Table of Contents

Round 5 Week 1 Review
Spoiler Alert!


KeSPa Terrans
Actually, just two


KT Roll-ster
Two in a row


Games of the week
Cure vs s2
Terminator vs Rain


SK Planet Proleague table and results at Liquipedia

By: Wunder

The first week has come and gone, and with it the dreams of hundreds, as Hydra wrecks Fantasy leagues while sOs fails to perform. Meanwhile, Terran manages to make a cameo appearance in PvProleague as INnoVation and Flash do some showing off. Predictably, Innovation all-killed EG-TL while Flash shows off what he can do after a rather disappointing performance in the GSL Group of Death. With KT's wins this week, they're back on the path back to stardom.

Round 5 Week 1 Matches

Standings

KeSPa Terrans

While last round featured near-endless PvPs, this round kicked off with some good old fashioned Terran domination. With the combination of the the all-kill format and the changes to the Protoss-favored maps from Round 4, we are starting to see coaches field players other than those of the Protoss persuasion. While there is certainly still a fair bit of strategy in the form of snipers and starters, for all intents and purposes the all-kill format is akin to a mêlée while the Proleague format is like a jousting tourney.

While you may unseat a few good knights and gain honor and valor, you miss the visceral action and accomplishment of winning an entire mêlée. That’s exactly what happened last week, as both INnoVation and Flash waded into the action and destroyed opponent after opponent, with the STX Terran all-killing EG-TL and Flash 3-killing Samsung KHAN. Innovation looked near untouchable, switching from defensive to ultra aggressive in all four games, with his game against TaeJa being one of the closest. He went for a siege tank timing without stim against Taeja’s fast third CC. And while the Liquid Terran seemed to have all the advantages on his side(stim, equal tanks, an additional expansion, and more upgrades), Innovation just spread his marines perfectly and there was simply not enough for Taeja to hold. From there it was downhill for EG-TL as neither Jaedong nor aLive could hold their own against the fearsome Terran.

On the other side of the coin, Flash finally started picking up a few wins after a disappointing round 4, and he ran a complete clinic against Samsung’s top players. RorO and Reality both fell against the unstoppable force that was Flash’s mech, while JangBi was dismantled by Flash’s bio. While statistically the appearance of Terrans was not more or less than the other races, it was still nice to see the familiar faces of Innovation and Flash go on a huge winning streak against their opponents.

That being said, it's time to talk about that other elephant in the room. When fans praise KeSPa Terrans, they're usually only talking about Flash and Innovation. After these two titans, the pickings are slim. FanTaSy shows signs of brilliance but is often shaky and then after that, you're left with the slim pickings of only average players like Light, Cure, TY, and Reality. Compare that with the swarms of notable Zergs (RorO, Soulkey, EffOrt, Hydra, ZerO, soO) and the legions of high level Protoss (Rain, PartinG, sOs, herO[jOin], Argo, Zest, Stats, JangBi, Stork, Dear, free) and it's easy to see why Terran has been the worst performing race in Proleague.

KT Roll-ster

After a few average rounds for KT Rolster, the team has desperately been looking for an answer and they may have found it in the form of the all-kill format. In round 2, KT kicked the round off with a bang, starting off with two all-kills And while they didn’t all-kill at the start of this round, the same two players were the ones to perform for the team. The player formerly known as P7GAB, Zest, managed a three-kill in the first match against the #1 team, Woongjin Stars, while Flash finished off Samsung with a three-kill as well.

Why do they do well in the all-kill round? Well, like we’ve been saying in previous rounds, KT’s team revolves around their triple threat of Flash, Zest and Stats. Not having all three play in a game is a mistake, and in round 2, they only lost one game when they decided to field all three players. KT Rolster went on to lose two more due to the fact they went on to field players like HoeJJa, Action and Crazy in an attempt to allow their Zergs some exposure. However, what makes the situation different from last time is the fact that KT started this round below the playoff line and while their 2-0 this week helped to boost them back into the top four, they now know that a few unwarranted losses could mean the difference between the playoffs and getting knocked out.

Additionally, Zergs like hitmaN and Action have fallen off in their performance, going 3-2 and 0-2 last round respectively. While Crazy might see the starter line once or twice this round, I wouldn’t be surprised to see KT continue to field Stats or Zest as starters and perhaps allow Puzzle a game or two if they’re massively ahead.

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