StarCraft fans fill the Jamsil Ice Rink... ASL Season 22 Opens

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Joo-hwan = On the 17th, with fall in full swing, the ice rink in the very center of Lotte World Adventure was crowded with game fans.

SOOP[067160] held the finals of the 'StarCraft' e-sports competition 'ASL Season 22' at the Lotte World Ice Rink in Songpa-gu, Seoul on the 17th.

ASL is the largest existing StarCraft e-sports competition in Korea that SOOP has been running in Korea since the days of AfreecaTV.

ASL has maintained its reputation by continuously discovering new professional gamers even after the existing StarCraft League led by the Korea e-Sports Association (KeSPA) and cable TV channels ended. Until season 21, the previous competition, the cumulative number of viewers exceeded 200 million.

According to SOOP, more than 1,000 people gathered at the site, including spectators on the special stage and surrounding visitors.

At the site, you could often find old fans in their 40s or older, as well as fans in their teens and 20s and internet broadcasters.

Soo-gil Seo, SOOP CVO (Chief Vision Officer), appeared on stage holding the trophy amid cheers from fans.

CVO Seo said, "We had been considering holding the finals at the ice rink since the opening of the e-sports stadium 'DN Colosseum' in Jamsil, but due to COVID-19, we were finally able to hold the competition today."

Youngjin ‘Rush’ Yoo (Terran) and Mincheol ‘Soulkey’ Kim (Zerg), who made it to the finals through fierce competition, will face off for the ASL crown on this day.

Yoo Young-jin, who finished runner-up in ASL seasons 12 and 14, is challenging for his first career win.

Opposing him is Kim Min-cheol, a powerhouse who has recorded four consecutive wins from seasons 16 to 19, and is aiming to win a total of five championships for the first time in ASL history.