The score is tied 2-2, Jaedong is sent out to finish off the series against Flying in what would prove to be a frustrating yet hilarious game.

The match begins with Jaedong in red at eight o'clock, Flying spawns gold at four o'clock.

Jaedong opens with an overpool, his overlord headed towards the centre. Flying scouts after his pylon, his probe, unwittingly passing below an overlord, gives away his spawn position. A forge and cannon are warped in after the spawning pool has been scouted. Both players take their naturals roughly at the same time. Jaedong sends out another drone to take his third at the twelve o'clock natural while morphing his lair. Flying continues with a core, followed by a stargate and citadel.

With the lair finished, Jaedong starts a spire while he tests Flying's defences at his natural with 12 lings. A templar archive is added for Flying, while Jaedong moves from three-hatch up to five. Flying sends out four un-upgraded zealots out to test the waters. Jaedong takes this opportunity to mount a small attack at Flying's natural, taking down a cannon and several mining probes.

In the meantime, Flying's zealots are arriving at Jaedong's natural, they find two sunkens morphing and attack before they can finish. Zerglings rush in, one sunken falls, and drones are pulled to aid the zerglings.

Flying sends the zealots into the main where they meet run into staunch opposition. Dark templar are dispatched, but are unable to inflict any damage as Jaedong has positioned both sunkens and overlords at each of his entrances.



Jaedong takes his fourth at 12 o'clock while adding a hydra den. Four dark templar slip through the third and into the mineral lines, out of reach of the sunkens, killing a handful of workers and zerglings, disrupting mining.

Jaedong sends a group of lings to neutralise the threat, but one cloaked assassin manages to survive and continues to obstruct his workers.

Flying starts building up his corsair count while adding more gateways. Both forge and core are spinning as he makes an archon to join his zealot force.

Eleven minutes into the game, speedlots and an archon are ordered to move out, they head to Jaedong's natural, which is heavily defended with sunkens and lings, no attack order is issued by the Protoss commander. At this point, Flying moves to secure a third for himself, however, Jaedong discovers the attempt and forces Flying to cancel his nexus by sending a strike force of zerglings.

Zealots and an archon are battling zerglings as they move about the map, controlling much of the center. Flying attempts to take a third for the second time, while Jaedong takes his second and third gas. As he sends out his +1 carapace mutas, they enter Protoss airspace and are met with a +1 corsair squadron. Many of the scourge die to splash damage, with only a few making contact. With much of the corsair squadron still intact, the mutas flee the scene, dealing only inconsequential damage. The mutas move onto Flying's warping 3rd, but make yet another hasty retreat at the sight of corsairs.

With his third nearly up, Flying mounts an attack on Jaedong's fourth. A shuttle ferries two loads of units into the edge of Jaedong's 4th, slipping by his blockade at the third. With the majority of units preparing to attack Jaedong's 4th, Flying's warping third is left vulnerable. Jaedong capitalises on the lack of defence and forces another cancellation, delaying Flying's third yet again.



Mutas spot the drop and Flying attacks the fourth immediately with the units he has elevatored in so far. Zealots charge into the ling and sunken defence, more units are dropped in to reinforce the incursion. +1 zealots tear up the sunkens/lings, a well placed storm takes out several drones. Jaedong sends a flurry of lings to neutralise the threat.

Flying needs a third desperately, a probe strays towards two o'clock where it sets about establishing a new base.



Fifteen minutes into the game, three drones are parked at Jaedong's main ramp, for reasons unknown, a mis-rallied perhaps. It is an error that will make this game infamous in ProLeague history.

Jaedong, with his hive finished, gets a defiler mound. He starts mining out the mineral block at his 12 o'clock expo to open up an attack path to Flying's third.

Flying shuttles four dark templar into Jaedong's fourth, the spore colony falls quickly to the assassins' blades, leaving the lurker and sunkens in the dark. Drones are massacred as they attempt to flee. Speed upgraded overlords rush towards the fourth, where they encounter the sair fleet and are sacrificed to provide vision for the sunkens and lurker. They survive just long enough for the sunkens to take out the last of the dark templars.

Two minutes have passed since the drone blockade at the ramp. A short FPV reveals Jaedong only looking over his hatcheries and mineral line. Flying, with a small supply lead, starts his fourth. A superb storm drop at Jaedong's third nets many drone kills. Four minutes have now passed and Jaedong still hasn't realised the situation at his main ramp, now holding back two control groups of units.

Flying mounts an offensive at Jaedong's natural, plague hits before the Protoss forces engage. Jaedong sets up a small lurker field and throws dark swarm over it, but Flying invades nonetheless with his zealots/archons. High templar cast storms but Jaedong is able to hold the attack. A nydus canal nearby sends further reinforcements.

Flying diverts his forces towards 12 o'clock, using the path Jaedong opened earlier. +2 zealots storm into the 4th to find lurkers and zerglings, a hasty retreat is ordered.

A little over five minutes have passed, and the number of units trapped inside the main continues to grow, three control groups' worth at this point.

Flying begins adding more cannons to his expos and acquires reaver tech. Jaedong takes a fifth base as his fourth is being continuously assaulted. At this point it has been close to seven minutes since the mis-rally, and he has unintentionally handicapped himself by 50 supply, despite sending a drone half a screen away from the zerg traffic jam to mine out a mineral block…

The game continues with Jaedong performing a lurker drop at Flying's fourth, several probes are killed before the lurkers are destroyed by storms and cannon fire. Another short FPV preview reveals Jaedong is too occupied with saving his fifth base to notice the pile up at his main, as he scrambles to gather enough units to fight off the growing archon force. Unable to muster a large enough force, Jaedong loses his fifth.

Another blitz takes place at Jaedong's natural, zealots and archons charge in with high templar support, lurker lines are decimated, but without reinforcements to back up the attack, Jaedong holds it off with newly spawned units.

It takes Jaedong eight minutes to realise he has five control groups locked up inside his main. I can only imagine thousands of people yelling 'Yes! Finally!' at their computer screens.



Unable to break the natural, Flying explores other options and drops two reavers at the natural mineral line, racking up some nice worker kills.

A surge of red covers the minimap as Jaedong mobilises his newly discovered legion. Flying now finds himself suddenly under attack by large numbers on two different fronts. Swarm is thrown up as archons/zealots engage into lings/hydras. Storms and scarabs decimate most of Jaedong's army and Flying holds off the onslaught.

Flying continues to storm drop while patrolling the center, killing anything and everything his forces encounter. He orders another attack on Jaedong's fourth, but Jaedong spots the incoming assault and responds swiftly, bringing in a swarm to fend off the attack.



While supplies are fairly even, Jaedong continues to acquire new expos. Flying prepares another attack, gathering a dangerous mix of zealots/archons/reavers at the center of the map.

Jaedong uses this opportunity to attack Flying's third, which is only protected by cannons, with lings/lurkers under dark swarm. With his third in the process of being razed, Flying attacks. A bloody battle takes place with archons and reavers tearing through Zerg units and taking out the hatchery.

With his third gone, and only one mining base left, Flying scrambles to get another expo up asap. 30 minutes have passed and JD has taken another expo at six o'clock.
Flying decides to keep his main army where his new expo is, and instead uses a shuttle to harass Jaedong. A storm drop at Jaedong's fifth kills all but two drones. Flying continues the storm drops but his shuttle is destroyed by scourge, leaving a fifteen kill templar to die at the hands of a drone.



Flying's army wanders a little too far from his new expo and Jaedong uses this chance to attack, splitting his forces, one to attack Flying's army directly and the other to level the expo. Dark swarm is cast over the cannons, lurkers and lings rush in, high templar cast defensive storms, taking out several zerg units. Flying's army arrives at the expo, but Jaedong's attack isn't over yet, more Zerg reinforcements arrive and enter into battle. Flying's army is chipped away, his high templar without energy and he has nothing but archons to fight lings/lurkers under swarm. Cracklings dismantle all of his probes before tearing down the nexus.

With his new expo gone, one mining base with little resources left, and no real army. Flying attempts one last storm drop, killing twelve clumped drones, before he types out and exits the game.

Jaedong, relieved that the arduous and unnecessarily long game is over, exits the booth with a slightly embarrassed look.

In the TeamLiquid forum of public opinion, three perennial favorites dominate the Proleague discussion: SKT, KT, and CJ. With their charismatic aces in front of them and their legacies behind them, these three teams tend to be the focus.

And yet, a quiet and almost unassuming team has crept up on us. No surprise to those who meticulously track (or delegate to the Proleague app) victories and defeats, but perhaps a surprise to those of us guided by public fervor and hype; Samsung Khan is emerging as the team to beat. Khan sits in second place behind KT, with one less match played. Though behind KT in game differential score, Samsung is firmly ahead of both SKT and CJ.

What is the secret behind Samsung’s success? After all, Samsung has been associated in the past few years not with victory or dominance, but with consistent inconsistency. Managing “upsets” against the “top three” teams, but also falling to teams like Ace in 3-0 fashion has become a trademark of January’s boys.

In many observable and quantifiable metrics, Samsung seems positively childish in its capabilities. They have no rallying aces – no Flash equivalent (though to be fair, they’re hardly alone on this one), and their two one-time aces Stork and Jangbi have records that are, if we’re honest, quite modest. Jangbi, in particular, serves as defending OSL champion, yet boasts barely over a 50% winrate in Proleague so far. They have no fabled “deep line-up” – the concept of a Khan Zerg is as laughable as a SKT Zerg at this point. The departure of Great at the beginning of this season left a gap that transfers Roro and Shine cannot possibly hope to fill, as evidenced by their sparse line-up appearances and average records.

There are no secrets here; there is no magical element possessed by Khan that eludes the other seven teams in the league – for Khan, what you see is exactly what you get. What have we been seeing?

I make here a possibly controversial statement. Khan, like no other team, plays to win.

“But that’s absurd!” you exclaim, “All teams play to win!” Obviously, that’s true, but Khan does it in a way that none of the other “top” teams do.

Put yourself in the position of a coach and the strategy for a team like KT is pretty straightforward; let Flash win his game. Then try to arrange favorable matchups so that the majority of your non-ace players win. For KT, this has served them extraordinarily well, because their ace is the closest thing you’re going to get to a sure win in professional Broodwar. For SKT and CJ, each of which has a host of players not quite on Flash’s level (but who are pretty dependable), the strategy is pretty similar. Rely on your stronger players to win the majority of their games and pick up the other points wherever you can.

These are perfectly valid strategies, and a great use of your resources. It doesn’t work for Khan, however, for the simple reason that teams vary in ability. Jangbi and Stork can be compared to Best and Bisu, and then we still have Fantasy to account for. Flash is practically worth two players on his own, and KT still has Stats and a host of other players to fall back on. CJ is similar too, with a balanced and dependable line-up across all three races Khan has, in comparison, a much weaker line-up.

We’re stepping beyond the realm of observation and evidence and into speculation, but I firmly believe that Khan doesn’t rely on sniping or cannon fodder or other “line-up” gimmicks. In fact, Khan is one of the most predictable teams – Jangbi and Stork will come out wherever they want as solid players who are much more likely to win than lose, with Stork having a stronger emphasis on the twilight maps and Jangbi more likely to vary. Electric Circuit? Brave or Grape. Ground Zero? Jangbi and Turn. Sniper Ridge? Roro, with some variety. Compared to many other teams, Khan is far less concerned about getting sniped, whether by player or match-up (when 2/3 of your core line-up are the same race, there’s really no point).

Conversely, for Khan’s opponents, there are no Flashes or Bisus to snipe with cannon fodder or special cheeses. Brave, Roro, and Turn, while solid players in their own right, are hardly worrisome enough for most opponents to have special preparation readied for them. Brave, Roro, and Turn themselves, however, are going into the game with the knowledge that every single win does matter for a team that doesn’t have a dependable stream of wins to fall back on, not even from Stork and Jangbi who are by no means infallible.

How, then, does this unspectacular line-up manage to secure so many wins? Again, it is difficult to give a definitive answer short of reading the players’ minds, but (purely speculatively) I argue that Khan players have a stronger mindset. For Khan, every point matters, something that CJ and SKT are not giving as much focus as they should be. Many of the “lesser” teams, in my opinion, feel this much more pressingly than the top teams. Khan is blessed to have a stronger overall line-up at the moment than Stars or Soul or Ace, but, more importantly, they are playing according to their full potential. The end result is that, every single time a player is sent out, it is on a map that he devoted a concentrated effort on, with the intent to best whoever they face. An excellent example is Brave vs. Jaehoon on Chain Reaction.

Brave didn’t choose to save a deliciously abusive rush for a more “worthy” opponent, but instead used a build that we would’ve expected to been prepared for a Bisu or a Flash on Jaehoon. I emphasize that this is not a reflection merely of preparation and brilliant cheesing, but rather of the general attitude that, for Khan, who they’re facing is irrelevant. Turn, a promising rookie for sure but still not considered to be on the same level as Best and Hydra, managed nonetheless to take out both of them in extended skirmishes with no gimmicks.

When a rookie for KT or SKT or CJ is sent out, it is usually in a “safe” position against a weaker/easier opponent, an obvious opportunity to acclimate your young talents to the stage. When a third tier player like a SKT Zerg is sent out and is met with an enemy ace, it is always with trepidation and the understanding that, “I am the sacrificial lamb.”

A favorite pastime in Khan LR threads for TLers is poking fun at the “questionable” line-up decision. What I argue here is that they aren’t some misguided attempt to give new players experience to turn them into solid, dependable A-class sources of points CJ style, but rather because January knows that for her team to succeed, every single player must be able to win, and she is giving them the opportunity to realize this ideal.

So far, it seems to be working.