Round 3, Week 3 Preview
Week 3 Preview
Telecom Terrors
Must-Watch Match
sOs vs. Classic
Brackets and standings on Liquipedia
Round 3, Week 3 Preview
With the two telecom teams looking like they already have playoff spots secured, it's now a dog fight between the six remaining teams to take the two last playoff spots. Six teams are tied at 1-2, leaving the last two playoff spots wide open for anyone to take. However, none of them seem to be playing well at the moment, and the first team to break out of ther funk and find some stability will have a good chance at clinching a Round 3 playoff spot.
It's worth noting this week that





Round 3 Standings | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | SKT | 3-0 | 9-1 | +8 |
2. | KT Rolster | 3-0 | 9-4 | +5 |
3. | CJ Entus | 1-2 | 7-6 | +1 |
4. | IM | 1-2 | 6-6 | 0 |
5. | Samsung | 1-2 | 5-8 | -3 |
6. | Jin Air | 1-2 | 4-7 | -3 |
7. | MVP | 1-2 | 4-8 | -4 |
8. | Prime | 1-2 | 3-7 | -4 |
April 27
SK Telecom T1 vs Jin Air Green Wings








Ace:Habitation Station LE
Samsung Galaxy Khan vs Incredible Miracle








Ace:Frost LE
April 28
KT Rolster vs MVP








Ace:Habitation Station LE
Prime vs CJ Entus








Ace:Habitation Station LE
April 29
Incredible Miracle vs Jin Air Green Wings








Ace:Maze
Samsung Galaxy KHAN vs SK Telecom T1








Ace:Frost LE
Roster Notes
- Newly acquired IM-mercenary
Oz will make his debut in the 2014 season of Proleague with
Life and
HerO gone at DreamHack. Oz was a decent player for EG-TL in the previous Proleague season, and he's improved significantly since then. Coming in as the WCS America runner-up, he'll be looking to show that he can still compete with the best Korea has to offer. With the recent sub-par performances of other IM Protosses, Oz could potentially prove a key part for a so far unreliable team.
Speaking of IM's Protoss line-up,Ruin is also getting a chance at proving his worth to the team. With neither YongHwa nor Squirtle showing particularly good form, Ruin's half-impressive, half-humiliating showing in Code A seems to have been good enough to earn him a start. Facing a weakened Samsung roster missing its ace, it's a relatively low risk opportunity for IM to try out new players.
MyuNgSiK returns in TY's absence to face MVP.Billowy, the wildest of wild cards in Proleague. Though there was undoubtedly an element of luck in Billowy's all-kill against KT Rolster last round, he is undeniably a strong PvP player. Myungsik's match history doesn't tell us much other than that he has lost against some of the world's best PvP players, but Proleague has produced some strange occurrences in the past - with the Protoss mirror played out on Maze, anything can happen.
CJ_Sora seems to be on his way to becoming a line-up regular for CJ once more, returning for the second match in a row to play against MarineKing on the so far Protoss-dominated map Maze. Prime's decision to field a Terran on what seems to be a consensus Protoss map is a bit perplexing, and we will have to wait and see what MKP brings to the table. If Sora doesn't get completely hoodwinked by MKP's trickery, this could be a bloody game for MKP.
- Protoss still holds the vast numerical superiority in Proleague, but Terran has caught up to Zerg. In twenty-four potential (standard) matches, 11 Terrans are being fielded in comparison with 13 Zergs and 24 Protosses.
- Jin Air ace
Maru has received the worst draw he could have hoped for against SKT, being forced to play the second map against Soulkey. The ex-Prime Terran has never won a BoX against Soulkey, going 3-12 in maps.
- Reality is playing against an SKT Zerg on Tuesday. The last time such a match-up took place, this happened.
Rain is playing
Shine. Heh.
Must Watch Match: Classic vs sOs
by ZealouslyWell, maybe it's a "watch it if you really want to, but we don't wanna pressure you into it" match. After all, it's a PvP.
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/proleague/2014/dandysos.jpg)

On the other side of this match-up we have

On paper, Classic is exactly the type of player that sOs has picked apart again and again with mindblowing strategies or builds that logically shouldn't work but somehow still do. Playing on Maze, which is essentially a revival of last season's Arkanoid, opens up nearly infinite possibilities for an innovative player or group of players to utilize. sOs has ventured into trend-setting proxy oracles and tempest rushes in separate match-ups before and often adds a touch of his own to PvP as well. With a map like Maze, where the rules are little more than suggestions, there's literally no way to know what the $200,000 man will pull out of his hat. Jin Air's current predicament (advancement to the season playoffs are still not assured, and a low placing this round will make things difficult) is an added layer of pressure, but sOs has displayed remarkable calm under pressure and an uncanny knack for performing only when it matters, and the significance of this match might serve only to make sOs play better.
However, with the nature of PvP and with how unexplored Maze's details still are, Classic should not be counted out. Playing a classic macro game on a standard map along the lines of King Sejong Station is one thing, but there is no standard to speak of on Maze. On a map like Maze, in a match-up that contrasts the highly innovative style of sOs with the crisp and practised but fairly standard style of Classic, the roles may very well be reversed. sOs is likely going in with the intent of bringing something to the table that neither Classic nor the SKT coaching staff expects, but he has to account for the possibility that the very same thing is coming his way.
PvP has received a lot of criticism over the years for being too volatile and too hard to predict, but this is a match you should not miss - a match where the completely unexpected is to be expected.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/HawaiianPig/SPL/SPLstaricon.png)