Into the Thick of Things

The Telecom Derby came and went and ended as it seems to always do, with KT winning and clawing themselves out of last place. At present, 3 teams are at 2-1 and 3 at 1-2, with only CJ and Prime sticking out at 3-0 and 0-3 in matches, respectively. There are four weeks to go in Round 1, and Week 3 went a long way towards shaking up the rankings and proving that nothing is set in stone until the very last moment.

A number of other shocking things happened in Week 3. Chief among them is Terror finally winning a game against CJ Zerg ace Byul, CJ's faith in Byul's ace capabilities after said loss, and the first big failure of Coach Choya's insanities.

Match Of the Week: KT vs SK Telecom

by lichter

The very first Telecom War and rematch of last year's finals lived up to its billing as Proleague's biggest rivalry. All 5 games went down to the wire and the tie was only resolved in the ace match. Many believed that SKT T1's form would be impossible to overcome for KT Rolster, but that's what people also believed the last time they met.



soO didn't wait long to apply some pressure in the first game of the series by building his pool before hatch and sending his first 6 zerglings off to Stats' base. While the lings weren't able to do any real damage, Stats was forced to pull a few probes and waste his chronoboost on zealots. Stats would repay the favor soon after with a 7 gateways and a lot of sentries, and despite soO's scouting he was unable to save his third. Though the soOlver Surfer held his natural and re-expanded once Stats was forced to leave, the follow-up immortal pushed proved deadly and gave KT the early lead.



The second map was a bout between the two all-killers of their opposing teams. Billowy was perhaps brought in by oov specifically for KT Rolster, and this was his audition for a prolonged spot on the lineup. Unfortunately for the tricky protoss, Zest showed exactly what makes him one of the best protoss on the planet. Billowy's oracle opening and quick transition into zealot immortal archon gave him the space to take an early third base while Zest cautiously stayed on two. The SKT protoss jockeyed for position in the middle of the map and maintained a sizable arc hoping to trick Zest into thinking he was all-inning, and by 15 minutes Billowy was already close to 30 supply ahead. Zest on the other hand stopped at 3 colossus and attempted to match Billowy's archon count. The Kingslayer had no choice but to attack, and some brilliant focus fire on the reinforcing warp prism while kiting back into a small alleyway allowed him to win a seemingly impossible engagement. The loss of his mothership core earlier while claiming position proved costly for Billowy, as Zest cut straight through his bases to steal another victory.



Up 2-0, it was down to Flash to seal the victory for KT. With his poor form and lack for ideas in TvZ, a win against the rising Dark seemed unlikely. It was a largely passive game from both players, though there were some interesting build order subtleties underneath. Flash showed that he was going mech by amassing tanks and hellions, but he was secretly upgrading his bio and slowly gathering infantry in his main. Dark responded with what he saw by choosing swarmhosts, but he smelled something fishy and did not neglect to get baneling speed. Once Flash walked out of his base, Dark immediately switched into ling bling muta while holding key pathways with his swarmhosts. The Ultimate Weapon tried his best to use his mech to solidify his position on the map to secure his bases while harassing with his bio, but Dark was on top of his defense the entire game. Flash was forced to sit back on three and four bases hoping to win with a maxed army, but Dark was already taking the entire map and completing his tech tree. Dark played the game slowly and sealed the game with an unending stream of zerglings, banelings and ultralisks.



Down 1-2, SKT had the luxury of relying on the defending GSL Champion to bring them to the ace match. It was your routine TvT: banshee vs raven, drop vs drop, tanks shelling from key positions. And like the best TvTs, it ended in a doom drop. TY played the game well and tried his best to tear INnoVation apart with harassment and movement, but the machine would not be stopped. For all of his presence on the map, TY was unable to spot INnoVation's move out towards his side of the map until it was too late, and an elevator drop into his main decisively choked his supply until he was forced to concede the tie.




Despite his ace match defeat to YongHwa, Zest was once again chosen as KT's ace ahead of Flash. Perhaps it was in anticipation of Dark as SKT's ace, which continues to astound considering INnoVation, Classic and soO are all more experienced than the young zerg. That inexperience proved costly as a sentry drop double fake out conned Dark into a sense of security. The SKT zerg smelled the fake attack and believed that Zest was macroing behind his warp prism and 2 sentries, but Zest was in fact chronoboosting immortals in his main. Dark quickly saturated his third base, and everyone knows that overdroning is a death sentence against immortal pushes. Dark tried his best to rally roaches to his third as Zest huffed and puffed across the creep, but pinpoint forcefields trapped optimal amounts of roaches while corralling drones to their doom. It was a summary execution by the SKT Killer who once again proved the difference between the Telecom Giants. KT 1, SKT 0.

Progress Report: Week Three

by banjoetheredskin

A+ - Jin Air Green Wings

With a clean 3-0 win over MVP this week, Jin Air have reasserted themselves as the best team in Proleague. For a moment Maru looked like he might have been in trouble against MarineKing, but came back to trounce him with superb bio play in TvT. Cure's TvZ against Losira looked, and probably was, easy after thwarting the nydus roach attack. sOs played well against HerO, albeit aided by a slight build order advantage. Despite the rout, Jin Air were not able to move into first place. However, there is no question who should be most feared.

Comments
Maybe it's time to start playing some bench players earlier.

B+ - KT Rolster

KT managed to ward off their demons this week and redeem themselves with a victory against a very strong SKT lineup. Zest might have carried the team with his two wins, but nobody complained when WINnoVation did the same for STX Soul two years ago. TY didn't look too bad in his loss, nor did Flash (although perhaps his overall losing streak is a big concern). Stats' endless two base allin vs soO was rather Machiavellian, but I have no quibbles with that. Most importantly, KT proved that they can still win, and that should go a long way for their collective morale moving forward.

Comments
I would bench Flash's ass. We now live in a world where TerrOr is better in Proleague than Flash. But I know you won't, especially since he has no individual leagues to prepare for, so he needs to stop getting TvZ for any justification to continue being played.

B+ - CJ Entus

I know what you're probably thinking. But they almost lost to Prime! Well, yes, sort of. After a convincing 2-0 start from sKyHigh and herO, CJ seemed to collapse a bit with ByuL and Bbyong both losing (reminiscent of their match against Samsung in Week 1). However, those defeats were un-scouted allins (and downright unexpected from Creator), and showed no obvious decline in overall form in either player. ByuL even got to redeem himself with a win in the ace match, which as it turns out, attests to how well he prepared for the match.



CJ are now in first place and although they haven't looked like the best team, they are all but guaranteed a spot in the Round 1 Playoffs, something to be very satisfied with as Coach Park.

Comments
Reconsider the matchup Bbyong gets, because his decision making didn't look great. Getting ahead 2-0 doesn't mean you should lose the next two just to play an ace match.

B - Startale-yoe Flash Wolves

A 3-1 win over Samsung after looking like the worst team last week is a big improvement for ST-yoe. San was able to win with superior PvP to the Olimoleague champion eMotion, Curious devised an excellent strategy against Solar's ZvZ, and Leenock was able to get completely in his element with both proxy hatcheries and mutas (with a proxy spire!). The only disappointment was the continued struggle Life has had in team leagues. Although to be fair to him this week, Dear played extremely well. If the Ling King can bring his A-game, ST-yoe could keep things looking positive.

Comments
Hypnotize Life into thinking it's Blizzcon, not Proleague.

C+ - SK Telecom T1

Losing to your rival is never good. KT had looked particularly bad the previous two weeks, so SKT failing to get the victory here is very disappointing, especially when KT relied so heavily on Zest to do the heavy lifting. Performance-wise, Dark looked just as great against Flash as he has in the previous weeks, and INnoVation played a splendid mirror. soO lacked resilience to Stats' soul-esque play, though, and Billowy pulled his deltoid throwing the game against Zest. Even worse, Dark just rolled over and died to an immortal allin in the ace match. SKT are still a strong team, but they were far less than impressive against a definitively weaker KT.

Comments
Get Billowy some ice for his shoulder. Tell soO to go back to doing CatZ builds.

C - Prime

It's hard to penalize Prime too much for losing 3-2 to the team currently in first place. TerrOr finally got himself a win, no matter how fortunate it was that his roach attack wasn't scouted, and Creator did the same with an immortal bust. YoDa, however, got crushed in a TvP by herO, and MyuNgSiK in a PvT by sKyHigh's infamous marine/mine drop-centric style. Then in the ace match, MyuNgSiK's extreme gamble did not pay off, as ByuL's overlord scouted the proxy 2gate. Two let-downs from the Protoss are only compounded when a team is struggling as much as Prime, and the lack of demonstrated ability to deliver in crucial moments does not bode well for next week's match against SKT.

Comments
Give TerrOr more allins to use. Same with MyuNgSiK. And Creator too.

D - Samsung Galaxy

As Solar is looking worse and worse, so are Samsung's chances of being a playoff contender. ST-yoe are exactly the type of team Samsung need to be able to beat, but they fell short with sub-par outings from everyone except Dear. eMotion was outplayed, Solar was countered well, and Hurricane was completely lost against Leenock's zany strategy. Relying on one player alone isn't enough, and Samsung just can't seem to get that right combination. This week they looked particularly unprepared, but perhaps they were just out-prepared. In any case, that's a recipe for disaster in Proleague.

Comments
Well, at least Dear is playing well. At this point a complete lineup shuffle makes sense.

F - MVP

MVP pulled out a solid win against KT last week, but did an about-face against Jin Air. Sure, Jin Air are the best team, but none of the performances reflected what we expected: MVP should have been able to at take at least one map. MarineKing has always been known for his bio control, but he opted for mech against Maru, which failed miserably after his initial push didn't win the game. Losira played impressive ZvT against Flash, but versus Cure, once his nydus was scouted and did no damage, he crashed and burned too. HerO fell behind early against sOs and did a good job clawing back, but sOs hit a keen timing and took an even better engagement, completing the sweep.

Comments
If you haven't figured out by now, being the only team to lose 0-3 is an automatic failure. YongHwa seems to be a necessary component in achieving the right amount of evil to win.

Week Four: Do the Shuffle

by lichter

One of the most disappointing things about Best of 5 is the two fewer games that we get each evening. While each game day comes alarmingly close to 6 hour broadcasts, the fewer spots on each line up means that we don't get to see many up and comers playing in Proleague. It's been one of the best parts of team leagues throughout SC2, and teams have understandably been cautious in fielding players that have significantly less results. Fortunately, we have coaches like Stork who rotates his lineup so often that picking Samsung players for FPL has become a recipe for frustration. More new names have been popping up the past two weeks, so it's time we took a look at some of the lesser names in Proleague this week.

Trap

While it might be disingenuous to call Trap a small name, his lack of game time on a deep Jin Air roster has been perplexing. They do have one of the best Proleague protoss in sOs, but Trap has repeatedly proven his worth for both STX and IM in two previous Proleagues. The MLG Anaheim champion is no slouch, and it looks like Jin Air have finally warmed up to him. He was unable to play last week due to the smashing they gave Prime, so he's been given another shot at the expense of Rogue this week. He's once again fielded as the team's 4th player, so he should be secretly hoping for one of his team mates to lose.

aLive

Signed by StarTale in the offseason, aLive is now the third different terran that ST-Yoe will be playing. Bomber and Hack were unable to score for their team, so the struggling alliance should be hoping for aLive to nail down a spot on their line up. Unfortunately, the former IPL champion wasn't very relevant in 2014 and hasn't participated in many tournaments. He only appeared 5 times for MVP in Proleague 2014 and lost all of his games. SC2's Invisible Terran has a long way to prove he's still got what it takes to compete at the highest level, and his week 4 matchup against Trap could determine each player's fate on their respective rosters.

Dream

Another off season signee, the Prince of Chaos has been a fan favorite for most of his SC2 career. While he has been unable to turn it into results, his games are always exciting and fast paced. Getting picked up by a team with an illustrious terran heritage could be the turning point in his career, and he appears to be a like-for-like replacement for the departed FanTaSy. His victory over Solar in SSL Challenger was both surprising and notable, and he faces a much less prestigious zerg in his SKT debut. While TerrOr has finally broken his duck, this is about as favorable a debut as you can get.

Action

Definitely not an unknown player especially for those who followed Brood War, but the Mafia Zerg has so far found it difficult to appear in a 4-player line up in Proleague. He's often only called upon as KT's best zerg (which isn't saying much), but Action always proves his worth whenever he's sent out. He won both his games in the Proleague Playoffs last season against Rogue and Dark, and his record of 5-3 isn't too shabby. While many will mark him as a heavy underdog against the rejuvenated Dear, Action is still a dangerous player unaffected by form or nerves.

Shine

Shine vs Zest. This should be good.

(Shine is actually a great macro zerg vs protoss. But believing he'll cheese is just way more fun)

BrAvO

Once a part of the Woongjin Stars lineup, BravO has had a difficult life after Stars dissolved. He was picked up by SKT last season but only appeared thrice (2-1). He only made a single Code A in 2014, and loiters in the later rounds of Code B each season. That's a familiar fate for many aspiring pros, so it's surprising to see him recruited by another team in Samsung Galaxy. Maybe BravO is really good in practice? He did beat Bbyong in his debut and Stork has been generous in giving his players equal opportunity to earn their place.

Guilty

Yeah, I got nothing. According to Aligulac he's on a 10 series losing streak, and his best matchup is TvP at 44%. Stork is the only coach in Proleague that would ever field someone like Guilty, and the jury's still out (Samsung are 1-2, -1 maps) whether he's a genius or a madman.

Match of the week: CJ Entus vs MVP

In a shocking turn of events, we've decided to pick a "match of the week" that includes neither a Telecom nor Jin Air Green Wings. It's fair to say that this week doesn't exactly boast the juicy matches we love to see in SPL, although there should certainly be some close calls. This one in particular caught our eye, as CJ Entus has taken an early lead in this split over the preseason favorites (the Telecoms and Jin Air) while MVP has been maddeningly inconsistent. This is a chance for MVP to prove that their win over KT was no fluke or for CJ to cement themselves firmly in first place as they enter the more difficult portion of their schedule.

MarineKing <KTV Foxtrot Labs> Bbyong

MarineKing lost his only TvT in Proleague thus far to Maru a week ago and was beaten handily 3-0 by Fantasy in SSL. I'd favor Bbyong if his recent TvT record was any better, but you have to go back to November to find his last TvT win (against Sorry). Neither player seems to be in particularly good form so it's really up in the air. I'm going to go with Marineking here simply because of how bad Bbyong's TvT game sense was in his match against BravO back in week 1.

YongHwa <King Sejong Station> herO

YongHwa will finally get his chance to play in the starting lineup for MVP, as his other lineup appearance was for nought when his team was trounced 3-0 by SKT before he even got to plug in his mouse. However, he did beat Zest in the ace match against KT Rolster which not only shows that he has strong PvP but also that he has some semblance of Choya-trust going on. herO on the other hand, while holding a winning record of 2-1 so far, has been passed over as his team's ace twice so far this season. He also lost his only other PvP against Dear back in week 1 where he learned the hard way that solid play beats being cute 99% of the time. Even still, I favor herO here as the more experienced and proven Proleague player.

Seed <Deadwing> Hush

Moving from PvP to PvP here we have Seed facing off against Hush. Seed got mauled by Classic in week one but it seems that he still has some coach trust because he was slated to play fourth against Jin Air and gets another start this week. Hush is only appearing for the second time but in week one he showcased strong PvP ability throughout the games phases to take a convincing win over eMotion. With Hush looking strong in the PvP matchup and Seed seeming lackluster, I'll give the edge to Hush.

Losira <Merry Go Round> ByuL

Byul is either hanging his head in shame terrified to play this matchup again or is chomping at the bit to prove that last week was a fluke. The ex-IM Zerg who is normally quite a strong Proleague player now has the dubious honor of being the first player in Proleague to ever drop a map to TerrOr, Prime's Zerg punching bag. The good news for ByuL is that he came back out for the ace match and sealed the win for CJ, but it still has to sting that he lost to a guy whose previous record in Proleague was 0-8. Losira appears to be the Zerg king of MVP (unsurprising seeing as Departure is his only competition) and he even took a solid win over Flash in week two. This match is probably the hardest to predict due to the volatility of the matchup as well as the relatively even skill of the players, but I'll give the edge to ByuL, provided he plays like he did against Solar and not like he did against TerrOr (or Revival).

FPL Rundown: Week Three

by lichter

Best Player of the Week: Zest

After performing just as poorly as his fellow KT dunces for the past two weeks, Zest finally picked himself up in Week 3 by defeating KT Slayer Billowy on Deadwing and crucially beating Dark in the ace match on Foxtrot Labs. His game against Billowy showed exactly why many consider him one of the best players on the planet. Down 20-odd supply and a third base, Zest capitalized on an impatient attack from his opponent to crush what should have been a superior army. His movements were superb and his focus fire (on a reinforcing warp prism) was brilliant. But the 8 points this week is all that really matters, right?

Most Surprising Player of the Week: TerrOr

FINALLY. After an entire year of frustration and LR threads full of jokes, TerrOr has finally won a game. It wasn't a freebie either, as he had to down CJ ace ByuL in a testy ZvZ. While there's not much to say about the manner of his win—his roach bane timing went unscouted while ByuL attempted to get up to mutas—finally breaking one's duck should be a big morale boost for the seemingly fragile and shy player. Will he finally play up to his name? Probably not, but a win from a 2 pointer still isn't bad.

Worst Player of the Week: Solar

Yep, things just keep getting worse for Solar. His latest loss was largely due to his predictable ZvZ openings and Curious' foresight to take advantage of it. 10pool bane is a fairly specific opening to punish hatch-first, and Curious closed things out with mutas and swarm hosts. Nothing seems to be going right for the Dreamhack Stockholm and MSI Beat IT Champion, and it's hard to imagine him making anything of the round at this point. While his opponents have been playing well, much was expected of Solar after his success in the tail end of 2014.

Worst Team of the Week: MVP

While MVP did beat KT Rolster last week, their other two series have been embarrassing sweeps. With a map score of -5, they're actually worse off than Prime who haven't even won a game. For some reason, Choya's genius in reviving his players' individual careers just hasn't translated into their Proleague preparations. His band of mercenaries haven't been blown out of games, but in the end only the score matters. Their digging themselves a deep hole, and their hopes of reaching the playoffs (which seemed like a possibility after all those successful qualifiers) now seems like a world away.

Budget Guy of the Week: Armani/Shine

With his solitary win, TerrOr is actually now worth his cost. You don't really expect a 2 to get you anything other than team points, but hoping for Prime to win is probably just as silly as hoping for TerrOr to win. Considering he's being fielded almost every week (and his understudies TANGTANG, Nette, etc don't look like decent players right now), he may end up becoming one of the gambles of the round. Just one more win and he becomes one of the best scoring players for their cost. He's currently doing three times better than Flash and Solar combined. Just think about that for a second.

The Battlecruiser Boat is Sinking: Flash

Flash is now on a 10 game losing streak. TEN. GAMES. 8 of them have come against zerg, while 2 defeats were against sKyHigh at Hot6ix Cup. That's an embarrassing record for someone who's supposed to be the greatest RTS player of all time, and it appears that he just can't figure out TvZ. Whether its his choice of hellbats over mines, his passive and lackadaisical mech, or his 2raxes, none of his ideas seem to be working right now. As the winningest player in Proleague, The Ultimate Weapon could still turn things around in future rounds. But for Round 1, it looks like he's already a bust.

Worst Trade of the Week: Anyone for Flash

As his value gets lower and lower (he's now valued lower than Leenock), the temptation to trade for him grows. He's going to snap out of it eventually, right? Only 32 people have so far tried to take a gamble on Flash's nosediving worth, but so far it's paid off for no one. Next week could finally be the week he breaks out of his slump, but with each successive loss his appeal dwindles.

Best Trade of the Week: Life for Cure

At 7 points, many proclaimed Life as the most affordable and underrated player in Round 1. After 3 weeks, it doesn't look like it. With a score of 1-2, he's done worse than Leenock and San, who've both proven to be shrewd pickups. The Yoe pair have combined for 18 points while Life has struggled for form, and he's not even ST-Yoe's de facto Ace as many had hoped. Fortunately for Life, would-be aces MarineKing, Flash and Solar are all high valued players that have struggled in Round 1 so his point tally actually looks decent.

Might be Good Value: Dream

Called a dark horse before Round 1, many FPLers believed that Dream's addition to SKT T1 was a coup for the Telecom giants. His brand of chaotic, all-out-attack terran showed shades of his SKT T1 predecessor FanTaSy and team league hero GuMiho. Unfortunately, he was stuck behind a deep team of champions and aces. Finally, he's being given a chance in lieu of Classic, and his match against TerrOr looks enticing. If he can hold down a place for another round or two, this could be the perfect time to pick him up.

Most Interesting Trade Bait: Shine

Here we go again. Samsung continues its roster rotation and Shine once again gets a game. While many observers may believe that his match against Zest is a death sentence, Shine has proven time and again that he's actually a really good ZvP player. Zest has yet to really recapture the air of impenetrability that he had in 2014, so there could be a few gamblers out there looking at this with interest.

An Axiom Update

As many of you know, Axiom have their own group in FPL. They are the only pro team that I'm aware of that currently has an FPL group, so it's an interesting look into the team. Right now, MMA leads the pack with 33 points. His picks for TaeJa and Dream haven't panned out so far, though Dark Cure and Rogue have placed him in the Top 500. Three members of the team, TB, olimoley and Heart all bottom out at 21 pts. Their teams just haven't worked out. Heart even picked Has for his team. Unlike last season however, no one's even close to negative. Good job, I guess?