By: Zealously

The round robin portion of Round 2 has ended with four teams securing their spots in the round playoffs. Although the Telecom giants SKT and KT reclaimed their old glory in Round 1 as they faced off in the finals, Round 2 saw both teams struggle as new the other challengers started to find their footing. As we near the halfway mark, it truly seems like this season's Proleague championship is up in the air for anyone to grab.

What's on the line for the Round 2 champions? 15,000,000 won for the winning team, alongside a whopping 40 points toward qualification for the season end playoffs.

Jin Air, led by Maru and a resurgent sOs, clinched the finals spot while CJ Entus rose to finish the round with the second best score of all teams. KT Rolster, last round's champions, slipped through at the last second. Now they must face MVP, the biggest surprise of the round.

MVP: No Terrans allowed

Things may have changed a lot since early 2011, but as long as team MVP is in the conversation, there is one storyline that always seems to follow: Terrans must die!

It's somewhat fitting that the team whose Terrans sport the worst combined win rate in Proleague also has one of the best ZvT players in the world. For all the talk of slumps and disappointing tournament performances, MVP.DongRaeGu has made a quiet recovery in his best match-up. Although he took losses to other aces in Flash and Maru back in Round 1, he redeemed himself in Round 2 by crushing Flash, Cure, and Bunny to help secure MVP's playoff spot.

In his wins, DongRaeGu showed that few players in the world are better than him at a straight-up game without any tricks or gimmicks. Though DRG has shown weaknesses to tricky timings and mech builds, he can beat any top Terran if they allow him to play his preferred mass muta-ling-bane game.

Are Flash and Baby truly prepared to face DRG? Flash has shown himself to be more than capable of taking out most Zergs in the Proleague format, but he benefited greatly from a mech style which is quickly being removed from the meta game. He will have to look toward either an Mvp-esque mech timing attack or the super-defensive mech style that suited him well in Brood War if he is to potentially beat DRG. Meanwhile, Baby seems more likely to give DRG the toe-to-toe confrontation he wants, boasting great mechanics and multitasking of his own. In any case, the timing at which Mvp deploys DRG, and KT's willingness to give him the ZvT match-up, will be one of the key factors in this match.

It also has to be mentioned that despite DRG's resurgence, MVP's biggest strength this round wasn't their old super-ace. Instead, it was a combination of all the players showing much improved skill, and somehow always finding someone stepping up unexpected at the right time. Billowy gave them two wins out of nowhere, Dream and Keen somehow managed to play well on the same day, and even team captain Swagger stole them a win against SKT.

With this in mind, sending out Billowy as the starter is a good choice. The player formerly known as Lure has yet to be defeated in PvP this season, taking wins against Myungsik, Terminator and his opponent in this match - Stats. Aside from these three wins, Billowy has looked largely unconvincing for a long time. However, that's been the story of all the team MVP players for a while. So far in Round 2, MVP players have shown that they've put those dark days behind them. A playoff win against KT would erase all lingering doubt.

If Billowy takes the first win, which he seems to have a fair chance at given his both his record and his recent win against Stats, then surely some combination DRG, Super, and random player X could take out the rest of KT? And for what it's worth, we have to mention that MVP are finally back in their "home" setting of the all-kill format. With GSTL, IPTL, and ATC titles won in the all-kill format, they should have a certain confidence going into this match. MVP were pinned as the losers in half of the matches they played in Round 2 and they managed to steal the wins away regardless, so counting out MVP would be foolish.

KT Rolster: Pray to the Wooki

As is only proper given the GSL finalist's recent rise to power, KT's fate in this match will be decided by how (if) WookiP7GABZest performs. He finished round 1 by sending a very clear message as he all-killed the SKT line-up consisting of Rain, Soulkey, soO and Parting, and has looked like KT's strongest player by far ever since. TY and Flash, for all their good performances in Round 1, have been left behind as player #2 and #3 in the KT Rolster line-up.

Naturally, a player who backs up Proleague success with a GSL finals run is bound to draw attention to himself, and it's almost guaranteed that Zest is the player team MVP has studied the most in preparation for this match. Zest's PvP and PvZ have looked nigh unstoppable in 2014, which makes him a huge match-up problem for MVP and their ace duo of Super and DRG. While Zest's PvT has looked shaky, MVP's Terran line has been "okay" at best this season. If MVP didn't work long and hard at developing a number of anti-Zest weapons for this match, then they could end up being the next in a long line of victims.

Interestingly enough, the only thing that could stop Zest might actually be his own team. Historically, teh telecom teams have always valued Proleague even higher than even many of the other KeSPA teams, with SKT being the most notorious of them all. Yet, Flash has always received the necessary support and freedom he needed to chase individual tournament glory, and I can't help but feel that Zest will get that treatment as well. After all, KT Rolster is STILL lacking a major title in StarCraft 2, and the organization will want to end that drought.

Of course, we need to also talk about KT Rolster Protoss we're guaranteed to see. Coming out as the starter, this could also be Stats' time to shine. Billowy may be just slightly favoured given recent data, but Stats is by far the more accomplished and clutch player in Proleague. Fans at large might not remember all his Proleague heroics, but KT Rolster fans know he is one of the most indispensable players on the team. Just as is the case for MVP, if Stats can take the first map and swing the momentum in KT's favour. This format is all about momentum, and we saw all-kills in two out of the three playoff matches in Round 1. In terms of all-kill potential, Stats is a much more dangerous player than Billowy to allow the first win.

It seems strange not to talk about Flash when discussing KT and playoffs, but for the first time in SC2 it seems like the Ultimate Weapon is going to take a backseat. He and TY were racking up the wins in Round 1, but come the round 2 playoffs Flash cannot even claim to have been instrumental to their regular round victory. You have to wonder how he feels heading into this match. Does he desperately want a chance to go out early, rack up the kills, and hear everyone say "Yup, KT Rolster still lives and dies by Flash"? Or will he be more than happy to have the burden lifted from his shoulders, and finally go into a match as just another guy on the team?

Overall thoughts and prediction

MVP defeated KT, SKT and Jin Air, proving they don't need to be afraid of any team in Proleague. What they have to worry about is one player. If Zest shows up playing in GSL finalist, SKT all-killer form, I don't see a player on MVP with strong enough vP to take him out. However, if MVP can conjure up a one-shot strategy to remove Zest before he gets on a roll, they have all the tools to defeat the rest of KT Rolster.

Prediction: KT win 4-2

Writers: Zealously
Graphics and images: SpoTV, shiroiusagi
Editors: Waxangel