Round 3 Playoffs

CJ defeat KT
Semifinal results

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

Videos on Youtube

By: Waxangel

For the series in a row, CJ Entus scored a thrilling 4-3 victory to advance further in the Proleague Round 3 playoffs. EffOrt and Bbyong came together and provided two wins a piece for their team, enough to vanquish KT Rolster and book CJ Entus versus SK Telecom T1 in the Round 3 finals.

Things looked grim for CJ Entus when ace player herO fell to KT's Flash on the very first map. However, team captain EffOrt came through with even more heroics after his Friday night ace match win against Jin Air, defeating both Flash and TY to give CJ a fighting chance. Bbyong, who had been conspicuously benched in the match against Jin Air, then continued to finish off the rest of the KT Roster to clinch the 4-3 victory over CJ Entus.


The series started off with a highly anticipated duel between Flash and herO. Contrary to the hype, the match seemed to be headed toward a highly anticlimactic ending as herO's two-base colossus timing dealt a significant blow to Flash' economy. However, herO's attempt to move into Flash's main to finish the game for good turned out be severely ill-advised, costing him his entire army and putting Flash right back in the game. Given an opportunity to end the game with an SCV-pull timing, Flash made no mistake and forced the GG from herO.

Not surprisingly, Hush was sent out to halt Flash on Maze, having been deployed less than 24 hours earlier against Jin Air as a PvT sniper on the same map. Unfortunately for CJ Entus, Hush was unable to repeat his winning performance against Cure from the Jin Air series, with Flash having little trouble holding off Hush's oracle harassment before using another SCV-pull timing to crush the CJ Protoss.

Down 0-2 and Flash still sitting in the booth, CJ Entus left it to team captain EffOrt to reclaim a foothold in the series. For the second consecutive day, EffOrt was up to the task of rescuing his team, holding off Flash's early hellion-banshee harass with ease before finishing him off with a swarm of zerglings and banelings. With Flash down, KT Rolster decided to send TY out to face EffOrt next, but it proved to be a questionable decision. Although TY managed to come closer to defeating EffOrt than Flash, he still ended up being the third straight victim in EffOrt's series of clinical ZvT demonstrations.

With the score tied 2-2, KT began to bring out the members of their Protoss line. Stats came out first and put KT back up 3-2, showing that a revived EffOrt still might have to work on his ZvP. An extended game on Outboxer saw both players amass the late game armies of their choice, but EffOrt's corruptors and swarm hosts simply melted before Stats' archons, colossi, and void rays.

The weight of being the final ace then fell upon Bbyong's shoulders. Having quietly emerged in Rounds 2 and 3 as one of Proleague's best Terrans, Bbyong stepped up his game to yet another level to match the occasion. He dispensed with Stats in style, using a slightly unorthodox SCV-pull timing that included ravens and ghosts to crush his opponent's phoenix-colossus combination.

Reigning Code S champion Zest was sent out to save the day for KT Rolster, but even he could not stand in Bbyong's way. An early drop attack with hellions and marines dealt a crippling blow to Zest's economy, leaving him scrambling to catch up. Bbyong knew exactly how to finish off his hobbled his opponent, and he executed a powerful SCV-pull timing that Zest had no chance of stopping. Collecting the final GG from Zest, Bbyong clinched CJ's 4-3 victory and earned his team its first round finals appearance of the season.

The Proleague Round 3 finals will be played on Tuesday, May 20 10:30am +01 (GMT+01:00).

Writers: Waxangel
Images: SpoTV.
Editors: Waxangel.