Out of Town

Few tournaments in a season are considered important enough to warrant players taking time off from their KeSPA-regulated Proleague schedules. The IEM World Championship in Katowice that played out this weekend was one such tournament. 11 (12 if you choose to count Taeja, which you shouldn't) top players who would otherwise have been set to play in Proleague were taken out of the equation by the final tournament of IEM Season IX, and their teams will have to adjust accordingly. Some were hit harder than others, which makes Week 3 the ideal week for the weaker teams to upset higher ranking teams. Both Prime and Startale-yoe are 0-2, and another loss could potentially put them in the gutter.

Here is Round 2, Week 2 in a few simple bullet points:

CJ Entus shut out SK Telecom in a brutal 3-0 beatdown where neither Dark, INnoVation nor soO seemed to have anything to say about the matter. Perhaps most remarkable is the fact that sKyHigh was not only fielded, but won a game. The Sky also rises and whatnot.
Life rebounded from his loss to Bbyong in Week 1 and beat BBoongBBoong convincingly to aid KT's 3-0 victory against Prime. Flash and Stats won their respective maps against Creator and YoDa. This puts Flash on his longest win streak of the season! Is that joke getting old yet?
Week 2 was the second week of the season where we did not see at least 2 ace matches. No week has gone without an ace match as of yet.
Hack surprised casters and fans alike by taking out Trap in a very well-executed TvP on King Sejong Station where the Protoss simply could not break free from the Terran's control of the game. Startale-yoe also fielded him in the ace match, but a number of unfortunate choices ensured that he lost the game )and therefore the match) against Maru.
Solar lost his game to MVP's ace Losira. This brings his win rate down to 50% which, interestingly, is still 50 percentages higher than his final win rate last round.

In this week's article, Destructicon presents his somewhat unique [E/N: Destructicon's article is a work of fiction. If you interpret it as otherwise it is recommended that you see a medical professional immediately] on the situation that prompted Life's move from Startale to KT Rolster, while banjoetheredskin takes a look at Week 3 in all its benchwarming glory. There will also be a standalone Proleague article coming later this week.

Enjoy the games!

Monday, Mar 16 9:30am GMT (GMT+00:00)

The Families

by destructicon

The KeSPA families

It was a beautiful day, and the sun shone brightly above the KT manor. People were drinking, enjoying themselves and dancing to the tune of PSY's soothing voice. As per usual the major families were in attendance. SKT, Jin Air, CJ, and Samsung representatives dotted the garden, simultaneously rankled and relieved to be there. More guests arrived bearing gifts and harboring unspoken favors, for no Don could refuse a request on his daughter's birthday, or so the saying goes. The guests quickly settled into light banter.

sOs: "I almost feel sorry for the IM guys, they had some good moves."
INnoVation: "Serves them right for thinking they could muscle their way into our city."
Bbyong: "Yeah we did them in good, but whatever happened to the other guys?"
Stork: "What other guys? Oh you mean PRIME?"
Bbyong: "Yeah, those guys."
TY: "We have them running the NY firefighters as a front while listening in to communications."
Zest: "Could have been worse, we could have had them clean our dishes." [Zest throws a dart at the picture of Parting hanging on the wall]

ParalyzE approached the Don and spoke, without the slightest regard for courtesy.
Paralyze: "Today I have come to ask justice for our family, and for me. PartinG has recently left our family and thrown in his lot with a new band of crooks. But before he left, he made fun of my hair! As you well know I had good reasons to dispose of the 'fro!"
Flash: "You come to me, on the day my daughter is to be married, and you ask for murder. What have I ever done to you to warrant such disrespect, ParalyzE? You don't even call me God."
Paralyze: "But..."

Flash: "What are you without your afro, anyway?"
Flash turned to Action and asked: "So, what of these rumors of new gangs?"
Action responded without missing a beat: "The first lot are calling themselves 'the Choyas'. They're a ragtag bunch of street-hardened folk gathered from the slums. Their leader is some sort of nut job, not much is known about him, but there are rumors that he practices devil worship, old Inca rituals, creepy stuff."
Flash: "Well, if any of you start fearing for your lives you can always pray to me."

The laughter ceased and Flash urged Action to continue.
Action: "From what we can tell, the other gang seems to be IM's former hired muscle, StarTale. They have now amassed enough street cred to ally with and bring in some specialists from out of town. Real strange folk, these yoe Flash Wolves, they have some very... eccentric ways of getting things done. I heard one of them caught your former rival JaeDon and killed him by locking him in a room full of moldy cheese."

Flash scoffed. "And what of Parting?"
Action: "He, too, has joined forces with StarTale."

Flash paused, considering for a moment before speaking again: "These are mere vagabonds! Young, brash, disorganized. But Parting, he knows the inner workings our organization. He must be disposed of. SKT1, he was part of your family, you fix this, make him an offer he can't refuse. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to dance with my daughter."

With the eyes of all the great Dons upon him, Flash approached the dance floor and started dancing with hitman.

The Rascal

It was a busy night at the Aiur Chef. The place was jam packed with patrons, the barman was busy pouring drinks, the barmaids frantically zipped between the tables, delivering drinks and engaging in what little polite chitchat they had time for. In the VIP lounge several gentlemen were enjoying their privacy, dancing to the exquisite sounds of Girls Generation while enjoying some fine Soju. In the center of attention was PartinG. Dancing up a full storm, his mad micro and sick APM were on full display. PartinG would only stop every so often to drink before charging back to the dance floor or to another lovely lady, screaming "I WANT SEX".

After a couple of hours PartinG was ready to depart. He had a big smile on his face. Something felt wrong, though, however much he tried to tell himself otherwise. He stroked his lucky cheese pendant before departing.

As he drove through town, PartinG noticed he was being tailed. He had already used all his tricks he knew to shake his pursuer, yet his tail was persistent. Experienced, no doubt.
The car tailing him opened fire, bullets punching into the back window and spraying glass into the car. A mad chase ensued with PartinG juking and jiving, desperately trying to stay alive as he got deeper into the bad part of town. He was just about to round a corner when a good shot hit one of his rear tyres and sent him into a deadly roll.

Despite the magnitude of the crash, PartinG was still alive, getting out of the car and stumbling to his feet. He looked to his assailant and said: "So, you decided you didn't want to be second in line to..."

soO: "If it weren't for those chubby fingers of yours you could have reacted."
PartinG: "Now wait just a second, lets talk..."

soO: "No talk, this it for you, chobo."
PartinG: "Well, I guess you can't come second in everything."

With a murderous rage in his eyes, soO aimed while PartinG shut his eyes. He knew he was out, that there was no way to get away from his assailant. Then, louder than even the sound of gunfire, a thunderous sound reverberated through the alley. This time it was soO that staggered. He stumbled a bit, grabbed for his shoulder and made a pulling gesture. There came a meaty, disgusting noise. A bullet dropped to the ground from his wound. Upon seeing it panic filled soO's gaze.
soO: "Silver? No!"

PartinG's mind drifted in total darkness, for what he felt was eternity. Then he saw a bright light in the distance, and it kept getting closer and closer. He wondered if he was dead, or dying. The question was shortly answered by a sharp pain that raced from his shoulder.
Torn away from the sense of warmth and comfort, PartinG opened his eyes. A mysterious man stood above him, shining a flashlight into his eyes. He then kneeled over PartinG and opened his suit, revealing PartinG's good luck charm, a bullet lodged deeply in it.
The man in the suit made a sound, a strange combination of grunt and laugh.

Mystery man: "Heh, swiss cheese. You're one lucky guy."
PartinG: "I don't feel lucky right now."
Mystery man: "Maybe this will help. "
The man offered Parting a flask of soju, which Parting accepted with gratitude.
As PartinG drank, his vision cleared, he looked at his mysterious benefactor and raised his eyebrows in surprise saying: "It's you! Am I dead after all? You're nothing more than a myth, a ghost. You can't possibly be here."
Mystery man: "The soju must have felt real enough."
PartinG: "Yeah, how about some more?"
The mystery man handed PartinG the flask again, who took a healthy gulp before turning back to his benefactor.
PartinG: "So why are you helping me?"
Mystery man: "KeSPA have humiliated my family, I'm here for some payback. For obvious reasons I can't make my presence known. And from now on, neither can you. We will work together."
Recognizing that the man had saved his life PartinG replied: "So what now?"
The mystery man smiled and said: "You will see."

Problems in paradise
Action was making the rounds in the KT manor when the phone rang. Action picked up, a agitated voice immediately blurting from the other end. Action raised his eyebrows and shouted: "They did WHAT!?"

All hell broke loose. Within the hour all the representatives of the KeSPA families had arrived as well as the Don, who had to be carried inside on a stretcher.

Action: "Now that we are all here, can someone explain to me wtf just happened?"
Zest, TY and TerrOr started shouting incoherently.
Confused, Zest and TY tilted their heads to look at the Prime player standing between them.
Zest: "What the hell are you even doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in kindergarten?"
TerrOr looked shyly at Zest, too nervous too reply. He bobbed his head and shuffled out of the room.

Action turned to Stats, who seemed calm and collected.
Stats: "They hit us hard and fast, divided us and then pinned us down. I managed to fight off their leader, Life, but by the time I could make my way to the boss' car, it was too late. I only caught a glimpse of their demolitions' expert fleeing."
Action turned to Zest and TY and asked: "And where were you?"
Zest: "Well, um, I was fighting form my life, their enforcer was very skilled."
Action: "Who?"
Zest: "Leenock..."
Action: "Are you fucking kidding me? You once took on the entire SKT1 family alone, with one hand tied behind your back and you sent them all reeling in shame! You mean to tell me one chubby dude was too much for you?!"
Zest: "Well, I, uh..."
Action: "Useless! What about you, baby face TY?"
TY: "There was nothing I could do, Curious pulled a fast one on me."
Action: "The reader of the 16th precinct pulled a fast one on you? He hasn't been relevant for years! Could this day possible get any worse?"

And as it so happened, it could.
Action turned back to the others and said.

Action: "This is unacceptable, we've been ruling NYC for well over a decade now, we can't allow these no name punks to just waltz in here and take it from us. We need to put them back in line."
INnoVation: "With due respect, why should we follow you?"
Action: "Shut up, or do we need to put you back in your place?"
sOs: "How could you, you guys got your ass kicked by PRIME!"

Action: "So did you, bitch!"
The Green Wings immediately went quiet while every other family continued to laugh heartily
Action: "You'll continue to follow us, out of respect for the Don."
Solar: "Flash sucks. He is 1-6 in Proleague."
TY looked puzzled. He asked if Solar realized what his own record was.
At the mention, Solar turned away and wept.
ByuL: "It's true though, even TerrOr had a better PL record in Round 1 than Flash did."
Zest: "Well at least he didn't hand a free win to TerrOr, like you did."
herO: "At least he didn't lose to Creator twice on the same day!"
sOs: "Have you checked your natural lately?"
soO: "Have you?"
Zest: "Just a second, I need to count my golds first."

After more back and forth arguing where nothing could be agreed upon the members of SKT1, CJ, Jin Air and Samsung all left, agreeing to resume negotiations at a later time.

Action turned to the rest of his family and spoke: "This is unacceptable, not only are we losing the city, now we also lost our standing among the families. All our hard earned work from last year now lies in ruin. We need a show of force to get everyone back in line."
Zest: "The three of us [Zest, TY, Stats] will leave immediately. We'll... reestablish order."
Action: "No, you suck, you lost to PRIME, let the Choyas humiliate you and failed to protect the boss. No, I'm going to handle this myself, you lot look after the boss." There were no objections, although Action knew the three had their doubts.
He rushed to his car, leaving the other members of KT to lick their wounds. He stormed out of the gates and straight for the city, followed by several KT musclemen.

The confrontation
StarTale were besides themselves with delight, they had pulled off the daring ambush on KT. Suddenly, the raid on Jin Air's very headquarters no longer seemed so impossible. StarTale continued to joke and laugh as their SUV pulled into a tunnel, enjoying the music and the succulent smell of success coming from Life's abandoned trophies in the glovebox.
aLive: "Guys, why is the tunnel blocked?"
A few cars had been parked near the end of the tunnel, scattered in a mishmash formation obviously meant to block all traffic.

aLive's eyes were keen, and he was the only one to see the Mafia Zerg make his way from the shadows, before the KT member opened fire on the car.

A huge firefight ensued, absolute pandemonium engulfing the tunnel. None of the StarTale members could see one another through the smoke, nor could they reliably discern Action's position. They fired back with small handguns and water balloons while doing their best to stay out of range from Action's Tommy gun.

Eventually the Mafia Zerg's fire ceased as ammunition ran out. As the smoke cleared StarTale were still left standing, equally out of ammo. Action grabbed his reserve ammo from inside a compartment tacked onto his shoe and reloaded, preparing to finish off StarTale. Through the clearing smoke, StarTale could see a man appearing behind Action. They saw Action's look of smugness change to horror before a chop to his neck rendered him unconscious.

As the assailant dropped to the ground across the tunnel, Bomber asked: "Is everyone ok?"
All the members of StarTale slowly rose and gathered around their leader.
Bomber: "Let's see here... San, Has, Hack, Vanilla, Curious, Life, Leenock, Pet, Ian, Ssemi, Slam... Yep, that's everybody!"

The GSL champion's gaze darted to the man just now walking across the battlefield, dragging Action's unconscious body along.

Life: "ByuN Wayne, is it? Shouldn't you be in KeSPA jail?"
ByuN: "That's what they'd like you to believe!"
Bomber eyed ByuN suspiciously before speaking: "There is a lot of bad blood between our two teams, why are you helping us now?"
ByuN: "As much as I'd like to see you guys get what you deserve, KeSPA is the bigger problem, and whether you like it or not we're all in this together."
Leenock: "So you have a plan?"
ByuN nodded and drew everyone close as he meticulously laid out his plan to StarTale. Doubt painted their faces, but as ByuN continued to outline his plan their faces all lit up with joy. In the end, they all agreed.
Bomber pointed at the incapacitated Action with a look of distaste: "What about him?"
ByuN grinned: "Oh don't worry, I have something special in store for him."

The Meeting
Later that evening, Flash finally woke up. All the members of KT, bar one, were besides him.

Stats turned to Zest and says: "6 losses. Six. Damn. Losses. Six losses and they still couldn't take him down."
Flash tried to speak but couldn't, he gestured to Zest to lean in close and whispered into his ear: "Po... swuh..."
Zest: "What?"
Flash: "Pocari Sweat, you moron. Losing makes me thirsty."
Zest passed the Don's favorite drink to him. After a couple of healthy gulps Flash finally cleared his throat and spoke: "What happened?"

The members of KT gave their leader the rundown.
Flash: "So you haven't heard anything from Action for hours, and yet none of you thought to send someone to check on him?"
Action: "That won't be necessary."
All eyes turned towards the door where Action stood, wearing a dinosaur costume.
Flash: "Why are you dressed like that?"

Action: "I've been sent like this as a peace offering. Life spared me in hopes that you'd grant him an audience. He is waiting at the door."
Flash paused for a moment to think, a grim expression his features, then said: "Let him in."
Action: "Yes sir."
Flash: "Oh and Action, please get changed, I have a couple of broken ribs, and I don't want to crack the rest."

Action promptly exited, letting Life in.
Flash: "The only reason I won't have you shot on the spot is that you spared one of my men's life. You've earned a few seconds of my time. So whatever it is that you want, make it quick and make it good."
The youngster smiled. The smile of someone convinced of his own prowess, complete confidence in the face of seemingly unbeatable odds. Flash recognized the smile, because it was the very same one he used to wear.
Life: "All that we've done was just business, nothing personal. But I have caught wind of your little falling out with the other families, and that... that sounds personal."
Flash: "So what are you getting at?"
Life smiled as he said: "I'm going to make you an offer you can't refuse!"

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Week Three Preview

by banjoetheredskin

The Benchwarmers

Coaches in many sports will send out their bench players if the team is in a comfortable position to win (or lose, as Samsung have shown with their weekly shuffle) the competition. I used to get three or four minutes a game on the high school basketball team because we were always down at least twenty points by the very end. In StarCraft, such a scenario arises usually against Prime. But this week, nearly every team has decided to send out at least one player who normally keeps the seat nice and heated for a starter. No, they're not all playing Prime. It's actually because they are missing parts of their core roster due to IEM Katowice, and as they make their way back to Korea, it's time for the B-teamers to get a little shine. Some we still see as semi-regular substitutes. Others, we haven't seen in months.

Jin Air Green Wings
Missing Cure, Trap, and Maru, Jin Air were forced to field two replacements for their normal Terran duo and rotating fourth man. Pigbaby and Symbol have been flying coach since the beginning of the season. Hell, they might as well have been hiding in the bathroom. So far, Jin Air have not even played anyone outside the five man team of Maru, sOs, Rogue, Cure, and Trap. The WCS America champion Pigbaby has not been able to spread his wings since returning to his nourishing KeSPA mother, and the washed-up pallbearer of Wings of Liberty has struggled throughout Heart of the Swarm to prove that he's not just that. The decision by Jin Air to play these two in particular is not very surprising, as they both recently qualified for GSL and are likely performing well in practice. Given their known propensities, seeing them play in Proleague could actually be pretty entertaining. Maybe Pigbaby will make carriers, or Symbol will use a nydus worm or three.

SK Telecom T1
In the absence of their two best players, INnoVation and Dark, SKT have elected to give Classic a chance to redeem himself and Sorry a chance to feel important. The Chintoss suffered a humiliating loss to Sleep in the GSL qualifiers, and now has nothing better to do than prepare for Proleague. He also hasn't been played since Week 5 of Round 1, so perhaps the failure to qualify is a manifestation of a deeper problem in Classic's play. Regardless, he'll be getting a fairly straightforward PvP against Stats on King Sejong Station. Sorry on the other hand is making his second appearance this season. He was fielded against Samsung in Week 6 of Round 1 and managed to take down TvT specialist BrAvO. He has drawn another TvT on Expedition Lost, this time against TY, and it could very well be that he is himself an expert in the mirror.

KT Rolster
Without their best and newest player Life, their previously best but under-performing player Zest (until IEM Katowice, that is), and their most overrated player Flash, KT had to pull out a few subs to contest the depth of SKT for this uncommonly low-profile Telecom Derby. Action has gotten some action before as a wildcard, and not too long ago KT's only Zerg. We last saw him against Dear in Week 4 of Round 1, and now he's back for a ZvZ against soO. Historically Action has had a solid record as the occasional sniper, particularly in the mirror matchup, and even took the win over Dark in the grand finals of last season. The next player to be called upon is First, who is making his first appearance for KT in Proleague. First has been pretty quiet since the end of 2014, falling out of the Ro32 in his return to Code S, so it is hard to predict how he will fare. Always known for very strong PvT, it might not be out of the realms to say he could take a win against the excelling Dream. Finally, TY has returned to the lineup. It can be reasoned that he was fourth on the depth chart before the acquisition of Life, so naturally he was the one to suffer with the Zerg's arrival. Probably not coincidentally, he has been sent out on a map that has an unorthodox rock backdoor. No matter how much his reputation precedes him, we'll probably see something zany involving tank positioning and bunkers.

CJ Entus
No herO and no Bbyong, CJ lack the major firepower behind most of their wins. Filling that Protoss-Terran void will be both Hush and sKyHigh, who normally rotate for the fourth spot. Hush has for the most part always been, and probably always will be, a PvP sniper. Naturally, CJ sent him out on Deadwing to increase his chances of drawing a PvP, and it has worked in their favor. sKyHigh has had marginal success in all three matchups throughout his limited playtime, so it's difficult to say how ideal it was for him to get a TvP against Creator. However, sKyHigh has a penchant for mine drops, and Creator has been absolutely crushed by those these past two weeks. Last, and probably least, is Bunny. Far less known than the synonymous Dane, Bunny hasn't played since the 2014 playoffs. Back then he was a TvZ aficionado, but lacked flair in the other two matchups. Now, he's been chosen over Sora, Trust and Ragnarok, and will be playing on Merry Go Round in a TvT. Your guess is as good as mine how that will turn out, but YoDa has been impressive in TvT himself recently so it might be tough for the young CJ Terran.

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