By: Zealously and Waxangel

To virtually no one's surprise, SK Telecom T1 were the big winners of opening week as their totally unfair roster went 2-0 in series and 6-1 in maps. Normally we would caution against overconfidence, but a roster that has a big three of Rain-PartinG-SoulKey deserves to be however confident as it f***ing likes.

As for the unexpected winners of week one, Brood War veteran Kal (now going by the ID JilaPrime) returned after a one year hiatus due to military service, played his first two broadcasted HotS games ever, AND WON BOTH GAMES. Not just that, but his two wins came against established, championship winning players in HerO and Soulkey. Unfortunately, even Kal's heroic return couldn't help a hapless Prime team as they went 0-2 in week one.

While Prime was getting beaten to a pulp as expected, the other team many predicted to be a win-piñata in Samsung Galaxy KHAN got off to a great start. Samsung's new head coach Oh Sang Taek said that he started the little-known trio of Solar, eMotion, and Trend because they were the best players in practice, and they proved it by leading Samsung to a great win over the Jin Air Green Wings.

Not completely hopeless: Prime go 0-2 in week one

Things were looking incredibly grim for Prime going into the season. They had lost their best player in Maru, their second best player ByuN was mysteriously missing from the line-up, and third best player Creator was stuck in Code A. On top of that, new recruit Kal had looked about as good as you'd expect for a guy who took a year break from StarCraft in his pre-season games.

So with nothing to lose and everyone already counting them out, Prime fielded a lineup consisting mainly of B-teamers in week one.

As strange as it sounds for a team that went 0-2, I'd say they surpassed expectations. They managed to drag Incredible Miracle to an ace match and even stole a map off mega-titans SKT (in contrast, team MVP got swept). Even more surprising was the fact that Kal was the only Prime player to win twice. Fresh off mandatory military service, Kal seems to have quickly found his footing in Heart of the Swarm. Although his PvP build-order win against HerO (playing for IM this season) wasn't something you could read too deeply into, his win against Soulkey was worth getting excited about.


Matched up against a player whose ZvP ranks among the best in Korea, Kal (now going by the moniker "Jila," short for "Goojila") decided that "standard" wouldn't work and proxied not only a gateway but a forge as well (you can watch the VOD here). Confining Soulkey to his base, Kal successfully delayed Soulkey's economy and tech while going up to oracles for even more harassment. With both players ending up in an awkward low-econ situation, Kal made the decisive move to go for an immortal all-in. Through a combination of good positioning and good micro, Kal was able to massacre Soulkey's roaches and take a big win.

In the end, Prime may not have won either match, but as a whole they looked much better than expected and made the matches a lot closer than one would have believed beforehand. With Byun hopefully coming back eventually, Prime may even initially climb above the struggling MVP and and make last place a more contested place than it was thought to be a week ago.

Shining through: Solar and the Samsung kids

In Brood War, it was a lot easier to keep up with the rookies and up-and-comers. There wasn't a gigantic international scene and huge abundance of online cups and qualifiers, and all you really needed to do was check MSL, OSL, and Proleague. However, Proleague is still the place to go when you want to see the hottest prospects. For the most part, only the b-teamers and newcomers who have proven themselves worthy in countless closed door get a chance to play on the Proleague stage.

Along with Prime, Samsung Galaxy Khan was the team that most needed their lesser-known players to rise to the occasion. With neither of their big names in Stork and RorO looking particularly impressive as of late and no inkling of the front office making a big name signing, it was up to the team's squad of rookies and benchwarmers to accept the challenge of forming a new core.

Facing WCS champion JinAir_sOs in Samsung's first game of the season, the outlook wasn't good for Solar, Samsung's 17 year old Zerg. But Solar was unfazed by the pressure and instead got the ball rolling for Samsung, punishing sOs' poor wall-off with a decisive 9pool. Though Stork and Trend would lose to Maru and Rogue in rapid succession, eMotion was on point in the fourth match against Terminator, where his superior decision-making and a single moment of bad positioning from Terminator let him tie the series up at 2-2 and force the ace match.


Jin Air decided to put their faith in sOs once more, sending him out as the ace to face Solar again (watch the VOD here). Although sOs looked like he was in prime position to take the game after a successful attack on Solar's third base that took out queens, drones and lings alike, he overstayed his welcome significantly and took critical losses that left him weak going into the mid-game. Solar, being up in economy and having established hive tech, was able to respond to each of sOs' attacks with ease. Once infestors and ultralisks were out, he was able to pummel sOs into submission and take the huge ace match win for Samsung.

In a post-game interview, Solar said that he'd studied upwards a hundred of sOs' VODs to prepare, showing that any victory is still up for grabs if you put in the work.

Round 1, Week 1 Report Card

Because we know you can't be bothered to read things

SK Telecom T1: A

Week 1 was relatively surprise-free for favorites SKT, with only Soulkey dropping a game to Kal. Apart from that one hiccup, SKT looked very dominant as their players dispatched of their underdog opponents without much issue.

KT Rolster: A-

When Flash lost a closely fought game to Sora in the CJ vs. KT match, it was a perfect chance for the rest of the KT players to show that they're no one-man team. TY, Zest, and Stats delivered when Flash failed to and they took the match against CJ 3-1.

Samsung Galaxy Khan: A-

Solar's clutch performances against sOs were a great way to end 2013 for Samsung. eMotion looked good in his win Solar looks ready to carry his team if no one else will, but those two aside it's hard to judge exactly how Samsung will fare yet.

Incredible Miracle: B+

Played two matches, won two matches. IM wasn't terribly impressive, but their opponents didn't give them much to work with. Can't really argue with 6-3 in the first week, but more difficult opponents are coming fast.

Prime: D+

Kal and Creator delivered, and TerrOr looked like he could have won both of his games short of a few mistakes. Remember and Splendid looked out of their depth, though that doesn't say a terrible lot when their opponents were Byul and Classic. Overall it's fair to say that Prime played over expectations this week.

CJ Entus: D

Although Sora played mostly well against Flash save one moment of indecision, the rest of the team looked uncharacteristically mediocre against KT. Bbyong looked sluggish, Hydra transitioned from great aggression to inexplicable and poorly executed Swarm Host play and herO's strange blink/DT attack on Yeonsu managed to do quite a bit of nothing except getting him rolled over by TY. All in all, a lacklustre first showing by CJ.

Jin Air Green Wings: E (Editor's note: what the hell is an 'E' grade?)

Acquiring Maru and sOs in the off-season to bolster a relatively weak line-up made Jin Air look like a great team with good chances this season, but they certainly didn't look the part against Samsung. Maru delivered with incredible bio micro, but sOs - whom they no doubt shelled out quite a bit of money for, did anything but deliver. Only Rogue and Maru looking even remotely close to the level you'd expect from a team that's considered a playoff lock.

MVP: F

Helpless against SKT, slightly less helpless against IM. Out of all the teams in Proleague, MVP may have been the most surprising team, but for the wrong reasons. We won't jump to conclusions after less than a full week of play, but MVP as a whole needs to shape up - aside from Sniper's very surprising win against Squirtle there were no bright side to MVP's matches.

Writers: Waxangel and Zealously
Photos: silverfire.
Editors: Waxangel.