by Waxangel


One of the most entertaining stories of the 2014 Proleague season has been KT's absolute dominance in the Telecom rivalry. Though the balance of power between KT and SKT has shifted constantly over the years, it's hard to think of the last time KT was drubbing SKT so lopsidedly. So far this season, KT is 3-0 against SKT in series and 10-1 in maps. If you throw in Zest's 7-0 series record against SKT players in individual leagues, then it starts to feel like we should just cancel all their upcoming matches and award KT Rolster the decision victory for the year.

The stakes are always high when the telecom titans clash in Proleague, and it's no different this time around. KT Rolster and SK Telecom T1 have outperformed the other six teams by a vast margin in Round 3, and there's a very good chance that this match will decide the #1 seed going into the Round playoffs. The #1 seed is rewarded by being placed directly in the Round finals, which is an advantage both KT and SKT will covet. Confident as they might be, neither would relish having to go through CJ or Jin Air to reach the finals.

On paper, the match-ups seem to favor SK Telecom. You have to like PartinG's chances in the first match, even if TY has been playing the best SC2 of his career in the last six months. TvP has really stood out as a weakness for TY, whereas PvT has always been PartinG's calling card.

SKT look to have a slight advantage in the second match as well. Popular opinion in Korea is that ZvT has shifted back in Zerg's favor, and Soulkey has always been an excellent ZvT player. Though Flash has shown us some solid TvZ mech play this season, his bio hasn't been impressive. With mech TvZ getting figured out and falling out of favor, it's hard to see Flash winning in a straight up match.

The two PvP's are basically toss-ups, making them the important swing matches in the series. Zest beat Rain 4-2 when they met in Code S, but the content of their games showed them to be very evenly matched. Zest might be a master of long PvP series, but he's just as vulnerable as any Protoss in a 1v1 -- his loss to Billowy in the R2 playoffs was a good demonstration of that. This one's a wash.

Similarly, Stats vs Classic is also a wash. Both seem like they'd lose to the god-tier PvP players like PartinG or Zest, but against each other they're very evenly matched. Classic is more inclined to go for crazy cheeses than Zest, so he may have a slight advantage from playing on the unusually shaped map Maze.

As for the ace match, you figure it has to be Zest who carries the banner for KT Rolster. He's been destroying SK Telecom in 2014, with a 25-11 record against them. His only weakness is PvT, and SKT would have to be incredibly ballsy to send out FanTaSy against him. Then again, having one player prepare solely for an ace match appearance would be a very SK Telecom thing to do. After all, they are the only team with a roster strong enough to make it a viable strategy.

The safe option for SKT would be to send out PartinG or Rain. Both of them have played Zest very evenly in series, and they both have a 50/50 chance against Zest in a Bo1. Also, both of them have strong PvT (though Rain insists on complaining anyway), and wouldn't be at a disadvantage if KT Rolster goes with the surprise ace pick in Flash. Yes, we've reached a point in time where Flash is no longer the obvious ace pick for KT Rolster. It's hard to wrap your head around it, but it's true.

Overall, this looks like a match SKT should win 3-1, but everyone on KT Rolster just seems to play 20% better when they're up against their rivals. However, I don't think that they can keep that trend up for the entire season. SKT should finally get a modicum of vengeance here in Round 3. Even if SKT do win, they'll still have to do a lot more work before they can say they're even with KT Rolster in 2014.

Prediction: SKT 3 - 1 KT