Soulkey made history by being the first zerg to 3 ASL/SSL in a row and now cements himself to be one of the all time best RTS player.

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Soulkey arrived at the final in dominant form. In the round of 16, Sea was simply brushed aside. Rush got crushed. In the quarters, Light looked in good form and he started strong. But then Soulkey flipped a switch and trampled over the Super Terran by adopting a delicious Crazy Zerg style delicately seasoned with a sprinkling of queens. The repeat of last season's epic semi was a much more one-sided affair this time. Thanks to smart mind games, like the three-hatch before pool opening on Minstrel, and well-timed aggression, Soulkey bamboozled Snow and made him look decidedly ordinary.

Soulkey's ASL/SSL form has been remarkable over the last three years. The last time he didn't make it into the bracket stage was all the way back in ASL 9, four and a half years ago. To put this in context, that was before the Covid pandemic really started to bite. And from ASL 14 onwards Soulkey was either knocked out (narrowly) by the eventual winners, or took the title. I wonder how long his hunger will last.

Given Soulkey's impressive run, Sharp certainly had a lot of work to do. But, standing on the stage before the games, he looked confident. With good reason. Similar to Soulkey, our seemingly nickname-less Terran contender arrived on the final stage more or less untroubled. He breezed through a difficult group with Stork, Royal and Light. And, like for SK, the quarters looked difficult on paper. But sharp timings (hah!) proved to be too much for hero. Rain should've been a significant challenge, but thanks in part to some Protoss miscalculations, Sharp made it look easy. He showed us on Monty Hall why he is such a tricky PvT opponent with his excellent multi-tasking and relentless harassment. Unfortunately, that kind of play doesn't translate very easily to TvZ. The main question for me was if Sharp would be able to take the initiative somehow, or if the defending champion would win by dictating the games, like he did all season. I didn't gave Sharp much of a chance in the late game. But we didn't really get there. So let's have a look where the tournament was won.


Game 1, on Pantheon
The final starts on one of the more normal maps. Pantheon looks slightly Terran-favoured, but nothing too egregious. The players start in cross positions. Sharp opens 10-rax with a semi-wall at his natural, while Soulkey goes 12-hatch. The scouting drone heads diagonally across the map, possibly looking for some centre barracks shenanigans, and manages to slip past the wall. One SCV and two marines potter around the map, but turn back when the first zerglings hatch.

A lair starts morphing while four marines try to find a juicy overlord. Soulkey immediately starts a spire and then adds a third hatchery in his main. Sharp builds a quick academy and then three more barracks. The first six mutalisks arrive just after six minutes and force the small bio force to take shelter in the base. A few missile turrets are up already and there's a bunker behind the wall. So this shouldn't do very much, right?



Well, our champion cerebrate finds the marines out of position and his zerglings immediately slip through the wall to tear down the bunker. This might not look like much, but I think it set the tone for the rest of the series. Behind this move Soulkey starts his fourth hatchery at the bottom right natural. One marine tries to stim towards that corner of the map, but sadly dies from acute lungworm infection.

The four barracks are pumping out marines and upgrades are on the way. There should be some serious pressure coming soon. Sharp also starts his factory. And an SCV manages to scout the newest Zerg expansion before the extractor starts morphing.

The hydralisk den is complete, but Soulkey has hatched rather a lot of zerglings. The marines now have their first weapon upgrade. Bu when Sharp tries to connect up two groups of infantry the reinforcements get caught in a conga line and wiped out with minimal Zerg losses. The remaining marine force is small, out in the open and surrounded by dark shadows on all sides. You've all seen Alien so you know how this goes...



Of course mutalisks, with plus one armour, and a swarm of lings sandwich the Terran platoon. The marines get devoured whole, like little red riding hood. But there's no huntsman coming... Dare I say that moves like this remind me a lot of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? Also, look how SK is microing the mutas while also manouvering the other half of his army!

After these poor trades Sharp is in trouble. Terran loses about twenty supply, without seriously damaging the muta flock, and with it the ability to apply any pressure. Soulkey senses blood, and, with shark-like instincts, quickly hatches more lings. In the background, the hive is on the way, but that almost seems like a win-more move in this game state.

Sharp desperately tries to get out of his natural, but runs into more lings and mutalisks. SK trades his mutalisks to buy time for his lurkers. Where does he find the time to do all this stuff while he's constantly fighting? And sure enough the first three lurkers arrive just in time to set up a mini contain. Sharp tries gamely to micro five marines to pick them off. Very cute. But utterly ineffective.



The factory is floating, so there is no artillery support coming. Two science vessel are not enough. Sharp tries to get out with two dropships, but they get caught. A few troops unload, but they get gobbled up and both aircraft get scourged. The first defiler weaves past the dying marines. Consume is done and lurkers swarm-hop into the Terran main for the GG.


Game 2, on Dominator
On his first map pick, Soulkey opens 11-pool, while Sharp opts for a full wall at his natural. Zerg continues with gas before taking the natural for a super quick lair. SCV's start mining at the natural around the time as the drones do, which should give Terran a healthy economic lead. Soulkey doesn't see his opponent's main, but an SCV gets a full scout.

Mixing it up, Sharp starts construction on a very fast factory, followed by starport and armory, presumably for valkyries. The spire finishes at exactly 5:00, so Terran needs to be a little careful with the turret timing, especially on only one barracks.

Sharp tries to float out a factory, perhaps for a few vultures, but, of course, zerglings are chilling just in the right location. And this also gifts valuable intel to Zerg.



Two missile turrets and a bunker finish just in time to greet the first six mutas at the door. The turret positioning allows the Zerg flyers to get into a safe spot over the main minerals after killing most of the marines. The first valkyrie arrives, but two scourge are ready, so it only fires one barrage of missiles before exploding.

This leaves the SCV line open to being ransacked and the game is starting to look very bad for Sharp. But the second valkyrie manages to dance around long enough to survive. And, crucially, a single vulture, from the floaty factory, has snuck into the Zerg natural, stopped all resource gathering and killed four drones. Soulkey has a third base, but his economy is now quite low. The mutas are forced to return home to deal with the carrion-eater, giving Terran a few moments to breathe.



A second vulture finds the third base, but mutalisks hunt it down very quickly. The Zerg air force tries to apply some pressure, but Sharp controls his two missile frigates well and forces a retreat. This is the moment for Terran to apply pressure, so the army moves out.

Despite the low economy, Soulkey has squeezed out a couple of lurkers, but the Zerg army is still relatively small. The valkyries almost get caught, but in the end only the Zerg takes damage in the air engagement. Sharp is slowly clawing his way back into a position to contest the game. He's now on five barracks and his machine shop is working on siege.

The Zerg economy is now in a better state and a healthy number of lurkers has hatched, which Terran can't contest with a single siege tank. The first science vessel parks too close to a junction and gets impounded by the scourge police. This makes it very difficult, if not impossible, for Terran to get onto the high-ground outside the Zerg natural.



Soulkey looks safe, but Sharp has plans. The next passage of play might be the highlight of the final. The Terran commander drops a platoon of bio into a dark corner of the Zerg main. Paratroopers rush forward to shoot up a bunch of drones and start taking pot shots at the spire. Zerglings trickle in to defend, but they can't quite get through the second dropship load. In the heat of battle, Sharp throws away the valkyries, but there aren't a lot of mutas right now, so it's bad, but not a disaster. Lurkers try to flank the remaining Terran units on the high-ground.



But Sharp scans and pulls back just enough to hold the position. More marines elevator into the Zerg main. There is a very close battle which the reinforcing lurkers narrowly win. If the Terran forces had prevailed here and started mowing down the tech buildings, then victory might have been in reach for Sharp. As it is, superior Zerg forces swoop down on the Terran forward position and wipe it out.



Sharp still has a functioning two base economy, decent tech and a healthy supply lead, so the game goes on. But the lurkers get very close to his base and hive is done. Just when Sharp is trying to take a third base, Zerg forces once again pounce from multiple angles and overrun his position.



The lurkers and hydras take control of the Terran natural. The first defilers arrive and lurkers swarm-hop into the Terran main for the GG. Deja vu?


Game 3, on Deja Vu
After dominating the first two games, it's Soulkey's turn to mix it up with a 9-pool. Fortuna favours the brave and rewards the cerebrate with close positions and scouting in the correct direction. Sharp goes for another semi-wall and, luckily for him, he finds the Zerg base on his first try too.

The zerglings arrive at the wall and get literally nothing done. When Soulkey isn't looking the marines move out silently and ambush the zerglings. Four marines break off unseen and head over to the Zerg natural. Soulkey misreads the situation and cancels his creep colony. Two drones pay the ultimate price. Then lings hatch and take back control. But with only a single drone mining the natural, the Zerg economy is very thin.



The first mutalisks arrive, but the Terran defences hold firm. With no real openings, Soulkey once again commits to breaking the bunker, but this time he loses more lings and the mutalisks take damage too. Sharp orders the bunker to be rebuilt, at the cost of three SCV's, and mutas and lings once again tear it down. But the trades are not good enough to improve Soulkey's position.

Plus one air attack finishes and the mutas start making some progress through the turrets at the natural, but Zerg supplies are flatlining, while Terran is growing. A control group of bio gets out on the map. And with good micro the marines pick off a couple of mutalisks that Soulkey can ill afford to lose.

One marine runs a doping-fueled ultra-marathon across the map to make sure the Zerg infestation hasn't spread to the bottom right corner. It's not so obvious to me why, but Sharp has sent out two control groups of bio to hang around somewhere in the wilderness, with no anti-air cover and not really good enough micro. And sure enough the mutalisks nibble away at the edges and then overwhelm the units, just like in the first game. With supplies surprisingly even it'll be a while before Terran can get active again.



Soulkey senses that this moment may be his opportunity to turn the game around. The mutalisks pounce on the turrets near the barracks. But a single valkyrie is out and, since there are no scourge, it does a lot of damage. Mutalisk parts rain from the sky, but the marine count is very low so Sharp struggles to assert control. The second valkyrie stays alive to get in a few more volleys.

And once there are three valkyries there's little Zerg can do. The hydra den has only just finished and the economy is still threadbare. Four scourge try their best to shorten the odds, but Sharp doesn't need the valkyries to win the fight, so they just fly a little circle until all the Zerg units are gone. GG.

Interestingly, even in this game it felt like Soulkey was the one who controlled the flow of the game. In between the games, Sharp is muttering it himself, while Soulkey stretches his... jaw. Make of that what you will. Was he clenching his teeth too hard in anticipation of Terran blood?


Game 4, on KICK BACK
Sharp sticks with the same 10-rax template, with a faster gas. The barracks is surprisingly right next to the command center. A fast factory follows. Soulkey goes back to 12-hatch. I'm sure he would be happy if he realised that it's cross spawn. But with his first real misstep of the final, the cross-scouting drone only checks for a wall, and thus actually misses the Terran main.



Sharp's SCV on the other hand does manage to confirm what Zerg is up to. When the confused scouting drone heads to the top left for a second time there are two marines blocking the entrance. So Soulkey should be blind for the time being. But Sharp isn't paying enough attention and the toothy critter sneaks along the edge to find a vulture. Not that it would have really mattered, because a sunken colony is already up.

The timing of Sharp's build is, well, sharp. Speed finishes just as the vulture see the creep. And two speed vultures can do a lot against slow lings. They get past the sunken, although one nearly gets trapped against the wall. But the reigning champion has obviously seen it all before...



Soulkey dispatches the vultures with the comical ease of a bored god. Fresh lings protect the ramp to the first expansion and then shepherd the hover bikes towards the back of the main mineral line. Drones are already in position at the bottom and the trap snaps shut. Sharp bags a grand total of two lings and one drone. That's 33% less minerals than the cost of the vultures. Never mind the speed upgrade.

Sharp has no other option but to carry on with his mech plans from an inferior economic position now. Soulkey knows exactly what's up and starts macroing up. He grabs a third gas, morphs more hatcheries and techs to his dark heart's content. And Terran just has to sit there and make goliaths.

Current Soulkey is like an unholy mix of prime Jaedong, The Dark One and EffOrt. So of course there are burrowed lings keeping tabs on the mech army.



Sharp builds more factories and starts laying mines. Soulkey keeps hatching mutalisks. One of the few things that goes well this game (or this series, if you will) for Terran is that vultures manage to kill a drone sent to start a fourth base. So Zerg just sends out two drones to take three and six o'clock simultaneously. Because what is Terran gonna do about it? That's right. Nothing. The Terran army is busy walking back and forth through the Terran base to keep the mutalisks at bay. Down the ramp, up the ramp, down the ramp, up the ramp. Turns out legs are only OK compared to wings.

Sharp doesn't seem to really know how to secure his economy. He parks seven goliaths at one of his bases and Soulkey kills them more or less for free by pulling together something like 20 mutalisks.



Sharp is forced to pull SCV's and lift the command center. Zerg is almost twenty supply ahead. We're eleven minutes into this game, but honestly, it's pretty much over. Sharp tries to get something done with vultures, but of course there are hydras ready to slither out.

The mutalisks come back to wreck some turrets and a refinery, in a surely deliberate attempt to cause an oil-price shock. Those scoundrels! Inflation is already high enough! When the goliaths show up, the flyers rotate back to the other high-ground. This scene fast forwarded would go well with the Benny Hill theme playing in the background. Vultures kill three drones. Mutalisks massacre ten SCV's and a confused tank. The supply gap is now more than thirty.



A large group of hydras get bored of watching stuff burning on Telegram and decide to join the riot directly at the Terran base. However, this attack doesn't actually go well. Two well-positioned tanks make a load of flesh-coloured goo and an unspotted irradiate does a lot of damage to the mutas. But it doesn't matter. Soulkey is still twenty supply and two bases ahead.

Vultures kill a few more drones and the Terran upgrades are slowly getting there, but the growth trajectory looks a little too shallow. But perhaps with Soulkey still on Lair there is still a chance? Well, miracles do happen. Very occasionally.

A comical number of spread out mutalisks swoop onto the top high-ground again to enforce economic sanctions. But, to add a bit of entertainment, they go for the command center this time, which just barely survives thanks to a lot of high-speed duct-taping.



That would've been a good moment to bring a queen. But don't worry, they are on the way. It would simply be inconceivable to have a Zerg victory parade without royalty in attendance.

During the various shenanigans, another hatchery has finished at the bottom right main. The mech army, now with good upgrades, is getting closer to hitting critical mass and Sharp is starting to flex his one remaining muscle by pushing out. A few queens are accumulating energy for the inevitable celrebratory fireworks.

The mech army arrives at three o'clock for its first serious attack just before 18 min. There is a very large hydra flank, but spread out tanks are rather decent against squishy ranged units.



The remaining tanks and goliaths make short work of the Zerg expansion, but they are now cut off from reinforcements. And we are getting ever closer to brood o'clock.

Sharp does manage to pull his troops together, but he needs to do more damage. Much more. At the very least he has to shut down bottom left. And then the minerals start running out in his base. The remaining mech units head South. For the last time.



GG!


Game 5, on Minstrel
With his back face against the Iron Wall, Sharp finally takes the initiative with a forward 8-rax in a somewhat unusual position. Soulkey sticks with 12-hatch, so maybe Terran can get something done.

The scouting SCV starts a bunker, but drones force a cancel. The first two marines trigger a full evacuation of the natural, but one worker ignores the safety procedures and sadly succumbs to lead poisoning.



Instead of heading home, the marines camp out near the center expansion closest to the Zerg base. Meanwhile, Soulkey has collected all the scouting info he needs, by spotting the factory. So he morphs a sunken colony at his entrance.

This is possibly exactly what Sharp expected, because he throws down a starport immediately. Two vultures are out on the map, but there's no angle to do any damage. Three marines narrowly miss a drone when their early morning walks cross unexpectedly.

In many ways this is the most unusual game of the series. Sharp is getting a wraith before starting his second command center on the high-ground, while Soulkey is delaying lair to squeeze out a few quick hydras.

The first wraith intercepts an overlord and lasers a drone. A few lings try to get up the ramp but there's a vulture and some marines, so they accomplish nada.



A lair starts morphing and Soulkey temporarily gives up on hydra pressure. How often have you seen a bunker at the top of the main ramp on Minstrel? Yeah, me neither. Looks a bit like an old-fashioned Heartbreak Ridge opening.

Soulkey plays it save and gets another hatchery in the main. And then he gets ready to treat his fans one more time, by also morphing an evolution chamber. You know what's coming. But, does Sharp?

Who knows. But we do know that he has very little production, still sitting on 1-1-1 and adding tech buildings. Though Zerg is still on two gas, so that's probably fine for a while longer. And, in a bit of a trademark move, vultures catch several drones consecutively trying to start a hatchery at three o'clock.



But Soulkey is the master of pivots, so he just takes six o'clock. The whole game has been rather strange so far. The hive starts morphing before the second barracks completes. Sharp is going up to at least five barracks, but he's got good tech ready. Meanwhile Soulkey is droning up and taking the top right right base.

The Terran army moves out with two tanks, a vessel and some infantry support. And then something strange happens. Sharp irradiates one hydralisk. To be completely honest, at this point I thought he had basically cracked under the pressure. He tried a bunch of different things and nothing is working. He must be feeling the strain. And sure enough this little move-out is also utterly doomed.



The Terran units move too far forward, get encircled by lurkers and hydras, and then obliterated trying to retreat to the bridge. Both tanks and most of the infantry get impaled. Oh yeah, the irradiate hydra survives by turning into a lurker. Of course.

For the first time we see Soulkey morph a nydus canal, so he doesn't think there's a quick kill to be had. For now. Sharp irradiates another hydra, just because he can. Then he sends a dropship along the bottom edge, which accidentally finds the six o'clock expansion, but it has to turn around because scourge are there.

Consume is finished and Sharp is still on two bases with a relatively small army. It probably wouldn't be too early for the producer to press the confetti button. The dropship continues its odyssey to the top right, but there is a sunken colony. So the troops unload a little away. (A little later they get redeployed somewhere else.)

Sharp tries his best to make something happen with good control and multi-tasking. The Terran infantry somehow gets through multiple lurkers under a dark swarm with irradiates and firebats.



The dropship gets scourged, as does one of the vessels. Another small group of units attacks the bottom expansion, but Soulkey has units ready everywhere. There aren't enough tanks or vessels to really deal with lurkers under dark swarm.

Lots of small groups of Terran units are scattered over the map. This is how Sharp likes to play the other two match-ups, and it's fun to see. But does it actually work?

The small maneuvers isolate the top right Zerg base, but there is a nydus canal and Soulkey is paying attention, so nothing ever happens to that base. It must feel good to be a Soulkey drone. SCV's start mining a third base just when we see the first ultralisks.



The first stampede pulverises about 20 Terran supply and Sharp relinquishes the supply lead for the last time. Soulkey has now either finally warmed up properly or he is showboating. While ultra-ling under dark swarm put the Terran third base in jeopardy, perfectly cloned scourge cut the vessel count in half.

There are some damaging mine explosions, but Zerg has endless supplies streaming across the map. The Terran rally point gets covered in dark swarms, as does the third base, and the units near nine o'clock. There simply is nothing left for Sharp to try.



GG.

And with this rather one-sided final battle Soulkey takes the series, and the first SOOP title, to collect his third Starleague trophy in a row. He beat the best players time and again, with style. None of his series ever looked close. We haven't seen anyone dominate like this in a long time.

All hail the King!
May the Iron Wall stand forever.

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Writers: Simplistik
Graphics: v1
Editors: BLinD-RawR