They say second place is the first loser and in a competitive game like StarCraft such attitude is to be expected. Still, having almost reached the summit speaks volumes when competition is this stiff, so this week in group B it’s going to be about big game experience when ASL finalists Snow and Shine face relative newcomers Where and Ample, respectively.


In the (new) era of Flash being the man to beat Snow managed to make a name for himself very quickly on the back of his tremendous PvT prowess as he defeated The Ultimate Weapon in ASL season 5, eventually reaching the finals to lose to Rain. Snow is a curious player: he has exquisite small-scale unit control; he’s relatively “slow” for a progamer with an apm between 250 and 300; what he lacks in macro mechanics he makes up in the probably the world’s best shuttle/reaver micro - and he has amazing work ethic, playing literally hundreds of games each month. He has always been known for his amazing TvP, solid PvP and has historically struggled against stronger Zerg opponents. As of late, however, he seems to have been trying to correct his PvZ deficiencies, incorporating his trademark reaver/shuttle style in the matchup alongside more standard builds. He’s played a whopping 132 sponsored games in the matchup since March, which is a little less that two-thirds of his total games played - a testament to his efforts; thus he’s managed to attain a 55.3% winrate vs Zerg, although he still struggles against the top players.

Where, for his part, had made a name for himself more as a group-stage punching bag than a giant slayer - until KSL2, that is. In his group stage decider match he distinctively outclassed a stale and rigid Light, otherwise considered a TvZ specialist, earning himself a Ro8 spot. In the elimination phase he got thrashed 3:0 by then-defending champion Last, but had a decent showing and definitely looked like he had improved. Still, he’s yet to repeat even reaching the playoffs and is behind his Protoss opponent in both big stage experience and online statistics in the matchup (46.7% since March in only 30 games, including a 0:3 record against Snow himself). Certainly, he’s a cunning player and could be developing specialized builds to use against his opponent, but the best-of-five format is suboptimal for this approach - especially without a preset map order and with a big map pool. We could expect all kinds of mind games and aggressive speedling, mutalisk and drop plays from him to try and overcome the difference in experience with Snow as he did versus Light. With all that being said, Where looks like the underdog.

Prediction: Snow 3:0 Where

Shine is another ASL finalist, fairly well known both as a player and observer; he’s gained fame as the Bag of Builds for being, well, a bag of builds and as Bisukiller for being The Revolutionist’s nemesis. Even though he never managed to even come close to repeat his ASL3 experience, Shine is no pushover. He’s the smart, devious type of player who would have a special funky build prepared for every map he’s going to play but never too proud to do the cheesiest thing a cheeser can do - play standard. His fundamentals are also quite respectable, although not up there with the very best of Zergs, even though he sometimes does look lost in a macro game. Shine also has some very healthy sponmatch numbers, winning 60.3% of his games vs Terran, which account for almost 70% of his total games. As per usual with the Bag of Builds, he comes prepared and has gained considerable understanding of the game from the years of both playing and observing professional StarCraft.

His opponent this time around is KSL debutant Ample. Although he’s had his share of big games in the Sonic Starleague era, those were online tournaments. Offline events are a completely different beast and his recent offline experience is limited to appearances in ASL seasons 2 and 4, where he was eliminated in the Ro24. Outside tournaments, Ample has been playing relatively steadily for the past few months, averaging about 80 spongames per month and his recent online winrate versus Zerg isn’t that terrible on first glance either - 64.3% in 56 games since March. However, a closer look reveals losing records against the likes of Hyuk (1:2) and ggaemo (2:4); he is also yet to take a game off Soulkey or Zero, for example. The Terran player is the definite underdog as he has neither big stage experience nor numbers to back him up.

Prediction: Shine 3:0 Ample