Proleague 2015 Preseason Superlatives

Srs ones:

Most Wins: sOs



He split the award with CJ's herO last season even after starting the year with a 2-6 round one record. If he avoids another slow start he should have this one in the bag.

Runner up: INnoVation

Rookie of the Year: San

+ Show Spoiler [This image of ManZenith is too manly t…] +

There aren't a lot of a new players in SPL this season but San stands out as one that could make a serious impact. His strong PvZ also makes him a potential ace match sniper, although that will likely only work against Samsung.

Runner up: TANGTANG

Head Coach of the Year: Ryu Won (KT)

This guy knows how to make champions and this season he gets to coach KT. Sounds like a recipe for success.

Runner up: Choya (MVP)



Best Ceremony: herO

This one is a bit tough to predict and with PartinG not playing I have no cop out answer. I'm going to go with herO for two reasons. 1) he wins a lot so he will get his fair share of ceremony opportunities and 2) CJ has been known to have some fun in the past.



Runner up: Prime after they finally win a match.

Season MVP: INnoVation



Expect Innovation to pick up the slack of all three departed SKT stars and cement himself as the greatest SC2 team league player of all time.

Runner up: sOs

Breakout player of the year: Dark



Dark has been talked about as one of the best up and coming players in Korea for some time now. However, he had trouble getting a starting position last year on a roster laden with top tier talent. Now that Soulkey, Rain, and Parting have departed Dark finally has a chance to grab the fourth spot in the SKT starting lineup and run with it.

Runner up: YoDa

Silly ones:

Team We All Expect to Suck that Might Actually do Well: Samsung



People seem to be treating Samsung like a bottom two team, and it's not all that surprising. They finished fifth last season and lost their ace in the offseason. However, if you examine their lineup they could just as easily finish top four. Dear and Solar form a solid core, while Stork and Bravo are probably good for occasional wins. Add in that Shine will beat Flash 100% of the time in Proleague and they have a roster that just might surprise you.

Team We All Expect to do Well that Might Actually Suck: Jin Air



Jin Air was one of the best teams in the league last year with first place finishes in rounds two and four while generally being overshadowed by the telecom's more star powered lineups. This season, people are actually predicting Jin Air to be an even bigger threat and challenge for first place. However, Maru hasn't shown his early 2014 form in a few months and another slow start for sOs (he was 2-6 in round 1 last year) could spell trouble for Jin Air. Their first two opponents are KT and SKT so we should know pretty quickly if Jin Air is the real deal. Expect many pictures of plane crashes to be posted in LR threads should the losses start piling up for the boys in green.

note: I don't expect this to happen at all but it would be just my luck that one of my favorite teams chokes in SPL

FPL Player Most Likely to be Overpicked Even if he is Overvalued: Flash



I think this one goes without saying. With Flash failing to qualify for GSL and getting knocked out of SSL handily in the first round you'd expect people to be a little gun shy about grabbing someone who is likely to cost 8-10 points. No way!



Flash will most likely be one of the most picked players in any round of FPL and who can blame people for giving him a shot? He helped lead his team to a championship last season and finished in the top five in wins with 23, all while struggling in individual leagues.

FPL Player Most likely to be Underpicked Even if he is Undervalued: YongHwa



This guy was a beast in GSTL but hasn't found the same success in the Proleague format. "Lackluster" is the kindest way to describe his 3-10 record last season and his penchant for choking in individual leagues despite hype from a certain caster in Korea has understandably made people less than eager to pick him up. However, Yonghwa seems to be the strongest Protoss player on MVP at the moment and recently qualified for both SSL and GSL, so it is safe to assume that he will be getting a decent amount of playing time. It just depends on if the FPL participants want to take the Yonghwa risk.

Player Who Will be sub 50% but still beat Life, Flash, Innovation and Taeja: Shine



This one goes without saying. Shine will probably alternate between losing to B teamers and beating the best in the world with early pools. It's just the Shine way.

Player who will Carry the Heaviest Load this Season: Solar



Solar is one of the fastest rising stars in Korean Starcraft II. Unfortunately, his team isn't exactly on the same upward trajectory. Dear was the world's best player for two months before sinking down into mediocrity and the rest of Samsung's lineup is filled with inconsistency and obscurity. We don't know how far Samsung can go this season but one thing is for sure: Solar's back is going to be hurting quite a bit.

SKT player who will get no credit for his team doing well: Classic

SKT player who will get all the credit for his team doing well: INnoVation

Player with a 50% win rate that will be celebrated as a hero: Creator



No offense to Creator meant and having a 50% win rate in Proleague is certainly tough to do, but he was Prime's savior last year at 15-17. Expect him to be played just as much and expect roughly the same results.

The real question is... does Prime still have the pants?



Player with a 50% win rate that will be called a flop: TaeJa



I don't expect Taeja to play too much, but I do expect him to go 5-5. When he does, I also expect to hear about how he got exposed because he's bad at preparation based leagues.


Clappin' at the haters

Team most likely to win Round 1 and then miss the playoffs: CJ



If only for the reason that this team really likes to get your hopes up only to crush them into a million pieces.

Team most likely to miss the playoffs in Round 1 and then win Proleague: KT



KT seems to be in slumpville at the moment so I wouldn't be surprised to see a slow start out of last year's champs. However, I also wouldn't be surprised to see them come roaring back and defend their title in this year's championship.

The Clutch player award for Most Ace Match Wins: INnoVation



With less roster depth than last year I expect to see SKT in a lot more ace matches this season. I also expect Innovation to win every single one of them.

The Heartbreak award for most Ace Match Losses: MarineKing


"Why you say this Darkhorse?"

While soO will be safe behind the wall of Innovation Marineking will most likely be called upon to be MVP's ace, and losing an Ace Match is almost like losing a final!

Thanks for reading guys and tune into Proleague this morning/afternoon/night!