EPTAs we all know, tonight(or this afternoon/evening/morning, depending on where you live) begins the playoffs for the 2009-2010 Proleague. What better way to open it with (at least for me) a very anticipated match between SKT T1 and CJ Entus. Both teams are very strong and have very notable players (
EffOrt, 
Bisu, 
Fantasy, etc.)I feel that this match is going to be very close, and will be brought to the 3rd day.Enough with the introductions and my vague predictions, here is my analysis:
Let's discuss the line-up of each team:
SKT T1:
Their line-up for Proleague this year isn't too far off from that of last year, when they faced Oz. Just remove
Thezerg and Canata, then add SoO and s2. The "Holy Trinity" of Fantasy/Bisu/BeSt is still in tact for the most part, (I'm just worried about Bisu's and Best's PvP) with each of them showing solid play, but what's different this year is that now the SKT Zerg line-up has proven to be a force to reckon with. Hyuk, SoO, and s2 have all showed some solid play throughout this year, beating some big names such as Jaedong, Stork, and Leta.In summary, I think that SKT has a pretty solid line-up going.
CJ Entus:
This year, I expect to definately see
EffOrt, sKyHigh, Movie, Iris, and Snow, as these are solid players make up the spine of CJ Entus's Proleague line-up.I also think that they will play
Hydra, as he has been looking pretty solid in ZvT and ZvP from his run in the OSL (but his ZvZ seems to be lacking based on his 2 most recent proleague matches).In summary, CJ Entus has an equally solid line-up as SKT.
Strategy for the Teams
Since this is Proleague, there's going to be a lot of thought and strategy put into who gets sent out and when. Also, I expect both teams to go all out and try to win the first day, as it will give them a mental edge during the series.
SKT's Strategy prediction prediction
In order to secure the 1st day, SKT will most likely try to win the earlier games, as to affect the morale and mental state of CJ, so that means SKT will send out their big-shot players first. I expect Fantasy, Bisu, and Best to be sent out early (order depends on who CJ sends out). If they manage to score at least 2 wins from those 3 players, then SKT will develop a mental edge over CJ, and it will just be a matter of cleanup for the SKT zergs. That way SKT will take Day 1, and have a mental edge in the series. If SKT loses at least two of those first 3 matches, then CJ will probably take Day 1, as the SKT zergs will feel too much pressure that they are not used to.
During Day 2, If SKT has won Day 1, they will take things a bit easier, and probably send out the SKT Zergs (or even Canata) starting from the second match, as they will probably send out Bisu or Fantasy to secure Set 1. By sending out the Zergs in the middle, SKT is hoping to snipe some of the better players, and have whoever didn't play from Bisu/Best/Fantasy clean the rest up. If they lost Day 1, they will mimic their strategy from Day 1 and have the stronger players go out to get the early wins, except they will put a different player out in the first spot (if Fantasy was sent out Day 1, it will be Bisu on Day 2)
If it gets to Day 3, they will mimic their strategy from Day 1, as now both teams are even 1-1.
CJ's Strategy prediction
I don't know much about CJ's strategy, but i think that they will save their better players for the middle/end, as they will probably have a lesser player sent out first to try and snipe either Bisu/Fantasy. If they can get they can successfully snipe in the beginning, it would do the morale for the team good, and they will perform better in the middle sets, possibly taking Day 1 there. If they don't successfully snipe, then CJ will have to rely on their middle sets to bring it to at least an ace match.
On Day 2, If CJ won Day 1, they will definitely take it easy, and save the better better players for the later sets, as they will try to use their lesser players to snipe early on. If they lost Day 1, then They will be aggressive, and send their better players out first in order to secure some early wins and get it to at least the ace match.
As for Day 3, CJ will do something different than the first 2 days, and probably try to throw SKT off by mixing in the lesser and stronger players.
These are my predictions based off of some analysis of their proleague playoff/final games from last year. I'm definitely not saying that this is how it will go (in fact, the opposite may happen).
for the tl;dr ppl:
Both team line-ups: strong
SKT's Strategy prediction:
Day 1: aggressive with strong players first
Day 2:
-won Day 1: a bit lax with strong players toward the end, except for a strong player in first set.
-lost Day 1: aggressive with strong players
Day 3: Same as Day 1
CJ's Strategy prediction:
Day 1: set 1 is weaker "sniper", stronger players for middle/later part of series
Day 2: *refer to SKT's Day 2)
Day 3: Mix it up
edit: I will probly do a "who will be sent out against who" later, i need a break from writing this thing ^^;
