Zealously has a playoffs preview coming up later this week. But before we get to that, I'd like to use this space to muse a bit on the events of the group stage.

Team MVP: Temporary Collapse Or Reality Check?

The 2014 season of Proleague has given way to many upsets and unforeseen results, but no team has puzzled us more than MVP. Team MVP came into Proleague as one of the most successful teams in the GSTL, but few expected the weakened, 2013-2014 version of the team to be competitive against KeSPA's finest. Round 1 proved such expectations to be correct, as MVP spent most of their time fighting Prime to avoid a last place finish (they finished in 7th with a 1-6 record).

After being so dismal in Round 1, MVP blew us away with a dynamite performance in Round 2. DRG and Super played like real aces while the bench collectively upped their game, resulting in a 4th place finish and a playoff berth for MVP. Their underdog run did not end there, as Billowy pulled off a nigh unbelievable all-kill against KT to advance MVP through the first round of the playoffs. That was followed by a combined team effort that was enough to vanquish CJ Entus in the second round. Only in the Round 2 finals did the Cinderella story end, with Jin Air putting MVP down for good.

Those two contrasting performances left us to ponder the true identity of Team MVP. Were they a bottom of the barrel team who made the luckiest run of their lives in Round 2? Or were they a truly improved team, one that had taken the humiliation of Round 1 to heart and come back even stronger?

The results of Round 3 suggest that the former is the case. MVP didn't just regress to their Round 1 form, they got even worse. Recording a 1-6 record with an incredibly sorry -15 in maps, MVP finished dead last and saved Prime from a third consecutive 8th place finish. To illustrate just how bad MVP were in Round 3, they outdid Prime's putrid 1-6 (7-20) record in Round 1 with their 1-6 (5-20) record. And that's Prime before MKP joined them again.

We're always wary about drawing conclusions from a small set of results, and that's especially true in a Proleague season that changed Bo7 to Bo5. We've seen more than one team take a roller coaster ride through the standings, and variance is something we've come to expect. CJ missed out on the playoffs in Round 1, while SKT had their own mini-collapse in Round 2. It's hard to believe that MVP is truly as bad as their R3 record suggests. At the same time, it's just as hard to believe they could make the playoffs again.

SKT Live Up To Their Reputation

As I touched upon above, SK Telecom T1 haven't had the most steady results this season. Their late 2013 acquisition of Soulkey seemed to make them by far the strongest Proleague team ahead of the season, but they ended up finishing Round 1 with a "disappointing" 3rd place finish and 5-2 record. Round 2 was even worse, with SKT recording an unthinkable 3-4 record and missing out on the playoffs.

Perhaps getting embarrassed in Round 2 was the best thing that happened to SKT. In Round 3, the SKT that everyone had been expecting finally showed up to play (firing three players and a coach probably had something to do with it as well). Putting up a 6-1 record and an overwhelming +14 map differential, SKT looked to be heads and shoulders above the competition. They even broke their streak of demoralizing losses against KT Rolster, earning a shred of redemption with a 3-0 victory.

Like Team MVP, it's hard to say for sure what this Round 3 result tells us about SK Telecom. Looking at their ridiculous roster with Rain, Soulkey, PartinG, soO and Classic, it's easy to just say they were sleepwalking through the first two rounds and finally showed up to play in Round 3. This SKT roster was supposed to dominate. At the same time, the Round 1 and 2 results could lead you to believe that maybe this SKT roster isn't as good as it appears on paper, and that their tremendous R3 success was just as unlikely an event as team MVP's spectacular failure.

Looking Ahead: KT Tests Its Bench

This may just be me looking too deeply into a few roster choices, but it seems like Round 3 was where KT Rolster started looking ahead to the season-end playoffs. Although the regular season is played as a series of best-of-fives, the traditional best-of-seven format will be back in play when the top four teams of the regular season collide in the season-end playoffs.

Best-of-five with an ace match means you really only need four players to succeed, and KT Rolster demonstrated that by playing a short rotation of Flash, TY, Zest, and Stats for the vast majority of Rounds 1 and 2. Bench players like Sleep, Hitman, MyuNgSiK and Action barely got a chance to play (well, Action got to be a prop). However, the best-of-seven format of the playoffs requires each team to go at least six players deep, and it was unclear whether KT Rolster had the depth to succeed in such a format.

KT went into Round 3 with a new line-up philosophy. The core four of Flash-TY-Zest-Stats only played together in a single match, sent out against eternal rivals SKT. In all of their other matches, KT Rolster made sure to field at least one of their lesser known players. MyuNgSiK, Hitman, Action, and Sleep all got chances to play, and everyone except Hitman managed to pick up a win for the team.

Regardless of the intentions behind KT Rolster's roster choices, it's sure to help them in a few months time. They sooner they find out who their 5th and 6th best players and start giving them booth experience and confidence, the sooner they'll be ready to compete in the season-end playoffs.