Photo: GHOSTCLAW
The Tyrant is keeping the Zerg dream alive.
The Afreeca StarLeague (ASL) hasn’t been kind to the Zerg race. The inaugural season saw just one Zerg in Il Jang “hero” Jo make it through to the Terran-infested playoffs, only to lose to semi-finalist Bo Sung “Sea” Yum. Thus far, ASL 2 shows no indication it will be different.
After a total of six Zerg players were eliminated in the Round of 24, including OSL champion Jung Woo “Effort” Kim and StarCraft 2 veteran Min Chul “Soulkey” Kim, it meant bad news for the swarm. This time, however, ASL 1 quarter finalist has a mighty ally, the Tyrant himself, Jae Dong “Jaedong” Lee.
Jaedong, who announced retirement in November this year, went back to his original game where he won the status of bonjwa by becoming the arguable best Zerg in BroodWar’s history and qualified for ASL 2 through the Busan preliminaries. Already qualified for the playoffs of the current season, Jaedong had to survive two groups headlined by macro specialist Jae Wook “Best” Doh, who defeated Jaedong both times, despite his historically week PvZ.
Best’s success in the Round of 16 adds another victory to the Protoss march in ASL 2, after Byung Goo “Stork” Song and Seung Hyun “Guemchi” Kim qualified from Group A.
Fans of competitive BroodWar have many more exciting days to look forward to. On Christmas day, legendary Dragon Taek Yong “Bisu” Kim will play his Round of 16 matches, and two days later on Dec. 27, it will be Young Ho “Flash” Lee – the game’s best player of all time – fighting for his playoffs seed. With Stork and Jaedong already through, it’s possible that all of the TaekBangLeeSsang quartet compete for the tournament’s gold.
