Back-To-Back two of the most exciting series in ASL history and definitely the best Semifinals in all of ASL.

Simplistik recaps the excellent Ro4 series as we head into the Grand Finals on May 25th.

Liquipedia

We must really be living in some kind of dream world as the epic ASL19 keeps on delivering banger after banger. Of course both semis went the distance. How could it have been any other way? Death Valley delivered a couple of fun games again, but the sets on Dominator really stole the show, so they will be the main focus of the review.

Light came into this series with a poor ASL record against Best, including getting eliminated twice by him, in seasons 10 and 15. Remember that epic game on 76? (Maybe don't look this up if you're Terran.) But Best had never won an ASL semi, so the overall result was hard to call. The Pro predictions favoured Light, but almost everyone expected a close series, which is exactly what we got.


Set 1 - Best <Deja Vu SE> Light

Light opens proceedings with 2-factory aggression. But Best seems to read it correctly. He delays his nexus to make sure he gets goon range and observers quickly. The dragoons snipe one vulture and the first engagement goes very well. And then this happens...



Two mines turn the fight and grant Light a quick victory.


Set 2 - Best <Death Valley> Light

During the whole series Light tried to prevent Best from getting into an undisturbed mid-game macro position. In this set he pulls out a proxy starport vulture drop into a hidden corner of the Protoss main.



The vultures do enough damage that Best never gets a timing window for a bust. Light throws away some units in a failed attack, but still gets up to four bases relatively comfortably. A decent Protoss attack delays the fourth, but the tank line runs too deep and siege tanks target down high templars.



Both player max out at a similar time. Best recalls into the Terran main, while attacking with zealots through the gate, but doesn't get much done.



On the other side of the map, the Terran army runs over the scattered Protoss defenders to take the victory.


Set 3 - Best <Pole Star> Light

At this point Best's fans are praying hard, as coming back from three games down is surely going to be too difficult. This time we get cross spawn with little early game interaction. Both players expand quickly. Light got good mileage out of his vulture drop last time, so he has another go. Best is clearly suspicious, but his dragoon doesn't dare venture far enough South to find the starport.



Unscouted or not, Best is fully prepared. On Pole Star there is less space for the dropship to flit around and dragoons mop up the drop with only a minimum of fuss.

There is a failed reaver drop, but it doesn't matter. The undisturbed Protoss economy is humming. Best gets up to five bases, macroing on all cylinders. By the time Light is ready to try to take his fourth, Protoss is already expanding to the top right main.



With shuttle support, Best makes it very hard for Light to get his fourth going. The storms are painful. Terran is stuck on fairly low supply and is already mining out in the main. The killing blow comes when Best eventually overruns 5 o'clock thanks to shuttles and storm.




Set 4 - Best <Eclipse> Light

Light isn't interested in playing a long game on Eclipse, and I don't think many Terran players would blame him. So he tries a 5-factory push along the bottom lane. This is the same move that won him that game against Tyson. But Best knows it's coming. A partial surround with a couple of very nice zealot bombs end this little Terran adventure.



Light tries to transition by taking his third, but there is far too much space to defend and a larger Protoss force breaks through and seal the win.

After this game Best is buzzing, while Light looks annoyed. In general, Light was showing a lot of frustration throughout the series, while the Protoss underdog seemed to keep things together better.


Set 5 - Best <Dominator SE> Light

Don't be fooled by the live report thread recommendation votes, which are skewed by frustrated Protoss fans (like myself). This was definitely the game of the night. And perhaps it also sums up the series in a nutshell. Light is desperate to do early damage, because he really does fear Best's late game. For very good reasons will become apparent shortly.

The game starts off normal enough. Both players get their naturals uncontested. Vultures lay some eggs. And Best takes a quick-ish third nexus at 5 o'clock. Dragoons are ready for more vulture drop shenanigans. The main is very big after all and there lots of spots to hide a starport.

But Light has mind-gamed this situation perfectly. There is no dropship and the observer misses the three tanks moving out.



The small Terran force gets to the Protoss third undetected, so the pylon wall isn't ready.



What's even better for Light is that this move pulls the dragoons out of position so two vultures can slide into the natural and start gunning down probes.



Light is up in supply now and the Protoss third nexus is in danger. To my astonishment, Best just rolls with the punches like a champ. He has the patience to send a few goons round to the Southern entrance. Which is just as well, because siege made is now done. If the dragoons had all tried to come up the other ramp it could've been a game-ending disaster. And as soon as the clunky walkers are on the way, a probe closes of the Protoss natural to prevent another vulture run-by.



There is a messy fight where vultures and mines take down a few dragoons. Although a few more probes get killed in the transfer, the nexus does survive. Best is hanging on by a thread. Supplies are very close and Light can get his third base up without troule. The opening went almost as well as Light could've hoped for. We're 10 min into the game and Protoss is still on five gateways. Best needs to catch up fast. So he expands.



Light continues to find damage with vultures, to the point where he's actually up in supply. This could've been a moment for a big three-base push, but Terran expands instead.



Dragoons and vultures skirmish a little across the map, while Best is taking more bases across the top. I am somewhat surprised by Light's passivity. Isn't this slowly starting to look like the kind of game situation that he wanted to avoid? A dropship flies North, loaded with four vultures, but dragoons are in place to shoot it down.



And with that move, I think the game is back on almost even footing. Light does need to do something. Finally, as Terran is approaching full supplies, a big mech army starts rumbling into the centre of the map to start exerting some pressure. There isn't much space with all the walls, so, instead of engaging, Best loops around with some shuttles and bombs 9 o'clock.



The attack gets cleared up, but it has taken away Light's attention, so the push across the middle stalls for a bit. And Best now has the economy to stay maxed. Light doesn't quite seem to know what he wants to do. A good chunk of the Terran metal makes its way to the Northern mineral only base to chase off some dragoons. Best has just started a nexus in the final main, but Light just turns around.



Meanwhile, Best is clear in his mind about what he needs to do. As well as growing his economy, he sends shuttles into 9 o'clock again. This time there are fewer defenders, so the command center is forced to lift off.



This appears to be the impetus for Light to finally pull the trigger. The various tank clumps start slowly converging towards the Protoss natural. The buffer vultures eat a few storms, but EMP comes down to clear the clouds momentarily.



More storms rain down as the Terran army starts creeping up the ridge. Some goons get caught wandering into artillery fire. Tanks get up on the high-ground and for a moment it looks like all Terran has to do is siege up. Surely the puny Protoss forces there would get vaporised. And with no gates across the map it would be hard to carry on.



But Light is just seconds too slow. A torrent of zealots spills out of the gateways and and crashes into the unprepared vehicles.



The Terran units are forced to run for their lives. Light is reduced to under 130 supply and he hasn't been able to retake 9 o'clock, but for a little while he can still draw on his bank. The retreating tanks eventually overwhelm the Protoss invaders. Best uses this opportunity to clear some space in the centre of the map.



Best can probably sense that he is in a winning position. He's maxed again and Light is running out of resources slowly. Basically, all he has to do is keep trading, and not even particularly efficiently. A group of somewhat over-enthusiastic zealots charge into a narrow corridor full of mines.



This is a very poor trade, but even that doesn't really matter. Best re-maxes in seconds. Although it does give Light a chance to take 10 o'clock, which he desperately needs. An observer spots this and Best pulls out a cool move. His main army moves South, threatening an attack towards the Terran mineral only. Light responds by pulling his army South, which leaves the door open for two shuttles to swoop into the newest Terran base.



Light pulls a lot of units back to deal with the drop. And when Best sees that the tanks are moving in the wrong direction he pulls the trigger on a big attack across the Southern pizza slice.



During the attack Best, unlike Light, actually spends a few moments microing his remaining units at 10 o'clock. Somehow, one zealot survives and ends up killing ten units, mostly SCV's that failed to evacuate. Moments later a storm drop electrocutes even more SCV's.



Still needing to make something happen, the Terran army is mobilised once more. Vultures catch a big probe transfer. Tanks start inching towards Best's mineral only. The base isn't really valuable anymore, but if Light can take up this position, then his opponent loses the ability to reinforce the North.



But while Light is posturing, Best actually lands some punches. Shuttles once more hit 9 o'clock, and simultaneously a small group of ground units attack 10 o'clock. And once again, Light is forced to pull some units away from his attack to protect his economy. At this rate he's gonna get whiplash.



While tanks are driving back and force across the middle, zealots and dragoons are murdering SCV's. Two archons high-five after saving the mineral only by clearing out the remaining forward tanks. Below 100 supply and with no attack vector left, Light throws in the towel.

Light played a really strong opening. He got up to four bases and 3-3 upgrades. And he never once killed even a single nexus. Not one. Let this sink in for a moment. That can't have felt good.




Set 6 - Best <Radeon> Light

On match point now, Best decides to mix it up a bit and opens citadel before robo. One vulture gets past the dragoons, but four probes tickle it to death on the ramp. To the audible appreciation of the crowd.



Light immediately starts building an academy. How many 1-factory academy openings in TvP can you remember? I think this game deserved a little more love. The timing on that first scan is immaculate.



And then Light goes into pure showboating-mode, by killing his own comsat to 'recharge' energy. He even pulled the marines out of the bunker for that. Amazing attention to detail.



With this much preparation, the DT's end up doing too little of course. We don't really know how the rest of the game played out in detail, because the 'replay was bugged', as they say. All we know is that Best failed to hold Light's first attack.


Set 7 - Best <Metropolis> Light

And so we go to the decider, a situation Best must surely be familiar with by now. He had to battle his way through the final match in both the Ro24 and Ro16. And of course he was 1-3 down against Queen in the quarters. But you know what they say: Better Best late than never.

Both players scout wrong, but the probe gets some incredible moving shots off and Light ends up getting zero info. The first zealot snatches the SCV building the factory.



And another SCV dies on the ramp. Effectively, this means that Light is down three SCV's, because the injured scout is stuck in the top right. Both zealots and the probe get out alive, too. Perhaps still feeling PTSD from the dominator game, Light decides to put his eggs all-in one basket. (I'm pretty sure that's how that saying goes.)



A dragoon scout gets distracted by a vulture and fails to spot the missing CC. Although seeing no bunker is quite suspicious, so Best warps in two additional gateways, which puts him in a great position to hold the Terran aggression. From here on Best does literally everything perfectly.



One dragoon prevents a vulture from sneaking around the bottom. This attack is bigger than in the first game, but it is also later. Light brings down three tanks, two vultures, seven marines and a couple of SCV's. With amazing reaction speed, the spotting dragoon pulls back without taking a single hit. Best has five dragoons with range and two zealots. He knows that he only needs to hold, so he pulls probes.

In a beautiful move the zealots pull back just after taking shield damage, which messes up the Terran targeting and buys time for the probes to get in front of the dragoons.



The fight goes perfectly for Best. The marines go down fast. Dragoons range down two tanks. For some reason Light's mines are late and when they finally get placed Best pounces on them like a cat chasing snacks on a sofa.

Light takes his hand off the keyboard and flops sideways in his chair. The dragoons enjoy a brief moment of zen meditation. Then the gg comes.

Best rips off his headphones, slides back on his chair, slams the earbuds into the desk and jumps up to do a Muhammad Ali victory shuffle. The crowd are also on their feet, chanting Best's name.



In the interview, with tears in eyes, Best said: "I didn't want it to end." Neither did we. And thankfully, it didn't. Congratulations! If anyone deserves a shot at a trophy it is surely Best.

Best has just one small task left to do: Smashing through the Iron Wall itself on the biggest stage. We know he has the skills. Does he have the conviction?

For the third season in a row Snow ran into the Iron Wall in the semifinal. Given how entertaining this particular series was, I think SOOP should just pencil them in for next season as well. Like Light, Snow also had a poor record against his opponent, having only ever beaten ASL-Soulkey in a single Bo1. Astonishingly, the top Protoss of the last year and a bit went into this match on an eight game losing streak, which started with that epic game on Blitz Y in ASL17. I was personally inclined not to read too much into Snow's SSL Autumn ASL18 performance, as having a newborn at home will mess up anyone's sleep and focus. But there we were again. Could Snow do it this time, or would history continue to repeat?


Set 1 - Snow <Metropolis> Soulkey

Despite the forge opening, the first four zealots get a good amount of work done. Snow also scouts the lair timing and the spire. But while he is distracted microing his zealot, Soulkey slips 10 zerglings across the map undetected.



They surround the cannon and start causing trouble in the main. Snow keeps his probes alive well, but he can't get his cannons up quickly enough to defend against the follow-up mutalisks. And so the losing streak extends to nine games.


Set 2 - Snow <Eclipse> Soulkey

Two games in a row Soulkey takes his first expansion at the third base location. This an interesting move, which robs Protoss of the opportunity to cannon rush or delay the hatchery with probe micro, at the cost of a little early game economy. It does make scouting harder as well and Soulkey immediately morphs a lair at his third. But a probe wriggles up the ramp, so surprise mutalisks are off the table.

And then the actual mind game comes. After the first corsair fly-by, and with scourge in the air, some drones get pulled off gas and two hydralisk dens start morphing.



If Protoss doesn't scout this somehow and keeps preparing for mutas, the game will quickly be over. Lings and scourge camp outside Snow's natural. However, some nice corsair micro pushes the scourge back and behind a brief zealot poke one of them manages to slip out across the bottom lane undetected. That hero zealot spots the hydras, which leaves just about enough time to start warping in a wall of cannons.



The fight is incredibly tight. Snow gets good mileage out of his five corsairs by killing quite a few of the arriving overlords, which already have speed. This allows one DT to buy a few extra seconds. The front buildings go down and just when it looks like the hydras are pushing through the first storm brings much needed rain to put out the fire.



Soulkey is forced to relent and tries to transition. But he's too far behind and so the emaciated Zerg swarm gets crushed by the first Protoss attack. Snow stems the tide, for now.


Set 3 - Snow <Dominator SE> Soulkey

You know how I've already called the game of the tournament several times? I swear it's not hyperbole this time. Honestly! This is it, for real. If you had described this game to me, as a hypothetical scenario, I would've said that it was impossible. There's just no way. Too many stars would have to align. And yet...

Even the opening combination is something I've never seen before and I have watched literally thousands and thousands of games. In fact, the Zerg build doesn't even have a Liquipedia entry.* Snow brings an aggress build for the first and only time this series: 9/9 centre gates. And for some completely unclear reason, Soulkey picks an unhinged soft-counter: 9-hatch 9-pool. Nine hatch. Nine. Let's call this confluence of circumstances the Emergency Hotline.



The first overlord narrowly skims past the centre without spotting the proxy. A drone scout picks the correct direction, but turns around on seeing the empty natural before heading to the centre. I guess it was the overlord not seeing the probe come in that gave the game away?



When the first zealot arrives there are nine drones mining in the main and one more morphing at the natural. The first zerglings hatch just when the second round of fanatics arrives. Protoss dominates the first skirmish.



Without losing a single zealot, Snow kills eight lings and a drone. Zerg is forced to make lings non-stop just to not die. The aggressors start chiseling away at the hatchery. Zerglings engage and finally get a couple of kills. Obviously more zealots keep coming, so three drones get drafted in to fight as well. They do a reasonable job glitching to force the zealots back temporarily. Overlords have vision of two different external mineral fields so the drone movement is quite fluid. The hatchery has 239 HP while a sunken colony finally starts morphing.



The sunken finishes and there are ten zerglings, so Snow has to pull back. Soulkey has exactly six drones, at just after 5 min, so he starts, you know, mining gas. Meanwhile a gateway is warping in at the Protoss main. Snow's probe count is healthy, at something around 20, but six lings arrive to try to change that.



Two fresh zealots head straight to the Protoss base they've never even seen. The other zealots out on the map head back to their spawning locations to protect the proxy pylon. It becomes apparent that the gate location has been chosen very carefully as the weird rock features restrict the zergling access.



Meanwhile Soulkey has managed to increase his economy by 33%, to a new total of eight drones. He also stopped mining gas after the ling speed upgrade started. Snow deals with most of the lings in his main and he would like to expand, but it's slow going.



As the forge finishes most of Soulkey's remaining lings, now with speed, dash past into the main, where a cannon is just warping in. The zealots try to give chase, but it's not easy without those leg upgrades, which we won't be seeing for a while. Lings pick off a pylon at the natural. And they also destroy the forge.



A few zealots get surrounded and it's starting to look very dangerous for Protoss. But throughout the fights, Snow's amazing control is keeping him in the game. One more surround and he's dead.



Zealots at the natural just barely pull back into a line to repulse the next wave of lings. A new forge is on the way in the main. A lot of lings are sharking around the proxy location and with only three zealots left to defend they finally take down the pylon.

Snow now has enough zealots at his natural and two cannons on the way that he can finally expand safely. He also starts mining gas, at 8.30. The swarm realises that this game isn't going to end with a ling crowbar move, so one of the eight drone morphs into a third hatchery. Perhaps Soulkey wanted more larvae...



Soulkey starts droning up, and, amazingly, the game appears to be stabilising. Snow doesn't really know what the Zerg position is like, so he sneaks out a probe, which finds the third hatchery. He also starts warping in his natural nexus. At 9:10.



The probe takes a hit from the sunken and almost gets into the Zerg main, but a timely drone pull keeps the Overmind's private data secure. Everyone gets to take a breather as both players are content to tech up for a bit.

The first corsair finds the spire and confirms the state of the Zerg economy. Zealots are on the move, supported by a 'tactical' dragoon. But sunkens and sim city are ready. Scourge come through to see the templar archives finish warping in, before the hydra den is done.



Zealot leg speed finishes at 13:38 and the first DT starts shimmering across the map. Mutalisks assassinate the dragoon. That's not quite what they signed up for, but whatever. Then they flap around the Protoss base to look for softer targets, like, say, a probe line. But they forgot to check the weather forecast.



The sairs pull back, inviting the mutas to start snacking some probes. And then the semi-hidden templar lands a cracking storm. The flappers try to get out and eat another one which takes out almost all the scourge. And suddenly the corsairs are back to finish the job.

Given everything that's gone on, Zerg supplies are surprisingly high. But Soulkey doesn't have the units to be out on the map. A band of zealots roams around uncontested, and behind them, Protoss takes a third base at 9 o'clock. Zerg has to respect the Protoss army, so Soulkey turtles hard behind sunkens and lurkers. Wisely, Snow desists from throwing his army into the defences.



Some Zerg units come out to contest the new nexus, but to no avail. Soulkey hatches a few more mutalisks, but the corsairs are still alive, so this doesn't work either. Finally, the defending champion decides that he has to expand if he can't get any damage done.



2 o'clock is quite exposed though, so a line of sunken colonies starts morphing. Once again, Snow opts to stay on the economic front foot and takes his mineral only while his army is posturing towards the centre and slowly converges towards the new Zerg base, although they are ultimately put off by the pretty serious defences. For a while neither player is willing to commit to a serious attack. Snow decides to just keep expanding instead, as if he was playing PvT. Which, to be fair, is fairly good at.



Zerglings find the newest expansion attempt at 6 o'clock and shut it down temporarily. A flock of mutas, now with +1 armour, are still hunting templars. And hive is finally on the way. Two forges continue to churn out ground upgrades, now at 1-0-2, with two more in progress. A sneaky drone tries to take 3 o'clock.



With very little action, both players are slowly maxing out. Remember the opening? Yeah... How on earth did this happen? Interestingly, Zerg supplies now actually eclipse Protoss as Soulkey finally has a massive standing lurking battle Zerg swarm chilling outside his natural. Without the economy to reinforce at will it seems he has decided to wait for hive tech. The Protoss death ball comes to have a look and cancel's another hatchery.



Hydras and goons trade a few shots. Templars cast a few storms and the stalemate continues. Zerg has been busy setting up a few campaign map bases. And to be fair, both players have been ignoring each other for a little while.



A gob of hydras slithers around the Eastern side of the map, but they get spotted and enough Protoss units split off to rebuff the spitters. The skirmish at Soulkey's mineral only continues, including the loss of a building hatchery.

And then, suddenly, the flood gates open. A massive Zerg swarm pours South in multiple streams. The Protoss force is mostly there to meet it near Snow's mineral only. There is a huge number of lurkers.



The Zerg units don't quite manage to work together effectively. Lurkers are burrowed too far away to threaten the expansion. Hydras and mutas arrive a little too late, after a number of lurkers have already perished.

Both players have dropped in supply and Snow is starting to run out of area damage, while Soulkey is flooding hydras. We get treated to a very long engagement of progressively smaller numbers of units.



The battle rages for several minutes. It looks like Snow is running out of units, as he is defending almost entirely with waves of fresh reinforcements. To make matters worse for our plucky challenger, Zerg is now finally catching up in tech somewhat as the first dark swarms come down.



A large clutch of lurkers skitters forward and finally gets in range of the nexus. Zealots, storms and one DT do their best to slow their advance. But the base is in danger.



Having finally secured the mineral only, for the time being, the Zerg economy is holding up. Lings keep pouring South, putting pressure on the dragoons. It looks like Zerg might be able to set up a contain outside the Protoss natural, which would leave Snow's remaining baes exposed and likely end the game.



Protoss supplies drop dangerously low, as the onslaught continues. And then...



One hero DT, what else, puts a serious dent into the Swarm's economy by killing an entire control group of drones. The other saving grace for Snow is that his upgrades keep coming. The ground forces are now at 3-1-2, which gives his units a sharp edge, in the case of zealots literally. And just when it looks like Protoss is going to hold, a small brood of Zerg units breaks off to destroy 6 o'clock.



Hilariously, probes kill a few lings under dark swarm, but that seemingly only delays the inevitable when more cracklings pour in. As Soulkey's reinforcements have dried up momentarily, Snow does manage to finally fight through the units keeping him stuck at his natural. Zealots dash over to 6 o'clock.



But the zealots are marginally too late as cracklings kill buildings comically fast. And so Snow is reduced to one mining base. And many of the probes trying to evacuate get impaled on lurker spines.



The Zerg attack has now reduced to a trickle, as Soulkey is only mining on 12 or so mineral patches. Snow, too, has to operate on a shoe-string budget with 9 o'clock very close to drying up. Both players drop below 100 supply.



Who can scrape together enough leftovers to make one final tasty meal? But Snow isn't really into scraping by, so he starts a fresh nexus at his mineral only. Soulkey spends most of his remaining resources on another clutch of lurkers.



A small backstab attempt to deny the Protoss base fails miserably. Having a lot of zealots against a lot of lurkers isn't great though. Never mind plagued zealots.



Attacking into a lot of sunkens isn't normally a good move. Unless you happen to have a lot of zealots in lategame PvZ and that's the only place without lurkers. So Snow hits 2 o'clock.



Instead of defending, Soulkey decides to send his lurkers South. The Protoss force splits, with the bulk heading back to defend. The band of zealots remaining in the North die after chasing the evacuating drones into 1 o'clock, instead of killing off the hatchery. That was a missed opportunity to end the game.

Can five zealots and two templars protect a base from ten lurkers a defiler and some hydralisks? Out in the open?



Apparently they can, by body blocking the lurkers from getting under the dark swarm in the first place. This buys just enough time for the rest of the forces to get back. Snow briefly runs out of observers, and he is rather low on gas, but a fresh one pops out just in time. The Protoss defenders hold. And they also turn back another smaller swarm attack towards the natural. The last two mineral patches at 9 o'clock are crumbling into dust.

A few hydras slithers around looking for an opening in vain. Turns out they are not good at fighting against zealots under dark swarm. Snow still has a few minerals at his natural, but only one or two probes slowly mining them. Soulkey's 2 o'clock is just about spent.



Snow's forces roam around a bit, but he isn't willing to commit to an attack. Soulkey is hanging back, perhaps figuring correctly that he has got more resources left. Three lings keep an eye on 6 o'clock, until a DT sends them to sleep forever.



Snow's army zones the swarm away from the South successfully, but five lings slip around the side of the map to make sure there's no new nexus going up. One zealot checks how many resources are left at the Zerg mineral only.

Soulkey tries another attack, but there is still enough storm and willpower to hold. The DT clears out the lings at 6 o'clock again and Snow warps in one final nexus.



Soulkey tries another attack, but he's not getting good returns on his investment. In small numbers, lurkers are too vulnerable to upgraded zealots with storm support.



Soulkey's fourth base at 2 o'clock runs out of minerals and zerglings are unable to overcome the archons defending 6 o'clock. Head tilted sideways, our champion cerebrate starts long distance mining from 10 o'clock.



Snow spots the remote mining and starts putting pressure on the Zerg's last mining base, which is just then running out of minerals. Seeing his drones return minerals to the main, instead of the closest hatchery by ground distance, and no opportunity to get more income, Soulkey concedes. Snow actually takes the lead after surely one of the most insane games of the modern era.



* There is an entry for 10-hatch (against Protoss) from the pre-mineral-boosting era.


Set 4 - Snow <Death Valley> Soulkey

Death Valley, entertaining though it is, has been a complete Protoss graveyard so far this ASL. Before this set, there were five games on the map, all won by Zerg, except Light beating Best. And yet, Protoss players keep picking the map, so there must be something they are seeing in training. It remains to be seen if Best can finally get Protoss on the board, or if Zerg will reign supreme.

This time Soulkey takes the initiative with a 5-pool and he also blocks the gate with two drones. Already this could be lights out for Protoss. And yet, somehow Snow glitches his way through to see six zerglings morphing.



Snow holds perfectly and ordinarily this would give Protoss a big edge. But on Protoss Death Valley the lings can tear down the gates and gift two uncontestable expansions to Zerg while severely limiting Protoss mobility. Snow literally ends up on a one-base island before his first zealot is out. With lings in his base. It is actually comical how terrible that situation is. Well played SK. I wouldn't be surprised if this will be the end of the map.



Snow does his best to make the game playable. Double stargate keeps him safe from a big muta move. And he has enough cannons to keep the first hydras at bay. But it's an uphill battle. Zerg is on four bases for several minutes before Protoss even gets a third gas. And by that time Soulkey has taken another base. Besides all that there are several annoying lurker drops and the threat of a big drop into the main. Snow gets a big army and he fights really well, but Zerg has an unreal amount of stuff.



Amazingly, Snow does get up a fifth base at 8 o'clock and gets a lot done with reavers. But even if he had managed to also secure 7 o'clock, Zerg would have still had an overwhelming resource and production advantage.



Eventually Soulkey outmanoeuvres Snow and takes down the Northern central base. In response the Protoss force grinds its way through to 7 o'clock, but there isn't the gas income to sustain the fighting. And slowly but surely Aiur's warriors are ground into the dust.




Set 5 - Snow <Deja Vu SE> Soulkey

There seems to be a whole bundle of different Soulkeys. To name just three, there is the strategic one who outsmarts his opponents with funky builds and mind-games, the standard late game powerhouse and the aggro-king who mercilessly pounces on any weakness. Guess who turned up in the fifth set? Seeing no probes in the wall, seven lings try to recreate the first game.



But the cannon survives with 3 health. Watching the match back, Soulkey actually looked visibly tilted, sighing and rocking around in his chair. He fully expected this to work as well, because he's got more lings coming. Of course, with this many lings doing literally nothing, the Zerg economy is shot. So the next move is obviously to make some hydras.



Snow keeps an eye on the drone numbers though and he always has just enough cannons while his gates are warping in. Soulkey tries every trick he can think of, like alternating between pressure and droning, lurker drops, and even stop lurkers.



There is a very effective lurker drop, killing almost 20 probes, but the players are on even bases and the Protoss army is bigger with better tech, so not even that is quite enough to swing the game.



After even more lurker drops in all three Protoss bases at once, Zerg is catching up in supply. Now only 20 behind. But this is somewhat misleading, to put it mildly. Remember Snow lost at least 30 probes, so the army size difference is actually still massive. Soulkey tries a big surround.



The swarm gets absolutely obliterated by devastating storms. At the end of that fight, Protoss supply is exactly where it started and Zerg has lost about two thirds of their army. Soulkey keeps battle-zerging around for a while a longer. Snow calmly keeps an eye on possible Zerg expansion. One DT chills in the bottom right, snacking on the occasional drone. On the other side, the big army keeps the third base secure and eventually a fourth base follows. Soulkey tries to sneak a base at 7 o'clock, but Snow stamps it out.




Set 6 - Snow <Pole Star> Soulkey

Unfortunately, the last two sets didn't quite manage to maintain the high quality. Soulkey slots a different personality and goes for full on greed, which Snow can't punish with his safe forge into stargate openings. Getting cross spawn probably didn't help either.

By the time a decent size zealot-dragoon-templar force gets active on the map, Zerg is already on four bases and has the units to match, almost matching Protoss in supply. And with very late observers, Snow cannot contest the large number of lurkers out.

At 13 min, Soulkey surpasses his opponent in supply. The Protoss force postures near the Zerg fourth, but overstays its welcome very slightly. They get caught retreating, and despite some good storms, the fight goes poorly.



Having a much larger army now, Soulkey slams the natural, then the fourth and then the natural again until nothing but blue goo remains. And so we head, once again, to the decider. Long may it continue!


Set 7 - Snow <Radeon> Soulkey

Soulkey opens hatch first at his third base location. Snow should just take a nexus, but he tries to cannon rush in an open area instead. Is there really no way to squeeze any buildings in between the minerals and the geyser? Five probes head over to help out, but ten drones are more than enough to handle them.



The probes have to head all the way back, cross spawn again, while the drones can just start mining. The upshot is that Snow's economy is way behind. I was a little disappointed with how Snow played the last two games. When you're match point up, why not try nexus first, or a gateway opening? Playing forge almost every game turned into a liability in the end, especially when your opponent either opens overpool or are hatchery at the third. Feels like Snow didn't get the opening range right.

This time Soulkey puts on some hydra pressure before growing out of control. Zerg is on four bases before Protoss can even move out. Again, Snow fights well, but there are just too many hydras and lurkers to make headway anywhere. After hydras pick off a few high templars, the armies are no longer evenly matched and the champion starts to push his opponent around.

Eventually, hydras get across the bridge into the Protoss third and, being forced to fight on multiple fronts, the defenders get overwhelmed by superior numbers. And so Soulkey moves on to the final once again, his fourth in a row.



Can anyone stop him? More importantly, can Best? If our fresh ASL finalist wants to be more than a plucky underdog he'll need to do a lot right. Defend aggression with the precision of Snow. Take some risks with aggressive and economic openings and hope he gets lucky. Bring some fresh ideas for Death Valley. And finally he needs to pray. A lot.

Soulkey on the other hand just needs to carry on being the king of ASL. He certainly seems to wear his crown lightly.

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Writers: Simplistik
Graphics: v1
Editors: BLinD-RawR