Once brackets were drawn it became clear that this is the best possible finals we could have from a hype and narrative standpoint. This is a generational battle, Flash the greatest player of all time and Soma the dominant reigning champion.

Soma never played professionally during KeSPA era and only rose in prominance during ASL becoming a true inheritor of a style that was perfected by Flash's greatest rival, Jaedong.

Soma is the reigning champion but for him to truly cement his legacy he needs to beat Flash here and now as Flash has called to retire from competition citing his long running wrist issues. But Flash is also determined to use his last chance to get his 5th ASL trophy to become the winningest ASL champion, even paying tribute to a famous clip of NaDa's celebration after his semifinal match against Light.



Though if Flash remembered his history he would know NaDa lost that finals.

Does Soma have the strength to make history repeat itself and forcably take the torch from Flash's hands? Or will Flash break another record on his way out?

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Flash has returned. The greatest player in StarCraft history stepped away from ASL and now immediately storms back into the finals. His path has been brutal too. Flash defeated Bisu, Snow and then completely dismantled Light 4-0. Flash beat almost the entire royal family of Brood War in a single season.

But waiting for him is the defending champion! Soma returned last ASL and won the entire tournament. Now he follows it up with another final’s appearance. His path through season 21 has been fantastic. He defeated Tulbo and sSak in the Ro16 before completely crushing by.hero 3-0 and Leta 4-1. Across back to back ASLs, Soma has now eliminated Larva, Light, Best, Bisu, Snow, hero, and Leta. Soma is officially one of the strongest modern Zergs we have ever seen.

What makes Soma especially interesting is his background. During the KeSPA era, Soma never played professionally. He was not developed in the old system like Flash, Bisu, or Jaedong. He climbed from the amateur scene and slowly turned himself into a champion. He joined SouLGaming in 2020 and spent years grinding smaller events before finally breaking through. That rise feels almost impossible in the Korean Brood War scene. Most champions were already legends by age 20. Soma built himself into one after the golden era had already ended.

Flash on the other hand is the final boss of Terran versus Zerg. His KeSPA TvZ winrate sat around 72%, one of the most absurd matchup records in StarCraft history. Even his losses became legendary moments. In the 2010 Korean Air OSL, Flash blew a 2-0 lead against EffOrt. Flash recovered days later by destroying Jaedong 3-0 in the Hana Daetoo MSL finals while opening 14 CC every game.

In ASL history, Flash has only lost elimination series to a few elite players such as Last, Snow, EffOrt, ZerO, and Soma. Soma defeated Flash (who played random) 4-2 in the ASL Season 10 semifinals. Very few players in history can say they beat Flash in a long playoff series. Soma already did it once and now gets the opportunity to do it again.

The difference between EffOrt and Soma is important too. EffOrt was called the Alien. His aggressive style could drag Flash into fights he wouldn’t normally get caught in. If EffOrt is the Alien, Soma is the Predator. He seems stronger mechanically and even more aggressive than EffOrt ever has been. If EffOrt’s style is to hug your face to death and spawn from your insides, Soma’s style is to laser target lock on to you and fire until you are blown to bits.

Match 1: Jane Doe
This is Soma’s map pick and a great way for him to start the series. Flash has done a good job of picking builds and forcing his opponents to play reactionary. Soma does the same thing. Flash wasn’t made to feel too uncomfortable in his fight versus Light, but Soma is going to attack in the same ways Snow and Jaedong made Flash struggle. He will win the first map.

Match 2: Octagon
This might be the most controversial prediction of the series. Soma’s modern TvZ understanding is just absurd right now. Soma steals another game and jumps ahead claiming a rare 2-0 start to the series.

Match 3: Neo Sylphid
Neo Sylphid feels much more comfortable for Flash. The shorter distances and cleaner movement paths allow Terran to secure map control faster. Soma finally drops a game here.

Match 4: Pole Star
This is where the pressure starts getting to Flash. Pole Star has historically leaned better for Zerg and this will help Soma to take a 3-1 lead.

Match 5: KnockOut
Facing elimination, Flash will refuse to lose in such a bad fashion. He will find some way survive here and advance to game 6.

Match 6: Attitude
This is Soma’s closeout point. Soma will have worn down the person known as God and turned him into just another man with weak wrists.

Match 7: Match Point (if played)

Soma defeats Flash 4-2 To Become ASL21 Champion!

The greatest StarCraft player of all time advances to what may be his last final in a professional tournament. A final crescendo to what is arguably the greatest career in any esport. And while the fans begin to get emotional, and reminisce of a historical career with countless epic battles, Flash’s eyes have never wavered from the prize, seeking to once again climb the mountain and cement his legacy. Will he triumph over all odds with one of the hardest roads to the finals in ASL history, or will curtains fall in a tragedy? One last final, here we go.

Flash’s Journey to the Finals

Ro24: 1-0 Speed, 1-0 PianO. Flash’s return to the ASL was a sign of things to come, as he quickly dominated his TvT group with surgical play that left no room for his opponents to breathe.

Ro16: 0-1 Jaedong, 2-0 Ample, 2-0 Bisu. Although losing to Jaedong in an exciting game, Flash quickly shrugged off the loss with more domination over Ample and Bisu to make it to the bracket.

Ro8: 3-2 Snow. Flash’s most difficult competition yet, he scraped by Snow in a back and forth Bo5 that pushed both players to the edge of their abilities. But Flash managed to toe the line between swiftness and rushing, and won the series to advance to the semifinals.

Ro4: 4-0 Light. In utter domination that really slapped the exclamation point on his TvT career, Flash wiped the floor with Light in a Bo7 TvT series that didn’t even last over an hour and a half of game time. Not one game was close, and spectators felt like Flash was playing a completely different game as he bulldozed Light on his way to the finals.

Flash’s Game Plan

It’s no secret that Flash’s TvZ suffers the most as a result of his arm condition, as he has hedged more and more into simpler bio builds like returning to tank/vessel style over pure SK style, along with figuring out ways to make mech more viable. He enters this final with a severe nerf as a result, as his play will likely be very predictable for Soma to prepare for. However, we also saw that Flash’s control and play against Light was near impeccable, so it’s possible that his final push will be giving everything he has to give, even if it comes at the expense of his arm. If he gives it his all, we may see Flash reinvent some bio builds just for these finals matches and catch Soma completely off guard.

One main advantage that Flash also has over Soma is that he has only played one TvZ so far this tournament, a 13cc into mech build which Soma already knew was in Flash’s arsenal of builds. Meanwhile, Soma has had to play 2 Terrans this tournament and revealed some strategies, like the willingness to open 4 pool. And unlike Soma, Flash continues to practice offline, not revealing any strategies on stream, while Soma continues to play online events and sponmatches. Soma’s actually played an incredible 115 ZvTs this month, with several being long format sponmatches (15-6 over sSak, and 21-12 over Rush), so there’s plenty of research that Flash can do on his opponent. We all know that his meticulous preparation and build order optimization is aided by getting to watch his opponent’s tendencies. But, if there was one thing that hurts Flash’s optimization; Soma is one of the few players who is also meticulous with optimizing his early game to the exact mineral. Don’t expect Flash to come charging out of the early game with too much of an advantage compared to his games against Light.

Map Analysis

Luckily for Flash, there are several maps that actually favor more typical tank/vessel play, or mech play. Jane Doe definitely screams out for some sort of mech play, though Flash will need to consider his opening choice wisely as Soma was the one to pick this map. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if Soma opened with a 4 pool expecting Flash to CC-first and set the tone of the series. I even wouldn’t be surprised to see Flash attempt CC-first into mech on Match Point as well, given his long history with the map during his CC-first reign of terror over Zergs in 2009-2010. Tank/vessel pushes also work perfectly fine on Match Point as an option.

The rest of the maps will play out more standard, though don’t be surprised if Flash tries some trickery on maps like Octagon or Knock Out. He’s had countless Leta games to analyze as well if he decides he wants to attempt some starport/wraith strategies, but I envision he’ll look to open something more akin to 1/1/1 or even bio/valk into mech transition, a style he invented which Light has improved upon. But given that Flash himself admits his valk micro is poor, we’re not likely to see too many of those builds in this series. Sylphid is another likely tank/vessel map with some early 8 rax aggression possible, especially if Flash’s hands feel quick that day.

Flash Wins 4-2 To Become ASL21 Champion!

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