A Brand New Season

It might have been a long wait since October's Finals between Jin Air and SK Telecom T1, but Proleague is finally back to brighten up everybody's start to the week. 2015 was certainly a season of ups and downs, but the one constant you could rely on throughout the season was SKT's dominance, whose depth and quality proved far too much for any other team to handle. The big question is then: Can they do it all over again? After all, Legacy of the Void is upon us, and with every new game comes hungry new challengers and revived old pros alike.

Big changes have been made to the format, the most obvious of which is the reduction to 3 Round Robins from previous years' 4. In addition, the switch to a 7 team league means that we're unfortunately getting much less Proleague than before. However, that's not to say that quality will be impacted; if anything, there's far less margin for error now, and with strategies in the new expansion still developing rapidly, it will be interesting to see which teams leap ahead in the coming weeks. The teams themselves have also changed markedly from last year. Afreeca have taken on the StarTale / SBENU squad from last year, while most teams have used the offseason to chop and change their rosters.

It all adds up to the most unpredictable season of Proleague in the Starcraft 2 era so far. It might have been a long time coming, but it's finally back to restore the five day Korean Starcraft schedule. Hell, it's about time.

Afreeca vs SKT T1

Super <Ulrena> Dark

After his convincing 3-1 victory over RagnaroK in the GSL on Friday, Super should be coming into this match full on confidence. It’s interesting that he’s one of the two Afreeca players chosen to play twice this week, and indeed both times has been picked on Ulrena—a map notable for its absence from the GSL map pool this season. Whether Super’s genuinely one of the best players on Afreeca, strong on the map in particular, or simply has a couple of prepared builds ready is unclear, but chances are that he comes into this match with some edge in mind.

That said, RagnaroK is a highly aggressive zerg, and it will be interesting to see how Super plays against a much more well-rounded zerg in Dark. Holding RagnaroK’s array of nydus and roach attacks is one thing, but whether he’s got the chops to go up in a macro game against Dark is another. While the SKT zerg was somewhat weak against protoss in 2015, Legacy threatens to be a much more fitting game for him. His traditional weaknesses in the matchup came in the late game, and in particular how to crack the deathball style of protoss. That’s less of an issue in 2016, and the skirmish / harass style that we’re starting to see could be more to his taste.


Curious <Lerilak Crest> Classic

With Code A drawing to a close this week, we’re starting to get a better idea of where things stand in the Korean scene. As always, it’s difficult and disingenuous to draw conclusions based on a mere handful of games watched, but it’s still better than just going on the unstreamed results in Aligulac. Unfortunately, Curious hasn’t even given us that. While his ZvT has looked solid, he still hasn’t played a single televised ZvP, and the most relevant result we can call on is his 0-2 loss to Classic himself in the SSL qualifiers. Curious has always been a player who’s been more a refiner than an innovator—his only two Code S semifinals came in the last years of both WoL and HotS—and we’ll have to see if he can adapt quicker to LotV.

Meanwhile, Classic has continued his quiet rise to the top of the scene. Easy progress to the second Winners’ Round of the SSL was followed by a hard fought 3-0 over jjakji in the GSL last Friday (Game 1 was one of the best games we’ve seen so far in Legacy, and well worth a watch). Again, though, the current state of his PvZ is unknown—the aforementioned SSL qualifiers featured his only games against zerg so far, and even those are now well over a month old. I’d favour Classic here, as the most balanced and multi-talented protoss from previous years, but either way we’ll learn something new about both of these players here.


KeeN <Dusk Towers> INnoVation

Now that his hellish 2015 on The Team That Must Not Be Named has come to a close, KeeN kicks off in Legacy in a far better place than he ended HotS. Winning his first offline event at Gfinity Summer II over Lilbow, MyuNgSiK and MarineLorD at the back end of last year must have been a boost to his confidence, and after a brief SBENU hiccup, the Afreeca team looks like a much more solid outfit to kickstart his resurgence. TvT has been his worst matchup by far in his prolific Legacy online campaigns though, running at a sub-50% win rate, and losing regularly to most of the competent online warriors (GuMiho, TY, Reality, ByuN).

The question is then, whether INnoVation deserves to be mentioned in that category of quality Legacy terans. Last year, that this is even up for debate would have been laughable, but he’s shown precious little of quality in his games so far. Dumped out of the SSL by RagnaroK and soO, it seems he still hasn’t learnt the lessons of 2013; repeating his traditional pattern of dealing damage to the zerg, before being far too greedy to hold the inevitable roach follow up. Frankly, there’s no doubt that this should be an INnoVation win, but we said the same for his match against RagnaroK. After the embarrassment of his NationWars Finals performance, it’s time for him to restore his reputation.


Bomber <Prion Terraces> soO

Oh Bomber. While not quite reaching Ryung’s level of giving zero fucks while firing shots at Blizzard, he was certainly a pretty angry man after being adepted out of GSL by Seed. Fortunately for his sanity, he’s up against a zerg tonight; unfortunately, that man is soO. One of Bomber’s main strengths throughout the past five years or so is the sheer amount of experience that he’s gathered. Unlike INnoVation or Maru, say, who tend to stick to one super-effective tactic, Bomber’s never been afraid to shop around, mixing in tactics from all years of the game seemingly at random. Whether that will change following the massive shakeup that Legacy brought is certainly a danger for him. He’s never been afraid to stray from the meta, and as it’s been more than two months since his last streamed TvZ of any note, he could well turn up with a couple new tricks.

On the other hand, soO’s roach ravager style was on full display last Thursday against INnoVation. His TvZ definitely seemed beefed up from his first round loss to ByuN, when he was still a little too wedded to a HotS-esque style, but it’s unclear whether this was his preferred default style, or if he was specifically targeting his teammate’s proclivities. Either way though, he seemed solid enough to handle whatever Bomber’s likely to bring.


ACE: <Orbital Shipyard>

Pretty much impossible to pick for either side. Afreeca have all but admitted they have no true ace player, while SKT have a whole squad of them. If the score stands at 2-2, then each team’s ace player will likely come from the two winners on the day, so if you want a complete guess of a prediction, it would be Super vs Classic in a PvP.

Predictions

Super > Dark
Curious < Classic
KeeN < INnoVation
Bomber < soO

Afreeca 1 - 3 SKT

KT vs Samsung

Losira <Lerilak Crest> Journey

Losira has come full circle. With the disbandment of Incredible Miracle, the former Code A champion looked out of options. Out of form, teamless, and without a spot in Code S for the whole of 2014, it really seemed like time was up for one of the most stylistic zergs in the business. Luckily for us, that didn’t happen, and he performed an admirable role last year carrying MVP to a respectable set of results. Once again then, he returns to the big time, now on KT. For KT’s sake, let’s also hope that he hasn’t brought the IM teamleague mentality with him.

He certainly looked decent enough up against his old coach in Code A, but as with many, he lacks relevant results against terrans to rely on. That said, while we’ve seen already that HotS is a vastly different game to LotV, his old preferences for an ultralisk core to his army over brood lords could make this very interesting if he decides to rush to hive. He’s up against Journey—one of Samsung’s batch of rookies—and a player who has long impressed online while simultaneously never achieving anything of note in the booth. While he’s had plenty of experience in Legacy, it all counts for nothing if you can’t perform on the day.


TY <Ulrena> Solar

Match 2 sees two of the hottest players of Legacy so far. TY has been earning rave reviews in all his games so far, while Solar’s been praised since the beta for dominating the ladder and online competitions. Both are perhaps better known for their matches against protoss. TY has led the way for terran, showing them how to open defensively against adepts while not losing out economically, while Solar has a frankly ridiculous 37-0 match streak in ZvP throughout Legacy’s short history. This match should then be highly anticipated; there are few players who will tell us more about the current state of TvZ. Solar has a winning record against pretty much every online terran warrior in the game in LotV, with only ByuN and Reality regularly causing him trouble. However, as we saw last year, he's no stranger to bizarre form in the booth, and we hope that 2016 goes a bit better for the likeable zerg.


Zest <Orbital Shipyard> Dear

Match 3 is all about knowns and unknowns. We know that Zest has a solid claim to be the top PvPer in HotS history, but we also haven’t seen him in the mirror matchup since he lost to MyuNgSiK in the GSL Preseason. On the contrary, Dear looked great in his Code A match against sOs when he knocked the Jin Air ace out of GSL. What's more, with Zest's starleague life on the line in Wednesday's Code A showdown with Maru, I doubt many people will be criticising him too heavily if he's keeping one eye on a match of that importance. If this was still HotS, Zest would be a pretty safe pick, but without any info on how he’s playing right now, I have to favour Dear.


Stats <Ruins of Seras> Reality

Stats has started 2016 just as he did 2015—easy progress in the SSL, combined with continued failure in the GSL (4 exits in Code A/B in a row). Tonight, it’s just a case of which version of Proleague Stats will turn up. Will it be the Stats of early 2015 (18-4) or the Stats of the second half of the year (4-8). There’s a strong case to be made that what KT lacked was consistency last year, with too few of their key players clicking simultaneously; if they intend on chasing down SKT in 2016, Stats will certainly be a key player.

Meanwhile, Reality might been hyped as one of the strongest players of Legacy so far, but KT debutant SpeeD showed him up in Code A last week. He was a middling terran for Samsung last year, reliant on his meching strength in TvT and TvZ, and it will be interesting to see if he can branch out this year.


ACE: <Dusk Towers>

KT have shown a distinct unwillingness to oust Zest from his ace status, even on days when he lost his first match of the night, so expect Zest to show up here unless he plays abysmally. Samsung have an interesting pick between Dear and Solar, but especially considering the likelihood of a protoss ace from KT, Solar should be the obvious choice here. If Samsung pick up two wins here then, expect them to take the match.


Predictions

Losira > Journey
TY > Solar
Zest < Dear
Stats > Reality

KT Rolster 3 - 1 Samsung Galaxy

Jin Air vs MVP

Maru <Dusk Towers> Blaze

The opening game between JAGW and MVP contains a lot of potential for chaos and craziness. For the Proleague Kongs of Jin Air none other than their ace terran Maru will begin the 2016 Season, while on the other side one of 2015’s more surprising players will take up the banner: Blaze. After changing his nickname from Panic to Blaze last summer the protoss player was able to perform better than ever before, taking out several heavy hitters with his precisely prepared strategies. Blaze is thus regarded as an integral part of MVP CHICKENMARU’s plans for 2016.

Of course this holds true for his opponent as well, one of the most valuable players in Proleague—every team wishes it had Maru in service. Traditionally his TvP has been a feared match-up, because Maru manages to unleash a whirlwind of attacks like few other terrans are able to, and this paired with a truly unique stubbornness makes for an intimidating experience for any protoss player. The Little Psychopath doesn’t only have Blaze to prepare for, but will be facing his long time victim Zest in Code A the next day, so he should be all in on TvP practice right now. His opponent hasn’t had the best start into Legacy of the Void, losing all of his series but one—indeed his first match this year will be against Maru. What we’ve seen from him in 2015 leaves hope for MVP fans though. With the dark magic of Choya on his side, Blaze surely will try to make this an interesting first map.


Rogue <Lerilak Crest> Ryung

Talking about chaos, craziness and interesting maps: Rogue will make his 2016 debut against none other than Ryung—another one of these potentially explosive pairings. The zerg had been one of the most creative members of his race throughout his cursed 2015, most notably using the changed swarm host and baneling carpet bombs against herO in ZvP among other things. Fixing this match-up might be a high priority for him at the moment, as he will be facing the tricky Billowy on Wednesday. Unfortunately we don’t know much about his form against terran right now with only two ZvTs played so far in Legacy of the Void.

His counterpart Ryung will celebrate his first ever SPL match, surely hoping for a win in his debut to prove his worth to his new team. He has been playing Legacy of the Void right from the start and was able to see the development of the gameplay until now very closely—apart from maybe having a better feel for the game this doesn’t result in a huge advantage though. Practicing LotV earlier than others didn’t give anyone an advantageous start and Ryung hasn’t been victorious for over a month now, seemingly falling behind the curve. The Proleague format could be his saving grace however: A smart player such as him might very well thrive in this format, in which his characteristics are rewarded more than in long series.


Creator <Ruins of Seras> DeParture

Third up is Creator’s first Proleague match for Jin Air Green Wings. After having several free spots on the team because of leaving players, Jin Air quickly moved to pick up the teamless Creator. The protoss always was regarded as a potentially great player, but his practice conditions seemed to chain him to the ground. It’ll be interesting to follow his development this year for sure. Recently Creator was able to take an important step by winning his Code A match against Armani—a shaky series, which went to the very last game—to advance to GSL Code S. Overall the protoss was not able to really impress anyone yet, showing that there’s still a long way for him to go.

The same path is being explored by DeParture, who really made a name for himself last year through high ladder rankings in Korea, impressive Proleague victories and also triumphing in a Gfinity tournament in Europe. The young zerg symbolises Choya’s success in 2015, who made MVP a fighting force in SPL and helped his players gain confidence and experience, forming a unit out them. For many old fans MVP have lost their identity after their old roster left in the end of 2014, but players like DeParture, who took up the banner, have formed a new face for the team. Things haven’t slowed down in 2016 for the zerg, who also was able to advance to Code S, but in a more notable manner than Creator: DeParture eliminated Stats with a 3-1 score, showing that his rise is not over yet.


Cure <Prion Terraces> Forte

Facing off in the fourth match of the night are Cure and Forte in a TvT mirror. The match-up has been crazy and all over the place in the last couple of weeks, but both players seem to be able to keep up with the metagame quite well, with both earning their Code S spots through TvT victories in Code A. While Cure defeated Sorry in a fast series with a 3-0 score, Forte eliminated TvT expert BrAvO with only one map loss. Jin Air’s terran is famed for his multitasking, which is certainly a benefitting ability in the terran mirror match-up—controlling and intercepting medivac fleets has never been more important than right now. In such fast paced gameplay Cure must feel very comfortable, as it plays right into his strengths.

His opponent is of course yet another one of MVP’s wild younglings. Forte—formerly playing under the name of SalvatioN—has tried breaking into the scene for such a long period of time. Now it seems that his moment has finally come. He advanced into Code S for the first time and has the trust of coach Choya to do well here. With the morale boost of a Code A victory behind him he should fear no opponent. And courage is something he will need going into this match.


Prediction

Maru > Blaze
Rogue > Ryung
Creator < DeParture
Cure > Forte

Jin Air 3 - 1 MVP

CJ vs Afreeca

Bbyong <Lerilak Crest> aLive

For the first match between CJ and Afreeca the Yin and Yang of the terran race will meet each other on the battlefield: The unorthodox and clever Bbyong faces the incarnation of standard terran play, aLive. Of course this takes into consideration their careers before Legacy of the Void—we don’t yet know what standard or unorthodox actually is in LotV, so differentiating is difficult. Bbyong hasn’t had any impressive results in the new expansion so far aside from winning his Code S spot by defeating newcomer DRGling,

His opponent on the other hand seems to have experienced a renaissance, qualifying for Code S by beating ZvT monster ByuL and keeping his chances in the SSL afloat by eliminating MyuNgSiK in the loser’s bracket. We haven’t seen aLive live up to his name for a long time, but right now he’s really doing it. He does have a thing in common with Bbyong however—neither has shown signs of brilliance in TvT yet, only having average winrates so far (albeit with a small sample size). When they clashed in the SSL qualifier in December aLive was able to eliminate Bbyong with a clean 2-0 score. Needless to say that morale should be in the Afreeca player’s favour—he’s on a roll.


ByuL <Ulrena> Super

Next up will be a ZvP on Ulrena with ByuL and Super performing as the main characters. The CJ zerg had a solid start into Legacy of the Void with very good winrates across the board, but was upset by aLive in Code A. All he has left for now are the SSL and Proleague, making him an even more dangerous foe in these competitions. He won his last ZvP in sovereign manner to boot his former teammate Trust down to the Losers' Bracket of the SSL, but has to prepare for two different match-ups now—for Super in Proleague and for Solar in StarLeague. This might divert his attention enough for Super to seize the moment.

The protoss of course was able to celebrate a success against a CJ zerg recently. In Code A he defeated ByuL’s colleague RagnaroK 3-1, showing that he’s certainly a force to be reckoned with in the coming matches. Both zerg and protoss have plenty of aggressive options at the moment, which may be employed to take an easy win and bring the own team in a good position. With Ulrena statistically favouring zerg by a large margin, it will be on Super to find a way to prove the numbers wrong—and indeed, being fielded two times on this battleground in this week is probably a sign that Afreeca player does have a trick or two up his sleeve.


Hush <Orbital Shipyard> KeeN

With herO abroad in Taiwan playing at IEM, CJ's protoss duties fall to Hush, who until now has mostly been on benchwarming duty in Proleague. Responsibilities have grown drastically for him as Trust—formerly the second choice after herO—has transferred to KT Rolster and is no longer an option for CJ. This week will show if Hush is up to task presented, or if he will crumble under the pressure. It's not only KeeN he has to worry about, because a couple days after this SPL match the protoss will face the mighty DongRaeGu in Code A. Two very important matches against different races is quite the challenge.

However, winning against KeeN—although a formidable task—is not impossible. The terran has collected a great deal of Legacy of the Void experience in online cups, while Hush has barely played any games so far. His record against fellow Koreans looks dire so far though, negative across the board, and it looks especially bleak against protoss. It’s really difficult to say what we can expect from this match, but we know one thing for sure. Both of these players seek to prove themselves and will take the necessary action to win.


RagnaroK <Ruins of Seras> Billowy

The fourth match has the material for a weird game with RagnaroK—guardian of the TSL legacy—and Billowy—the bane of KT and a master of chaos—facing off. CJ’s zerg only recently has been defeated by Billowy’s colleague Super in Code A, which will probably make the protoss confident in this match as well. As mentioned before, both races have lots of aggressive options to end the game fast, which is certainly the path both of these players prefer their games to follow. The protoss has played way fewer matches than his counterpart in Legacy of the Void, but interestingly enough the two opponents have exactly a 50% winrate against fellow Koreans until now—slightly positive rates in zerg vs protoss included.

RagnaroK employed the typical TSL ZvP in Code A, fielding nydus worms, roaches and early ling attacks to end the game fast. Super was able to hold on to this type of play quite well, so the question is if Billowy can do the same. He surely will be well practiced in PvZ as he’ll face Rogue the day after his match against RagnaroK—another aggressive and unpredictable zerg, albeit a few levels above the CJ player. With two offensive and cheesy players clashing we’re in for an interesting ride.


Prediction

Bbyong < aLive
ByuL > Super
Hush > KeeN
RagnaroK < Billowy
ByuL > aLive

CJ ENTUS 3 – 2 Afreeca Freecs