History Repeats Itself

by banjoetheredskin







Remember this? Jin Air didn't just come all the way from third place with a 4-3 record to win the round finals, they did it with three consecutive three-kills. First it was sOs, then Maru, and lastly now ex-Jin Air Zerg TRUE. Such a feat highlighted what has stayed true into the 2015 season's playoffs: Jin Air are not only deep with race diversity and talent, but also with multi-kill strength. In an interesting parallel, they are now one-upping the phenomenal performance from the 2014 Round 4 Playoffs, having already received all-kills from sOs and Maru.






Of course, without TRUE on the team anymore, there is no chance for a complete replication, but in many ways Rogue is now above where TRUE was at that point. Rogue's individual league and Proleague successes have been far more consistent, and that bodes well for his potential to complete the all-kill trifecta, if his three-kill in the Round 3 Finals against CJ wasn't enough. But before breaking down how Jin Air will fare against SKT, let's take a look back to see how exactly Maru achieved his first all-kill.

After Zest picked up two wins, first with a dark templar snipe on sOs' robo and second with a two base, nine immortal blink-less stalker allin versus Rogue's double gold bases on Expedition Lost, Jin Air decided they would waste no more time beating KT. Foregoing another cushion in Cure, they opted to expedite Maru's deployment, and just as quickly he set about toppling KT's core four.


Not afraid to open with a predictable aggressive hellion build, Maru still managed to find damage against Zest's standard blink before robo build. From there, given the vertical spawns, Maru transitioned into his full-fledged drop til' he drops style, sending wave after wave of bio to pick away at Zest's economy and colossus count. Even when Zest thought he had collected himself enough to scrounge together a counterattack, Maru was back once again, sniping bases until finally taking one last favorable engagement to end Zest's run.


Life opened three hatch before pool, but unfortunately for him Maru decided to make a reaper instead of a command center first. Life took minimal drone damage, however, but made a questionably high number of lings. As he limited his drone production afterward, it became apparent that he was planning on some sort of bust after scouting Maru's third command center. A critical scan revealed a low drone count at Life's third and roaches hatching, and Maru hastily assembled a defense. Even with more than 15 SCV losses and a forced lift at the natural, Maru’s two tanks were plenty to push Life back and macro behind the attack. Furthermore, Maru’s triple mule economy was plenty to mount an immediate counterattack, and combined with his 1/1 upgrade advantage, stifled Life before he could recover his own economy.


Stats decided a macro game against Maru on a drop-friendly map was probably not the best approach, so slid to the other end of the spectrum and proxied a stargate in Maru's third with a full wall off to his main. Maru scouted though, so his reaper found the stargate quickly and the oracle did inconsequential damage. Meanwhile, Maru proxied a factory in Stats' gold base and floated it into his natural. The ensuing stream of widow mines into Stats' mineral lines, and not long after, bio squadrons, kept Stats from ever establishing a ground army with enough gateway units to buffer for his colossi. With some trademark micro and some manner command centers at the gold, Maru forced KT to send out their final player.


Despite the fact that Flash's reaper scouted Maru's proxy marauder in his third immediately, Flash could not muster a defense to prevent losses. From there, Maru demonstrated just how severe a 6 worker advantage is in early TvT. Sending small harassment forces to Flash's base before he could produce enough of his own, Maru kept picking away at scvs and vikings until cloak finished for his banshees. By then, he was up almost 20 supply, and in a couple minutes it became 40. Flash put his head in his hands, and Jin Air moved on to the finals against SKT.

SK Telecom T1

by Darkhorse



This time last year, SK Telecom looked like a completely different team. Their top four Proleague players in 2014? Rain, Soulkey, PartinG, and Classic. Fast forward one year and their top three, Rain, Soulkey, and PartinG have all made the jump to foreign teams, and yet SKT is still the top team in the league. Their top four this year? Dark, soO, INnoVation, and Dream. With a combination of Dark and Dream developing in the teamhouse, bringing in INnoVation to replace some of their star power as the team's ace, and their veterans Classic and soO continuing to play well, SK Telecom has adapted and thus maintained their position at the top of the Proleague totem pole, as the other teams in the top four have been inconsistent even with their more stable rosters. They are the Proleague powerhouse, and they are in prime position to finish first not just in this round, but for the entire season.

SKT's roster is packed with talent, but they actually have very little variance in their starting lineup. For the most part, they start four out of their big five of Dark, Dream, soO, Classic, and INnoVation, and I would be very surprised if anyone but these five play in this round's finals. While Dark and INnoVation started the season strong, this round the team has relied more heavily on Classic, soO, and Dream. That is what makes SKT so dangerous: when one player starts to slip, two more pop up to carry the load. Despite this, the round finals will still be a difficult test.

Their opponents, Jin Air, have been dominant in the playoffs so far. sOs and Maru have caught fire at the right time, and two consecutive all kills have landed them in the round finals. Momentum is on their side, and they will be looking to avenge their loss in the round one finals where a three kill by Dark gave SKT the victory. As strong as Jin Air has looked, SKT might be on an even bigger hot streak. This round they became the first team in SC2 Proleague history to go undefeated through an entire round, and two of their players recently reached the final of S2SL season 2. It's safe to call SKT the favorites, especially after the matchup between these two teams this round went 3-0 in SKT's favor, but Jin Air is still a dangerous opponent.

The starters for the match are INnoVation for SKT and Rogue for Jin Air. INnoVation is probably the greatest team league player of all time having secured a total of nine all kills in the past three years in Proleague, GSTL, and the Acer Teamstory Cup. Not only that, but INnoVation is known as a master of TvZ, and while he isn't as proficient in the matchup as he was in early HotS, facing him as a Zerg player must still be quite daunting. Rogue, on the other hand, has been the better Proleague player as of late. His 18 wins is second only to Maru this year and he is 6-1 overall against Terran on the season. Beyond this excellent opening matchup, the two teams rosters are pretty easy to predict. SKT will likely go with Classic and Dream, with soO or Dark filling the final spot depending on the matchup required. Jin Air will certainly utilize sOs and Maru with Cure or Trap being their flex pick.

The trouble for Jin Air is that INnoVation can get on a roll very quickly in all kill format team leagues. If he gets going early with a win over Rogue, I see Maru being the only reliable way to stop him. If they are forced to use Maru to get rid of INnoVation, they could open themselves up to snipe builds or possibly a Dark vs Maru rematch, which has gone heavily in Dark's favor recently. Then they would be relying on sOs as the ace player, and despite his impressive performance against CJ, I don't see him having the stamina to take a three kill against a roster as strong as SKT's. On the other hand, if Rogue takes the opening map, SKT will suddenly be put way behind, as the counter pick to Rogue is probably soO or Dream, and Jin Air being able to save Maru and sOs until after they have already taken at least one map is crucial.

This match is also very important in regards to the final standings. With a win here, Jin Air will be tied for second place with CJ Entus, and with how much better they have looked than CJ over the last round, they will be in good position to take at least second overall. A win for SKT would stretch their lead in the standings even further, putting them a full sixty points up on second place and all but locking in a first place finish for the season. I predict a close match, with SKT taking it 4-3 on a TvT between Dream and Maru in the end. Enjoy the finals everyone.