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...has a chance to win(Ace notwithstanding).
One thing I'm pumped about the upcoming season is that I think we truly have competitive balance. Every team but Ace has a shot to win it all. I think there may be more paper-rock-scissors in terms of good and bad MUs, and that even playoff positioning will come down to the wire. No more SKT1 vs Estro beatdowns everyone can see coming from a mile away. Every match has the chance to be very competitive. In that sense, I'm kind of glad of the contraction.
Side thoughts on how the new format may change things.
1. Beesuit may finally have time to prepare for the OSL. Last season, Bisu probably had to prepare for 4+ games each week. 2 regular matches, 2 potential ace matches, and both MSL and OSL matches. This season, he'll have 1.5 games per week and only the OSL.
The only thing left is for Bisu to not meet a mediocre zerg on his path to the OSL. May the BW gods bless him on that.
2. Preparation may be less of an issue. It used to be teams have to deal with players preparing for SL matches during the PL season. That obligation has been cut down dramatically. Plus no ace matches mean even the best player only needs to practice for one map. Overall, teams like SKT1 which out-prepare their opponents may not have such an advantage anymore. While the Stork-led Samsung Cellphone Players may be able to play phone games, watch anime, and still have time to prepare for matches.
3. Deeper rosters may result in more mirrors. An unfortunate problem with contraction. Teams with more depth at each race isn't a good thing. As now teams are fully capable of just sending the race that benefits most from map imbalance. This may disappear as the season goes on, but at the start we may see a lot of mirrors.
4. And finally, Samsung Khan is going to win the proleague. The stars are aligned. No true ace? Not necessary in the new format. Lackadaisical team atmosphere? No more need for 24/7 preparation. Zerg killing us? We now have 2 solid zergs and a new coach that actually knows about zergs. The Stars are aligned for Samsung Khan to win the Proleague Championship. BELIEVE!
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Uhhh STX looks pretty weak, especially compared to how stacked the other teams are. I'd be very surprised if the scores were any more even than in previous seasons.
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Man shine isnt as bad as people say he is
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Yeah, and finally fewer playoff seeds, top-heavy teams, and ACE youngsters somehow improving after joining the military will make this season more tense.
However, STX will finish last. They will under-perform once again, save for  Bogus. In fact, they've been doing poorly for so long it may be that they are just a bad team now. Modesty can only ZvZ. Calm hit his peak in '09 and only does well in starleagues. Kal peaked long ago, though he certainly still has the talent. Who else is left... Frozen? Hyvaa? Classic? Shit's rough.
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On November 18 2011 15:53 FreezerJumps wrote:
Uhhh STX looks pretty weak, especially compared to how stacked the other teams are. I'd be very surprised if the scores were any more even than in previous seasons.
Certainly STX looks relatively weak on paper, but they have some quality players and should still have a fighting chance in every match. Outside of last year (where every team, including ACE, wasn't that far behind the last playoff spot, previous PL seasons have had some teams who were obviously not competitive ( http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/heyoka/0910/standing.png , http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/heyoka/R4Stand.png ).
Some teams definitely look stronger on paper (especially given the new format) but I really think that in this coming season any given match (not involving ACE) could go either way, and that's awesome.
edit: though I do think that STX will do poorly (my best guess is Bogus keeps up his strong showing, some other random player starts playing decently, but the rest of the team plays like STX usually plays)
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I can't believe a fellow KHAN fan can even write this thread. I like Samsung KHAN but I don't and cannot believe. An in-form Stork is scarier than anything except an in-form Flash (and probably equal to death-stare Jaedong) but Stork has been in-form maybe once or twice in the last two years. The last time Jangbi did well in a Starleague, he slumped for two years after that. We don't even have fbh manner ceremonies anymore.
I think ACE, STX and KHAN are around the same level, with Woongjin a little stronger.
Predictions for regular season play (play-offs depend on form and preparation, not consistency):
1. KeSPA team8
2. KT Rolster
3. CJ Entus
4. SKT T1
5. Woongjin Stars
6. Airforce ACE (no WL this season right?)
7/8. Samsung KHAN
8/7. STX SouL
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On November 18 2011 15:45 baubo wrote:
3. Deeper rosters may result in more mirrors. An unfortunate problem with contraction. Teams with more depth at each race isn't a good thing. As now teams are fully capable of just sending the race that benefits most from map imbalance. This may disappear as the season goes on, but at the start we may see a lot of mirrors.
Remember when teams had to play each race in a Proleague match? Maybe they'll bring back that rule? Granted, we could still potentially see three mirros in a row but it would at least force diversity of the races.
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I definitely agree, especially with the new format Bo5 no ace.
We could have expected a big 4 dominating the other teams (CJ/SKT/KT/Team 8), but Samsung will definitely do well, January can't troll everyone anymore by sending Juni as ace. Woongjin Stars can be really strong with ZerO / SoulKey / Light.
The new format will also help ACE a lot (no very strong ace player, not a very deep team) and I can definitely see a line up of Iris, FBH, ggaemo, Kal, M18M do pretty well.
STX was not doing well last year, even if they put up a great fight against KT during the playoffs. Bogus showed consistency and became the new ace player, but Kal's slump kept dragging the team down. Now that Kal is gone, the team can have a brand new mindset and gain momentum again. I'm not sure how the announce that STX was willing to trade its whole roster impacted the players motivation though. That might be a pretty horrible thing to hear.
Anyway, except Ground Zero, I love the new map pool, and I'm really looking forward to watching some PL !
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Why would mirror matchups disappear as the season goes on?
How serious are map imbalances on proleague maps?
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I think Flash might finally get 100% win rate. Dead serious. With 4+ games to practice for each week, it was like 80%. With less than half that, he's going to be completely dominant.
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On November 18 2011 16:35 rplant wrote:
Why would mirror matchups disappear as the season goes on?
How serious are map imbalances on proleague maps?
Because as seasons go on, teams can use snipers to snipe partiular races, i.e. put Best or Stork on a T map, put Jaedong on a non-Z map, etc. But in the beginning, I think teams will just play it safe and put players on the maps they feel most confident in.
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I think it'll be a good race between 6 teams for the 4 playoffs spots. ACE and STX won't be completely run over either, they will beat the top teams sometimes. But they don't have the depth for a real race, imo.
1. CJ
2. SKT1
3. Kespa
4. Samsung
5. KT
6. Woongjin
7. ACE
That's kind of a balance of hope / and expect. True hope would be Khan at the top, of course.
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I think everyone certainly can win it. Every season has a different edge to it. There have been a lot of changes, there has been a long break. We always have new hyped up-and-comers, and lots of players show the potential to make a splash. The format has been changed drastically, and we're on all new maps. So many factors make this season really really unpredictable. So yeah, every team has a shot. Even ACE.
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there is 1 map i swear flash will never loose on.
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On November 18 2011 16:25 tyCe wrote:
I can't believe a fellow KHAN fan can even write this thread. I like Samsung KHAN but I don't and cannot believe. An in-form Stork is scarier than anything except an in-form Flash (and probably equal to death-stare Jaedong) but Stork has been in-form maybe once or twice in the last two years. The last time Jangbi did well in a Starleague, he slumped for two years after that. We don't even have fbh manner ceremonies anymore.
I think ACE, STX and KHAN are around the same level, with Woongjin a little stronger.
Predictions for regular season play (play-offs depend on form and preparation, not consistency):
1. KeSPA team8
2. KT Rolster
3. CJ Entus
4. SKT T1
5. Woongjin Stars
6. Airforce ACE (no WL this season right?)
7/8. Samsung KHAN
8/7. STX SouL
Cmon man. Look at the ELO of the teams. Khan is the MOST STACKED TEAM of the league. Compare ELO of their top 8 to top8 of any other team, Khan is way ahead. Im not exaggerating, that is how strong they are.
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KHAN is much better than you're giving them credit for, top 5 will be different for many people, but bottom 3 is definitely Stars STX and ACE
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On November 18 2011 18:06 Phyrigian wrote:Show nested quote +On November 18 2011 17:57 kdgns wrote:
KHAN is much better than you're giving them credit for, top 5 will be different for many people, but bottom 3 is definitely Stars STX and ACE i agree they're the bottom three, but i'd say khan is only just above stars. the other 4 are all too good, however. really any team has a chance if you look at it from the big picture, however
Except ACE T_T
But how cool would it be if fbh went on a roll ? A man can dream...
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People can diss Ace, and while I'm not saying it's Ace's time to win proleague, they are at the best I've seen them at.
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I want to see how Kal will fit into Ace, I think he will prove to be a nice player there with FBH
Stx is looking very underwhelming though, but I have faith they will pull some big upsets in the new PL format and new maps.
Stars and Khan I feel are pretty equal in power, and SKT/KT/CJ/Team 8 are all too close in power in this new format. Should be very fun to watch
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EPT
