Round 5 started not with a whimper, but a bang. Not the kind of thunder that reverberates in the heavens, but nonetheless our introduction to the end of the season made a bold statement. That statement was "Brood War rules subtext: Proleague won't end without a bang".

As we discussed last week, Starcraft can be a cruel profession. One day you're Stork, winning Starleagues and ace matches, the next you struggle to win against s2 (a 'less than star' zerg).

These transformations exist all around us. A caterpillar grows butterfly wings as a newcomer takes down a starleague champion.

You could be any member of the ACE team. Each of them, a legend in his own rite, a Starleague title for over half the team members (sorry YellOw). Their transformation has been less elegant, while flashes of brilliance remain their average self struggles to keep up with the game as it is played now. Even RuBy and Much, who still showed promise as regular A-teamers in their house of origin have been lacking lately.

For HiyA the transformation is a full cycle. There was a period when he was capable ofall-killing of a competent team. That period was followed by a prolonged stretch wherein he battles mediocrity. This week he showed a bit of his old spark, and beat Flash in an ace game.

Perhaps the most significant of all, a team most known for having a questionable zerg lineup gave it their all and kicked ass. On the flip side, Stars fielded 4 zergs and lost against a CJ that fielded all 3 races.

Lets look at some other stats from this year.



With that out of the way, here is how teams did in the last week.



Grape had his TV debut this week. You might recognize him as the b-teamer our own ret took some games from last year. He didn't fare so well here either, losing to RuBy in a PvT.

Of particular note, the week opened with Snow beating another terran, and going on to take down Kwanro later (in an amusing game where Kwanro tried to base trade then refused to leave long after he surely knew he had no shot of coming back from). We keep touting him as someone to watch and it will keep happening while he is tearing up the league. Backho saw his return after months of no TV time, and promptly lost to Flash. One can assume the terran monster was a little upset about what happened last time they met.

The most important aspect here is how these results changed fantasy propects, however.



While individual results bring us what we all love, as reports our job is to bring you the trends. Big picture stuff. The happenings of an entire race, entire teams. Storylines. Drama.

Did you know Classic got only his second loss on TV this week? It was at the hands of Movie. His first loss was during last year's proleague season. To Flash. It was his first game on the big stage. He certainly is blossoming into a solid regular, though without specific flair it goes largely unregistered.

Back to the topic of a single all-encompassing view, 'in-depth guy' has noticed a few things and is interesting in sharing.



Both Sea and Light lost this week. A change in the team? Unlikely, but it embodies the troubles they have had for the last several weeks. Especially considering their total-win graph we began today's Proleague journey with.

We're big picture people though, you see. No reason to stop with two players when you can look at the entire league. That means it is time for...Proleague previews.



Allllllllright, thats it for now. Games have already started this week, so be sure to check out if your favorite match happened. This coming week is sure to be full of exciting matches. At the very least, it will begin to answer the question about whether this proleague season shows true transformations or just aberrations within normal play. Hopefully it will lead to an answer if teams can truly change or if it was merely an illusion.

As always, enjoy the games! There will be less SC2 this week so what the hell else do you have to do?

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