Table of Contents

Week 4 Lookback
Short Recaps


Week 5 Matches
Starters and maps


Fantasy Spotlight
A short spotlight for a short week


Fantasy Archetype Update
Even more fantasy!


SK Planet Proleague table and results at Liquipedia

By: Pokebunny

With an abridged week four, we didn't see too much move in the standings for round three, but there still were some interesting stories to follow. Notable storylines include Fantasy's benching after his disastrous showings in round three, Woongjin continuing to terrorize all of Proleague, EG-TL struggling significantly, and SKT Zergs redefining their legacy. As we move into the last matches of round three, there are still big questions to be answered: many aces have faltered in round three, and we'll see if they can pull it back together for a strong finish. With Heart of the Swarm close on the horizon, Proleague is going as strong as ever as we approach the halfway point in the six round season.

Feburary 23-26

The match started off on a grim note for Team 8 after their top round two performer Argo fell to TurN, continuing to struggle along with much of Team 8 in round three. Team 8 was unable to TurN (heh heh) things around, with a lone victory by Terminator unable to make a difference as Team 8's top three players all lost in disappointing fashion. The Khan Protoss brothers Stork and JangBi finally seem to have found their groove in SC2, and while they're still not the top of the top players, they've been putting up respectable performances as of late. Reality continued his hot round three performance with a win over ABLM, and ace RorO was not even needed in what was a decisive 4-1 victory for Samsung.

Samsung's horrible start to round one left little hope for the boys in blue, but their performance since then has been quite impressive, rising from an 0-5 start to the middle of the pack. They now look like a fairly competent team from top to bottom: RorO has been a top performing ace in round three as he was prophesied to be at the initial KeSPA switch, JangBi and Stork no longer look like they're flailing around in SC2, and the rest of the team has been contributing wins here and there. The big surprise this round has been Reality's performance, and while it's too soon to say if he's really going to be a top Terran or not, the wins are much appreciated in Samsung's quest to return to glory.

The story for Team 8 has been a struggle of mediocrity, as they fall to 9-11 overall after a disappointing round three. With Argo and Cure greatly exceeding pre-season expectations, Team 8 seemed to be off to a good start considering what their lineup looked to be, but it hasn't quite been enough to put them in a postseason slot quite yet. There's still plenty of time for them to jump back into contention, but they'll need to show some more consistency and have a real ace step up to get there.



Things continued as usual for what now looks to be the runaway favorites for Proleague, as Woongjin improved to an impressive 15-5 record as they rolled over CJ 4-1. CJ's herO was the sole bright spot, continuing his extremely strong round three performance and even implementing carriers in a PvZ macro game with a slight twist. Still, Woongjin's lineup looked as strong as ever, with every member of the team looking to be in good shape from top to bottom. The games were actually fairly interesting and worth watching, with Flying managing to kill Songduri's lair with a void ray/zealot attack, sOs and EffOrt dueling for 45 minutes before EffOrt finally fell, and Light managing to top sKyHigh after a mech vs mech battle ended in a battlecruiser finale. sOs vs EffOrt was especially exciting, showing that there still is an art to WoL PvZ despite the matchup being stale for quite some time. Overall this was by far the best match of the week.

Woongjin continues to impress, with a 5-1 record this round showing their remarkable consistency after 5-2 records in both previous rounds. They have shown they can do it all, with strong aces succeeding in the all-kill format and supporting players pulling through in the standard Proleague format. They definitely seem to be odds-on favorites for this year's Proleague, but with the season only about halfway over, there's still plenty of Starcraft to be played. CJ stays among the middle of the pack, falling to 3-3 this round and 10-10 overall, but still barely holding on to a playoff spot, tied with SKT and Samsung but ahead in set wins. With an impressive ace performance from herO this round, they just need the rest of the team to stay consistent and EffOrt to pull it together.



SKT Zergs continue to be a big story in round three, with s2, soO, and Sacsri all winning their games to power SKT to a 4-2 victory despite Rain and Fantasy struggling. Fantasy was finally benched after his abysmal round three performance, going win-less until he was finally taken out of the lineup. Rain couldn't manage to find a win either, but s2 and soO especially have continued to perform big for SKT this round. STX looked to be their struggling selves of old after starting off round three very well, with Innovation finding a win and Trap taking a surprise PvP victory with excellent positioning but the supporting cast failing to hold up against what appeared to be very winnable matches. SKT surprisingly manages to stay afloat and put up a strong performance in round three despite Fantasy's horrible woes, with the infamous insult "SKT Zerg" quickly losing meaning.

STX and SKT both have gotten some redemption for previous disappointments in earlier rounds lately, but it was SKT who continued to rise upward. Still, SKT has quite a bit to prove, as they along with KT had been the former kings of Proleague. STX still seems to have a very weak lineup on paper, and they'll need to continue to perform well to prove to the world that they can be playoff contenders.



With KT and EG-TL both looking atrocious in round three, at least one of them was guaranteed to improve their standing, and it was KT that rolled through EG-TL for the third straight round in another 4-0 romp. Flash got back on track with a win over JYP, Myungsik managed his second upset in the round by beating Jaedong (after JangBi - and he didn't even cannon rush this time!), Carno blowing through with a three base timing, and PuMa going back to his failing ways and losing to hitmaN.

EG-TL continues to just look flat out bad. While they have a strong lineup on paper, pretty much no one is playing up to their expected level, which raises a lot of questions about what could be going wrong. Is it an issue of the KeSPA regime just beginning to take over the SC2 world? Is the EG-TL house doing something horribly wrong? Are their players just not as good as we thought? Whatever the case, EG-TL needs to do something before they're stuck in the cellar for the rest of the season.

KT righted the ship a bit after a five match losing streak, but they still have a lot to prove. Their performance has pretty much been the opposite of round one - rather than winning unexpectedly against aces, their team of Flash + a bunch of good-but-not-great players has pretty much been losing to the average players rather than beating them. Their formula seems to still be sound, with Flash winning most of his games and a combination of the rest managing to pull through a couple times, but it just hasn't worked out that way for round three. Still, for some reason I do have more faith that they'll pull it back together, unlike EG-TL which really has a ton to prove.

Round 3, Week 4 Standings

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