[ASL] Ro8 Preview, Pt. 2 - Hot Off The Aisles Of S-Mart Text by BigFan Graphics by v1 As the Ro8 commenced, three different matchups awaited us: TvT, TvZ and PvP. The first series featured a TvT between Sharp and sSak where Sharp tried to replicate some of his past magic to bring down sSak. In the second series, our last zerg hero fought desperately against TvZ monster Sea to prevent a repeat of the mass zerg extinction event from SSL10.



All of these players fought valiantly helping to provide some very entertaining and bizzare games. Alas, there can only be one victor in the end. Read on for a recap of the first two groups by SC2John followed by previews of the last two Ro8 groups by FlaShFTW and BLinD-RawR respectively.



Finally, take a quick peek at staff predictions to see who we believe will advance from the remaining groups of the Ro8 to the semifinals. With that said, let's sit back, relax and watch some of the finest BW on the planet with the second group of the Ro8 set to be casted in both Korean and English in . Table of Contents Intro



Recaps

by SC2John



Previews

FlaShFTW & BLinD-RawR



Staff Picks

Liquipedia







sSak vs Sharp



We knew both of these guys had pretty good TvT. It’s not Flash vs Last, but it’s a pretty good matchup nonetheless. The games had quite a lot of back and forth action, but in the end, Sharp’s strategic brilliance won out over sSak’s "innovative" play.



Game 1 (Circuit Breaker):

The first game of the series was an example of a classic “oops” moment in TvT mech. Both players opened up with pretty standard builds, but sSak clearly assumed control of the center of the map with huge tank line. However, he got a little too eager and began a wraith switch while spreading his tank line too thin; Sharp easily punched a hole through the center of sSak’s contain and marched into the third without any problems.





"I'm not crying, I'm just scratching my eye!"

sSak had nothing but a handful of wraiths left to defend, and subsequently tapped out.



Game 2 (New Taebaek Mountains):

So...this game was a little weirder (though, what else would you expect from Taebaek Mountains?). It all started with a proxy rax bunker rush from Sharp. Some questionable micro allowed sSak to hold it while teching up straight to wraiths. As is standard, sSak flew his rax into Sharp’s main, landed it, and began to build his own proxy marines while Sharp prepared a 3-marine backstab to cut off reinforcements from any push.



sSak did the 2-2-2-2-2 (2 marines, 2 vultures, 2 tanks, 2 wraiths, 2 buildings) push with offensive barracks/supply depot wall-in to draw Sharp’s goliaths to the front of the base (see below). Meanwhile, the wraiths were given free reign over the SCV line. Sharp kept hemorrhaging SCVs and slowly falling behind in the tank count, eventually having to admit defeat.





You know, the standard contain with random buildings, an assortment of units, and wraiths

Game 3 (Fighting Spirit):

The previous games were pretty weird, but luckily Fighting Spirit was there to save us from any more awkwardness. Game 3 was the return to “normal” TvT. Tank wars, doom drops into the main, etc.



The game went to a late game, split map scenario, but ended pretty much the same way game 1 did. sSak tried to take control of the skies with a wraith fleet again, to which Sharp responded by punching a hole through his defenses and pushing into his natural. sSak held on for a lot longer this time, but separating him from his production facilities was just too powerful of a blow. It took a while, but Sharp eventually broke sSak’s only mining base for the win.



Game 4 (Overwatch):

The next (and final) game proved to be just as epic. Long, drawn out siege tank lines, broken only by mass wraith/valkyrie fights. Vulture drops all over the map. Everything that is good about TvT here. sSak put up a good fight, but Sharp just outmaneuvered him all game long to take the series 3-1.





Sea vs hero



This was the big series for this week. Sea, though wildly inconsistent at times, is one of the better Terrans out there on a good day. Though hero has been in a disappointing slump recently, he was considered one of the best after his victory in SSL11. Granted, ZvT hasn’t been hero’s strong suit, but for a player of his caliber, we expected big things out of him nonetheless. In any case, it was a good series overall. There were a few disappointing moments, but they were equally matched with some incredible holds and great micro.



Game 1 (Fighting Spirit):

Okay, game 1 was bad. Skip that one. Pretend it didn’t happen.



Game 2 (New Taebaek Mountains):

In the next game, Sea went for an uncharacteristic opening by skipping bio entirely and going straight into mech. Unfortunately, hero was able to abuse it pretty well with two-hatch muta play and a ton of ling runbys. hero arguably went a little too all-in, but it paid off in the long run since he was able to continually reset the valkyrie and tank count to keep Sea’s mech army from ever getting off the ground. Eventually Sea couldn’t hold off the Zerg waves anymore and had to tap out.



Game 3 (Overwatch):

Just like the third game of sSak vs Sharp, this was the return of “standard” stuff. hero held the initial marine/medic timing and even picked off half of the army when they got out of position, thereby weakening the followup tank/vessel push. Unfortunately, hero’s lurker tech was inexplicably late, and he lost his third base to a small marine/medic force—an event that should never happen.



This set the tone for the entire game as a conga line of siege tanks marched across the map. hero tried everything he could, but in the end, his early game mistakes just cost him too much, and he slowly starved out.



Game 4 (Circuit Breaker):

Imagine if herO had lurkers on time in the previous game—that was this game. hero managed to avoid taking devastating damage early on and made it to the late game, where he really shines.





Them trademark drops...nasty

Once hero was able to macro up, there were overlord drops into the main, ling runbys, lurker drops, etc. Sea was unable to keep up with hero’s late game macro and multi-tasking, and eventually crumbled under the pressure.



Game 5 (Fighting Spirit):

Holy crap, this game. If you’ve ever wanted to see hero play at his absolute best and his absolute worst in a single game, look no further. If not for the humongous throw, this would go down in the history books as one of hero’s greatest games.





Textbook proxy rax defense

If you’ve ever wondered how to hold hatch first against proxy rax bunker rush with an SCV pull, this is a clinic in perfection. hero killed all of the marines before they could make it to the bunker and then immediately countered with a ling attack, pulling even. Unfortunately, it seemed as though hero wasn’t quite sure how far ahead he might have been. He played overly safe, built a ton of useless sunkens at his natural and made a questionable in-base third hatch after mutalisks instead of expanding. In short, he didn't leverage any of his advantages; meanwhile, Sea was able to macro up uncontested.



In a decisive moment, Sea began to push across the map with the standard tank/vessel push. Despite having enough mutas, lings, and lurkers, as well as a wonderful flank available, hero instead opted for a backstab which did almost no damage. Undeterred from his push, Sea slowly killed all of hero’s forces while shutting down the third base in the top right through a drop. Confined to two bases with no gas units, hero made a desperation push to snipe Sea’s third. Sea shut it down promptly and took the series 3-2, advancing into the Ro4. The Ro8 has been about as wonky as the Ro16 so far. There have been some really amazing, clutch moments as well as some...not so amazing moments. It’s been a roller coaster ride of emotions, from on-your-seat suspense to complete bafflement. Nonetheless, there are a few gems to take away from the first two series.We knew both of these guys had pretty good TvT. It’s not Flash vs Last, but it’s a pretty good matchup nonetheless. The games had quite a lot of back and forth action, but in the end, Sharp’s strategic brilliance won out over sSak’s "innovative" play.The first game of the series was an example of a classic “oops” moment in TvT mech. Both players opened up with pretty standard builds, but sSak clearly assumed control of the center of the map with huge tank line. However, he got a little too eager and began a wraith switch while spreading his tank line too thin; Sharp easily punched a hole through the center of sSak’s contain and marched into the third without any problems.sSak had nothing but a handful of wraiths left to defend, and subsequently tapped out.So...this game was a little weirder (though, what else would you expect from Taebaek Mountains?). It all started with a proxy rax bunker rush from Sharp. Some questionable micro allowed sSak to hold it while teching up straight to wraiths. As is standard, sSak flew his rax into Sharp’s main, landed it, and began to build his own proxy marines while Sharp prepared a 3-marine backstab to cut off reinforcements from any push.sSak did the 2-2-2-2-2 (2 marines, 2 vultures, 2 tanks, 2 wraiths, 2 buildings) push with offensive barracks/supply depot wall-in to draw Sharp’s goliaths to the front of the base (see below). Meanwhile, the wraiths were given free reign over the SCV line. Sharp kept hemorrhaging SCVs and slowly falling behind in the tank count, eventually having to admit defeat.The previous games were pretty weird, but luckily Fighting Spirit was there to save us from any more awkwardness. Game 3 was the return to “normal” TvT. Tank wars, doom drops into the main, etc.The game went to a late game, split map scenario, but ended pretty much the same way game 1 did. sSak tried to take control of the skies with a wraith fleet again, to which Sharp responded by punching a hole through his defenses and pushing into his natural. sSak held on for a lot longer this time, but separating him from his production facilities was just too powerful of a blow. It took a while, but Sharp eventually broke sSak’s only mining base for the win.The next (and final) game proved to be just as epic. Long, drawn out siege tank lines, broken only by mass wraith/valkyrie fights. Vulture drops all over the map. Everything that is good about TvT here. sSak put up a good fight, but Sharp just outmaneuvered him all game long to take the series 3-1.This was the big series for this week. Sea, though wildly inconsistent at times, is one of the better Terrans out there on a good day. Though hero has been in a disappointing slump recently, he was considered one of the best after his victory in SSL11. Granted, ZvT hasn’t been hero’s strong suit, but for a player of his caliber, we expected big things out of him nonetheless. In any case, it was a good series overall. There were a few disappointing moments, but they were equally matched with some incredible holds and great micro.Okay, game 1 was bad. Skip that one. Pretend it didn’t happen.In the next game, Sea went for an uncharacteristic opening by skipping bio entirely and going straight into mech. Unfortunately, hero was able to abuse it pretty well with two-hatch muta play and a ton of ling runbys. hero arguably went a little too all-in, but it paid off in the long run since he was able to continually reset the valkyrie and tank count to keep Sea’s mech army from ever getting off the ground. Eventually Sea couldn’t hold off the Zerg waves anymore and had to tap out.Just like the third game of sSak vs Sharp, this was the return of “standard” stuff. hero held the initial marine/medic timing and even picked off half of the army when they got out of position, thereby weakening the followup tank/vessel push. Unfortunately, hero’s lurker tech was inexplicably late, and he lost his third base to a small marine/medic force—an event that should never happen.This set the tone for the entire game as a conga line of siege tanks marched across the map. hero tried everything he could, but in the end, his early game mistakes just cost him too much, and he slowly starved out.Imagine if herO had lurkers on time in the previous game—that was this game. hero managed to avoid taking devastating damage early on and made it to the late game, where he really shines.Once hero was able to macro up, there were overlord drops into the main, ling runbys, lurker drops, etc. Sea was unable to keep up with hero’s late game macro and multi-tasking, and eventually crumbled under the pressure.Holy crap, this game. If you’ve ever wanted to see hero play at his absolute best and his absolute worst in a single game, look no further. If not for the humongous throw, this would go down in the history books as one of hero’s greatest games.If you’ve ever wondered how to hold hatch first against proxy rax bunker rush with an SCV pull, this is a clinic in perfection. hero killed all of the marines before they could make it to the bunker and then immediately countered with a ling attack, pulling even. Unfortunately, it seemed as though hero wasn’t quite sure how far ahead he might have been. He played overly safe, built a ton of useless sunkens at his natural and made a questionable in-base third hatch after mutalisks instead of expanding. In short, he didn't leverage any of his advantages; meanwhile, Sea was able to macro up uncontested.In a decisive moment, Sea began to push across the map with the standard tank/vessel push. Despite having enough mutas, lings, and lurkers, as well as a wonderful flank available, hero instead opted for a backstab which did almost no damage. Undeterred from his push, Sea slowly killed all of hero’s forces while shutting down the third base in the top right through a drop. Confined to two bases with no gas units, hero made a desperation push to snipe Sea’s third. Sea shut it down promptly and took the series 3-2, advancing into the Ro4. Reaver Reaver on the Wall

Head to head: Shuttle 9-7 Jaehoon Post-KeSPA

The last two Protoss in the tournament are put up against each other, guaranteeing one Protoss into the semifinals to face off against the projected favorite between and Flash. , who’s beginning to pull a of 2015 by making a mysterious surge, knocked out heavy favorite while playing a clutch game on Taekbaek Mountains against to secure his spot in the brackets. ’s PvT secured his place after a tiebreaker in Group B against and to take first place. Who will come out ahead in the tech-heavy, micro-centric mirror matchup between these two Protoss?



’s namesake unit, the shuttle, has not been boding well for him. He’s been inconsistent with his shuttle play, where he would normally come from behind with stellar reaver play, he now doesn’t manage to regain footing in the matchup. His series against in the Kim Carry Myeongin Starleague highlighted his inconsistencies best: Good shuttle control in Game 1 to push through, while having miserable shuttle and reaver control in Game 2 when he should have pushed BeSt back. (Though to note, Shuttle went for a 2 gate zealot while BeSt went 1 gate tech and didn’t manage to do enough damage with his early zealots). However, Shuttle’s shuttle play is still superior to Jaehoon’s so I believe this will be a turning point in the matchup.





A very happy Shuttle after his win-or-go-home match against Free in the Ro16

Still, Shuttle needs to do a better job of expanding behind the pressure and keeping up in terms of economy, as a majority of his PvP games end up with him catching up on bases and ultimately settling for an all-in while a base down to end the game before his opponents win through sheer macro. His post-KeSPA vP winrate hovers around 56% and he currently leads the head-to-head matchup at 9-7. If Shuttle can shore up his build orders and polish up his shuttle micro, he should easily take the series.



Of course the Enigma Protoss, , is the hardest player to write a preview on. The man has not played a single off-line PvP for over 8 months now and the last PvP matchup he played was getting crushed 0-3 by his opponent, Shuttle. Having no current information for how he played in tournaments, I watched his stream to determine where his strengths lie. His shuttle micro needs work, he needs to pay more attention to avoid his shuttles being sniped and he needs better and faster management against opponent drops. In the matches I watched, Jaehoon lost entire probe lines because he did not notice the little red dot appearing in his bases and only won his matches because of superior macro; against Shuttle, this will not be enough. However, the bright spot I noticed was his low unit micro. In early goon vs goon fights, Jaehoon almost always came out ahead with impeccable dragoon management, never wasting shots on low health goons. Still, his goon micro alone will not be enough to swing the tides in his favor, so while I’ll give a map to Jaehoon out of pity, I don’t think he will defeat Shuttle in a Bo5.



Shuttle <Circuit Breaker> Jaehoon

Shuttle <New Taebaek Mountains> Jaehoon

Shuttle <Overwatch> Jaehoon

Shuttle <Fighting Spirit> Jaehoon

Shuttle <Circuit Breaker> Jaehoon



Shuttle 3-1 The last two Protoss in the tournament are put up against each other, guaranteeing one Protoss into the semifinals to face off against the projected favorite between Last and Shuttle , who’s beginning to pull a GuemChi of 2015 by making a mysterious surge, knocked out heavy favorite EffOrt while playing a clutch game on Taekbaek Mountains against free to secure his spot in the brackets. Jaehoon ’s PvT secured his place after a tiebreaker in Group B against Sharp and PianO to take first place. Who will come out ahead in the tech-heavy, micro-centric mirror matchup between these two Protoss? Shuttle ’s namesake unit, the shuttle, has not been boding well for him. He’s been inconsistent with his shuttle play, where he would normally come from behind with stellar reaver play, he now doesn’t manage to regain footing in the matchup. His series against Best in the Kim Carry Myeongin Starleague highlighted his inconsistencies best: Good shuttle control in Game 1 to push through, while having miserable shuttle and reaver control in Game 2 when he should have pushed BeSt back. (Though to note, Shuttle went for a 2 gate zealot while BeSt went 1 gate tech and didn’t manage to do enough damage with his early zealots). However, Shuttle’s shuttle play is still superior to Jaehoon’s so I believe this will be a turning point in the matchup.Still, Shuttle needs to do a better job of expanding behind the pressure and keeping up in terms of economy, as a majority of his PvP games end up with him catching up on bases and ultimately settling for an all-in while a base down to end the game before his opponents win through sheer macro. His post-KeSPA vP winrate hovers around 56% and he currently leads the head-to-head matchup at 9-7. If Shuttle can shore up his build orders and polish up his shuttle micro, he should easily take the series.Of course the Enigma Protoss, Jaehoon , is the hardest player to write a preview on. The man has not played a single off-line PvP for over 8 months now and the last PvP matchup he played was getting crushed 0-3 by his opponent, Shuttle. Having no current information for how he played in tournaments, I watched his stream to determine where his strengths lie. His shuttle micro needs work, he needs to pay more attention to avoid his shuttles being sniped and he needs better and faster management against opponent drops. In the matches I watched, Jaehoon lost entire probe lines because he did not notice the little red dot appearing in his bases and only won his matches because of superior macro; against Shuttle, this will not be enough. However, the bright spot I noticed was his low unit micro. In early goon vs goon fights, Jaehoon almost always came out ahead with impeccable dragoon management, never wasting shots on low health goons. Still, his goon micro alone will not be enough to swing the tides in his favor, so while I’ll give a map to Jaehoon out of pity, I don’t think he will defeat Shuttle in a Bo5.3-1 Swallow This!

It's the era's unstoppable force meeting the immovable object. Both flash and last are on a monster tear in the scene and it really pains me to see them meet up now rather than later because it could honestly go either way .



Long ago back in the KeSPA era, Last was only known to be a TvT Sniper on STX SouL with a 57% win rate in the matchup. For all that he has become this year, it's still his best matchup boasting a 20:6 (76.9%) in sponmatches including a 3:3 head to head with Flash in July. Flash is also on a similar warpath in the matchup with a 35:8 (81.4%) in sponmatches for the month of July, rapidly returning to his state of dominance as a player.



Both Flash and Last are extremely versatile players with the great mark of distinction that players who excel in the matchup have which is decision making. TvT will always be regarded as the chess of starcraft and both are players who have good APM, multitasking abilities and who think moves ahead of their opponents. Both players play a style that is unique to themselves; Last dominating his opponents and being able to pick them apart with surgical dismantling of their game plan while Flash is tenaciously aggressive, has insane macro and godlike awareness with excellent unit control to boot.





Ashes to Ashes, Flash to Last

This series will come down to who can handle the pressure the most. Flash definitely has the edge here and consistently has the upper hand over his opponents while Last is a player that is damn good at getting ahead and just staying there while watching his opponents slowly crumble. However, here, it's against Flash and time and again, Flash has proven that he can come back from the most dire situations over his long and storied career. It won't be surprising to see the theme of this series become Last establishing an early advantage and Flash doing everything he possibly can to swing the game in his favor.



Flash <Fighting Spirit> Last

Flash <Circuit Breaker> Last

Flash <Overwatch> Last

Flash <New Taebaek Mountains> Last

Flash <Fighting Spirit> Last



Flash to advance 3-2



If anyone has ever thought that TvT is boring and will swallow your soul, you need a boom stick to the face because Flash vs Last is the hottest match of the season, and it's a Bo5, so bring out the popcorn because its going to be......GROOVY! It's the era's unstoppable force meeting the immovable object. Both flash and last are on a monster tear in the scene and it really pains me to see them meet up now rather than later because it could honestly go either way .Long ago back in the KeSPA era, Last was only known to be a TvT Sniper on STX SouL with a 57% win rate in the matchup. For all that he has become this year, it's still his best matchup boasting a 20:6 (76.9%) in sponmatches including a 3:3 head to head with Flash in July. Flash is also on a similar warpath in the matchup with a 35:8 (81.4%) in sponmatches for the month of July, rapidly returning to his state of dominance as a player.Both Flash and Last are extremely versatile players with the great mark of distinction that players who excel in the matchup have which is decision making. TvT will always be regarded as the chess of starcraft and both are players who have good APM, multitasking abilities and who think moves ahead of their opponents. Both players play a style that is unique to themselves; Last dominating his opponents and being able to pick them apart with surgical dismantling of their game plan while Flash is tenaciously aggressive, has insane macro and godlike awareness with excellent unit control to boot.This series will come down to who can handle the pressure the most. Flash definitely has the edge here and consistently has the upper hand over his opponents while Last is a player that is damn good at getting ahead and just staying there while watching his opponents slowly crumble. However, here, it's against Flash and time and again, Flash has proven that he can come back from the most dire situations over his long and storied career. It won't be surprising to see the theme of this series become Last establishing an early advantage and Flash doing everything he possibly can to swing the game in his favor.Flash to advance 3-2If anyone has ever thought that TvT is boring and will swallow your soul, you need a boom stick to the face because Flash vs Last is the hottest match of the season, and it's a Bo5, so bring out the popcorn because its going to be......GROOVY! Shuttle vs Jaehoon Flash vs last

2Pacalypse- (Shuttle 3-2)

BigFan (Shuttle 3-1)

v1 (Shuttle 3-2)

BisuDagger (Shuttle 3-0)

amazingxkcd (Jaehoon 3-2)

FlaShFTW (Shuttle 3-1)

c3rberUs (Shuttle 3-2)

BLinD-RawR (Shuttle 3-0)

SC2John (Shuttle 3-1)

2Pacalypse- (Flash 3-2)

BigFan (Flash 3-1)

v1 (Flash 3-2)

c3rberUs (Flash 3-2)

BisuDagger (Last 3-0)

SC2John (Last 3-2)

amazingxkcd (Last 3-2)

FlaShFTW (Flash 3-2)

BLinD-RawR (Flash 3-2) Writers: SC2John, FlaShFTW, BLinD-RawR, BigFan

Graphics: v1

Editors: BigFan

Photo Credits: Liquipedia and DailyEsports

Former BW EiC "Watch Bakemonogatari or I will kill you." -Toad, April 18th, 2017