by Zealously

Because people don't like to read things, this midway check-up on all the teams even includes convenient letter grades!


Jin Air Green Wings
IN: Avenge, Adios, God-Coach Ryu Won
OUT: Pigbaby, CoCa
Other changes: sOs doesn't suck in Proleague anymore
Overall Rating: A

Jin Air had somewhat of a rough time in Round 1 as sOs experienced a post-BlizzCon slump, but the team has stabilized since. With an monster duo of sOs and Maru backed by a reliable supporting cast, it was no surprise to see them win the Round 2 group stage as well as the playoffs.

There's little to criticize about a team that was strong enough to handily beat every other team into submission last round. Even though Pigbaby and Coca have been removed from the roster, it matters little as neither played any significant role for Jin Air this season. In fact, Jin Air may actually have upgraded at the Protoss position, bringing in former Startale player Avenge who showed potential as sniper in his GSTL outings.

The biggest change for Jin Air might be the acquisition of coach Ryu Won of SlayerS and Woongjin Stars fame. He famously coached MMA to a GSL championship and worked with Woongjin Stars during their second place run in the previous Proleague season. How big a role can he play for Jin Air? It's hard to say, but given his track record so far, he might be the final piece that makes Jin Air the top team in Proleague.


Team MVP
IN: aLive, hyvaa
OUT: None
Karma: -6,666,666. With Sniper and hyvaa finally together (as was their destiny), no fan-favorite will ever win a game against MVP.
Rating: B

MVP is the polar opposite of SKT. Their players have barely any individual league success, yet as a team they come together and make big things happen. Looking at their roster, no one really stands out as a mega-ace like herO for CJ or Zest for KT. Yet, MVP beat both teams in the Round 2 playoffs. The initial adjustment period seems to be over for MVP, and they have now transitioned into playing at the level they once used to in the GSTL.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about MVP's Proleague success is the rise of Billowy (formerly Lure), whose 8-4 record made him the second best performing player on MVP after Super. He more than proved his worth by all-killing KT Rolster, and his 5-0 record vP makes him a very valuable part in MVP's line-up. The additions of notorious cheeser hyvaa and the unquestionably alive aLive might seem superfluous considering the team's already considerable depth, but it can't hurt to have them.


CJ Entus
IN: None
OUT: None
Other changes: Banned all their players from playing individual league qualifiers to focus on Proleague, received a huge amount of backlash from the Korean StarCraft community, lost to MVP anyway, and quietly rescinded the policy.
Rating: B+

The CJ Entus roster seemed like a lock for playoff contention prior to the season's start, but they ended up finishing Round 1 as one of Proleague's laughing-stocks. Early in Round 2, they seemed like they were on their way to suffering even more humiliation. Fortunately for Coach Park, the team found a way to turn things around midway and started playing like everyone expected to at the start of the season.

Halfway into the season, CJ look like real contenders to take the year end championship. Not the favorites, but definitely contenders. herO and Bbyong have established themselves as a reliable one-two punch, while Hydra has finally rid himself of the tendency to throw games that plagued him early in the season.

Unfortunately for CJ, the same three players cannot be expected to win every game they play, which reveals CJ's weakness: the fourth man. Early in the season Sora seemed like he could become one of CJ's key players, but he has regressed significantly in 2014. EffOrt seems to have Coach Park's faith for now, but his abysmal 0-5 record in Round 2 might force some tinkering with the roster. The team is good enough to make it to the Round 3 playoffs as is, but I feel that the team requires one more reliable player to go all the way.


KT Rolster
IN: None
OUT: None
Other changes: Zest has become their best player, if not the best player in Korea.
Rating: A-

A new champion! For most of KT Rolster's time in StarCraft 2, Flash seemed like the odds on favorite to be the first one to win them a championship. After all, he won the most games in the first season of SC2 Proleague, and fought his way to a second place finish at 2012's MLG Dallas. Instead, we saw Zest go on an incredible, hot streak in 2014, walk the royal road, and become KT's first Code S champion.

While that's great news for KT, it doesn't help them address the biggest weakness of their roster: depth. The Zest/Flash/TY/Stats core is extremely strong, and those four alone make KT a title contender. However, they are still in desperate need of any kind of credible Zerg threat. Teams facing KT in the all-kill style playoffs can basically disregard the entire Zerg race when preparing, as KT have shown they have zero faith in Action and Hitman. Also, what do they plan to do in the season end playoffs where Bo7 Proleague style matches come into play?

Both Hitman and Action are playing in opening week, a sign that KT realizes this weakness and wants to establish their bench players. Will it work? Perhaps, perhaps not. Action and Hitman haven't exactly shown much promise in SC2. However, it was becoming clear that playing the exact same roster week after week wasn't the best plan, and you can't criticize KT for taking risks to try and be a better team.


SK Telecom T1
IN: None
OUT: Sacsri, Journey, Sorry, coach HyuK
Other changes:Fantasy is actually playable now
Rating: A

Well, at least SKT should be an A-grade team. They still have the same, ridiculously stacked roster from the start of the season. In fact, their roster should be even better now as soO and Fantasy have trended upward. The fact that soO, a back-to-back GSL runner-up, doesn't get fielded with any frequency speaks to just how insane SKT's roster is.

Yet, they didn't make the Round 2 playoffs. Some aspect of Proleague competition seems to trouble them. In response, SKT made the strange move of removing three, never-used players and coach HyuK from their roster. The stated reason is that this will somehow help them in Round 3, but honestly we're not really sure what that's supposed to do.

So what IS the problem with SKT? It seems unlikely that the issue would lie in practise, given how well the majority of the players perform outside of Proleague (this isn't to say that they perform terribly in Proleague, just below expectations). So perhaps the issue instead lies with the team's approach to matches. If oov's ”we will show more various weapons in the third round” means that they will attempt to better utilize the depth of their line-up, then that seems like a step in the right direction.

Of course, we can't rule out the chance that it's just variance. Each team only plays seven matches per round, and it's not unexpected for there to be hot and cold streaks. SKT needs to show us who they really are this round.


Incredible Miracle
IN: Oz (via partnership)
OUT: UngNim, NesTea
Other changes: Captaincy passed from Nestea to Mvp
Rating: C+

At this point, one has to wonder if Incredible Miracle truly benefits from adding any more players to their roster. The addition of Oz makes sense since he has been living with the team for some time. However, IM is already having trouble juggling a Protoss core of Trap-Yonghwa-Squirtle-HerO, leaving Code S player Ruin standing on the sidelines. Having Oz can't hurt, but it doesn't really seem to add much either.

Also, one has to wonder what the StarTale partnership is truly doing for IM. Here's a cute fact: EinsPrime performed as well as the best ST player last round. What's strange is how few StarTale players are being fielded, considering how many gaping holes in IM's roster they could fill. Life or Curious could serve as a useful second Zerg to ByuL, while Hack could be their regular Terran card (with Mvp reserved for special occasions).

Honestly, IM would be fine swapping eight of their mid-tier players for just one ace class player. Trap is unquestionably solid, but there doesn't seem to be a clear-cut ace on IM like there is on many other teams. Aside from Trap, the rest of the players IM fielded last round were mediocre at best, which just isn't enough to compete for a playoff spot.

IM is not playing up to their potential, and something has to change if they want to make the playoffs in Round 3. If they stick with their 3 Protoss + ByuL line-ups, they're just going to continue their slow decline. You have a million mercenaries, IM. Use them.


Samsung Galaxy KHAN
IN: Guilty
OUT: None
Cool thing that happened: Prime accumulated enough penalty points to have to face Samsung in a tie-breaker for last place, which RorO won against MKP.
Rating: C-

In a somewhat puzzling turn of events, Samsung ace Roro fell to Code B while Solar, whose Round 2 performance can be described as nothing but embarrassing, advanced to Code S. Unfortunately for Samsung, that is about how far the depth of their line-up goes. They have Stork, who went an acceptable 2-2 last round, but beyond his improvement into a middling player, there isn't much for Samsung fans to be encouraged about. They were the worst team of Round 2 with a -8 map differential, and they only escaped last place thanks to Prime's needless mistakes.

So what can Samsung really hope to do in order to change this worrying trend? With the risk of making myself look a fool as Round 3 begins, I'll say that Samsung's abysmal Round 2 performance was in part a fluke. RorO will probably keep raking in Proleague wins at a steady rate despite his current Code B status. Solar had a bad Round 2, but his recent advancement to Code S suggests he can bounce back and be productive again. If Solar can do that, and Stork can maintain a 50% or so win rate, then Samsung should be able to at least perform better than last round.

Of course, it's also possible that Samsung's Round 1 performance was the actual fluke, in which case they can look forward to another race with Prime to stay out of last place. Hmmmm.... Maybe they should just buy Team MVP again (sorry, League of Legends joke there).


Prime
IN: Leenock (via partnership with Yoe Flash Wolves)
OUT: Kal
Other Changes: Primezzang.net mall is open again!
Rating: D+

The return of Marineking, somewhat surprisingly, proved to be a much-needed boost for the barebones roster. However, not even the Creator/Marineking duo can carry Prime without help. No, seriously. Creator and MKP were aided by ONE single win from the rest of the Prime roster in Round 2. Like Samsung, Prime has a terrible bench of tired veterans and inexperienced newcomers that just can't win games. Prime did improve to 2-5 in Round thanks to great play from Creator and decent play from MarineKing, but it wasn't enough to keep them out of last place.

That's why Leenock could potentially be a HUGE help to Prime, depending on how often he can play. Leenock hasn't been especially good in HotS, but he's good enough to put up a 50% winrate or so in Proleague. That could push Prime into the mid-tier, and maybe even make them a long-shot at playoff contender. That's of course, IF Leenock plays regularly. That is something that remains to be seen.