By: Zealously

With the Korean lunar new year past us, our break is over and it's once again time for Proleague! This week looks to be the most exciting yet with a full week of matches featuring EG-TL, for the first time ever, fighting in full force. So brush the dust off your fantasy teams and start trading once again.

Thanks to xpaperclip for formatting!

Round 3 Week 3 Matches

EG-TL Assemble

Being a foreign team that has commitments to foreign tournaments, it's often difficult for EG-TL to muster up a truly competitive Proleague lineup. In their debut match against KT Rolster, TaeJa, HerO, Stephano, and Revival were all absent and as a result, EG-TL was crushed in a humbling 0-4 defeat. When TaeJa and HerO returned from NASL to support the team, things looked up, but EG-TL was still not able to absolutely dominate the competition as everyone had expected them to.

Round two was supposed to be EG-TL's time. Revival was officially added to EG-TL's Proleague roster and with his defeat of both Gumiho and Leenock in IPTL, many flocked to him as yet another potential savior for the foreigner team. More importantly though, Stephano had just arrived in Korea and we were all excited to see if a foreigner could make a true splash in Proleague. But perhaps the biggest change was the switch to the all-kill format; with a lineup including infamous all-killers like TaeJa and Stephano, EG-TL was looking set up for success.

Sadly, nothing went as planned for EG-TL that round. Jaedong missed four matches because of a foreigner tournament and Stephano skipped out on three matches recently as he was probably preparing for Code S. Most disheartening though was Taeja's wrist injury which had put him out of commission, that is until now.

Look who’s back! Liquid`Taeja has risen from the dead (or at least the injured) to aid his team in their darkest hour. Perhaps this is a little overly dramatic, but it rather accurately reflects EG-TL’s situation going into week 3. Stephano and the Koreans on the foreign team have taken turns in bringing performances to the table, but there has not been a reliable super-ace on the team since TaeJa disappeared from the line-up a couple of weeks ago. Now, with Taeja back in Proleague and back in form, there are no more excuses. The best of EG-TL has assembled and with a lineup of TaeJa/HerO/Stephano/Jaedong/JYP/(Revival/Puma), we can no longer blame the coach if they lose.

Matches of the Week

There are several potentially great matches to look out for this week. The first I would recommend watching is SKT’s Fantasy going up against Samsung KHAN’s RorO on Sunday. After Fantasy’s excellent match against Effort two weeks ago, the SKT Terran might prove a formidable opponent for RorO. Both players can play aggressively entertaining styles as evidences by their recent games against in the match-up; but with how strong RorO has been looking recently, this match is also at risk of becoming a very one-sided affair.

If you want to see a foreigner, make sure to catch EG-TL vs. CJ Entus tonight – where Stephano will start off the series against CJ’s Zerg ace Effort. Stephano’s ZvZ has been weak at times while Effort has been looking very strong in the match-up lately with a decisive 2-0 in Code A and a good record all-round in Proleague. Stephano has a fighting chance, and him winning would be a great moral boost for EG-TL, but things are looking grim for the Frenchman. To, potentially, make matters even worse, there is another potential ZvZ lined up for Stephano as he’s scheduled to play Soulkey in game six on Monday.

The best match of the week has to go to SK Telecom T1 vs. Team 8. Though there are several potential great matches this week, most notably KT’s matches, SKT vs. T8 has some of the craziest match-ups in a while. Rain vs. Argo, if the right Argo shows up, has the potential to be great – with Rain’s mastery of PvP going up against Argo’s recent mastery of pretty much everything Starcraft. With Fantasy going up against Terminator and s2 scheduled for game 5 vs. Cure, there are a lot of match-ups in this series that could be really good.

On name value alone, this series probably isn’t the most hyped one of the week. There are fairly few champion vs. champion matches and a lot of the players on both SKT and T8 still lack the recognition of players like Flash or Jaedong, and so this match is easily overlooked. But s2 and Cure, for example, have both shown great games. TY has been in Code S twice, and TRUE is still alive and kicking in Code A. So if you weren’t planning on watching this match, think again and watch as Team 8 continues their rise to the top of Proleague.

Last week we brought you a short recap of what's been going on in Fantasy Proleague lately. This week, we'll continue to cover the FPL sample teams we introduced at the beginning of the season. Remember that we had previously hand selected four teams, each following a particular strategy or archetype. These strategies include:

• Picking based on Round one results
  
• Picking based on Lineups
  
• Picking based on Brood War skill
  
• Picking a full SKT team

Let's see how our teams have been doing.

Round One's Best

Week 2 Recap

Team : KT Rolster - (0p)

Captain : Rain - (6p)
Players :

• Stats - (3p)
  
• Soulkey - (6p)
  
• TY - (7p)
  
• BrAvO - (5p)
  
• JYP – (7p)

Anti - team :

• Shine - (6p)
  
• Stork - (2p)
  
• Reality - (9p)

It's with a team such as this one that one can really grasp the peculiar outcomes of Week 2. On one side, the entire main team performed well winning once or twice with their team winning. It is no surprise to see ace players continue to perform as good as before. Now and them some hiccups can happen but the talent required to be a top player like Soulkey or Rain just doesn't vanish in a few months and as such it is expected that this team will get points in the end. Special mention to JYP who got much deserved wins this week despite a rather tough schedule.

On the other side, the players who were supposed to be below the average playing level got their wins somehow. Due to the amount of talented 3p players - and starters - at the beginning of the round, some of them were statistically bound to get wins. Another disappointing result is the downfall of KT Rolster; two losses that can and should be put on Flash's tabs as he failed to prevail in the ace matches. The losses of such a dominating player will end up affecting the rest of the team sooner or later much like what happened in round 2 with SKT and Rain.

Week 3 Preview and Trades

While it would probably be a good choice to get rid of KT Rolster based on their current streak, no other team did as well as them in Round 1 bar Woongjin Stars and the latter are way more expensive right now. Among the main team, TY has the easiest time as he faces two relatively new players. The other ace players Rain and Soulkey have tougher matches but should be able to prevail. JYP gets his best matchup twice and his riding a positive momentum. BrAvO and Light seem to have split playing time which is worrying but both of them play well anyway, similarly Stats has 2 very tough matches but none of the available trades (like soO or TRUE) had outstanding results in Round 1.

This anti-team is a conundrum but with a total trade value of 16.1, it appears very difficult to get rid of anyone without risking too much on another well performing player who probably had good results in the first round anyway.

Betting on Lineups

Each week, there are some match-ups that we believe are hugely in favor of one of either team or players. This « per week » team will be drafted on week one and we will try to find the best trades each week with no consideration as to how the players can do in the future.

Week 2 Recap - ???

Team : STX SouL - (1p)

Captain : EffOrt - (4p)

Players :

• Innovation(Bogus) - (4p)
  
• P7GAB(Wooki) - (3p)
  
• Bong - (1p)
  
• Revival - (2p)
  
• JYP - (7p)

Anti - team :

• Classic - (4p)
  
• Stork - (2p)
  
• Savage(Ryul2) - (4p)

Let's start this review with STX SouL, they got swept by the best KeSPA team Woongjin Stars 0-4 but managed to outplay CJ Entus two days after that. They still lack a good and consistent player to complement Innovation and Dear but they certainly improved a lot lately. Aside from the two main team trades who weren't efficient, the week went OK for this main team based on the results but it should have been better, particularly for Innovation and EffOrt, two ace players who are expected to win against lesser experienced players. Then again, this is ProLeague everyone can win a Best of 1.

Similarly the anti-team had troubles; Stork is his usual self but Classic and Savage got their wins in a surprising fashion. Most surprising is Classic who played the main team captain EffOrt. When you trust your main team to win over your anti-team, it's generally a good choice because you are limiting unnecessary trading fees; however sometimes it doesn't go as planned.

Week 2 Preview and Trades

Anti - team : Savage(Ryul2) for hyvaa

Bong who impressed many during round 2 fell apart in the last 2 weeks. There isn't anyone worthy enough to trade to, so we'll have to keep him for now hoping he can win somehow. P7GAB, EffOrt and Innovation should at least get one win this week and JYP who got his best match-up probably 2. It leaves us with Revival whom we could have traded for TRUE, but we decided not to as the latter isn't particularly favored anyway. These decisions are possibly not the most optimal ones but taking risks is somewhat contrary to the spirit of this team. Aside from this, SouL has a rather quiet week compared to the last one and on the anti-team, both Classic and hyvaa aren't fielded and thus are obvious picks.

Betting on Brood War Skill

Week 2 Recap - ???

Team : SKT T1 - (-1p)

Captain : Jaedong - (4p)
Players :

• EffOrt - (4p)
  
• Stats - (3p)
  
• Light - (5p)
  
• SoulKey - (6p)
  
• BeSt - (0p)

Anti - team :

• Argo - (5p)
  
• Terminator - (4p)
  
• Hyuk - (0p)

People were psyched about having SKT for the meager price of a single point, but cheap doesn't always equal good return on investment. SKT had a bad week and the royalty of BW is now just another middle-of-the-pack team, one who is having a rather hard time right now. Jaedong had an OK week much like the rest of the team. He his still very shaky in any match-up but ZvZ. Light is splitting playing time with BrAvO in order to make room for Flying and AriA but he still got his win nonetheless, a testimony of his solidity. BeSt isn't the powerhouse he used to be in BroodWar, we picked him to follow the rules of the team and didn't expect too much out of him.

The anti-team is where the real fun is. Argo used to be failhoon but he considerable improved his confidence during the second round and is riding a very positive momentum. Similarly his teammate is also playing fairly well and both of them are shaping up to be a very reliable protoss duo for the 8th Team. Hyuk is still bench warming but considering his comrade in bench is Bisu, they must have a lot to talk about ...

Week 3 Preview and Trades

No trades this week as no really big Brood War greats have depreciated too much in value.

All-in on SKT T1

Week 2 Recap

Team : SKT T1 (-1p)

Captain : Rain - (6p)
Players :

• Fantasy - (0p)
  
• soO - (3p)
  
• s2 - (3p)
  
• BeSt - (0p)
  
• Sacsri - (3p)

Let it be known that when one team has a very powerful and dominant duo, should one of them slump it is the whole team who will suffer! This is becoming embarrassing fro FanTaSy who has now a 0-4 record in this third round. He is bound to hit the ground sooner or later after falling like that but it might be too late for his team. Rain finally got part of his mojo back and it's encouraging. SKT will need him and his fangirls to prevail. A quick mention of the supporting cast : BeSt isn't consistent enough right now but the SKT zergs are really doing their job. Despite their BW history, they are trying their best to win games no matter what happened. soO qualified for Code A recently and won against MVP. ProLeague is a different environment but we should expect big things in the future for him.

Week 3 Preview

SKT T1 plays Samsung Khan and Team 8 this week. If you had asked anyone before this round who was going to be the winner of both this games, there would have been little to no one betting on anyone but SKT. However the momentum has completely shifted. The team who did poorly in the first round are doing better while the did who did well are doing poorly. We will get a good idea of the outcome of this third round after this week has passed.