SK Telecom T1 win Round 3

by banjoetheredskin

An explosive end to an extremely competitive Round 3, SK Telecom T1 secured a 4-3 victory over Jin Air Green Wings in the Gold Match. With a stellar undefeated performance in the round robin and this first place finish, they propelled themselves into a comfortable 60 point lead in the overall standings. However, nothing is set in stone yet, and second through fourth place are particularly still up for grabs. As we head into the final round before the season-ending playoffs, Darkhorse reflects back on the first three team-by-team, and lichter adds a vacation edition of the Fantasy Proleague Recap.

Round 1-3 Recap

by Darkhorse

Where do we Stand?

Prime

Overall Record: 3-18 (21-59)
Playoff Appearances: 0
Highest Placing: 7
Lowest Placing: 8
Current Standing: 8
Points: 100
Player Records:



It's no surprise that we lead off with Prime here. It hasn't been the easiest year for our last place team, but it is easy to see why. On a roster devoid of depth or great talent, the team has mainly been forced to rely on their veteran Creator, who has been unable to find anyone who can truly back him up. While YoDa seemed like he could be a solid addition early in the year, his play fell off a cliff after only a few weeks on Prime. Keen has played a number of tragic games where the result almost seems out of his hands and has ended up with one of the worst records on the team. Myungsik, the only player who could possibly challenge Creator for the ace spot, jumped ship for Sbenu following round 2, as did Prime's most talented rookie Zoun when he went to SKT. What does Prime have after that? TANGTANG? He has a fun name but we haven't seen much else yet. BBoongBBoong? He was a suitable backup for Maru, MKP, and Creator back in 2012 but now he is a far cry from his GSTL days. Byun?! Someone's going to have to spring him from Kespa jail. This is why Prime is in such a terrible spot. It's not only that they don't have a strong roster now, it's that they don't have anything to look forward to. They probably don't have a ton of resources to go get more players (not that the free agent pool is that deep right now) and their rookie lineup begins and ends with the very inconsistent and inexperienced TANGTANG. Honestly it's amazing that Prime has managed to finish seventh rather than eighth in two of the rounds so far, but I certainly don't see them falling anywhere but the bottom two for the final round of the year.

Team MVP: Creator (6-12)

The obvious choice. While Myungsik (while he was on the team) and YoDa have had a bit of success, mostly in round 1, neither of them comes close to being more deserving of the title of Prime’s MVP. Creator is not only the best player on the roster, but he is also the heart and soul of the team. One only needs to watch him in the booth to see how emotional he gets when he plays and how much pressure he puts on himself to carry the team. While he hasn’t been able to carry the team per se (I’m not sure there is anyone who could carry Prime) he has done an admirable job as the team’s ace given the circumstances. Most notably is his stellar play in his mirror matchup, with five of his six wins coming in PvP (three over Zest!). It’s hard not to root for Creator and by extension, Prime, and I truly hope we get to see more great moments like this:


+ Show Spoiler [Full Game] +

Samsung

Overall Record: 7-14 (36-46)
Playoff Appearances: 0
Highest Placing: 5
Lowest Placing: 8
Current Standing: 7
Points: 120
Player Records



This has been a puzzling and disappointing year thus far for Samsung. In 2014, they ended up in a respectable fifth place overall, but even that moderate level of success hasn’t translated into anything this year. In the offseason, they picked up the former STX Soul superstar Dear and Solar won several tournaments including MSI Beat IT over Parting and Dreamhack Stockholm over soO. Because it’s hard to explain why Samsung has been so sub par, I’m going to go with the only explanation I can come up with: Roro retiring crippled the team.
It’s a reasonable assertion when you think about it. While most people would’ve called Solar the better Zerg between the two last year, Roro was always better in Proleague. He finished with a 19-10 record last year compared to Solar’s 9-10 and was the team’s go to ace player. Solar’s massive slump in 2015 (1-13 record) may have something to do with the pressure of becoming the ace player, as he probably looked up to the veteran Roro and is still quite a young player himself.
Still, it’s not all bad for Samsung. While it would be very difficult (but not technically impossible) for them to make the season playoffs now, they have at least been improving throughout the course of the season. Dear has taken over the position of Samsung’s ace due to Solar’s Proleague mind-block and has performed fairly well. They have finished in fifth in each of the last two rounds, and were one map away from making the playoffs in round three. Samsung has a reasonably talented roster and Proleague experience, and if they could just get Solar to start playing up to his potential in the booth they could be real contenders.

Team MVP: BrAvO (7-4)

I know, I know, most people probably would say Dear is the MVP. While Dear is in fact the ace player, Samsung ace players are a combined 0-6 throughout the year in ace matches, so I decided I’d branch out a bit and give some credit to BrAvO who has been having a pretty decent season. The ex-Woonjin and SKT player has stood out above Samsung’s massive Terran lineup as somewhat of a TvT specialist, picking up five total TvT victories including wins over Bbyong, Flash, Dream, and Jjakji. While he is three wins behind Dear in total, he holds the highest win percentage on Samsung at 64% and has been in the lineup more than any other Samsung player besides Dear and Solar. BrAvO isn’t the team’s backbone like Creator is for Prime. He isn’t the team’s superstar like Maru is for Jin Air. What he is is a solid player who has stepped up to provide support for the struggling ace players like Solar, and for that he deserves some recognition. Here’s a video of him beating Bbyong in the first match of the season.



MVP

Overall Record: 9-12 (40-51)
Playoff Appearances: 0
Highest Placing: 5
Lowest Placing: 7
Current Standing: 6
Points: 120
Player Records



So when you think MVP these days, you think volatile, right? After all, they are coached by the mad genius/villain/fool Choya, and their roster is almost completely new this year. This was the team that by some miracle was carried by Billowy to a round playoff final last year in between rounds where they finished second to last and last. Against good players. However, by some weird chance MVP is actually the most consistent team in the entire league. They have finished 3-4 in every single round thus far, and their map scores have been 13-17, 13-17, and 14-17 respectively. Oddly enough their best map score came when they finished in seventh, their worst position of the year, which I will give them a pass for because they were only a few maps away from finishing fourth and making the playoffs just because of how tight it was in the middle of the pack this round.
Anyway, let’s talk performance. MVP’s year has been full of ups and downs, triumphs and controversy, but unfortunately, not a ton of success. Their roster has been difficult to pin down, as the apparent ace at the start of the year, MarineKing, has gone the way of Solar and sits at 3-13. Add in the fact that his integrity was called into question after alleged match fixing this past round, and it’s probably a good thing that we saw less of MarineKing in round three. The good news for MVP is that they have found surprisingly solid play from players of team leagues past as YongHwa, Losira, HerO, and Gumiho have all put in strong efforts and positive win ratios. While that lineup certainly doesn’t look like the strongest on paper in Proleague, they have done an admirable job, and MVP is inches away from being a round playoff team. With a bit more solid play from MarineKing and some help from Departure and Panic, MVP could very well crack the top four next round. Or Choya could just figure out his top four players and play them every week. Either way.

Team MVP MVP (heh): Losira (12-9)

This one was actually pretty close between Losira and YongHwa, who are the two players who stepped up when MVP was suffering from 2015 MarineKing. Both have beaten strong competition, each has won two ace matches, so I pretty much gave it to Losira because he has a few more wins and I was secretly rooting for him against Nestea in the GSL finals.
Anyway back on track. Losira is obviously an SC2 veteran and it is awesome to see him playing well and playing with his original ID. This year he has taken down players like Flash, Solar, Innovation, Byul, and TY, and he is a big reason why MVP has managed to even come close to earning playoff spots in the first three rounds. He’s given his team a huge boost this year, and he also gave us one of the most screen-shotted moments of the season after his win over Byul. See if you can spot it:



Sbenu

Overall Record: 8-13 (35-49)
Playoff Appearances: 1
Highest Placing: 3
Lowest Placing: 8
Current Standing: 5
Points: 131
Player Records



What a wacky season Startale/Sbenu has had. In round one, they actually finished third with strong performances from Leenock and Life, but ended up getting stuck in traffic and were forced to forfeit their playoff match. In round two, the departure of Life to KT left them searching for anyone with some consistency, and they fell HARD. Dropping from third to eighth in one round, the team desperately needed help, both financially and in the booth. Luckily, the team finally found a title sponsor in Sbenu, and with the sponsor came a massive roster overhaul. Myungsik came over from Prime, DRG and Jjakji joined, and Bomber came back to the team after being only partnered with Startale for the beginning of the season. They also partnered with Acer to get MMA on their roster to make their very own GSTL dream team. The result? Welllll… at least they didn’t get embarrassed like last round, but they didn’t manage to get back to the playoffs either. Instead they demonstrated a frustrating level of inconsistency where they would beat CJ or Jin Air one week and get crushed by MVP and Samsung the next. In the end, they were close to making the playoffs, but close doesn’t really cut it in Proleague.
The good news is, once again, they improved by leaps and bounds from round 2. They no longer had to rely on players like Pet and Daisy and instead were able to field experienced veterans like DRG, Bomber, and Jjakji. Unfortunately, they still lack a reliable ace since Life left the team, and they have one of the highest levels of ace-variance in the league. If Curious could transfer his Ro4 GSL level skill to the Proleague booth the team might be in a better spot, but alas he has been hit or miss. It’s hard to tell how Sbenu will do in the final round of the season, but they are only thirty points back from finishing top four and reaching the playoffs at the end of the season, which would be a fantastic result considering the tumultuous year the team has had.

Team MVP: Leenock (7-5)

The funny thing is, Life almost still wins this award despite being absent from the team for the past two rounds. His 5-4 record with a 2-0 ace match record and the fact that he basically carried the team to the round one playoffs is still worthy of the title of MVP. Still, I thought it would be unfair to do this, so I went with the player who had to suffer through round two as the team’s ace, Leenock. Along with San, Leenock did his best to haul the team out of last place, but to no avail. Still, Leenock has had a pretty good season. His 7-5 record is the best on the team, and in particular has ZvP has been excellent with a record of 5-1 and Zest and sOs on his kill list. While Sbenu will still most likely be ace-by-committee from now on, Leenock has at least put himself in the conversation as one of the ace players on the team.



KT Rolster

Overall Record: 13-11 (57-46)
Playoff Appearances: 2
Highest Placing: 2
Lowest Placing: 6
Current Standing: 4
Points: 162
Player Records



While Sbenu's season has been a roller coaster of ups and downs, KT's has been a steady climb up the Proleague mountain. Let's not sugar coat it. Their round one was a complete disaster. They came in as the defending champions with no major roster changes between season and finished round one in sixth place. The reason? We'll call it the great KT-slump-of-early-2015. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but you get the picture. Zest, Flash, and TY were all performing well below standard, both in proleague and individual leagues, and the team struggled because of it. They hit rock bottom when they lost to Prime in week five, and they ended up missing the playoffs entirely.
Things started to change for the better in round two, as the team apparently spent the time that they weren't participating in the playoffs dunking their heads in cold water and watching videos of the Premier tournaments they had won in 2014. Of course, the team's situation was helped quite a bit when they went out and made the biggest roster swap of the year by picking up Life. With that roster change and improved play from Flash and Zest, KT managed to move up to fourth place and at least back into the playoffs. Now they are coming off a second place finish in round three, and they have completely righted the ship. They currently sit in fourth place overall, which isn't the most comfortable position to be in, but their steady rise throughout the year and the fact that while fourth isn't secure, it is in fact a playoff spot, has to reassure the KT fans who were worried after Round 1. This roster has far too much talent to miss the playoffs, especially after adding Life, and their improvement from that bad start suggests that they won't be left out. As usual the team has a solid nucleus of players and not too much lineup diversity, only this year they actually have a capable Zerg player to balance out the usually Protoss and Terran lineup that they field. Overall, the team is going to be dangerous down the stretch, but if they revert back to round one KT in the last few months of the season they will be watching someone like Sbenu or Samsung pass them by and take the playoff spot from the defending champs.

Team MVP: Stats (18-5)

Remember when I mentioned how Zest, Flash, and TY were all slumping hard in round one? Well one player on KT really stepped up during that time: Stats. He has been the best player on KT in every single round thus far and has been one of their better players in individual leagues, finishing top four in both 2015 seasons of S2SL.
For a long time, Stats was talked about in the same way as TY. Basically the two were known as the "other half" of KT's lineup, and we all knew that "other" really meant "lesser" to most people. It's hard to stand out in a lineup when you have the superstar Flash and probably the best player of 2014, Zest, bringing home the trophies. But while TY has mostly maintained his reputation as a backup on KT, and has been often out of the lineup since the acquisition of Life, Stats has been working hard to become a star in his own right. Not only does he have the best record on KT, but he also has the second best record in all of Proleague behind Maru. He has the best win percentage of any player who has played more than one match, and he is even one of only three players to secure an all kill this year with his all kill of SKT in the round two playoffs. Unfortunately Stats hasn't played many ace matches, because for some reason Zest's 2-5 ace match record isn't bad enough yet to give someone else a chance, but KT and many other teams would be lucky to have him as their ace player.



Jin Air Green Wings

Overall Record: 19-9 (73-49)
Playoff Appearances: 3
Highest Placing: 2
Lowest Placing: 4
Current Standing: 3
Points: 213
Player Records



Jin Air is in third place overall and will likely make the playoffs. Their ace is the top player in Proleague by a full five wins. They have more than enough great talent to fill out the weekly four man roster. They are one of, if not the most consistent team in Proleague.
Despite all of these positive things, Jin Air's season is a tragic tale of "so close, but yet so far". soO is widely pitied for making four straight GSL finals and winning none of them, but let's have some sympathy for Jin Air making all three round finals this year and coming out on the losing end every single time. In round one, they got beat by SKT after Dark, who was absolutely on fire at the time, scored a three kill. Fine. But round two was absolutely heartbreaking. They had CJ on the ropes, up 3-1 with only ByuL left to play. Then Jin Air fans were forced to watch helplessly as ByuL single handedly crushed their dreams, and Jin Air fell 4-3. After two consecutive all kills in the earlier playoff rounds, Jin Air faced disappointment again in the finals of round three, losing a tight back and forth set once again to SKT.


If Jin Air gets second in round four I think soO is morally obligated to join the team in solidarity.

Now Jin Air still is in ok playoff position, and have earned plenty of points, but imagine how different the standings could be. If Jin Air had triumphed in just one of their matches against SKT, they would be tied with CJ for second place. If they had beaten CJ in Round 2, they would have sole possession of the second spot and be in striking distance for number one. Jin Air obviously has the talent to win Proleague, but you have to imagine that the string of disappointments hasn't been easy on the team.
So here's the good news: they still have Maru, the best player in Proleague. They still have Rogue, the guy no one noticed is tied for third overall and has been making a case for world's best Zerg over the last few months (though ByuL and Life certainly could be argued). They still have sOs who is at least a 50/50 shot for a win (17-14 this year in Proleague) and they still have depth in Cure and Trap. They don't need to actually fix anything, they just need to perhaps get a little luckier when they reach the round playoffs. Although it would have a bit of pleasing symmetry for them to get silver every round...

Team MVP: Maru (25-9)

Obviously. On a team full of stars, there is one superstar: Maru. While Dream has become the new Terran prodigy in individual leagues, Maru is still the Prince of Proleague. His total of 25 wins is seven more than the next best player and he is freakishly dominant in both TvT (7-0) and TvP (14-1). While critics can point to the fact that he is 4-8 in TvZ, he's only actually lost to Dark, Life, ByuL, and soO, who are pretty much the four best Zergs in the world. The point is he is a threat to everyone, and pretty much an un-killable final boss of Proleague for all but the very best in the league.
For Maru, just because there are so many options, I'm going to give you two games. One is actually a great game: his match against Innovation from this round's final.



The second is actually pretty sloppy, and it doesn't really make all that much sense. Our wonderful strategy team covered this game here, but I like this game, so I'll showcase it again. It's from week two of round three, and it's against Myungsik on Deadwing. If you're into watching players with confidence and perhaps a bit of BM, you'll like this game. For your viewing pleasure:



CJ Entus

Overall Record: 15-9 (54-45)
Playoff Appearances: 3
Highest Placing: 1
Lowest Placing: 4
Current Standing: 2
Points: 243
Player Records



If I had written this piece last round, this section would have been glorious for CJ fans. I would have praised the team's consistency, coaching, and the development of bench players like Skyhigh. I would have said how they are a threat to pass SKT and finish in first overall, and that their big three of Bbyong, herO, and ByuL was the best in the league. Unfortunately their round three didn't quite go as planned. For most teams, a fourth place finish wouldn't be so bad, but for CJ it was a huge letdown after their round two win. Not only that, but they were sooooooo close to finishing either fifth or sixth. Here were the conditions that had to be met for CJ to get to the playoffs going into the final week this round:

• They had to beat Prime 3-0
  
• SKT had to beat Sbenu 3-0
  
• KT had to beat MVP
  
• Jin Air had to beat Samsung, or Samsung had to beat Jin Air 3-0
  

Now to be fair, none of those things are particularly unlikely to happen by themselves, but the fact that they were in a position where all of that had to happen for them to make the playoffs is just way too close for comfort for a team like CJ. Then they went into the playoffs and got utterly annihilated by Jin Air as they were on the wrong side of an sOs all kill. Honestly this isn't too much of a big deal standings wise, as no one really expected them to win the playoffs after their shaky round, but getting all killed after having the aforementioned shaky round is just adding insult to injury.
The crazy thing is that the CJ players weren't in slumps while this was all happening. herO made the semifinals of S2SL and ByuL even reached the GSL finals. Maybe the focus on individual leagues actually contributed to their struggles in Proleague, but round two made it seem like the team could handle both quite well. If I had to sum up CJ's problems this past round it would include these: herO wasn't the dominant force he had been the round before (7-1 overall in Round 2, 4-4 overall in Round 3), Skyhigh went from a solid fourth member in round 2 to a doormat in round 3 (3-1, 0-2 respectively), and their experiments with Sora and Ragnarok didn't pay off (0 wins between the two).
It's not all bad for CJ. They are still the same team that was dominant in Round 2, and their success in individual leagues rules out the idea that CJ players are really slumping. What they really need is a bit more consistency from their fourth player, whoever that may be, as players on CJ not named herO, Byul, or Bbyong are 9-15 overall. Still, it is entirely possible for three players to carry a team entirely, but herO certainly can't have a 50% win rate on the round if that is their strategy. Given the fact that their players aren't slumping and how good they were in round two, I'm willing to call this round an anomaly, but another round like this one will certainly see them fall out of second place and potentially miss the round playoffs for the first time.

Team MVP: ByuL (18-10)

This choice was really hard. I mean really hard. I actually tried to find a way to justify choosing someone that wasn't herO or ByuL but there was absolutely no way. Between herO and ByuL it's ridiculously close. ByuL is 18-10 and 2-0 in ace matches, while herO is 17-11 and 2-1 in ace matches. I actually went back and looked at who they beat and who they lost to, and the strength of these players is pretty much even. I decided to give it to ByuL for a few simple reasons. First, he has more wins. This is incredibly close and therefore not that important, but still, numbers are numbers. Second, he three killed Jin Air in the finals of round two to bring his team back from the brink of defeat when it looked like all hope was lost, and herO hasn't had an equally impressive individual performance. Third, and this is where I'm gonna lose a lot of people, ByuL isn't CJ's traditional ace (herO is) so it feels like a more original choice to call ByuL the MVP than his Protoss teammate. That's a stupid subjective reason I know, but this is my article so suck it up.
There's not much else to say but this: ByuL is quite possibly the best Zerg in the world right now. People can debate that it's Rogue or Life instead, but there's no denying that ByuL has been the best over the last month. And on top of that, he's been the best player on CJ Entus this season.



SK Telecom T1

Overall Record: 19-5 (64-34)
Playoff Appearances: 3
Highest Placing: 1
Lowest Placing: 3
Current Standing: 1
Points: 303
Player Records



It's good to be the kings. Despite an anomalous third place finish in round two, SKT are sitting in first overall and have won two of the three total rounds. They are a full sixty points up on the second place CJ Entus, and it will be unbelievably difficult for anyone to unseat them from their throne. Because you earn a minimum of thirty points a round (or perhaps a maximum of thirty if you're Prime), even if SKT gets dead last CJ would need to do one of the following things to take first place: first, they could finish either third or second overall in the regular split and then win the forty point round finals or second, they could finish first in the regular split and then get either first or second in the finals to take over the first place position. Of course, none of that really matters because SKT isn't going to get dead last and while those aren't the only possible ways that CJ could pass them, SKT's recent form doesn't exactly leave the trailing teams much hope of taking the top slot.
One of the most interesting things about SKT is that they really aren't as top heavy as you might think with a super-ace like Innovation on the team. In fact, the highest ranked SKT player, Dark, is only eighth overall. However, they also have absolutely the best depth in the league. They are the only team in the league that has five players with ten or more wins, and Jin Air is the only team that is even close to matching them. They also have the best win rate by far. Seriously, it isn't even a little close, as they sit at 79%, and Jin Air and CJ are at 66% and 63% respectively. To make things even better for SKT, all of their players seem to be firing on all cylinders these days. Dream was just the runner up for the second consecutive season in S2SL, and this time he lost to his teammate, Classic, in the finals. Speaking of Classic, he has stepped up big time and has somehow been able to fill the huge Protoss shoes left by former teammates Rain and PartinG. While Innovation, soO, and Dark haven't been as successful in individual leagues than they have in the past, they have still been solid in the team league booth.
That's the scariest thing about SKT: even if a few players have an off round, they have plenty of depth to keep them doing just fine. It also seems that every round there is a new player carrying the load for the team. In round one it was Dark and Innovation, in round two it was soO and Classic, and in round three Dream lead the way with his 6-0 record. This rotation of aces and lack of any actually weak players leads us to this:

MVP: None
+ Show Spoiler [On second thought...] +

What a cop out. What a horrible, horrible cop out. But can you really blame me? The five main players on their roster are all between ten and fifteen wins, and there is no clear ace player. If you asked me to give you an MVP for SKT by round, I may be able to do that (Dark or Innovation for round one, soO for round two, Dream for round three) but the difference in MVP by round only goes to show that it's almost impossible to pick just one MVP for the season overall.
But of course, this is why SKT is so good. They don't need to rely on one MVP or one ace player, simply because they have so much depth and talent. In short, on a team full of superstars, there is no superstar. SKT doesn't need a "Most Valuable Player" because all their players are valuable, and that is what makes them the best team in the league.

FPL Recap

by Lichter

Unfortunately, lichter was on vacation for a whole month, missing most of this round of FPL. His vacation left him in too good a mood to insult people, but it should only take a week or two for the TL Writers to bring out his naturally crotchety ways. FPL Recap returns next round crankier than ever.

HOWEVER

Wolf Schröder Award for Worst Hair

No matter my mood I am always ready to insult bad hair. This round, the award is split between two people:


Kill it with fire Wolf. With FIRE.


A side part in Korea??? Is this the first sign of the robot rebellion?

Fortunately, both Wolf and INnoVation have decided to go back to what we're used to. Guys, if you're going to change your look, you have to go full TAiLS on it.

Writers: lichter, Darkhorse, banjoetheredskin
Graphics: shiroiusagi
Editor(s): Jer99, DarkLordOlli