• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 21:57
CEST 03:57
KST 10:57
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Team TLMC #5 - Finalists & Open Tournaments0[ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt2: Turbulence10Classic Games #3: Rogue vs Serral at BlizzCon9[ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt1: Ascent10Maestros of the Game: Week 1/Play-in Preview12
Community News
StarCraft II 5.0.15 PTR Patch Notes60BSL 2025 Warsaw LAN + Legends Showmatch0Weekly Cups (Sept 8-14): herO & MaxPax split cups4WardiTV TL Team Map Contest #5 Tournaments1SC4ALL $6,000 Open LAN in Philadelphia8
StarCraft 2
General
StarCraft II 5.0.15 PTR Patch Notes #1: Maru - Greatest Players of All Time Weekly Cups (Sept 8-14): herO & MaxPax split cups Team Liquid Map Contest #21 - Presented by Monster Energy SpeCial on The Tasteless Podcast
Tourneys
SC2's Safe House 2 - October 18 & 19 RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament SC4ALL $6,000 Open LAN in Philadelphia
Strategy
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 491 Night Drive Mutation # 490 Masters of Midnight Mutation # 489 Bannable Offense Mutation # 488 What Goes Around
Brood War
General
Soulkey on ASL S20 ASL20 General Discussion BW General Discussion ASL TICKET LIVE help! :D NaDa's Body
Tourneys
[ASL20] Ro16 Group D [ASL20] Ro16 Group C Small VOD Thread 2.0 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Muta micro map competition Fighting Spirit mining rates [G] Mineral Boosting
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Borderlands 3 Path of Exile Nintendo Switch Thread General RTS Discussion Thread
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion LiquidDota to reintegrate into TL.net
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread UK Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
The Happy Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Linksys AE2500 USB WIFI keeps disconnecting Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread High temperatures on bridge(s)
TL Community
BarCraft in Tokyo Japan for ASL Season5 Final The Automated Ban List
Blogs
i'm really bored guys
Peanutsc
I <=> 9
KrillinFromwales
The Personality of a Spender…
TrAiDoS
A very expensive lesson on ma…
Garnet
hello world
radishsoup
Lemme tell you a thing o…
JoinTheRain
RTS Design in Hypercoven
a11
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1604 users

[SSL Autumn] Ro16 Preview Pt2: Garnish

Forum Index > BW General
9 CommentsPost a Reply

[SSL Autumn] Ro16 Preview Pt2: Garnish

Text byTL.net ESPORTS
Graphics byv1
September 29th, 2024 17:08 GMT
ASL11 Main Image
No bugs in the SOOP this week as the SSL Ro16 concludes with Group C and D to setup the Ro8 bracket.

Don't forget to also check out Simplistik's Why Snow will win Part 2 as we head into Group C where he starts his SSL run.

Liquipedia


Group B Preview

Blue Goop Soop (with a side of Escargot)


Group C will be seeing plenty of dead dragoons, and thus lots of blue goop to make our soup with a side of plenty of slugs. The lone Terran, Speed, finds himself surrounded on all sides by monstrous PvT players. Can he find a way to make the goon soup, or will he be lost in the Protoss sauce?

(P)Snow

Snow must be very happy to find a group without any Zergs, which is naturally his weakest matchup. Plus, a full Terran/Protoss group means that he can flex his reaver control in this group. Let’s not forget that his opponent for the first match, Speed, got absolutely embarrassed in the last ASL by Snow, who completely ran circles around Speed with god-tier reaver control. I expect the same to be done in his PvP matches against Rain and Mini. On paper, this group should be Snow’s to lose, as his PvP and PvT winrates clear both Rain and Mini, who are in essence, slightly worse versions of Snow going by winrates. Plus, Snow has been tearing it up in proleague this month, with an impressive 67% winrate. However, it really comes down to whether Snow has gotten over his offline woes and can shed the stigma of being a choker when it comes to the premier tournaments. Last season was a breakout performance by making it to the semifinals, losing to the eventual winner, Soulkey. But perhaps this is the tournament for Snow, with so few Zergs left and plenty of opportunities to demonstrate his superior reaver control. I fully expect Snow to be able to come out victorious in this group.

(T)SpeeD

Speed must have nightmares from his first match against Snow, and he must have been living a nightmare when he saw Snow pick him into his group again. Poor Speed must try to be as resilient as possible to overcome the immense pressure that is Snow’s control, in addition to the other Protoss players in the group. However, if his match against BeSt was any indication of Speed’s dramatic improvement since the last ASL, he should put up a much better fight this time around. He was very solid defensively against BeSt’s attempts to attack him in their match on Dominator, and he kept his cool even in the face of the barrage of stasis and recall that BeSt threw at him. I would say that Speed’s match against BeSt will best serve him in a game against Rain, but perhaps not as easy to defend against more aggressive Protoss like Snow and Mini. While he does only have one matchup to prepare for, each Protoss offers slightly different ways to play the matchup, and thus he will still need to diligently practice different scenarios to ensure he’s ready for whichever Protoss he’ll have to face.

(P)Rain

Maybe Rain has put down the League of Legends for a little bit to focus more on this SSL, as he’s shown quite a decent performance so far, beating ZerO in the final match of this Ro24 group. He’s even increased his proleague matches played, having 50 so far at the time of writing this, though there are some worrying concerns. He’s 8-17 in PvT this month, and only 2-2 in PvP. I have to say that out of all the Protoss, Rain is someone with incredible potential, but maybe lacks the work ethic to fully utilize the potential that he has. In honesty, I think this SSL will still continue to show that Rain isn’t fully taking this game seriously. I really do wish he would return to his peak form in 2018/2019, but if he doesn’t, I find that he’s going to have some struggle in this group. I expect him to have the most difficulty against Speed in PvT, since his style most similarly mirrors that of BeSt, who was dispatched by Speed. His lifetime PvP is still nothing to scoff at, boasting a 64% winrate on the eloboards, and a 76.5% winrate in tournaments. But that was bolstered by the Rain of old, not the current version of Rain who has not found success in the ASL since his last deep run in ASL 13.

(P)Mini

Mini’s erratic style is going to be the most difficult to prep for in this group. Against Scan he pulled out a more aggressive 2 gate that, while Scan did prepare reasonably well for, still managed to get damage done and led him to comfortably winning the game. Against sSak, he lucked out by getting a crossmap 12 nexus which led into a comfortable win as well. But I have to say that his build order choice against Bisu was head scratching to say the least. 3 zealots in a PvP? That doesn’t sound right at all, or maybe he was expecting something different from Bisu. Regardless, Mini’s reaver control has also been very solid, which he showed off in his game against Scan. And most have been talking about how his PvP is at its peak right now alongside Snow, which was one of the reasons for the development of the pure goon/reaver meta rather than a more traditional style where reavers are phased out in favor of templar tech later in the game. Eloboard also shows that his lifetime PvP winrate sits at 62%, so Mini is very confident in his ability to throw off his opponents and find small advantages to take control of the game.

Predictions:

(P)Snow > (T)SpeeD

(P)Rain < (P)Mini

(P)Snow > (P)Mini

(T)SpeeD > (P)Rain

(T)SpeeD < (P)Mini

(P)Snow and (P)Mini Advance To Ro8!


Group B Preview

Gazpacho



Group D is set to be a long one as it once again features 3 terrans in (T)Sharp, (T)Royal and (T)Light all of whom are exceptional TvT players in their own right with their own subtle differences in playstyle when it comes to it, but there is also (P)Stork who stands as the only protoss player of the group, having his own advantage of needing to only practise one matchup for the group, he could prove to be a big spoiler to the Terrans.

Sharp made Top 4 in ASL17 securing his seed directly into the Ro16 for SSL, Sharp remains active as a K-League player who occasionally participates though not very successful in the major proleague games. Sharp comes into this group with some confidence having just 3-0’d (T)BarrackS in the PSL Round 3 Semifinal and having watched (T)BarrackS play his heart out so far this season in SSL, that's saying something. Sharp’s TvT style is more aggressive than the average TvT player looking for early openings to exploit getting advantage in the late game mostly through Vulture harassment tactics.The last question that remains is his PvT as his opening match is against Stork. In the last 2 months he holds a 45-35(56.2%) winrate, putting him on a good footing against Stork.

RoyaL unfortunately didn’t get a chance to face off against (T)Rush in their Ro24 group having completely skipped the TvT to take on (P)Motive and win the revenge match against (Z)Sacsri after losing to him in their opener, his only major offline showing in TvT recently have been beating (T)BarrackS in the PSL Round 2 2-1 and (T)Scan in PSL Round 3 3-0, he will be facing Sharp in the PSL Round 3 Finals but that takes place on Oct 5th, well after this group(you could say this serves as a preview for that). Being more of a Major Proleague regular, while his stats may look worse than Sharp’s, RoyaL is playing against tougher competition than Sharp does regularly. RoyaL takes a more measured approach to his TvT, usually preferring to play Fantasy style towards the late game trying to get science vessels for d-matrix as quickly as possible. RoyaL’s TvP is currently is best and most practised match up in the last 2 months running 86-82(51.1%) win rate against some of the best protoss and he’s beaten Snow 3-2 in the PSL Round 1 Finals, RoyaL will have no issues facing up against Stork.

Light cruised through his Ro24 group beating (P)huro and (Z)Jaedong without much issue. Light is currently the #1 ranked player in terms of results over the last 2 months and is probably the biggest threat in the group so long as he’s able to perform in an offline environment because its happened time and again that even the best performing players can and will fall on any given day when taken out of their regular environment and put in front of the fans, but lets say we do get the version of Light that we see online, we’re talking about a terran thats 13-5(72.2%) in TvT and an even more impressive 85-38(69.1%) in TvP. If he’s prepared for the group in terms of actual practice and mental fortitude he is going to be unstoppable.

Speaking of preparation, no one shows up for an offline series like Stork does, known for historically showing some of the most defiant displays of skill when most people would consider him the weakest threat in the group. If you take that and the fact that Stork only has to practice PvT, we might be looking at a powerful player who might not only play spoiler for a certain player but the whole group by advancing, maybe beating light might be tough but RoyaL? Sharp? Definitely doable looking at just his Ro24 group against (T)Mind and (T)JyJ on top of that he has an online winrate of 59-41(59%) winrate in PvT.

All in all this group could really go multiple ways, with everyone having a good chance to advance, I personally would like to see Light and Stork make it through so thats what I’m going with.

(T)Light and (P)Stork To Advance To Ro8!



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

Facebook Twitter Reddit
TL+ Member
Cricketer12
Profile Blog Joined May 2012
United States13979 Posts
September 29 2024 17:42 GMT
#2
I would love for Snow and Mini to both pull through...but I get the sneaking suspicion at least one is going to full throw.

Stork is looking shockingly good this season (a la Barracks)...and with this much terran to munch on, I like his odds to make it through.
Chain 1 Arthalion Chain 2 Urgula Chain 3 Mululu Chain 4 Lukias
Simplistik
Profile Blog Joined November 2007
2049 Posts
September 29 2024 17:47 GMT
#3
Well, well, Speed over Rain?
Sadly, I can definitely see that happening.

In PvP, If Rain get early parity, then he might have a shot. In a tense micro-battle he'll probably lose.

Come on Snow, you can do it!
Dear BW Gods, it IS now autumn, so...
BLinD-RawR
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
ALLEYCAT BLUES50389 Posts
September 29 2024 17:51 GMT
#4
We'd look like such fools if snow doesn't perform after all that glazing.
Brood War EICWoo Jung Ho, never forget.| Twitter: @BLinDRawR
TL+ Member
bochs
Profile Joined February 2022
114 Posts
September 29 2024 18:05 GMT
#5
Snow is for sure the favorite in group C, but Speed might have a chance to secure the 2nd spot, over Mini.
Simplistik
Profile Blog Joined November 2007
2049 Posts
September 29 2024 18:20 GMT
#6
On September 30 2024 02:51 BLinD-RawR wrote:
We'd look like such fools if snow doesn't perform after all that glazing.

It's OK. You can just blame it on me!
Dear BW Gods, it IS now autumn, so...
RJBTVYOUTUBE
Profile Joined December 2023
Netherlands953 Posts
September 30 2024 01:10 GMT
#7
considerig snow his pvp play in the previous season, he is without any doubt the favorite. His control is on a level of its own. His style also counters both Mini and Rain. Mini is a limit tester and Rain a cerebral toss. Snow does not test limits, he is the limit. He also just plays with such an intense focus on micro that Rain might not be able to use his smarts.

Speed is a danger if he can keep himself together. He is the fastest player in SSL and has crazy good multitasking, but he is not the cleanest player in micro scuffles.
JDON MY SOUL!
FlaShFTW
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
United States10196 Posts
September 30 2024 05:31 GMT
#8
On September 30 2024 03:20 Simplistik wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 30 2024 02:51 BLinD-RawR wrote:
We'd look like such fools if snow doesn't perform after all that glazing.

It's OK. You can just blame it on me!

Truly article writer's curse.
Writer#1 KT and FlaSh Fanboy || Woo Jung Ho Never Forget || Teamliquid Political Decision Desk
TL+ Member
PVJ
Profile Blog Joined July 2012
Hungary5221 Posts
September 30 2024 10:18 GMT
#9
Thank you for the write-up! Last week I wanted to ask if it was a tongue-in-cheek that Ample was regarded as a high level terran in the preview for group B, because then Speed should be actually royal roader material not someone who'll be fizzling out without notice.
The heart's eternal vow
goody153
Profile Blog Joined April 2013
44188 Posts
September 30 2024 13:10 GMT
#10
Appreciate writeups like this !

I'm just hoping stork makes it since JD and Bisu didnt
this is a quote
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 8h 3m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
WinterStarcraft476
RuFF_SC2 142
CosmosSc2 65
Vindicta 39
StarCraft: Brood War
Artosis 669
Shuttle 554
Light 173
Aegong 101
NaDa 21
ajuk12(nOOB) 17
Dota 2
monkeys_forever811
NeuroSwarm159
Counter-Strike
Stewie2K446
Fnx 387
PGG 75
Super Smash Bros
C9.Mang0378
Mew2King62
Other Games
summit1g6552
shahzam888
JimRising 607
Trikslyr59
Nina47
ViBE32
Organizations
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 15 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH116
• davetesta33
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• RayReign 20
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Doublelift4720
Other Games
• Scarra1124
Upcoming Events
RSL Revival
8h 3m
Zoun vs Classic
Map Test Tournament
9h 3m
Korean StarCraft League
1d 1h
BSL Open LAN 2025 - War…
1d 6h
RSL Revival
1d 8h
Reynor vs Cure
BSL Open LAN 2025 - War…
2 days
RSL Revival
2 days
Online Event
2 days
Wardi Open
3 days
Monday Night Weeklies
3 days
[ Show More ]
Sparkling Tuna Cup
4 days
LiuLi Cup
5 days
The PondCast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2025-09-10
Chzzk MurlocKing SC1 vs SC2 Cup #2
HCC Europe

Ongoing

BSL 20 Team Wars
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 3
BSL 21 Points
ASL Season 20
CSL 2025 AUTUMN (S18)
LASL Season 20
RSL Revival: Season 2
Maestros of the Game
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1

Upcoming

2025 Chongqing Offline CUP
BSL World Championship of Poland 2025
IPSL Winter 2025-26
BSL Season 21
SC4ALL: Brood War
BSL 21 Team A
Stellar Fest
SC4ALL: StarCraft II
EC S1
ESL Impact League Season 8
SL Budapest Major 2025
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
Thunderpick World Champ.
CS Asia Championships 2025
ESL Pro League S22
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.