This might seem to be really easy to predict, and it most likely is. Whereas Woongjin have been on a tear, Samsung appear to be struggling. This can almost certainly be attributed to the Bo7 format, as performing decently requires a lot of good players now. KHAN, OZ (and most likely MBC as well) have gotten the short stick out of this deal, whereas Woongjin seem to be doing extremely well. However, there is still reason for doubt in the Stars fanbase. Really, Woongijn's Terran ACE, is still underwhelming, as far as almost losing to Yellow after a bunker rush and shaky in TvT, as proven by an abrupt loss to Baby. While Free and ZerO/Soulkey still look absurdly strong, this might not be enough to win the Proleague. As for KHAN, I think the main hope lies in this being a season where Protoss appear to be extraordinarily dominant, rather than any specific player. Great played a rather unconvincing ZvZ, the struggles of JangBi must still haunt KHAN fan nightmares and juni hasn't been even close to proving himself yet. On the other hand, Brave performed astonishingly well against Tyson, and Stork is still one of the best players in the scene. The strong Protoss tradition of KHAN should have been what gives it an edge this year, however, things are looking grim. And as for the Terrans, Sharp, Reality, and Turn? While I do believe it is possible that they start to perform during the season, all Woongjin Zergs eat Terrans of their current caliber for breakfast.
On October 22 2010 18:28 ShadeR wrote: Well ideally I'd like to vote for a team and it's a given since I'm following proleague that I'd also want to vote for BW =/
I don't know if it is so in the rest of the world, but it's a tradition here - if you don't really want to answer a question about who wins in a sports match, you answer: "sports wins." Because a good match is a victory for sport either way. I derived it from that. Thought it to be universal :S
After Jaedong Oz, we have Stork Khan. I'd almost hope than one of the team disbands so they can merge like Hite Entus lol. But 9 teams would make a shitty format T_T
Stork vs. Zero would be nice, Stork has shown he can play late game against zerg (Stork vs. Jaedong on Matchpoint last year comes to mind) and Zero is just solid overall.
On October 23 2010 01:42 BrownBear wrote: I'm getting annoyed with the fact that the upcoming events page no longer lists PL games
But still, Samsung fighting! Anyone that plays Woongjin gets my vote.
What bothers me most of all is that even when the BW events are listed, they don't appear on the calendar because the SC2 events take precedence despite occurring every day. So every day of the week is blue which doesn't really communicate anything.
But yeah, I'm voting Woongjin on this one. I keep worrying about them because of the size of their roster but the individual players are just too strong when they perform well.
Any idea why BW's event dont appear on calendar anymore? Some public TL boycott or is it just some guy trying to weed out SC2's competition by fair means?.. I thought this was a Starcraft Forums, and BW was where it all started.. This kind of thing is such a disappointment.
urgh, not getting up at 5am twice in a row, not with a decent early premier league game on. opening game of the season that may never have happened, against khan, probably not.
somewhat biased predictions:
free > grape zero > great really > turn crazy-hydra < stork flying < jangbi soulkey > sharp
Wait, removing BW from the calendar was a deliberate decision? I thought it was just that nobody had got around to it. That really sucks, we should start a calendar thread in the BW forum.
On October 23 2010 12:38 Grobyc wrote: Fuck yeah Woongjin. I passed up seeing Paranormal Activity 2 with friends to come home and watch this; it better be good!
I'll also probably be streaming. I'll post a link when I get the stream up.
4 gollie drop on Really's bott left island. SCvs run, looks like CC gonna fall. Really got a decent number of tanks trying to push out, but Turn looks like he can hold the contain.
Close defense from free, but he's able to hold. Grape still on 4 gates, free on 6 or so. Free's 3rd is up and Grape's attack failed, so looking worse for Grape.
now great moving out with his mutas, first time - mutascourge fight at zero's nat zero lands a bunch of scourge but I don't think they were cloned well - now great chasing zero's mutas zero's mutas being cut down but great's stack has only 2 left?
january makes the slightest smile as she notices the camera on her
one of zero's lings at great's nat - mutas kill it and another, same fate
both players massing up again - scourge from both players fly past each other - a few scourge land as the great tries to pick off ground units at zero's nat while zero tries to take shots at great's air stack
Lurkers out for Soulkey, HT for stork . attack by soulkey takes out all nat probes with lurkers? stork is gonna attack his own zealots to kill lurkers but no can't even kill one now he's gotta wait for more. gate way goes down and stork is looking effed.
It's too bad he didn't know how what low HP both lurkers were on, he probably could have killed them both for the cost of a zealot and saved those two storms for hydralisks.
On October 23 2010 14:45 avaTar[ wrote: soulkey for power rank!!
that's getting likely actually...
it's about time he gets some recognition, he has been great since last season.
agreed
Gonna have to agree on this as well.
On a side note, Flying breaks the contain while keeping both reavers alive, although the shuttle dies. Once a new shuttle is out I see Flying attacking and rolling Brave, especially since Brave expo'd.
Looks like flying took his 3rd as well. Holding the high ground to defend all bases really nicely with the reavers. Brave tries to force his way up after multiple attempts, but it's futile. Wasted units for Brave, who takes a 3rd of his own.
Shuttle with a reaver and 2 DTs takes out a couple probes in Braves main along with a cannon, and is barely able to snipe the nexus as well. Brave falling further behind now.
The battle begins! Brutal storms from both players. Flying had a bigger army I think, but Brave has the highground along with some really nice storms and is able to defend. I think Flying is taking his 4th at 3 o clock.
Brave not knowing how to storm dodge... took high damage in the fight that matters but high ground low ground still prevails out and forces Flying to retreat
21 kill archon but most of Brave's army died and couldnt take the nexus, but the battle was fair and both sides had quite high casualities, but Flying still pulling out on top. Brave gets a DT in and does a fair amount of damage
Brave's archon has 21 kills hacking away at Flyings natural nex. Flying lost a lot of probes there, but was able to Flank Brave's army outside his natural. 4 base vs 4 base now, but I think Flying has a bigger army. Brave's 4th might fall.
Brave loses his 4th, but sneaks a DT in to Flyings natural and gets a fair number of probe kills as well as an HT. Flying doesn't have an obs nearby and is forced to make out. Brave moving out with a pretty scart army actually. Where did he get that all from? o.O
This one's over... Brave somehow pulled off a mircale in the midst of the battle, I think it was Flying's fault for getting an expo + setting up w/ pylons + cannons that cost him the lack of units too... also lack of storm dodges and better unit composition from Brave
GG from Flying. Damn, what a sick back and forth game. That DT Brave snuck in there really made all the different imo. That threw Flying off so bad, he was ahead at that point a fair bit.
On October 23 2010 15:10 Grobyc wrote: GG from Flying. Damn, what a sick back and forth game. That DT Brave snuck in there really made all the different imo. That through Flying off so bad, he was ahead at that point a fair bit.
On October 23 2010 15:10 Grobyc wrote: GG from Flying. Damn, what a sick back and forth game. That DT Brave snuck in there really made all the different imo. That threw Flying off so bad, he was ahead at that point a fair bit.
More for that templar snipe than for the probe kills
Lol I knew Flying lost that as soon as he didn't finish the game and decided to go for the 3rd. I know it's good to maintain your economic advantage instead of rushing things, but I really think he messed up since their economies were practically even after he lost those probes to defend and Brave had a faster 2nd.
On October 23 2010 15:11 JIJIyO wrote: Lol I knew Flying lost that as soon as he didn't finish the game and decided to go for the 3rd. I know it's good to maintain your economic advantage instead of rushing things, but I really think he messed up since their economies were practically even after he lost those probes to defend and Brave had a faster 2nd.
He didn't want to risk it. Given that situation, it wasn't the worst thing to do: even though he had a pair of reavers (one was in red), he was fighting uphill against a larger army of goons, and he had slower reinforcement.
What I don't understand is what happened after he killed off the main...
On October 23 2010 15:11 JIJIyO wrote: Lol I knew Flying lost that as soon as he didn't finish the game and decided to go for the 3rd. I know it's good to maintain your economic advantage instead of rushing things, but I really think he messed up since their economies were practically even after he lost those probes to defend and Brave had a faster 2nd.
He didn't want to risk it. Given that situation, it wasn't the worst thing to do: even though he had a pair of reavers (one was in red), he was fighting uphill against a larger army of goons, and he had slower reinforcement.
What I don't understand is what happened after he killed off the main...
Ya, I'm with you on that. Even though he had 2 reavers, the uphill thing probably would've bit him in the ass. Still have no idea what happened. Guess he wanted to tech up to Arbiters lol.
On October 23 2010 15:21 avaTar[ wrote: who for stars' ace, if needed???
typically free/zero, but i wouldn't be surprised if soulkey got sent out personally. definitely one of the three though.
most likely is zero
soulkey and free are also good picks indeed
Considering Khan would most likely send a Protoss, they'd probably send Zero, yeah. Then again, Khan could also send great, but Zero's ZvZ isn't so bad anymore, and he already beat great today, so that's a bonus.
On October 23 2010 15:21 avaTar[ wrote: who for stars' ace, if needed???
typically free/zero, but i wouldn't be surprised if soulkey got sent out personally. definitely one of the three though.
most likely is zero
soulkey and free are also good picks indeed
Considering Khan would most likely send a Protoss, they'd probably send Zero, yeah. Then again, Khan could also send great, but Zero's ZvZ isn't so bad anymore, and he already beat great today, so that's a bonus.
Kind've disappointing results from the estro players. I suppose flying did play a good game, but he gave up his advantage too easily imo D: . At least Woongjin took the win like they should've. Props to Crazy-hydra for more ceremonies
KHAN are doing badly, but looking at the rosters it's not that surprising. In the off season other teams got players like Kwanro, Action, Really and so on, while KHAN got... Grape. Apparently their talent budget is pretty much the lowest of the teams, and their home-grown rookies aren't enough, so unfortunately I expect to see KHAN at the bottom of the ladder for the foreseeable future.
On October 24 2010 04:57 Balfazar wrote: KHAN are doing badly, but looking at the rosters it's not that surprising. In the off season other teams got players like Kwanro, Action, Really and so on, while KHAN got... Grape. Apparently their talent budget is pretty much the lowest of the teams, and their home-grown rookies aren't enough, so unfortunately I expect to see KHAN at the bottom of the ladder for the foreseeable future.
Open up the pocketbook, Samsung.
Well at least Khan acquired a first teamer, MBC acquired estro's last 2010 courage draft pick. Can't get any cheaper than that!
Khan's rookie is actually not looking that bad. BravE and TurN is looking real strong these days. I really think that the problem lies withing JangBi not be able to perform as well as he is suppose to and Great too. Stork, JangBi, Great, BravE and TurN as the lineups isn't too shabby in my opinion.
Well Jangbi sucks, so that leaves four players, which would be fine if it was still bo5. However it's bo7 so the lack of depth is exposed.
I didn't know MBC's off season talent pickup was that bad, sucks. Still, it's a shame to see a team that won PL a few years ago where they are now. Especially when the deteriorating skill levels of FBH and Jangbi were obvious yet KHAN hasn't tried to bring in many of the quality free agents that have been available. I'd like to see an NFL-style draft system, it would mean that some talent would go to where it is needed rather than stacking SKT even more.
Khan oh Khan what happened? Gotta agree that personnel will kill them this season, they really need their stars to step up if they expect anything amazing.
EPT
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/pgrBQ.png)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/teams/6.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/teams/10.jpg)
Flying < Fortress > 
Neo.G_Soulkey < Benzene > 
Really < Grand Line SE > ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/g5u8y.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/wKK2p.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/lZAHM.png)
![[image loading]](http://www.fomos.kr/board/photo/1287052541_1.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://kupax.com/files/11388_or7bu/Stork.JPG)
![[image loading]](http://img816.imageshack.us/i/franklygreat.png/)
![[image loading]](http://img52.imageshack.us/i/youretearingmeapartlisa.png/)
