By: Waxangel

The playoff picture was about as confusing as possible as we headed into the final week of round 2, but the results have worked out to simplify things considerably. With IM defeating KT Rolster and CJ Entus beating SKT, three teams have confirmed their spots in the playoffs: Jin Air, MVP, and CJ Entus.

Only one playoff spot remains, which will go to one of KT Rolster, SK Telecom T1, or Incredible Miracle. With IM and SK Telecom having no games left to play, all that matters now is KT Rolster's performance in their final game against Prime. If they win by any score, they will advance by virtue of their 4-3 record. But if they should lose... We'll need to take a quick look at the table before we get to explaining.


Depending on the exact map scores, we could face a variety different situations:

• If KT Rolster lose to Prime 2 - 3, they will tie IM and SKT in record but advance to the playoffs due to their better map score differential.
  
  
• If KT Rolster lose to Prime 1 - 3, they will tie with IM and SKT in record AND map score differential, causing a three-way tie.
  
  
• If KT Rolster lose to Prime 0 - 3, they will tie IM and SKT in record but be eliminated due to their worse map score. IM and SKT would be put in a two-way tie for 4th place. Although Prime would tie IM and SKT in record and map score, they would be eliminated due to their -1 penalty points (which count against map score).
  
  
• Update! If Prime lose 0-3 to KT, then they would actually tie Samsung for last place. In that case, they would have to play a tie-breaker for 7th/8th place while KT advances to the playoffs.

If there is a need for tie-breakers, the format will be best-of-one matches between each team's selected players. Thus, a two way tie would be decided by a Bo1 match between each team's "ace" player. A three way tie would be resolved through a round-robin between the "ace" players of each team (in the case of a three-way tie, each team can pick a new ace for the next round of tiebreakers). Tie-breakers will be broadcasted as time allows. There is no guarantee that they will be streamed or broadcasted.

But in any case, SKT, IM, and anyone who's not a fan of KT will be eagerly anticipating the possibility of what could be an extremely tense series of tie-breakers.

Match Preview: Prime vs KT Rolster

Countdown:


For all the incentives that have been put into the Proleague system to avoid 'meaningless' matches, Prime have nothing to directly gain by winning this match. No matter what, they're stuck in seventh place, unable to climb any higher or fall any lower. However, they have something to LOSE, with a 0-3 loss to KT Rolster tieing them for last place with Samsung (which would necessitate a rather inglorious tiebreaker). It would have been different if MarineKing could actually set his hotkeys before game instead of needing pauses after official match start, or if KeSPA had sensible rules regarding what you're allowed to type before you leave the game, but alas. It is what it is.

Not surprisingly, KT Rolster have brought their top team into the match. Ever since round 1, KT have been committed to the quartet of TY - Flash - Zest - Stats in nearly all of its matches, giving Action and MyuNgSiK a rare spin out before shelving them for important matches.

Their opponents, Prime, have finally found a better strategy than just "play Creator." In Round 2, they've upgraded to the significantly more effective "play Creator AND MarineKing." With Creator and MKP going a combined 10-5 in Round 2, Prime almost had the foundation for a winning team. However, they faced a rather significant problem in that the rest of the roster contributed exactly one win. Jila and Kassia, for all the promise they showed in Round 1, just haven't delivered. eins, the player who contributed that one win, has more than earned another appearance.

The fourth man for Prime is no other than North American player State! Yup, for the first time in history, we might see a North American player sway the fate of KT Rolster. It's not especially shocking to see State take the spot over some other potential players like KassiA or Choya. He only got one chance to play in Proleague so far, and it was a somewhat forgivable loss to Classic's proxy gate. Everyone else is 0-2 or worse, leaving State and Jila as the only 0-1 players. So why not give the new kid a shot?

Prediction: Prime probably would have preferred 100% mirror matches, but the draws aren't the worst for them. The 3-1 victory to force tie-breakers seems highly unlikely, but they have a decent shot at forcing an ace match at least.

Both Creator and TY have given us mixed performances in PvT, and their match is a wash. Flash is clearly a big favorite against eins, but he's occasionally shown early game weaknesses that eins should look to exploit. MKP vs Stats looks to be a toss-up, with Stats not having played a PvT since January and MarineKing only having one, inconclusive loss to Rain. State is a huge underdog against Zest, but PvP is the matchup that offers the underdog the most hope. Even if eins and State lose as expected, it's not inconceivable and Creator and MKP will win their matches to send it to an ace match.

KT Rolster 3 - 1 Prime

Match Preview: CJ Entus vs MVP

Countdown:


While KT vs Prime is the higher stakes match in the short term, it's not like the CJ-MVP match isn't important as well. The winner of this match will clinch second place, awarding them a one-match bye in the round 2 playoffs. Not only that, but finishing position in individual rounds will be very important when deciding who makes it into the season-end playoffs (more details on the system).

CJ and MVP are similar in that they both bounced back from terrible performances in Round 1, and they've made their recoveries in similar ways. MVP is living up to its traditional reputation as a team that draws its strength from its depth. While it's true that they rely heavily on the one-two punch of Super and DongRaeGu (8-5 in Round 2), everyone they've sent out as support has pulled their weight. The ever inconsistent KeeN and Dream are on an upswing this round, and captain Swagger is pulling out incomprehensible, elfi-esque wins. Billowy (aka Lure) has continued MVP's GSTL tradition of always having a random bench player who does unexpectedly well, going 2-0 in Round 2.

CJ Entus have also relied heavily on a power duo. Super-ace player herO (5-2) was left high and dry many times in Round 1, but CJ Entus found him an unlikely right hand man in Bbyong (4-1) to help lead the team to victory. CJ also have the workings of a strong supporting casts, with one of the team's underrated season highlights being the trio of Hydra-Bbyong-Bong defeating IM with herO absent due to IEM.

Unfortunately, CJ Entus suffers from a bizarre Zerg jinx. We all know how bad Hydra was in Round 1, where he recorded a league-worst 0-5 record. Though Hydra has improved since, his teammate EffOrt has matched him in Round 2 with an equally poor and winless performance. It's particularly unfortunate for CJ Entus because EffOrt is the only player besides herO and Bbyong who has been able to hold down a regular spot in the line-up, suggesting he is at least playing well in practice. But for whatever reason, he just can't bring his best play to the Proleague stage.

Prediction: For the aces on either team, things match up favorably. herO should feel fine going against nearly anyone in PvT, especially an inconsistent player like Keen. Meanwhile, DRG has looked great in his recent ZvT's against Flash and Cure, and he should be confident against the rarely fielded Bunny.

Super vs. Bbyong should be the key match of the night, and it's looking like it will be highly unpredictable. Super crumbled meekly to TY's surprise mine drop but looked strong (though not quite finesseful) in an ace match victory against Flash. In the past month, Bbyong has run the gamut from beating players like Classic, Zest and herO to losing to foreigners like ABomB. Depending on both player's form, we could see either a close match or one-sided stomp.

Hydra and Dream is another unpredictable series with inconsistent players, but I'm inclined to pick Dream as the winner. It hasn't been THAT long since Hydra went 0-5 in Round 1, and he still hasn't convinced us that he can reliably win in long games (his only late-game win this season was in an ugly match against Yonghwa). If anything, Dream has always been good at driving people crazy in the late game with his constant drops.

MVP 3 - 1 CJ Entus

Writers: Waxangel
Images: SpoTV
Editors: Waxangel