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Week 6 is over, and as the round robin segment of Winner's League nears its conclusion, the teams finalise their positions on the leaderboard. With just one oustanding set left to be played (for most teams), significant changes are extremely unlikely, yet minor shufflings are still possible. The top 4 may have already been determined, but further games will crucially determine their position on the table. In case you're wondering how the playoffs work, do head over to MrHoon's thread, or catch our update next week, which'll have every bit of WL playoff information that you'll need.
So anyways, just to recap, when we left off last week, KT, MBC and STX were sitting atop the ladder with a hefty lead, and there were a bunch of other teams vying for the final qualifying spot to the playoffs. Just to go through them again, we had Khan, SKT1, WeMade, Woongjin and Hite. These teams were all tied at 4-4 last week, except for Woongjin, who was sitting pretty with a one set lead at 5-3.
And this was a lead that they never gave away. Garnering a couple more wins this week, they furthered their record to a fearsome 7-3, a score that threatens STX Soul's position of third place. These results though, are a little out of the ordinary for a team that had posted rather mediocre results for the first couple of rounds of proleague, and this is further accentuated by the fact that few of their players actually have exceptional records. Leading the pack of players in the Woongjin roster is Guemchi with a 12-5 record, and as with last year, Winner's League has been his moment to shine. He is supported by Zero, Kwanro and Free, but these players have mostly shared the burden equally, none of them really outshining the others significantly. What is striking is the lack of a Terran amongst those players, and this signals the possibility that their weak Terran lineage has been what was letting them down in regular proleague.
![[image loading]](/staff/pangshai/wlwk6piano.jpg)
You may be more acquainted with this variety, but Piano is
actually also a Terran player on Woongjin
Next up, we have SKT1. This team used to be way up there amongst the highflyers, but has fallen, long, hard and fast. A year ago, their star line up would've struck fear into the hearts of any team, but they've come quite a way from that. The once formidable Bisu, Fantasy, Best combination is pretty much a thing of the past - a fleeting memory. With only Fantasy posting any results of late, SKT1 has faltered after a decent start. After being all killed last week at the hands of Light, the last nail was driven into the coffin when even Air Force ACE managed to secure a 4-2 victory over them (with Much almost all killing as well). For sure, some drastic measures will need to be put in place to get this team back on its feet. Hopefully with their players (especially Bisu, who is on leave at the moment) will take some time to rest, recuperate and recover some form before the commencement of regular proleague.
Speaking of players not performing up to par, we're sure some of you would think of Stork and Jangbi. Last round, we reported that the Samsung Protosses had started playing some great starcraft again, and on the wings of their two stars, Samsung rose to glory again. If they had been eagles, birds of prey, which hunted and fed on weaker opponents, before, they were now flightless birds with clipped wings, far flung from their previous selves. Stork's 7-6 record may have been passable, but Jangbi's 3-8 must've really taken the wind out of Samsung's sails. The surprise sensation early in the round, FireBatHero, also quickly resumed his usual role of underperformer, and together, Samsung's 5-5 suddenly looks impressive.
Here, we shall take a break from all the disappointments and failures, and take in the awesomeness of the Game of the Week, this time brought to us by l10f. This week's game features Flash and Kal in a head to head battle that could determine which team makes it through the qualifiers as #1.
GOTW - Flash vs Kal on Fighting SpiritBy l10f
Flash starts off at 7 o'clock, while Kal starts at 5 o'clock. Kal is looking to avenge his fellow Protoss teammate, Shuttle, who was just dismantled by Flash. Both players seem to start off standard, Flash going FD and Kal going 1 gate core expansion. Flash moves out with 1 tank, 1 vulture, and a few marines while taking his natural, but it is denied by Kal's goons, forcing him to retreat while laying a few mines.
Kal then quickly techs to templars while adding a second gateway. He throws zealots at the mines and even kills a mine with some slick dark templar micro. Kal is able to kill a few SCVs before Flash builds a turret, making any more harassment impossible. Flash eventually feels confident enough after blocking the harassment to take a 3rd base at 9 o'clock, and Kal techs to arbiters while increasing his gateway count.
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The DT is going to be hit by the mine!
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... or the DT can kill the mine before it blows up.
The game turns into a game of multitasking as both players divert the other's attention while harassing various places at once. Kal also takes his 3rd expansion at 3 o'clock while preparing his 4th at the top right. Flash notices that Kal divided his goons into groups of 5, and sends about 15 vultures to kill them with mines at 1 o'clock. Kal was completely prepared, however, and micros the dragoons while trapping the vultures with more goons from the bottom.
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It's a trap!
Flash then moves out, seeing that Kal had sent most of his army to 1 o'clock to kill his vultures, putting mines in the path of the dragoons coming down. Kal loses quite a lot of goons to mines, but is able to clear out half of Flash's army without losing too much with a mine drag. Flash now sees that Kal's attention is focused on the center, and sends vultures to 1 o'clock again. In the meantime, Kal attempts to counter at Flash's 3rd expansion with a few goons. Flash brings his units back to defend 9 and Kal is forced to cancel his 1 o'clock expansion but he is able to clear out the mines in the center since Flash's army retreated to protect his 3rd expansion.
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Blue goo makes me happy!
The game slows down for a few seconds as Flash builds up a large number of vultures and Kal refills his army with a lot of zealots. Flash takes the 11 o'clock expansion and Kal restores his 1 o'clock expansion. The first attempted recall is denied by an EMP, and Flash tries to thin down Kal's army using 3 control group of vultures. They do minimal damage and are forced to retreat.
Kal then attempts a second recall, using his EMPed arbiter as a bait, and at the same time takes the 6 o'clock expansion. Flash reacts quickly and kills all of the recalled units with few losses. Kal also attacks Flash's 11 o'clock expansion with a few goons, forcing Flash to lift. Instead of trying to defend his expansion, Flash decides to push towards Kal's main instead. Kal fights in a bad position with no stasis and loses almost half his dragoons and all of his zealots.
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Even more blue goo!
Following this, Flash moves into Kal's natural and destroys all of the probes. Kal tries to attack Flash's 9 o'clock expansion but fails to do any significant damage. However, Kal has 5 mining bases and macros a large enough army to push Flash's army back and saves his natural nexus. Flash manages to barely take out the 3 o'clock nexus before all of his tanks are cleared out. Flash then takes both 11 o'clock and 11 o'clock natural at the same time to compensate for his economic disadvantage.
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Boom! 1 second too slow for Kal...
The players now constantly fight over the center. Kal first clears the center using stasis, but Flash follows up with reinforcements and kills Kal's army right as the units come out of stasis. Flash then pushes towards Kal's 1 o'clock expansion, but it is quickly killed by Kal's reinforcements. Kal sends his arbiter to 11 o'clock for a recall, but Flash responds immediately by floating his command center and saving all of his scvs. Kal realizes that the recall will now be useless, and moves down to recall Flash's 11 o'clock natural expansion, but an EMP hits before he is able to. This move was critical as Protoss would have been able to easily outmacro the Terran had that recall went through.
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The game changing move!
Kal rebuilds his 3 o'clock expansion, and the map is now divided exactly in half. The two players move their units up and down as the commentators ramble on about how that recall would have completely destroyed the Terran. The two players play very passively for the next few minutes with Kal trying to take the 12 o'clock expansion but being denied, and sacrificing a few zealots to make room for more arbiters.
Knowing that he can't win against a Terran splitting the map in half, Kal techs to carrier. Flash scans the two cores right away, and realizes that Kal is going carriers. Kal knows he needs to do something and attempts to recall 1 o'clock, but the vessel EMP's the arbiter. He tries again right away, but this time loses his arbiter to turrets before he can recall. He tries for the third time, recalling as the arbiter died to the turrets only to find Flash's army standing there, ready to take out Kal's recalled army.
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It sucks to be recalled there...
Kal continues to delay Flash from taking the 12 o'clock expansion with a recall on top of Flash's army. After trading units in a fight, Kal refills his army with carriers, and Flash, with goliaths. Flash uses the timing window while Kal builds up his carrier army to take out Kal's natural expansion and his 11 o'clock natural expansion. Kal, to buy time, recalls his remaining ground force to 12 o'clock and cancels Flash's command center.
Flash clears out the recalled army, and moves out to the center while taking the center expansion. Kal now finally moves his carriers towards Flash's main base. He also probe rushes Flash's 11 o'clock main expansion, taking out every SCV. Kal has built up more than 1 control group of carriers and he tries to wear down the turrets and goliaths at Flash's natural. Kal knows killing the factories is his only chance, but Flash has too many goliaths and only targets interceptors knowing Kal is low in money.
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My favorite TvP scene - goliaths vs carriers and high templars!
The first person view shows Kal with 3 digit minerals, quickly decreasing and Flash with over 4000 minerals and gas. Kal tries to break Flash's natural again with psionic storms, arbiters and carriers, but Flash has too many goliaths. Kal uses recalls to bring the carriers to 12 and 6, constantly harassing both top and the bottom. However, Flash is prepared with turrets and goliaths, and Kal, after losing all of his interceptors and with no money to replace them, types in the gg and leaves the game.
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GG!
Ok, that offered some reprieve, now back to the story. We move on to WeMade FOX, who is sitting on a score of 4-6. As we've mentioned a countless number of times, what WeMade lacks is a strong ace player, and in Winner's League this is doubly evident. With even teams like Oz and CJ crumbling despite big names like Jaedong and Effort being on their rosters respectively, it is brutally tough for a team like WeMade to compete in this field. They redeemed themselves with the fans this week though, as crowd favourite, Nada, was fielded in the set against KT, where he successfully took down Hoejja before being overcome by Stats. Along with that, we also very much enjoyed Baby's frequent appearances this round, and with a record of 8-7, he is WeMade's strongest player in Winner's League.
Finally, we have hite SPARKYZ. Essentially, this is a team that revolves around one player - Leta. He did alright this round, his record at 10-6, but in progaming today, "alright" is not quite good enough. Looking at his record though, you'll realise that with the exception of the loss against Yellow, his other losses have been to pretty good players like Stork and SkyHigh. What does this mean? It appears that teams are sending their top players to take Leta out, and with Leta down, the team simply capsizes. A bright side to the hite story is that, at least, during their time in Winner's League, they've managed to showcase their new talent in Puma, the Terran player who massacred his way through ACE, and has a current standing of 7-2.
![[image loading]](/staff/pangshai/wlwk6puma.jpg)
If you haven't already realised, google images were
the primary source for pictures this week
And with that, we're done covering the teams that were in the race to the finish line. Next week, we bring news about the Winner's League playoffs - every bit about who and what to expect. Most of the games next week will be simply formalities, but this will be the best time to look out for expected players. Be sure to tune in, for there is hope of catching your favourite players, be they seasoned veterans or untested newbies, in action!
This Proleague update was brought to you by Team Liquid's PL 2009-10 coverage team - riptide, heyoka and pangshai. Many thanks to keit as usual for the stellar graphics, 7mk for letting us use his photo in the banner, and l10f for guest writing the battle report this week!