Round 3 Playoffs

SK versus CJ
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By: Waxangel

The time has come to the decide the Proleague Round 3 champion.

SK Telecom T1 finally awoke from their slumber in the group stage, dominating their opponents with their superstar roster while looking like the runaway favorites to win the entire season.

On the other hand, CJ Entus head into their third consecutive playoff match where they are the underdogs. Narrowly winning a spot in the playoffs with a 4-3 record, a series of minor miracles and unexpected heroics saw them advance past Jin Air and KT in the playoffs. Will CJ pull off yet another amazing upset, or will SKT send them crashing back down to earth?



We all know what the result should be. SK Telecom T1 will give CJ Entus a pat on the head, commend them on being such feisty underdogs, and kick their asses six ways from Sunday. There's just too much star power concentrated on one roster. Rain, PartinG, soO, Classic, Soulkey... it's incredible that SKT haven't won the last two rounds.

Yet, the very fact that SKT have not performed up to expectations gives CJ Entus hope. More often than not, the story on paper does not reflect how things will play out in reality. We've seen that demonstrated a few times already this season. Billowy swept KT. Zest swept SKT. And as CJ fans will remember, CJ Entus lost to Team MVP. Now they'll hope to be the ones making the unexpected happen.

The Case For CJ Entus

The good news for CJ Entus is that the race match-ups work out okay for them. herO excels at PvZ and PvP, and SKT is very likely to field an only Protoss and Terran roster. Although herO has had a poor Round 3 so far, there hasn't been anything to suggest that he's declined significantly. In our eyes, he's still one of the top Protoss players in the world. Remember, Zest had a similar skillset – strong PvZ and PvP paired with weak PvT – and he was able to all-kill SKT in Round 1. That's not to say we're predicting the same from herO, but the potential is there.

SKT's Protoss heavy line-up also favors CJ's other ace in Bbyong. Though he loves to say otherwise in interviews, his record at the very least shows he is an extremely strong TvP player. Though Bbyong's lackluster performances against SKT Zergs will force Coach Park to think hard about where and when he wants to deploy Bbyong, he is definitely a player who can give Rain, Classic, or PartinG a run for their money.

SKT's utter predictability on Maze might also work in CJ's favor as well. SKT considers Maze as Protoss map and Protoss map only. CJ have already performed a successful Maze snipe with Gumiho (who beat Billowy), and that's a trick they could pull out again. Also, CJ have a bit of an advantage from just knowing SKT will try to have a Protoss player in the booth leading into Maze. Is it that big a deal to know that soO probably won't be played until after Maze? Not really, but every little bit of information helps.

The Case For SK Telecom T1

Did we mention who SK Telecom have on the team? Rain, PartinG, soO, Classic, Soulkey. Even if they want to needlessly handicap themselves and field FanTaSy, Dark, or ParalyzE, they're still arguably better than whoever CJ Entus will choose as their 4th man.

Ridiculous roster advantage aside, SKT can also feel comfortable in lacking the TvZ vulnerability Jin Air and KT showed. A huge part of the reason CJ was able to defeat Jin Air and KT was because EffOrt came out of nowhere with top-notch ZvT play. Maru, TY, and Flash are absolutely vital to their teams, and EffOrt managed to beat them all. Even though CJ Entus never got a 100% day, or even an 80% day from the rest of its roster, EffOrt's performance alone allowed them to escape with 4-3 victories. EffOrt's ZvZ and ZvP have looked rather lacking compared to his ZvT, and head coach iloveoov must be wondering what his old mentor was thinking by sending him out as CJ's starter.

Overall Thoughts and Prediction: SK Telecom T1 are rightfully the favorites, coming in with a superior roster and plenty of momentum behind them. Of course, we have to put in the usual precaution about all-kill style games, where anything is liable to happen, yada yada. But barring some monster performances from herO or Bbyong, the Round 3 title looks like it's SKT's for the taking.

SKT 4 - 2 CJ Entus

Writers: Waxangel.
Photos: KeSPA.
Graphics: shiroiusagi.
Editors: Waxangel.