Lee “Shine” Young Han reached the round of 16 after going 2-1 in Group E with wins against Yoon “Mong” Chan and Hong “Ruin” Deok and one loss against Kim “ZerO” Myung Woon. Shine’s strong run through round of 24 wasn’t that shocking; even though we haven’t seen him compete too often this year, he is known to pull through no matter whether he’s active or not and consistently delivers regardless of the level of his opponent.

This will be put to the test on Wednesday when Shine faces off against Kim “RoyaL” Ji Sung, who is favourited by esports betting sites.

RoyaL received a direct invite to round of 16 due to winning ASL Remastered Season 14 in October 2022, but there’s more to him than just winning the last iteration of the tournament. RoyaL is also on a streak of finishing no worse than third across the last 21 events – except for Sanpao StarLeague Spring Cup Season 4 Korea, where he crashed out of the group stage (1-2) and finished ninth.

However, RoyaL’s 2-6 record against Zerg players, which dates back to the start of February, doesn’t look great. So while he has achieved more than Shine this year, the offered StarCraft odds mean betting on the outsider makes more sense.

Lee “Jaedong” Jae Dong finished the first round of ASL Remastered S15 with a 2-1 record, which includes wins against Kim “Shuttle” Yoon Joong and Jeong “BishOP” Min Ki and one loss against Jang “Snow” Yoon Chul.

Besides Show, Group D didn’t feature that many great players and Jaedong advancing came down to the toss-up match with Kim “Shuttle” Yoon Joong, who ended up going 0-2. Jaedong performed well enough, but ahead of this match, it’s fair to wonder how he’ll do against a Zerg player, considering he hasn’t played a ZvZ match since August 2022, when he lost against Shine.

Kim “Action” Seong Dae went 2-0 in the round of 24 with wins against Choi “sSak” Ho Seon and the favoured Byun “mini” Hyun, making a strong statement ahead of the second round of the competition.

This has the potential to be a close game, but we’re far more confident in Action, who has shown good form and is set to play an opponent who might struggle in a ZvZ matchup.

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