The Ro16 marches on after the first two groups ended up as a massive Terran graveyard. Though it was all in the service of reigniting the passion of veterans like Light, BeSt and especially Jaedong. The reigning champ Soulkey on the other hand shows no signs of slowing down. The action continues with Group C previewed by BisuDagger and the very appropriate Group D for Death previewed by FlashFTW. Simplistik brings us the Highlights from Week 1.

GLHF!

Liquipedia

6 Sharp's troubles and a fun TvT
Given his current lacklustre form, many players were keen to join Sharp's group. Certainly, anyone would rather play against Sharp than against Soulkey or Snow. Not sure about Rain yet, but we'll find out soon. Sharp's only real options were Speed or BarrackS, and the former definitely has less experience on the offline stage. And naturally, the hope was that Speed would pick one of the remaining Protoss contenders. But then the group ended up with Jaedong and Best.

Group B Match 1, Sharp vs Speed on Metropolis
In the event, Sharp correctly predicted that he would play an interesting TvT against Speed on Metropolis. With close spawns we get a lot of early action with Speed bringing some vulture pressure and before building goliaths. He also throws in a cute aggressive barracks and scouts with a marine built in his opponent's base.



Next, Speed takes the base between the two mains and postures with some drops. He tries to get a mine detonation with good pick-up timing, but it doesn't quite work. Both players expand and grow their armies. Speed manages to establish a forward position, not far from Sharp's natural.



In response, Sharp tries to cut off the rest of the map diagonally. A small number of Speed's units delay Sharp from from securing the top right main. And when Sharp pulls back units to deal with it, Speed takes over a chunk of the middle. But Sharp still gets ahead on bases and units for a while, by taking 12 o'clock. Speed tries to put in some pressure with another fun manouvre.



Amusingly, that vulture tanks damage long enough for its mine to go off. Maybe an underused move? Both players hit their upgrades, and Sharp adds a few dropships of his own. Most of the map gets taken. Sharp is better at denying expansions with his trusty vultures. But Speed's position is much more concentrated. And he keeps accumulating tanks near Sharp's natural.

Sharp sends his dropships across the map, to cause trouble in the top left. But this is exactly the opening Speed was waiting for. He instantly gives the order to attack, and his massive tank column, with plenty of dropship support, overwhelms the flimsy defences and rumbles straight into Sharp's natural.



And when the dust has settles, Sharp is out of army and his factories are getting shelled.

GG.

Speed played very nicely, and Sharp didn't look blunt either. Unfortunately, it's downhill from here for both Terrans, as they become the foils in the other players' highlight reels.


5 Scan has a go & Many Wraiths
Scan might have made one of the last favoured Ro16 appearances in ASL history. And to make matters worse, he ended up in the same group with the best Zerg and the best Terran. He'd probably be forgiven for not preparing too seriously. But he did just the opposite, and actually brought some fun games. And many wraiths. Have we ever seen this many wraiths in one group?

Group A Match 1, Soulkey vs Scan on Metropolis
Playing straight-up against Soulkey is, of course, suicide. (As has been any other approach over the last three ASL's.) So Scan whips out a 2-port opening, which makes sense on close positions and with the large mains. But he's a bit too casual with his building placements and timings. First, Soulkey spots the factory (made too early or in the wrong spot), and then he scouts the one of the starports (too far South). And that's all the opening our reigning champion needs.



Zerg evolves burrow to neutralise the air threat and never looks back. A little later, Scan scouts with a single cloaked wraith, which is definitely a cool move. But, by this time he's already behind on supply and unable win an open fight. Eventually, hold lurkers seal the deal.

Group A Match 2, Light vs Barracks on Metropolis
Barracks and Light also want to get in on the wraith action. Barracks fires the first shot missile with, you guessed it, another 2-port opening. The wraiths do good damage, killing something just over 10 SCV's and a couple of marines.



But, having two CC's is good, so Light somehow seems to come out ahead. And, because wraiths are apparently en vogue, the Invisible Terran gets his own two starports. This rather catches Barracks off guard and the game spirals from here.



Group A Losers Set 1, Barracks vs Scan on Pole Star
In the Losers Match, Scan falls behind early due to some vulture losses. And if you're behind in TvT, you can always...



The paper planes do something, but Barracks' wins the game handily with superior multi-tasking and mechanics.

Group A Losers Set 1, Barracks vs Scan on Eclipse
And with his tournament life on the line, what do reckon Scan is going to do? That's right.




And when Barracks is feeling comfortably ahead, he does what Light did to him earlier and adds two starports.



But this backfires hilariously. Although Barracks still takes the game. He's just more solid. And thus ends Scan's first Ro16 appearance. I reckon he did alright, and we might even see him again. Best of luck!

Group A Final Set 1, Light vs Barracks on Radeon
I don't know about you, but I was almost disappointed when Barracks went for a vulture drop opening in the first match of the decider. Because every dropship is a missed opportunity to make a wraith. Thankfully, Light knows what's what.



With a combined wraith-tank-attack, Light takes a decisive lead. Barracks tries to weasel is way back into the game with a hidden third base. But it gets scouted by, you guessed it, wraiths. And what do you do when you're behind in TvT?



Light wins the game eventually, after a big air engagement in which his wraiths prevail (with the help of some valkyries).

Group A Losers Set 2, BarrackS vs Scan on Pole Star
If I had to bet what would happen in the last game, I would've said wraiths. Unfortunately, Barracks crumbles to 1-base vulture pressure before Light can finish his starport. I wonder what he was going to make from that...


4 Best's PvT clinic
Having found himself in the Losers Match, courtesy of Jaedong (see below), Best knows what he has to do. Win four PvT's, not necessarily in a row, but why mess around? Sometimes any self-respecting Protoss simply has to smash through some siege tanks, and then do a quick work out, before a well-deserved dinner. Here we go!

Disclaimer: If you are a Terran player, or fan, make sure you remove any fragile objects from your environment and sit down. Try not to throw your screen through the window.

Group B, Losers Set 1, Best vs Sharp on Eclipse
Sharp pulls off some great army and vulture moves in the opening, taking down Best's third and killing tonnes of probes. The game is going so well that, at 11:20, Sharp is almost 20 supply ahead and comfortably takes his third base. Best's dragoons keep getting outmanouvred and ground down in small numbers.



Vultures snipe a probe trying to start a nexus and a drop shuts down the Protoss fourth base. Sharp is maxed and building a bank while his upgrades roll in. There are no carriers on the way. So when +2 weapons is finished, Sharp gives the orders and his tanks start rolling across the map. What could possibly stop them? Yeah, they get slowed down by some goons on top of a ramp, and more Protoss forces counter from the North towards the Terran third. But that's not a serious problem, right? Sharp has loads of tanks. Just kill the counter attack, then go back on the offensive.



No. There won't be another Terran offensive. Those units have turned round to be put to rest. Just like that, four templars in a shuttle later, and Sharp is down 60 supply. The reinforcing zealots tear through the rest of the tanks, and the game is pretty much over. As Protoss cleans up, we can hear the audience murmuring in appreciation.

Group B, Losers Set 2, Best vs Sharp on Dominator
This time, the opening is more even. A reaver does a little bit of damage, vultures kill some probes, but nothing crazy. Protoss starts his fourth base and Terran gets a third. A two shuttle drop of zealots with one reaver gets something like 10 SCV kills, but that shouldn't be game ending. Sharp's army is smaller this time, but he's fully set up, near his own rally point. He has mines, tanks, goliaths. If Best walks over in a straight line, without flanking, his army will get blown up, right?



Wrong. With zealot bombs and good storms the BEAST can just crush through the Terran army to end the game. And last season's runner up goes home without winning a single game. Ouch.

Group B, Final set 1, Best vs Speed on Deja Vu
Maybe Speed can show us how to stop the Protoss juggernaut. He did help eliminate Best last season after all. After fairly cautious openings, Best decides to play DT games. Terran has three turrets ready, so there shouldn't be much of an opening. But, boy can DT's be annoying. First thee kill a couple of depots to supply block Speed, then they find a tiny gap to destroy the building academy. And then they even take down the natural refinery.



Speed tries to get the DT's by shooting his own SCV's, but that seems to mainly increase the DTs' value. By the time Terran gets ready to take a third, the supply gap is over 60. Arbiters are ready, and we all know what's about to happen.



Different opponent. Different map. Same smashing.

Group B, Final set 1, Best vs Speed on Eclipse
Speed knows he needs to get something done early, so he tries a vulture drop. But dragoons are ready to mitigate the damage. A reaver drop on the other side does a similar amount of damage. Tanks and marines try to take down the third, but they get ground down by goons before they get anything done. And Best is ahead again. Speed tries to drag his injured self into the mid-game, by setting up some tanks outside his natural, ready to take a third base. No points for guessing what happens next.



Yes, that's right. After this amusing little outing, around 12 minutes, Terran is left with exactly two tanks. Speed gamely sets up another practice target for Best to knock down before tapping out.

GG.

Best is really rather good at breaking Terran positions, and hearts. Welcome back to the bracket stage!


3 Death Valley looks lively
Group A, Winners Set 3, Soulkey vs Light on Death Valley
This was definitely the best game of Group A. I didn't really expect to see our new map, due to bans, but thankfully Soulkey and Light were not afraid to give it a go. I really hope that we will get to see some Nemesis-like super-late-game-shenanigans later in the tournament.

Light tried to get a build order advantage in the first two games, with mixed results. His 14-cc was hard-countered by an early-ish pool. But the follow-up 8-rax did its job, because Soulkey apparently misread it as BBS. Death Valley seems great for weird openings, so Light has another go with a proxy-factory. And the overlord misses it by just a few pixels. Sadly, the SVC then fails to help the vulture across the minerals.



The vulture prevents Zerg from getting a quick third base. This compounds Soulkey's rather low-eco opening, and the game remains reasonably close. Without scouting info, Light prepares for both mutas and lurkers. The three bunkers are somewhat redundant, but the valkyries take control of the skies.



With air superiority, and being safe from counter-attacks, thanks to the Troy-gates, Light opts for a scary-looking bio-tank push down the left side of the map. But, of course Soulkey deflects it masterfully. Lurkers above a ramp delay the push long enough that dark swarm is ready before the Terran army can do any damage.



Light tries a dropship move and promptly loses ten supply to two well placed scourge. Terran gears up for a mech-switch. Unfortunately, for Light and for neutral viewers, then this happens.



Light throws away a bunch of infantry and vessels and thereby loses his opportunity to pressure Soulkey. Which means that Zerg can safely get into the late-game, by taking more bases and starting to charge queen energy. And when Soulkey is ready, he goes and broodlings eight tanks.



Light has a big economy and he does his best to hold on. He manages to distract the swarm for a while with various relieving attacks. But ultimately there is no way back from the tank count reset.

GG!


2 Jaedong's performance
Hats off to Jaedong. After having to go through the Losers Match in the Ro24, with a gambly early pool in the final game, I wasn't sure how well he would turn up this week. (And, foolishly, I bet against him.) But he really brought his A-game. Ask yourself this. When was the last time you saw Jaedong play offline (BW) this well? Years ago? Longer? Maybe when he smashed Rain in the KSL1 semis (more than eight years ago)? In this group, the Tyrant barely did anything wrong and delivered three straight games of awesome.

Group B, Match 2, Best vs Jaedong on Metropolis
Best starts us off with a complicated cannon rush, that includes hopping over a geyser and locking some drones behind the minerals. Although Jaedong feels forced to spawn quite a few lings and two sunken colonies, he seems to be fine economically. My guess is that the cost to Protoss was a little too high, given that the hatchery survived.



From here, Jaedong plays an almost flawless game. Best tries two stargates, but scourge snipe a few corsairs. And there are never enough mutalisks or exposed overlords to really make the stargates pay. A large number of zealots roam the map, but there are well-placed hydralisks everywhere to hold comfortably. And when it's time for Jaedong to take his fourth base, he uses lurker eggs to block the ramp.



And he uses the same manouvre to trap some of the zealots to get further ahead. Best tries a DT drop into the Zerg main, but there are already hydralisks and an overlord. By the time a fairly big Protoss army gets out onto the map, Zerg is about 30 supply ahead. Best desperately has to make something happen and we get a big fight.



The Protoss force gets flanked. And then their retreat is cut off completely by yet another lurker egg.

GG!

Jaedong really made Best look like an online practice partner in this game.

Group B Winners Set 1, Jaedong vs Speed on Deja Vu
In the Winners Match, Jaedong meets his old teammate Speed. And apparently, that is the reason why Speed picked him during the group selection. In hindsight this looks like a mistake. Although who knows if picking Barracks or Queen would've worked out better...

Speed gets off to a good start by delaying the Zerg third with a single marine and a reasonably large bio ball is marching across the map. Jaedong counters with many sunkens and muta pressure.



You think one sunken per marine is enough? Yeah, probably, just about. The mutalisks do a lot of damage on the other side, but they don't quite deliver a fatal blow. Another marine finds the new Zerg third base location, but there are already four lurkers morphing on top of the ramp. Next time the Terran army moves out, the mutalisks pick off a science vessel for free. There is a tight moment when marines almost get into the Zerg third, but a rare double-damage attack from a dying lurker saves the day.



For the rest of the game, Jaedong deals with significant pressure on his fourth base location. But, because of good defiler use and excellent vessel scourging, Terran never gets a big enough army to really make any headway. Eventually, Speed even tries to mix in a couple of battlecruisers. But they just aimlessly fly into the Zerg main and get plague-scourged. Finally, the first few ultralisks stampede over Speed's third to finish the game.

GG!

This was a great game, but it was only the warm up!


1 Game of The Week
Group B Winners Set 2, Jaedong vs Speed on Dominator

And so we come to the best thing that happened this week, an amazing ZvT by an old TL favourite. Both players trade an early worker kill. Speed tries to put on some pressure with his first infantry platoon, but Jaedong deflects it with extreme ease. Mutalisks pick off a few isolated marines in the Terran base, sunkens are ready in time. And when the marines start moving towards the morphing third base, they simply get overwhelmed.



While Speed is trying to sort out his tech, the Zerg air-swarm is being super annoying. Mutalisks flit back and forth between the Terran main and natural, picking off SCV's at their leisure. They even get the first two dropships.



A few marines get into the Zerg third, by stimming past three lurkers. When more marines arrive, it looks like Speed might be able to make something happen here. But, with amazing patience, Jaedong keeps the lurkers burrowed, so that the reinforcements can't come up the ramp.



Watching this game, I got a strange feeling of having slipped through time into a different era. Mutalisks find another vulnerable dropship. Four dropships means, no vessels are out, so Jaedong throws in some effective stop lurkers. Just beautiful play.

To be fair to Speed, he is really contributing to making this interesting. His army movement is crisp, and his macro is on point. A few marines drop into the Zerg main to cause trouble, and, even though they are running for their lives out of a dark warm, they still manage to save a vessel by targeting down a scourge. Of course the mutalisks swoop in and kill the vessel, but not before it gets off an irradiate. Epic back and forth action.

Terran is down in supply, and has not managed to build up significant numbers of tech units. The only saving grace is that Zerg is still on three bases. Speed decides to roll the dice by throwing three dropships full of infantry into Jaedong's main. There are dark swarms of course, but that doesn't protect buildings.



The marines wreck the spawning pool and the spire. They also find some overlords and kill a few drones. Jaedong responds by... surrounding his hive with lurkers? I don't think I've seen an arrangement like this before.



Having killed the spire, and seeing rather a lot of Lurkers, Speed's scientists come up with a great idea.



This is the most effective eraser I've seen a long long while. Speed follows it up with another very damaging drop into the Zerg third base, while taking his own. And all of a sudden, the game looks playable again for our Terran underdog. And, never change a working system, he parachutes a bunch more infantry into Jaedong's main.

And then we get an absolutely furious finale. Jaedong counters into the Terran natural. Despite dark swarm almost on his ramp, Speed somehow manages to clear out the attack. Zerg units trickle in from various angles. Science vessels try to catch all the defilers. Marines dance the lurker shuffle. Hydras try to implement their fundamentalist anti-science agenda. The net result is an incredibly messy fight that goes on for two minutes of game time.

Finally, Speed runs out of steam. His third base has to evacuate and his main is mined out. He has no dropships left, and there are more hydras than marines. And to seal the victory, just like against Best, the swarm surrounds the remaining Terran army and Jaedong moves on in first place..



GG!

Jaedong is looking very good. I'm excited to see if he can deliver in the Ro8.

Also, spare a thought for Speed. Going out on the back of four straight losses is harsh. All five games he played this round were entertaining. And he played well, too. But, just like last season, he was fighting from behind too often and didn't quite manage to pull things back. I hope he'll be back. Until next time challenger.

It is a horrible thing to make a writer talk about how his favorite player of nearly two decades is going to lose in yet another ASL, yet here we are again making that happen. Group C brings us Rain, Action, Bisu, and ZerO. They are a crop of dusty players who have all had peaks in the ASL but are trying to push back against their downward trend. Three years ago, in ASL 13, Rain, Action, and Bisu all were in the round of 8. Zero just missed the cut, losing to Bisu. Bisu would finish third and Rain would finish second.

In the four seasons before ASL13, Zero would win two ASLs and place third twice. There is no question, all players in this group bring a great legacy across the Kespa and ASL eras, but the feeling is inevitable, that whoever advances today will just be losing in the next round. No matter the outcome though, many hearts will be broken yet we will still get to see two legends advance into the next stage.

Match 1: Rain vs Action

The first match of the day takes us back to our tour on Metropolis. It’s hard not to feel the strong Zerg bias, looking at recent map statistics. Mini’s victory over Calm remains the sole win for Protoss on Metropolis this season. Zooming back further for data, Rain managed to skate by last season with only one PvZ game played (a victory over Zero) and was able to lean heavily on his two good match ups. Action, on the other hand, has a pretty good PvZ record and lost his last PvZ March, 2024. The biggest factor, if stats are pushed aside, remains that Rain is an incredibly clutch and talented player. Often, stats are less of an indicator of his outcomes, and more of whether he enters the tournament prepared and focused. Given Rain’s high finish last season, Rain will continue his upward hill on the sine wave of his career.

Rain advances to the winner’s match!

Match 2: Bisu vs ZerO

Zero has become quite invisible recently. In the latest 3 seasons, he failed to qualify once and did not advance past the round of 24 twice. He has taken quite a nosedive and it came quite suddenly. Furthermore, Zero just doesn’t pose the same PvZ threat that other Zergs do to Bisu. Ironically, this lack of threat comes from the fact that Zero just doesn’t do aggressive hyrda busts or ling all-ins that other Zergs do. Given that Bisu is training builds with Soulkey and Zero is likely to play like a noble Zerg, it looks like a PvP is coming.

Bisu advances to the winner’s match!


Match 3: Rain vs Bisu

Two PvZ wins from two different sets of players just doesn’t really add up. But when you take the all-time greatest PvZ player and his greatest disciple, the chance of this happening is as high as it can be. The PvP legacy these two players carry is beyond comprehension. Through the Sonic Era and into the early ASL era, Bisu was boasting near a 90% win rate in the matchup. Then Rain returns and suddenly takes over as the PvP master and Bisu’s PvP magic disappeared. As these two meet in SKT fashion, there’s no reason to believe Rain’s PvP has declined. Rain will continue to hold his title as best PvP and advance.

Match 4: Action vs ZerO

In a battle for last Action and Zero pit it out in a ZvZ. Action is probably the most average ZvZ player out there. For example, in ASL 16 he beat effort in the round of 16 only to lose to him in the round of 8. No one wants to bet for him, but it’s definitely hard to bet against him. And that’s Action in a nutshell for all match ups. Zero continues to have peaks and valleys and it’s hard to say whether his breaking out of his plateau. The smart bet here is that Action advances.

Action advances to the final match!

Match 5: Bisu vs Action

In this final best of 3, Bisu gets another chance to return to the round of 8. Looking at his ASL record as a whole, he has about a 50% chance of making the round of 8. Couple that with his early exit last season, the signs of him advancing are pretty positive. Action over the past two seasons also struggled with beating top tier Protoss players. The biggest concern is Action’s willingness to commit to all-ins to advance. It’s easy so see Action taking a 2-1 victory resulting in the continuing legacy of balance whining because Bisu refuses to leave a zealot at home to clog the wall.

Rain and Action Advance To The Ro8!

Group D rounds out an incredibly stacked ASL Ro16 with one of the most stacked groups of death in ASL history. Snow, Rush, hero, and Mini have a combined 1 ASL win (Mini), 9 runner ups, and 33 total bracket appearances. And there’s a small theme within the group itself, with consistent players like hero and Rush against their more inconsistent counterparts in Snow and Mini. Regardless of the result, this is one of the most exciting groups I’ve ever seen, and I can’t wait to see what these players have in store for us.

First match: Snow <Metropolis> Rush

It was no surprise to anyone that Snow would pick a Terran with his first pick, and intelligently picking a Terran who was confident in his TvT and would likely pick another Terran into the group in the form of Light. Unfortunately, Light ended up getting swapped with hero, a dagger to Snow’s chances of advancing out of this group as his PvZ has been extremely lackluster. But I still have confidence in Snow’s PvT and PvP alike, and especially against Rush who Snow has a pretty good track record against, on a good shuttle style map, I like Snow’s chances. Rush’s TvP has been pretty weak as of late, getting beaten by several Protoss in proleague, along with struggling to beat Stork in a Bo9. Snow has already flexed his muscles last ASL with what seems to be him looking more and more confident in translating his online form into the offline environment. It’s hard to bet against Snow in this matchup.

Snow wins.

Second match: hero <Metropolis> Mini

Hero looks to make yet another bracket appearance and continue to reign supreme as the player with the most bracket appearances in the ASL Mini is his first test, and there’s no telling what the tricky Protoss player is going to do. Still, Mini’s performance in the Ro24 left something to be desired, struggling to win against two weaker opponents in Scan and Calm. Plus, Mini is not in the best form as of late, dropping all the way down to 18th on ELOBoard, and with a pretty recent embarrassing loss to Hyuk after first scouting his 9 pool speed and still losing to the 2 hatch hydra all-in. I think hero has the calmness to push back Mini’s early game aggression and take this game, but don’t count out Mini to try some ridiculous strategy in a Bo1.

hero wins.

Winner’s match: Snow vs hero

It’s hard to bet against hero in a ZvP with this being Snow’s kryptonite matchup. Plus, hero has been absolutely grinding hard at the matchup this month, playing copious games against Bisu, Best, and even Snow himself. But this month, Snow’s actually had hero’s number with a 8-6 record, with the last 8 games favoring Snow 6-2. Both players have come into this with solid months too, with Snow being 12-8 and hero being 27-20, both good for over 60% winrates against respectable opponents. Maybe it’s just my bias showing, but I think Snow is just going to eek this one out against hero and manage to take this series 2-1.

Snow advances 2-1.

Loser’s match: Rush vs Mini

Consistent with slumps in other matchups, Mini’s PvT has also slumped, with a poor 6-9 (nice) record this month, and it’s not like he’s playing Flash or Light in every game, he’s dropping games to Sharp, BarrackS, and even sSak. That being said, Rush has also dropped several games this month as well, with a pretty abysmal 12-17 record as well, but at least he has the excuse of playing players like Best, Snow, Stork, and Bisu. It’s the battle of the two slumpers right now, but Rush’s worst matchup and the fact that Mini can do some really weird things to destabilize Rush makes me feel like he can find the edge in this matchup.

Mini wins 2-1.

Final match: hero vs Mini

There were chances for Mini to win this matchup in the first meeting between the two in a Bo1 series. But in a Bo3 series, I don’t think that a slumping Mini is going to be able to overpower an in-form and consistent hero.

hero advances, 2-1.

Snow and hero Advance To The Ro8!

---

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