When both Flash and Jaedong decided to give the second season of the KSL a miss, citing the need to focus solely on the ASL, many started to question the feasibility of two StarLeagues running parallel to one another. Although my personal belief is that by giving lesser players a chance to compete on television the scene will surely benefit in the long run, the majority of casual viewers are more likely to tune in to watch players the caliber of God Young Ho or the Tyrant himself. That notion certainly rang true as the AfreecaTV studio in Gangnam got filled to the brim hours before the start of group D, featuring Flash, Jaedong, Action, and Light.

Match #1 - Flash vs Jaedong on Neo Transistor
Starting the day off on Neo Transistor, Flash spawned in the top right, Jaedong in the bottom on the same side. A hatch first opening for Jaedong was answered by Flash’s 1 rax expand on 20 supply, followed up by a second barracks. The Terran managed to find one of Jaedong’s overlords out on the map, denying any further scouting, whilst gaining intel with a worker in the Zerg’s base.

Flash’s scv, although missing the departing flood of lings, stayed in the Zerg’s natural long enough for the Ultimate Weapon to realize money must have been spent on things other than economy. Despite that, Flash misread the situation, quickly finding his marines surrounded by speedlings running up from either ramp, significantly reducing the Terran’s firepower.


With two hatch mutalisks on the way and insufficient defense in place, Jaedong whittled down the remaining Terran force with ease, knocking Flash down to the losers’ match.

Match #2 - Action vs Light on Neo Transistor
When Action proxy hatched Mong on Autobahn in the Round of 24, it became apparent that he’s got things planned for this ASL. With an opponent as well-versed in TvZ as Light, Action would have to pull another wonky strategy out of his bag of builds (that he’d most likely nicked from Shine). Spawning in the centre left against Light in the bottom right on Neo Transistor, Action ended up losing an overlord rather early on, which significantly slowed down his early game progression. The 2 hatch muta followup, although not doing any direct damage, kept Light contained in his bottom right corner, allowing Action to go up to an extremely quick hive on 2 bases. Despite a decently timed scan revealing the hive timing, Light never caught wind of the incoming proxy nydus, finding himself beleaguered by lurkers under dark swarm at the 10-minute mark. Without a proper response, Light tapped out.


Winners' Match - Jaedong vs Action on Sylphid
With both favourites of the opening matches down in the losers’ match and the underdogs facing off in the winners’, things were yet to get saucy.

Jaedong’s the bogeyman in every Zerg’s closet, the Freddy in their nightmares. On paper, facing Action could have just as well been a free pass to the Round of 8. The build order roulette gave Jaedong a decent head start on his opponent, with a 12 pool opening against a 9 pool on the other side of the map. Things kept falling in place as Action’s lings got scouted by an overlord turning around once JD realized he’d sent it to the wrong spawning location on Sylphid. Playing a game of cat and mouse, the Tyrant eventually managed to bait Action into committing to the ling pressure, surrounding the attacking force and significantly reducing the latter’s map presence.

A momentary lapse of judgment saw JD hesitate, as his counter-attack failed to push through to Action’s main, who’d managed to sneak a detachment of lings of his own to take control of JD’s natural. Evening things out eco-wise, the former KT Zerg retreated, keeping JD in check with a handful of mutalisks. A miscalculation on Action’s part gave Jaedong the leeway he needed, slipping through to the main base, forcing a drone pull, though not finding that much direct eco damage.

The pace of the game eventually slowed down, allowing Jaedong to invest in a muta force of his own. The eco advantage accrued by JD over the course of the game left Action behind in all aspects of the game, with fewer drones, mutas, scourge, and a nasty supply block hitting right as Jaedong moved out. The only thing keeping the Tyrant back were Action’s lings, constantly threatening with a counter.

Jaedong eventually decided to pounce. Flying into Action’s main with 11 mutas and a bunch of scourge, the defender found himself a single mutalisk behind. Better scourge connections and closer reinforcements suddenly see-sawed the advantage in Action’s favour, who, during the attack, also snuck a handful of lings into the enemy drone line.


Almost doubling Jaedong’s supply, Action chose not to over-commit, catching JD’s remaining mutalisks to further his lead. With his eco in tatters and nothing to contest the muta flock, Jaedong tapped out. Action got out of group D in first place!

Losers' Match - Flash vs Light on Sylphid
Facing elimination was not what either Flash or Light had in mind, I reckon, as the TvT on Sylphid got underway. Light, spawning in the bottom right, while Flash, having taken the usual swig of Pocari Sweat, randomized to the top centre location. Light, opting to go for a 1 rax expansion, found himself going up against a factory expand. Adding a second factory, Flash’s game plan consisted of applying as much pressure early on as possible. Upon scouting no further production facilities, Flash opted for an academy + armory combo, countering Light’s 2 port wraith follow-up. As the goliaths started reinforcing the push, Light, having delayed siege mode in favour of continuous wraith production, found himself unable to thwart Flash’s advance.


The Ultimate Weapon pushed through, eliminating Light from the ASL.

Finals' Match - Flash vs Jaedong on Circuit Beaker
The rematch to top all rematches - Flash versus Jaedong. The unnerving reality that one of the absolute favourites to take the season would not get past the Round of 16, all in a single game on Circuit Breaker, was witnessed by over 85,000 viewers on AfreecaTV.

Flash, the brown Terran spawned in the top left hand corner while Jaedong, the green Zerg spawned in the top right. Jaedong, having fallen to Last 0:4 in the KSL finals, found himself going up against the very style that had done him in. Flash’s 1:1:1 opening quickly ended up on the receiving end of a 3 hatch ling flood, as the first vulture fell to speedlings in the centre of the map. Keeping the Terran occupied with constant ling-based pressure, Jaedong switched into mutalisks. The Tyrant’s reliance on aggression became apparent, as JD followed up with a hydralisk den and another batch of lings. Successfully denying Jaedong’s multiple attempts to take a third lulled Flash into a false sense of security, as the three-time ASL champion got blindsided by a hydra bust.


No scv pull from the Terran and things suddenly went topsy-turvy, as Jaedong pushed the defender up his ramp. He had the game under control. Jaedong could have macroed up, could have started researching upgrades, and going further up the tech tree. For some reason, though, JD’s insistence on closing the game out became a major issue, as the Zerg kept throwing units away for no return on investment whatsoever. Slowly but surely, Flash’s tech advantage allowed him to retake control of his natural, and with siege tanks and irradiates on his side, the Terran pushed across the map, eliminating Jaedong from the ASL. Flash did touch on this in more details on his stream, explaining what Jaedong was doing here.


Action and Flash advanced to the quarterfinals!