In the last day of round two, we saw KT finally take its second loss after being on a five game winning streak. More importantly, this series put Khan within spitting distance of seizing the first place position from KT, which has been on top for so long. Khan started the series strong, taking a two-game lead thanks to stout play from Brave and Jangbi. Brave bested Hoejja, defending against his drop play with ease and rolling over his Zerg opponent with a two-base timing attack. Similarly Jangbi also won a PvZ against Action, who has been in similarly poor form lately. Action attempted to contain jangbi with lurkers and sunken colonies, but Jangbi was having none of it, making four reavers and slowly pushing his way out of the contain to take the victory.

KT struck back with their star players Flash and Stats taking victories of their own. Stats easily dealt with Roro, busting him with zealots, archons and corsairs while Roro had only ineffectual mutalisks with which to mount a defense. Flash took a win over Stork in an exciting game, involving cliff drops, reavers, scouts, carriers and Flash’s unnerving ability to win games whenever he pleases. Unfortunately for KT, the comeback was not to be, with Reality coming out to seal the victory for his team by taking down Mind. Reality utilised the power of a single tank to counter Mind’s pure vulture play to put himself at a huge advantage and take the game quickly thereafter.



Team 8 continued its gradual rise from the bottom of the rankings with a victory over a once again disappointing STX Soul, which continues its round two slump. Jaehoon came out first and took down Calm quite easily on Chain Reaction, which has seen good times for Protoss against Zerg. Calm attempted to use hydralisks to secure a fourth base but Jaehoon was more than capable of busting him down and taking the win. STX quickly levelled the scores with their resident five pooler taking an easy win against Tyson, in what could only be described as a monumental failure. Jaedong continued his own resurgence (perhaps in reaction to being bumped off the Power Rank) with an exciting win over Modesty, despite being left at something of a disadvantage by his opening build order. Finally Baby sealed the series for his team taking down Last in the sort of dominant showing we all know Baby is capable of, despite his not showing it much this season.



On paper this series looks like a simple three nil white wash of Ace, but the games themselves tell a different story. Each game was hard fought and, while Ace eventually lost, its players definitely deserve respect for their performances. Iris was the first to fall for Ace, playing an extremely long TvP against Shy. In a see-sawing game, Iris almost managed to break down Shy’s fifth base, but with good arbiter usage Shy was able to pull the game back, recalling incessantly and claiming the win. Great was sent out next by Ace and was unfortunate enough to run into Light’s TvZ. Great fought valiantly but Light’s mech army in the late game proved too much for Great to handle, forcing him to concede. Finally Canata was taken out by Hon_sin. While the game lasted a long time, in typical Canata fashion, he was never able to wrest any real map control from the young Terran from Woongjin and eventually was forced to tap out, granting Stars a fantastic start to the round.




CJ continued its poor form from round two into round three with a quick defeat at the hands of SKT. They started out well, with Leta bamboozling Fantasy with a quirky two factory build and an expansion into wraith follow-up that Fantasy was unable to handle. Soo then turned the tables on CJ, busting down Movie’s defenses with hydras after sniping one of Movie's shuttles with a reaver inside. Best exercised his considerable PvZ skills to take down Effort in an exciting game, with Effort seeming unwilling to progress to hive-tech and despite winning a few battles and breaking down Best’s back expansion, was unable to hold up against the constant streams of Protoss units.

Finally, Sun took down Horang2 in what was a bizarre dragoon-on-dragoon encounter. Sun had been building off a single gateway while Horang2 went for a three gateway bust, but somehow Sun was able to beat down Horang2’s initial assault by simply having superior micro. It was a dominating performance from SKT, whose players will need to remain in tip-top shape in order to secure their spot in the playoffs.


IIn the much-hyped rematch between the two titans at the top of the table, the number one spot would be decided. Khan showed that it deserves its place at the top of the pack, taking down KT again in the space of less than a week. Stork was the first out of the blocks for KT and this time, instead of being matched against Flash, he was gifted with a game against Action. Stork took no time in exerting his dominance, easily rolling over Action’s defences with a zealot timing attack, combined with archons and corsairs. Brave came out on his favourite map, Chain Reaction, and ran into Wooki attempting to emulate the build order that Jaehoon used against Best the week before last. Unfortunately for him, Brave had no problems busting down Wooki’s early expansion attempt with some excellent reaver/shuttle control.

Reality was the poor sod unlucky enough to be matched against Flash, and he was summarily destroyed by an early bunker push catching him off guard, losing too many SCV’s to remain realistically competitive in the game thereafter. Finally for Khan, Turn took down Stats in an exciting game, with Stats’ manner pylons shaking up the young Terran who responded with a modified deep six build to crush Stats (despite the build being scouted by an observer). It was a poor performance from the rest of KT, with comparisons to the “KT Flash” of old becoming more and more common.



Let’s be honest here, Team 8 choked. After being up two games in the series against STX, with incredibly impressive performances from Baby and Jaedong, it managed to throw the series away with a number of both unlucky and disappointing displays of Brood War. Baby was the first out for Team 8 and played an exciting TvT against Bogus. Baby won the game through superior control of the unoccupied main bases on the map and simply didn’t allow bogus to break him down despite his defences being quite widely dispersed. Jaedong was the next out and, although his double hydra den bust failed somewhat to Mini’s reaver defences, he was able to drag the game back into his favour with incredible mutalisk control, keeping Mini’s templar nice and dead so his hydras could reign supreme.

Calm brought back the series for STX with an easy win over Killer – a simple ten-hatch ling bust. Sea then looked to be poor sorts against Dear, sitting passively on three bases while Dear took the map, and pushing ineffectively to give STX another win. Finally Hyvaa showed an impressive game against Jaehoon, and despite losing what seemed like countless numbers of drones throughout the game to Jaehoon’s impressive harass, he was always able to take the victories in the on field battles, and eventually overcame the captain of Team 8 to give STX a fighting shot at a playoffs berth.

On writing this, I feel these two teams are still rather unpredictable; both the Stars and STX have taken out stronger teams, yet there are still days where they fall flat on their faces and fail miserably. For instance, STX recently beat Team 8, but just a week ago lost to the exact same team in a terrible fashion.

I can never tell which side they'll show until the moment comes. The outcome will be determined by the match-ups, and I know that's a cop out of a prediction, but at this point I can't really say one team is more likely to win than the other. My gut feeling says that STX will pull out a win this time around, simply because I feel STX players have been a little more consistent recently.

My prediction: STX Soul 3-2 Woongjin Stars



After CJ's capitulation to SKT last week it is hard to see them taking down the top-of-the-table Khan. That said, CJ's line-up has so much potential that it would be silly to count it out simply because it’s going through a bad patch. The key players for CJ when playing against Khan are Hydra and Horang2. Both players have been going through a patch of poor form that seems to be coinciding with CJ's own losses, and historically both have excelled in the vsP matchup. With Khan relying so much on their extensive Protoss line-up, if Horang2 and Hydra can do their part they could easily take a win over the top ranked team.

Of course, Khan's Terran line-up has been equally vital in bringing Khan to their current rank, and the vsT specialist on CJ, Skyhigh, has been going through an extreme slump of late. Once again, if he can manage to get out of his funk and do his job, CJ could be in with a good shot. The final factor in this match-up is the coaching staff; CJ will need to rely not only on their slumping players rebounding, but also on hitting the right match-ups to facilitate a rebound. While I'd like to believe CJ could do it, I'd be silly to make a prediction against Khan right now.

My Prediction: CJ Entus 1 - 3 Samsung Khan




Seeing this match-up always brings painful memories from the last Grand Final (and the one before that). I'd be lying if I said I've gotten over it, the scars still burn to this day. KT is not the pushover everyone thought it would be at the beginning, it’s been blazing through a lot of teams and a playoff spot is almost guaranteed. Having said that, SKT has defeated KT at every turn this season. KT being its arch nemesis, I feel that SKT tries extra hard and prepares rather well against its rival.

Despite KT's one-two punch, I think this match will be no different from the others this season. SKT will prevail as long as its coach gets the right match-ups, avoiding Flash like the plague and winning the other sets. Maybe I'm a little biased or over confident, KT may step up its efforts to tarnish the perfect record against them this season, but this is regular PL, not the finals.

My prediction: SK Telecom T1 3 - 1 KT Rolster



While Ace of late has been on the receiving end of a number of losses, counting the boys in blue out could be a mistake. Realistically, Ace won’t be featuring in the playoffs, but that doesn't mean it’s about to give up without a fight. Ace’s result against Woongjin was poor, but its players put up fight and you can bet they'll be coming out to try and regain some pride by the end of the season. Team 8, on the other hand, is barely staying afloat, and will need to win almost all of its games if it’s to have any hope of getting into the top four come playoffs time, so expect them to come out firing. The key to this series will be where Team 8 finds its third win.

Jaedong and Baby have shown that they're in amazing form lately, and I would expect them to take their own games quite easily. The third win is more of a problem; Sea and Killer have been letting their team down with extremely disappointing performances this season, so it would be preferable if they simply don't get sent out in favor of the strong Protoss line-up that Team 8 sports. Team 8 getting a win from Tyson or Jaehoon will most likely be the lynchpin of this series, and if both are given a shot I’d be shocked if neither were able to take a win against any of the current Ace team. The wildcard for Ace is FireBatHero. He hasn't seen much action of late but we all know what a devastating and inspiring force he can be. If he were to take a win, his enthusiasm could perhaps lift Ace to another level, one from which it could potentially upset the star studded Team 8.

My Prediction: Air Force Ace 1 - 3 Team 8




Khan seems to have everything going for it at the moment, sitting at the top after defeating a fierce KT Rolster. There’s a lot of momentum behind the team and I feel like it’s got itself together. STX has also been enjoying a great run; its rookies are really stepping up and are carrying the team rather nicely. Its last match was rather close and, to be honest, could have easily gone the other way. This is one of those matches that are hard to call once again, as both teams are still vulnerable to stumbling. I think this day will belong to Khan, the momentum it’s accumulated may just give it the edge it needs to defeat STX.

My prediction: Samsung Khan 3-2 STX Soul




SKT managed to have an undeniably mediocre second round. Fortunately, it was able to start round three in a positive fashion with a win over CJ, but given CJ's own failings this can hardly be taken as representative of SKT's form. Woongjin is in a similar position to SKT in terms of ranking and current performance, so the stakes are high.

Winning will put the victorious team in a fantastic spot in terms of the playoffs, while the loser will be left to struggle to hold its spot in the top four. Woongjin has long relied on their Zerg players, along with Light's vsZ, play to bring it victories and this should play right into SKT's playbook. With Best's PvZ currently almost unbeatable, and Bisu himself being no slouch in the match-up, Woongjin is going to need to rely on its coach managing to get favorable match-ups if it is to have any hope of winning the series. The more I think about this series, the more difficulty I have envisioning a world in which SKT loses it. Bisu, Best and Fantasy would be favored to win over almost any player on the Woongjin line-up, regardless of potential match-up snipes.

My Prediction: SK Telecom T1 3 - 1 Woongjin Stars