Introduction

Welcome to the final installation of the 2015 Proleague MVP awards! Seeing as we are now in the playoffs of Proleague, this will be the last set awards to be awarded. As always, we factor in items such as record, ace match performance, kill list etc. This round saw another huge dip in Terran performance similar to round 2; the top 10 on the win list are occupied by only two terran players, spotted at #2 and #6. Zest holds the best record at a perfect 7-0, often giving his team the only win in a week. The biggest surprise go to Maru, whom previously held the highest win count before the round, only to drop 5 games in a row in round 4, finishing at 0-5. Previous MVP Dream also went winless this round, while Classic, soO and ByuL held their own. This round features a returning MVP, along with two new ones. Let’s check them out:

Terran: INnoVation

This round of Proleague has two mech playing contenders for the Terran MVP crown: INnoVation and GuMiho. GuMiho was played a total of eight times winning against TY, TANGTANG, Journey, Solar, Classic, and Cure, while losing to herO and INnoVation. INnoVation was played four times, and held a clean record beating YoDa, Rogue, Losira, and GuMiho. This makes it a tough decision. There is no shame in losing to herO or INnoVation, but INnoVation is the other contender for the spot. INnoVation beat GuMiho in an ace match that not only secured first place for SKT1 in the playoffs, but SKT1 vs MVP was the match that pushed INnoVation to 100 wins in Proleague.

In all four of his Proleague games this round, INnoVation was an impenetrable mech wall. Aside from an uncharacteristic strong early hellbat push against Rogue, INnoVation was content to primarily play defensively and make his opponents feel like it was necessary for them to push into him. His harassment was fantastic and his army moves were calm and measured to apply proper amounts of pressure without overextending. Opponents moved out because they sensed weakness only to find that it was exactly what INnoVation wanted them to do. The game from this round that demonstrates this the best is the ace match: INnoVation vs GuMiho.



While both sides were confident that the game would eventually transition into a mech slugfest, there’s no escaping the early volatility of the TvT matchup. GuMiho opened with a gas first reaper, so he could apply some quick pressure on INnoVation, ensure a good scout, and be more than ready to react to aggression from INnoVation. On the other hand INnoVation just took a safe thirteen gas.

Thirteen gas is an older build that was especially popular in Wings of Liberty, but has fallen out of favor with Terrans preferring things like gas first or twelve gas. Thirteen gas is a solid, defensive middle of the road TvT build, opening up tech options without the sacrifices of gas first or vulnerabilities of a fifteen gas. INnoVation has been doing this more often recently, even as early as his game against YoDa in his first Proleague game this round, and against Flash on Cactus Valley in GSL. He was confident in his ability to understand and deal with what GuMiho was doing without a reaper. He was safe against aggression while retaining the ability to be aggressive himself or able to go for a more economic focused build based on what he reads from GuMiho.

GuMiho pumped out a reaper, a hellion, and a marine and tried to poke up INnoVation’s ramp. Unfortunately for him, INnoVation was ready with enough marines to easily shove it back, especially because GuMiho didn’t give himself vision of the top of the ramp with his reaper. While GuMiho then got a full scout of INnoVation, he left his hellion in the natural and INnoVation pounced on it. Any hope of aggression or delaying INnoVation’s economy died right there. However, GuMiho did not intend to continue with the aggression or harassment because he quickly expanded. GuMiho scouted the tech lab on the starport and was forced to throw down three turrets just in case INnoVation was going for cloaked banshees. This was not the case, and while GuMiho’s expansion was up quicker, he had to sacrifice 425 minerals to banshee defense, negating the advantage. Unlike his game against YoDa, INnoVation skipped cloak, making a banshee primarily for scouting purposes, which was the perfect call. Not only did he get the scout he wanted, but there was hole in GuMiho’s defenses and he nabbed three SCVs.



At this point, the game slowed down: three CC mech vs three CC mech. INnoVation quickly knocked down his rocks at the third, but for some reason GuMiho didn’t knock down his rocks at his own third. He was clearly afraid of hellion runbys because he walled his natural, but decided not to do so at the third. Three hellions took advantage of this and while they only killed six SCVs, this lack of defensive awareness was a key component of GuMiho’s loss. GuMiho and INnoVation opted for different mech styles. On the upgrade front, INnoVation quickly grabbed blue flame for SCV killing potential and delayed his singular armory where he then only upgraded weapons. INnoVation built up a more traditional mech army of hellions, tanks, and lots of vikings for air control, but with an emphasis on viking air control. GuMiho decided early on that he wasn’t going to contest the air from the air and built up an army that sacrificed vikings and tanks for a number of thors. Paired up with double upgrades, it seems like he wanted to play a timing based style that would hit with a quick 2/2.

Once INnoVation produced two medivacs, he put a plan into motion. Two medivacs filled with hellbats would fly from each side of the map while most of his main ground army pushed up the middle. He did not intend to actually attack GuMiho with his main force, he only wanted GuMiho to be scared of a push, consolidate his army including his vikings, and distract him from defending his mineral lines. It worked brilliantly. All of GuMiho’s forces headed out on the map trying to jump on INnoVation’s clearly weaker force as the medivacs boosted in. GuMiho lost nineteen SCVs as a result. If GuMiho had been unsure about pushing with 2/2, he was forced into it after those SCV deaths. The problem with his push was his composition and positioning. INnoVation had the advantage in both departments. The thors were in high impact mode so they wouldn’t prioritize air, but INnoVation had more than enough tanks on the ground to zone them out.



In the first big army engagement of the game, GuMiho had six tanks to nine, but only four of them were sieged against all nine of INnoVation’s tanks. After the engagement GuMiho only had four tanks to INnoVation’s twelve. While army supplies were similar, GuMiho’s composition just couldn’t stand up against INnoVations. His medivacs with hellbats were useless against INnoVation’s massive viking count and the thors were just not effective in engagements. While they might have done okay against sieged tanks, there was no way for them to get in range. He tried to use his slightly more mobile thors to attack two places at once, but INnoVation was too good and split his army perfectly to deal with GuMiho’s attacks. GuMiho had no choice but to tap out and give the win to INnoVation.

Protoss: Zest

For many players, inconsistency is the bane of their careers. One game they will look like a literal god, and the next they’re hardly able to execute a simple build order. If there’s anyone who seems to stay at the high end of this spectrum almost 100% of the time, it’s Zest. When Zest wins, it’s very clear why he won and it’s almost always in dominating fashion. He takes perfection to a new level with precise timings, solid macro, and calculated harassment. With a 7-0 record in the last round of Proleague, how can you describe him any other way? Even during KT’s weak streak at the beginning of the round when they were losing three to one every match, guess who was the player always putting that one win up? No matter the scenario, Zest was the sole player always clutching for KT Rolster.



Going right into the game, we can see exactly how this monster conducts his orchestra. Vaani Research Station is the map, with Zest spawning in the top and Rogue in the bottom during the sixth week of Round 4 Proleague. Rogue began with a bit of a mind game as he took the would be fourth base as his first expansion to act as if he’s expanding to the gold or performing a proxy hatch. Zest didn't panic and checked the gold base upon scouting an empty main base of Rogue. Using his brilliant powers of deduction, and upon seeing a normally timed spawning pool and lack of gas mining, he rightfully checked the upper expansion. After finding this crucial information, he was able to make his first large game changing decision in that he took an extremely quick third base of his own, roughly at about the halfway mark of his stargate being completed, and before his natural gasses. The only unit other than a probe out on the map right now for Zest was a mothership core, a decision he was able to make because of what he scouted. Spread apart bases and no gas mining before the third base is secured for Zerg means that Rogue had no real aggressive options. The mind game by Rogue was figured out and he has to play defensive with how far apart his bases are. If Zest had fallen for the trick and went into defensive mode himself, Rogue would have gained the economic lead.



The next point of what makes Zest so good is his persistent harassment. Last year it was with phoenixes, and now it’s with oracles. Stargate units have a special place in Zest’s hands; he does not rely on the power of surprise like most other Protoss do to make their harassment work. Zest instead keeps his oracles so active that Rogue couldn't possibly keep up. He doesn’t go in once for a huge mineral line massacre, he slowly snags one or two drones every time he pops in and eventually it adds up. By the time Rogue was attempting to set up a fourth base, Zest was at 67 probes to 69 drones. A Protoss couldn’t be happier with a simple two oracles.

Other than drone kills, the oracles also bought Zest time. The best kind of harassment is done not purely for the sake of killing workers, but to give you the opportunity to do something else. Keeping the opponent on the back foot to allow you to expand, tech up to storm, or warp in the necessary units to defend an attack are the sometimes overlooked aspects of harassment. Zest followed up the oracle harassment with a perfectly timed set of warp prism attacks to both draw Rogue back and allow time for him to warp in more units and finish storm. Even though the first warp prism attempt did not actually do any damage, it pulled Rogue’s entire army back for a large portion of time which is invaluable to the style that Zest is pulling off.



Having gained enough of a lead through harassment and stalling, Zest was ready to mount his defense against the inevitable zerg push. With Rogue going for a roach hydra composition, he needed to make an attack relatively early in the game, otherwise his units will become outscaled by the Protoss. Due to Zest’s harassment, that timing window vanished and by the time Rogue decided to attack, Zest was fully prepared and decimated the push despite Rogue’s antics with a fake overlord drop in the natural. All the while this was happening, Zest made sure to go in with the warp prism once more to ensure that damage was being done on both sides of the map and, sensing weakness the moment it showed, Zest immediately pounced on the opportunity of a counter attack leaving Rogue no time to think or remake his army.



With his base in shambles and his army nonexistent, Rogue is forced to tap out and Protoss everywhere get to rejoice at the sight of perfection being showcased.

Zerg: DongRaeGu

Getting picked up after the end of round 2, DongRaeGu had a mediocre round 3. In round 4 however, DRG was able to go undefeated, earning crucial wins for his team to make the round playoffs. Much like Zest, DongRaeGu held the only win for his team in some weeks, and with his record maintained his team slightly above Samsung Galaxy. His kill list included ZvZ mastermind soO, and Terran juggernauts Flash and Maru. Throughout this round, DRG was able to show extraordinary defense and persevere through a myriad of different aggressions, and utilize uncommon plays to his advantange.

In all but one game, DRG was put on the defensive out of the gates. Against Losira and soO, he had to fend off a 9 pool and baneling aggression respectively. Against Flash and BrAvO, various hellbat timings were thrown his way. With all of these different types of aggression, DRG opened similarly. So exactly how was he able to adapt to these different timings? Let’s find out!

Right from the first game, DRG was already put in a disadvantageous position. Choosing to play a 15 hatch 14 pool build, DRG wanted to play the macro game. However, Losira had other plans as he went straight for a 9 pool. Scouting the early expansion, Losira was able to send the first set of lings directly to DRG’s base, and not only was he able to enter DRG’s base completely undetected, but he was also able to build a spine crawler in DRG’s base, completely unnoticed until the last second. Everything pointed here to an easy Losira win, but DongRaeGu had a few tricks of his own. With careful and calculated drone micro, he was able to dish out enough damage to his opponents lings while keeping all of his drones alive. This bought him enough time to get out his own lings and a queen, and behind this Losira opted out of continuous ling production in favor of catching up in the economy department. An overwhelming amount of zerglings from DRG cleared the aggressive push out of Losira, and after all is said and done, the drone count was roughly the same, while DRG had an expansion to Losira’s none.



As previously mentioned, DRG faced multiple hellbat pushes, with both coming at slightly different timings. The first was against Flash, involving a four hellion drop in the main, followed up by a frontal hellbat push with cloaked banshees. The first step to holding off this push is identifying when it’s coming, and that’s exactly what DRG did. Overlords littered the air space between his base, and Flash’s, and this gave away almost immediately the latters intentions. The medivac, along with four hellions, are scouted early enough to give DRG the green light to pull back his queens into his main, and start producing extra zerglings. With four queens and a swell of lings, the drop was easily held off and DRG was able to transition into the mid game with a lead.



The last hellbat push comes in his game against BrAvO. The push was a bit later than Flash's, but much stronger. Luckily for DRG, he was able to scout this push much earlier than against Flash, and as a result, was able to hold much easier than previously. DRG was able to see the early third command center, and the armory timing, and from this he can deduce when the hellbat push is coming. A push this late normally involves a drop at some location, and a push with hellbats at the second or third base. In this case, the push can only come at the third base due to the map layout, and the drop within the main base or natural, which are close to each other. DRG prepared for the push by dropping a spine crawler at his third base and keeping four queens in the main to defend the drop. The perfect split of defense absolutely demolished what BrAvO had to push with, and DRG only lost a handful of lings and a queen.



All of these were examples of DongRaeGu holding off aggression. He displayed excellent decision making in the defense, and even better micro across the board while defending. But what about when he’s on the offense? Do his defensive skills translate into his offensive capabilities?

Not only did DRG hold off different aggressions with ease, but when the tables are turned, he’s just as deadly. He used a variety of uncommon strategies to gain a small advantage, and from there he pushed into victory. Against BrAvO, DRG used misinformation to throw off BrAvO. Following the hellbat push, DRG was able to get up to five bases, and started to bank up money. A scan from BrAvO revealed all tech options available to DRG; an infestation pit, hydralisk den, and spire littered the main base. What could DRG possibly be going for? Well, it turned out that BrAvO misread the situation and continued to produce siege tanks, while a massive mutalisk switch was en route. DRG leveraged his way into the natural base of BrAvO, even establishing a nydus worm in there to start streaming in reinforcing ground units. This was all a result of easily holding off the hellbat push from BrAvO, and gave DongRaeGu the freedom of choice for his army composition.



The last unique play from DongRaeGu was in his game against Maru. Opting to open with a two base spire before third hatchery, this gave him much more gas income earlier on than if he was on three bases. After confirming that bio was the choice of composition for Maru, DRG immediately started burrow research. A lucky catch of the hellions in the middle of the map gives full map control to DRG, and he wasted no time with it and morphs in two banelings. Everything goes to plan for DRG as he was able to burrow the banelings at a local location to the third base of Maru, and baited a group of marines over the recently burrowed banelings, successfully exploding the unfortunate group of bio. This move essentially pinned down Maru as there is a constant threat of burrowed banelings anywhere he goes, so he could not easily stream units across the map.



With these strategies and tactics, DongRaeGu was able to maintain a perfect 5-0 record throughout the last round of Proleague, showing glimmers of his dominance earlier in his career. Perhaps we will see the final boss return to his form, but only time will tell.