Proleague 11-12 Preseason Power Rank - Page 2

I'm putting CJ here because of their really, really solid team. Horang2 stepped his game up a ton. Movie is looking like his former self. Snow has kind of faded out but he's still deadly at time - see Snow vs JD (contender for best series of last season, imo). Hydra is absurdly strong, just needs to focus on consistent strength instead of bursts of absurdly good playing ability. Leta has been playing for the ace position at CJ up there with Hydra. They even have reliable snipers and rookies, and people like Skyhigh and Hero for clutch matches. Effort has supposedly been tearing up the in house tournaments so the potential for him to return as strong as his previous self is possible. Frightening team for other coaches to be up against. They have SO many options it's got to be difficult to prepare.

Flash lol. Stats has been playing as a great second ace for KT recently, and I highly doubt he is going to slip up anytime soon. Newest acquisition Mind is a pretty consistently good player. Not someone to rely your team on, but I think Mind is going to benefit from being on the same team as Flash - he's better than Barracks and Suny by far so he can benefit a lot more from Flash's higher level. Hoejja basically turned the PL Finals around for KT, and he's been playing better and better. I feel like he will be a major player in this season's KT team, plus...he's Hoejja and an awesome old school player. I really dislike Action but he is a solid 75%-tier zerg, not consistent enough to be a major game-changer but he's not someone other teams can roll over easily. Perfective gets a shout-out here because he is named very appropriate. You see this guy in post season? "Fuck losing, I'm perfect." Similar to CJ, they have other players like Crazy-Hydra, BarrackS, Tempest that can take a game from time to time as well.

Third and Fourth are basically a tie, however I am giving SKT the edge to the #3 spot. Bisu has been playing strong lately, more consistant than he used to and the team has a pretty reliable ace now. Fanboy shield activated, but Bisu was NOT a reliable ace player for a long time, but I think he's back. Fantasy is putting up the results in the individual leagues where Bisu cannot, I know it's been said a million times but Fantasy is a huge preparation style player, I feel like...maybe not the hugest asset in PL but he's a force to be reckoned with. The problem I see in SKT is that they have so many unreliables. Protoss battle-buddy Best is just hit or miss, but plays good Starcraft for sure. Soo has turned on the afterburner lately, but he's still more of a "sniper" in my eyes. s2 isn't anything to write home about, Hyuk has a meme started after him for a reason, Ssak, Sun, Paralyze...maybe they will surprise us after the off season.

Fourth was given to Dream Team just because I feel like they are going to need more time together to really put up the results. I feel like once they are in their "groove" they will do VERY well. Jaedong is obviously the team ace, you might say...I'm not so sure. He's got some hurdles to go through, and I hate to say it but I think someone else might take the ace spot here. Baby was on fire last season, and it feels like he may have either exhausted himself or burnt out. I think he's going to come back strong after a rest and post team drama. Sea is just brutally consistent in PL, and he's still a great player ( maybe he will read this :o <3 ) and with a new coach might be able to break through his Individual league curse! Killer is a great backup zerg to the team, he's benefited quite a bit from being the second zerg on Hwaesung, and has been getting better every season. Jaehoon is in the same boat as Killer, he's shon a lot of improvement, hopefully the new coach can get Jaehoon's stage nerves out of his system somehow. I feel like that is his largest limiter, is nerves. No backups for this team, really, though....so we'll see. Tyson definitely has a lot of headroom to improve, and I think he will benefit a lot from being on a team with a lot of skilled players.

Jangbi is back in dragon form, and I bet he's going to start kicking some major ass in the up-coming season. Hopefully no OSL slump here. Kind of banking on that actually for this spot, haha. Stork was actually starting to put some results together last season, and I think that he's capable of putting out some wins in this up coming season, inspired by his protoss brother. New acquisition Roro will help out the most race imbalanced team in the league (seriously KHAN is like 90% protoss 10% meh) and as the destroyer of antiteams will definitely make a mark in PL this season. Brave, Grape, Sharp, Turn round out the rest of this team, with ELOs all sitting within a 100 point range of Stork. I'd say KHAN has the team with "best of the middle class" stamped on it this year.

It feels wrong to put these guys here, and I feel like they are going to be in Samsung territory. Kal is a great player and might bring some much needed change to the Ace lineup. Firebathero is no longer one to slouch at, he brought out the big guns last season and I anticipate him doing so again this year. Ggaemo had some good face time, similar to FBH, and started picking up the PL pieces and took some key wins. Iris has been taking the lead of FBH and put up a handful of good results last season. Great is well...not all that great, but you can't count out some good games from him; hive tech ZvZ is not a thing of the past and I hope great gets to show us this again. Piano, Canata, Orion, were all part of last season's good placement and they have nowhere to go but up from here. I think ACE will be the big upset this season.

Again #5, #6 and #7 are practically interchangeable. In the end, these teams are probably the least predictable...they could do better or worse. Zero is here to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and he's all out of gum. Fun fact: Zero is currently #3 ELO rank! (by 3 points..) He did really well and his results are looking sharp. I imagine another good year for Zero this season. Backing him up is Neo.G.Soulkey, different in playstyles but similar in results. Certainly another one of those "proleague stars" that I think will be shaking the chains this year, keep an eye out for him in ace matches. Free is just about as inconsistent as Best, however Free is much more fun to watch...not that it means anything for a "power rank" but the man knows how to beat your head in with a psyblade. A strong free is a pretty scary and easy-to-lose-against free. is another regular PL beast, on some absurd zerg killing streak, and I think will have another good season, as he seemed to be pick up his game near the end of last season (P.S. it's Light.). Their new pickup Shy is nothing to scoff at either, not the greatest player in his own right, but has something to prove now that he's not buried in other players. We should get to see some air time and see what he's capable of this season.

I hate putting my team so far down here, but I'm just...not sure this year. Maybe I'm a terrible fan, but find any STX diehard and you'll see we've all got the same bummed/depressed face on. It's different than being a Khan or Stars fan because we don't put up individual league results either. I REALLY hope this year is different, but I'm not expecting in. Inconsistency is the name of the STX game, I'm afraid.

With Kal now in the air force, we are missing a major player in our lineup. Bogus went from getting a win now and then to hardly ever losing. The guy tore PL a new one, against ALL teams. Hopefully mini-Flash can keep it up this year. Similar to Hyuk, Calm/Clam has a meme started up after him for a reason. If Calm plays well, he plays outstanding, but it's often a coin flip. You either get an impressively good game or a depressingly bad game. Shuttle is the new protoss ace, and as the team captain, I hope he takes his inconsistent game play and shoves it out the door. He took a few games from Flash last year in a convincing fashion but wasn't able to put it together for the rest of the season. Modesty started showing some promise near the end of the season, so there's hope that we will continue to see results out of him as well. Hero, Classic, hyvaa, and Last are all capable of a game now and then, hopefully someone steps up and takes charge in that group. Newest pick up Dear is not a bad player by any means, defeating Stats and Stork with ease on his previous team, so we will see where the STX staff takes him.