Table of Contents

Week 3 Lookback
Short Recaps


Week 4 Matches
Starters and maps


Fantasy Spotlight
Banquet or Starvation


Fantasy Archetype Update
Even more fantasy!


SK Planet Proleague table and results at Liquipedia

By: monk, Pokebunny and Zealously

Last week was truly a week of winner take all. Teams either flourished, walking away with absurd map scores differentials. Or they completely flopped, hardly taking but one game in two matches of play. As the finals matches of WoL Proleague draw to a close, we begin seeing a better picture of the hierarchy of of the teams. One team has risen above all the rest, now incapable of being dethroned as WoL Proleague champion. Meanwhile, the rest fight for scraps as the margins for the rest of the placements remain within a hair of each other.

Feburary 16th - 17th

EG-TL's woes continued after the break, as Stephano's victory over EffOrt was the sole bright spot in a 1-4 loss to CJ Entus. A big win for Stephano's traditionally weak ZvZ, the game escalated to hive tech broodlord battles perhaps sooner than we might have been used to. What was expected to be a triumphant return for the EG-TL ace, TaeJa, was also a disappointment, as what looked to be a relatively easy match-up in sKyHigh proved to be too much for an ailing TaeJa. The rest of the EG-TL losses were just disappointing defeats, mostly within the first 15 minutes, not giving a lot of hope for a team that came into Proleague expected to be the favorite.

EG-TL desperately needs hope, and with TaeJa's return not enough to pull them up, there aren't a whole lot of beacons of hope to look for. Jaedong has been average, Stephano has been decent, though not enough to pull the team through, HerO has been decidedly average, and the rest of the team has been struggling. CJ continues to be on the rise, with a 4-1 victory highlighted by big wins from the supporting cast in Bong and sKyHigh show that they are a force to be reckoned with even with EffOrt's struggles as of late.



While KT put out a strong first impression with their excellent performance in Round 1, Woongjin Stars has been the true silent killer of Proleague, far outperforming the stars of KT, SKT, and EG-TL with their solid lineup top to bottom. We saw evidence of this in a big way as Woongjin's aces mostly came through and the supporting cast picked up some big wins on their way to a 4-1 destruction of KT, highlighted by Flying taking the final match over Flash. Flash vs Flying featured uncharacteristic fail from the KT ace, with his 4 rax marine push unable to do damage to a fast 3rd base off of two gateways from Flying despite having a significant build advantage. Bravo vs Crazy was a classic Arkanoid game, with both players staying on three bases the majority of the game, but Bravo managed to stay far more cost-efficient than Crazy and managed to hold a fourth base for an impressive victory. KT's sole victory came from Zest's extended sentry-immortal allin prevailing over ZerO.

While Flash's loss was certainly a disappointment, the overall result was mostly expected, with Woongjin's frontmen showing stellar play top to bottom. Aside from that, not a lot can be taken from this match - Woongjin simply outplayed KT overall, with good preparation and solid execution. KT is definitely still a top team with their front five being good enough to match pretty much any team in the league, but they met their match in Woongjin and fell hard (even with the notable omission of free from the lineup from Woongjin).



When Samsung KHAN and SK Telecom T1 faced off last time, SKT was handed yet another loss as RorO barely managed to edge out Rain in the ace match. This time around, SKT was out for revenge, and saying that they got it would be putting it mildly. With soO stealing the first match of the series away from Shine, things snowballed out of control as s2 and BeSt delivered two more victories to their team in quite convincing fashion. To close things out, Rain went up against Jangbi on Cloud Kingdom where he showcased his vastly superior late-game knowledge, with a better composed, better positioned army, smashing Jangbi in the much hated laser war-stage of the game.

Not many teams can say this, but I don't think this loss hit Samsung too hard. First of all, they were coming into this match 3-0 on the back of a crazy record in Round 2, whereas SKT had a lot more invested into this match with Proleague almost always being their sole focus. Secondly, they still have some of their dignity after beating SKT in Round two. And although Samsung didn't look too good in this series, RorO didn't even get to play and it is quite likely that he was preparing for GSL either way. RorO has gone from being an inconsistent, sometimes-mediocre, sometimes-great player to just really good all the time, and whenever GSL is over for him (and HoTS Zerg isn't having as much trouble), he can devote his full attention to Proleague again and be that ace player that tipped the balance for Samsung in Rounds two and three.



STX_Bear's first ever Starcraft II match ended up being a great success, as he took the first game of the series against Savage, creating more puns than even roaches in the process. From that point on, Team 8 was hard pressed to find their footing. Although Argo did manage to win his game against Dear on Cloud Kingdom, Team 8's other key players, Cure and TY, were beaten by Innovation and more notably, a well-prepared Comet. Team 8 did manage to bring in another victory as Terminator took down Trap, but in the end Last was able to close it out for STX before Team 8 could bring out Acehoon.

This match essentially put a stop to Team 8's quite rapid ascent, giving them their second loss of the round. Although Argo remains consistent and other players on Team 8 take turns in bringing their best play, they aren't always able to close things out or stay alive until the ace match, where they now have one of the best ace players in the league. For STX, solid performances from the rookies can only mean good things going forward, creating a more solid roster than their previous mostly one-man show of Innovation + friends. STX has actually put together some fairly impressive performances, but they have had some trouble closing maps out due to the lack of four solid, consistent players. If they can raise one or two rookies to become consistent performers, things will be great for STX SouL.

Feburary 18th - 19th

Woongjin Stars vs EG-TL was a battle of the best performing team in Proleague against the worst. This was a truly David and Goliath story, with EG-TL surprisingly playing the role of David. Unfortunately, EG-TL apparently forgot to bring their slingshot as they were unceremoniously trounced in 4-0 fashion.

The best game of the night was TaeJa against free in what should have been an easy win for the + Show Spoiler + In a tense nail-biting game, TaeJa pressured free with his large late-game bio army, consistently reinforcing with streams of units. And while free kept on losing his 4th base, his counter-harassment proved successful, dealing significant damage to TaeJa's economy. Battles constantly raged on, often won by razor sharp margins, and it would not be till near the end that we realized that TaeJa had chosen not to remake his lost SCVs and that his pressure was indeed all-in. While watching this game, we couldn't shake the feeling that the TaeJa of mid-2012 would have won this game, that a fully healed TaeJa would have found some way to micro his way to victory. This game probably marks the last we see of TaeJa in WoL Proleague, but at least he put up a good show.



The KT squad, and especially Flash, needed a big bounceback performance as they slip closer to losing their playoff spot. Playing the unproven Barracks, losing a pair of games to the two Zerg aces of CJ, and Flash taking a huge upset loss for the second day in a row all led to a 4-0 defeat for the former kings of Proleague. Flash once again lost a game that pretty much made no sense, with openings out of 2011 leading to a bizarre base trade that Bong somehow managed to win. Cliff notes: KT got owned.



Eventually, there comes a time when you have to ask what's going on with a player. On SK Telecom especially, those times seem to come fairly frequently. Although Bisu is and has been ridiculed for months now, Fantasy was a strong performer for a long time but has not been looking nearly as convincing recently, not in Proleague and certainly not in GSL.

But the five-time OSL finalist's fall does not seem overly concerning for SKT, having apparently regained their footing after unimpressive performances in Round 2. Rain and s2 brought down T8's most significant players Argo and Cure, and with two other SKT Zergs, Sacsri and soO, also delivering, there was little Team 8 could do against the opposing team's superior depth. After their absolutely abysmal performance in Round two, every win SKT can get their hands on is worth a lot. With the next round also being the standard Proleague format, they will most certainly look to finish up the WoL-part of Proleague with a positive score. It must be mentioned that Zergs are having somewhat of a hard time in HoTS at the moment, and with how important the SKT Zergs have become to the team's line-up, every win they can grab in WoL becomes even more important.



Samsung KHAN vs. STX SouL ended up being (almost) unusually predictable, with the players on STX finally getting together and all having a good enough day at the same time. Although Innovation started off with a much expected win over Sola, the more unexpected result was what came next. Bear, the 16 year-old STX rookie who appeared last week to win his first ever game of televised Starcraft II, continued to convince the STX coaches as he beat none other than RorO, Samsung's ace player and + Show Spoiler +, bringing out the massive upset with some solid Zerg play on Caldeum 3. Not only did this mean that Bear kept on showing solid play, something STX has desperately needed from more players, it also meant that the title of Unofficial World Champion that RorO had previously stolen from Life now is in the hands of an STX rookie that might not see that much play time, and certainly none in GSL.

Although Reality and Stork did manage to win two games, clutch performances from Last and Trap eventually sealed the deal in the favor of STX. As such, STX ended week 3 with a very respectable 4-1 record, their only loss coming from the team everyone loses to - Woongjin Stars. For Samsung, they were on the brink of reaching a positive score but is now stuck just one match away from a neutral 10-10 record, which will doubtlessly be what they set their eyes upon as we go into Week 4. Although their overall score is still better than SouL's, their record in Round 3 actually tipped over into the negative, and they need to start winning again or they might risk falling back into the pit of mediocrity.

Round 3, Week 3 Standings

Writers: monk, Otolia, Pokebunny, and Zealously.
Graphics: HawaiianPig
Editors: monk.