The dust has cleared from ASL 21 and Flash has fallen, chosing to honor his retirement and give up his seed that was eventually won by Snow in the wildcard matches and now we begin anew again. Will Soma continue his reign as two time back to back champion?

Or will the rest of the player pool step up to the plate to fill in the void left by Flash?

Liquipedia

Royal - Royal hasn’t missed an ASL since his first qualification in ASL9. But the ASL14 champ failed to qualify this season, dropping to Zerg players on both days of qualification. And his departure was a bit of a shock; Royal had been on a solid streak in proleague and is sitting 7th on ELOboard. While he hadn’t had had the best performances since his flagship victory in ASL14 (he’s failed to make the Ro8 since), he was always a mainstay and his improved proleague form likely would’ve put him on the map for a potential Ro8 appearance.

Protoss - Protoss players continue to struggle, as players like Stork and Tulbo failed to qualify. Rain didn’t even try to qualify this time (I guess he must’ve been playing League or something). At least Mini managed to make it in this time, but the Protoss lineup continues to be dire at just 6 participants, with Shuttle and ParalyzE rounding out a very weak Protoss lineup. At some point, map makers do need to consider what the next design choice is going to be if we’re going to see Protoss ever win another tournament unless someone is able to pull a Bisu and revolutionize Protoss play.




Zergs - On the flip side, 11 Zergs emerged from qualifiers to join Soma as the predominant race in this ASL. While not as many as the absurd 15 total Terrans last ASL, 12 Zergs this time will make things chaotic as ZvZ mirrors could give us massive upsets. It’s funny to see how many Zergs we have given the amount of whining they did pre-ASL, complaining about Odyssey as an auto-lose for Zergs and too Protoss favored when actually, the map is just fine for Zergs with Protoss actually having the short end of the stick statistically. If a good chunk of Zergs can advance to the Ro16, perhaps the tournament could see a massive shakeup if players like Soulkey and Soma go out to an early upset.

Soulkey/Soma - I don’t think it’s remotely disputed that Soma is the best player in the world right now. He’s toppled Flash last ASL, and continues to be an online monster, sitting #1 on ELOBoard with several multi-kills including a couple all-kills to his name in the past month. As I mentioned before, I think the only way we see Soma lose is through a random ZvZ coin flip where he loses. Soulkey on the other hand, is coming back strong with a rejuvenated mindset. After getting embarrassed the last 2 ASLs, Soulkey has finished his “vacation” period and has pushed up to #3 on ELOboard along with strong proleague performances. I think we’ll see Soulkey return to a strong bracket finish.

Group A kicks off ASL 22 with Rush, Hm, Bisu, and Shuttle. The most exciting part of this group is Hm making his debut in the ASL. As a former roommate of Mini’s, maybe having lived with such talent will finally pay off.

Rush reached the quarterfinals of ASL 19 before losing 4-1 to Soulkey. He fell in the round of 16 the following season and crashed out of last season’s round of 24 without a victory. Rush needs to prove that his playoff run wasn’t his final flash of relevance.

Bisu recovered from an 0-2 round of 16 exit in ASL 19 by reaching the semifinals of ASL 20. He defeated Larva 4-1 before pushing Soma to seven games. Last season, Bisu reached the final match of his round of 16 group, where Flash sent him home.

Shuttle is back after missing the previous two seasons. His last appearance ended 0-2 in the ASL 19 round of 24. Hm has never played in ASL, but he stormed through his final qualifier bracket without dropping a game.

Match 1: Rush vs Hm
Hm defeated RoyaL and Ample without losing a game in the qualifier. Rush is a larger challenge, and the ASL stage is different from an online bracket. Hm will make a dangerous first impression, but Rush’s preparation and experience will carry him through.
Rush wins.

Match 2: Bisu vs Shuttle
Shuttle defeated Tyson and Ruin to return to ASL. His reward is a PvP against Bisu. Shuttle needs an abusive opening because a normal game heavily favors Bisu. He will make it uncomfortable, but Bisu survives.
Bisu wins.

Winner’s Match: Rush vs Bisu
Rush and Bisu split their two most recent recorded individual meetings. Rush won their game in 2026, while Bisu won in 2025. Bisu has the stronger recent ASL result, but Rush’s TvP remains dangerous enough to steal a best of one.
Rush wins and advances first.

Loser’s Match: Hm vs Shuttle
This is Shuttle’s opportunity to prove his return matters. Unfortunately, his recent ASL history offers little reason to trust him. Hm arrives with better form and no fear of the stage yet. The newcomer ends the former champion’s comeback.
Hm wins.

Final Match: Bisu vs Hm
Hm defeated two established Terrans to qualify, but Bisu is an entirely different problem. Bisu has too much experience against Zerg and too much pride to lose his Ro16 position to a debuting player. Hm’s first ASL run ends one game short.

Rush and Bisu Advance to the Ro16!

Group B is an absolute group of life, especially with Bo1s in play. No player in this group made the Ro8 last season, and Sharp only managed to make it into the Ro16 but got swiftly eliminated 0-2. Every player should be happy to have been drawn into this group, and several will look to make a rare trip to the Ro16.

Sharp - Sharp’s current form feels very Sharp. He just… sort of exists. The guy who randomly makes more Ro8s than any other player has had a very mixed bag of results and form as of late. When he shows up in major proleagues, he typically gets crushed. When he drops down to K-league, he typically can find results (though the last time he was in K-league, he lost to BTS and Motive). Sharp feels more like a gatekeeper than anything between K-leaguers and the major proleague roster, and he can flex into either league depending if one or the other needs him. Getting the lucky draw into the weakest group this ASL means that he can sort of act as the Ro16 gatekeeper. But at the very least, he’ll still need to be on his toes as any of these players in the group can make things very tricky if they prepare some Bo1 cheese.

Shinee - Shinee finally makes his ASL debut after several attempts. As it goes, newcomers generally do not do well in their debut season, and to be frank, outside of Soma who immediately jumped from Ro24 to 4th and 2nd in the immediately following ASLs, no other debutant has really risen up the ranks quickly enough to justify putting any faith in the newcomer. When the other “notable” results in your profile is foreign wins, and very mediocre results in the Escore tournament, it’s not looking like a crazy debut.

Action - Action is such a weird case. Whenever he qualifies for the ASL, he actually normally makes it to the Ro8 more times than not. And at minimum, he usually advances to the Ro16. But Action has missed the last 2 ASLs failing to qualify, and his last tournament was finishing a disappointing exit from the Ro16. He’s also been not too active on the ELOboard, sitting at just 17th with most of his game coming against Terran players. While I have confidence that he should take down Shinee, against Sharp and Shine, Action could find himself in some trouble. I don’t think his standard play is good enough against Sharp, and there’s always a question mark in ZvZs. Still, a lot of those Terran games were against Rush, where he went 9-11 against Rush across 20 total games, so the reps are there for him to pull off an upset.

Shine - Shine is back! And on some crazy maps like Colorless Fate, Odyssey, and Aiolos, perhaps he’s got some nice builds cooked up. All three maps have some weird base layouts or map terrain that can really come into play for a sneaky bag of build play. That all being said, Shine really hasn’t been able to make a breakout in the ASL for several years now. He hovers between not even qualifying, or getting bounced out of the Ro24. But with a ZvZ coin flip as the first matchup he sees, there’s always a chance for him. Though, if I’m his opponents, I’m always going to ban the 2p maps against Shine.

Sharp and Action Advance To The Ro16!

Group C is filled with players in need of a strong performance to prove to themselves and their fans that they can reach their potential in the ASL. There’s been promising signs for a few of them, but it always feels like the players keep stumbling or falling short of expectations. Perhaps ASL22 will be their time to make the deep run that they’ve been looking for.

BeSt - BeSt has had some pretty awful runs in the ASL as of late, and it constantly feels like his form never seems to improve. He’s only sitting 11th in the Eloboard, and he’s been consistently underperforming in the proleague formats. With only 33 games registered this month, BeSt has one of the lowest game counts for players you expect to make the brackets. Up and down proleague results also doesn’t make his case look great, with most of his wins coming against players who are heavy underdogs, with only a few games against stronger opponents going his way. Coupled with the awful map pool for Protoss this season (well, every season), it’s may come as a shock to the the readers but it’s difficult to make a case for BeSt to emerge from such a tough group with players like Jaedong and a surging Speed.

ParalyzE - Paralyze hasn’t been an ASL regular, only making it in once in a blue moon. But even his ASL qualifier group on Day 2 was sort of weak, only needing to beat Scan and Horang2 to advance. In fairness, just qualifying is probably all that Paralyze was hoping for, so he’s probably already accomplished his goal. It’s just bad luck that he landed himself in one of the group of deaths in this Ro24. With not much results to speak of and not even making it into K-league, much like Shinee, I think Paralyze is going to have trouble with advancing through against such a stacked group.

Jaedong - After so much hype in over the past few ASLs, Jaedong has only been able to muster a Ro8 finish twice. After a masterful triumph over FlaSh in the Ro16, Jaedong put up a good fight almost completing the GGPlay/Jaedong and reverse sweeping Light, only to fall in the final game to lose 2-3. Since then, Jaedong has not been in the best form, sitting at just 9th in the ELOboard. However, Jaedong has one thing going for him this time around: his ZvZ is still arguably the best in the world (one could argue that Soma, Soulkey, and EffOrt have strong ZvZs too). Unfortunately, he’s the only Zerg in this group, flanked by strong players who are hungry for a deep run. He’s had mixed results against strong Protoss players like Mini, BeSt, and Bisu, while his ZvT has been a let down, especially in this new 111 meta. Can he turn around his online form and manifest a strong offline tournament run? I think he’s still got that potential, and the Ro24 is certainly not where we would expect Jaedong to be eliminated.

Speed - Speed has been a big question mark ever since his strong run in ASL18. Everyone has constantly talked about how the 10 minute FlaSh, with his absurd multitasking and fastest hands in Korea, would finally break out and claim a spot in the bracket stage. But after being so close, his form has dropped off and hasn’t been able to replicate that brief peak. But this ASL, something feels different. He’s pushed up to his peak ELOboard rank of 4th; and astounding accomplishment for the man who’s never even been to the bracket stage in ASL. And his results aren’t just against the likes of K-leaguers, he’s playing against the best players and succeeding, finding himself as a semi-regular in major proleague. A recent 4k over Jaedong, Sharp, Light, and Snow, further solidified by strong wins over EffOrt and Hero, means that Speed is really looking like the player we thought he would develop into. I’m a believer, and I think this ASL is the one where Speed makes his Ro8 bracket debut.

Jaedong and Speed Advance To The Ro16!

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