by Waxangel and Zealously

Change is in the air: Samsung Galaxy break into the top two

Though the 2014 season of Proleague brought about many significant changes to the league format, as the weeks went by it seemed like the old adage would prove to be true after all: the more things change, the more they stay the same. Up until the final week, the traditional titans of Proleague in KT and SKT were rolling along, seemingly guaranteed to take the top two spots.

That was until Samsung Galaxy came along and shook things up into the fifth and final week. Holding a 3-2 record and having two matches to play, Samsung came through in the clutch with victories in both of their matches. Their 3-1 drubbing of Team MVP was hardly a surprise, but few expected them to pull out a fantastic 3-1 victory over SK Telecom T1. Even with wunderkind Solar losing his match, the unexpected trio of RorO, Trend, and Shine was enough to leave SKT's star-studded lineup hanging their heads in shame. With that victory, Samsung tied SKT on record and map differential, but trumped them on the all important head-to-head to steal the second place spot at the last second.

Pay to win: New recruits play a key role

Samsung Galaxy somehow managed the impossible task of breaking into the top two after losing ace player JangBi and acquiring no one in return. However, the other three playoff teams ended up relying heavily on their new signings to finish in the top four.

KT Rolster only signed a single significant player in TY (formerly of Team Eight), but it was a signing that made all the difference in the world. With a 7-0 record, TY was clearly the best player of round one. One can only imagine where KT would have ended up had they been forced to play Action instead of TY.

The other great signing of round one was Jin Air Green Wing's (formerly known as Team Eight) replacement for TY, the former Prime ace Maru. The MarinePrince took to the Proleague like a fish to water, going 7-3, winning several key ace matches, and overall being the difference between his team making the playoffs and taking a long February break.

SK Telecom's signings in Soulkey (4-3) and Classic (3-1) weren't especially impressive in round one, but they were decent enough. In a round where ace player Rain (2-3) underperformed severely, they ended up being more than adequate fill-ins to keep the team afloat.

KeSPA wins: former eSF teams fail to make playoffs

With eSF finally announcing its disbandment, it was strangely poetic to see the first three teams to leave the eSF struggling to survive in their new KeSPA home. Prime and MVP ended the round with disappointing but not surprising 1-6 records. MVP's talented but inconsistent squad had all the potential to cause a stir, but we ended up seeing their worst side for the most part. Nonetheless, they took many of their matches all the way to ace, showing that they have the potential to at least be a mid-table team in round 2.

That contrasted with Prime, a team that lived up to expectations as the worst team in the league. While Prime started the season on a high note (for a team of their strength) with Kal taking two surprise victories over HerO and Soulkey, the Red Shuttle's revival would be short-lived as he then took three consecutive losses to end the round with a 2-3 record. Sifting through their B-team line-up in search of a Proleague savior, Prime also introduced us to TerrOr, KassiA, Remember, Splendid and Departure, who only took a single game out of 13 despite their valiant efforts. While some showed promise, they mostly showed nervousness in the booth.

If we had to put a positive spin on it, we'll say that every player has to start somewhere. Attempting to rebuild Prime essentially from scratch may actually allow these players to evolve and improve faster than if they were obscure C-teamers on SKT's bench.

One bright spot for former eSF teams was Incredible Miracle, who came in fifth place with a 4-3 record despite having their depth gutted by the abrupt departure of First, YoDa, and Losira. The mostly Protoss line-up led by the surprisingly excellent ByuL could very well have made the playoffs had a few breaks gone their way, and the team looks one signing away from being a truly dangerous contender.

The CJ Entus calamity

One cannot talk about surprises and disappointments without mentioning CJ Entus' disastrous first round. For all the criticism Prime gets for a lackluster lineup and questionable choices, let's remember that CJ is the team that lost to Prime. That loss was the story of their first round in a nutshell. The team whose players had been terrorizing online qualifiers (frequently harder than actual tournaments) and impressing in individual tournaments completely and utterly failed to deliver.

CJ Entus ended the round in sixth place with a 2-5 (11-18) record, but it wasn't even the end score that was most disappointing. The team's key players constantly lost matches in truly embarassing fashion. Hydra and Sora, players who HAD to perform well for CJ to have a chance, consistently displayed embarrassing decision making across match-ups. CJ ace herO fared only slightly better, violently snapping back and forth between being championship herO and rookie herO.

Exactly what was up with CJ Entus in round 1 is hard to say, but they are in danger of becoming this season's greatest disappointment.

We know you live for these

by lichter

The Worst Teams Trying to Be Good

1st - TheBigMeanie

Earning distinction and infamy for having the worst serious team of the round, TheBigMeanie scored a miserable -28. His team earned only 35 points as his Team MVP + Hydra combo was a trainwreck. Picking one of the worst teams to go all in on was his first mistake, but wasting 6 points on Hydra who didn't even win a single game? Ouch. TheBigMeanie will have to reassess his approach if he wants to at least break even next round, but but given that he still thinks that DRG is worth the captain's crown, I guess his insanity isn't surprising.



2nd - TommyP

A combination of unwise team allegiances and bad anti picks, TommyP earned a depressing -23 score despite fielding a serious team. His faith in DRG as his captain and MVP as his team proved unfounded, while Sora, Effort, and Bbyong all underperformed. Having an anti-team of RorO, TY and ByuL didn't help matters either, even though his team looked decent on paper. It is also interesting to note how the two worst teams in FPL had DRG as their captain. Alas, that's the price of fandom.

3rd - SWARMYYY

Rain, Squirtle, Dream, Mvp, CoCa, and TAiLS. This does sound like a bad team, but one of the worst in FPL? A little surprising, but further inspection shows why. Rain, despite costing 8, earned only 11 points the entire round, worse than the likes of Classic, soO and PartinG. Aside from Squirtle, the rest of his roster may be considered strong players, but none of them received significant playing time, resorting mostly to team points to stay afloat. Sometimes, it's not about picking who's going to win, but picking who's going to play.

Other Terrible Teams

The "Air Force Ace Award" for Worst One Team FPLs: GTPGlitch (CJ) and Gumba (CJ) and Flotch (IM)

CJ fans, Round 1 was bad for you. After picking up Coach Park and impressing at IEM Singapore, many expected them to do better, but they floundered, even losing to Prime. GTPGlitch earns his place in ignominy for scoring only 44 main team points for his all CJ team, while his selection of an all KT anti-team, including Flash, backfired to net him a -2. Gumba meanwhile tried to maneuver his way around, making CJ team trades to get the best out of the team. Unfortunately for him, that was only good for 54 main team points and a net score of -4. You have to applaud him for his commitment though. The last guy is a suprise, as Flotch's IM team did better (72 main team pts), but his foolish anti-team of Flash, Parting and Maru sank him to -6.

The "monk Doesn't Even Watch SC2 Anymore Award" for Worst TeamLiquid Staff Team: fusefuse

Sorry bro, but your team was just bad. Your strategy of a CJ team and big name anti of Flash, Stork and FanTaSy just didn't pan out. I guess no one really saw CJ being abysmal, and you have a lot of company in horrible All CJ Teams, but as a member of staff you should be held to a higher standard. So I'm singling you out for being the worst among us. In other news, monk actually finished 2nd among staff, so either he got lucky or he secretly still watches SC2 without telling us.

The "You Must Think You're Soooo Cool Award" for Worst Team Trying to be Bad: MarineFTW

Every FPL season we have a couple of hipster kids who try get the worst score possible. MarineFTW won the award this time around, scoring -54 points with his all-Prime main team backed by an anti-team trio of Flash, Maru, and Soulkey. We hope you burn the roof of your mouth on your latte.

Trading Awards

The "LOL What a Successful Tryhard Award" for Most Trades: Pangpootata - 12 trades, +28

With a whopping 12 trades, Pangpootata maximized his trades and it paid off. His biggest boon was when he realized that putting RorO in his anti was a mistake, switching him for YongHwa on his anti and for Squirtle into his main. That alone should have given him +31, but a series of other minor trades proved ineffective. Sometimes when you find the right formula, it pays not to get too greedy.



The "LOL What a Lousy Tryhard Award" for Most and Worst Trades: TT1 - 11 trades, -9

With only 3 successful trades out of 11, TT1 had company as one of the lousiest traders of the round, but you'd expect someone with a supposedly deeper knowledge of the game to be a better assessor of skill. I guess not everyone can be like our One True Prophet MajOr, who didn't play FPL because his all seeing eye was probably busy scoping out chicks in the studio while telling all of us that he knows them.

The "Do You Even Know What You're Doing? Award" for Worst Trader: glvnwong - 7 trades, -39

Well that didn't go as expected. After trading Samsung Shine for Sniper on his main team and Parting for Flash on his Anti, glvwnong pretty much signed away all of his FPL team's chances. Sure, they look like decent trades on paper, but does it really make sense to trade for Flash into your anti even when he gets knocked down to Code B? It's either you commit to him flopping or you don't. He ended up swapping him for Hydra but it was too late by then. Have ever even seen Flash's Proleague records??? Did you know he is the best Proleague player EVER?

The "Maybe You Should Play Stocks In Your Free Time Instead, You Bum Award" for Best Trader: gillon - 6 trades, +38

6 moves, 38 points. That's just ridiculous. Are you a wizard? A psychic? You should probably be writing this article, not me. Swapping out Rain for Maru and Squirtle for RorO proved to be masterstrokes for gillon, who didn't even touch his anti team. Despite being the most efficient and successful trader, gillon placed only 31st, which proves that maybe all those sleepless nights you spent crunching data and thinking about your FPL like I do isn't worth it.

The "Wait What There is a Trade Button? Award" for Best Scoring User Without Trading: esdf - 117 pts

A true master of the afkwin, esdf didn't make a single trade all season, which means that his original team was the best original team of the round. By selecting heavy hitters Flash and Maru, while successfully foreseeing the rises of KT Rolster, TY and ByuL, esdf raked in the points so much that his team finished #3 even though he chose Barbie.Prime. Think about that: someone who probably never even checked his FPL after submitting it weeks ago scored better than you.

The Best Teams

1st: Thruth - 125 points
2nd: ROOTSasquatch - 120 points
3rd: esdf - 117 points

You know, it's a lot less fun giving people credit for doing well than making fun of them for doing poorly. Congrats Thruth on your new, shiny FPL trophy icon that makes this already cluttered site even more of a chaotic mess. Also, congratulations to Sasquatch on second place, your best competitive result.

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Player Awards

Most Valuable Player: TY (BaBy) - 30 pts for 5 value

Though there was technically a tie for first place, TY wins out as this round's Most Valuable Player for costing less than Flash while scoring just as many points. His current streak of 7 wins and 0 losses is impressive, with wins against Soulkey, sOs and herO among them. He is unlikely to ever be fielded in an Ace Match unless Flash experiences a drastic dip in form, but expect him to be a staple of the KT roster for rounds to come. He's likely to experience a price hike, but with the way he's been playing, he might just be worth it.

The King of the Bargain Bin Award for Best Value Player: Solar - 20 pts for 3 value

This award could have gone to MyuNgSiK, who scored 9 pts for only 1 value, but the Samsung Zerg gets the nod due to limited player slots prioritizing bigger totals. His ascent has been one of the stories of the season so far, even scoring a double kill against sOs in his debut. He continues to be played as Samsung's Ace, so everyone hoping for the death of RorO should be backing this kid to succeed.



The Dead Weight Award for Least Valuable Player: Hydra - 2 pts for 6 value

Probably the biggest sufferer of CJ's Proleague malaise, Hydra has scored an abysmal 2 points, both from team scores, due to his 0-5 record. After his successful run in IEM Singapore, people were expecting him to break out as CJ's main Zerg ahead of EffOrt, but I guess he just fooled us all. His success in Code A shines some light on his slump, but team leagues have often proven to be a different beast. We can't really expect CJ to keep sliding, right?

The RorO Award for Worst Anti-Pick that Shouldn't Be RorO If You Guys Only Listened: RorO - 22 pts picked by 482 users

Well, it's not like people didn't know about RorO, famed since BW as the ruiner of Anti Teams. For some reason, he was still the third most picked anti-team player, behind only DRG and Super. Though his selection seemed a good one during the first week of Proleague as he was mysteriously absent from the lineup, he has since made people regret not believing in him. Come on guys, when will you learn?

Shouldn't Have Drank the Koolaid Award for Player We Mistakenly Hyped: Sora - 9 pts picked by 1334 users

Ahhh, I guess this is our fault, huh? Picked up by 1334 users, 411 more than the next most picked player Maru, Sora made everyone believe that the koolaid wasn't just tap water when he scored a big win against Flash in his debut. But with a round record of 2-4, you'd think that the player dubbed by some as Soragod would do a lot better than that. I'm going to blame Zealously for this one.

You're Literally Worse than Stork Award for Player We Hoped Wouldn't Suck but Did: FanTaSy

There are some players who we hype because of their form or momentum, and there are players who we hype because, well, we just hope they'd stop sucking. Such is the case of FanTaSy, who scored a miserable 5 pts all round long. He made but one appearance, losing his game to TRUE, and only received pity points due to SKT's otherwise successful round. At this point BravO might be SKT's main Terran, and even Stork has gotten his duck after his interminable losing streak. Ouch.



The "If I had sentries, I'd never lose," said Bisu Award for Something that Didn't Happen: sOs Carrying Jin Air

When Jin Air signed both sOs and Maru from their respective dead and zombie teams, the world awoke to the prospect of Team 8 actually winning a team league. With a strong backbone and all the momentum behind the young prodigy and the Blizzcon champion, it looked like a real possibility. Unfortunately for them, sOs decided to suck in Proleague. Despite being the first man in Code S, sOs has gone 2-6 in team leagues, losing both ace matches he's been called to play. For someone who was probably signed to a big contract and was worth an 8, that's just embarrassing.



Holy S*** Seriously? Award for Player that Wasn't Supposed to Earn Me Points but Did: Samsung_Shine - 19 pts picked by 93 people

What what now? Yes, one of the most ridiculed players of all time, the most hated player of BisuDagger, is the most underrated player of the round. Picked by a measly 93 people, many of whom may have mistaken him for MVP Shine, the Bisu Killer went 4-0 in Round 1 and made it to the Top 10 point getters. Seriously, I don't think anyone can explain this, and everyone on TL staff is at a loss for words. Would we pick him in Round 2 though? No f***ing way.

Let's All Get On the Hype Train Award for Most Traded for: TY - bought by 151 users

Due to his incredible streak of 7 straight wins, TY was the most bought player in Round 1, ahead slightly of MyuNgSiK, and there's a good chance that none of those users regretted their decision. While most observers have felt that TY has the potential to be something great, he has still disappointing in past seasons considering his immense potential. Still stuck in Code A, it looks like TY will continue to take out his frustrations on whom he meets each week in Proleague.

Let's Get The Hell Off This Train Award for Most Sold Player: Bbyong - sold by 243 users

Did Bbyong even play this round? My sources say he did but I'm not even sure. Well, he's in Code S again in any case but CJ seem to be content on letting him rot at the end of their bench. Often derided (by me and me alone) as the worst player in Code S, Bbyong isn't actually that bad, which is a huge admission for me to make. Worth only 2 points, it's curious why he's been sold more times than similarly worthless players like Hydra, by far the worst player of the round, and ByuN, who hasn't even been seen anywhere in months. Speaking of ByuN...

TheBest Anti-Team Award: Hydra, Shine, ByuN

This was supposed to be awarded to a user, but with several teams tied with the same anti teams, the award goes to Hydra, Shine and ByuN instead. While Shine's inclusion seems obvious, the other two may have surprised many at the start of FPL. ByuN's continued disappearance--Is he in Kespa Jail? On the run from Kespa Jail? Looking for his puppy?--has meant that he has played zero times for the worst team in the league which is pretty good (or bad, if you like ByuN) for someone worth 3. Hydra on the other hand has been the most disappointing player of the round. In retrospect monk should have thought it over before giving him a 6.



The Light Award For Most Invisible Terran of the Round: ByuN

Who?

The BackHo Award for Player Most Likely In Kespa Jail: TurN

A staple of Samsung's line up last year, TurN has made zero appearances in Proleague so far. Known last season for repeatedly finding himself thrown into Kespa Jail, it seems as though he's still stuck there for the time being. Whether or not he'll be released any time soon is unknown, but with Samsung flying high in Round 1, I bet they won't even pony up the bail money as long as Reality continues to improve.

FPL Team of the Round
Note: This is not necessarily the highest scoring team, but the team that impressed the most given the restrictions of FPL (One per race, max value of 30, etc).

By: Yoshi Kirishima and ZeromuS

Since the announcement of Heart of the Swarm, Blizzard has continued to say they want to make Terran mech a viable strategy in all matchups. In recent weeks, its become increasingly clear that Terrans have been exploring mech strategies in Korea, especially in Code A of the GSL. While mech hasn't seen the same level of exposure in Proleague, it has been played in a number of games, especially by Flash. The majority of mech play recently has been very defensive and passive (such as that seen in Reality vs. Hydra), using mech as a stepping stone to reach five bases and transition into an entirely air based force. Flash however, has been breaking this mold. It is clear from watching his games that he has been refining an aggressive mech style for quite some time now, and is proving that mech is worthy in and of itself in TvZ, not just as a bridge to mass ravens. His brand of mech was exemplified in the Ace match between himself and DRG, the final match for KT in the regular season, against MVP.



The Opening

Flash's build is very reminiscent of the mech builds in 2012 that Mvp popularized; a quick 3 CC, then double armory, followed by an additional two factories to build many hellions while focusing first on thors to combat any mutalisk transitions before adding tanks.

Flash makes a small number of unique adjustments in his play. Much like MVP he prefers to get a total of four banshees, instead of stopping at one or two. He uses these extra banshees to great effect, protecting himself from any roach all-in, forcing spores and overseers, killing queens, threatening to kill hatcheries, and most importantly, scouting. Also important to note is his early viking production helping him defend from mutas that would otherwise run thors in circles.

Taking full advantage of the recent change by Blizzard that combined vehicle and air upgrades he is able to control the air and ground more efficiently. The change to combined upgrades improved not only the map control and harass provided by the banshees and vikings, but the space control offered by his tanks. This is why he chooses not to focus on medivac production to make his thors more mobile, the vikings offer more utility and the upgrades ensure that they transition well into the lategame.

Swarmhosts: Boring units?




Instead of playing completely passively and rushing to mass raven on a large economy, Flash chooses a different approach, he almost exclusively produces tanks and vikings (with virtually no thors or hellbats) while getting two very quick armories. Thanks to these fast armories, he's able to go for a 2/2 timing attack, which hits right when swarmhosts just begin to take their position on the map to control the terran's army placement. By moving out on the map at this timing, he forces DRG's swarmhosts to stay home and defend, thus leaving Flash to easily take a fourth and fifth base. This timing attack also forces DRG to spend money on inefficient units such as roaches to defend while the swarmhosts return home. Due to DRG's swarm hosts being out of position, he also loses hatcheries while forfeiting the inefficient roaches.

By controlling the Zerg economy, through base denial and forcing roach production, DRG's swarmhosts army is prevented from snowballing - without a strong position on Flash's side of the map and with fewer swarmhosts DRG's options are limited. He has fewer resources to tech switch or remax should Flash decide to trade army supply with DRG. Meanwhile, DRG's heavy investment into Swarmhosts to combat the ground mech army now pushing his outlying bases allows Flash's large viking count to freely kill many of DRG's overlords, further controlling the options available to DRG.




Although the defensive strengths of mech are well known, an aggressive mech style covers a number of weaknesses inherent to the passive style played by many others. Two crucial considerations for any Terran who plays mech are:

• being able to replenish your army after a trade and;
• having the right composition

.
Flash's aggressive mech style is always attacking with three to five siege tanks and taking the fight to the opponent's side of the map, so DRG isn't able to attack Flash directly without sending home a part of his army to defend. This style works especially well against swarmhost play. Much like tanks in TvT, swarmhosts are very much reliant on proper positioning, and when they are attacking one part of the map, they aren't defending another. It should be made clear, that against almost any other zerg style, the approach taken by Flash in this game may not be as effective, and bears further study as more games are played.

Due to a focus on swarmhosts, in order to defend his bases, DRG needs to put more resources into his defense than Flash expends in his attack. Any attack DRG commits to that ignores Flash's counterattack is costly. By losing hatcheries, DRG's economy becomes unstable, his high cost army is more difficult to maintain than Flash's. Keep in mind however, that this is only the case because Flash has been aggressively controlling DRG's economy throughout the game, losing a hatchery one time in a trade is not the end of the game, but to lose that hatchery multiple times, while gaining no ground on the opponent's side of the map can be game ending. Additionally, by forcing DRG to kill tanks, Flash is able to adjust his composition while replacing the supply lost by the forward tanks. Previously, one would focus on keeping their tank cost high in order to hit a later timing with a very powerful army. Flash however, trades this attack timing for a later push with the perfect composition, and minimizing the chances that DRG could tech switch and catch him off guard after a large army trade.



Flash's commitment to vikings throughout the game allows him to make a final push whenever he decides there is an opening to do so. His infrastructure allows him to build a small number of ravens late in the game to support his high viking count. Seeing DRG's commitment to Swarmhosts, Flash also recognizes that Zerg is lacking melee upgrades. Due to the lack of melee upgrades, he makes the decision to cut all hellbat and hellion production, instead investing his minerals into a relatively fast five base economy, which he needs to not only sustain his gas heavy tank and viking army but also to sustain his aggressive trades for DRG's economy. This unique and fresh positional TvZ, with constant attacks and counterattacks by both players, ends with DRG's economy in shambles and a win for not only Flash but KT Rolster, helping them to secure their number one spot for the first Round of Proleague.