+ Show Spoiler [Initial Team] +
Team : Woongjin Stars - 3p
I didn't want to go anywhere near Rain's family, nor did I think that EG-TL would crush face like TL writers expect them to. So among the rest, I had to choose between Woongjin, Samsung and STX. Even though Khan was a finalist last season, they have the team with the least impressive individual results so far and they cost 4 instead of 3 for the two other so it was eliminate there. Soul have the best individual players on paper (Bogus and Last) but the mastery Stars showed in the first round of the last PL made me fan. 2 of their players qualified for Code A, sin doing it against zergs including someone named Vampire, aka Sniper's clone; while 3 of them also reach the finals (free, BisAnG, ZerO). Not to mention sHy and Neo.G_Soulkey were in Code S. This team has tremendous potential with a whole bunch of youngsters.
Captain : Neo.G_Soulkey - 8p
Players :
Among the players that were in Code S this season and who went down to Code A, Bbyong is the cheapest (4p) and the fact that he will likely share ace matches with Effort which makes him a wise pick. Then I wanted another reliable player for a decent price a protoss would have been best but none were that impressive for 4p. ZerO and Shine both fill that spot but I couldn't decide yet.
After that I wished to pick 2 protosses because in Bo1, those are always a good thing to have so one under 3p among {BisAnG,free,Wooki} and one over 5p among {Trap Stork,Flying,JangBi} was a good move for me. I believe BisAnG is the best player among the 1p players, his ability to reach Code B finals twice in a row (losing to win-hungry San in the last one) tells me that, however I don't think he is ranked that highly in his team and he shouldn't see that much playing time yet. As such I picked a combination that was likely to play often and which one of them will do well : [Wooki,JangBi].
Lastly I wanted a terran but they are either WAY too costly for what they are {Bogus, Last, Flash, BaBy} or their level is quite unknown like {PuMa, ThorZaIN, hOn_sin, Classic}. I was determined to pick of the last group and decided to go for hOn_sin just because he his almost guaranteed to win his game against a totally unknown player who will be hard pressed to cheese on a map like Arkanoid.
Anti - team :
I am not sure BeSt will have a bad season/day but in the bigger scheme of things, I have to avoid picking against teams that I think could win in the end and he weights quite a few points in a team where he will end up behind Rain all the freaking time anf if Bisu comes back well, he can almost kiss his spot good bye. sKyHigh looks like an overrated player in a team that won more on BW than on SC2 last time and Zenio has been slumping for a while and with the recruitment of Jaedong, he will go after him in the line-up.
I didn't want to go anywhere near Rain's family, nor did I think that EG-TL would crush face like TL writers expect them to. So among the rest, I had to choose between Woongjin, Samsung and STX. Even though Khan was a finalist last season, they have the team with the least impressive individual results so far and they cost 4 instead of 3 for the two other so it was eliminate there. Soul have the best individual players on paper (Bogus and Last) but the mastery Stars showed in the first round of the last PL made me fan. 2 of their players qualified for Code A, sin doing it against zergs including someone named Vampire, aka Sniper's clone; while 3 of them also reach the finals (free, BisAnG, ZerO). Not to mention sHy and Neo.G_Soulkey were in Code S. This team has tremendous potential with a whole bunch of youngsters.
Captain : Neo.G_Soulkey - 8p
Players :
Among the players that were in Code S this season and who went down to Code A, Bbyong is the cheapest (4p) and the fact that he will likely share ace matches with Effort which makes him a wise pick. Then I wanted another reliable player for a decent price a protoss would have been best but none were that impressive for 4p. ZerO and Shine both fill that spot but I couldn't decide yet.
After that I wished to pick 2 protosses because in Bo1, those are always a good thing to have so one under 3p among {BisAnG,free,Wooki} and one over 5p among {Trap Stork,Flying,JangBi} was a good move for me. I believe BisAnG is the best player among the 1p players, his ability to reach Code B finals twice in a row (losing to win-hungry San in the last one) tells me that, however I don't think he is ranked that highly in his team and he shouldn't see that much playing time yet. As such I picked a combination that was likely to play often and which one of them will do well : [Wooki,JangBi].
Lastly I wanted a terran but they are either WAY too costly for what they are {Bogus, Last, Flash, BaBy} or their level is quite unknown like {PuMa, ThorZaIN, hOn_sin, Classic}. I was determined to pick of the last group and decided to go for hOn_sin just because he his almost guaranteed to win his game against a totally unknown player who will be hard pressed to cheese on a map like Arkanoid.
Anti - team :
I am not sure BeSt will have a bad season/day but in the bigger scheme of things, I have to avoid picking against teams that I think could win in the end and he weights quite a few points in a team where he will end up behind Rain all the freaking time anf if Bisu comes back well, he can almost kiss his spot good bye. sKyHigh looks like an overrated player in a team that won more on BW than on SC2 last time and Zenio has been slumping for a while and with the recruitment of Jaedong, he will go after him in the line-up.
+ Show Spoiler [1st Week Wrap-up] +
Team : Woongjin Stars (-1p) Tough first week for WS with a 1-4 defeat. But with T8 as the only cheaper team, I have to trust myself on this one. To Keep
Captain : Neo.G_Soulkey (0p) Lost his match against Bbyong but should do well in the future.
Players :
Anti - team :
Captain : Neo.G_Soulkey (0p) Lost his match against Bbyong but should do well in the future.
Players :
- Bbyong (4p) Won his match against Soulkey confirming his Code A results. Keeper
- ZerO (0p) Dissapointing loss on a Terran favored map. Likely to be traded
- Wooki (4p) Satisfying win for a protoss that should see regular play. Keeper
- JangBi (0p) I was expecting more from him. On probation
- hOn_sin (1p) Didn't play but was on the line-up. Undecided
Anti - team :
+ Show Spoiler [1st Week Trades & 2nd Week Preview] +
I decided not to trade anyone for this first week after seeing the match-ups :
- Bbyong is likely going to stay on my line-up for a while. He can go 2-0 this week and 1-1 at worst.
- ZerO was playing BeSt so I decided to trust him once more, and ends up locking both on the lineup. The risk of ZerO going 1-1 is high because he plays Flash in the second part of the week but BeSt plays him and BaBy and I expect BaBy to crush BeSt granting me a potentiel 0-2 for BeSt this week.
- Wooki should win against Sang and free, continuing to make a strong impression on everyone.
- Sin is too cheap to be traded right now, though I thought about trading him for Mind but they face each other on the second part of week one and decided not to risk the trade penalty for that.
- JangBi has to perform against Dear because he won't against TaeJa. His stock is falling rapidly and I might have to trade him for a lesser protoss in a more successful team.
- sKyHigh is only playing one match and I think Last has what it takes to crush him. Zenio is in a similar situation playing only RorO.
+ Show Spoiler [2nd Week Wrap-up] +
Team : Woongjin Stars (10p) Great week for WJS with a weel earned 4-3 win over SKT and a quick 4-0 over KT. It's too bad they lost against CJ on the first day because with that level of play I can see them winning all the remaining matches. Next week will be tough with a EG-TL team that is looking for points and an under-performing STX that is bound to bounce up eventually. Keeper
Captain : Neo.G_Soulkey (14p) He isn't one of the few KeSPA Code S by accident. He won all of games including a Ace Match and is riding a 3-0 streak.
Players :
Anti - team :
Captain : Neo.G_Soulkey (14p) He isn't one of the few KeSPA Code S by accident. He won all of games including a Ace Match and is riding a 3-0 streak.
Players :
- Bbyong (5p) Lost against Jaedong but won against Trap. He may not be as powerful as I thought be he certainly delivers, plus he is on a team that keeps on winning. Keeper
- ZerO (8p) HOLY SHIT BATMAN ! I was wondering why the WJS kept on playing him on Bifrost, well he single-handedly proved that Bifrost isn't a Terran favored map. He earned his spot until the end. Keeper
- Wooki (5p) A win once again for this up-and-coming protoss. The only bad point about him is that he plays on KT. Keeper
- JangBi (1p) My biggest disappointment so farn and it is doubled by the fact that Samsung Khan plays terribly as a whole. The trade possibilities aren't that huge but I need to make the most out of his spot before it's too late. Traded
- hOn_sin (8p) He may not be the cleanest player out there but he gets shits done. No wonder he is ahead of Light right now. Keeper
Anti - team :
- BeSt (4p) I wanted to trade him for Stephano last week but couldn't because he was too high (0.62p too much if I remember correctly) and now he continues to win when it matters. Traded
- sKyHigh (2p) Apparently not as bad as foreseen. Traded
- Zenio (4p) Wasn't fielded against CJ but won against RorO, Traded
+ Show Spoiler [2nd Week Trades & 3rd Week Preview] +
Team : Woongjin Stars - Tricky match-ups for WJS this week as both of them are against teams that could well be better than what they look like. They continue to field the same line-up more or less which tends to indicate that they are confident in these players and rightly so.
Captain : Neo.G_Soulkey - I believe JYP to be the second best team player on EG (after JD) but if Soulkey prepares for the incoming 4 Gate he should be fine. Dear shouldn't be that hard to beat either. The streak continues.
Players :
Anti - team :
- EG-TL will field an all-korean line-up and the match-ups are favoring EG-TL by a small margin. The best players from WJS (Soulkey and sOs) are playing 2nd and 6th which is dangerous considering that 3rd,4th and 5th match have Jaedong, TaeJa and HerO playing in mirrors. There is no doubt that both TaeJa and HerO are vastly superior to Sin and Flying in this area. So free's performance against Zenio will be crucial for Woongjin, as this first game could well make the difference between a 4-2 for EG-TL or a 4-3 for WJS.
- STX Soul is a team that should be in stronger that what its results would tend to indicate - They should have won against CJ Entus had Bogus learned to do a proxy 2-Rax. This week match-ups are also tricky with most matches happening on KeSPA's new maps. Soulkey, and ZerO should have no problem winning against Dear and Size respectively but sOs could be surprised by Last. So WJS has to win at least with either Flying, Sin or Light. Flying never won so far, Sin won twice and could well upset Bogus after winning against Fantasy and finally Light is playing for the first time taking free's place (who took fOKINS's place). Ryu Won took SlayerS to 2 consecutive GSTL titles with almost all terrans line-ups. Can he do the same here ?
Captain : Neo.G_Soulkey - I believe JYP to be the second best team player on EG (after JD) but if Soulkey prepares for the incoming 4 Gate he should be fine. Dear shouldn't be that hard to beat either. The streak continues.
Players :
- Bbyong - Tough week for Bbyong who plays BeSt and Flash. I hope he beats BeSt at the very least.
- ZerO - He could lose to JaeDong but should win against Size very easily. He only has one match-up to prepare.
- Wooki - He had rather weak opponents so far and we could see him continue to improve against Stork and sKyHigh.
JangBitraded for SonGDuri - JangBi has been a huge let-down. His team continues to lose. A trade for JYP last week could have been very could useful but I have to settle here for a lesser player. SonGDuri wasn't highly rated at the beginning of the season but brought some useful points as CJ kept winning. He is the only player who plays twice this week (along with Crazy-Hydra) and I decided to trust him though I could second guess myself at the last moment.- hOn_sin - Tough week again for Sin (plays TaeJa and Bogus) but I wouldn't get any better player right now.
Anti - team :
- BeSt - My personal bane. I thought he was bad but he entered SKT main players (along with Fantasy, soO and Rain) I could end up losing 8 points again but I don't see anyone worth trading for.
sKyHightraded for Stephano - This is a very conservative choice but seeing how I am performing poorly with my Anti right now, I am not sure Stork would be a better choice.- Zenio - He plays only once against free. As I said earlier, it's a crucial match-up for WJS and I have to trust my main team.
+ Show Spoiler [3rd Week Wrap-up] +
Team : Woongjin Stars (3p) This week was a bit underwhelming as they narrowly defeated EG-TL and were bested by STX Soul. I believe that WJS should have sent sHy instead of Soulkey against Soul. Next week should be fairly keen on them with Khan and Team 8 on the menu. Keeper
Captain : Neo.G_Soulkey (6p) Losing an ace match in this fashion must be very upsetting. For me Soulkey is still by far the best KeSPA zerg out there and it's not even close.
Players :
Anti - team :
Captain : Neo.G_Soulkey (6p) Losing an ace match in this fashion must be very upsetting. For me Soulkey is still by far the best KeSPA zerg out there and it's not even close.
Players :
- Bbyong (3p) He won against BeSt but lost against Flash, however because his team lost twice, he ends up with not that much point. Maybe traded
- ZerO (4p) ZerO was supposed to be the king of ZvZ in BW but he failed against Jaedong. He won against Size though. Keeper
- Wooki (6p) Another week another 6 points. I wonder what KT feeds its team, these guys aren't any good in GSL but they certainly deliver in PL. Keeper
- SonGDuri (3p) He followed the same scenario as Bbyong, had I kept JangBi, I would have had 2 more points. Likely traded
- hOn_sin (1p) Tough week for him as he faced 2 Code S opponents and ended up losing both games. Next week isn't that much better. Maybe traded
Anti - team :
+ Show Spoiler [3rd Week Trades & 4th Week Preview] +
Team : Woongjin Stars - The last and easiest week for WJS with Samsung Khan and Team 8. It is to be noted that CJ Entus also play the same opponents.
Captain : Neo.G_Soulkey - Soulkey was bested by Dear last week and showed weakness in ZvP, in a matchup where there is plenty of possibilities for zergs that is worrying but Soulkey has to prove he is a top player and go back to winning asap and finish the Round 1 with a 7-2 record.
Players :
Anti - team :
- Team 8 is fielding their usual line-up which is playing not as badly as people would expect. The match-ups for this game are OK but not overly favorable to WJS. Among the 4 first players, sHy and ZerO will win, Soulkey should too. free (like every other WJS Protoss not named sHy) has been losing a lot but won last week against Zenio - a victory that proved to be capital. I am hoping he can repeat again otherwise we will see Sin and BaBy play. Sin has proven he can win against other good terrans but he is still very inconsistent. The last match-up is Light against Sang which should seal the deal for WJS should the former players not grant them a quick match.
- Samsung Khan is a team that failed. There is no other description of what is happening. They have a strong top 5 (Stork, JangBi, Reality, RorO, Shine) on paper but they seem unable to gain any form of consistency. It is difficult to predict the match because all of their players bar hOpe are somewhat good but they fail one after another. sOs, Soulkey and ZerO are heavy favorites, while Sin and Light are still not completely proven but could end up winning anyway. Aria won't probably play.
Captain : Neo.G_Soulkey - Soulkey was bested by Dear last week and showed weakness in ZvP, in a matchup where there is plenty of possibilities for zergs that is worrying but Soulkey has to prove he is a top player and go back to winning asap and finish the Round 1 with a 7-2 record.
Players :
- Bbyong - Even though I'm not sure he will win against Stork, he is fairly consistent in his TvZ and will win versus Ryul2. The only other reasonable trade was sKyHigh and I think Bbyong is better than him.
- ZerO - Anything different from a 2-0 would be surprising as he plays Speed (on TDA) and RorO (on CK). Woongjin zerg power !
- Wooki - Sniping Protoss all round long. He plays Rain and Dear. I would have traded him for any protoss on Cj or WJS that was playing twice but sHy and herO are way too expensive.
SonGDuritraded for Light- Had I traded JangBi for Action last week, I could have gain 5 points. Now I am stuck with SonGDuri. He isn't a bad player by any mean but he isn't as flashy as Action or Wooki. Though he is in CJ, I prefer going with Light as I cannot undermine the fact that the latter was 5-1 in SC2 in the hybrid PL.- hOn_sin - It's another tricky week for Sin but the glimpse of greatness we saw in Week 2 could well repeat this week. BaBy isn't a slouch by any means and Reality already beat BaBy in week one. I was hesitant to trade him for Crazy-Hydra as the KT zerg plays JyJ and hyvaa but since I went for Reality in my Anti, I have to be consistent with my decisions.
Anti - team :
- BeSt - FINALLY OUT ! Thank god I didn't traded him last week or I would have lost way more points.
- Stephano - Still in France. He isn't playing and EG-TL has a tough week.
Zeniotraded for Reality - He only plays once but again a zerg that isn't very good. I can see him winning so I traded him. Among my choices were 3 terrans {Classic, Reality and Speed} Classic play ThorZaIN and even though I believe in our swedish friend, I can't bet on that. Speed plays ZerO (and will lose) but he also plays the terrible Hydra and could end up winning. Reality plays Sin and herO and there is no way he will beat herO. I went for Reality in the end banking on my Sin boy.
+ Show Spoiler [4th Week Wrap-up] +
Team : Woongjin Stars (14p) After a tough 3rd week, Stars started the year beautifully by crushing both Khan and Team 8. I thought that WJS would win 4-0 twice but ZerO dropped the ball. Every other player delivered.
Captain : Neo.G_Soulkey (6p) Calm week for Soulkey as he only played once and won against Jaehoon.
Players :
Anti - team :
Captain : Neo.G_Soulkey (6p) Calm week for Soulkey as he only played once and won against Jaehoon.
Players :
- Bbyong (0p) Bbyong is a token of CJ downfall. Let's go over a loss to Stork, a middle class player, and focus on the loss against Ryul2. This kind of loss is unacceptable for a player of his caliber.
- ZerO (5p) 1-1 once again for ZerO. For someone who is being sent out often, he is quite shaky. I
- Wooki (6p) Another week another 6 points. *nuff said*
- LighT (6p) He didn't play in the first match but won convincingly in the second winning against Stork.
- hOn_sin (8p) I ended up keeping him on the roster and I did well. He bested BaBy and Reality and gives me the most points he could have this week.
Anti - team :
+ Show Spoiler [Round 1 Review] +
Team : Woongjin Stars (26p) I was worried when they lost 1-4 against CJ Entus during Week 1 but they proved it was just a fluke. Finishing with a 5-2 record is very good for them. Having good players in every race is important and WJS has it. Light is probably going to crush face again, sOs is an underrated second ace (whose influence on the team is only surpassed by Fantasy) and a solide zerg ace in Soulkey.
The real surprise of the season comes from Sin who managed to finish 4-2 in TvT. He is a pure sniper though and this round should test him way more than the last. ZerO can be viewed as a disappointment. Yes he finished 4-3 but he was an ace for Stars not so long ago (in BW I mean) and it's a bit worrying for the future. free finished 2-1 winning 2 precious PvZ for the team. I doubt he can continue though. fOKINS had a terrible destiny, he had to open a match when his team wasn't ready and he had to face herO. We will probably see more of him and the younger members of Stars.
The disappointment of the team has to be Flying who finished 0-4. The worse player during this round was Shine and he played on Khan. Imagine if they put another P instead of Flying and he was 2-2 ? Still Flying will be back, perhaps not next round but he did qualify for GSL and OSL so confidence is all he needs.
Captain : Neo.G_Soulkey (26p) He shouldn't have lost against Dear but aside SonGDurifrom that he did the job he was asked to do. Backed up by a strong team he is well-rounded enough to take on anyone. A true Code S player.
Players :
Anti - team :
The real surprise of the season comes from Sin who managed to finish 4-2 in TvT. He is a pure sniper though and this round should test him way more than the last. ZerO can be viewed as a disappointment. Yes he finished 4-3 but he was an ace for Stars not so long ago (in BW I mean) and it's a bit worrying for the future. free finished 2-1 winning 2 precious PvZ for the team. I doubt he can continue though. fOKINS had a terrible destiny, he had to open a match when his team wasn't ready and he had to face herO. We will probably see more of him and the younger members of Stars.
The disappointment of the team has to be Flying who finished 0-4. The worse player during this round was Shine and he played on Khan. Imagine if they put another P instead of Flying and he was 2-2 ? Still Flying will be back, perhaps not next round but he did qualify for GSL and OSL so confidence is all he needs.
Captain : Neo.G_Soulkey (26p) He shouldn't have lost against Dear but aside SonGDurifrom that he did the job he was asked to do. Backed up by a strong team he is well-rounded enough to take on anyone. A true Code S player.
Players :
- Bbyong (12p) I was putting so much hope on Bbyong. He had a great run in Code A but could all that have been an accident ? He didn't do terribly but he should have done better as CJ main terran.
- Wooki (21p) He is a true PvP sniper. He may not be any good outside of that but he has the balls to win PvP and that's an useful skill. He is a clear over-performer like many other on KT.
- LighT (6p) He performed correctly for the only week I had him. I think he is still as strong as in the hybrid proleague. If I'm right, WJS might have a very scary line-up.
- hOn_sin (18p) He is a clear surprise too. I got him by chance and he proved himself to be quite the TvT player despite claiming it is his worse match-up. Losing only to Bogus and TaeJa, he still beat Fantasy and BaBy.
- SonGDuri (3p) This trade proved to be a mistake. I should have traded for Crazy-Hydra instead of him.
- JangBi (1p) I can only be sad that I traded him away before he decided to win like a boss. Is it a new dawn for the last BW OSL winner ? I don't know but he is rumored to love the game more than BW, time will tell.
Anti - team :
- BeSt (11p) I thought he would fall behind Bisu on the roster but the opposite happened. And he fucking won the match I needed him to lose. It was a bad choice but not a terrible one.
- Stephano (2p) Since he wasn't in Korea, it was a good trade. Still I was very unlucky not to be able to trade for him sooner.
- Reality (1p) He lost as predicted during the last week of play. Khan has no good and it's killing them.
- Zenio (5p) He is still slumping big time but ZvZ is still a match-up where he has a lot of experience. EG-TL had a bad start but came strong at the end which is why I traded him.
- sKyHigh (6p) Like many in CJ he had a strong start and I got scared so I traded him.
Conclusion
I'm quite satisfied of my results this round. Even though it's hard to be beaten by KT fanboys, I am happy that my take on the players level proved to be somewhat correct. I need to be more careful with my trades but I'm very risk-averse and thus I often makes bad decisions. Apparently the icon will be given to the winner of the season and not of the round. I don't think I will be able to win but a top 50 is still a very decent results.