We’re almost there, the Semi Finals are upon us, one side is a rematch from last season and the other side holds a chance for both players to finally return to the Grand Finals after a long time.

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Once again Snow and Soulkey meet each other in the semifinals. Last season(ASL 17) Soulkey managed to ultimately claim victory after losing the first two sets to Snow. Will Soulkey come out more dominant this time or will Snow actually overcome Soulkey?

Soulkey boasts a monstrous 28-15(65.1)% winrate since the start of august in ZvP in daily proleagues and this series against Snow will be the first time this season he will be facing someone who is not Terran(which is his best matchup right now, so should he beat Snow and Sharp succeeds on his side we’re looking at a real chance of a 3-peat, something only Flash has accomplished).

Snow is also playing his first PvZ of the season boasting his own 15-10(60%) winrate since the start of august in daily proleagues.

Map 1: Minstrel - Snow’s Pick
PZ: 74 wins, 58 losses (56.1%)
There have only been 7 PvZ all season and none of them were on Minstrel. Online stats puts it as a protoss favored map due to expansion patterns and how hard it is for zergs in particular to hold bases on the map, with the corridor bases in particular being so susceptible to early game reaver harassment especially with the current meta. This was always going to be Snow’s first choice.

Map 2: Monty Hall - Soulkey’s Pick
PZ: 17 wins, 58 losses (22.7%)
Monty hall is a game of rock paper scissors in pvz, scout right and the protoss might survive, scout poorly and they die to the first round of zerglings.There’s a reason we haven’t seen a single PvZ on the map this season. No-brainer for Soulkey.

Map 3: Pantheon - Snow’s Pick
PZ: 69 wins, 71 losses (49.3%)
Normally for zerg their 3rd bases going against protoss is usually another natural so while the normal 3rds do suck for both races, zerg don’t have to deal with that until the mid-late game when they can hold bases more effectively, however pantheon is also really good for hiding proxies for protoss anyway so I think Snow can end things super quickly.

Map 4: KICK BACK - Soulkey’s Pick
PZ: 67 wins, 65 losses (50.8%)
Much like colosseum this map is meant to be a PvZ heaven, I don’t expect either player to be able to finish the match quick but if it happens its because snow walled poorly and lost to zerglings in the early game again which is something Soulkey has done before on this map. Failing that, a good hydra bust.

Map 5: Dominator - Snow’s Pick
PZ: 77 wins, 88 losses (46.7%)
The season so far has only seen on PvZ on the map with hero beating Bisu in a solid game, now picking Dominator here is certainly a choice, maybe he thought Soulkey would have picked it himself already, the map just has more options for zerg. My suspicion is that Snow has a particular build in mind just for the map, likely involving proxy DTs and the like.

Map 6: Deja Vu - Soulkey’s Pick
PZ: 64 wins, 64 losses (50.0%)
No surprise for the online clean split for the map, its not a very gimmicky map either and might be well on its way to replace Radeon as the repeat map next season for how standard it has been on all the matchups, the middle highground being as connected between the natural and 3rd is means that its pretty hard to break out of a 3 base contain especially if its setup properly.

Map 7: Radeon - Decider
PZ: 351 wins, 369 losses (48.8%)
Its only fair to end on Radeon after a full series of maps that involve some form of gimmick for one player to exploit, but also being game 7 means that both players are going to be particularly desperate to win. If Snow tries to play a standard game, its very likely Soulkey will go hydra bust, on the other hand for Snow just as likely to go proxy 2 gate or any other strong cheese/all in. Hopefully by this point we'll see both try to pull something on each other.

Overall, the edge definitely goes to Soulkey and right now giving him an edge is just going to be him taking it to a mile, the idea of a back to back to back finals and even championship is not even a mere consideration but the expectation. Soulkey is just that good. Snow did not hope for this match again, but the fact that he knew this was what it would be coming down to means that he should have prepared something for Soulkey. This won’t be easy, it wasn’t easy last time, but I still don’t think Soulkey can be stopped by Snow.

Soulkey Advances to the Finals 4-2!

Rain makes his first semifinal appearance since his ASL 13 run to the finals, while Sharp makes his back to back appearance in the semifinals. Will Rain be able to put on one last hurrah before he becomes a full time variety streamer? (Kidding). Or will Sharp finally make it back to the finals which has eluded him since the very first ASL? Read more to find out!

Rain

Ever since Rain lost his opening match to Barracks, many thought that he would once again just be another meme player who is too busy being focused on League of Legends. But this hasn’t been the case at all, as Rain has gone undefeated ever since, knocking off the likes of ZerO, Mini, Speed, and Rush. In fact, it’s his two series against both Speed and Rush which I feel like Rain is actually going to end up taking this series. He completely nullified anything that either player was trying to execute against him, and it never felt like Rain was under any sort of pressure in each of those 6 games. His PvT isn’t his signature by any means, with his main matchup being PvP, but with some of these maps like Minstrel, he’s potentially figured out how to better play the matchup. Sweeping Rush 4-0 on the way that the semifinals is sure to boost his spirits and he’s been practicing on the eloboards. Although his current month has been a bit rough, only going 10-10 against Terran, I do expect that Rain is going to be able to take down Sharp.

Sharp

Sharp held off hero 4-2 on his way to the semis in what was a pretty exciting series. He also took down the likes of Stork and Royal to make it out of the Ro16. And even last season, he took down BeSt in the quarterfinals. To me, Sharp has always been a TvT specialist, with reasonable winrates in his other matchups. He hasn’t been the most consistent against Protoss in his ASL career, but then again, almost no Terran is consistent against Protoss. However, there are some nice Terran maps in the pool, like Pantheon, which can help bolster Sharp’s chances of winning in this series. It’ll be an uphill fight for him, but Sharp has always been a very cool and collected player and has ways to get through a series.

Maps:
Rain Picked Minstel(Set 1), KICK BACK(set 3), Monty Hall(Set 5)

No surprises here for map picks its the exact same ones he did against Rush, Minstrel will always be protoss's first choice its got good bases, great harrass potential and a great carrier map.

KICK BACK has its solid 3 base options and for a player like Rain who loves going the more templar route rather than robotics, having access to an easy 3rd gas means faster storms, Sharp is most certainly going to try to end the game quick so Rain should be actively scouting for it.

Monty Hall is an interesting final pick and we didn't get the chance to see it in his series against Rush, so whatever build he had for that managed to get saved for this match and since he doesn't have to worry about facing Terran after this, he can go ahead and use it openly.

Sharp Picked Pantheon(Set 2), Radeon(Set 4), Deja Vu(Set 6)

Unlike Rush, Sharp wants to play Pantheon as early as possible just to break whatever momentum Rain could possibly generate should Rain win on Minstrel(which is the more likely outcome), Pantheon is hard for protoss to expand on, on top of Sharp being one of the best Vulture users and has won games with ihs harassment tactics.

I don't think Sharp should have picked Radeon at all, but it is the best map in the pool for him and one which every day Terran is pulling ahead from the other races as it gets more figured out.

Deja Vu is a solid map for TvP because of how well it supports the 2/1 timing and in general the mech push being able to approach into and contain bases from the high ground. Which means that tanks are absolute kings on the map, especially with little coverage.

Decider on Dominator(Set 7)
Sharp should have picked Dominator over Radeon when he had the chance, but so far in the season the map has been exactly 50-50 with 6 wins and 6 losses each as long as Sharp doesn't sit and let Rain take the rest of the map its not going to be hard, Sharp has a chance at the series if it comes to this point if he's able to survive the early game on the map.

All in all historically Sharp has beaten Rain 3 times all in ASL Wildcard matches, but lost to Rain in KSL season 3 where it mattered. Its hard to beat Rain when he's locked in and the one thing you cannot deny about Rain's performance this season is that he is completely Locked in.

Rain to Advance to the Finals 4-1!

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