Road to Kingdom: Ace of Ace () is a South Korean boy group reality competition survival show created by Mnet. The show was rebranded as an independent program from its predecessor. It premiered on Mnet on September 19, 2024, and aired every Thursday at 21:30 (KST). It is also available for streaming on TVING in South Korea, Abema in Japan, and Mnet K-pop YouTube channel in other countries.
The winner of the show would receive a prize money worth million and an opportunity to attend KCON.
Cast Host Taemin (Shinee)
Contestants 8Turn Cravity Oneus Tempest The CrewOne (ATBO and Just B) TNX Younite
Special appearance Juyeon (The Boyz)
Production and release On April 24, 2024, Mnet's Road to Kingdom 2 was scheduled to be broadcast in the second half of 2024. The next day, The Fact reported that Xikers, The New Six, and 8Turn were named as the possible participants to appear on the show.
On May 1, 2024, Sports Chosun reported that Cravity, ATBO, and Younite were named as the other possible participants to appear on the show. While Joy News 24 reported that Tempest would also join as participants.
On June 26, 2024, Mnet announced that Road to Kingdom 2 will be rebrand as a standalone program unlike its predecessor which was more like a prequel to gain a spot in the sequel, Kingdom and PD Jo Woo-ri will direct the show. The next two days, Oneus who competed in the first season of the show reportedly joined the lineup.
On July 3, 2024, Ten Asia reported that Taemin will be the host of the show and it will premiere in September 2024. On July 10, Mnet confirmed the seven groups—The New Six, The CrewOne, 8Turn, Oneus, Younite, Cravity, and Tempest—as the final lineup of the show. On July 17, Mnet officially confirmed that Taemin will be the solo host of the show and it will premiere in September 2024.
On August 1, 2024, Mnet released a teaser video revealing Road to Kingdom: Ace of Ace as the official title of the show. On August 27, Mnet announced the broadcast date and time of the show to be on September 19, 2024, and would air every Thursday at 21:30 (KST).
On September 17, 2024, according to an article published by Kstyle, the show would be simultaneously broadcast on Abema SP2 and K World channels in Japan. On September 19, Mnet announced that each episode of the show would be live stream in TVING, Abema, and Mnet K-Pop YouTube channel.
Rules The overall results would be of a two-track ranking basis: Team Ranking and Ace Ranking. In each performance round, all boy groups would pick their Aces, which is the center of each of their performances. After the three (3) preliminary performances, the boy group with the overall 1st place in Team Ranking and the boy group with the overall 1st place in Ace Ranking are guaranteed to advance to the final round. Only five (5) boy groups would have a chance to perform in the final.
Results Pre-evaluation Artist Predicted Ranking Self-Evaluation Public Pre-Vote 8Turn 5th 5th Cravity 2nd 1st Oneus 3rd 2nd Tempest 6th 3rd The CrewOne 1st 4th The New Six 4th 7th Younite 7th 6th
Evaluation Match (Episode 1) Ace Battle Each boy group sends out their Ace to perform a solo performance. After the seven boy groups' Aces have performed, each boy group would send five of their members to each vote for three aces except their team's ace. The team that got 1st place for the public pre-vote in the predicted ranking, Cravity, gets the right to arrange the cue sheet for the Ace battle.
The team of the first placed Ace gets the right to arrange the cue sheet for the Team Battle, while the boy group with the last placed Ace would not be able to take part in the Team Battle.
+ Ace Battle results Artist Ace Performance name Self-evaluation votes Ranking 1 Oneus Hwanwoong "Put On a Happy Face" 22 1st (Tie) 2 8Turn Myungho "In Vino Veritas: " 21 3rd 3 The CrewOne Lim Ji-min "Dark Times" 22 1st (Tie) 4 Tempest Hanbin "Who Am I?" 8 6th 5 The New Six Junhyeok "Drowning" 13 4th 6 Younite Dey "Untitled Freestyle" 12 5th 7 Cravity Hyeongjun "Act I: Odyssey into Gravity" 7 7th
To break the tie for first place, a re-vote is conducted with the five remaining teams voting. After the voting, Hwanwoong got 4 votes (1st place) while Lim Ji-min got 1 vote (2nd place).
+ Final Ace Battle Ranking Ranking Artist Ace 1st Oneus Hwanwoong 2nd The CrewOne Lim Ji-min 3rd 8Turn Myungho 4th The New Six Junhyeok 5th Younite Dey 6th Tempest Hanbin 7th Cravity Hyeongjun
Team Battle Each boy group performs a 100-second performance. After the six boy groups have performed, all the teams would each send five of their members to each vote for three boy groups excluding their own respective boy groups.
Out of the total score of 1,000, 30% would be based on the self-evaluation aforementioned, while 70% would be based on evaluation from a 280-strong streaming audience, with each boy group gathering 40, and each of the streaming audience also voting for three boy groups excluding their own representative boy groups. As Hwanwoong won the Ace Battle, Oneus gets the right to arrange the cue sheet for the Team Battle.
+ Team Battle results Artist Performance name Self-evaluation Streaming audience Overall ranking Votes Subrank Votes Subrank 1 The New Six "Move" () + "Fuego" 24 1st 107 6th 4th 2 The CrewOne "One Light Becomes One Time" 19 3rd 121 5th 6th 3 8Turn "We" + "The Game" 20 2nd 140 2nd 1st 4 Younite "Bad Cupid" 18 4th 122 4th 5th 5 Tempest "Find Our Lighthouse" 130 3rd 2nd 6 Oneus "Intro: Who Got the Joker?" 6 6th 166 1st 3rd Cravity "Act II: Veni Vidi Vici" colspan="4" 7th
Round 1: VS (Episode 2–3) The seven boy groups each perform one song from the five representative boy groups that sold over one million albums in 2023, and is rearranged into a different style. The seven groups were divided into three matchups: two one-on-one matches (Stray Kids, and Enhypen songs), and one triple match (NCT, The Boyz and Tomorrow X Together songs).
The Team Ranking and Ace Ranking each has a total score of 10,000. The score system will be based on:
Self-Evaluation – 3,000 points On-Site Audience Vote – 7,000 points
For the Self-Evaluation, each boy group would send five members to each vote for three aces and three teams, excluding their team's Ace and their own teams, respectively.
For the On-Site Audience Vote, 300 on-site audience must vote for their more preferred team in each VS battle, and also vote for three aces (for the Ace Ranking) and three boy groups out of all seven teams (for the Team Ranking). A benefit of 1,000 points will be given to each of the teams who won in their respective VS battles.
For each score category, the team with the most votes shall receive the maximum number of points (i.e., 3,000 for Self-Evaluation and 7,000 for Video Evaluation), while the remaining teams obtains the score in proportion from their vote count to the first-placed team's vote count. + Round 1: VS results Artist Match Performance Team Ace Song Result Team score Benefit points Total score Rank Ace member Total score Rank 1 The New Six Stray Kids Match "Phobia" 8,879 1,000 9,879 3rd Hwi 6,465 4th 2 Tempest "Maniac: Freaky Lab" 4,756 0 4,756 5th Lew 6,025 5th 3 8Turn Enhypen Match "Future Perfect (Pass the Mic)" 4,423 0 4,423 7th Yunkyu 4,517 7th 4 Younite "Bite Me" 9,249 1,000 10,249 2nd Eunsang 9,160 2nd 5 Oneus Triple Match "Kick It" () 6,997 0 6,997 4th Hwanwoong 9,483 1st 6 The CrewOne "Watch It" 4,585 0 4,585 6th Seunghwan 4,674 6th 7 Cravity "Sugar Rush Ride" 9,769 1,000 10,769 1st Hyeongjun 7,498 3rd
+ Round 1: 'VS' Score Summary Rank Artist Ace Total Score Team Total Score R1 Total Score 1st Younite 9,160 10,249 19,409 2nd Cravity 7,498 10,769 18,267 3rd Oneus 9,483 6,997 16,480 4th The New Six 6,465 9,879 16,344 5th Tempest 6,025 4,756 10,781 6th The CrewOne 4,674 4,585 9,259 7th 8Turn 4,517 4,423 8,940
1-on-1 Ace Battle If a team places first on both the Ace Ranking and Team Ranking, then that team automatically gets the right to arrange the cue sheet for the next round. However, if the first placed group in the Team Ranking and the group with the first-place Ace are not the same, a one-on-one Ace Battle would be done between the two teams to own the right to cue sheet arrangement. The voting shall be done via self-evaluation — with each team sending the number of members equivalent to the least number of members among the five remaining teams. Since The New Six and Tempest have the least number of members among the remaining five, having 6 members, six members will vote from each team, making a total of 30 voters for the Ace Battle.
+ 1-on-1 Ace Battle results Team Ace Performance Title Votes Result 1 Cravity Hyeongjun Dance with the Devil 6 2 Oneus Hwanwoong Sovereign Shadows 24
Therefore, Oneus gets the right to arrange the cue sheet for the next round.
Round 2: Identity (Episode 4–5) Each team must show their color and identity by performing their representative hit songs that is rearranged and different from their usual stages of the song. For this round, there would be two Aces per team. The score system for the Team Ranking and Ace Ranking will be similar as that of Round 1:
Self-Evaluation – 3,000 points On-Site Audience Vote – 7,000 points
After the second round, one team would be eliminated. The candidates for elimination will be the seventh-place team in the Team Ranking and the seventh-place ace in the Ace Ranking on the cumulative scores and ranking from Rounds 1 to 2. The team to be eliminated will be determined by an Ace Battle between the two teams. If a team places seventh both in the cumulative Ace Ranking and Team Ranking, then they would be eliminated immediately without holding an Ace Battle.Road to Kingdom: Ace of Ace. Episode 3 (in Korean). October 3, 2024. Mnet.
+ Round 2: Identity results Team Performance Song Team Ace Score Rank Members Score Rank 1 8Turn "Tic Tac" 8,488 3rd 8,623 3rd 2 The New Six "Love or Die" 4,498 7th 4,295 7th 3 Cravity "Love or Die" 10,000 1st 9,045 2nd 4 Younite "Waterfall" 5,605 6th 6,046 6th 5 The CrewOne "Attitude" + "Get Away" 5,755 5th 6,990 5th 6 Tempest "Eye of the Tempest" () +"Can't Stop Shining" 6,911 4th 7,657 4th 7 Oneus "No Diggity" () 9,338 2nd 9,629 1st
+ Round 2: 'Identity' Score Summary Rank Team Team total Ace total R2 Total Score 1st Cravity 10,000 9,045 19,045 2nd Oneus 9,338 9,629 18,967 3rd 8Turn 8,488 8,623 17,111 4th Tempest 6,911 7,657 14,568 5th The CrewOne 5,755 6,990 12,745 6th Younite 5,605 6,046 11,651 7th The New Six 4,498 4,295 8,793
The cumulative scores for the Team Ranking and Ace Ranking are as follows: Candidate for Elimination
+ Team Cumulative Scores (Rounds 1–2) Rank Team Round 1 Round 2 Team total 1st Cravity 10,769 10,000 20,769 2nd Oneus 6,997 9,338 16,335 3rd Younite 10,249 5,605 15,854 4th The New Six 9,879 4,498 14,377 5th 8Turn 4,423 8,488 12,911 6th Tempest 4,756 6,911 11,667 7th The CrewOne 4,585 5,755 10,340
+ Ace Cumulative Scores (Rounds 1–2) Rank Team Round 1 Round 2 Ace total 1st Oneus 9,483 9,629 19,112 2nd Cravity 7,498 9,045 16,543 3rd Younite 9,160 6,046 15,206 4th Tempest 6,025 7,657 13,682 5th 8Turn 4,517 8,623 13,140 6th The CrewOne 4,674 6,990 11,664 7th The New Six 6,465 4,295 10,760
Elimination Ace Battle For the first Elimination Ace Battle, two teams that are the candidates for elimination can send up to 2 people to be the Ace(s). The voting shall be done via self-evaluation — with each team sending the number of members equivalent to the least number of members among the five remaining teams. Since Oneus have the least number of members among the remaining five, having 5 members, five members will vote from each team, making a total of 25 voters for the Ace Battle.Road to Kingdom: Ace of Ace. Episode 5 (in Korean). October 14, 2024. Mnet.
+ Elimination Ace Battle results Team Ace(s) Performance title Votes Result 1 The CrewOne Like a Tiger with Wings () 14 2 The New Six Hwi Underworld 11