We're just one week into the season, and we have a handful matches that we could call "high stakes." Jin Air and CJ Entus had high expectations in week one but both suffered disappointing defeats. Unfortunately, one of the teams will end this week demoralized even further.

On the flip side, the 2-0 teams SKT and IM face off against each other in their only match of the week to see which team will end week two at the top of table with a 3-0 record. Or who knows? Perhaps KT Rolster will continue to roll along and steal the #1 spot.

Recovering from Rocky Starts
Jin Air (0 - 1) vs. CJ Entus (0 - 1)

The most interesting match in Week 2 is probably the match between two teams that lost matches they were favored to win in week one. Jin Air can pin their loss to Samsung Khan squarely on sOs's as the WCS champion lost to Solar twice on the night. Maru and Rogue looked very solid, so Jin Air should be a strong team if sOs stops being an absolute disaster.

As for CJ, the only bright spot in their match vs. KT Rolster was Sora as their two other top players in Hydra and herO failed to reproduce their great form from recent IEM matches. They're also a team that should and probably will be better in the future, but week one was still a disappointment. Individual maps being more important in the Bo5 format leaves little room for the key players to mess up, which is what we saw happen to both teams last week.

The deciding factor in this match might end up being sOs for the second straight week. sOs and Maru are Jin Air's two most important players, and the team needs them to play like the champions they are and rack up the wins. The biggest problem for sOs, however, is that his patented "do whatever"-style of play from last season has been in the spotlight for a long time now.

Solar's prepared zergling rush completely caught sOs off-guard last week and there was little he could do but tap out. According to the seventeen year old Zerg player, he had studied a plethora of VODs of the BlizzCon champion. That's the price of winning $100,000: you become a target. Even before he tore through BlizzCon with all sorts of proxies and wonky aggressive timings, other KeSPA players were hard at work trying to figure out the risky but effective co-ace of Woongjin Stars. For a player who relies on out-thinking his opponents and bringing unexpected strategies to the table, there are only two ways to go: innovate faster, or fall behind.

Focus match: Maru < Frost > herO[jOin]

In his match against Stork, Maru continued his tendency of refusing to build anything not starting with the letter "M." While other Terrans have trouble going up against a colossus-based army even with plenty of viking support, Maru is content to stay mainly on infantry. Does that sound like an unwise choice? Maru doesn't seem to think so. Maru's micro and positioning let him win engagements that other Terran players would have no business winning, and he does it on a regular basis.

However, Maru does sometimes run out of steam if his opponent can withstand all his attacks and survive to assemble a critical mass deathball. herO is a player who is very proficient in his use of colossus/templar armies, and it will be up to him to show that his defense is up to the task of handling Maru.

Both players are ace candidates for their teams, making this match all the more exciting and important. The winner would have the mental edge going in... or would he? Both players have shown they are totally unfazed by being down, and go into each game like it's a fresh one. Mark this match down as potentially the best one of the week.

Tusslin' at the Top
Incredible Miracle (2 - 0) vs. SK Telecom T1 (2 - 0)

Given who they're facing, IM has drawn match-ups that are as good as they could have reasonably hoped for. Which is still not saying very much.

ByuL, last week's hero who went 3-0 against Creator, Dream and Remember in convincing fashion, has been rewarded with a match against Hot6ix Cup winner Rain. Even with the confidence boost from last week's wins, ByuL will know that his next opponent is of a different caliber. YongHwa, whose PvP has looked suspect at best recently, faces off against PartinG who is in the PvP form of his life at the moment. The Soultoss has a 28 - 9 record over the last two months and has only lost a single series.

Their other two matches look a little better, with newly acquired all-in specialist Trap facing soO, and Squirtle facing a Soulkey who looked suspiciously weak against Kal's aggression last week. You know you're in a tough spot as a team when your two best match-ups involve your players playing opponents they have losing records against, but it's not like any other combination of draws would have been better. If IM are to take two maps off SKT and force an ace match, their hopes most likely lie with Trap and Squirtle.

There's no reliable way for IM to beat SKT right now, so they should go ahead and roll the dice. None of their opponents typically need to go out of their comfort zones, and a well planned cheese is the underdog's oldest of weapons. Looking at what worked for others, doing the same could potentially upset SKT. Or in a nutshell: Squirtle, copy Kal's build.

Focus match: Rain < Outboxer > ByuL

For a player with a lingering reputation of being boring and almost unnecessarily safe, Rain has been making a concerted effort to expand his repertoire. All-ins were a significant part of his OSL finals run back in the summer of 2013, and we've seen more and more aggressive play from him in general. Even so, his most valuable skill has to be his ability to stay calm no matter the situation. It turned the tide for him against Soulkey in the Blizzard Cup, and let him win against Dream last week after forgetting a key upgrade.

Similarly, Byul has proven himself to be a solid, well-rounded player. The WCS America runner-up has no qualms with being the aggressor, but macro games seem to be where he feels most at home. Byul should have studied enough of Rain's PvZ to get a good idea of how to play the match-up against him, and hopefully he decides to either commit to playing for the late-game, where Rain has showed that he's just as comfortable, or commit fully to an early timing.

Of course, matches like these where two players who continuously show that they are very comfortable with macro play face off, rarely turn out the way we expect them to. Maybe we'll see Rain bring out a proxy 2gate on one of Outboxer's as of yet unexplored locations?

Hipster Match of the Week and Predictions

Last week, underdogs Samsung Galaxy Khan proved that the Hipster Match of the Week is worth watching indeed with Solar providing two clutch wins to score the upset against the Jin Air Green Wings. This week's pick is Prime vs. MVP, a match of the last place teams.

With the exception of Sniper, none of MVP's players looked very competitive, and one has to wonder what the issue is with team MVP. Perhaps it was a fluky week, perhaps there's a problem with the new coaching staff, or perhaps the players just aren't that good. In any case, MVP has made the choice of fielding Sniper again this week, and our weird fascination with Sniper basically forces us to give this our HMOTW choice. Sniper's opponent is Prime's sole shining light and feel-good story of the season in Kal, which essentially guarantees a win for the anti-fun Zerg.

Prime will need TerrOr and Remember to step up. Unlike Samsung's B-teamers Solar and eMotion who started Proleague off on a high note with dual wins against more famous players, TerrOr and Remember both went without wins in Week 1. Against the more experienced and arguably better players Dream and Super, a win (let alone two) by the still inexperienced duo seems unlikely, and it feels like this match will be decided by whether or not Kal can defeat the evil that is Sniper.