This is the first finals BeSt has reached since EVER OSL 2008 against JulyZerg.
A series where July managed to capture his last starleague trophy by completely sweeping BeSt. The emotion of making it to this point was not lost on BeSt, completely breaking down when he won his semifinal match against Light. However, He is not facing facing an aging legend.

His opponent is the greatest zerg of the current era,
the 3 time back to back winner,
Soulkey.

Will the miracle of Dohmen stop a 4th? Or is it just......Inevitable.

Liquipedia

It’s been a long road back.

Best’s appearance in the ASL19 final marks his first time in a major championship match in over sixteen years. His only other finals appearance came in the legendary 2008 EVER OSL, one of the most iconic seasons in StarCraft history. That tournament was supposed to be his breakout moment. Just 19 years old and rising fast, Best had bulldozed his way through NaDa, JangBi, and Stork in the group stage, shocking everyone. He then beat Much in the quarterfinals and mounted a massive reverse sweep against Luxury in the semis after going down 0-2. His PvZ was sharp, his mechanics smooth, and many believed a new Protoss era was about to begin.

But that final wasn’t his coronation, it was July’s.

The God of War was on a tear, and what followed was one of the most dominant finals performances ever seen. July dismantled Best 3-0, using aggression, mind games, and perfect instincts to shut down every plan before it started. From the iconic 5-pool mindgame on Othello, to the Drone drill on Troy, to a crushing macro win on Andromeda, July gave Best no oxygen. It wasn’t just a loss, it was a defining moment that stuck to Best’s legacy for several decades. He never made it back to a final. Not in the OSL. Not in the MSL. Not in the SSL. And until now, not in the ASL.

Which is what makes ASL19 feel so significant.

This isn’t the same young player getting overwhelmed on the biggest stage. This is a seasoned veteran who’s endured years of heartbreak and doubt, finally breaking through against the very matchup that has haunted him for so long. In 2008, Best was the red, hot Protoss who met a legendary Zerg and fell short. In 2024, he’s the revitalized master who’s already slain two of the biggest Zerg names, Queen and Soulkey (in ASL15), and is now returning to face Soulkey once more, this time with everything on the line.

It’s not just a shot at a title. It’s a shot at closure. For years Best has been a dominant force outside of televised tournaments. However, his legacy has been haunted by one matchup: PvZ. From ASL16 through ASL18, it was the Zergs who routinely denied him deep runs, casting a long shadow over his otherwise strong macro and solid tournament showings. That makes his run to the ASL19 finals all the more impressive, not just because of the players he's beaten, but because of who he had to go through to get there.

Back in ASL16, Best was eliminated in the Ro16 after losses to Sharp and Action. That season set the tone for his struggles, particularly against Zerg. ASL17 showed a glimmer of hope when he beat TaeNgGu and Action in the Ro24, then advanced past the Ro16 with wins over Light and Rush. But the Ro8 proved another brick wall, losing 3-1 to Sharp. It wasn't a failure, but it wasn’t a breakthrough either. ASL18 was arguably his worst. He lost both of his Ro24 matches to Speed and Action and didn’t even make it out of groups. For a player of Best’s caliber, especially one with a solid PvT pedigree, it was a harsh result and seemed to cement the narrative that he just can’t compete the same on the live stage.

The one real outlier before now was ASL15, back in April 2023. That season was different. Best beat Ample and Mind in Ro24, then took down Soulkey and Light in the Ro16, both huge wins, especially the matchup against Soulkey. He followed that up with a victory over Action in the Ro8 before falling to Mind in the semifinals, 4-2. That run felt like it could have been the start of something big, but instead, it was followed by two lackluster seasons.

Then came ASL19.

Best’s Ro24 this season didn’t start smoothly as he lost his opening match to BTS. But from there, he bounced back with a clean 1-0 over Mind and then got revenge on BTS with a 1-0 in the rematch to make it out. The Ro16 looked even better. Despite dropping a game to Jaedong, he delivered 2-0 sweeps over both Sharp and Speed to advance. The real test, though, was in the Ro8 against Queen, one of the most dangerous Zerg players in ASL history.

That Best managed to win the series isn’t as surprising as how he did it. Down 1-3 after four games, it looked like another chapter in his long struggle versus Zerg. Queen had already taken three maps from Best on Dominator SE, Death Valley, and his pick of Eclipse. But Best rallied hard, taking Radeon (Queen’s pick), Deja Vu SE, and Pole Star in three straight, to close out the reverse sweep 4-3. It was as gritty as it was technical, and it proved something that hadn’t been true for a long time: Best can now win against the best Zergs in the world, even when down in a series.

His semifinal against Light was no less dramatic. Once again, Best fell into an 0-2 hole, dropping Deja Vu SE and Death Valley to Light. And once again, he clawed his way back. He took Pole Star, Eclipse, and Dominator SE before Light forced a game 7 on Radeon. But Metropolis, fittingly, the same map he opened with against Queen, sealed the deal. Best closed it out, 4-3, and reached his first ever ASL final.

What makes this season special is how much it mirrors ASL15, but with more grit and more weight. In ASL15, he beat Soulkey and Action but fell short in the semifinals. This time, he had to get through both Queen and Light, two of his biggest roadblocks historically, to reach the final—and he'll face Soulkey again, now with a shot at the title.

Whether or not he wins the final, ASL19 already marks the strongest version of Best we've seen. Not just because of his mechanics or builds, but because he’s finally broken the mental barrier against Zerg. For the first time in years, Best doesn’t just look like a great Protoss. He looks like a champion.



Prediction:
Eclipse - Winner Best

Metropolis - Winner Soulkey

Death Valley - Winner Soulkey

Radeon - Winner Best

Deja Vu SE - Winner Soulkey

Dominator SE - Winner Best

Pole Star - Winner Best

Best Wins The ASL 19 Championship 4-3!

Soulkey’s Road to the Finals

Ro16: 1-0 vs Scan, 2-1 vs Light

Soulkey’s ASL19 started off with some fireworks, as he had to deal with a few interesting cheeses from Scan and Light, in the form of a 2 port wraith and a center 8-rax respectively. Soulkey gave himself a bit of a scare, dropping the 2nd game against Light, but overall looked comfortable in his other 3 games as he advanced in first out of his Ro16 group. Light was his first major test but outside of the cheese game that he lost, his ZvT still looked like the Soulkey of old.

Ro8: 4–1 vs Rush

Continuing the trend of Soulkey having a near unbeatable ZvT, he calmly dispatched Rush in pretty smooth games. Although another Terran cheese saw him dropping the first game in the series to a proxy factory pumping speed vultures, Soulkey once again looked calm and collected in his remaining 4 games and he performed the gentleman’s sweep on Rush. We began seeing a bit of a theme with Soulkey, which was safe, reliable openings like overpool, that transitioned into mind games to throw off his opponent’s preparation like fast 3 hatch on location, lurker first, crazy zerg, ling mixups, etc.

Ro4: 4–3 vs Snow

The battle of the titans saw Soulkey and Snow face off in the semifinals for a 3rd straight ASL. And this was Soulkey’s biggest test yet against Snow, as Snow took him all the way to a game 7. But ultimately, Soulkey would prevail. The series went back and forth, with both players trying their own mind games several times to catch the other off guard. It was definitely Snow’s best showing in the PvZ matchup, showing improvement in reading what the Zerg opponent was going to do as well as taking better engagements. However, it was not enough, as Soulkey came back from down 2-3 by returning to his solid standard play.

Soulkey’s Battle Plan

As we’ve seen throughout this tournament, Soulkey has no problems with opening more conservatively but adding in mixups into his play. However, even the mixups against Snow did not totally work out in his favor, as some mixups ultimately lead to losses, like in Game 2 on Eclipse, and Game 5 on Deja Vu. Soulkey’s standard play has been nearly unbeatable, and I expect him to return to a more calm and collected style of play rather than attempting to overthink his strategies to outsmart his opponent. However, Soulkey may feel some pressure to continue his mind games, as Best’s macro play is one of the best in the world. It’s not easy to outmacro who many consider to be one of the best macro Protoss players in Brood War history. That being said, because of how lopsided the matchup has felt the past few years, Soulkey’s standard macro game should be more than enough to overcome Best in the finals. Plus, his defense against non-standard play is one of the best in the world, as his intelligence and game sense allows him to pick the best option time and time again to deal with an opponent’s cheese.

Best opened with some non-standard openings against Queen that Soulkey will surely be anticipating in his series, such as 2 gates, cannon rushes, and even a nexus first. Further, Best has shown to attempt to utilize more early game DT usage to get between the detection areas and cause chaos in the Zerg’s economy. Unlike Queen who attempted to open 12 hatch in some games, I fully anticipate Soulkey to open overpool on every map except for Death Valley. Further, Best has shown weaknesses against mutalisk play, especially when he typically avoids heavy corsair usage as his poor air control has given his corsairs the nickname of “dohsairs.” Expect Soulkey to exploit that weakness and utilize many muta switches to remove his templar and eventually overwhelm him with hydras. Both Best and Snow showed some solid defense to aggressive hydra openers too, so I anticipate that if we do see a 3 hatch hydra, it’ll only be on one of the maps.

With both players having been pushed to a game 7 in their respective ZvP series, I’m really excited to see what’s in store for us in the finals.

Maps: Best picked 1,3,5 | Soulkey picked 2,4,6

Game 1: Eclipse

The series will start on Eclipse, which as we’ve seen has been a very good mutalisk map against Best (losing that opening game against BTS as well as against Queen). The unpathable areas are in great spots for mutalisks to dart in and out of to snipe templar, and Soulkey’s macro game is excellently poised to ramp up a strong economy and overwhelm Protoss.

Game 2: Metropolis

Considering that Best had opened 2 gate against Queen on this map, Soulkey will likely want to play a bit more conservatively in the opening to avoid fall prey to some cheese from Best. Still, this map with the large mains could be on the maps that Soulkey tries a creative opener on, like slow overlord drop as we saw in Mini vs Calm. This is yet another good map for mutalisks with more exposed mineral lines and easily harassable bases.

Game 3: Death Valley

Shockingly, Best picks Death Valley as his second map choice. As we’ve seen throughout the tournament, Protoss simply has too hard of a time on this map against Zerg. Picking this map early means that Best must have something cooked up to overcome the huge racial imbalance, and he’s also seen Soulkey open with a cheeky 5 pool to throw off Snow’s game plan in their series. Soulkey must try to sniff out what Best is cooking and hold off the early game cheese that is likely to happen, as once he can get into the late game, Zerg’s advantages on this map are too great to overcome.

Game 4: Radeon

Radeon’s naturals are susceptible to cannon rushing, so I once again anticipate an overpool from Soulkey to open this map. A very standard map, I don’t think there’s much that Soulkey can do to try to throw off Best from his game, though he did attempt to take his second hatchery at the 3rd base location against Snow to try to trick him.

Game 5: Deja Vu

This map has felt a bit difficult for Zerg actually, with the far 3rds making it a bit more open for harass from the Protoss, and the naturals giving Protoss plenty of room to place cannons for hydra busts. I don’t think this is a map for 3 hatch hydra, as Soulkey lost with this strategy against Snow (albeit, because he felt really behind after a failed ling runby to attack Snow’s lone cannon).

Game 6: Dominator

If there was a map for 3 hatch hydra or some mixup, I think this is a good map to do it on, with the weird pizza slices and the interesting base layouts. Queen went for a 9734 on this map, a build that’s starting to slowly come back into the meta as some maps allow for a nice compact 4 base setup. It’s also a solid map for mutalisk play again, as the ridges make it hard for Protoss to effectively guard their templar, while the naturals and mains feel exposed to air play.

Game 7: Pole Star

Another map where 9734 can be utilized on, Soulkey may attempt it if he hadn’t attempted it an earlier game. Otherwise, this map is a very macro oriented map that suits Soulkey’s style, and he should feel very confident to take the final game to the late game. Of course, taking a match to the late game against Best isn’t always the best idea with his strong macro, but Soulkey’s defiler usage is the best in the world and he should be able to eventually take the series.

Soulkey Wins The ASL 19 Championship 4-2!

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