In the Spotlight

Flash escaped his depressing and highly uncharacteristic streak of losses by beating BboongBboong in Week 5, leaving only Solar winless among last season's top echelon of players, and with an absurd 0-5 record at that. Mirroring Solar's woes, Samsung continued their struggle and now share last place with Prime. Prime also happens to be the only team to have beaten current leaders SKT this season.

With two weeks to go in the first round, we're down to six teams in contention for the Round 1 Playoffs. Every victory counts, and it will be in the best interests of the teams to think twice before making any off-the-wall decisions, lest they suffer from the same disappointments that have been regular fixtures of the season so far.

Progress Report: Week Five

by banjoetheredskin

A+ - SK Telecom T1

Although in match score SKT are tied with CJ for first, the former sit atop the rankings because of a considerably better map advantage at +9. Such a statistic only comes through wins like they earned this week, with a scary 3-0 sweep of ST-yoe. Dream, Dark, and Classic all outplayed their formidable opponents in macro games, demonstrating their remarkable depth as well as their ability to win even without INnoVation.

Comments
It's to the point now where there isn't much to say besides "keep up the good work." Next week will be a bit of a break against one of the weakest teams in Samsung.

A - Jin Air Green Wings

Similar to SKT in their win, Jin Air looked to be the outright superior team against CJ. Save a forgivable loss by sOs to ByuL, each game exhibited the Jin Air players' superior understanding of the matchup and strong sense of their opponents' tendencies. Particularly impressive were Maru and Cure in TvT. Bbyong and sKyHigh have both shown excellence in mirror recently, but the Jin Air terrans played on another level. Rogue also deserves a nod for reading herO's strategy exceptionally well and responding perfectly.

Comments
The core four is definitely solidified now with Maru, Cure, sOs, and Rogue. With the way everyone has been playing, the best thing to do would be giving some of the lesser players a chance against Prime and Samsung in the upcoming weeks.

B+ - Prime(!)

That's right. Prime won a match. Creator carried the team with two laudable macro PvP wins over Zest, while MyuNgSiK added a weird win against KT's backfiring bench pick Sleep. BBoongBBoong finally broke Flash's losing streak, much to lichter's and stuchiu's dismay, and YoDa's TvP woes continued. However, those should not mar what was overall a very impressive win for the 4-time defending Worst Team of the Week. Even though this improvement really only brings them up to where they were last year, with Creator hovering around 50% and winning the occasional ace match, it is massive for the team's collective morale.

Comments



B - MVP

MVP are getting away with a very mediocre 3-2 win this week. YongHwa maintained his perfect record with a well-executed attack against Solar (but perhaps beating Solar should no longer be considered an accomplishment in team leagues). LosirA fought tooth and nail for the ZvZ win over Armani in a very exciting game. But then MarineKing's incompetency in TvT shone through yet again, and Center caught the shaft of a a game where both he and Dear played rather rashly. However, MarineKing redeemed with a remarkable hold and subsequent victory versus Dear in the ace.

Comments
MarineKing really needs to stop playing TvT. YongHwa has been looking good, so keep sending him out. Same with LosirA.

C - CJ Entus

CJ finally received their first loss of the round. The games were certainly not indicative of a decline in overall performance, nor were they uncharacteristically bad. However, it is fair to say that herO, sKyHigh, and Bbyong disappointed. Rogue read herO like a book and shut down his blink tactics. sKyHigh and Bbyong were both bested in TvT, despite having put up strong results to indicate the matches would have been more in their favor, or at the very least even. Regardless, the results chalk up to a loss and bump CJ down to a still respectable second place.

Comments
herO needs some serious comforting. sKyHigh and Bbyong both played well despite losing, and deserve to continue to start in the core four. ByuL is as solid as ever, and right now might even be the top ace candidate if necessary.

D+ - Samsung Galaxy

Samsung have managed to work their way down to seventh place with a crushing loss to MVP. Solar proved that he is far and away the worst player in Proleague right now. Unfortunately for Samsung, his slump seems to be entirely independent of his performance in individual leagues, so his advancement in GSL could mean nothing for the weeks to come. The Designer Zerg Armani played a very exciting ZvZ against LosirA, always finding a way to squander any opportunity he might have had to solidify an advantage. Journey played MarineKing in TvT, so that was a foregone conclusion. Dear's proxy ultimately was superior to Center's proxy, but his clutch ran out in the ace match against MarineKing. A botched attack spiraled into a deficit into another bad attack and a loss.

Comments
Oh Dear. I continue to wonder if Samsung are a good team playing poorly or a bad team playing well enough to look almost good. Sitting Solar vs SKT is a good decision, but he better not show up in the ace if it comes to that.

D - Startale-yoe Flash Wolves

Normally a 0-3 loss is an automatic failure, that's right. But there are two reasons this shall be an exception. First, the defeat was at the hands of the best team right now, SKT. Second, no game was a complete rout. Leenock and San definitely looked inferior in the games, but by no means played horribly. Life did not play poorly at all, rather Classic played phenomenally well. Nonetheless, ST-yoe's three strongest players could not pull out a single win, which does not bode well for a potential playoff match.

Comments
It's never a good thing to see your three best players lose, even if it is against the best team. Fortunately the next two matches are a little bit easier, and a playoff spot is within reach.

F - KT Rolster

KT lost to Prime. KT lost to Prime. KT lost to Prime. Zest could no longer carry the team with two wins like he has been doing, and even though Flash finally won a game, Sleep showed that KT's bench players are actually not better than Prime's A-teamer. What's worse, though, is that Zest did virtually the exact same build against Creator twice, even after losing with it the first time. Stats was the only player who actually looked pretty good, and he got to play YoDa's weakest matchup.

Comments
Bad Zest! Addendum to Professor Banjoe's Grading Policy: any team who loses to the consistently worst team earns an automatic F for the week.

Week Six Notes

by Darkhorse

As with most weeks, Week Six is providing us with glimpses of some lesser known players who will be making their first lineup appearances. Last week saw a number of these roster experiments fail, as BBoongBBoong, Sleep, and sKyHigh all failed to make an impact. However, bench players need only look towards Samsung for inspiration, as they have pulled off back to back rookie upsets as Guilty beat TY in week four and Journey made his start count with a win over MarineKing this past week. Which rookies will shine and which ones will lose embarrassingly, prompting them to be banished from the starting roster from now until the end of time? Let's take a look.

The Samsung Shuffle

In our ongoing segment, The Samsung Shuffle, Stork has decided that swapping three out of four starting players from last week is a good idea. Journey and Armani showed promise last week, but it's a hard out here for a pimplayer trying to keep a starting spot on Samsung. Hurricane, Shine, and BrAvO will be taking to the booth this week against SKT. BrAvO has been excellent in his two wins this round, while Hurricane and Shine have wins over Prime players and losses against Leenock and Zest, respectively. Samsung is facing a bit of an identity crisis, as they are not only in 7th place but they have also played eight total players (tied with MVP for most in Proleague). Stork seems to be using this round to find his core roster, and we'll see if Hurricane, Shine, or BrAvO can earn a spot on that core roster this week.

Sorry

The choice to play Sorry in Week Six may be surprising for some, but not for me. SKT is now in first place, and only has this match against Samsung and a Week Seven showdown against second place CJ to wrap up the round. It makes sense for them to give their bench players a chance in the booth now, and Sorry should be safe sandwiched between Dark, Classic, and Innovation. Unfortunately for Sorry, he's getting thrown to the wolves a bit with a match against BrAvO, who has already stomped both Flash and Bbyong in TvT this round. Tough luck.

MVP Madness

YongHwa is now 3-0 in Proleague which includes an ace match win over Zest. Better not play that guy! To be fair, YongHwa's Code S group is coming up this week, so maybe MVP is just trying to give him a bit more time to practice for that, but it still hurts their starting lineup considerably. Here's a disturbing statistic for you MVP fans: outside of Losira, YongHwa, and MarineKing, MVP has not won a single game. This week they are going to try HerO and DeParture who both currently sit at 0-1. YongHwa and Losira have been the surprise players that have really carried MVP this far, but man do they need some help from the bench.

Pet

Pet is the fourth member of the Zerg quartet that Startale-Yoe is fielding this week. It's not all that surprising that Startale is trying something new. Their Terran trifecta is 0-3 and San has been beaten badly two weeks in a row to bring his win rate to 50%. That being said, Pet hasn't exactly been impressing anyone recently. He won only a single match in the GSL and NSSL qualifiers combined and hasn't played in much else. This just goes to show that although Startale has a large roster, they don't have a ton of talented depth to draw from. Perhaps Pet can prove me wrong, but I see a swift switch back to San to back up Life, Leenock, and Curious next week.

Zoun

Prime is looking a little desperate, which is news that probably surprises no one. They formed a decent core this offseason with Creator, MyuNgSiK, and YoDa, but their search for a fourth in their roster of rookies, unknowns, and castoffs has thus far been fruitless. This week they are trying Zoun, who's career seems to be made up of Leifeng Cups and occasionally taking games off of decent Zerg players. Now there's nothing that says he won't come out and surprise everyone and wi... nope, couldn't do it. He's facing Maru in the opening match against Jin Air. This will most likely be about maintaining some dignity in defeat for the young Prime Protoss. Good luck out there.

Preview: KT Rolster vs CJ Entus

With two weeks remaining in Round 1 of the 2015 Season, last year's champions KT Rolster are sitting in fifth place, and therefore would not make the round playoffs if the round ended today. After losses to Jin Air and MVP to start the season 0-2, they seemed to finally get their heads on straight and won two in a row against SKT and Samsung. Then disaster struck last week in the form of Creator and KT became this season's first team to lose to Prime. Now losing to Prime isn't that big of a deal. Someone has to do it every year! Unfortunately, this loss couldn't have come at a worse time, as KT is fighting to get themselves a playoff spot and their final two weeks will be fairly difficult. As disappointing KT has been, their opponents CJ have been a pleasant surprise this season, as they currently sit in second place at 4-1. Although they did lose to Jin Air handily last week, they still have a good chance to reach the playoffs barring a monumental collapse. They do have a tough end to their round with KT this week and SKT next, but CJ has a line up that can go toe to toe with anyone. This match is a must win for KT if they hope to reach the playoffs, and CJ will try to spoil them and secure a high seed for themselves as the round winds down.



CJ seems to have settled on sKyHigh and Hush to rotate as their fourth player to complement Byul, herO, and Bbyong. sKyHigh has been decent so far and is 1-1 on the year, and he appears to have Coach Park's trust considering he is being fielded against some of their toughest competition. I feel like I mention the Hot6ix Cup every time I talk about sKyHigh, but that was certainly his most impressive individual performance by far, and really showed that he has another level of play that we hadn't seen from him before. Unfortunately, he hasn't been able to live up to that performance since then and he is facing a tough challenge against Zest. Speaking of Zest, he is currently leading Proleague in wins. On the down side, he is also near the top of the loss column. Zest has been terribly inconsistent this season, and last week was the worst of it. He lost to Creator and then lost to him again in the ace match to give Prime the win. I would expect Zest to bounce back this week, however, and take the win over sKyHigh here.



It finally happened last week. Flash finally took his first win of the round. Of course it was against the washed up BBoongBBoong, but Flash fans can at least see a win rate next to his name that isn't 0% anymore. Although Flash's struggles have been more highly publicized, herO has certainly been in a serious slump as well. He is currently 2-3, which is a little bit of a shock for someone who finished second in wins last year. In 2014, this match would be considered the match of the week without a doubt. This year, however, the struggles of both players have brought down the hype for this matchup considerably. I would give herO the edge here just considering how bad Flash has looked recently, but either way the desperation in this match should be palpable.



KT seems to have had enough of playing their Zerg bench players, and TY is back this week after sitting out week five. TY has actually struggled almost as much as Flash this season, and is currently at a 1-3 record for the round. ByuL, on the other hand, has picked up where his eighteen win 2014 season left off and is currently 4-2, with his only losses coming in the notoriously volatile Zerg mirror match. This match looks to be clearly in favor of ByuL, but TY's one win this season did come int he TvZ matchup. I predict that ByuL will take the win, but I wouldn't be surprised with any result.



Bbyong has had a bit of a weird round. At 4-3 he has certainly been a successful player and an important part of CJ's success, but he has also had moments where he has looked clueless, most notably in his week one match against BrAvO. Stats, on the other hand, hasn't had too many opportunities to play, but has played fairly well when he could. He did lose a PvT to MarineKing, but he also took a crucial win over YoDa in the fourth match last week. Had he not won that game, KT would have lost 3-1 to Prime, an even more embarrassing occurrence than what ended up happening, a 3-2 loss following the ace match. I don't see a scenario where this match is not played (in other words, neither team will 3-0) so this match will be of the utmost importance. Bbyong has the advantage on paper, but I'd argue that Stats has just as much of a chance to win. He's playing well at the moment and he even won his NSSL group over player like Life, herO, and Classic. Bbyong is a Terran that can mix it up with early game tricks like hellion or widow mine drops, but if the game goes long, I'd give Stats the edge.

FPL Rundown: Week Five

by lichter

Best Player of the Week: Creator

What in the what? Yes. Creator continues his Proleague reputation of sometimes really good, sometimes really bad player. This week, he scored a double win over Zest to help Prime claim their first win of the season. That alone was reason enough to celebrate, but many a Prime fan will try their best to interpret this as a good run of form for Creator that will carry on for the rest of the season and into individual leagues. Based on his career, that seems unlikely. But at least he was the hero of Week 5.

Most Surprising Player of the Week: MarineKing

MarineKing won an ace match.

Most Unsurprising Player of the Week: MarineKing

MarineKing lost a TvT.

Worst Player of the Week: Solar

It just never ends. Another week, another loss. Solar seems to be interminably trapped in the Bad At Team Leagues Good At Individual Leagues zone, and his 2nd place finish in his strong Code S group will do little to raise his stock or improve his outlook in Proleague. In Week 5 he lost to a scouted blink + sentry at the ramp tactic that decimated his main, something you'd never expect someone of Solar's caliber to get fooled by. But we've been saying that for weeks, and it keeps happening. My prediction? 0-14 in Proleague, Code S Season 1 champion.

Worst Team of the Week: ST-Yoe

When StarTale win, they win by a hair. When they lose, they get dumped. With two 0-3s on their record, Coach Bomber must be alarmed with the inconsistency that his lineup has so far shown. The team has fielded a relatively stable foursome of Life, Leenock, San and Curious, while only experimenting with Hack and aLive. A victory over either Leenock or Life is often enough to beat ST-yoe, and until they find a stronger backbone than San and Curious, the team is unlikely to earn many playoff appearances.

Budget Guy of the Week: Journey

As predicted, Journey beat the guy who can't seem to win a TvT to save his life. It was his first ever win in Proleague after losing his debut to YoDa, and Samsung's shuffle continues to be somewhat successful. Sure, Dear lost the ace match to MarineKing, but Samsung are getting wins from their bench players. Come round 3 or 4, players like Journey could make a difference. At 1-4 right now, Samsung fans are hoping it happens sooner.

Why are you so bad at ace matches: Zest

In 5 weeks, KT have played 4 ace matches, winning 2 and losing 2. Zest has been fielded as their ace each time, and splitting those matches just isn't acceptable. You'd expect someone of Zest's caliber (despite his inability to win qualifiers) to have the advantage against just about anyone, and he's going to get some of the blame if KT fail to make the round playoffs. If he had won against Creator and YongHwa, KT would be in 2nd place with an identical record to CJ and SKT. Instead, they languish in 5th.

Finally out of his slump, maybe: Flash

Yup. It finally happened. Flash finally won a game. Yes, BboongBboong essentially handed it to him by deciding that he didn't want to build units to defend the marine drop + hellion run-by and donated 21 drones despite Flash's poor control. But it still breaks Flash's mindbending 11 match losing streak, and that has to give him a boost in confidence, especially since it was a TvZ. I don't know whether this will actually be a turning point or an anomaly,but I'm still not ready to bet on him yet.

Worst Trade of the Week: sOs for YongHwa

Last season, sOs tied for the most wins in Proleague. So far this season, things haven't worked out quite as well. With three losses, one of which was an ace match, his poor record is one of the reasons Jin Air is only in third place. The rapid improvement of Cure and Rogue have so far masked sOs' failures, but the Green Wings will need their protoss ace to get back to where he was last season if they plan on making it further than the semi finals this season. Fortunately, his play hasn't been outright bad, as some of his losses were due to his overly cute and clever play. YongHwa, on the other hand, somehow has 14 points and an ace match win. Wow.

Best Trade of the Week: A 2pter for Journey

With the risk of only the 1 pt trade tax (since 2pters on other teams don't play), taking a punt on Journey made sense to many FPLers. And he repaid them as Journey defeated Marineking to continue making things interesting. I can just imagine Coach Stork in his office, refreshing FPL and wondering who to send out next. He's the only one left that has yet to make an appearance this year, so don't be surprised if he picks himself as ace the next time they get that far.

Might be Good Value: BrAvO or Sorry

If you listened to me last week and traded a junk player for Journey, now's your chance to swap him for another random terran playing in week 6. With Journey out of the lineup, taking a punt on Sorry makes sense. Even if he loses, you break even if SKT T1 win against Samsung. His odds of victory may be slim however since he faces TvT sniper BravO, who could be another interesting player to pick up. He's won against Flash and Bbyong on Catallena with similar builds, and there's a good chance he does the same thing against Sorry. Whether you think the SKT brain trust can figure out a way to stop him on Catallena should dictate whether you pick up Sorry or BravO.

Most Interesting Trade Bait: Shine

If you saw SSL last week, you'll know that Classic lost to a speedling all in on Foxtrot Labs and a 6pool on Overgrowth. Shine should be licking his lips in anticipation of this match, and Classic should feel nervous and scout early if he wants to take something from this. Shine has a reputation as a cheeser (even though that reputation is now unfounded), and he can use it to his advantage by playing greedy. His macro game is pretty good in ZvP, and he remains a dangerous opponent for anyone. However, that SSL embarrassment could have been a blip; Classic did spank Life in Proleague in Week 5. Like the preview article said, this one's a toss up.