New Season, New Power Rank

While we have already covered everything from player transfers and team changes to match-up previews, there is one important part of the Proleague pre-season that we simply cannot go without. stuchiu is here to tell you why your team is going to [insert performance as it applies to your team]. Please note that this Power Rank reflects only his (occasionally mean) thoughts.


8. Prime

Prime ended as the worst team last season and their situation has gotten even worse. For a brief period, things looked up for Prime as they finally got a decent ace with MyungSik joining. It rapidly turned sour as Choya stole 3 core players and, to add insult to injury, all three started to perform better than they had all year. Beyond that the situation looks bleak. Terror went 0-6 last season, TANGTANG is more famous for his ID than skill, Zoun is a complete unknown, and Byun disappears every other week. They only have two semi-reliable players in Creator and Yoda. Creator is just about par going 50-50 in his PL games, while Yoda is a strong boost to their much needed Terran line. BboongBboong has also returned but unless he pulls another miracle like he did for Azubu in GSTL, his impact on the team will probably be minimal.



An accurate representation of BboongBboong's career


If Gerrard doesn't find new blood, Prime will be looking at another year of beatings.

7. ST-YoeFW

Ever since they were gutted by PartinG and Squirtle's departures, StarTale has essentially become a 1 man team. Every once in a while Curious or Hack pulled out a small performance, but for the most part it has all been Life. Luckily for them they recently attained a partnership with YoeFW and Bomber will be player-coaching for them next season. This gives them a strong 3 man lineup of Life, San and Leenock. Unfortunately Bomber claims he won't be playing in PL in any large form (although he is on the lineup for Week 1) and Parting is still barred from playing in the league by SKT. Beyond them they have a decent rotation for fourth with Curious, Hack and aLive. Of course they could always pull out the dirty stuff with either Pet or Has (the single dirtiest Protoss to ever come out of WCS AM). If the coaching staff can utilize the bench well to keep the other teams off balance, they can make a surprising run this season.

6. Samsung Galaxy

Samsung was another team that was struck hard during the off season. Roro was their ace, the most reliable player they had to churn in win after win no matter his woes in GSL. On top of that, Reality was a solid 4th man for the team and one that was hard to deal with. Luckily for Samsung, Solar has recently come into his own so he will be the player that will be taking over the ace slot.

On top of that they’ve recruited Dear, Bravo and Journey. Bravo and Journey add some needed Terran blood. If the Bravo's series against Soulkey in the SSL qualifiers is any indication, he is the perfect substitute for Reality. Journey on the other hand has been grinding out qualifiers and online cups for decent results. The core of the team will probably be a line-up of Dear, Stork, and Shine. However, beyond Solar and Dear they have no certain 3rd or 4th man. A lot of the burden will be on Stork. He will have to keep the team together and make smart lineup decisions every round if Samsung wants to make a good showing.

5. Team The ChoyasMVP

Team MVP had by far the wildest off-season. After Choya joined the team as coach, every member of MVP left and he was left to recruit an entirely new roster. He mostly did this by stealing three Prime players (Departure, Salvation and MarineKing) and salvaging some IM players (Losira and Yonghwa). He then rounded it out with Center, Panic and PL partnerships in Gumiho (not listed for this round), HerO and Seed. And finally Taeja.

Choya himself is an enigma in terms of coaching. He takes heavy risks because his team is usually outgunned. Every once in a while you see him go cowboy and throw himself out as ace and eliminate a MMA in prime form, and every once in a while you see him put himself out over Oz in a desperate ploy to get to the GSTL Finals and implode. But in terms of winners league strategy, Choya has proven himself to be the one of the best. His strategy revolves around two elements. First he has a double core in two aces (most likely Marineking and, whenever he is able to play, Gumiho). He then uses the rest of his roster to value trade out bad maps for his ace and then has the ace clean up the mess at the end. Even in the Proleague format, he would have had a fairly stable 4 man core in MarineKing, Gumiho, Losira and Yonghwa. He will accordingly one HerO, Seed or Center to fill the void Gumiho was meant to fill. The real x-factor here will be Taeja. The last time he played in PL he wasnt particularly enthused about it, but he is still a very dangerous player that Choya can rotate in for anyone, even ace.

Most importantly you have to consider these very true facts about Choya:



A Pimp Named Choya, you say the whole thing like A Tribe Called Quest


2/20/2014 - Choya joins Prime.

3/26/2014 - Choya eliminates ex-FXO player Hurricane and takes his Code A spot. Says, “I feel really good. I had to take down former teammate Hurricane, but I don’t even feel sorry about it. Since I had to feed him and shelter him for two years, I can’t help but feel that he should be okay with losing to me.”

5/29/14 - Choya leaves Prime

6/20/14 - Choya eliminates ex-FXO player Oz from Anaheim

7/31/14 - Choya joins MVP

7/31/14 Later that day - Center, Symbol, MarineKing, Losira, and Yonghwa join MVP. MVP makes an partnership with Seed, HerO and Leenock.

7/31/14 End of that day - All former members of MVP leave including: aLive, Dongraegu, Billowy, hyvaa, Keen, Shine, Super, Swagger, Tails and the great evil Sniper.

7/31/14 - The greatest evil in SC2, Sniper retires.

8/5/15 - Prime players MarineKing, Departure, and Salvation leave Prime to join Choya’s regime.

9/1/14 - Choya partners with Gumiho for PL. Choya is thwarted in the recreation of FXO as Leenock’s team YoeFW partners with StarTale.

11/7/14 - Aphrodite joins MVP.

11/16/14 - Aphrodite makes GM.

11/16/14 - Losira makes his first appearance in a premier tournament since 9/29/13 and makes it to the Ro4 in HSC X.

11/10/14 - MarineKing qualifies for a tournament for the first time since dropping out of Challenger League to Zero on 9/30/14.

11/18/14 - MarineKing wins his group in Hot6ix and thanks Choya and his MVP teammates/PL partners for practice.

11/28/14 - Symbol runs away in fear and finds asylum with Jin Air.

11/28/14 - Panic joins MVP.

12/2/14 - MarineKing reaches the Ro4 of Hot6ix Cup. He thanks Choya for supervising.

12/6/14 - MarineKing defeats Zest 3-1. Choya seen lecturing MarineKing in the booth and wearing a pimp jacket. Tasteless calss Choya, "an integral piece to MarineKing's success." Artosis agrees.

12/11/14 - Yonghwa qualifies for SSL over soO and DRG

12/14/14 - Yonghwa qualifies for GSL over MMA

12/14/14 - Seed qualifies for GSL. Specifically thanks Choya for helping him. http://esports.dailygame.co.kr/view.php?ud=2014121514283968802

12/14/14 - Panic qualifies for GSL

12/14/14 - Taeja allies with team MVP

Here's the kicker. Let's check out the winrates of players with significant time under the Choya regime:

Center went from 45.98% in maps to 56.97%
Departure went from 44.62% in maps to 54.46%
Losira went from 56.44% in maps to 62.04%
MarineKing went from 44.05% in maps to 54.30%
Salvation went from 45.95% in maps to 46.02%
Yonghwa went from 47.73% in maps to 52.66%

Now I’m not saying Choya is Satan...but Choya is Satan. Summarized, Choya joined Prime, got revenge on two of his ex-FXO teammates, quit the team, took MarineKing, Departure and Salvation with him, went to MVP, took over their house, kicked them out, replaced them with his own team, and somehow increased the win rates of 5 of the 6 players he recruited. Among them, two made deep runs in a premier tournament under his training regime. Oh and he forced Sniper to retire. Is it all coincidence or is Choya actually the devil?

4. CJ Entus

After SKT, CJ was probably hit the hardest. They lost 3 players that would have been integral to any future success: Effort was playing the best he ever had in SC2 before his retirement, Hydra was a strong core player that had performed well for them in winners league, and Gumiho was the single best GSTL Finals player to have ever lived (fun fact, he went 8-0 in GSTL Finals and was one of the key components to Choya’s double GSTL victory). It stings more when you consider how strong Gumiho has recently been online (winning 9 Leifeng cups) and his IEM San Jose ro8. On the other hand, CJ had barely used him during the regular season and squandered their playoffs by not using him at all during the last stretch of PL.

In return they got Byul, who was basically the ace of IM before the disband. He might not be the best consolation prize but Byul will make a solid replacement for Hydra. herO remains a top tier ace and is backed up by Bbyong, one of the strangest and funnest Terrans to watch. Then one must consider the TvT savant SkyHigh, who could be vital considering how many Terrans will probably be fielded this season. If CJ is truly committed to winning the finalists, they will hire a hypnotist to make Sora think every PL game is actually a WCG match.

However, a lot of CJ’s success will depend on Coach Park predicting good matchups for his players. He has to get herO on 3 player+ maps so he won’t get proxy 2 gated out; he has to predict TvT to properly utilize get SkyHigh; he has to delude Sora into thinking WCG is a year-long thing; while Byul and Bbyong are strong, it's hard to predict exactly how they’ll match up against any particular opponent given their stylistic tendencies. If Coach Park can get this team running and get favorable matchups, he can run this 4 man roster to the playoffs and a possible win.

3. Jin Air Green Wings

In terms of acquisitions and departures, Jin Air came out the big winners of the off-season. The only player to leave was TRUE, who hasn't been able to replicate his peak form since leaving the team. In contrast they gained a resurgent Trap, a Symbol who has been slowly regaining form, and the slayer of Taeja himself, PigBaby. Out of those who stayed, Cure, Maru, and sOs make up a strong 3 man core. Depending on who they are playing, any one of them can easily take the ace spot although sOs will probably take the top billing. On top of that they also possess a nice sniper in Avenge, an extremely stylistic Protoss player who loves making DTs in the double digits in almost every game he plays. The loss of Ryu Won greatly hurts them, but the team still seems to be as strong as ever. Depending on what Trap/Symbol/PigBaby can bring to the team, Jin Air can take this season.

2. SK Telecom T1

Usually when a team loses the majority of the A team, they’d usually drop a few places in rank. Instead SKT only drops one. Yes they seriosuly suffered from the departures of Rain, PartinG, and Soulkey, and there are no comparable replacements in the market. On top of that they lost some Terran benchers in Fantasy and Bravo (let's be real, that's what they were). This usually wouldn't mean much 95% of the time, but they could have made a real difference in the current meta.

What they got in return was Innovation, one of the best SC2 team league players of all time. He was instrumental during both STX’s PL championship run and Axiom-Acer’s GSTL championship as their super ace. During his travels abroad, he dominated mutliple ATCs with ease and has never lost a team league he’s participated (barring the 2012 Zombie Proleague). Innovation has even better ace potential than Rain given his history, the current meta and his current form.

The other acquisitions SKT got were: Dream, Billowy and Penguin. Dream was an ex-MVP player who has shown moments of pure brilliance in a few games. When Innovation was in his prime during his rampages in early HotS, DRG considered Dream as a potential equal; this is quite the praise when you consider DRG was the first to outfox Innovation in a long ZvT macro series. On top of that, SKT has proven they can develop latent talent in players like soO and Dark. So it is possible that Dream could pay out big for SKT later on in the season. Billowy was an aggressive Protoss player who has proven the ability to make Flash salvage bunkers and Penguin qualified for Code S.



It all comes down to this man


SKT's main problem is the weakness of their core remaining roster from the 2013-2014 season. Classic remains roughly the same while Paralyze and Sorry are inconsistent at best. Dark has shown great skill and has been cited as the best player in the house (even before all the players had left the house) but has yet to show the consistency of a true A-team player. soO is the best Zerg player of 2014, but has seen very little playtime in Proleague as SKT always chose the trio of Rain, Parting and Soulkey above him. Instead soO was relegated to a rotating 4th pick, taking turns with Classic and sometimes Dark. If SKT want a chance to win this season, they’ll have to rely on soO a lot more. But is it wise to bet your chips on this horse? After getting so many second places and bombing out of Blizzcon and Hot6ix Cup, soO might not be in the proper mental shape to be an ace player.

Despite my reservations a line-up of Innovation, Classic, soO and Dark will be a hard hurdle for any other team to overcome. They can no longer depend on winning every match before the ace, but with super-ace Innovation it will amount to the same thing.

1. KT Rolster

As winners of the 2014 season, KT looks to be in the strongest position among all teams going into the new season. Flash, TY and Stats have recently shown great form with each having a commendable result in individual leagues. Zest has been a pillar of stability and is still considered the strongest Protoss in Korea. While the loss of Myungsik stings, he was a luxury sniper pick in the end and his role can be replaced from a rotation of Sleep and Action. Sleep has been doing well in Leifeng Cups and Action has pulled some surprising wins against Terran with his ZvT.

The real loss here is Hoejja, who coached the team and led them to their first SC2 PL victory. However, they got a superior replacement in Ryu Won. Ryu Won is the most accomplished coach in the history of SC2. On Slayers he was the personal coach of MMA, but also helped Slayers get their GSTL titles as well as mentoring others like Ryung.

When he jumped ship to Woongjin Stars, he got the team to first place in the round robin (by a huge margin) during the first SPL. During his tenure Soulkey proceeded to win GSL and become the undisputed best zerg of the period; sOs secured second place in the WCS Season Finals and took Blizzcon. Afterwards, Ryu Won joined Jin Air. As expected, their results picked up dramatically as well. He led them to a secured playoff spot as well as winning Rounds 2 and 4. Generally it's hard to say exactly how much a coach has actually done, but we can infer Ryu Won is a titanic influence. Every time he becomes the new coach of a team, they immediately get a large surge of positive results. Additionally he has been credited as instrumental in victory by players like Soulkey, MMA and sOs.

With a strong 4 man line-up, an okay bench and a coach famous for winning team leagues and helping develop players into champions, KT ought to be the favorites going into this season.