Table of Contents

Round 4 Week 1 Results
Spoiler Alert


EG-TL’s Miracle
Making it


SKT’s Protoss Prowess
Who needs other races?


Blood, Sweat, and more Sweat
and even more sweat


Games of the Week


SK Planet Proleague table and results at Liquipedia

By: Wunder

Proleague has returned, more exciting than ever. HotS has certainly spiced up the game and Proleague in particular. While Proleague has traditionally leaned towards fairly standard and robotic play, HotS has brought out lots of variety and creativity into the game. In HotS, EG-TL plays the part of the underdog team, one that needs a miracle to even make the playoffs. This week was a small step in the right direction though as they went 2-0 and the future is beginning to look a bit more optimistic. Meanwhile, SKT shows off their Protoss power with new recruits Parting and Brown as well as a resurgent Bisu and an ever-solid Rain. All of this and much more including a "Games of the week" section in this week's recap.

Round 4 Week 1 Results

Round 4 Standings

EG-TL’s miracle

That’s the current map score of EG-TL in the overall standings of Proleague, a bit better than the -22 last week. When we previewed the last week, we had said that they were facing two of the toughest teams in the league, one after the other. It would require an absolute miracle to pull out a win against the leaders of the pack, but the unholy alliance did it, winning both matches by the skin of their teeth. But how exactly? Let’s find out.

First, we have to once again look to EG-TL’s core 4: Jaedong, aLive, Oz and HerO. Out of the four, only one went undefeated - aLive. A player that does not get the recognition he deserves, aLive was the anchor of the team this week. He won his first match against ZerO, which allowed EG-TL to secure an ace match. And while his fellow recruit Oz struggled and went 1-1, aLive pressed on and dismantled CJ’s Bbyong in a positional TvT. Prior to this week, one could have easily said aLive was simply a placeholder for Taeja, while the Liquid Terran was recuperating - but no longer. Han Lee Seok is coming into his own at his new team and this won’t be the last we see of him.

While aLive was pulling his weight in the team, Jaedong burst forward with an ace appearance for EG-TL. Attributing his newfound strength to Coach Park, Jaedong seems to be reforming himself, as his win over Soulkey in a blistering ZvZ was no small feat. Though he still shows weakness in ZvP (as his games against Aria and Bong evidence), there is little doubt for most Jaedong fans that he will overcome that obstacle, as he has many others.

Even though we’ve been mainly talking about EG’s role in these two wins, Liquid earned their keep in the second half of the week with both Zenio and HerO performing well. Firstly, HerO had a showdown with CJ’s herO in a battle of IDs, and both PvPs were intensely exciting. In the first game on Naro Station, both players opted for dark templar openers, but Liquid’s HerO managed to sneak a probe into his opponents main and catch the shrine building, and was able to make a robo in time. CJ’s herO was not as fortunate, and suffered huge casualties to the Liquid Protoss and his DTs. In the ace match on Bel’Shir Vestige, HerO went for a proxy gateway against CJ’s ace Protoss. Though the cheese was deflected, Liquid’s HerO was not out of the game just then. As CJ’s herO setup a contain, HerO opted for a blink and warp prism maneuver, busting out of his main with an army of stalkers and rushing straight for his opponent’s main. With a warp prism and blink, herO had no way of keeping the Liquid Protoss from barreling through his main and he had to tap out.

While we had HerO in a fight against his shadow, Zenio quietly went up against one of CJ’s star players, Hydra. With Zenio having a strong ZvZ, this was probably the best possible scenario for the Liquid Zerg, but it would still be hard fought. Heading into a muta vs muta scenario, Zenio had the lower count. Down but not out, he opted for a risky infestor switch to try and gamble it all on a few stunning fungals. Using zergling run-bys to delay Hydra, the CJ Zerg finally attacked Zenio’s third, in what could have been the climactic battle, if it weren't for the few infestors that spawned in the nick of time. Fungal after fungal was launched and Hydra’s huge mutalisk ball evaporated in a shower of gristle and bone. From there, Zenio counter-attacked with his remaining lings, mutalisks and infestors and slowly wore Hydra down.

SK Telecom’s Protoss Prowess

It was a good week for SKT1 fans, as they went 2-0 in their matches; with a 4-3 victory over their rival KT Rolster, and a 4-0 sweep against Samsung KHAN. Fan favorite Bisu burst back onto the scene, winning both matches against Action and Turn. While his opponents weren’t the best players of their team, Bisu still showed good understanding of both PvZ and PvT. In his game against Action, he went for a stargate opening and followed it up with a gateway timing attack. Though his forcefields were subpar, Bisu still managed to kill the Zerg’s third and retreat and tech to colossus. He eventually won after a failed nydus attack caused Action to lose his entire army and the KT Zerg had to tap out. His game against Turn was more action-packed, as the Terran opted for a proxy 2rax opening. With some good micro Bisu managed to hold but sustained a handful of probe casualties, and he transitioned to stargate tech yet again. His oracle control was fantastic, as he managed to punish the Samsung Terran for such a delayed stim by darting in and out with two oracles and picking off SCVs wherever he saw possible. This culminated in Turn being cornered into doing a SCV-allin, and he pulled half his SCVs with his bio force. While Bisu was busy holding off the attack in his natural, he still had the ability to zip in with a spare oracle outside Turn’s main and position it so it would kill every SCV in it’s radius, without dying to a missile turret in the Terran’s mineral line. What this meant was that after Bisu stymied Turn’s push, the Terran was forced to gg as he had less than half a mining base left.

PartinG made his Proleague debut, and kicked it off with a bang, going 2-0 as well in two PvPs. Both games ended fairly quickly, with Parting opening stargate in both games. He dismantled Myungsik with superior micro and set up a contain and slowly choked the KT Protoss out. Against Stork, he was attacked by a pack of stalkers, and displayed great micro and multitasking as he defended against superior numbers while sending an oracle into Stork’s main. That caught Stork off-guard and Parting managed to nab a handful of workers as a result. From there, he launched into a counterattack and Stork couldn’t muster enough firepower to defend and had to tap out.

While Bisu and Parting had their spotlight, the other SKT1 Protosses didn’t slack off either, with Rain pulling out a stellar performance against Flash in the ace match, and winning his other matches against Stats and Reality. BeSt also performed well against Samsung’s Shine, winning his match handily with some great army control and splitting.

Blood, Sweat and More Sweat

During the first half of the week, we had a weird occurrence. It wouldn’t really be too strange if it happened once during the entire week, but it happened to two players, on the same day. Team 8’s Argo, who performed stunningly against CJ Entus, beating out sKyHigh and herO, and EG’s aLive, both shared a very moist experience. They were both sweating profusely in the booths while they played, and it was hilarious to watch them play furiously and intensely with sweat pouring down their face, while their opponents were completely dry and cool. Moreover, both players were winning their respective games when the sweating occurred. They did both end up winning their games though, so maybe their determination did have an effect on them, and made them perform better than they ever have.

Writers: kollin and Wunder.
Gif Creation: Heyoka and R1CH.
Graphics: HawaiianPig
Editors: monk.