Straight Into the Ground

by banjoetheredskin

CJ Entus' playoff efforts were run straight into the ground on Monday by three letters: sOs. Everyone knew he was capable of an all-kill. It is in his nature as a player to thrive in the best of 1 format, and finally the stars aligned. Improving on his previous best of three kills against Samsung in Round 4 of 2014, sOs took down herO, RagnaroK, ByuL, and Bbyong in just two hours.


sOs' outstanding head-to-head record against herO only got better with the first game on Deadwing. Both players, respecting the other's game sense and decision making, decided to play extremely passively due to the cross spawns. After lots of harassment and counter harassment with lots of zealots and dark templars, herO had worked himself in to a one base and slight bank advantage. However, when the big fight came at the 42 minute mark, herO's mis-micro cost him the game. Not focusing sOs' colossi with his tempests, herO's army evaporated when his own colossi were all dead. No bank could save him from sOs' six tempests and four colossi destroying his mining bases, and CJ's ace card conceded the first set.


It was at first somewhat surprising to see CJ choose a Zerg to play on Echo, a Protoss-friendly map in a Protoss-favored meta for the ZvP matchup. However, knowing that the next map was Expedition Lost, CJ seemed to want to be able to squeeze at least two wins out of their unproven Zerg player. Obviously well-prepared for his opponent, RagnaroK scouted excellently throughout the game and focused hard on his macro. But a critical blunder right before his transition to brood lords left his army greatly out of position due to sOs' manipulation of the collapsible rocks at RagnaroK's third, and sOs' perfect anti-ultralisk composition ended the game abruptly.


Although ByuL was anticipated to be CJ's last resort, it made sense for them to take every edge possible by sending him out on a very Zerg-favored map. And despite his loss to Rain in the GSL finals, which may have adversely affected his mentality for this match, ByuL had been able to show a variety of tricks to steal wins against Protoss throughout his individual league success. Unfortunately for CJ, ByuL made the same mistake he did against Rain, and played too greedily in the face of danger. Despite scouting additional gateways and an early robotics facility, ByuL severely underestimated the gas-pull immortal zealot one sentry allin. sOs walked straight into ByuL's natural and the stream of desperation roaches immediately cut down by zealots and two unscathed immortals was reminiscent of Omaha Beach.


Down to their final player, it was a no-brainer fro CJ to use their most consistent player still available. Bbyong drew unfavorable spawns for dropping sOs, a style he would have loved to be able to utilize, and made the biggest mistake any Terran can make against the Jin Air Protoss. He didn't prepare for dark templars. Their damage kept adding up as Bbyong's heavy muling prevented him from quickly handling the invisible units running around killing depots and reactors in his base. Most critically, Bbyong's third base building on site was forced to cancel, and ultimately that led him to scv pull against an equal supply and one-base-up sOs. Even getting a fantastic position in sOs' natural while his army was still at the third base was not enough for Bbyong to pull off a miracle, and a quick "gg" sent CJ packing.

KT Roster

KT Rolster have undergone quite a shakeup ever since acquiring Life and retiring Action. For the most part they were one of the most inflexible teams regarding their composition, sticking to their core 4 of Flash, TY, Stats and Zest. With the addition of the Blizzcon champion, KT suddenly have one of the more diverse rosters in the league. Flash, Life and Zest give KT a strong starter from each race, while Stats and TY split the 4th spot between them. Stats has quietly become one of the best players in Proleague this season, further pushing his team up the pecking order. What makes KT truly dangerous, however, is that they have 3 potential aces on the team in Zest, Life and Stats. This could be a case of KT either preferring a more reactive response for the ace position, or they simply haven't settled on who their ace should be. Zest and Life are still good Proleague players, but their days of domination seem to have ended long ago. Stats is on the up and up, giving KT a surprise option for the big occasion.

For the most part, KT Rolster are a balanced squad with a few interesting quirks. Their 5 best players all have play very differently, which gives them a lot of flexibility especially in the all-kill format. Take Flash and TY, for example. The Ultimate Weapon had a torrid first few rounds, but he has finally found his groove again. He's at 4-2, but it's interesting to note that he hasn't hit his stride in either TvT or TvZ where he has traditionally performed well. Instead, his round was saved by some solid TvP. His greedy style caught herO off guard, even though Flash only ever gets sent out on Deadwing or Echo. The defensive features of both maps play into his strengths, so expect him to appear on either map during the playoffs. TY on the other hand was only sent out 3 times for a reasonable 2-1 record. While he appeared lost on Coda, his play on Expedition Lost reminded the world why he can be one of the deadliest snipers in Proleague. He crafted a very clever tank push to abuse a particular ledge near Solar's ramp, effectively tying his opponent's hands with pressure while he was free to harass and expand. Even though TY can be a little sloppy at times, he is one of the best at executing tailored builds.

Where once it was their terrans that scared the league, it is their protoss that now rank among SPL's best. It's become customary for Zest to win something every few months, even though he experiences some wild dip in form. Meanwhile, Stats has become the paragon of consistency, though he does need to find that X-factor that gets him over his hump. In Proleague, Zest played on all 6 maps, racking up a 5-3 record. Of his 3 losses, 2 were on Echo against terran powerhouses Maru and Dream. Fortunately, he seems to have sOs' number nowadays so a PvP on the map should still be ok for him. Stats hasn't seen quite as much play recently due to his GSL and SSL schedule, but he still amassed a solid 3-2 record including an ace match win. It appears that his favorite maps are Vaani and Cactus Valley, where he has a 1-1 record on each. Any team hoping to beat KT must at least unseat one of these two players.

Unsurprisingly, due to being the only reliable zerg on the team, Life has had to do a lot of heavy lifting. He appeared 5 times this round (6, had KT vs CJ gone on longer), but had mixed results. His 4-3 record is good, but an ace loss against Dream and a suddenly weak ZvZ means that he's now more vulnerable than ever. He will also try to avoid Expedition Lost, a map that he seems to really despise.

The rest of the KT bench sees 0 play. When they still had Action, they were able to rotate him on occasion and use him in the playoffs, but the other bench players look like props gathering dust in the studio. Still, we could see one of them in the playoffs when series begin to get longer. First used to be a brilliant PvT sniper and developed his PvP over time, while Super is still a very dangerous PvZ and PvT player. Even though KT already have 2 protoss players, throwing one of First or Super into the mix could catch their opponents off guard. Sleep and PenguiN are the least likely to see any time in the booth, and it's going to take more than a few blips in qualifiers to change that.