Watch: "Road To Kingdom: ACE OF ACE" Kicks Off With Spectacular Performances + Reveals Individual And Group Rankings

Mnet’s “Road to Kingdom: ACE OF ACE” has finally begun!

On September 19, the new stand-alone season of “Road to Kingdom” aired its highly-anticipated premiere. While the first season of “Road to Kingdom” served as a prequel to “Kingdom: Legendary War” back in 2020, this new season of the idol competition show will function as an independent brand, spotlighting rising K-pop boy groups and introducing new benefits for the winning team.

Unlike the first season, “Road to Kingdom: ACE OF ACE” will feature two separate tracks of rankings: in addition to the usual group rankings, the show will also rank the “ace” (standout) member of each group in every round.

After three rounds of competition, the group with the highest cumulative team ranking score and the group whose ace member has the highest cumulative ace ranking score will automatically advance to the final round. While there are currently seven groups competing on the show, only five groups will be able to perform in the finals.

The show’s warm-up match consisted of two rounds of competition. First, the competition kicked off with an ace battle in which one member from every team staged an individual 100-second performance representing his group. Afterwards, each idol voted for the three aces that he thought had put on the best performances, excluding the ace from his own group.

ONEUS – Hwanwoong

8TURN – Myungho

The CrewOne – Lim Jimin

TEMPEST – Hanbin

THE NEW SIX – Cheon Jun Hyeok

YOUNITE – Dey

CRAVITY – Hyeongjun

Spoilers

After the first round, host SHINee’s Taemin revealed that the group of the ace who received the fewest votes and therefore came in last place would not be allowed to compete in the team battle. Instead, the group would automatically be ranked last in the team ranking for the round without being able to put on the performance that they’d prepared.

The results of the ace battle were as follows:

1. ONEUS’s Hwanwoong
2. The CrewOne’s Lim Jimin
3. 8TURN’s Myungho
4. THE NEW SIX’s Cheon Jun Hyeok
5. YOUNITE’s Dey
6. TEMPEST’s Hanbin
7. CRAVITY’s Hyeongjun

Because Hyeongjun came in last place, CRAVITY was unable to compete in the second round: a team battle in which each group put on a 100-second performance that would “best showcase their identity.”

The results of Round 2 of the warm-up match were determined 30 percent by the contestants’ own votes and 70 percent by the votes of a streaming evaluation panel. Just like the self-evaluations, the streaming evaluation panelists voted for the three groups that they thought had put on the best performances.

THE NEW SIX – “MOVE” + “FUEGO” (Mash Up version)

The CrewOne – “One light becomes one time”

8TURN – “WE” + “THE GAME”

YOUNITE – “Bad Cupid” (Remix)

TEMPEST – “Find our LIGHTHOUSE”

ONEUS – “Intro : Who Got the Joker?”

The results of the team battle were as follows:

1. 8TURN
2. TEMPEST
3. ONEUS
4. THE NEW SIX
5. YOUNITE
6. The CrewOne
7. CRAVITY

Finally, even though they were unable to compete in the round, Mnet posted a video of CRAVITY’s unaired performance online after the premiere.

CRAVITY – “ACT II: VENI VIDI VICI”

Which of the performances from the premiere of “Road to Kingdom: ACE OF ACE” were your favorites? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

You can also binge-watch all of “Kingdom: Legendary War” with subtitles on Viki below:

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