CJ's performances this round have been less than stellar to say the least, so when STX managed to clean sweep them it wasn't the most surprising result in the world. The interesting part of this series was how one-sided the games managed to be. Bbyong was taken out by Last in a game where the build orders differed very little, but Last always seemed to come out on top in the engagements until his lead was so overwhelming that Bbyong was forced to tap out. STX then fielded Calm (as opposed to Clam) who easily took down Snow with an effective double lurker drop followed up by a simple hydra bust while Snow was floundering around trying to clean up the mess that was being made of his main base.

Finally Mini took down Effort in a relatively one sided game, with Mini utilising a two stargate strategy excellently to put him in a fantastic position to do a pre-hive timing attack, destroying Effort who attempted to stay in the game far too long, reminiscent of certain Fantasy games of times past. All in all it was a really disappointing effort from the CJ lineup considering how much talent the team houses.



Woongjin Stars put out a good performance to take down a rampaging Khan in a close series. Roro was sent out first and was unable to best Soulkey's excellent ZvZ, with both showcasing some excellent play to create one of the better ZvZ's of the season. Grape came out next but was sent back to the bench in quick time as Zero produced a simple hydra-ling all-in build order that Grape was unprepared for and unable to hold off.

With defeat looming Stork was sent out to save his team from a whitewash and was successful, being matched up against the oh-so-hopeless-at-TvP Light, and after some hillarious reaver shenanigans he easily took down Light's attempted three base push and soon after won the game. Shine was sent out against Free and, as we all know, Shine knows only two things, mutalisks and hydralisks. For this iteration of the Shine cheese show he chose hydras as his weapon of choice, breaching Free's defences and taking the game thereby equalising the series at two games a piece. Finally Brave was sent up to attempt the comeback against Shy in what turned out to be an underwhelming final game. Shy rushed dark templar and Brave's detection was far too late and was forced to tap out, giving the victory to Woongjin, three to two.



A quick glance at the overall leader board would lead someone to believe that SKT was going to clinch this series with ease, but appearances can be deceiving. With the exception of Khan and KT, almost all teams have been displaying both good and shaky performances, so the three nil whitewash of SKT by Team 8 wasn't quite as unlikely as it might have looked. The series itself was quick and dirty. The opening set featured Jaedong against Ssak. Unfortunately for Ssak, he wasn't ready for Jaedongs five pool, and despite managing to get a wall up at the last second, the zergling onslaught was too much for him to hold. Tyson came out next and took care of Bisu with a well hidden three gate all-in that Bisu didn't scout, getting himself caught out of position and easily crushed. Jaehoon sealed the series for Team 8 showcasing a quirky two gate fast nexus build against Best with a strong reaver/speedlot follow-up that was too much for Best to handle. While the games were short and cheesy, Team 8 showed that they still want to win, and are searching for a way into the play-offs at the end of round three, taking wins in any way they can get them.



KT's dominant reign over proleague continued with a strong victory over a disheartened Ace lineup. Ggaemo was the first of the boys in blue to fall, losing his third to Mind's pre-lurker timing attack and never being able to recover. Mind sealed the game with a mid-game mech switch, showcasing textbook TvZ play. Iris was next in line for defeat as he had the poor luck of being matched up against Flash, whose proxy barracks with wraith and vulture follow-up was enough to take care of his unfortunate fourteen cc build order choice. Canata struck back for ace, taking down barracks in a hillarious game that featured both players building proxy barracks, but Canata managing to take an easy win due to mistakes from Barracks. KT wrapped up the series with Stats getting an easy win over Kal, gaining a build order advantage with early goon pressure and being gifted a shuttle with two reavers in it to seal the game later on. It was a poor performance from Ace, who will need to step up their game if they hope to make it to the play-offs.



With both STX and Khan coming off strong wins earlier in the week their series against each other was highly anticipated and lived up to expectations. Stork and mini were out first and played a gripping PvP, with Stork getting the better of the harassment to take the victory on the most entertaining PvP that Outlier has yet seen. Hyvaa equalled the score for his team, taking down Roro with a simple build order advantage ZvZ victory, utilising his second gas, Roro's micro mistakes and lack of scourge to take an easy win. Bogus then fell to Turn in a seesawing TvT, with Turn finding a critical weakness in Bogus's defences, breaking Bogus's natural and sealing the game.

Calm equalised for STX, busting Jangbi's defences with Hydras with ease, punishing Jangbi's attempt to take a quick third before storm was even done. The final match was a sight to behold, with Reality proxying a barracks in spitting distance of Last's later proxy rax, forcing Last's rax to cancel. Last then proxied his own factory in an attempt to run by Reality's defences, but Reality had walled off, and as soon as his siege tanks were done building from the factory he made in Last's natural, the game was over.



Ace continued on from their disappointing loss to KT earlier in the week, falling to the inconsistent CJ in quick time. Movie and Great played an entertaining game, with Great's attempted hydra bust failing and Movie showing excellent reaver harass to help him amass a two-base push that Great was unable to stop. Leta took down Kal with a simple three-base push that was assisted by Kal's far too late zealot leg speed upgrade, meaning Leta's push was unstoppable. Finally Hydra took down Orion despite not getting the BO advantage, with Orion making several mistakes and losing his advantage. It was a victory that CJ really needed after their poor form in the round, as they try to claw their way back to the top of the table where they sat in the early stages of the season.

Thus far, the collisions of the #1 and #2 teams have been rather one sided blowouts rather than the epic matches we had been hoping to see. Nevertheless, KHAN vs. KT looks very promising, especially now that KHAN fields Shine and Turn to great results instead of the expected Protoss spam.

KT has it's own promising players in Mind and Wooki in addition to the always glorious Stats and Flash, and we could be seeing great PvTs and ZvPs, with the potential for a battle of the undefeated, a Turn vs. Flash match.

Will KHAN come closer to beating KT than CJ? I would think so. Are they better than I gave them credit for last week? Questionable, seeing as they lost to Woongjin and their win over STX was somewhat decided by luck, but still, I'd gravitate towards, "Yes." Will they actually do it? I don't see it happening, just no way. You should definitely tune in though, after all these unexciting 3-0s, this game should be a breath of fresh air.
My prediction: KT Rolster 3-1 Samsung KHAN



I am a huge fan of STX. Sorry, let me rephrase that, I am an insufferably huge fan of STX, quite possibly the most annoying one of them all. + Show Spoiler + That said, even I can't deny that the team I dedicated my heart to has weaknesses. Don't get me wrong – on paper, STX has the advantage, but I expect Team 8 to roll over them.
I already hear some of you asking: "Mustaju, are you on an emo-trip again?" First, get out of my head; it's filthy in there. Secondly, the games in the last few weeks have done nothing to change my opinion of STX SouL. STX should have won all those matches and was really close in the last one.
Team 8 will roll over STX because the neo-SouLites are inexperienced and can't handle unexpected situations (read: cheese) which could as well be the new icon of Team 8. While my heart will cry foul, the rankings will move ever closer yet again, keeping the overall tension high.
My prediction: STX SouL 1-3 Team 8




With Woongjin Stars and Air Force ACE, the first matchups that jump into mind are epic TvZ-s with players like ZerO, Neo.G_Soulkey, Firebathero and Iris. Sounds pretty good in theory, no? In practice, both Iris and Firebathero have seen little playtime compared to the new(-ish) generation of Zerg players Chavi, Great and Orion. While that still promises at least one ZvT, Light rolling over the mediocre KHAN ACE Zerg lineup excites few, if anyone.
With varying results from both Canata and Kal, and the streaking results of Neo.G_Soulkey, I'm inclined to give this to Stars, on account of its having at least one solid player (two if you count Light being solidly bad in TvP). On the other hand, this could easily be an upset with all the potential ZvZ involved. Add to that the possibility of Light being sniped by Kal and we have a real crapshoot in our hands.
My prediction: Air Force ACE 2-3 Woongjn Stars



Remember the last two rounds when CJ vs. SK Telecom was the match you had to watch? People hyped it months before it actually took place. You don't hear the hype now, for some reason. Why? Because both teams performed horribly last round, and you shouldn’t need me to tell you that.
Score-wise, SKT is definitely the favorite, since it handed CJ two losses when they looked near undefeatable, and now CJ is doing really badly to boot. If SKT didn't drop the ball time and again, I'd have an easier time predicting a win, but I can't bring myself to do anything else either. Precedent says it'll be a blowout, so who am I to disagree?
My prediction: CJ Entus 0-3 SK Telecom T1



With less than half a week to prepare for a rematch, revenge for either team is likely going to depend more on skill rather than a witty strategy, and I suspect KT has more of that. With Flash acting as an autowin and all of KHAN being spotty at times, it’s hard not to lean in KT’s direction.
Despite this, I feel like the matches could turn out more favorable for KHAN than last game, since KT’s coach will find it hard to predict which players January will send out – rather than player/map stats and strategy, January favors practice results as the deciding statistic, and KT's lineup seems to be preparation-based, while KHAN's is more intuitive.
My prediction: KT Rolster 3-2 Samsung KHAN



In the second rematch of the week, I expect worse snipes, but a closer and more exciting game overall. The deciding factor will likely be luck, but also the ability to fix one's mistakes, and there are plenty of those. Bogus has his TvT, Last has his excitement issues, Calm is lacking in the mid-to-late game, and Classic has yet to show a single decent TvZ. Team 8 has Jaehoon's bad engagements, Seas's TvP and Baby's self-confidence to worry about, and they have to give Jaedong’s drones a lot of sleep. All in all, it seems pretty equal, but this time I'm banking on STX, since I'm a fanboy because I think they'll practice extra hard to take revenge for Saturday.
My prediction: STX SouL 3-2 Team 8