Table of Contents

Team Check Ups
Tables galore


Week One Matches
Starters and maps


SK Planet Proleague table and results at Liquipedia

By: monk and Wunder.



Four full rounds of Proleague are over and we now have a plethora of results we can analyze. The standings are really shaping up and we can begin to realistically project the winners and losers of proleague. And what better way to do it than with colorful tables inundated with enough numbers to make your head spin? Here's our brief report on the eight teams of the Proleague, starting from all 8th place EG-TL all the way to the consistently top team, Woongjin Stars.

Evil Geniuses- Team Liquid (10 – 18, -28 map score)

Lookback

Player	Race	WoL Win - Loss	R4 Win - Loss	Total Win - Loss
HerO		10 - 10	4 - 5	14 - 15
Jaedong		7 - 10	5 - 4	12 - 14
JYP		10 - 10	2 - 4	12 - 14
TaeJa		6 - 6	2 - 0	8 - 6
aLive		0 - 0	3 - 4	3 - 4
Oz		0 - 0	2 - 4	2 - 4
Revival		4 - 9	0 - 2	4 - 11
Zenio		2 - 6	1 - 1	3 - 7
ThorZaIN		1 - 4	0 - 0	1 - 4
HuK		0 - 2	0 - 1	0 - 3
Snute		—	—	—
Stephano*		6 - 5	—	6 - 5
PuMa*		1 - 7	—	1 - 7

Oh EG-TL. With the addition of Coach Park, you burst back onto the scene with a quick 2-0 of some of the strongest teams out there, you then got 4-0d twice, once by the more traditional method, and once by throwing away a 3-0 lead to lose 4-3. It’s been an absolute rollercoaster for EG-TL this past round, and the ride isn’t stopping anytime soon. With 5 games between them and the top 4, EG-TL cannot afford any more mistakes. No longer can they allow HerO to succumb to his nerves, or Jaedong to roll over to any Protoss player, or TaeJa to simply not play even though he is plagued with a painful injury.

When looking at EG-TL's stats, there are a few key points to notice. First is that hardly anyone on the team has a positive record, with TaeJa and Stephano being the only exceptions. Of course, this is expected for the lowest placing team in the league. The second and perhaps more telling story is that unlike every other team in the league, EG-TL has no clear ace. Players jostle and jive for that ace slot, but at the end of the day, there's no one to lead the team to victory, no player the team can rely on for a "sure" victory. Having no ace to fall back on puts even more pressure on every player in the EG-TL lineup, as every map-loss could be the difference between a win and a loss.

EG-TL has to pull together and work out a strategy if they want to have any hope of conquering Proleague. With WCS NA looming, players may have to make the decision of leaving Proleague in favor of the individual leagues and that certainly cannot have a positive effect on Coach Park’s efforts in Korea. A glimmer of hope exists, however, and that comes in the form of Jens Aasgaard. The People’s Champion, Snute, having come off his WCS NA group win is travelling to the heart of America, South Korea, to attempt to enter a hyperbolic time chamber. We use that term mainly because the Ro16 for WCS NA starts in two weeks, so the amount of time Snute has to improve is a minuscule amount. Nevertheless, perhaps Coach Park will see the need to use Snute in a few Proleague matches and the Norwegian will get a taste of a real team league.

KeSPA 8th Team (11 – 17, -24 map score)

Lookback

Player	Race	WoL Win - Loss	R4 Win - Loss	Total Win - Loss
Argo(Jaehoon)		14 - 13	5 - 3	19 - 16
Cure(Speed)		12 - 13	2 - 4	14 - 17
Terminator(Sang)		9 - 7	2 - 4	11 - 11
TY(Baby)		8 - 13	1 - 4	9 - 17
Savage(Ryul2)		6 - 10	0 - 3	6 - 13
TRUE(Alone)		3 - 8	2 - 2	5 - 10
Check(ALBM)		0 - 4	2 - 3	2 - 7
Pigbaby(HS)		—	1 - 0	1 - 0
Major		—	—	—
Neige(Sherry)		—	—	—

This band of misfits may have coasted through on the first few rounds with par scores, but they took a beating this last round, going 2-5. Now, sequestered squarely at 7th place for the longest time, they are one loss away from taking EG-TL’s crown of thorns and assuming the true 8th place as the 8th team. On paper, their team is actually fairly strong - there is a good balance of all three races and each player has taken games off top tier pros. So what’s the issue?

While Argo transitioned well, going 5-3 and sweating his way to victory, his teammates didn't get the memo. TY, Cure and Terminator, all strong players in their own right, performed sub-par this round and just couldn't get the wins they sorely needed. The other big change for Team 8 in round 4 was that Savage stepped aside from being a core player for Team 8, letting his teammates, TRUE and check, do some Zerg heaving. They didn't perform spectacularly, but certainly better than Savage did this round.

Still, there is still hope for this group of broken toys. Round 2(the first all-kill round) was the best round Team 8 had, and with the second all-kill round on the horizon, this is their final chance to make a mark on the standings and make a final push towards the playoffs. With a reformed Check in its back pocket, and a potential workhorse in the form of Pigbaby, Team 8 is poised for greatness.

CJ Entus (12 – 16, 0 map score)

Lookback

Player	Race	WoL Win - Loss	R4 Win - Loss	Total Win - Loss
herO		17 - 9	5 - 4	22 - 13
Hydra		18 - 10	2 - 5	20 - 15
Effort		16 - 12	4 - 3	20 - 15
Bbyong		4 - 7	3 - 3	7 - 10
Bong		5 - 7	2 - 5	7 - 12
Skyhigh		4 - 8	1 - 3	5 - 11
SonGDuri		3 - 4	0 - 1	3 - 5
Snow		—	—	—
rare		0 - 2	0 - 1	0 - 3
Trust		—	—	—
Bunny		—	—	—

While STX has Samsung shadowing their every move, KT has CJ, and just like KT, CJ took a tumble and spiraled downwards last round, going 1-6, ending up at 6th place. With rumors of their captain Leta taking a backseat role, and his removal from the roster, there may be some internal conflict within the ranks of CJ.

Truth be told, CJ probably shouldn't be at where they are now in 6th place. After all, they have three of the strongest players in the league, herO, EffOrt, and Hydra. The problem is that the team is extremely dependent on these three players and should any of them falter, the whole team falters. The happened last round when Hydra (and to a certain extent, herO) slumped hard, bringing the team with him down in flames. With only two "sure" wins in each match last round, CJ was sure to fail.

Another problem that CJ faces is that they're one of the smallest teams in the league. To amend this issue, CJ has picked up a few recruits for this round and while they might not be as seasoned as KT's pickup, Puzzle, they still have some notches on their belt. CJ’s Trust and Bunny are the new recruits both have experience with Code A. In fact, Trust and Bunny both won their ro48 matches the other day, beating out MVP’s Dream and STX Soul’s Last respectively to advance to the next stage. So while they might not command the same presence as a PartinG or Puzzle, these guys have still shown they have what it takes to win games, and it may be exactly what CJ needs to pull off a comeback this round.

KT Rolster (14 – 14, +7 map score)

Lookback

Player	Race	WoL Win - Loss	R4 Win - Loss	Total Win - Loss
Flash		19 - 11	3 - 5	22 - 16
Zest(P7GAB)		11 - 6	5 - 2	16 - 8
Stats		11 - 7	5 - 2	16 - 9
Crazy		5 - 6	4 - 2	9 - 8
Action		9 - 11	0 - 2	9 - 13
Hitman		2 - 2	3 - 2	5 - 4
Motive		1 - 2	—	1 - 2
MyuNgSiK		1 - 1	0 - 3	1 - 4
miso		—	—	—
Penguin		—	—	—
Cacia		—	0 - 1	0 - 1
Baracks		0 - 1	0 - 1	0 - 2
HoeJJa		0 - 2	—	0 - 2
Mind		0 - 3	—	0 - 3
Puzzle		—	—	—

The red rangers are in disarray. While they managed to scrape by this round, KT Rolster has to pull together and play as a cohesive team for this last all-kill round, or else they’ll find themselves sitting next to EG-TL and Team 8 in the pit of despair. The elephant in the room in the KT house has to be Flash’s performance in both individual and team leagues. He just got knocked out of the WCS Premier Division by two KeSPA players, Innovation and PartinG, and his Proleague performance has been poor as well. He went 3-5 last round, losing two ace matches in the process, which puts him 5th in his own team’s ranking. For someone that’s supposedly to be the Ultimate Weapon, he doesn’t seem to be doing a lot of damage as of late.

To compound the problem, KT's once solid Zerg, Action, has decided that he wants to start sucking at HotS as well. To fill his shoes are Crazy, and an unlikely hero in hitmaN. Though not as strong as the Action-Crazy combo in round 1, KT's current Zerg roster will do and shouldn't a huge concern for now...

In Flash's absence, his two lieutenants, Stats and Zest have taken up the mantle and have acted as a temporary tourniquet to stop KT from bleeding more losses and slipping further behind. A funny thing to note is the two KT Protoss twins have both been two of the most consistent players in the league, always scoring between three to five wins per round. Finally, Flash has a somewhat solid team behind him and now he's the wild card.

However, this round, KT decided that just two solid Protosses isn't enough. Having lost the raffle for Parting, KT decided that they'll have to make do with the ex-SlayerS player, Puzzle, instead. Puzzle, coming off a stint of League of Legends, made his return appearance at Dreamhack Stockholm last weekend. He made it past the group stages and defeated many a European along the way. However, he hasn’t been put through the rigors of Proleague and there is no better environment than an all-kill format, where he has the potential to truly show off his skill. While KT may have had a rough time going over the hump, there’s only two more rounds left, and this is exactly the right time to make a push for the top four. KT have the players, the potential and the presence. Can they do it?

Samsung KHAN (15 – 13, -12 map score)

Lookback

Player	Race	WoL Win - Loss	R4 Win - Loss	Total Win - Loss
RorO		16 - 10	5 - 0	21 - 10
Jangbi		12 - 13	4 - 3	16 - 16
Stork		12 - 16	2 - 4	14 - 20
Reality		9 - 10	4 - 2	13 - 12
Turn		2 - 4	2 - 2	4 - 6
Shine		3 - 9	0 - 2	3 - 11
Kop		0 - 2	2 - 0	2 - 2
Solar		1 - 2	1 - 3	2 - 5
hOpe		1 - 3	1 - 2	1 - 5
Juni		—	—	—
oDin		—	—	—
Trend		—	—	—

While STX Soul was at the forefront of our coverage and was lapping up the praise and adoration from readers and writers alike, Samsung KHAN slipped under the radar. Just like STX Soul, KHAN had a rocky start, but kicked off the expansion with a bang, finishing second place at 5-2. Still relying on the RorO/JangBi combo, they have managed to sharpen their roster and shaved off the chaff, with the decision to stop fielding Zergs such as Shine and hOpe, while putting their renewed faith in Terrans, such as Kop and TurN.

Speaking of going under the radar, RorO is one of the secret heroes of round 4. While everyone has been gushing about Innovation and Flash, GSL Champion RorO has been secretly dominating, going 5-0 in matches in round 4 with amazingly solid play. In fact, the only times Samsung lost in round 4 were when the other teams closed it out before RorO got his chance to play.

Reality is another understated player in Samsung's line-up. In the first two round, he performed abysmally, going 3-9, on par with his teammate Shine. Unfortunately for him, many people's opinion of him were formed right then and there. But since then, Reality has steadily become a pillar of Samsung's success, turning everything completely around with a 10-3 record in rounds three and four. Reality now sits firmly in Samsung's top four and will be their go-to Terran in an all-kill format.

Going into the new round, Samsung will only have to field four players, so their reliance on Roro and Jangbi can continue unabated, and will probably work in their favor more so than other teams. Having picked up Trend, it will be interesting to see if he gets any play time as there is little room to spare for the all-kill format. Similar to STX, Samsung is wasting no time with their first match, fielding Jangbi as their starter. However, Samsung’s coach has made some questionable decisions in this season so it would be no surprise to see her fielding Trend or even one of the lesser known players and give them a chance to play.

STX Soul (15 – 13, +7 map score)

Lookback

Player	Race	WoL Win - Loss	R4 Win - Loss	Total Win - Loss
Innovation		17 - 11	5 - 2	22 - 13
Dear		11 - 9	5 - 1	16 - 9
Trap		7 - 9	4 - 2	11 - 11
hyvaa		7 - 11	2 - 3	9 - 14
Last		6 - 9	2 - 1	8 - 10
Classic		3 - 6	4 - 1	7 - 7
Mini		2 - 4	3 - 2	5 - 6
Bear		2 - 0	—	2 - 0
Comet		2 - 2	—	2 - 2
Youngjoo(Size)		—	1 - 0	1 - 0
Calm		—	—	—

STX Soul was the team of round 4, dropping only one match to Samsung KHAN. Like KT Rolster, STX is anchored around a single Terran, and while the earlier rounds featured INnoVation shouldering the entire weight of the team, Dear, Trap, and newly converted Protoss, Classic, have taken up some of the burden since. Meanwhile, Mini and hyvaa bring up the rear. Somewhat missing from STX Soul’s newfound fame is the Terran, Last, who, while making a few appearances and actually finishing the round with a positive win/loss, has been conspicuously absent compared to prior rounds.

Whether or not that will greatly affect STX Soul remains to be seen, as going into the next round, they will be riding a huge wave of momentum and will undoubtedly hope to keep pushing forward with their six match winning streak. Their first match is against EG-TL and they are not pulling any punches with their first game, immediately sending out their Terran ace. Whether or not this is a move to strike fear in the hearts of EG-TL or a calculative move to allow Innovation to prepare for his WCS Korea matches and allow the other Soul players to prepare to snipe the EG-TL players has yet to be revealed. But one thing is for sure. This starter match will be explosive from the start.

SK Telecom T1 (15 – 13, +13 map score)

Lookback

Player	Race	WoL Win - Loss	R4 Win - Loss	Total Win - Loss
Rain		16 - 9	7 - 2	23 - 11
Fantasy		14 - 13	5 - 1	19 - 14
Parting		—	4 - 3	4 - 3
soO		12 - 9	0 - 4	12 - 13
s2		9 - 4	1 - 1	10 - 5
Sacsri		6 - 5	0 - 1	6 - 6
Best		4 - 7	2 - 0	5 - 7
ParalyzE		5 - 4	0 - 1	5 - 5
Bisu		1 - 2	2 - 2	3 - 4
Brown		—	2 - 3	2 - 3
JyJ		1 - 3	—	1 - 3
Dark		—	0 - 1	0 - 1
Sorry		0 - 1	—	0 - 1
Hyuk		—	—	—
Journey		—	—	—

While the additions of PartinG and Brown gave SKT T1 the shot in the arm it needed to keep ahead of the pack, their overall result was underwhelming. The big telecom team was not able to capitalize on Woongjin’s few losses last round to get ahead in the pack and fell victim to the gripping mire that is EG-TL. At the end of round 4, SKT found themselves in a similar place as they did in round 3, tied with two other teams for second.

After the additions of Parting and Brown and the resurgence of Bisu, SKT's roster is shaping out to look a lot like Woongjin Stars' with Protoss and Zergs galore. SKT now has six viable options to send for Protoss and four viable Zerg options (including Dark). Though this is great news for the team, it presents a problem for the individual players. Competition for line-up slots will be fierce, especially in the all-kill format which only allows for a maximum of four players per match. This is especially saddening for the SKT Zergs who carried the team throughout round 3, but now hardly ever get any screen-time.

Also, poor Bisu fans.

Woongjin Stars (20 – 8, +37 map score)

Lookback

Player	Race	WoL Win - Loss	R4 Win - Loss	Total Win - Loss
sOs		18 - 8	4 - 3	22 - 11
Soulkey		11 - 7	7 - 1	18 - 8
ZerO		14 - 9	3 - 4	17 - 13
Light		5 - 4	4 - 2	9 - 6
free		12 - 5	1 - 2	13 - 7
Bravo(sin)		7 - 3	1 - 0	8 - 3
Flying		4 - 4	2 - 3	6 - 7
Aria(Nagi)		1 - 0	0 - 2	1 - 2
Mekia(fOKINS)		1 - 1	-	1 - 1
Hanbin		0 - 1	—	0 - 1
Rudy		0 - 1	—	0 - 1
KassiA		—	—	—
Organ(Piano)		—	—	—
Swift		—	—	—
BisanG		0 - 1	—	0 - 1

Woongjin Stars finished third last round, a first for the team that was dominating Proleague throughout the first three rounds. Looking at their line-up and comparing it to previous rounds, you can see that nothing much has really changed with how they approach their matches. They have their core established very well, with Soulkey, ZerO, sOs and Light all showing up to play for every match. On the sidelines you have great players like Flying and free making frequent appearances as well, usually to close out their full arsenal of six, but lurking in the wings are budding players like BrAvO and Aria, who both appeared twice last round.

Even after a sub-par round, Woongjin Stars still resides firmly at the top of the pack, five whole matches ahead of the stragglers. Barring a colossal meltdown by at least two of its player, Woongjin Stars will finish first, gaining a seed directly into the Proleague finals. In short, Woongjin Stars remains boring old dominating Woongjin Stars. Nothing to see here, folks.

Writers: monk. and Wunder.
Graphics: HawaiianPig.
Editors: monk.