This season of ASL has been a strong fall season indeed with 4 Protoss taking up the Ro8 bracket, trailed by a strong Zerg representation of 3 and one lone Terran.

we kick off the week with the last Terran left standing BarrackS as he faces against Mini who has been mentally steeling himself to be closer to his championship performance. A tough road for BarrackS.

Following that match with a true clash of titans as former teammates in the KeSPA days under CJ Entus, EffOrt faces up against Snow, you do not want to miss this.

Recaps by Simplistik

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Protoss reigns supreme, for now.
When was the last time all Round of 16 contenders from one race made it to the bracket? (Hint: quite a long time ago.) What were the odds of getting four Protoss through this round? Surely pretty small. But here we are. While Best had to fight tooth and nail to scrape through, Snow and Mini had no such trouble. They were each others' biggest threat, as neither player dropped a game to anyone else. If we ignore that PvP, Protoss went a combined 11-4 this round. Given how other competitions, like KCM, are going, I find this rather surprising. And with the full no-mirror bracket draw things could get even stranger. We could have full Protoss semis, the first in a premier tournament since the era of the Six Dragons. Or we could have none at all. For pure entertainment, maybe we want two, on opposite sides of the bracket. On the other hand, the Snow-Mini series was a lot of fun, so I wouldn't mind a longer rematch in the semis.

Game of the Week:
Group C, Winners Match, Set 1: Snow <Pole Star> Mini

The players start in cross positions and open with fairly similar builds. Mini gets ahead a little with a faster nexus, compared with Snow's observatory first. Both players build a couple of observers, a shuttle and a reaver, as you would expect. And then they both move out and... ignore each other?



Both players push into each other's natural bases unopposed and then they have to frantically micro two fights at the same time. Snow's force gets into Mini's main fairly easily, while Mini has to work a little to get up the ramp. Snow has left the mineral patch on the ramp, which makes a difference. Turns out that mining isn't always the correct move.

Mini has eight dragoons left (in Snow's base), but he loses two to fresh spawns and a probe. Snow has seven dragoons and a zealot left (in Mini's base). Both players still have a reaver-shuttle. The only big difference is that Mini has more minerals, enough for a nexus, and manages to evacuate some probes across the map. Mini's base is getting destroyed faster, so he warps in a pylon in Snow's former main. Meanwhile, Snow sends his shuttle back and catches one of Mini's weakened dragoons.

Mini evacuates up the ramp and warps in a shield battery. Snow pokes around the edge of his own (former) base with a reaver. There's a great moment when one of Mini's probes attacks the reaver, possibly hoping to bait a scarab.



As Snow has only 153 minerals left, he needs to be careful that he doesn't run out of scarabs. Mini, henceforth known as The Usurper, proceeds to destroy Snow's original nexus and replace it with his own. I imagine that feels quite satisfying.



Meanwhile he's keeping Snow's shuttle busy by chasing it around with his own, now loaded with a dragoon. Snow has no choice but try and end the game. But how is he going to get his dragoons up the ramp?



He just, ehm, walks them up. This is Snow, remember? And together with a zealot and reaver dropped over the edge, Snow's units massacre Mini. Mini's positioning is worse and his shuttle takes too much damage too quickly. Even worse, he never even uses either of his shield batteries as far as I can tell. What a crazy comeback from Snow. As long as he's got a reaver and a shuttle he's apparently never out... GG!


The second game was fun too. In the interview Snow said he was "99% certain" that Mini would proxy-2-gate. And he was 100% right. So he looks until he finds the gates and starts preparing. But Mini actually out-micros Snow with zealots and also brings some foldable shield batteries in his camping kit.




In the Final Match, Mini carries on where he left off against Jaedong: more zealot pressure. On Dominator he sneaks around the scouts and manages to secure Jaedong's ramp with some vicious switch-blade bouncers, which allows their buddies to snipe the spire.



Jaedong then doesn't do enough damage with his limited number of flyers and Mini runs him over.

In the final game, Jaedong wants to be the aggressor and goes for an early ling gambit. Mini sort of reads that something is coming, but he still fails to keep his two natural cannons alive. He looks pretty much dead, but Jaedong accidentally loses an overlord to a surprise cannon in the main. The resulting supply block allows Mini to stabilise.

Jaedong also successfully transitions to the mid-game. And we might get a longer game, as Zerg supplies are pretty high. And then Jaedong gets caught out by DT's. First a drop into his main kills a bunch of drones and the spire. One DT gets away and comes back for more kills. Another DT slices up the fresh fourth base.



And then, the final nail in the coffin, one of the original assassins wipes out the natural drones. At 21 kills Jaedong throws in the towel.


Terran woes
The Terran performance in this Round of 16 was almost the mirror image of Protoss. We've gone from five to one. After subtracting TvT's, the overall score is a dismal 2-12. Pause for a moment and let it sink in how bad that is. Only two non-mirror wins in the entire round. This week both Sharp and Speed were eliminated 0-3 and none of these games were particularly close.

Snow relegated Sharp to the Losers Match in a long drawn-out carrier game. Sharp had a massive army and many goliaths, but somehow he failed to put any real dent in the Protoss economy. And then he hit Jaedong, or, more accurately, Jaedong hit him. Sharp tried two cute builds and bombed both times.

In the first game, Jaedong holds a close-spawn 6-rax opening and counters with two waves of mass lings. Terran is completely in the dark and gets caught out the second time. In the second set Sharp tries a 2-port opening with mixed wraiths and valks. Why? No idea. Then his air force gets wrecked in the first sea air battle. And finally, because it when it rains it pours, Jaedong catches him with the most effective stop lurkers so far this tournament.




Speed got picked by Light, and did alright for a while in that opening TvT. And then he keeps ramming his head into a brick wall trying to break a fortified position. You all know how well that normally goes in TvT. Oh, and he left himself open to a counter at the same time. Losing to Light in a mid-length TvT isn't shameful, but what followed was arguably even more of a train crash than the Sharp disaster.

Granted, Larva is a good player and he has looked solid so far. But still, that was a b-team performance by Speed if ever I saw one. Larva pulls out an overpool 2-hatch muta build and catches his opponent, who is trying to play mech, before the turrets are up. The result is ugly and Speed never manages to regain his footing. After that 'experience' Larva sends him packing with a 4-pool. Ouch.




Out of the three Terrans on show this week, Light did the best, but unfortunately that's not saying very much. He beat Speed, as expected, and even took the first game against Soma with an aggressive base trade move. That set was another contender for game of the week. Soma loses his entire main and natural to a large bio attack, while mutalisks force Light to abandon his main and hide in the natural, which gives us this interesting looking base layout:



In the other two games Light tries some early marine pressure and fails, and it spirals from there. Judging by his expression, this sequence of events seems to have left him somewhat shell-shocked.

For the first set of the Final Match, also worth watching, Light pulls himself together to play a long game against Larva. But he doesn't manage to break through anywhere. And Zerg ultimately gets up to six bases and slowly, and demorilisingly, grinds Terran down with ultralisks.

In the final game, Larva is again under a lot of pressure at multiple locations, but doesn't crack. Light gets air dominance with five valkyries, but somehow he loses his way a little as those valks just chill and never really do anything useful. And then Larva gets a couple of good attacks into the Terran natural, the second one with dark swarm. And that is that.

Larva and Soma make it straight back to the bracket. All four Protoss go through. And the only Terran in the round of eight is... BarrackS? However that unlikely sequence of events unfolded, we end up with a very strong looking knock-out section. Champions Mini, EffOrt, Bisu and Larva. Finalists Snow, Soma and Best. And Barracks.

In an unexpected turn of events, we have only a singular Terran player in the Ro8 where many expected Protoss players, or even Zerg players, to suffer. And the lone Terran is maybe one of the least likely Terrans to have advanced in BarrackS, while Mini joins him in his return to the Ro8 since ASL17. Can BarrackS be the Terran hero in this tournament, or will the last Terran fall unceremoniously to Mini?

BarrackS

BarrackS has been a long talked about Terran player, much like Speed, for having very high potential and to break into that sort of upper echelon of players. His first breakthrough came in ASL18 where he managed to make it to the Ro8, but was ultimately crushed by Snow, which was to be expected, but his run was a sign of things to come. Unfortunately, last ASL he was bounced out by Light in the final series of their Ro16 group, which again, was to be expected. However, this tournament BarrackS has found an avenue back to the Ro8, advancing as the third seed from his Ro24 group, and surprising everyone by coming out first in a group of Soulkey, EffOrt, and Rush, beating Soulkey and Rush 2-1 to finish first.

Against an out of form Mini, BarrackS definitely has that potential to advance to the semifinals of this tournament, though it has to be said some of his openers and his play has been a bit riskier than maybe what is going to be necessary against Mini. Against Royal in both games, BarrackS came out with aggressive openers to put Royal behind. But against Rush, BarrackS played very strategically, hiding 3 vultures for a counter runny in a mirror build situation, and going siege after vulture speed to catch Rush off guard when he expected a mine followup. The double-edged sword could be that BarrackS’s clever strategic choices could backfire on him if Mini catches him unaware, and the strategic, suboptimal choice may come back to bite him. However, his overall play has still been solid, basically crushing two very strong TvT players in Rush and Royal, and his rise to 7th on the ELOboards shows that he’s in great form.

Mini

Mini is simply not the same player who won ASL12, and the one who finished second in ASL16. The chaotic Protoss has had a huge hit to his play the past couple of years, potentially in part due to how players have adjusted against his seemingly chaotic and erratic playstyle, doing everything he can to throw the opponent off their game and find advantages in high risk, high reward situations. But as players have adapted and we’ve seen players play more and more towards consistent playstyles and build choices, Mini’s play has been seemingly neutralized. But sometimes, that chaotic playstyle can still win games, which his ASL20 run so far has mostly been: DT rush against sSak, 2 gate proxy win against Snow, and his 3 games against Jaedong to advance from the Ro16.

But one issue for Mini has also been his significant ELOboard and proleague slump, dropping all the way down the leaderboard to 25th. And most of his games have been against Zerg opponents, like spamming sponmatches against EffOrt, instead of practicing more games against Terran. His game against sSak also looked woeful compared to his usual standards, though it could be in part due to his potential bet with a viewer that he would win a PvT game with 0/0/0 upgrades, so take that how you’d like. But BarrackS is not sSak, he’s much better at this phase in his career and his potential has been very good, so Mini can’t be trying side quests like that if he wants a chance to win this game. Still, it is Protoss vs Terran where the modern era sees Protoss with so many different options against Terran, so perhaps Mini’s form can be saved by a favorable matchup.

BarrackS Advances To The Ro4 4-2!

The Afreeca StarCraft League has always thrived on rivalries, and the ASL20 quarterfinal clash between Snow and EffOrt carries the potential to create a new one between these two great players. EffOrt could be well on his way to replacing Soulkey as the wall that Snow cannot pass. Both are veterans of the elimination bracket, yet both come into this series chasing something elusive: a championship for Snow and a full return to form for EffOrt.

Snow has been one of the most consistent Protoss players in recent memory, but his Achilles’ heel has been the Zerg matchup at the very highest level. In ASL17 he marched to the semifinals before running into Soulkey, who edged him out 4–2. The following season, in the 2024 SSL Autumn event, Snow reached the semifinals only to be swept 4–0 by Soulkey, leaving him short of the finals once again. ASL19 saw him once again come painfully close. After another strong semifinal run, Snow was denied a finals berth by Soulkey in a dramatic 4–3 series. Across these seasons, SnOw’s PvZ story has been one of heartbreak. He has repeatedly fallen short against elite Zergs despite demonstrating championship-caliber play against Protoss and Terran opponents. Still, with three semifinal finishes in the past three ASLs, he has remained a fixture near the top, proving himself as one of the most reliable Protoss competitors of this era.

EffOrt returns to the big stage after years defined by absence as much as achievement. He missed ASL17 due to a wrist injury and remained absent for both the SSL Autumn event in 2024 and ASL19. In his stead, Soulkey dominated the league, sweeping titles in ASL16 through ASL19. But EffOrt’s pedigree is undeniable. He claimed the ASL6 crown in 2018 with a legendary 3–2 victory over Flash and later returned in ASL16 to make the semifinals before losing 3–0 to Mini. Historically, ZvP has been one of his strongest matchups, and his championship run included victories over elite Protoss players, though the Mini loss showed that even his most trusted matchup can be cracked. His absence in recent seasons left fans wondering what he still had in the tank, but his Round of 8 appearance here in ASL20 suggests the former champion has found a second wind.

Head-to-Head history gives EffOrt the edge. The two first met in ASL3 back in 2017, where EffOrt took a win. They clashed again in ASL6 group play, and once more EffOrt came out on top, handing Snow a Bo1 loss. EffOrt has never lost to Snow in an ASL setting, making this quarterfinal not only a test of current form but also a chance for Snow to rewrite a narrative that has haunted him for years.

With Snow fighting to finally break through the semifinal ceiling and EffOrt battling to reestablish himself among the elite after years away, this quarterfinal offers more than just a spot in the Round of 4. It is a clash of narratives, a collision of styles, and a chance for two veterans to carve a lasting legacy. For Protoss vs Zerg fans, it may well be the series of the season. Final Prediction:

Snow figures this one out and advances to the seminfinals once again!

Snow Advances To The Ro4!

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