Zergs is still really good so this is really a case of one particular player has his number.

This is literally the worst draw Bisu can get. The best hope for him is Soulkey choking on the offline stage. 3-0 wouldn't be a surprising result.


Hey, even modeling each game as an independent coin toss of 0.365 probability for a bisu win, we still get a respectable 28.98% chance that Bisu pulls this one off!

TMNT
Profile Joined January 2021
2656 Posts
Last Edited: 2022-09-14 08:14:50
September 14 2022 08:14 GMT
#15
On September 14 2022 10:21 ThunderJunk wrote:
Maybe Soulkey is on a level higher than he has been in the past, but Bisu looks just as strong as ever this season.

Yeah Bisu is actually now in his best form since he came back from the military. After the coingate he had no choice but having to repay fans with performances, modernizing his game and practicing quite hard.

The only players who are more hard-working than him now is the younger players like Royal, Soma - who are probably still thirsty for success. Most of the older players are now basically settled and content with being streamers. ASL is more like a platform for them to certify their status as top pros and develop their stream. None of them will lose any sleep if they can't win it all.
LUCKY_NOOB
Profile Blog Joined June 2013
Bulgaria1424 Posts
September 17 2022 09:15 GMT
#16
Get FUCKED!
ko-fi.com/luckynoob
BLinD-RawR
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
ALLEYCAT BLUES50114 Posts
September 17 2022 11:10 GMT
#17
On September 17 2022 18:15 LUCKY_NOOB wrote:
Get FUCKED!


???
Brood War EICWoo Jung Ho, never forget.| Twitter: @BLinDRawR
TL+ Member
LUCKY_NOOB
Profile Blog Joined June 2013
Bulgaria1424 Posts
September 19 2022 19:11 GMT
#18
On September 17 2022 20:10 BLinD-RawR wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 17 2022 18:15 LUCKY_NOOB wrote:
Get FUCKED!


???


Those who need to know, do know. I'm not spoiling anything. ^_._^
ko-fi.com/luckynoob
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