The first half of the Ro8 concluded with no surprises. Now we get to the extremely stacked bottom half of the bracket.

Light vs Jaedong on paper is like one of the most exciting matches if you're a fan of TvZ(the best matchup in Starcraft) and I fully look forward to it being a full series even if our staff confidently predict that Jaedong is going to batter Light in a sweep.

Snow vs Flash is a major rematch at the exact same spot from ASL5, the final match of the Ro8 and Snow managed to close it against Flash in an epicly close series. Snow feels like he's only gotten better at the matchup since then so look forward to how this collision plays out.


Liquipedia

The bottom half bracket of this quarterfinals is one of the strongest we’ve ever seen. This review will cover Jaedong versus Light, but we can’t ignore the fact that one of these winners will be moving on to battle against Flash and Snow, the two most dominant players in their race in the modern era. Adding to the excitement is the rematch of Jaedong and Light from two seasons ago. Light may have dominated Jaedong almost exactly a year ago, but Jaedong is a much scarier version of himself this time around.

Light enters this matchup after an exhausting pure Terran group. While Light did advance last in his group, he’s only lost one series so far and has a tournament record of 6-2. Light pulls this off on his emerging dominance in TvT battles. As mentioned in other previews for Light, he’s found himself in a power shift since Kespa days. His form in TvP and TvT has become far superior then his TvZ. The result of this has cost him in recent tournaments. Last season, Light found himself facing top Zergs, Soma and Larva. Twice he had a chance to advance to the quarterfinals, but failed to do so. During ASL 19, he had an opportunity to take down Soulkey and advance in first place, but instead had to advance through the loser’s match. It’s not all bad news though. While he did lose to Soulkey, Light still found himself an easy 4:1 victory against Jaedong to finish in the semifinals of that tournament. Based on recent comments from Light, he looks very motivated to getting back to the semis and earn another seed.

Jaedong…is…undefeated. Imagine a world where you are told Jaedong would have to play Zero, Leta, Flash, and Bisu and he won’t drop a single map. You’d call that person crazy. Furthermore, the story of Leta, who looked like a weak player in this tournament is also dominating his opponents and only dropped one map. There can only be one player to stop giants and that’s the tyrant Jaedong. This is the best Jaedong has looked since Starcraft 2 came out. Ever since he took a dip in the TeamLiquid team hot tub, he’s looked rough. But now, he’s dried off, shed his reptilian zerg skin, and come out of stasis as the King of Blades ready to take on Light.

Match 1: Match Point
Jaedong and Light both put a ban on this map in the round of 16. It’s great when both players equally hate the map. It means they both will want to all in and make this a quick ending one way or another. Light will overplay his hand here and zerglings will catch him with his pants down. Jaedong wins game 1.

Match 2: Jane Doe
Remember that loss Leta suffered? It was due to Jaedong’s brilliant game on Jane Doe. Light is going to suffer the same fate as Jaedong takes a 2-0 lead.

Match 3: Neo Sylphid
Light will be facing down a 3-0 defeat here and further cementing the worst ro8 in ASL history if this happens. This map is very Terran favored and it will make it hard for Jaedong to pull off a perfect record against Light. Jaedong is playing out of this world and will continue his perfect record into the round of 4.

Jaedong Advances To The Ro4 3-0!

I would say that there is nothing more difficult in competitive video games than trying to beat Flash in a BoX series where Flash has plenty of time to prep. And while he’s already showed some of his tendencies against Bisu in his group stage encounter, you just know that he’s got so many different strategies cooked up. I mean, hard reading 13cc against 12nex is something we just expect from Flash, but the fact-cc-fact 5 tank marine push was something that certainly came out of left field and worked wonders. However, had Bisu retreated and bought time to take the fight with his reaver, things may have worked much differently, and this is Snow, not Bisu. Flash still continues to grind most of his games in an offline manner, not streaming his preparation and his proleague and online activity has come to a screeching halt. He’s truly in the hyperbolic time chamber as he prepares for what may be an incredible bracket run, potentially going through Snow, Jaedong, and Soma. But let’s not look too far ahead, he’s still got to beat the best Protoss on the planet.

Snow’s playing with a ton of confidence in his PvT right now. He basically killed PianO with 1 zealot and 2 dragoons after 4 minutes with some incredible micro (the game went longer, but PianO was 100% dead). But PianO isn’t Flash, and Snow definitely can’t rely on some early game micro skill checking to defeat Flash. His reaver control is going to need to be at peak efficiency if he’s going to plan on stopping Flash’s overwhelming presence when he times his early-mid game pushes. He (along with most other Protoss players in PvT) have been opening with these aggressive forward gates. But I can’t imagine that’s going to work very well against Flash, who’s known for his slick control in the early game and his top notch building placement to counter early zealot pressure. If Snow wants a chance in this matchup, he’s going to need to rely heavily on his shuttle control and hope that his hands and fingers are cooperating with him on match day. He’s also fortunate that this ASL has moved back to Bo5s in the Ro8, giving the underdog a bit more opportunity to steal a game or two.

Map pool: Match Point, Attitude, Jane Doe, Pole Star, Knock Out

It’s no question that Snow would want to pick the 2p maps with his map choices, while Flash would pick the 4p maps. Each player has done their job to optimize the winrates for themselves. However, Match Point could end up being a double edged sword, as while I expect that Snow will want to go for some gas steal nexus first shenanigans, Flash may have something prepared to counter that. We’ve seen some Terran do a proxy 10 rax, knowing that even if Protoss pylon scouts and gas steals, the economy would still be fairly even if Protoss opts for gate first instead of a nexus. Jane Doe is another interesting one, a map where I fully expect both players to open with fast naturals with Snow opting for the potential of fast carriers on both 2p maps. However, Flash will surely have that in the back of his mind and prepare specific builds to respond to the air plays from Snow, with maybe a fast push that will hit before Snow has a chance to get his stargates online. The 4p maps are going to be much more straight forward,though I envision a DT rush in one of these games where Snow tries to catch Flash off-guard and maybe out of his prep. With the ace match being another 4p map, I do anticipate Flash having the advantage in this series even if it is a Bo5 instead of a Bo7.

Flash Advances To The Ro4 3-2.

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