By: Zealously

If Round 1 was a lesson in Proleague history and a demonstration of the might of the two Telecom teams, then Round 2 is shaping up to be the exact opposite. Gone are the consistently predictable results, replaced instead by what is quickly approaching utter chaos. CJ Entus is on a winning streak (their only one of the season), SKT is mired in the middle, and KT Rolster has lost their two most recent matches.


The biggest upset of the week came as the lowly team MVP defeated round 1 champions KT Rolster. By itself, Super beating Flash in an ace match might not be the most shocking result in the world. But coupled with SKT getting absolutely facerolled by Jin Air on Sunday and CJ Entus starting to find their footing, it would be difficult to say that Week 3 did not reverse many of the established patterns of Proleague so far.

Week 3 in summary: Failures, Facerolls and Fantasy?

• Return of the Terrorist: It's hard to dispute the fact that Fantasy has failed to live up to his BW reputation in Starcraft II so far. However, it seems that the Terrorist Terran has at the very least, started off on somewhat of a hot streak in Round 2. So far, he has gone 3-1 with wins against Life, Sniper and RorO while losing to Creator. Enough to say that Fantasy has begun a climb toward the top? No, but certainly worthy of mention. A very interesting biomech build against Life felt reminiscent of the fabled Oov-tailored builds from Brood War, so perhaps we'll see a resurgence in such pocket strategies.
  
  
• CJ wins a match (again)! For the first time since the pre-season, CJ has managed to not disappoint for two matches straight. Following up their surprise victory over KT Rolster in week 2, the CJ trio of Bunny, herO and Bbyong made short work of Prime - one of the many teams to beat them last round. Finally, CJ Entus actually look like they could challenge for a playoff spot as many expected before the start of the season. Now, although CJ has played extraordinarily well twice in a row, we'll reserve judgment on whether or not they can remain on the level they should have been on all along. It is CJ Entus, after all.
  
  
• MVP loses to Prime, beats SKT and KT: Team MVP has been the ultimate agent of chaos so far in Round 2. After losing to last place Prime - arguably the league's weakest team - in week 2, they have gone on to beating the two finalists of Round 1 on SKT and KT. Instead of one player getting hot, every player on the roster seemed to contribute evenly. Swagger beat Sacsri. Billowy (aka Lure) beat Stats. DRG and Super came through in two great ace matches. This is the team MVP that we thought might be a dangerous team in Proleague, but it's too soon to say this is a sustainable trend.
  
  
• Super-sOs: Jin Air's acquisition of Blizzcon champion sOs may have looked like an enormous mistake when the former Woongjin Protoss went 2-7 in Round 1, but sOs has had an impressive resurgence in Round 2. He ended week 3 with a record of 4-0, with wins over Bbyong, Reality, Parting and Byul. Coupled with the ease with which he advanced to the Ro8 of GSL, sOs seems to have regained his monstrous late-2013 form and looks more and more like he's about to snatch the ace position away from Maru (when he comes back from IEM, anyway).
  
  Pinned by many to win the upcoming IEM Katowice, it seems that whatever bump on the road sOs encountered in Round 1 has been passed and perhaps made him a better player. By combining his affinity for unorthodox and cheesy strategies with much improved standard play, sOs could be the last piece of the puzzle Jin Air need to go from a top 3 team to a contender for the Proleague championship.
  
  
• Less-than Incredible: Although the partnership with HerO and StarTale bolstered IM's depth beyond reason, they have still disappointed in Round 2, going 2-3 so far. The StarTale players have made few contributions, with Life taking the only win. In general, the team seems to be struggling with consistency. Byul, after wrecking the first half of Round 1, has faded back into mediocrity while no one else has risen up to fill the void. Trap remains a safe card and keeps raking in wins, but for some incomprehensible reason the IM coach chose to field Mvp, who up until that point had played a single game in the entire season, as the ace vs Samsung. RorO gladly took the win for his team.
  
  Is Trap performing better in Proleague than in practise? Are other players performing better in practise than in Proleague? Hard to say, with IM's history in Proleague it's certainly possible that neither is the case, but after falling just short of the round playoffs last round, dropping to sixth place is not a good sign for ST-IM's continued progress.

Game of the Week

It's not easy to hype PvZ at the moment. Much like PvP for large parts of WoL, the slightest mention of Zerg vs Protoss brings the taste of bile to people's mouths, but the match-up has a large amount of redeeming qualities when Swarm Hosts are not involved. This game between Rain and Rogue is a great example of what PvZ can be when it the game doesn't grind to a halt due to Swarm Host turtling and mass defenses. With Jin Air up 2-0 in the match, Rogue went for the more risky route of a more ling-heavy style with an ultra transition, to which Rain responded with the kind of play we've come to expect from Rain.

A few hiccups in wall construction allowed Rogue to consistently deal damage to Rain's economy while heading toward Hive tech, preventing the notoriously defensive player from comfortably reaching the optimal Protoss army. But although Rogue would deal critical damage to Rain on several occasions, the SKT player kept a foothold in the game through a combination of exceptional positioning and micro.

If you're tired of Swarm Host + Spine forest games and sick of watching the Mothership cloak a Void Ray/Colossus ball only to skulk around the map for thirty minutes of little action, this game is for you.

Writers: Zealously
Images: SpoTV
Editors: Waxangel.