But before we get to that a recap of Week 1 by FlashFTW and previews of Week 2 by BLinD-RawR

Group A

Light T11 > ZeLoT Z1
Radeon

A pretty generic 2 hatch lurker all-in went up against Light’s standard 2 rax academy, though Light’s variation opted for a faster gas and academy before the 2nd barracks. After Light scanned the hydra den just in the nick of time, he defended with 2 initial bunkers at the front, followed by another few behind as a precaution against the inevitable bust attempt. ZeLot, however, had a trick up his sleeve. As he amassed an intimidating force of lurker ling just outside of Light’s base, he researched overlord speed and gathered 4 overlords outside of Light’s base. But it was all a ruse, as he was only using the overlords as a decoy, drawing Light’s army out from the bunkers and back into the main, with flashbacks to ZerO’s fake drop against Jangbi in that infamous game.

But Light had not overreacted, only moving his marines to his ramp before realizing it was a fake, stimming them back to the bunkers. With 5 total bunkers that ZeLot needed to get through, Light had enough layers of defense to push back the all-in, and would eventually push out to clean up the rest of ZeLot’s army, forcing him to concede.

Bisu P1 > Sea T11
Radeon

Sea opted for a 1 rax FE build while Bisu initially played standard, getting a zealot first to pressure. But once Bisu scouted Sea’s early expansion, he quickly set up a proxy pylon outside of Sea’s base, canceled dragoon range, and went for a forward robo and extra gateway. Sea, however, was diligent with his scouting, and managed to find the proxy.

Metal Gear Solid: Alert!

Unfortunately, his response left much to be desired. He was only producing off of one factory this entire time, and his defenses included one measly bunker at the front and just two turrets in the main. With nothing at the natural to really stop the shuttle from flying in, Bisu quickly dispatched the defenses at the front with a few gateway units and a reaver, before dropping his reaver on top of the high ground tanks. Sea would be forced to tap out shortly after losing his last tank after his paper mache defense came crumbling down.

Light T7 Bisu P1
Troy

Bisu, not wanting to get into a prolonged game against the most in-form player in the world, decided to go for a proxy 9/9 gate. Light, opting for an economic opener, went for his barracks in the natural. As expected, with the barracks so far forward, Bisu would rally his zealots into Light’s base, getting free hits on marines as they would pop out, and would easily seal the victory and his ticket into the Ro16.

ZeLoT Z5 Sea T1
Citadel

While this TvZ was somewhat interesting and chaotic, the game quality was lacking, with both players showing poor micro throughout. Sea opened with 2 rax academy against ZeLot’s 2 hatch spire. Sea, trying to sniff out an early 3rd base, would move his marines all the way down to the bottom left main, but finding nothing, quickly returned home. ZeLot had actually snuck his 3rd base at the 9, which Sea would eventually find with his SCV. He snuck 2 marines into the 3rd to wipe out the few drones that were there before they were cleaned up, but Sea had long-term plans of trying to eventually take out the base.

Delaying the third gas

He opted for valkyries to deal with the looming mutalisk threat, but ZeLot, rather than continuing mutalisk production, opted to go into a guardian/hydra composition. He was actually succeeding in keeping Sea’s marine count low with his initial wave of mutalisks and holding Sea back to his side of the map, so the switch was rather confusing. But his hydralisk control was quite poor, having a bad rally that would constantly feed free kills into Sea’s waiting arms, and his guardians were often out in the open in the center of the map, allowing Sea to directly engage them with his marines in the middle of the map.

Not the best place to fight with guardians…

Sea would eventually make his way to the 9 to attack ZeLot’s third, and with guardians too slow to make their way all the way across the map, Sea would manage to snipe the 3rd. With his next rally, Sea turned his focus to ZeLot’s natural. Without a 3rd gas, trying to afford guardian hydra proved impossible, and ZeLot simply did not have enough units to combat Sea’s next push. A scrappy game that had some interesting ideas and unique units.

Light T5 > Sea T1
Retro

Our final game of the night was a simple TvT. The most exciting action of this match actually happened at the very beginning, where Light would run two marines to Sea’s base to see if he could get any damage. There was some cute micro displayed in the engagement of 2 marines and 1 SCV from both sides that saw both players lose their marines. The game settled down after that, with Light having opted for a 1 fact FE taking map control over Sea’s 1 rax FE. Light’s early vultures forced a few extra marines out of Sea and managed to pick off a few SCVs attempting to finish the wall at the natural.

Light would grab the economic lead with his third base at the 6, while Sea used this time to push forward and establish himself in the center of the map. The battle lines were being drawn. With their vertical spawns, the expansion at 3 became a focal point of contention, and Light would grab that space for himself. Sea would opt to give up the space and double expand on the left side. Unfortunately, any economic advantage that Sea would get from his aggressive expansions would be totally eliminated, as Light’s vultures caught the SCV transfer to Sea’s fourth, and would deal considerable damage to the 3rd. Light had opened up a 30 supply lead now with his superior economy.

Sea, looking for options back into this match, decided that BCs were his best option. Light, seeing Sea opt for the BCs, realized he had a timing window before Sea could effectively utilize the Terran capital ships. He found and destroyed Sea’s base at the 9, while also taking his previously secured 3oclock. After, he dropped a sizeable force into Sea’s top left expansion.

A sizeable drop.

While Sea had enough tanks to kill most of the drop, Light knew the Sea’s forces were spread too thin, and attacked through the middle where the armor was weakest.

A total route and splitting Sea’s territory in half.

After having his central tank line removed, Sea’s defenses were totally split with no real way to combat Light’s army. Light pushed confidently into Sea’s third, forcing a lift and killing many SCVs, then rotated to the top left to cripple the remainder of Sea’s economy. Sea fought valiantly, attempting to use the high ground to his advantage, but Light simply had too many units. With BCs too slow to reinforce, and Sea’s macro faltering significantly, Sea tapped out and Light would get over his first group stage hurdle and advance to the Ro16.

For all the fame in this group, the games were fairly uninspiring and a simple, straightforward result to the end of the group left much to be desired. Fans can only hope that that this was the bottom in terms of StarCraft quality.

Group B

hero Z1 > Killer Z7
Radeon

herO spawned top right, opting for a 12 hatch, while Killer spawned bottom left and opted for a 9 pool speed. With the theoretical counter, Killer pushed aggressively into herO’s base, forcing several drones to be pulled. Killer would manage to kill 5 drones before herO’s defenses pushed back the initial wave of zerglings. Back at home, Killer had teched to lair and started his spire. Realizing that he was in a bit of trouble, herO countered, using his larva advantage to outproduce Killer. He forced his way up the ramp, where Killer had only just started a creep colony to aid in his defenses. But it was not enough, as herO’s timing hit just before mutas had popped out.

Too many lings for just a few mutas.

Killer would manage to eventually clean up the attack with his newly made air units, but the damage had been done. Killer, with only 3 drones remaining after the lethal attack, tried everything to slow down herO, who had droned up comfortably behind the attack and had completed a spore at each base. Not finding any ways to harass with his mutas, Killer tried one final zergling all-in, but herO was well prepared and held it off comfortably. Killer was forced to tap out.

A last ditch attempt to salvage an unwinnable position.

Mind T11 > Stork P7
Radeon

Mind’s 5 factory push raced across the map, and Stork was simply not prepared for it. His reavers got caught, leaving one dead and one holding on with a sliver of health. Stork’s ace for the defense was gone, leaving him with only a couple of shuttles and gateway units to fend off the Terran menace. As Mind established his force outside of Stork’s third, Stork rushed in with his new speedlots and shuttle bombs. But Mind had precisely scanned just a moment before, sniping Stork’s last observer, leaving him with no detection for Mind’s minefield. This proved costly, as the minefield decimated Stork’s units. He could do nothing but watch his 3rd crumble to the remaining tanks.

An unsuccessful defense

Behind his attack, Mind had expanded to his third, and with his economy untouched, produced a sizeable army to prepare for the inevitable counter attack. Stork, seeing as how playing a longer, drawn out macro game was no longer an option, would try for one last ditch attack. But with Mind’s tanks pre-seiged and Stork’s army too small, the attack fizzled out and Stork was forced to GG.

hero Z1 Mind T5
Blitz Y

Mind had a trick up his sleeve for this game, as he went for what appeared to be a standard 1 rax opener, but proxied a 2nd barracks in the middle of the map. herO, thinking none the wiser, played a standard 2 hatch. Unfortunately, by the time he discovered Mind’s devious plan, it was already too late. With a last ditch creep colony and a futile drone pull, herO would succumb to Mind’s cheese. Mind advances to the Ro16.

You’re not in a good spot when marines outnumber drones.

Killer Z5 Stork P1
Blitz Y

Our first ZvP of the tournament did not disappoint. A back and forth game that danced on a tight rope and produced our first glimpse of compelling StarCraft. Stork opted for a forge FE while Killer played a standard 3 hatch spire. Things started deviating after Killer had moved 3 hydras onto the map to morph them into lurkers. Meanwhile, Stork had done the usual +1 speedlot timing and was dealing significant damage to Killer. Killer raced to attack Stork’s front, killing several probes but never managing to push deeper into the base. Stork built a few dark templar, and without any overlords nearby, Killer’s push would eventually end.

The surprise lurkers reveal themselves.

Back at Killer’s base, Stork had totally ransacked the main, killing the hatchery, spire, and spawning pool.

Laying waste to the Zerg base.

Stork’s natural managed to remain intact, only losing a couple cannons, probes, and the gateway. But the nexus crucially stood which allowed Stork to retain his economic advantage. He pushed with his leftover DTs, a few zealots, and an archon to Killer’s 3rd, where he was attempting to drone and had minimal defenses. Stork would kill several drones, and a follow up storm drop in the natural and main devastated Killer’s economy. A final push from Stork with +2 weapons would quickly seal the game, as Killer simply could not produce an army to hold the Protoss attack.

hero Z5 > Stork P1
Retro

The final game of the group to determine who would advance. Stork opened with a gate first against herO’s standard 3 base play. The gate first didn’t do any damage, and Stork would be content with building his zealot numbers for his eventual attack. Stork’s first corsair scouted herO’s natural and main, but did not see the 2nd gas, which herO had placed at this third to come out with surprise mutalisks. Luckily, although Stork likely did not anticipate mutas, he had opted for a 2nd stargate, but placed the cannon in the main far too late. When herO revealed his mutas, Stork was woefully unprepared, and saw his main ransacked by the mutas, causing him to lose his stargate and several probes.

An unprepared Protoss.

Stork launched a desperate counter attack, but it was easily thwarted by herO’s prepared sunkens. He had total control of the game, and while Stork would eventually reclaim his main base thanks to his 2rd stargate, herO was rapidly droning and ready to transition into a ground army. He took his fourth base at the bottom left and began his hydra production. Stork persisted for a few more minutes, trying to find some weakness in herO’s defenses, but he was prepared for everything, and Stork had no choice but to concede defeat. herO advances to the Ro16.

While Stork fought valiantly in his games, he could not upset the favorites, as both Mind and herO would advance to the Ro16.

Group C

Best P7 > TaeNgGu T11
Radeon

The Ro24 cheesefest continued in our very first game. Both players started with standard openers, with TaEngGu going for the usual bunker expand, while Best went for 23 nex. But BeSt opted for a DT drop, hoping to catch the recent ACS champion sleeping. Luckily, TaEngGu was somewhat prepared, but he did not build a sufficient amounts of turrets to cover his entire base, leading to BeSt skirting his DTs around the detection range of the turrets and managed to snipe the armory.

Artosis suddenly feels a nerve twitch.

While the game settled down afterwards, it was clear that BeSt’s snipe of the armory was going to be crucial to slowing down the inevitable Terran push. He had expanded behind the drop and teched into fast arbiters. With his fast tech, BeSt was able to get into TaEngGu’s base before anti-recall defenses were set up, and sniped the armory again which was researching +2 weapons.

Not again…

While BeSt’s 2nd recall attempt was denied by a well placed EMP, it was clear that the damage had been done. TaEngGu attempted to secure a 4th base at the 12, but was denied, while BeSt had comfortably secured his 5th base and began his 2nd set of gateways. TaEngGu’s second attempt to secure his fourth was met by BeSt’s army. The first big fight of the game saw TaEngGu win the fight, but BeSt’s goal wasn’t to kill TaEngGu outright, but to deny the command center. He successfully did so, and with his 6th base established and his economy booming, BeSt would comfortably remacro and obliterate TaEngGu’s push, who was still only on 1/1. With no other options, TaEngGu would concede.

Severe thunderstorm warning.

Action Z7 > sSak T1
Radeon

Action, sticking to his strong macro style, opened with a 2.5 hatch build against sSak’s 2 rax academy. With cross spawns, both sides opted to play fairly conservatively, with sSak not pushing too deep with his marines. Action’s main goal was to simply delay any kind of push from sSak, as he had grabbed a fast evo chamber to try for Crazy Zerg. sSak’s second scan barely missed the evolution chamber, which maybe led him to play more passively, thinking that Action was playing a normal, slow midgame. But when he was ready to push, Action utilized a few ling runbys and would send his mutas into the natural to force sSak’s army to return. To counter the mutas, sSak chose valkyries over vessels as his tech of choice. While he caught Action’s mutalisks off guard a few times, it was never enough to wipe out the flock, which managed to barely survive as Action slowly picked off valkyries with scourge.

That’s a lot of red.

Having delayed the push enough, Action had comfortably taken the close 8 as his 3rd base. Meanwhile, sSak had decided to commit to a mech switch. But without enough marines on the map to pressure Zerg, Action was more than content to slowly get his ultralisk upgrades. While sSak continued to deny Action a fourth base, Action still had a strong 3 base economy to produce his necessary army to go for the kill. As the ultralisks popped out and beelined their way to sSak’s base, sSak desperately tried to place mines to slow the incoming onslaught. But without much of an army, he simply could not deal with the fast ultralisks, and succumbed to the swarm.

Moo.

Best P11 > Action Z7
Citadel

BeSt managed to get the first scout on Action, who wanted to go for an 11 hatch, but after being denied by the early probe, was forced to go 11 pool instead. BeSt, taking advantage of the situation, played greedy with a 12 nex. But BeSt had a very weird wall, and Action would take advantage of it by building 8 lings and running into BeSt main, where 4 lings would manage to survive.

Real talk… what is this wall? But also, oh no.

Action would significantly disrupt BeSt, utilizing his excellent ling micro to kill a zealot, 2 probes, and prevent the Protoss from mining gas for periods at a time. Feeling like he would end the game quickly, and hoping to punish the weird wall, Action would initially build his lair, but switch to a 3 hatch hydra. BeSt, who had sent some zealots onto the map to harass Action, would manage to see the hydras popping, and would have enough time to react with cannons. With his roaming zealots, he would deny mining at Action’s third for a bit, and even picked off a couple drones.

The game would finally settle down from the early pressure that both players had placed on each other. Action would take his inside mineral only, while BeSt had built a dark archon and was gearing up to take his own third base at the 9. BeSt played very defensively, wanting to prioritize defense of the 3rd rather than trying to push out and attack Action. Some small hydra movements around the map would see a few cannons at the 3rd destroyed, but also see the first maelstrom of the game.

The 2nd maelstrom was a bit overkill.

Using his hydras to pull BeSt’s army around, Action would slowly position himself where he could sandwich the Protoss army defending the 3rd. But the narrow corridor would be difficult for Action to push into, as storms would decimate his hydras any time he would push forward.

Funneling hydras to their doom.

This posed a difficult question to Action: should he continue to try to keep Protoss back in his small area while bleeding units, or should he set up a trap a bit deeper on the map where he might have a better surround? Action would continue to try the former, but again was thwarted by excellent storms from BeSt. Action’s overeagerness to break BeSt while not having any backup plan of taking a 5th base would mean that he was effectively all-in, but had not done significant damage. As BeSt’s dragoon count grew, Action was forced to retreat and retreat until he could retreat no more.

It’s over Action, I have the high ground.

As soon as BeSt secured the ramp above Action’s 4th, it was all over but the GG. Action would try to fight a bit more, but as soon as his final lurkers would fall, he would tap out. BeSt advances to the Ro16 after a pressure filled PvZ.

TaeNgGu T1 sSak T5
Blitz Y

A TvT on Blitz Y, I expected this game to be a long, drawn out game with both players fighting for the center island base and lots of exciting air battles. Long games of TvT will likely be the standard on this map, as there’s no real way to make a ground push through the narrow right path, meaning players can only attack on the wide left side, or contest the skies.

The game started slow, with both players going for 1 fact FE. The first small skirmish of 3v3 vultures would see sSak prevail. Here, the builds would diverge, as sSak headed for a 3 fact build while TaEngGu started on 2 factories and got a quick armory. With the factory advantage, sSak would feel safe taking a quick 3rd base. TaEngGu would play slow and methodic, going up to 4 factories before taking his own 3rd. The game would grind to a snails pace, as both players were waiting for the other to make a move. Finally, sSak sought to break the deadlock, pushing hard on the left side where TaEngGu only had a few forces.

We have action!

But enough reinforcements from TaEngGu would eventually stop the attack, and sSak had only managed to gain a few tiles of space. But sSak would not be deterred, massing up another round of tanks and launching a second attack off of his 9 factories compared to only 6 from TaEngGu, who had decided to start building mass dropships.

A second push would claim significantly more space

With TaEngGu on the backfoot and his defenses broken, sSak would relentlessly push TaEngGu back, again and again. He would wipe out the 3rd base while grabbing more space on TaEngGu’s side of the map. TaEngGu, seeing no other option, launched a desperate hail mary tank drop into sSak’s main.

Desperation

The drop would fail, as sSak would simply drop a few units on the stacked group of tanks while still pushing into the last few bases of TaEngGu. The ACS champion would meet his demise after a clinical TvT from sSak.

Action Z5 > sSak T1
Retro

A rematch in the group, sSak would hope to get his revenge with an 8 rax against Action’s overpool. Action would even scout the 8 rax with his overlord, and knew everything that was coming for him. sSak, realizing his early game aggression was thwarted, would pull back his marines and walled up in his natural. The game would progress slowly, with Action going for a typical 2 hatch muta, and sSak would go 2 rax academy into 4 rax. Once stim had finished, sSak would poke out with his marines. Action’s mutas scouted the 4 rax while poking around sSak’s base hoping to find a weakness.

Action was content with staying on 2 bases for a while, knowing that sSak’s 4 rax would be devastating if he tried to expand. Instead, he doubled down on his mutalisks, continuing to add on while teching to lurkers and hive. He would find a small weakness at sSak’s natural, and abused the ledge to lay waste to the wall of turrets that sSak had prepared.

Destruction.

With the turrets down, Action continued to punish sSak, destroying countless SCVs and refusing to allow sSak any room to breathe. sSak had sent out a small group of marines to punish a potential 3rd, but his army was simply out of position, as no such 3rd existed. Action’s mutas continued to constrict around sSak like a boa constrictor, squeezing every last bit of air out of the Terran’s lungs. With the Terran pinned back and his tech finished, Action would run 5 lurkers to the Terran base to deal the fatal strike. With his last gasp, sSak would tap out. Action advances to the Ro16.

Still no upsets thus far through the group stages, but a few more exciting games to wet our appetites for the second half of the Ro24.

TY For Bringing BaBy Back

Kicking off the latter half of the Ro24 we got the highly anticipated Group D starring, ASL15 champ JyJ, the Tyrant himself Jaedong, every group’s favourite wildcard Shuttle and a surprise return of TY(formerly known as BaBy in the KeSPA days) former multi time GSL champion and current GSL commentator.

JyJ was narrowly eliminated last season in the Ro8 by eventual winner Soulkey in a brilliant series. After EffOrt dropped off from competing this season he participated in the wildcard match but was eliminated by Sharp. JyJ’s online stats since the start of the year has been pretty middling with an overall winrate of 43.7% across all matchups, while definitely not stellar, it should still get him through the group even if he were to face Shuttle with his currently weak TvP.

Last season I made a statement that Jaedong was going to beat sharp in their Ro24 group and that Sharp fell off. I was proven very wrong on that. Jaedong dropped out of the Ro24 last season without a single win. Jaedong has an overall winrate since the start of the year of 50%, with ZvT being his best matchup, really helpful in a group with 2 terrans but his opening opponent is shuttle and his ZvP is his worst matchup, so he’s definitely working out the kinks, his chances in the group really hinges on if he can beat Shuttle.

Speaking of whom, I’ve always called Shuttle a wildcard in groups because you never know when he can just turn up the level that brought him to win the first ASL or just prepare the most nasty builds dedicated to end someone’s run in the group stage, that said his online stats puts hus PvT has his worst and his PvZ as his best, further showing that he could dash Jaedong’s dreams this group but may not be able to close it against JyJ or even TY.

TY or BaBy as he was known briefly was the youngest member of the former WeMade Fox team earning his licence at 12, remained a strong A class terran for most of his run as a BW pro with decent performances in the OSL and MSL but not nearly close to the dominant player he eventually became when he made the transition to SC2. Since the pandemic TY has been involved in the BW scene usually participating in online showmatches and streamer events while also attempting to qualify for ASL on a few occasions, finally making it in this season, but considering how he was defeated handily by Stork in their ultimate battle series a couple of weeks ago, he’s got a long way before he shakes off the rust.

JyJ and Jaedong Advance to the Ro16!

Cold World

Snow is a hard man to bet on. While he is consistently one of the best protoss players who has proved it time and again based on his sponmatch and online proleague record he is also probably the biggest reason members of our community argue against the Bo1 nature of the Ro24 is because of how it has been the bane Snow in most seasons. Great for him to be facing Speed first, at least he’d be able to set himself up in a very good position to make a quick advancement.

Mong rebuilt himself in 2022 but in 2023 he once again became a person who qualifies to take a spot on the Ro24 lineup only to drop out 0-2, online however, Mong has been very active as late, since the start of the year he has had one of the highest sponmatch count and maintains a winning record in all 3 matchups, if he can translate that into offline play he could be a contender for a deeper run than the last 2 seasons.

Much like Shuttle, Shine is someone who’s so solid and so dangerous in the group stage that you can always count on him to make it through, especially because he actually thrives in offline competition, hes not very active online either, so his performance can be a big surprise for this group.

Speed spent his years as a progamer in the Hwaseung OZ B-team and especially as one of Jaedong’s personal practice partner, one of his other nicknames has been “10minflash”, known for being a pretty good early game player, he was also a regular in the SOSPA scene 10 years ago but never accomplished much, I look forward to seeing him have a good performance but I don’t expect him to beat snow or anyone else in the group.

Snow and Shine To Advance to the Ro16!

Renewed Potential

RoyaL hasn’t had the 2023 that he hoped for after closing out 2022 winning ASL 14, he got dumped out immediately in ASL15 and again in ASL16 after making it through the qualifiers into Ro24 and then Ro16. As far as online performance goes, Royal is one of the most active terrans participating in almost every proleague event and spon matches, but he doesn’t hold a winning record in any of his matchups, while also being one of the most studied players out there, he’s got good advantage going into this group but beyond that might be an issue as he’s unable to reach his old form.

Rain surprisingly returning for a back-to-back season, he was pretty swiftly eliminated last season but I still stand by what I said last season that Rain is a gifted genius and even if he’s not the most active player, in fact his online presence is only 1/5th of what Royal’s is in this group but his approach to the game is more about making those smaller adjustments to win matches rather than just pure practice or massing games, BarrackS may not be the easiest opponent but for Rain he should be able to take him on in most cases.

BarrackS has potential to make it out of the group, he’s always managed to show good play in the Ro24 and this is not an impossible group for him, Royal might be the toughest opponent for him because his TvT isn’t up there but he holds a 66% winrate in TvP and 75% in TvZ, so if he doesn’t face Royal twice he can make it out against Rain and beast.

beast is that classic Tier 4 competitor, someone you can count on to make it through the qualifier but can’t truly escape the wall that is beating regular veterans in the Ro24, I’m not sure this group is going to change that perception of him

Royal and Rain To Advance to the Ro16!