Round 4 In the Bag

With the last quarter of the regular season officially in the books, we have a bit of time to reflect on the year of Proleague that we have witnessed. Sure, there is still the Round 4 playoffs gauntlet yet to be played, but that will actually [E/N: unfortunately contrary to my claims last week, which were hastily corrected by a recount of the points table] have very little impact on the final standings heading into the Championship Bracket for the year. The four teams heading to the final playoffs are, from first to fourth seed, SKT, CJ, Jin Air, and KT, while Sbenu, Samsung, MVP, and Prime will be watching the playoffs longingly. Sure, KT could technically supplant Jin Air as the third seed should they win this round's playoffs, and Sbenu could be forced to experience the intense heartbreak of missing the playoffs by a mere one point (If they win they would finish with 222 points to fourth-seed KT's 223) but essentially, the round playoffs will be about the 15k first prize and practice for the real show starting on September 21st.

Round 4 Playoffs: Sbenu vs KT Rolster

by Darkhorse

Monday, Sep 07 9:30am GMT (GMT+00:00)

KT Rolster vs SBENU

Flash < Vaani Research Station > MMA
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Credits to xpaperclip


Consolation Prize

What a weird year 2015 has been for Startale/Sbenu fans. First, they get their hopes up in round one when Life (who was at the time the consensus best player in the world) carried them to the round one playoffs with performances somewhat contrary to his typical team league mediocrity. After a playoffs-ending traffic jam and the unexpected (fans might remember the rather unambiguous tweet "Startale forever" Life made some time earlier) departure of Life to KT Rolster, Startale was infected with the Prime virus and finished Round 2 in dead last with an 0-7 record [E/N: how bitter that ace match loss to Prime must taste now, 1 point away from a potential playoffs spot]. If that transition wasn't crazy enough, they then picked up a new sponsor, changed to a new team name, and settled down in the middle of the pack.

Sbenu happens to be the only team that mathematically cannot make the final playoffs but are still alive in Round 4. As I mentioned earlier, their best possible finish would put them at 222 total points on the year, just one behind KT's 223. Sad? For a longtime Startale fan such as myself, yes. But honestly, this could have gone much worse for Sbenu. They really gambled in their round two recovery when they picked up WoL veterans like DRG, Jjakji, and MMA to fill out their roster. Luckily, those moves have at least partially paid off and they managed to sneak into the round four playoffs in fourth place. DRG has been more successful in Proleague than he has been in a long time, and Leenock's 4-2 record is certainly nothing to scoff at.

But for each Leenock, Sbenu seem to have a jjakji to match. And contrary to 2011, those are not words of praise. Because of their inconsistent year, it's hard to predict how Sbenu will perform against KT. They bested both KT and SKT this round, but they also lost to Samsung and were taken to ace matches by Prime and MVP. While Jjakji, MMA, and Bomber have struggled throughout the round, Leenock and Curious have been decent and DRG has, again, been spectacular. Do they have a more talented roster than their opponents? Certainly not. Do they have a shot at winning? They certainly do. Team leagues, especially with an all kill format like the round playoffs, depend quite a bit on momentum, sprinkled with doses of experience. If they get off to a good start, I see no reason why SBENU couldn't cause an upset here. And hey, as long as they manage to actually show up to the studio this time, this will be the team's best finish of the year, which isn't so bad after such a turbulent season.

More Than Money, More Than Pride

Yes, KT is the only team that can actually change the standings heading into the season playoffs. If they manage to win this round -- which they reasonably could manage to do -- they will pass Jin Air and earn themselves the third seed, and if they don't, they will finish the season in fourth place. Unfortunately, with this season using the same format for the season playoffs as they do for the round playoffs, that -- at least as far as we know -- means virtually nothing. They will still play Jin Air in round one on September 21st and, because Korea cannot stand without its eternal reincarnations, will still need to beat both Jin Air and CJ to reach the grand finals against their Telecom rivals. Although I wish they had kept the same format for the season playoffs that they used last year because it would make the end of this round more interesting, for the purposes of now let's focus on the match.

KT have a lot of advantages heading into this showdown against Sbenu. Although they did lose when the two teams met this round, the team has been on fire as of late. They finished the round with three straight wins and only dropped a single map. Perhaps most importantly, Zest is playing like the all-killing, GSL champion-caliber beast that we all know and finished the round with a league best 7-0 record. If I were KT's coach, I wouldn't hesitate to field Zest first and hope for the all kill that he is more than capable of pulling off. KT's lineup is significantly better suited to formats that allow for win streaks (as Zest and Stats have shown particularly well in the past) than Sbenu's, and their opponents have no players to reliably carry similar streaks of their own.

What's worse, Sbenu lose out on most potential 1-on-1 match-ups as well. They are undoubtedly a good team, but they can't hope to match the depth of KT any more than the momentum the Telecom team could muster. Even without Zest, I'd consider Life, Stats, and Flash (you know TY probably won't be fielded no matter what happens) to be favored against anyone in Sbenu's lineup with the possible exception of DRG or Curious on a good day. Considering this, Sbenu's backs are against the wall in more ways than one. As a fan of the team I can recognize what they've managed to do with very little to begin with this season, and I won't count them out entirely. but I'd be a fool to predict a win here.

KT 4-2 Sbenu