EPT10th - Ace
Much like pictures of kittens, it's impossible to not like Ace, but I don't think anyone can realistically say they'll finish anywhere but last, especially seeing how the worst two other teams effectively got contracted. Iris/Ruby should provide at least a competitive Terran lineup (I say Iris, TLPD still lists him as being with cjhiteentussparkyz or whatever they call themselves now, although someone else's preview says he's gone there), but other than that, it looks a bit thin, particularly with Reach/Anytime leaving soon and Yellow following not too long afterwards. ggaemo might pick up some wins if Blizzard nerf Terran by removing spider mines, if Pusan is in (applied same time as FBH? Is he in? Anyone?) he might pick up some wins, but they don't have anywhere the strength in depth to consistently pick up three wins in any given matchup, particularly given that most of the other teams have culled their B-teamers and won't use games vs Ace to give them televised experience. Sad but inevitable.
9th - STX
How did they finish second last season? Anyone? I don't know, certainly towards the end of last season they looked horrible. They need a lot of things to go right for them if they want to get anywhere near the playoffs, namely they need Kal to become more consistent (and keep up his very good record in ace matches), Calm to stop sucking, and some of their other players to step up to the next level. Filling their Terran hole with Classic is a start but isn't really ideal, and having to fill a spot with mediocre zergs such as hyvaa, hero or Modesty isn't pretty.
8 - Khan
Think this is similar to STX's situation, except it's a bit better as I feel that Stork is more reliable than Kal, and they have an overall better squad. great was beginning to emerge as a very solid zerg towards the end of last season, but then you're looking at either using Jangbi, who hasn't been near his best for quite a while, or other random players who really shouldn't be anywhere near a proleague lineup. With firebathero gone, can you name any of their Terran players? Can Brave, Chavi, Grape or Juni improve? I think they missed a trick in not trying to get Really from the Estro draft, getting another player who'll pick up wins on a regular basis would have been huge.
7 - Oz
Unless they can clone Jaedong they're always going to struggle. If Hiya can keep playing well, they'll be fine, as a Hiya win + Jaedong = guaranteed to get to ace match and gg as long as the coach stops being retarded and using Killer for no good reason. If not, they're kind of fucked as the likes of Backho, Lomo, Killer etc strike fear into exactly nobody. But having the best zerg in the world will always give whoever they play very little margin for error.
6 - MBC
They have one of the best 1-2's in the game in Light and Sea, but after that, their lineup is weak as anything. Hyun/Saint are run of the mill Zergs, Tyson/Jaehoon similar for Protoss. The other team throwing in well-timed Terran snipers can give them a ton of trouble. The only reason I have them this high is just because Light and Sea are so good and will win their matches a large proportion of the time, and can both hold their own in an ace match situation.
5 - Fox
Wemade are an odd team in that they have a lot of players that are good, but not so many that are truly s-class. The likes of Roro, Midas, Baby, Pure, Shine etc are all good players and can be relied upon to beat most players they will be put up against. The problem they have (similar to Stars I guess) is that would you bet on any of them to beat a Flash, Jaedong, Stork, Fantasy or similar that the other team would throw at them in an ace match? I can't say that I would, and that'll result in a lot of 3-2 defeats. I think they're good enough that they can get three out of the four that they send out to win often enough that they avoid an ace scenario against most teams, but it only requires a couple of players to start to slump and that'll stop happening and the losses will begin to pile up.
4 - CJhite
Loss of Effort is obviously huge, but the merger with hite gives them a new ace in Leta which fills the gap somewhat (although I'd personally rather have Effort). They have a fairly large Zerg hole, with their best player being a somewhat hit and miss Hydra, but their other races are very good, where Snow will hopefully continue to improve, also having Movie and Horang2 who can both pick wins up on a regular basis, and Skyhigh has some of the best TvT in the game. Moreover, they have players who are very good against each matchup should it go to a situation where they are against a team with an obvious ace.
3 - Stars
Probably homertastic, but Stars are one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Estro collapse, picking up both Really and Flying, which goes somewhat to address their massive Terran hole that they've had since the dawn of time (magnified somewhat by MVP leaving to kick ass in SC2), and also the loss of Guemchi. Zero/free can be relied upon to win most of their games, and Stars now have a larger supporting cast to fill the lineup out, with Soulkey improving, and the new imports strengthing things. Like Fox, Stars do have a problem in that free or Zero aren't the best should a match go 2-2, but the difference here is that there is at least two choices of players that can win, which most teams that aren't SKT or MBC don't have.
Also we now no longer have Kwanro corrupting the minds of people with nothing but all-in builds.
2 - SKT1
I don't see any team as having made the improvements necessary to really challenge SKT1, but at the same time, they've not done a great deal to improve things themselves either. They've brought in Kwanro, who is somewhat better than the other Zergs they have, but that's about it, it's still the same old Fantasy/Best/Bisu with not a great deal else other than Canata, the most boring Terran in the whole wide world (apart from when he goes for fail proxies on the biggest of stages), and a multitude of mediocre Zerg players who show occasional good play (s2 was real good late in the season, Hyuk was real good that one day, soo, er, wait, no it's gone). A very strong base lineup with players who can fill in as snipers and/or plan gimmick builds would see them win the Proleague if it wasn't for...
1 - KTFlash
They have the best player in the world! And the chinliest Protoss! And they also have the nerve to break the bank for Action! What could possibly go wrong? The answer is not much. Flash is basically good for an auto-win, and barring another one of those hilarious ace match slumps, will give you the win if one of your other players can beat anyone. It's not impossible that another team can beat all of Action/Stats/fOrGG (or maybe Violet, Tempest), but it's not that likely. Action gives the current champions an up and coming Zerg, whose late game control can arguably already be called elite, Stats is close to a top tier Protoss already with no obvious weakness (other than bad cannon timing), and whoever else they pick to fill out their team is superior to a lot of teams' #3 or even #2 player. I can't see them doing anything else other than taking the regular season crown, and I don't think any team has anywhere near the strength in depth to take them out in a best of 7 finals setting.
Let's just hope people don't start arguing about money again and that this Saturday actually does start things off as we all want. Zero fighting and all that.
