EPT
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Cover image by KizZBG
Enter, Stage Left
by thedeadhaji
TeamLiquid: Final Edits
The makeup of an ideal squad for Proleague consists of a set of above-average singles players, one – preferably two – dependable 2v2 teams, and depth in the lineup that can make up for a given player’s periodic slumps. Oh, and a little bit of luck doesn’t hurt either.
This is all nice and dandy, but if you are a team that doesn’t have all of the above (or any of the above, for that matter!), how do you go about filling those holes? Professional Starcraft rarely affords a team the option of grabbing a star player off of free-agency like baseball or most other major sports (although recent events have definitely defied the odds on this one). On top of this, many of the teams don’t possess the financial muscle to make such acquisitions even when the opportunities arise (Hello there Hanbit.) Instead, talent must be sought from within their own roster.
From one season to the next, the players who are most likely to make great strides are what we may term the ‘minor leaguers’ in each team (apologies for the repeated baseball references, but it’s that time of year). Only in special circumstances (i.e. Casy, Goodfriend) can a veteran player find that ‘something’ that makes everything click, suddenly making him a force to be reckoned with. Furthermore, 2v2 teams are so unstable that it does not seem wise to put too much weight into them. Just look at the Hanbit 2v2 team, one of the most prolific during 2007 Season 1. Their performance was nowhere near this level in season 2. So if this proposed hypothesis is true, which teams are best equipped to capitalize in the coming season and beyond?
Of course, there are a handful of teams that don’t need much help to reach the top, as they already possess stacked lineups. But if the roster decisions by the two biggest powerhouses in progaming, SKT1 and KTF are any indication, even the most powerful of Proteams are looking at their young players to improve their chances. For a bit more on KTF’s choices, I’ll point you to pubbanana’s always excellent blog entry. If you need more evidence for the importance of the ‘kids’, look no further than MBC, whose once mighty lineup of singles players has now been shaved down significantly.
I initially started contemplating this theme back in October, during the earliest stages of last season’s Proleague. I made a list of players for each team who have shown promise and were likely to continue progressing, contributing to their team’s efforts by mid-2008 or so. Well it’s been nearly 6 months since then, and an entire Proleague season has gone by. Some teams’ prospects have remained relatively constant, others’ have improved quite nicely, and some would prefer that we not approach them with this topic.
Before I go into my take on the teams’ prospects, I should make one thing clear. This article seeks to identify the improvement potential of the teams that could thrust them upwards in the standings in the coming seasons. It is by no means a prediction of where the teams will finish next season. A clean way of saying it would be “how much unharnessed potential a team has”, as a function of the abilities of their underlings
We’ll start from the bottom of the barrel and make our way to the top.
12. Air Force Ace
Ranking back in October 2007 – 12
October 2007 – None
March 2008 – None
I don’t think there’s any question that out of all teams, Ace has the least potential from improvement. Their current players are old and mostly out of form, and the new blood they receive are players who had a reason to leave their former team in the first place. In an age where the government is letting players defer their military service for great lengths (i.e. Yellow being a graduate student), a player must have a compelling reason to leave their current team – and their motives usually include sub-par performance.
Adding Oversky and Daezang ‘could’ have improved this team last year. Did it though? Not much right?
11. Ongamenet Sparkyz
Ranking back in October 2007 – 11
October 2007 – None
March 2008 – Go.Go
OGN is by far the most young-talent deprived team out there. The fact that their front line is suspect already makes for a bad situation, but the dearth of talent behind them is seriously alarming. Chalrenge made some noise early last year, but his macro is too suspect to expect the kind of stability desired from a Proleague contributor. Flower and Leta have been unconvincing.
I will probably get some heat for this choice, but out of the second-teamers in OGN, Go.Go stands out as the one with the most potential to make a difference in the coming year. He plays in a rather unusual style (oh how surprising for an OGN player) that has somehow proven successful over the course of the whole year. If I had to bet money on this I’d bet against him breaking out this year. But he is the only one who seems ‘different’ from the rest of the chumps in this squad.
10. WeMade Fox
Ranking back in October 2007 – 8
October 2007 – Mind, Casy
March 2008 – Casy
Why has Mind’s name been removed since October for WeMade? That would be because he is a known commodity whose potential has – for the most part – been realized. The team now has a solid one-two pair with Nada and Mind, but whether these two players will be abused a-la Anytime-Jaedong… we’ll have to see.
So that leaves us with Casy, the much heralded transfer player. His most recent accomplishments include forcing Jy into retirement with a nuke build. But if one thing has remained constant from his OGN days, it is his abysmal macro abilities. His TvP seems to be on the upswing, but his economy management still leaves much to be desired. (His first person view on a TvP on Blue Storm demonstrated his lack of proficiency in unit production, along with very poor building placement) IF he can pick something up from Nada in this department, who knows what he can accomplish.
Keke is still ways from becoming a reliable contributor, and Hero is borderline at best.
9. Lecaf OZ
Ranking back in October 2007 – 7
October 2007 – Lomo
March 2008 – Lomo
The reigning champions of 2007 and the recipient of unfair bias from the author (me), actually have one of the weakest set of youngsters. It’s really no surprise, considering they fell to Samsung in season 1 due to a lack of depth in their singles lineup.
The only player who can make an impact to improve their 1v1 lineup is Lomo, who is, by all accounts, aother ‘generic terran’. He is quite strong in all matchups, and I’d much rather prefer seeing him in a singles match that ForGG, whose play is entertaining for the wrong reasons and is characteristically unreliable. Whether Lecaf can repeat as champions will hinge on finding a reliable 3rd and 4th singles player, because by god I am going to kill myself if I see Back-Fucking-Ho in a playoff lineup one more time.
Bright has some promise from the relatively little we’ve seen from him, but his role as a 2v2 player will limit his development. His performance most likely won’t reach relevant levels until much later than the 2008 season.
8. MBC Game Hero
Ranking back in October 2007 – 9
October 2007 – Ruby
March 2008 – Ruby
Not much has changed for MBC over the course of the last 6 months… aside from losing some Protoss player. They still have a very strong team, but are now coming alarmingly close to having a thin 1v1 lineup, having lost two of their biggest contributors last year.
The only two players of note in the second line are Ruby and Hyun - and the latter’s play has never shown that extra something needed to make me believe in him. Ruby on the other hand, while having mixed results over the course of 2007, has shown some performances that have bordered on spectacular. He has shown he can macro like a machine, and has shown he can micro with the best of them. He isn’t always ‘by the book’, which seems increasingly important these days. If he can put his best performances in each department and put them on the table at once, MBC is going to have a great asset in their hands.
Whether Ruby can harness this potential or not is going to be incredibly important for MBC in the coming seasons.
7. Samsung Khan
Ranking back in October 2007 – 6
October 2007 – Jangbi
March 2008 – Jangbi
Jangbi was always touted as one who could be “the next big thing”. The first half of 2007 certainly didn’t go too well for the youngster, as he crashed and burned in Proleague, was visibly nervous in his first ODT and generally underperformed. Despite his poor stats he would occasionally show dominant performances, befuddling many of us who watched him play on a regular basis.
His Proleague round 2 record was still atrocious, and yet he proved himself with a top 4 finish in Gom TV S4. It shouldn’t to too tall of a task to capture some of the magic he found in the individual leagues and put it to use in Proleague don’t you think?
6. STX Soul
Ranking back in October 2007 – 2
October 2007 –Calm, Kal, Terror
March 2008 – Calm
Back in October, Calm was coming off a season in which he had poor stats but showed a lot of plus tools in his makeup. It started to show in the second season, as he contributed greatly to a STX team that hardly played Sheis, one of their horses from the previous seasons. While his tools are rounding out, I can’t help but think there is a bit more left in his potential. Parts of his game are still unpolished, and if he can bring his management level one step higher, STX might find themselves with an ace for the one race that’s missing right now.
Kal was just a so-so Protoss, known for a penchant for shuttle play more than any other strong suit. He sure did improve this season though, to the point where I don’t see him providing much more for STX by marginally improving his already strong, consistent play. By virtue of him fulfilling his potential, he’s off the list of STX players who could ‘break out’. Terror on the other hand comes off the list for the opposite reason. He really hasn’t shown anything to make me believe that his growth will have the pace needed to contribute this year. It doesn’t help that he’s in a now suddenly deep lineup, being relegated mainly to 2v2 despite having shown quite scary macro in the past.
5. CJ Entus
Ranking back in October 2007 – 4
October 2007 – Kwanro, TheManiaMST, Devil
March 2008 – TheManiaMST, Devil
If there is one team that doesn’t necessarily need a fresh crop of players, it’s without a doubt CJ Entus. With the addition of GGPlay over the off season, they have an unbelievable lineup of Savior – Iris – Much – GGPlay – Darkelf – Xellos for their frontline. Ridiculous.
Kwanro really surprised me this season, having great results on top of strong play. However, I just don’t get the sense that he will significantly improve upon the skillset he currently possesses. He’ll continue to be his aggressive, powerful self, but I can’t convince myself that he will do something significantly better than what he did during the last few months.
TheManiaMST was completely unknown to me until the first ODT season of 2007, where he showed that he really had some serious potential. However, that was before I got to see over the course of more games that his micro was severely lacking. More often than not his macro covers for his deficiency, but it is still something he should, and undoubtedly will be working on. On the flip side, the fact that he has posted reasonable results with such a lack of micro (particularly in TvZ), means that with improved control, his performance has a very real possibility of rocketing up. You could say that he is a ForGG.Jr in a way – immense macro, shabby micro, and a fearsome proposition if they add some finesse to their game.
Most of you probably don’t remember/have the slightest clue who Devil is. As a reminder, he is the Korean amateur that went 1-2 against Hwasin in the WCG Korean qualification, showing July-esque micro + low economy play. Devil high upside but low probability. The biggest barriers for his growth will be developing management ability to complement his control (which should be facilitated by having Savior and GGPlay around), and perhaps equally as important: finding playing time.
4. KTF Magicn’s
Ranking back in October 2007 – 5
October 2007 – 815, Haran, Lucifer
March 2008 – 815, Haran
Firstly, Flash is a known commodity. He might improve upon his abilities even more this season, but his incremental increase in ability won’t have nearly the same impact as a brand new player rising to the task.
Back in October, Lucifer’s play was extremely unknown, having only shown himself in Survivor and nothing else. His subsequent play however was rather uninspiring, leading me to remove him from consideration for the purposes of this piece. I just don’t see him being able to really contribute any time soon.
Haran and 815 on the other hand, showed strong game after strong game. 815 used a somewhat unorthodox semi-Sauron style to great effect, in particular on Blue Storm and Katrina. On first glace you’d never think 815 has much of a chance in the ever competitive proscnece. He looks like a farm boy, has thick ass eyebrows, and has a map name for his ID ffs. It’s not like his gameplay is super-refined either, as he is often seen adding many hatcheries at once around the midgame. But what is undeniable is his results, and the fact that the force with which he has won has gotten stronger and stronger. Remember him losing to Anytime (I think) in ODT ro48 last spring? Those days are far gone as he continues to climb up the KTF ladder.
I really can’t put a finger on Haran. To be honest I don’t really know exactly why I think he’s going to develop. It’s one of those ‘gut feelings’ that he’ll make it happen, based on the kind of game he plays. It also doesn’t hurt that KTF has an absolutely massive roster filled with young players who could prove themselves worthy.
3. SK Telecom T1
Ranking back in October 2007 – 3
October 2007 – Best, Mujuk
March 2008 - Best
SKT1 is in transition. Like KTF, they began making the switch to young players, but at the same time stuck to their old guns as well. As a result, they were left with neither wins nor player development. Whether T1’s younger players fully develop will depend not only on the players’ abilities, but also in the direct the team takes as a whole.
Best needs something other than his macro to take himself to the next level. He’s improved considerably over the last year, becoming a stabilizing presence in T1’s lineup. However, all around solid is good – but not quite good enough to fully carry a team. But his foundation is strong, and his play is incredibly steady. From what I’ve seen, he’ll continue to steadily improve on all aspects of the game, and while he may not advance much further in starleagues, he should become an even more valuable part of T1’s roster.
Mujuk I feel has slowed down in his progress compared to the end of 2006. At that time, he seemed to be ahead of his fellow T1 toss, Best in ability. While Best has steadily formulated a stable, steady style, Mujuk seems to be variable in his style, pace and execution methods. His arsenal is more versatile than Best and I still think his ceiling is higher than Best, but he has often looked lost in his game this season. I’m not really sure what he needs to reach the next level, and he certainly is an asset to T1 already. But if a T1 toss is going to inherit the throne from Kingdom, I’m still willing to bet it’s Mujuk rather than Best.
I never quite bought into the hype behind Shudder, and Fantasy has no other weapon than his macro that he can utilize. Hope for the best, but don’t expect dividends on these two investments too soon. They certainly have potential, but it seems to be too early.
2. Estro
Ranking back in October 2007 – 1
October 2007 –Magma, Sangho, Cool
March 2008 – Magma, Cool
I wonder how many of you guys remember the CJ Superfight Proleague back in early 2007. In the first round, we had the oh-so-amazing match between Hery and Magma. Magma absolutely sucked that game, and we rightfully labeled him a crappy zerg. Fast forward a year, and his reputation is that of a solid, reliable – albeit unspectacular – zerg. His improvement has been steady and constant, climbing the steps of progress one at a time. There is nothing flashy about his progress, but his improvement is simply unmistakable. Considering the manner in which he has advanced, and the type of gameplay he has been showing us, I don’t think he’s going to be slowing down any time soon. That’s right. I actually believe Magma can ‘make it’. While he may not be moving forward at a blistering rate like some others, he may end up ahead in the end when they all run out of fuel.
Sangho’s style is strongly reminiscent of Kal’s. Decent all-around, with a strong emphasis on harassment play. It is a characteristic of the “New-age mediocre Protoss” that I have been seeing, but that topic is for another article. But while he seemed to improve a bit from season 1 to the beginning of season 2, Sangho pretty much plateaued off in the second half of the season. It’s conceivable that he somehow pull a Kal and blossom into someone to be reckoned with, but I honestly doubt it will happen at this point.
Then there is Cool[fou], who has been a tantalizing figure on Estro along with Tester (please don’t get me started on Tester. his poor performance is simply inexplicable and downright ridiculous considering his phenomenal fundamentals. If there is such a term as a ‘losing player’, it doesn’t belong to Yellow or Goodfriend. That’s Tester’s territory.) He has given us overpowering performances, then confusingly weak showings in random intervals. In terms of upside, I don’t think many of you would argue against a high ceiling for him. However, Estro’s reliance on him as a 2v2 player has seemingly undermined his skills as a singles player. I’m unsure where he belongs, bug something deep inside me wants to believe that this guy can make it out of the hole he’s in right now.
1. Hanbit Stars
Ranking back in October 2007 – 10
October 2007 – None
March 2008 – Guemchi, Zero
Back in October, Hanbit had absolutely no one who could add to their singles roster. You know things are bad when you use Ganzi multiple times in a season. Repeat that out loud to yourself, and you’ll be shaking your head in disgust just like me. That all changed around December though, when two babyfaces came up.
In terms of pure upside I don’t think anyone can go toe to toe with Hanbit’s duo. Hanbit’s position atop this list is by virtue of how early in the development stages these two players are, despite having demonstrated both the mental and physical makeup to perform at the highest level.
Zero’s Proleague stats were pretty ugly, but showed that he has the balls to pull it out when it really matters, as he did against Odin in Survivor. Combined with an well-rounded but unsolidified playstyle, and I just see him having a lot of room to improve, and at a rapid pace at that. What really worries me though is GGPlay’s departure from Hanbit, leaving Zero without a mentor to directly instruct him. It’s truly a shame, since this will probably have a negative effect on his immediate development. On the other hand, Guemchi still has Free around to show him the way. He already showed last season that he is up to the task, opening 3-0 after his debut. And while his Proleague stats were unremarkable much like Zero, watching him play just gave me an indescribable feeling of amazement that he could come out and play in the way he did.
Both these guys clearly have enough talent, but the question is whether they can properly mold it into form. Maybe I am overestimating their potential, but this is Hanbit Stars, and you know what that means.
“Hanbit are not backed by the richest of sponsors. They are not a flashy team, and they do not have superstars. But they have history, they have a strong coaching foundation, and they always have veteran leadership. They are quiet not because they are timid or because they are scared. They are quiet because they are fucking Hanbit Stars, and GGPlay and Free will make sure you know, one way or another. And when the current aces move on or retire, there will be the next batch of aces ready to continue the tradition. Hanbit may not look like much, but they know their history and will fiercely defend it. Underestimate them at your own peril.”
--HonestTea
They will definitely get chances, considering how badly depleted Hanbit’s lineup is, now that GGPlay has departed.
Veterans cannot maintain their form forever. Literally every single great thus far has experienced a fall from grace, beginning with Boxer, Yellow, Reach, extending into oov and July, and reaching even Savior and Bisu. There is no guarantee that a team that is strong right now can sustain its dominant form for even a year longer – and when that time comes, they must inevitably find a replacement to the star.
When the season starts in the coming weeks, I will be keeping an eye on these players mentioned above even more so than our favorite sons. They are the ones that will sustain the team’s glory, the ones that can propel them to success. Out from the heroes’ shadow, they will start to shine.
1v1 haji?
