EPT
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Shinhan Proleague 2007 - Results & Standings
Tonight all four top teams in ProLeague are doing battle, so it should prove to be fascinating. Especially since, in a cute twist, they had all played each other already - and all on April 28 too!
18:30 KOR Time on OnGameNet
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/images/liquibet/players/STX%20SouL.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/images/liquibet/players/OGN%20Sparkyz.jpg)
Statistics
STX SouL - 2nd at 7-4, 27-22 (+5) overall
Last Game - 5/29 WIN 3-2 vs Pantech EX (OnGameNet)
Top Player - Hwasin (T) 8-2 (TvT 3-2 TvP 3-0 TvZ 2-0)
OnGameNet Sparkyz - 3rd at 7-5, 26-22 (+4) overall
Last Game - 5/30 WIN 3-1 vs eSTRO (MBCGame)
Top Player - Luxury (Z) 6-2 (ZvZ 3-0 ZvP 0-2 ZvT 3-0)
Introduction
This is a clash of the titans, the second and third place teams in the league right now. Despite an abysmal 2v2 record (3-8), STX SouL has managed to make it to second on the back of an outstanding 1v1 record (24-14), while OGN Sparkyz has had the reverse problem (going 18-18 in 1v1, but 8-4 in 2v2). And were it not for a game pausing that May 27th vs Samsung - in a 2v2 game, of all places! - OGN Sparkyz might be in second place instead of STX right now.
The last time the two teams met, STX beat OGN 3-1. Unsurprisingly, STX swept the 1v1's, while OGN won the 2v2.
Games
Siz)KaL (P) < Tau Cross > Luxury[GsP] (Z)
Kal's gone 2-5 in ProLeague so far, but that's a little misleading, since he has the unfortunate luck to have been smashed by Sea[Shield], rA, and Stork, whose combined record is something like 27-8. (For reference, that's more 1v1 wins than Air Force ACE and eSTRO have combined.) Other than that, he's beaten Much[gm] and lost to Sea.Pure in PvP's, and beaten KT.MGW)Hyuk and lost to Jaedong in PvZ. That's not a terribly large or indicative sample size by which to judge him by.
On the other hand, Luxury has had the bizarre problem of somehow being 6-2 with no ZvP wins at all. Indeed, he is undefeated ZvT and ZvZ, but winless ZvP. To be fair, his only two ZvP losses have been against Stork (understandable) and Tester[gm] (a little less understandable, but still acceptable). It remains an open question whether or not Luxury really has a ZvP Achilles' heel, or if he's just biding his time.
The map is 3-4 PvZ so far; so this is a close match to call. I'll go with Luxury[GsP], on a hunch that no Z player could possibly find ZvP (or at least, ZvNon-Bisu/Stork P) as hard as his stats indicate.
SoO[S.SiR] (P) < Nemesis > n.Die_Chalrenge (P)
This is going to be an interesting match. These two players have actually played each other in ProLeague before when their teams last battled, and SoO won in one of the cheesiest PvP's on Monty Hall imaginable (and that is saying a LOT), despite his very best efforts to lose the game with some of the worst PvP micro ever broadcast on Korean TV.
Since that time, PvP-wise, SoO's gone on to beat Reach, while Chalrenge has gone on to beat JangBi, neither of whom have done particularly well in PvP.
So as much as I hate Chalrenge's attitude, I'm going to have to go with him this time, assuming he doesn't lose the game in the first five minutes, thereby allowing SoO's awesomely bad PvP micro a chance to show itself again.
InteR.Calm (Z)/Ever)T(Sheis (T) < Vampire > go.go[GsP] (T)/ YellOw[ArnC] (Z)
Remember what I said earlier? YarnC went 5-2 with Zeus in 2v2 and won their 2v2 against Lecaf with go.go before; meanwhile, STX is going back to Calm/Sheis, who haven't really done anything together except lose to Canata/Anomia of SKT T1. OGN should take this easily.
BestGod (P) < Geometry > Sea.Leta (T)
This is only Sea.Leta's third ProLeague match ever. Ordinarily this would indicate that he is going to lose because he sucks so much that he can't even make it into the regular rotation, but there are three big mitigating factors:
1. This might be his third match, but this is BestGod's first 1v1 ProLeague match ever.
2. Leta's last ProLeague match was also a TvP, against Stork, and Leta SMASHED him. Cleanly too. No wonder he's back.
3. It's Geometry. It's not the actual PvT stats that bother me so much as the fact that teams haven't even dared to put many P's on that map.
Leta by a mile. He shows a lot of promise, this guy.
Ace Match < Python >
STX Ace record: 3-2
OGN Ace record: 2-1
STX's recent Ace match players have been Calm and Hwasin, while OGN's sent out Luxury in the only recent Ace match they've played. Assuming they send out Luxury again, he should take it easily as long as STX doesn't send out a Protoss.
Of course, STX might decide to send out me, in which case Luxury is fucked. He is so going down.
18:30 KOR Time on MBCGame
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/images/liquibet/players/Lecaf%20OZ.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/images/liquibet/players/Samsung%20Khan.jpg)
Statistics
Lecaf OZ - 4th at 6-5, 21-20 (+1) overall
Last Game - 5/29 WIN 3-0 vs Air Force ACE (MBCGame)
Top Player - fOrGG (T) 6-2 (TvT 2-1 TvP 1-1 TvZ 3-0) and Anytime (P) 6-3 (PvP 3-1 PvZ 2-0 PvT 1-2)
Samsung KHAN - 1st at 11-1, 35-16 (+19) overall
Last Game - 5/30 WIN 3-2 vs SK Telecom T1 (OnGameNet)
Top Player - Stork (P) 9-2 (PvP 5-1 PvZ 2-0 PvT 2-1)
Introduction
If STX v OGN was a clash of the titans, this is more of a clash of the titan. The last time these two met, Samsung KHAN won a nail-biter 3-2 over Lecaf, with the monolith that is Stork overpowering Jaedong in the Ace match. Since then, Samsung hasn't lost a match, cementing it as the team to beat. Oddly, though, it's won four straight matches at 3-2, and since losing its first Ace match, have won all six since - easily tops in the league. (Compare to poor SKT T1, which has lost five Ace matches, and consequently languishes at 8th despite being 23-15 in 1v1's.)
Meanwhile, Lecaf has climbed up the 1v1 ranks almost exclusively on Anytime, fOrGG, and Jaedong. I'm serious. Those three have played 26 1v1 games; all the other players on their team combined have played 4. It's like a high school gym class team. And guess what's the 1v1 lineup for Lecaf tonight? Hint: it's the same as the last six matches they've played. *snarl*
To be fair, the last time they tried putting someone else in that troika (May 1), they got 3-0'ed by OGN Sparkyz. Not that the unholy fOrGG/Anytime/Jaedong trinity is undefeated - Lecaf lost to KHAN (along with Pantech) with that lineup, after all - but certainly they've been winning most of Lecaf's matches.
Games
fOrGG_V (T) < Geometry > FrOzean[Name] (T)
This game bores me. In terms of TvT, fOrGG's only recent accomplishment is basically beating Hwasin - something that FrOzean did too. FrOzean also beat Midas and Sea.Leta - not exactly feared TvT beasts (anymore, at least), but then again, that's still better than losing to DarkElf in ProLeague, plus losing to oov and Light in ODT. I mean, those guys are good, so it doesn't say much about fOrGG, but can I just pick FrOzean and move on?
AnyTime (P) < Monty Hall > Stork (P)
This is good. On one hand we have Anytime, recovering nicely from his incredibly long OSL slump and going 3-1 in PvP, beating 2005 WCG Grand Champion fOru, the 7-4 leader of Hanbitstars Free[gm], and um, NsP_MuJuK, who is uh, I'm sure a really great player.
On the other hand we have Stork. The guy doesn't need to fill his PvP resume with players like MuJuK and - no offence, carlodajin - 2005 WCG Grand Champion fOrU (Spirit Of South Korea): he's beaten all the top P's: Bisu, Much, Tester, and yes, Anytime. Plus, it's Stork.
It's Monty Hall, though, so expect cheese galore. But barring Anytime getting lucky, Stork's got to win this.
ToSky[S.G] (Z)/BackHo[WHITE] (P) < Chariots of Fire > TT (P)/sigamari (Z)
Ctrl-F Sigamari, mark that team the winner.
Better yet, just set Samsung down to win all their 2v2's ever.
Seriously. Sigamari, with various partners, is 6-0 in 2v2, and he's not even part of Samsung's best 2v2 team. ToSky and Backho[WHITE] (Motto: One Letter Away From The Funniest Username Ever) have some experience playing together before, but there's no way they're winning this. Samsung by a mile.
Jaedong (Z) < Shin Peaks of Baekdu > JangBi (P)
Now, JangBi's 0-4 PvZ record looks real bad, but you gotta cut him some slack! His PvZ losses are to ChoJJa, who hasn't that bad ZvP this ProLeague, MuMyung (Motto: WHO'S LAUGHING NOW, BITCHES), and sAviOr. And the other PvZ loss....oh. It was against Jaedong, in the last ProLeague match between Samsung and Lecaf. How funny!
Since their game on Tau, Jaedong's gone on to beat Kal in ZvP, while JangBi's lost to sAviOr twice (ProLeague and MSL). Not very convincing either way, but Jaedong's victory the last time they met on Tau was, and that's good enough for me to pronounce Jaedong the winner.
Ace Match < Python >
Samsung Ace record: 6-1
Lecaf Ace record: 1-2
Samsung (Motto: Do Whatever It Takes To Get To Ace Match, Even If It Means Losing Random 1v1 Games For No Reason) has been beastly in Ace, even now when they aren't just sending out Stork every time. He's still probably the favorite to come out, though, whereas Lecaf's only played one Ace since they lost to Samsung, where fOrGG beat Hwasin of STX SouL. I give this one to the Samsung team based on their clutch performances and incredible ability not to choke under pressure. (Midas, take notes. You too, Dirk Nowitzki.)
