EG-TL no longer last
Results from Week 3

Yay?
EG-TL's last minute success

Games of the Week
A host of games to watch

Postmortem Analysis
CJ Entus

SK Planet Proleague table and results at Liquipedia

EG-TL climbs to seventh

For most of the season, EG-TL has been the laughing stock of Proleague, sitting at a solid eighth place. No longer! With their two wins this week, EG-TL climbs to the new rung of the ladder safely to a mighty seventh, halfway there to their sixth place goal. Meanwhile, last week also featured a slew of notable and interesting games, both from EG-TL and from other teams. Finally, we start our postmortem analyses of teams who are out of playoff standing. This week: CJ Entus.

Round 6 Week 3 Results

June 16

Team 8 vs CJ Entus
(P)

Terminator <Naro Station> herO
(Z)

Savage <Akilon Wastes> Bunny
(P)

Argo <New Fighting Spirit> EffOrt
TY <Korhal Floating Island> (P)

Trust
Cure <Newkirk Redevelopment Precinct> (Z)

rare
TRUE<Bel'Shir Vestige> (Z)

Hydra
Ace: (T)

Cure<Whirlwind>EffOrt

CJ Entus wins 4-3!

Woongjin Stars vs EG-TL
(T)

Light <Neo Planet S> Oz
free <New Fighting Spirit> (P)

JYP
sOs <Newkirk Redevelopment Precinct> (Z)

Zenio

ZerO <Whirlwind> Revival
(Z)

Soulkey <Akilon Wastes> HerO
(P)

Flying <Korhal Floating Island> aLive

EG-TL win 4-2!

June 17

SK Telecom T1 vs Samsung KHAN
(P)

PartinG <Naro Station> RorO
(P)

ParalyzE <Akilon Wastes> TurN
s2 <New Fighting Spirit> (P)

Stork
FanTaSy <Korhal Floating Island> (T)

Reality

Rain <Newkirk Redevelopment Precinct> Solar
Bisu <Bel'Shir Vestige> (P)

JangBi
Ace: (P)

Rain<Whirlwind> JangBi

Samsung KHAN wins 4-3!

KT Rolster vs STX Soul
(Z)

hitmaN <Korhal Floating Island> INnoVation
(T)

Flash <Bel'Shir Vestige> Dear
(P)

Puzzle <Akilon Wastes> Classic
(P)

Zest <Newkirk Redevelopment Precinct> Trap
Stats <Whirlwind> hyvaa
Action <Naro Station> Mini

STX Soul wins 4-0

June 18

EG-TL vs Team 8
Zenio <Newkirk Redevelopment Precinct> (T)

Cure
HerO <Whirlwind> (Z)

check
JYP <Naro Station> (P)

Argo

Oz <Bel'Shir Vestige> Terminator
aLive <Korhal Floating Island> (T)

TY
~~Revival <Neo Planet S> Pigbaby~~

EG-TL wins 4-1!

Standings

Yay?

With EG-TL officially out of the running for a playoff spot, one might think that their players would focus on individual tournaments and prepare for the next season of WCS. On the contrary, for the first time since February, EG-TL is not only on a four game winning streak, but also in seventh place. Even with (Z)

Jaedong and (T)

TaeJa travelling to Dreamhack, EG-TL managed to win both their games this week, showing the world and the Kespa teams that they still have fight left in them.

When Coach Park came on in Round 4, many had high hopes for EG-TL and their possible resurgence. However, due to the fact that they went 1-6 in the previous round, it was already a near impossible feat for any team to pull off. You can’t expect a team that practiced in a certain way to instantly have a turnover in the next round. Although it’s taken a long time, we are finally seeing the fruits of Coach Park’s labor, especially when you look at how prepared some of the builds were this week:

In HerO vs Soulkey, HerO executed a brilliant cannon rush that started off at the low ground and even though it was discovered mid-warp on the high ground, it was already too late for the Woongjin Zerg. Even though HerO didn’t immediately win off that cannon rush, he blocked two of Soulkey’s expansions and forced the Zerg to invest in zerglings rather than drones. This allowed HerO to capitalize and simply do a timing attack and take the game.
In JYP vs Argo and aLive vs TY, we saw very specific and prepared builds as well, with both EG players going for proxy builds and catching both Team 8 players off guard.

These wins not only symbolize EG-TL’s overall improvement as a team, but also that they are finally practicing like a Proleague team. This was something that had been severely lacking, a flaw that was continuously mentioned in interviews. Even with the international tournaments and constant travel between continents, Coach Park and EG-TL have managed to buckle down and make an effort in Proleague. And even though they won’t make the playoffs, they should still be happy with their result and continue to strive for their reformed goal of sixth place.

Games of the Week

by kollin

This week featured a large cast of spectacular games, so many that we felt like we just had to share them all with you. First up is a list of games where a supposedly weaker player tries to snipe one the big three of Proleague: Rain, Innovation, and Flash.

Rain <Newkirk Redevelopment Precinct> Solar - VOD

Solar showed brilliant use of contaminate in this game as his sniped Rain with a roach/hydra push, relying on three overseers to completely shut down colossi production. It was a excellent strategy that abused Rain's tendencies to repeat the same build in PvZ in every PvZ match and for his efforts, Solar gets a much deserved win against one of the strongest players in Proleague.

Eat your heart out, Nestea.

hitmaN <Korhal Floating Island> INnoVation - VOD

This game was a fairly short affair, one that featured two of the most hotly disputed units right now facing off against each other. Hitman all-ined off of two bases with swarm hosts and queens out of a nydus, which was met head on by Innovation's hellbat build. At first, it looked like Innovation would be broken but out of nowhere, Innovation executed a great flank from two sides onto the swarm hosts with marines as well as a hellbat drop on top of the queens and swarm hosts.

Definitive proof that hellbats are more imbalanced than swarm hosts.

Flash <Bel'Shir Vestige>Dear - VOD

Dear opened up with a curious build, a proxy stargate built directly into Flash's natural. Predictably, Flash scouted it right away when he went to expand. But it was then that his overconfidence got the better of him. Instead of the normal reaction of building a turret in his main, Flash pulled three SCVs to try to kill the pylon powering the stargate before an oracle could be built. Unfortunately, this severely backfired, and the pylon went down mere seconds after the oracle popped out. This oracle went on to devastate Flash's economy and though he put up a good fight afterwards, he never fully recovered.

Funnily enough, Flash would have probably won if he attacked with that third SCV instead of building the bunker.

This week, we also saw EG-TL playing spectacularly, a refreshment from the EG-TL we once knew in the earlier season of Proleague.

Soulkey <Akilon Wastes> HerO - VOD

It seems strange to say it but one of the most well prepared builds of the season did not from a KeSPa team, but from EG-TL This was clear here, as HerO executed an extremely well thought out cannon rush that abused the natural and third layout on Akilon Wastes. Though a normal cannon rush would only deny one base, HerO's particular version denied two. Though he would not immediately win the game, HerO gained a significant lead from this tactic and went on to easily win the game. Overall, a well mapped out, well executed annihilation of one of the top Zergs in the world.

Zerg round the world cursed out in unison. Then they immediately went to veto this map on ladder.

aLive <Korhal Floating Island> TY - VOD

In yet another demonstration of EG-TL's preparation, Alive proxies a barracks/factory/starport combination that manages to catch TY competently off-guard. Alive's hellion drop does a substantial amount of damage and he is able to outplay TY in the resulting macro game.

The results of Alive being hipster and proxying three buildings.

Zenio <Newkirk Redevelopment Precinct> Cure - VOD

Zenio broke his losing streak in this game in flamboyant fashion as he tore apart Cure with a ling run-by style that he stated was an imitation of Jaedong's. It proved to be extremely effective, especially when taken to the level Zenio did, which involved mixing in zergling drops, swarm hosts to provide a solid defensive backbone, and even vipers as the game closed out.

Tldr: Not only does Zenio win, he actually plays well here.

~~Jaedong!~~ Zenio!

Finally, just some all-around good games from good players.

PartinG <Naro Station> RorO - VOD

Forget whatever happened beforehand. If you've ever wanted to see how long ten blink stalkers can last in a prolonged fight against two spine crawlers and seven hydralisks, then this is the game for you. If only Parting had saved an observer...

After his loss, Parting went home and used the resume from replay feature to practice this scenario ad infinitum.

Bisu <Bel'Shir Vestige> JangBi - VOD

Jangbi chose to go for fast tempests. Bisu gave him the 15 range middle finger and made even more tempests. Both players zapped huge blue energy balls at each other, but Bisu's economic advantage due to his better harassment proved to be too much and not even a void ray switch could save Jangbi.

War of the worlds takes to the air.

Postmortem Analysis: CJ Entus

by Wunder

In this feature, we take a look back at some of the teams that didn’t quite make the cut. Up first, last season’s winners, CJ Entus. They started their first few rounds quite well, staying in the middle of the pack, but still making good strides and creating a good line-up to carry them through to the end. Unfortunately, Heart of the Swarm hit and almost all their players took a nosedive in performance, with an abysmal 1-6 score in the first HotS round. From there on out their fate was all but sealed, with herO taking heavy losses against his ID rival, Liquid`HerO and their secondary members Bong, SonGDuri and Bbyong, all failing to perform, forcing CJ to bring out rookies as a last ditch effort.

Biggest Strength: Their Core Three
Hydra(28-24), herO(27-18), and EffOrt(26-23) may not be the absolute best players in Proleague, but together, they form a formidable team that can stand in the way of any player. All three contributed quite equally to their team and they all tried to cover for each other when the others were slumping. That being said, this core still pales in comparison to some more prominent ones, including Flash/Stats/Zest from KT Rolster, Rain/Fantasy/Parting from SK Telecom, and the entire Woongjin Stars lineup.

Biggest Weakness: Everyone Else
Let's put it this way: CJ Entus' fourth best player is Bong, a player who currently sports a 9-17 record. Throughout the season, CJ Entus shuffled around with Bong(9-17), Bbyong(7-13), sKyHigh(5-11), SonGDuri(3-6), and rare(1-4), but none really hit the mark. Even though EG-TL and Team 8 are currently ranked below CJ Entus, CJ probably still has the worst supporting lineup in the entire league. Let's put it this way: In the regular Proleague format, if any of the core lost, CJ Entus would have been hard pressed to eek out a win.

Greatest Moment: Round 2
The first few rounds of Proleague were kind to CJ Entus, with their best round going to the first all-kill round. There we saw Hydra all-kill STX Soul, and the core three of EffOrt, herO and Hydra materialize and carry the team through the future rounds. Together, they defeated the likes of INnoVation, Rain, FanTaSy and Argo, all top players in the early rounds of Proleague.

Worst Moment: The Release of HotS
With the release of Heart of the Swarm, not only did match-ups change drastically, but so too did the landscape of Proleague. It was at the start of the fourth round that CJ Entus had their absolute worst performance, going 1-6 and having all their players miss the mark. With Hydra losing to players like Reality and Last and EffOrt getting tough losses against INnoVation and FanTaSy, it was herO who probably had the worst performance that round, as he not only lost against Liquid`HerO in their first encounter, but also in the ace match as well. From then on, herO never really regained his mojo back and has since been on the decline.

Player who deserves to be on a playoff team: Hydra
Boasting the most wins on his team, Hydra has been the most consistent member on CJ and is the only player who should feel satisfied with his performance. While Hydra has had his fair share of ups and downs, he was the anchor of the team when almost all hope was lost. He had the most kills in round 5, the second all-kill round, and almost pulled back a lost game for CJ during last week’s game against EG-TL. With both herO and EffOrt losing their matches, Hydra beat HerO in a close ZvP and just narrowly lost to Jaedong in a tense ZvZ.

Player to keep an eye on for the next season: Bunny
With their fate sealed, CJ Entus has decided to field their rookies for the remaining matches last week, giving rare, Trust(0-2) and Bunny(2-0) some time in the spotlight. While rare and Trust have performed as expected, going 1-1 and 0-2 respectively, Bunny has surprised many, winning both times he’s been fielded, beating out JYP and Savage. Narrowly missing a spot to the OSL Premier League, Bunny has been relegated back to the Challenger League where he will have to fight for relevance, as well as his tournament life. But he has shown promise and heading into the next season, Bunny will hopefully have developed into a full fledged player capable of being fielded as a core starter.

The Key for Next Season: Finding Some Strong Supporting Players
No matter how good herO, Effort, and Hydra play, they'll never make it far without strong support. Perhaps more than any other team, CJ Entus needs recruits and they certainly did their best this season with newcomers in Trust and Bunny. However, this still might not be enough, as out of all the players on CJ Entus, only Bunny shows some promise. CJ Entus' supporting lineup is a motley crew and it will be up to the coaches to identify and then groom three additional players to weather some of the burden.