Shocking upsets from week 1 as we head into a big week 2 with a returning Flash for the first time in nearly 6 years and a Jaedong whos been in the most dominant state in over a decade.

before that recaps from week 1 by S1mplistik

Liquipedia

Here we are again with another ASL Round of 24. As first weeks go, this was a pretty decent one. We had some good games and some funny games, a few upsets and surprises as well as a good underdog story. The tournament can build from here, especially with the majority of the heavy hitters in week 2. Let's have a quick look what went down.

Group A
This group went pretty much like I expected it, and I even have the liquibet receipts to prove it! At this point we don't quite know what form Rain is actually in, but he certainly didn't struggle here, moving on with a decisive 2-0. Against Mong, who has never been a realistic championship contender during the ASL era, Rain played a conservative style. He expands slowly rather than risking death to the currently fashionable Terran mid-game pushes. Still, this also slows down the Terran growth. Mong struggles to expand, because Protoss has a big army, and manages no serious pressure at all, although he deals reasonably well with the occasional reaver or storm drop. The game gets decided shortly after Mong scans the incoming carrier switch, when he bumbles his move-out. One moment of clumped unprotected tanks, sitting on mines and getting stormed, is all it takes for Rain to grab a solid lead and never let go.



Against Sharp, in the Winners Match, Rain was even more decisive. After another slow opening, Rain goes straight for carriers on only two gas. Sharp scans it and quickly expands, skipping the mineral only in favour of the further away gas base, on Match Point. This puts him in a great position, especially because Rain does not notice the expansion for quite some time. When an observer finally spots the base, it seems like it's already too late. A couple of failed small attacks later Rain looks in trouble. And then Sharp missteps and sends too much of his army to clean up five dragoons and a dog. This allows the actual Protoss army to walk into the Terran natural. The carriers tag along, kill the armoury and sit on top of the factories. GG. Rain has this uncanny ability to make winning look too easy sometimes.

Despite this setback, Sharp made it out comfortably in second place by beating Scan twice. TL viewers did not like the first of those games (9 no's vs 0 yes's in the recommendations), but I actually thought the game was pretty fun. Sharp was overall clearly the better player, especially with his decision-making and army movement. But Scan still managed to a few good moves and showed us a good opening followed by solid macro. Unfortunately, for neutral viewers and Scan, the rematch in the Final was much more one sided. Scan tries an early vulture move that doesn't do enough damage. The he dies on the backswing when Sharp's faster tanks easily crush a bunch of SCV's and the slow trickle of vultures.

This was a pretty tough group for Scan, but he did also manage to pick up his first TvT win in ASL, in what was undoubtedly the best game of the evening, the Losers Match, on, you guessed it, Match Point. Scan manages to get ahead early with a wraith move. But a questionable attack vector, from the third rather than attacking the natural, costs him the lead. Mong does not make the same mistake and Scan only manages to hold on to his own natural by a thread. Somewhat surprisingly, Scan keeps churning out wraiths, even when he is comparatively low on tanks. But he makes it work effectively. The attack on the natural is eventually broken with superior vision and high-ground advantage. Then the paper planes catch some undefended tanks and also pew-pew down a solid number of SCV's. Both players end up on four bases and Mong gets a solid drop into his opponent's main. But Scan smartly focuses on taking out the goliaths, which activates the wraiths again.



Still, Terran ground units are good and Mong wrestles himself into a better position by taking out Scan's fifth base, while securing his own. And just when it looks like Scan is going home, he orders his armour onto Mong's central high ground and takes control of the game. Vultures clean out the top left, tanks shell the mineral only and Mong's units are out of position getting ground down while trying to engage. This was a pretty cool mid-length action packed TvT which you should probably watch. Well played to Scan. I'm sure he'll be back in the future. Mong didn't play badly in either game, but he ended up being the supporting cast rather than the protagonist.

Group B
The second group did not go as I expected, and I've got the liquibet receipts... ehm. Never mind. This group produced the first bigger upset of the main tournament with four-peat champion Soulkey going home early after losing the Final Match in spectacular fashion. Former champion JyJ did even worse, getting eliminated without winning a game. But let's start with sSak, who moves on to the group selection for the first time in two years. Anyone worrying about many long slow TvT's this season can probably breathe a cautious sigh of relief, as the games we've had so far have mostly been entertaining.

sSak's first game against JyJ is a case in point. sSak falls behind early when vultures keep getting through blowing up his SCV's. Ordinarily, this would leave sSak with a slightly larger army to make something happen with, but JyJ fends off every counter attack and sSak falls further and further behind. It's a 20 supply gap at 12 min, then 30, then 40, and from 14.5 min onwards JyJ is consistently 40-50 supply ahead. What keeps sSak in the game is his solid tank position in the centre. JyJ could, and probably should, have just expanded along his side of the map. I can only assume that he sensed his big advantage and felt the need to keep up the pressure. JyJ tries several times to lock his opponent in on three bases, by circling around the centre, but fails every time. The last attempt goes wrong so badly that the supplies go back to even. After that the players split the map horizontally and gear up for the late game. Both have been building up decent-sized wraith-valkyrie air forces. sSak ends up winning the one big air battle, which then allows him to shoot down some full dropships while safely escorting his own. Fittingly enough, the game ends with a massive doom drop into JyJ's main.

sSak then finds Soulkey waiting in the Winners Match. A few seasons ago that would have been scary, but the shine has definitely come off recently. sSak executes a competent vulture drop that kills six drones, even though Soulkey appears to be expecting it. The greatest Zerg of the ASL era responds with a ling lurker all-in before Terran has any scanners. But sSak reads it perfectly. Three bunkers and two turrets are up. A tank secures the ramp. Cloaked wraiths shoot down the mutas and the first science vessel arrives in time to seal the deal.

The second player to make it out of the group, to my great surprise, was Ample! He played well, especially in that final game, and earns his second ASL group selection appearance. In his first game, Ample started aggressively with a funny-looking split-location BBS in the centre of the map. Soulkey played right into the Terran's hands with a greedy 12-hatch into gas before pool opening. Four marines and two SCV's arrive before the first zerglings have even hatched. This really should be lights out, but Ample decides to keep is foot on the aggro-pedal and sends his marines into the main. He takes one decent fight and is left with four low-health marines. This is the perfect time to pull back the bunker and kill the natural hatchery, but they head in for another bite and die without achieving anything. Meanwhile two lings are causing trouble in the Terran main. To add insult to injury, Ample then fails to deal with the first few mutalisks and winds up in the Losers Match. The GG is followed by a very appropriate face palm combined with literally tilting in his chair.

Perhaps somewhat luckily for Ample, there is a rather long gap before his next game so he can calm down and re-focus. He was in a great position to win, which is of course better than not having been in a great position. Either way, he first has to take out JyJ who is still solid at TvT. Ample sticks to his aggressive guns and opens with two-factories against the former champion's factory expand. Ample's first tank arrives at JyJ's natural just after five minutes. And once siege mode finishes for Ample the entire rest of the game is a tense fight over the entrance to that natural. The players are scrapping over millimeters. Ample gets in position to shoot the CC and the refinery a few times, which also kills some SCV's. JyJ tries everything he can think of: using his barracks to slow down reinforcements, a few wraiths for spotting, a tank on the high-ground, vulture drops, SCV pulls, the lot. But Ample has all the answers and the damage keeps building up slowly until JyJ runs fatally low on tanks. Better luck next season.

Game of The Week: Group B, Final Match - Soulkey <Neo Sylphid> Ample
The final game of Group B has a decent chance of ending up in this tournament's Top 5. Ample, starting at the top, manages to be decently annoying with a three marine bunker rush. They kill a drone, prevent some mining and force more lings than are strictly useful this early in the game. It looks again like Soulkey got the worse opening, for the third time in a row. But from here he actually plays his way into the midgame beautifully. I couldn't quite tell how much of this was improvised and how much was planned. He starts morphing a hydralisk den shortly after the lair finishes, which does look somewhat unplanned.

The first four lurkers skitter up to Ample's natural and smartly push the infantry back against the wall. The lurkers dance back and forth managing to do a little damage until the first scan comes out, when they fall back. Impressively, all four stay alive. This contain keeps Ample locked in, which means Zerg can take a third base in relative peace without needing a lot of static defences.



Behind this, Soulkey techs as fast as he can, morphing a spire and then a queen's nest. Meanwhile, Ample has his first tank on the way while also setting up a starport. Two more lurkers appear and the swarm surges forward to destroy one of the bunkers. Ample is forced to spend another scan just to make the lurkers back off. Nine mutalisks hatch as the hive starts morphing. And they immediately find, and clean up, a dropship full of bio units.



To make matters worse for Ample, the air defences in his main base are not quite ready, which allows the muta flock to rack up some free SCV kills. I'll be honest. At this point I thought that Ample was toast. He was completely caught between a rock and a hard place. Supplies are almost even, hive is done and the Terran army still hasn't mobilised. The first science vessel has only just been commissioned, and does not have enough energy for irradiate.

But Ample cannot wait any longer, he has to go now. Soulkey does his best to slow down the push with repeated lurker charges, backed up by some zerglings. And just as the siege tanks get in range of the solitary sunken colony, six guardians join the fight and stop the attack in its (tank) tracks.



The Terran army is forced to retreat, leaving the tanks behind to die. The first defiler is ready and a nydus to the third base at seven o'clock is also done. And of course the guardians can easily rotate around between the two entrances. Taking this base for the third looks like a genius move by Soulkey, but it will come back to haunt him later, when he struggles to secure his fourth gas. The two things Ample does exceptionally well all game is his fluid and consistent army movement as well as keeping his vessels alive. Soulkey regularly tries some scourge snipes, but somehow Ample is always already retreating when they are flying in.

Another attack on the Zerg natural is thwarted by dark swarm and guardians, while a small swarm of zerglings prevents Terran from expanding. Soulkey starts morphing a hatchery at the bottom right main and wills four guardians over to provide some protection. Terran has to do three things at once here. Secure the new expansions on the Eastern edge of the map, put some pressure onto the Zerg on the bottom right and keep pushing back the dark swarm hopping lurkers in the middle. And of course both players have to macro as well, and Ample does a great job. The vessel count now stands at four, the mineral only is up and running, another fresh CC is almost finished at three o'clock and the swarm has been pushed back towards its natural. But a platoon of infantry does get wiped out by the guardians in the bottom right, which buys enough time for the hatchery to finish and a nydus to start.

Soulkey's macro is starting to kick in, but the Terran war machine is chugging away efficiently. The number of science vessels has reached alarming proportions and Ample has not lost many units for a while, so his supply is at a very healthy 170+. He even finds time to send a couple of wraiths to shut down the guardians. They try to float away, but get pincered by marines.



With Soulkey busy reinforcing his new base, Ample orders another assault on the Zerg natural. A lot of critters get irradiated, but a timely dark swarm saves the day. Many vessels get plagued, but there's no follow-up to take them out. How often do we see Terran players lose their vessels in similar situations? But Ample makes sure his valuable scientists are always protected by his main army. Although Soulkey has managed to get a fourth gas base up and running, his underlings have not been killing enough enemies, while the constant irradiates are imposing a steep tax burden on his ability to get out a big army. The biggest problem for the swarm is that the situation is so precarious that no units can really be spared to put any pressure on the enemy economy.



The severe economic strain also means that there are no spare scourge protecting the bottom right from drops. And sure enough, two dropships land undisturbed and the infantry quickly blows up the nydus. Three lurkers withdraw from the entrance and provide some cover, but more drops are on the way and a ground army is marching South as well.



This is one of the busiest games you're ever likely to watch with almost constant fighting on two or more fronts. Soulkey is fully focused on maintaining his lifeline, the nydus network and a constant supply of defilers. Zerg units manage to push back the aggressor from the natural, catching a few tanks in the process. But Ample's supply has been going up and he is now almost maxed. It has taken him a while to organise another attack in the South-Eastern quadrant, but the timing turns out to be exquisite. Just as the swarm tries to break out from the four o'clock main two more platoons of infantry get parachuted in from the North.



The infantry immediately focuses on the hatchery, and although they all die, the hatchery goes down with them. This reduces Soulkey to a three base economy and he is also seventy supply down while his opponent is expanding. A lesser player might get quickly overwhelmed here, but 4-time champions don't tend to give away cheap wins and the Iron Wall manages to go on the offensive thanks to an enormous plague.



This puts a temporary stop to Ample's movements in that part of the map, but importantly, he saves his vessels again. Having finally secured a foothold in the centre of the map, the swarm tries to expand to the top left pocket, while regrowing the buildings in the bottom. Making the most of the newly found freedom of movement, the swarm clears out the Terran forward outpust from the five o'clock natural as well. Things are look good for Zerg until...



Ample immediately strikes back with an attack on the bottom pocket while dropping the third main once again. Soulkey holds the pocket with a lurker egg block and does manage to clear out the drop, but not before losing a bunch of drones and the nydus canal.

From here the game goes completely crazy, almost like Ample has suddenly remembered to pop his own stim pack. His main force converges in the bottom right, to overwhelm the main Zerg brood with well-spread tanks, protected by a timely d-matrix. At the same time he drops the top pocket with an infantry-tank mix and erasers the gas mining drones at four o'clock.



Another attack in the bottom follows. Having run out of more valuable test subjects, the scientists are now starting to irradiate hydralisks. Somehow Soulkey has enough time during this madness to save a few of them by morphing them into lurkers. But the top pocket falls. Zerg desperately needs to expand, and this time the swarm tries to take the fake high-ground base near the main.

Ample has been on five bases for a while, and his minerals are slowly running dry, but he does have a bit of a bank. Another drop arrives at the bottom right main and takes out the extractor, but Soulkey holds otherwise well. Meanwhile, the swarm has finally claimed its false high-ground base for a much needed economic boost. Of course Ample quickly moves to apply some pressure. Soulkey has been caught low on defilers, so we get this rather unusual fight between hydras and d-matrixed marines.



The trade is not efficient for Zerg, but the hydralisks prevail thanks to the absence of Terran artillery support. Both armies trade blows in the centre of the map for a bit, but the situation doesn't change much. Ample is starting to chew threw his bank as his losses have gone up. But he maintains a very healthy number of tanks and they start pushing towards the bottom right. Behind this an SCV starts building a fresh CC at the top left pocket. Soulkey's third is mined out, but the bottom right still looks healthy, and, at least on paper, the natural there is also still available.

The problem is that there are quite a few tanks camping in that location, and the swarm is spread too thin for a head-on engagement. Ample is still ahead and he keeps up the pressure with yet another drop. Soulkey holds, but also takes takes damage again. Damage that he can't afford to take. The only glimmer of hope for Zerg is that in the overall chaos a good number of science vessels have been lost.

But after 20 minutes of relentless pressure the cracks in the iron wall have become too big. A two-pronged attack against the false high-ground base, this time with tank support, crunches through the defenders. The defiler arrives too late to prevent the drones from getting massacred. The wall has been breached. Soulkey leans back in his chair with a pained smile and taps out.



GG! What a game! And it's only week 1. Here's to hoping for another great season. Given that this has to be among the greatest games Ample has ever played, I can't help but wonder. Are we witnessing the beginning of another dark horse Terran run or will this game mainly be remembered as part of the Soulkey falls from the top arc?

(The Group C review will have to wait until next week... Sorry.)

Some of you readers would rather chew cardboard then watch another TvT. The Terran mirror battles on Octagon have been quite fun so far this season. Group D looks to keep up the pace of exciting Terran on Terran action as it features Light, Royal, and Mind.

Light and Royal are both former champions from ASLs in the year 2022. Mind was a runner-up finisher in 2023. Following those peaks, Mind has done poorly. He failed to qualify last season and was knocked out of the round of 24 the two seasons before that. Royal has also failed to past the round of 24 in the same time frame. Light, however, was a regular ro16 seed with high place finishes until last season where he was knocked out of the ro16 forcing him to play in the opening group stages.

Group D delights us with one final non-Terran play, Calm. This crafty zerg has managed to qualify for his third season in a row. His current trend is to fall at this stage. His Kespa era ZvT was his worst matchup at 47%. Calm is 1-3 in his last four ASL matches and he lost his only ZvT from those games to Scan. Calm will need a real miracle to advance from this group.

Match 1: Light vs Calm
The first match of the group pits Light’s historically greatest matchup versus Calm’s worst. While Light has become more of a TvP expert, he is still no slouch. Octagon doesn’t off enough safety nets for Calm to have a chance in a normal game. Light will shine his way into the winner’s match.

Match 2: Royal vs Mind
Mind can have a tough time in TvT. That’s why he failed to win ASL 15. Royal is quite the opposite and welcomes the TvT matchup. Octagon offers to many avenues for a strong TvT player to bully his way to a win. Royal will be crowned the winner here and get to the winner’s match.

Match 3: Light vs Royal
This is THE match to watch. If you sleep in and tune in for one game, it must be this one. If Light wins, he will be considered another potential champion. If Royal wins, it means he has returned to championship form and must be feared in the round of 16. Either way, this will be a master class in TvT. Given the stakes and the history of these two players, Light will be beaming as he wins the group.

Match 4: Calm vs Mind
This match will be anything but a calm mind. Both players have always had highly entertaining play. This is the game where both players will think they can get away with one of their cheeky builds. We should expect both off-the-wall builds to create chaos. After deep thought, Mind will advance to the loser’s final.

Match 5: Royal vs Mind
“Well… we’re back in the car again.” This group’s final match slaps us with a rematch between Royal and Mind. Like Tim and Dr. Grant, Royal finds himself in the same situation, but will escape the clutches of the life threatening 0.1 ton vehicle known as Mind. Royal will reign supreme and advance.

Light and Royal Advance To The Ro16!

Flash begins his, potentially, final ASL campaign, and his return since ASL10, almost 6 years ago. In an all Terran group, he is joined by Rush, PianO, and Speed. Let the vulture wars begin! Much like the almost all ZvZ group that I covered, this will be simpler rather than doing a map-by-map analysis.

Flash - FlaSh is naturally the marquee player of this group, and even having not played for 6 years, he still slots in as a 2nd seed. Ever since his return to StarCraft a couple years ago, he’s constantly teased his fans and the community with a potential return, but it never happened, citing constant injuries. However, he’s finally bringing himself for one last run in the ASL before he considers retiring from tournament StarCraft forever. FlaSh comes in as one of the top dogs on the ELOBoard, where he has sat in the top 10 basically since his return. It’s hard to argue that he isn’t still the best Terran right now, and even Light would probably agree with that sentiment. In a mirror matchup that really highlights the player’s skill, FlaSh should feel right at home in an all TvT group.

Rush - In a rare moment, Rush was eliminated before the Ro8 last ASL. Rush comes back into this ASL ranking 6th in the ELOBoard, just behind FlaSh at 5th. In an all TvT group, Rush should feel quite at home as he has one of the best TvTs in the game at the moment. Rock solid and consistent, Rush’s style of play is exactly what you want in strong TvT. Although his TvT record on ELOBoard for the month of March has been a let down at 12-14, it should be noted that 12 of those 14 losses were to Light. While I still don’t expect him to be able to take down FlaSh, I think Rush has the goods to still manage to advance through the group.

PianO - PianO finally makes his return to the ASL since ASL14, and he even qualified through a rather difficult Day 1 group, beating Larva and Stork on his way to the main event. His play did give some rise for confidence in the underdog, but his overall record hasn’t been very strong, A nice win over BarrackS, yet dropping games to ggaemo, is not really where you want to be if you’re a player with aspirations of making a deeper run than just a Ro24 qualification. But for PianO, even making it back to the ASL is a good step in the right direction for his competitive career. It just so happens he’s got the short end of the stick with two TvT demons in his group.

Speed - Does this guy still even play Brood War? The last time he played Proleague was in January, and he doesn’t have any other games on the ELOBoard. He had a very simple run in his Day 2 Qualifier group, only needing to beat Free to qualify. The Terran who was hyped as the next serious player has really just not managed to hit his stride and reach his potential. Perhaps his nickname as 10minflash is the most accurate description of him after all. Without serious practice and getting more reps against the best players in the world, or even K-League for that matter, I just don’t find much confidence in Speed’s play. Yes, his vulture control is outstanding and given the vulture war meta of TvT, this should play to his strengths. And perhaps I would’ve picked him to advance if it wasn’t for the fact that two of the best TvTers in the game are in the same group.

Flash and Rush advance!

The final group in this Ro24 is definitely a very exciting one. 3 very strong players in BeSt, Jaedong, and Queen, with the ever chaotic 2 port wraith player in Leta rounding out the group. Can Leta upset one of these players and send them home early, and which of these tournament hopefuls will be sent home early?

Game 1: BeSt Leta

Leta returns his first ASL since ASL16. Sadly for him, 2 port wraith is an awful build in TvP. That being said, it’s not impossible to pull it off in a TvP. We did see him and Hiya try to force the build through several times back in the KeSPA era, but with so much optimization in the game since then, it’s likely a dead build at this point. BeSt’s PvT is also definitely still his strongest matchup, while Leta has mostly just been floundering in the lower ranks of the proleague. It’s difficult to see a world where Leta is able to manage an upset over BeSt.

BeSt wins.

Game 2: Queen Jaedong

It’s hard to write anything about a ZvZ, especially in today’s game where it’s much harder to outplay your opponent like old Jaedong. That being said, you can give an old dog new gaming hardware and apparently he gets better, so I’m going Jaedong here.

Who knows honestly… but Jaedong wins.

Winner’s Match: BeSt vs Jaedong

Both BeSt and Jaedong have been crushing it on the ELOBoards, with both sitting inside the top 10. While Jaedong has had the new hardware improvement and shown a resurgence in play, I would argue that where it matters the most is in his ZvT optimizations and micro with mutalisks. Still, I think that his 32-20 ZvP record in the month of March speaks volumes for the form that he’s in, and although BeSt definitely still has deep runs of ASL in him, I think this new Jaedong is going to manage to take this one.

Jaedong wins and advances.

Loser’s Match: Queen vs Leta

Regardless of which Zerg ends up facing Leta, I think both will manage just fine. 2 port wraith or even center 8 rax are builds both are going to expect from the cheesy Terran, and I envision both will be very well equipped to deal with the shenanigans that our favorite cosplayer will manage to throw at them. In a long, extended game, Leta’s chances will get worse and worse, so as long as the Zerg doesn’t succumb to early pressure, they’ll stabilize and pull this win out.

Queen wins.

Final Match: BeSt vs Queen

Queen has really just not found his old form. The 2-time ASL champ has seen better days, and he’s unfortunately up against a resurgent BeSt who’s had strong results in the past few ASLs. Queen’s tragic form has seen him drop all the way down to 16th on ELOBoard, and he’s only managed one Ro8 appearance in the last 3 ASLs. BeSt also managed to defeat him 2-1 in ASL20 to knock Queen out of the Ro16. Against a surging BeSt, Queen is going to need to find a way to disrupt the macro Protoss’s early game. It could potentially come down to the map too, as some of these maps in the map pool are definitely a bit odd to play on (Match Point and Jane Doe).

BeSt wins.

Jaedong and BeSt Advance To The Ro16!

---

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