Half Way There

Welcome back to Proleague! With the conclusion of Round 2 and CJ Entus' victory against Jin Air Green Wings, we have passed the half way point - half of the regular season is now in the bag! Of course, that still means that the other half - arguably the better half - remains, and it looks like the sprint toward the finish line will be an exciting one. Two or three teams look primed to make the season playoffs, but the middle section of the rankings is still very much in flux.

Three things you need to know for the upcoming round:

• Startale has rebranded to SBENU following a title sponsorship. Word on the street is that Sonic is the second coming of (Korean) Jesus. Following their economic boost, Sbenu have brought old-school team league giants MMA and DRG onto the team. Parting, however, is still barred from competing.
  
• Unless Prime and Samsung make it to the Round 3 playoffs, their chances of reaching the season playoffs lay in the hands of other teams. If you like the underdog story, get your "Go! Prime! Win! Prime!"-signs.
  
• Prime's struggles continue, and they have taken to unusual means. Having lost Zoun, their brightest light in Round 2, they have partnered with the Chinese team invictus Gaming (iG). This means that Jim, MacSed and XY will practice and compete alongside Prime in Proleague. Given how the team has struggled in the past two rounds, an injection of Chinese unorthodox play could be just what the team needs to get back on its feet. Seriously, if you like an underdog story, cheer for Prime.

Also notable: SK Telecom have acquired two new players in Zoun (though some might say poached) and Impact, while Super has left Invasion eSports to join KT Rolster. With all changes tallied, this makes a grand total of 8 new players in Proleague. Exciting!

If you haven't, check out our recap of Round 2, complete with FPL Awards. On the note of FPL, don't forget to sign up before the matches start tomorrow!

In this article, TL Strategy reviews Round 2 and names the most valuable players of each race. banjoetheredskin previews MVP vs SKT and CJ vs Samsung, while I take a closer look at the new face of Startale, complete with players that have been seen only rarely in Korea over the last few years.

Obligatory mention of Byun, who has resurfaced and played a surprising number of televised games recently. Even so, he is yet to return to Prime's roster. Figures.

Enjoy this article and the first week of games,
Zealously

Round 2 MVPs

by Jowj, Jer99, Jehak, TheWinks

Deviating highly from round one, round two featured many more Zerg and Protoss players in the top ten, while Terran players struggled to win games. In fact, there was only one Terran player in the top 10 of wins, and unsurprisingly that Terran was Maru, who recently has been on a huge tear in any tournament he enters. The reigning champions from last round, INnoVation, Life, and YongHwa, have all been playing mediocre at best, with Life being the only to boast a positive record. Round two features a whole new set of MVPs, in the form of Maru, soO and herO.


Terran: Maru

Runner up: no one


The only Terran player to win an ace match in round two, Maru cleanly takes the Terran MVP spot. He won not only one, but two ace matches, propelling his team into second place for the round, bested only by the titanic team of CJ Entus. Other respectable Terran players include Cure and SkyHigh, but their records don’t include anything exemplary, and for this reason neither has earned the runner up spot.

Maru sits as the anchor of what is arguably the most solid lineup in Proleague. Though he started with a shaky loss against Dear in the beginning, he went on to win his five other matches, including two ace matches, and sealed the victory for Jin Air both times. Jin Air’s only loss in the Round Robin was the week when three of their strongest players, including Maru, were out of town for the IEM World Championship. His final three matches saw him taking out one of the best players of each race: Zest, INnoVation, and Byul.

Maru is a jack of all trades when it comes to Starcraft 2 strategy. He has solid macro, incredible micro, and a streak of unpredictability that makes him an extremely dangerous opponent and a fantastic ace. His games against Zest, INnoVation, and Byul all began as non-standard, with two proxy plays and an unusual one base aggressive strategy. However, only one of them ended quickly; the other two transitioned into pretty normal games where Maru set the pace for the rest of the game until he closed it out. The one that didn’t came out of nowhere as a callback to Wings of Liberty with five barracks producing reapers. He can be safely played on any map against any opponent, making him an invaluable asset to his team and a potent threat to their opponents. In one MVP interview in round 1, he was called the EXID Terran because of his tendency to attack up in one place and down in another at the same time. "Up and Down" is the name of a song by the kpop group EXID and since then he has used it as his very fitting Proleague intro music.




Having not played a regular scheduled match in Week 4 against KT Rolster, Maru was tapped for the ace match against the recent winner of the IEM World Championship, Zest. They played on King Sejong Station, a map ideal for Maru’s aggressive multitasking and drop heavy playstyle and a Protoss opponent that favors macro-centric play. Maru began with a 13 gas build, a very uncommon build in HotS TvP, while Zest opened ready for a normal single gas expansion. Eschewing a reactor, Maru went straight for a factory and starport for a quick widow mine and medivac. Because he knew his opponent was playing macro, he wasn’t afraid to send his marines out on the map to intercept the mothership core, and positioned his widow mine to try to catch Zest’s scout unaware. But Zest was too good to lose it. Facing a Terran without a natural and a mothership core that has been zoned out, Zest was forced to pull everything into the main, making damage potential from Maru’s hellions and widow mine extremely high. Maru followed through with his attack and did some damage, but they were perhaps even at the end thanks to Maru’s delayed natural. However, that was only the beginning of Maru’s up and down drop play.

The first medivac left and the second medivac was already en route with another mine drop. This one was super effective, leaving Zest equal on workers and down a mothership core and an observer. Many Terrans at this point would have gone five barracks before third CC, added vikings, maybe done a little drop play, and then gone for a big frontal attack with or without SCVs. This isn’t Maru’s way. He added the additional two barracks and moved out with a force that others would have used to attack or trade out at the natural, especially because the mothership core was killed. Instead, Maru walked around the perimeter of Zest’s entire base and sniped pylons and observers to keep Zest blind to incoming drops. Once that was accomplished, he began dropping. Four medivacs dropped MMM at the natural while the ‘vision denial force’ swung down to the third. He got the cancel, traded a bit, picked up, and then goes down for the same attack again. And then he does it again. Up and down. Zest’s army splits are too good for them to do game ending damage, but Maru just kept the heat on, ready to drop his army right on top of vulnerable colossus and waiting for Zest to make a mistake with his army positioning. As he did this, Maru established a strong macro foundation at home, ready with two starports and vehicle weapons for a required transition into vikings because he was unable to keep the colossus count low. Once he has enough vikings, he’s ready for another multi-pronged attack, and a blind Zest finally made the positioning mistake Maru was waiting for. Thinking another four-medivac sort of attack was coming to his natural with only a pressure down his right flank, Zest moved all of his stalkers and one colossus to intercept, only to discover the bulk of Maru’s army and a cloud of vikings. The stalkers were easily killed and zoned out by the bio and the vikings make quick work of the naked colossus. The feint at the third is easily pushed back, but the game was won. Maru had created a decisive advantage for himself over time with 40-50 army supply at the end and probably would have won even without Zest’s positioning mistake. But inducing that mistake was part of the plan. He showed Zest a pattern of drops up top and down below and otherwise did his best to keep Zest in the dark. So when Zest saw the units, he prepared for that pattern, only to find that Maru was ready to break it and win the game.



Zerg MVP: soO

Runner up: Rogue


The toughest choice for this round, it ended up being between Rogue and soO. At first glance, Rogue has the better record between the two at 5-0 vs. 5-2, but upon closer inspection we saw that soO has an ace match win while Rogue does not, and with INnoVation and Dark not performing as well as they did in round one, soO was key in helping his team make the playoffs. For these reasons, soO slightly edges out Rogue for MVP.

In Round 2 of the 2015 Proleague, soO has been fielded seven times with a 5-2 record. With this record, he eclipses the record of everyone else on his team for the round, a feat that seems impossible given that soO plays with some of the best players in the world, Classic and INnoVation. soO’s record is even more impressive given that he started out the round 0-2 with losses against Yoda and SkyHigh, only then going on to win five more games in a row. Part of his success is to be credited to his coaches, who have routinely paired him against Zerg users, allowing soO to express himself in the matchup in which he is most confident. But even with that caveat, what soO has accomplished is impressive. He’s taken wins over Action, Symbol, and Solar, and even nabbed an ace match for himself against MVP.

These players are far from the strongest Zergs existing in SC2 today, but the games showcase exactly what soO is good at: consistency. And that’s what SKT needs. Their ace from last round has an incredibly average show at 2-3 this round. They got taken to the ace match by MVP of all teams, and narrowly missed falling into 4th place below KT Rolster because of it, but soO was there for them, standing in the gap. And while you may not see especially flashy play out of soO, no mind-boggling display of mechanics are strategic innovation, you will see exactly what soO promises: a paradigm of consistency.




soO began his five win streak against KT Rolster's Action, another Zerg who differs from soO as fundamentally as possible. Where soO is consistent, Action is variable. Where soO defends, Action all-ins on one base. In a way, it’s especially fitting that soO began his streak here. The game opened up with soO playing pool first and Action opening hatch into pool with a later gas. However, the game began to divert much quicker than normal ZvZs. soO banked gas and didn’t start speed until 5:50 after having his scout denied by Action. He also placed an evo and roach warren after saturating the minerals in both his bases. On the other hand, Action began his lair right on time, looking to transition into the mid game with mutalisks. soO’s plan quickly became evident with his speed and roach warren finishing at the same time, and he began to slam out units: eight roaches and every last larva worth of lings flooded across the map towards Action. Action responded to the units by cancelling his third and spamming spine crawlers in his natural to helped defend. soO was stalled, but did immense economic damage and took his own third, to which he fell back to and defended with spores, queens, and roaches, forcing Action's paltry mutalisk force away.


To solidify soO’s advantage, he built a nydus network and tunneled into the space between Action’s third and natural, where he began his final assault against the entrenched spine crawler position of Action. After one last big engagement, Action resigns himself and GGs out, starting soO’s win streak to dominance in Round 2. This game exemplifies soO’s strengths. He opens safe, he does his best to scout, and when it's denied and he suspects shenanigans, he punishes his opponent hard. Even when his kill move is held off, he simply regroups, adds a nydus, and does it again, knowing that he has what it takes to end his opponent. This consistency is showcased again and again in Round 2 as soO beat down Zerg after Center after Zerg.


Protoss MVP: herO

Runner up: Stats


Another close call, herO earns this spot over Stats. Along with Maru, they are the only two players to have went 2-0 in ace matches in Round 2. Stats on the other hand, while having a 6-1 record and contributing highly to his team making the playoffs, gets ousted from the MVP position with no ace match wins and one win less than herO.

Facing some of the best players and former GSL champions, CJ Entus herO completed the round with an impressive 7-1 record. This little Protoss clinches the top spot defeating big names such as Zest, Dark, and San, with the only loss to the reputable sOs. herO’s consistency in defeating top level GSL players is a testament to his skill whether playing against Terran, Zerg or the Protoss race.

Having an understanding of the game and being able to create and execute strategies are two different skills that are both required at this skill level. Unsurprisingly, herO has both. This assassin looks at each and every game and approaches it the way that he needs to. As a Protoss player, the game and the flow moves according to the Protoss will. herO however, brutally takes the lead at points and understands that he also has to defend and play the underdog when it comes to it. Exterminating with extreme prejudice and lying in wait for the perfect moment to attack all together makes him what he is: The smiling assassin.

Playing against the best of the best means that things can get very hairy extremely quickly. Therefore, versatility is key in these matchups. This can especially be shown in the matchup where herO defeats San twice to defeat Startale-Yoe. In both games, herO takes the dominant side and plays his token control type reactionary style of play. The idea behind the control is very simple: read your opponent’s play and force the opponent into a response or make them fall behind through harass. The reactionary style comes into play when herO takes the advantage by reading his opponent’s reaction and finding the right moment to strike -- securing him the victory.



The ace match between CJ Entus herO and Startale San opened out with herO on the top right of Deadwing and San on the bottom right. San chose to go for stargate tech and rushed it as fast as possible while herO went for a blink stalker opening. Both players moved to probe scout each other, but herO unfortunately makes the mistake of accidentally missing San’s nexus. Unshaken, herO does exactly what he does best: reactionary play.

herO knows this matchup and he understood that San is the type of player that wants to play according to his own rules. Using that knowledge, he played the direct counter by attempting to end the game before San could get control. He saw the initial phoenix that San uses to scout out his base with his two initial stalkers, alerting him to San’s build. The phoenix had two purposes at this point. First, it tips off herO to San’s build and intentions, considering how early it was. herO knew that a phoenix this early is the result of wanting to gain map control as fast as possible. Therefore, herO could conclude that San was either teching into something else behind the stargate or trying to stall for an expansion. The combination of this insight and general knowledge of San’s strength in the late game allowed herO to use this opportunity to deal some major damage. After defending the phoenix, herO started to take the aggressive stance and warped in three stalkers at San’s natural via proxy pylon. Unfortunately, San failed to scout this and goes for a transition into dark templar through his proxy pylon in the top left of the map. Going for the kill, herO walked up the ramp with his stalkers and sniped San’s patrolling mothership core. With no photon overcharge, an inadequate amount of phoenixes and a lack of any real defenses, things looked very dark for San as he desperately did the only thing he could do: pull probes to stall for his dark templar tech to finish. Pulling the probes delayed his economy quite a bit and resulted in him losing ten probes to herO. Because San was completely unprepared for this attack, built a twilight council but didn't have blink researched, herO realized that a proxy dark shrine was most likely San’s goal in this game, and so he crushed San’s final hopes by starting up a robotics facility. San desperately warped in a defensive dark templar and an offensive one to potentially do some damage, but herO’s defensive observer denied any damage. After finishing off the rest of San’s probes, he ended the game and wins the set for CJ Entus.

Match Previews

by banjoetheredskin

MVP vs SK Telecom

YongHwa <Vaani Research Station> Sorry
Qualified for neither of the individual leagues this season, YongHwa probably has nothing better to do than prepare for Proleague. Although his PvT has never been anything special, especially when he's still doing WoL-esque two base colossus allins, he's still overall a better player than Sorry. To make matters worse, Sorry's TvP looked absolutely atrocious against Rain. He managed to lose a game after killing most of Rain's natural mineral line with his first bio drop. Unless he prepares something special like his proxy reaper build against Curious, iloveoov might be sorry he fielded Sorry.

Center <Coda> Classic
Center is the quintessential B-teamer. He doesn't qualify for anything, he makes a few appearances but almost never wins, part of the reason he never wins is because he always seems to draw really good players, and he can never quite shake that TerrOr-like fear out of his face. Poor little Center is now faced with Classic. Although the SKT Protoss dropped out in the Code A qualifiers, he did manage to secure a spot in the 3SL Ro16. Without having seen his group play, it's very hard to gauge where Classic's current skill is at. But given that Classic's teammate Dream is in the same group and also has great TvP, Center ought to already be thinking about next week.

HerO <Echo> INnoVation
HerO probably couldn't have drawn a worse opponent. It's not just that INnoVation is one of the best Terrans in the world. HerO looked like he was making a recovery of form with his qualification for Code S, but subsequently bombing out 0-4 dropped expectations precipitously. Not even Olli or Gemini, the biggest and most vocal HerO fans, can come up with a way for him to win this game. His biggest weakness in PvT is to early aggression, and INnoVation's forte is endless widow mine drops while he macros up. Even if HerO were to prepare specifically for that, INnoVation's outstanding economically-focused play would negate a slight edge for the Protoss. Maybe with Choya's necromancy HerO can return to his IEM Cologne form and gimmick INnoVation to death.

Losira <Expedition Lost> Dark
It's no secret now that Protoss and Terran don't really like playing on on Expedition Lost because of the back rocks and the gold base positioning. As a result, it will see its seventh ZvZ this season with the mirror expert Losira and the recent KeSPA Cup runner-up Dark. Although Losira has been strong in the matchup so far, Dark should still be the favorite after his annihilation of Life in KeSPA Cup. He continues to struggle in individual leagues to validate claims of his status in Korea as one of the best Zergs, but it's finally starting to look like that's not needed. The only admonition Dark must respect is that Losira can be anything but standard when he wants, and if Dark doesn't study the ZvZ metas from 2011 to 2013, Losira could catch him off-guard by a surprisingly effective old-school strategy.

CJ Entus vs Samsung

herO <Cactus Valley> BrAvO
Coming off the greatest achievement in his career, herO is probably as confident as he's ever been. Although his PvT was untested in his KeSPA Cup run, he appears to have an aura of invincibility that transcends individual matchups. The last we saw of it was his win over Cure in the Round 2 Finals, which was anything but a close game. BrAvO is most commonly used as a TvT expert, but outside of the mirror has had minimal success. Results to give any indication of his skill are particularly lacking in TvP, so unless he has a solid plan for each spawn possibility, BrAvO will have a rough time handling CJ's ace.

Bbyong <Coda> Dear
Bbyong seems to have a recurring problem with his TvP: over-dropping. The best Protosses have strong defensive play, but Bbyong insists on a "brute force or die trying" mentality. Unfortunately for him, Dear is one of the better Protosses in Proleague, and his PvT might be his strongest matchup. However, when sKyHigh took down Dear in Week 6 of Round 2, he exposed a weakness that Bbyong could look to exploit, given their similarities in playstyle. Dear just doesn't handle early harassment very well. While in the mid-game he is more formidable, he is susceptible to quick damage that would allow Bbyong to take the lead and run with it by applying the constant pressure he loves. Dear ought to look to be as safe and standard as possible, unless he wants to channel Zest's bop of Bbyong in IEM Katowice by whipping out the cheddar.

ByuL <Deadwing> Reality
The setting for this game makes it feel like going back in time. In a former patch, we could have instantly called this as a mech versus swarm host snooze fest. But now, as Zergs are still finding their footing against Terrans without swarm hosts, we don't really know what the hell to expect. ByuL has played exceedingly well in ZvT recently, but we have seen little of his anti-mech strategies. This uncertainty could play into Reality's hand if he is feeling extra tricky with a bio into mech or mech into bio build, but Soulkey would say he's a bit more stubborn than that. With double individual league success, a semifinal placement in KeSPA Cup, and a three-kill of Jin Air on his list of recent achievements, the wrecking ByuL could very well end up being too much for Reality to handle.

RagnaroK <Vaani Research Station> Hurricane
RagnaroK completely bombed out of Code S despite looking pretty good against Dear to get there, so many immediately jumped off the hype train for CJ's newest Zerg recruit. Hurricane, on the other hand, finished third in his group in 3SL, only managing to beat Leenock 2-1. Neither player appears to be particularly strong in the ZvP matchup, so this game should come down almost entirely to preparation. That said, much will hinge on RagnaroK's utilization of the gold bases. Both CJ Zergs have shown preference for various gold base openings, and it will be up to Hurricane to be flexible enough to squash RagnaroK's attempts to gain an early economic lead.

Enter Sbenu

by Zealously

That Startale have struggled to stay afloat for quite some time is no secret. From losing their most successful and reliable players to finding themselves in growing financial difficulties, one of the last founding eSF teams looked on the verge of disbanding at the end of Round 2. Finishing the round with an 0-7 record and no real bright spots to speak of amid the disappointments, an ignoble end seemed inevitable for the team that once housed Life, Squirtle, Bomber and Parting.

But like their rival team Prime, Startale are resilient, and resilience pays off.

Missing: MMA (via Acer partnership)


With financial stability secured through Sbenu's title sponsorship, the last remaining eSF team (with Sbenu as their title sponsor) have not only avoided certain demise, they have climbed out of the hole they had fallen into through several new acquisitions. From the team "anchored" by Leenock last round, this is the team that will compete in Round 3:

Head Coach : Lee Seonjong
Player Coach : Park Ungjin (New)
Coach : Hu Yu Chiang
San
Daisy
MyuNgSiK (New)
SSoja
Hack
Bomber (officially joins Sbenu)
aLive
jjakji (New)
MMA (New)
Curious (Captain)
Pet
DongRaeGu (New)
Ssemi
Leenock
Ian


The New Acquisitions

It's hardly a secret that the roster that landed in last place with an 0-7 record in Round 2 suffered from severe issues of both depth and consistency. They had no outstanding ace and no roster to lean on when one of the better players failed to perform. In the team's new iteration, reality is a different one.

In DongRaeGu, Sbenu have acquired one of the best team league players in the history of Starcraft 2. Known as the Zerg that single-handedly tilted GSTL ZvT win rates in favor of Zerg and the first Zerg to truly master ling/bane/muta (and arguably the remaining the best at it for years to come), DRG has struggled for the majority of HotS. Although he has had his moments of excellency (most notably, perhaps, his incredible series against Innovation), he has struggled with maintaining consistency. His stint as a free agent followed by his time on Invasion eSports (where he accomplished little) have no doubt compounded the issue, but DRG's potential has always been there. In terms of mechanics alone, few players can rival him. If DRG can get the kind of concentrated and focused practice that has turned so many players into championship caliber players in the past, he might prove to be one of Sbenu's most important players.

In a team league context, you should never mention DRG without mentioning MMA. Although the Son of Boxer (now disowned) has been a higher-profile player for a long time, with WCS championships and playoff runs in both Blizzcon and GSL, he and DRG were made from the same material. Both belonged to the initial team league generation, the small group of SC2 players that grew from dominating the GSTL to reigning surpreme over Korean Starcraft. Unlike DRG, MMA continued to play an important role in team leagues by sharing the ace position on Acer with Innovation. Though predicted by some to fall off upon his return to Korea, MMA's results since Blizzcon have been largely beyond reproach (save for a number recent disappointment). It's always difficult to predict how a player with no prior Proleague experience will fare in the league, but I would not be surprised to see MMA fill the ace role for the majority of the remaining season.

Who is MyuNgSiK? The name evokes memories of phoenix/colossus play and tottering attempts at carrying the weight of Prime in Proleague, a picture of a middle-ground Protoss. Not long ago, I would have agreed with that assessment, but it seems something has changed. Going back one month, MyuNgSiK has gone 2-0 in Proleague, advanced in first place from his GSL group (beating Dark and Parting in the process) and beaten Rogue in a Bo5. It's not a long list of impressive results, but doubtless indicative of greater potential than we originally expected of the ex-KT Protoss. Particularly strong against Zerg, MyuNgSiK seems a good choice in ace matches against teams that rely on Zergs. Depending on how consistent the top tier is, that might be as many as five teams.

Of Sbenu's new acquisitions, jjakji is by far the most unpredictable. On one hand a GSL champion and a prolific regular of the Dreamhack circuit's later stages, jjakji also sports an abysmal win rate against Korean players over the last few months. For every win against Leenock, there are two losses against Ryung and Violet. Online play and low-profile group stages aren't necessarily indicative of ability in a high-stakes environment such as Proleague, where focused practice and tailored builds are often the name of the game, but I can be no more than cautiously optimistic about jjakji's chances in Proleague, at least in his current shape.