The Bracket themselves may look like a one-sided affair from the name value alone, but rest assured there are no toothless tigers in this jungle even with the most surprising of matchup pairing in ASL history.

The top half of the bracket while not star studded as the bottom still possess intriguing matchups ZvZ is always a rough affair for both players unless you're prime Jaedong which, to be honest seems to be where Soma might be heading as a player as he races closer to meeting his idol, but can hero, the most consistent player in ASL history lock down the defending champ?

Following that we have probably the most unlikely Ro8 match. The term underdogs is an understatement for both Leta and Tulbo. For them to be facing each other is quiet poetic. Leta has managed to make it this far coasting on his TvT ability. Now its time to see if Tulbo will be too much of a challenge considering how much he shows shades of players like JangBi?


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Soma might have legitimately gotten the unluckiest outcome for himself, as he would have probably been happy to face off against Light or FlaSh in a ZvT. Instead, he gets a ZvZ matchup, one of his worst and one of hero’s best. To make matters worse, he’s been struggling in the online ZvZ matches for the month of April, causing him to slide all the way down to the 20s in the ranking. He’s 18-25 as of writing this article, and his last 3 extended series have been a 6-9 loss to Soulkey, a 4-3 win over Jaedong, and a 1-4 loss to Jaedong. Even worse, he’s 0-3 against hero in daily proleague matches as well. His ASL ZvZ record is also not great, as he’s been eliminated in ASLs 10, 14, and 16 to Zergs while not really having the same success against them. It’s going to be an uphill battle and while Soma’s understanding and gameplanning is top notch, his raw mechanics are lacking in a matchup that is predicated on lightning fast decision making and extremely tight mechanical duels.

hero would’ve probably preferred Leta… although honestly getting the wraith master is probably a pain in the ass to prepare for. He certainly didn’t want Jaedong, so out of the two remaining Zergs, he’s probably pretty happy to go up against Soma, along with getting the “easy” side of the bracket. It’s been a while since hero made his way to the finals, the last time being ASL17 where he would lose 3-4 to Soulkey in a very close series. Speaking of which, it should be mentioned that hero did lose twice in 12h vs 12h openers, but did stage a comeback with a 9ps vs an overpool opener, so maybe he’s got a little bit of Jaedong magic in his back pocket. Still, hero’s ZvZ has looked fairly solid historically, and with the mental advantage of having beaten Soma three times in proleague this month, along with a strong 10-4 ZvZ in April and 4th on the ELOboard, hero’s definitely got the momentum advantage coming into this series.

Map order: Match Point, Knock Out, Jane Doe, Octagon, Pole Star

I’m actually super happy both 2p maps made it into the lineup, as these maps are the most likely chance that we’ll see some really interesting build orders, especially Jane Doe. I’m really hoping for Jane Doe to be a crazy late-game ZvZ with the backdoor bases and maybe some interesting ideas from these players, along with Match Point having given us some pretty incredible ZvZs in the past like Jaedong vs Yellow and ZerO vs Hyuk. Too bad we won’t see Shine or Queen on this map as they would’ve probably cooked up some spicy ZvZ strategies. Octagon and Pole Star actually have some potential for sneaky strategies as there’s so many good bases to take on these maps that offer some hidden strategies. We’ve already seen EffOrt go for a mixup on Pole Star for example with a hidden 2nd base out on the map after opening pool first.

hero Advances To The Ro4 3-2!

As we enter the bo5 stages, we are presented with an unlikely pairing between Tulbo and Leta. There’s a 0% chance that anyone predicted both these players would advance and eventually play each other for a shot at the semifinals. The bad news is that at this stage, you lose and you’re out. The good news is that at least on of these tournament underdogs will still have a chance to make it to the finals.

Let’s take a look at how each player got here. Tulbo has been in some brutal groups. He came out second to hero in the first round and second to soma in the second round. The irony now is that he will be force to defeat at least one of these two players in the semifinals. Tulbo has also taken the longest path possible. He lost his first game in each round. On top of that, he also has given up a map in each of his best of 3s. But this experience is invaluable. It shows that he has a strong mental state and great stamina to go through a good ole classic Brood War brawl with anyone he face. Tulbo also defeated two Terrans in his last two series to stand where he is today. Sharp and sSak aren’t two easy targets, so winning against them further reinforces his confidence in making it to the quarterfinals.

Leta enters the quarterfinals with a spotless round of 16 record. He dominated his field of all Terran opponents. When we last previewed Leta, we talked about how strong he was in TvT, but Kespa era stats don’t always get to apply themselves 13 years later. There is ONE big statistic that still haunts Leta to this day. Leta has never advanced past the quarterfinals. Despite all his talent, he has always fallen short. Even in the post-Kespa era, Rain defeated him 3-0 during KSL Season 2. Two of his other quarterfinals loses came from Flashes hands so you can only pity the guy for his record. But to hang on to a positive attitude, other then his opponent type-b, Tulbo might be the weakest round of 8 opponent he has ever faced.

Match 1: Knock Out
This has been a pretty good map for Terran lately. It’s designed pretty well for Terran to bunker down and hold expansions. Leta will take map 1.

Match 2: Match Point
Tulbo has had some pretty unique takes on early game build orders this tournament. Match point offers the perfect flexibility to catch your opponent off guard. Tulbo will either succeed with a shuttle drop or lose everything to Leta’s two port TvP build he will be revealing here. Leta will win game 2.

Match 3: Attitude
An apt name for this moment if Tulbo finds himself down two maps. Tulbo will double down on madness and take game 3 to make this series more interesting.

Match 4: Jane Doe
This is another absolutely wild map. Both these players play like the meta doesn’t apply to them. This will probably have 2 stalemate rematches before someone yields. Tulbo ’s persistence will pay off here and he will win tying the series up.

Match 5: Pole Star
The final map has been pretty bad for Protoss, but it won’t be bad for Tulbo . Curses are no fun if they stop. Tulbo will find some crazy way to overcome everything Leta throws at him. Leta will once again fail to make the round of 4 and lose in the final map.

Tulbo aka TULGOD Advances To The Ro4!

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