Table of Contents

Round 4 Week 4 Review
Spoiler Alert!


Evolution
In with the New


STX's still got Soul
Straight to the top


Games of the week
Innovation vs Effort
Innovation vs Soulkey


SK Planet Proleague table and results at Liquipedia

By: Likeapen

The final week of the first round of Heart of the Swarm Proleague is over, and it’s time to reflect on what has come before, and what we have to look forward to. We have Rounds 5 and 6 still to go before the playoffs, but the rankings of teams is starting to take a more clear shape.

EG-TL ends off this round with a loss, bringing their record under Coach Park to a below average 3-4 with at -6 map score. Not a miracle by any means, and Coach Park is certainly feeling it. But let's move on to happier things.

Woongjin Stars are still the runaway favorites to take the title. They sit alone on the top of the ladder, five wins clear of their nearest rivals. Beneath them, however, is a very congested looking table. SKT1, STX Soul and Samsung Khan all have 15 wins, and KT, who defeated Stars convincingly last week, lurks just beneath them on 14. The winner is likely to come from this group, and you certainly can't write any one of these teams off.

Thanks to xpaperclip for formatting!

Round 4 Week 4 Matches

Standings

Round 4 Final Standings


Overall Standings after Round 4

Evolution

Every week, we are treated to seven full matches of Proleague presented in the still-fresh game of HotS. But with the Proleague maps being so different, some focusing on two base play, others allowing players to get up to four bases quickly, we’ve seen great imagination in the strategies employed in Proleague. Proleague seemingly has a separately evolving metagame all to itself.

For instance, Kop’s two-base mech play on fighting spirit was a great piece of thinking and execution, while the continued evolution of PvP is fascinating to keep an eye on. Proleague being so Protoss heavy, we do get a lot of chances, but watching players like Stats and Dear at work gives you an appreciation that some players have the matchup worked out more fully than others. ZvT this week also saw the focus placed directly on the Terran’s third base location. The Soulkey - INnoVation game was a perfect example, and is covered in our games of the week.

One key element underpins all of this evolution, however, and that is constant action all around the map. There are always going to be exceptions, of course, but almost every match-up is decided by action all around the map, not just in the midfield. Players are keen to take advantage of slow armies moving out and around the map, and defenders are becoming more savvy with their use of spells, buildings and units at home. Perhaps most importantly, there are usually several key battles deciding the fixture, rather than just one.

It’s certainly made for spectacular viewing so far.

STX's still got Soul

As mentioned in the preview earlier this week, after two rounds of the first Starcraft 2 Proleague, you could be forgiven for thinking that STX Soul was going to be the underdog throughout. After all, rounds 1 and 2 had seen them rack up only two wins each. They sat rooted to the bottom of the ladder, even below the now infamously underachieving EG-TL team. A 4-10 record surely saw them written off by all good judges as having any chance of taking the Proleague title.

How silly they’ve made that prediction look now. STX now sits in third spot on the ladder, above their highly fancied rivals KT Rolster, and now pipping Samsung Khan on map score as well. They’re now 15-13 with a map score of +7, contrasting with Khan’s score of -12 despite having the same number of wins.

Their 6-1 record in round 1 was punctuated by their two performances this week. A 4-1 demolition of CJ Entus was followed by a tough, grafting win over title favorites Woongjin Stars.

Much of the talk in Proleague has been about the way the backup Woongjin Protosses have carried on the good work of leaders like Soulkey, sOs and Light. But this can now be equally applied to STX Soul, who have their big name in INnoVation backed by a host of quality Protoss players including the Terran convert, Classic, the very dangerous Trap, and the rising star of Kespa Protosses, Dear.

It was their Protoss stars who proved the difference over Stars, with Dear and Mini proving their adeptness at PvP over their highly rated opponents. Both games followed an eerily similar course. The STX players were contained to one base by blink stalkers. Both teched to colossus and pushed out and ended up rolling their opponents due to their superior tech. Dear built a superior void ray count, while Mini favored brute force with larger immortal numbers.

In fact, Dear might just be the story of the entire Round 4. He finished the round with a 4-1 record, defeating the likes of Bbyong, Terminator and Flying along the way. His only loss came in week one to JangBi, where the Samsung Khan player sneaked a pylon into Dear’s main that demolished his one base economy.

The addition of maps like Fighting Spirit and Naro Station have obviously been of assistance to Protoss heavy teams, but the fact we’re talking about STX Soul here and not SKT1 shows how far they’ve come.

Writers: kollin, Likeapen.
Graphics: HawaiianPig
Editors: monk.