EPTQuick facts:
What? - 2012-2013 SK Planet Proleague PlayOff Round 1
Who? -
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/0/06/SKT1logo_std.png)
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/5/51/STXlogo_std.png)
When?
- Match 1: Saturday 13 July 2013 - 12 PM KST - 5 AM CEST - Friday 12 July 8 PM PDT
- Match 2: Sunday 14 July 2013 - 12 PM KST - 5 AM CEST - Saturday 13 July 8 PM PDT
- Match 3 (if needed): Tuesday 16 July 2013 - 12 PM KST - 5 AM CEST - Monday 15 July 8 PM PDT
Where? - Yongsan E-Sports Stadium, Seoul, South Korea | twitch.tv | youtube.com
SK Telecom T1
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/thumb/c/c8/SKTelecomT1.png/300px-SKTelecomT1.png)
Record - 22 - 20 in matches; 134 - 122 in games.
The General - Lim Yo Hwan
The Commander -
Rain The best player of SKT and third best player according to Kespa rankings (36 - 19 in SPL matches). He holds 82% win rate against Terran, 67% against Zerg and 50% against Protoss in HotS offline matches. Although he is not performing that well recently (3 - 5 in R6 of SPL including ace match loss vs JangBi + his recent loss against First in WCS) he will probably be their choice for any possible ace match, more so versus STX Soul, whose ace is probably going to be terran player. Overall,
Rain is one of the best protosses in the world (some would even argue he is THE best protoss), with insane PvT, strong PvZ and a very slight weakness in his PvP. He is also pretty predictable, with his safe macro style play.The Lieutenants -
FanTaSy and PartinGPartinG, the newest addition to SKT T1 lineup has entered Proleague as the most successful Protoss player of WoL. He was the most hyped player entering SPL and it is up to you to decide if he delivered. His stats are 13 - 11 in SPL and while he is one of the better SPL players (23rd place in Kespa rankings), I am sure his team (and fans) hoped for more. Recently, PartinG dropped out of WCS KR Ro16 and holds pretty bad loss streak versus Zerg players. He is 55% vs Terran, 44% vs Zerg but 68% against Protoss, which can be pretty good in Protoss dominated Proleague. If coaches think that Ace player may be protoss, they can very well use him. But beware of the zergs!FanTaSy on the other hand is a BW superstar. The best terran player at the end of BW, surpassing even Flash himself for some time. He has not transitioned to SC2 badly, but he is not at the very top like he was used to. His record in SPL is 28 - 23, which gets him tenth place overall. Recently, he is doing very well in Proleague (even winning last ace game versus HerO), but not so well in WCS KR, where he is currently 0-2 in his Ro16 group (although, he still has a chance to advance). He holds 40% win rate against terran, 69% against Zerg and 54% against Protoss. FanTaSy is showing us a lot of inconsistency so far in SC2 - he can show brilliance in one match and then fall apart just few moments later.The Sergeants -
Bisu, 
soO, BeSt, s2All those players are A teamers, mostly rotating in the positions left after Rain, Fantasy, and Parting are set on the maps. Most notable is of course
Bisu, the BW legend, who is getting better and better in SC2 after being quite bad at WoL. His record is 9 - 8 and is not present in Kespa Top 30 rankings. soO and s2 are the two zergs SKT1 fields pretty regularly and while both have pretty similar results (13 - 16 and 13 - 9 respectively), soO has the advantage of being much more successful in WCS KR and also (probably) being better in in-house rankings. soO is not present in Top 30, s2 is present at 25th place. The last one is BeSt, team captain and player who was heralded as a player with best late game macro in BW. His results in this Proleague season are somewhat lackluster (7-10, not present in Top 30) so far, but he is being fielded in the first play-off match.The Troopers -
Brown, Dark, hudadak, Hyuk, Journey, JyJ, Mamuri, ParalyzE, SacsriOut of all these players, only ones that have enjoyed at least some success in SPL are
Brown (3 - 6), Sacsri (6 - 7) and ParalyzE (5 - 6). None of these are part of the A team and will probably not see much playtime in play-offs. But we can see some surprise snipe coming out of one of thoseSTX Soul
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/thumb/c/cd/STXSouLLogo.png/300px-STXSouLLogo.png)
Record - 24 - 18 in matches; 126 - 106 in games.
The General - Kim Min Ki
The Commander -
INnoVationBest player in the world according to Aligulac, TL ELO ranking and TL Power Rank. Almost unbeatable, second best player according to Kespa rankings with 37 - 19 record in Proleague. Last WCS champion and WCS KR runner up. An Ace of his team (unless MINDGAMES are involved). I don’t think there is much more to say about this guy. Everyone knows who he is and what he is capable of. He holds 73% win ratio in TvT, 83% in TvZ and 71% in TvP. The one important thing though - patch with hellbat nerf will come in effect before the playoffs. And Innovation himself said, that nerfing hellbats is equal to nerfing Innovation. How much exactly will it influence his play? We will have to see in the matches!
The Lieutenants -
Trap, DearThe protoss duo of STX Soul. Surprisingly, neither of them showed too much SOUL during their matches. I don’t think I saw them do the SOUL train even once in SPL (at least in HotS).
Dear is probably better of the two with 24 - 17 record and 13th place in Kespa rankings. He does not enjoy too much of a success in individual leagues though, being stuck in challenger league in Korea (although that may quite quickly change for the next season, he already beat Byun and will play against Flying in Round 2). He also qualified for MLG, where he ended at shared 5th - 6th place being beaten by Naniwa. Dear’s strength is his PvT at 77% winrate (although influenced a little bit by beating players like Nathanias, qxc and TheSTC who, with all due respect, are not really a Proleague material). His PvZ is at 63% and PvP at 62%. He tends to do quirky builds more often than not, which is very strong feat to have in Bo1 situation (and can be actually considered his biggest strength).Trap, on the other hand, while not so successful in SPL (16 - 17; 26th place) is currently playing in WCS KR Ro16, where he managed to beat Losira and he lost to Maru. His biggest strength is his PvZ with amazing 85% win rate. His other two matchups are not up to speed though, with PvP at 50% and PvT even below 50, at 43%. If he will play against Zerg (and we already know he won’t, at least in the first match) he will bring victory. Against other races, though, he may lose very quickly.The Sergeants -
Classic, hyvaa, LastSame as with SKT1, these players are A teamers who are not always guaranteed a spot in a lineup but at least 2 of them are playing in every match.
Classic is a HotS Protoss player, who switched from BW and WoL Terran (was playing as Terran first three rounds of this SPL). His overall results in SPL are 15 - 9 (20th place), but he is 12 - 3 since the switch. He is at 100% vs Terran (although he only played 3 matches), 86% against Zerg and 50% against Protoss. As opposed to other players, his stats are little bit inflated, because he doesn’t play in WCS as he quickly lost both times he tried to qualify. hyvaa on the other hand doesn’t have that good of a record in SPL (13 - 21) but he is playing well in WCS KR Ro16, where he has lost to Rain but beaten Fantasy. His strongest matchup is ZvT where he is at 63%. The weakest, on the other hand, is his ZvP with only 46% win rate, which may explain why he is not so successful in Proleague. His ZvZ is pretty good with 60% win rate. And finally, Last. A player once heralded as one of the best Kespa terrans after the switch has fallen off pretty quickly, with only 8 - 10 record in Proleague and no presence in individual leagues. In HotS he lost both of his matches against Protoss, won 1 and lost 1 against Terran and is 1 - 4 against Korean Zergs. He is also not in a roster for the first match.The Troopers -
Bear, Calm, Comet, Mini, SizeThe only player out of these who have played some more matches in Proleague is
Mini. He is 8 - 8 in SPL, mostly playing against Protoss opponents (having 67% win rate in offline HotS, including one WCS KR match). He didn’t play against Terrans at all in HotS and only played against Zergs two times, losing both matches. The other players have not played enough matches in Proleague and frankly have almost zero chance of actually playing in playoffs.Predictions
First Match
INnoVation <Neo Planet S> BeStDear <Bel'Shir Vestige> RainMini <Naro Station> PartinGClassic <Akilon Wastes> FanTaSyhyvaa <New Fighting Spirit> soOTrap <Whirlwind> BisuAce <Newkirk Redevelopment Precint> Ace
Aligulac thinks that this is very even match. STX Soul has 35.40% probability to win, SKT1 has 30.60% and there is also 34.00% possibility of Ace match.
I also think this is very even match and I think this is too hard to call. I think Innovation and Parting will win for sure. In Dear vs Rain, I think it may either be quick surprising win for Dear or macro game win for Rain. Classic has already beaten Fantasy back in May, but Fantasy still should have an edge. hyvaa vs soO is ZvZ, so basically anything can happen (although, I think soO will win, mostly because he practiced ZvZ for a long time because of his WCS group). Trap vs Bisu is again too hard to call, Trap should have the statistical advantage, but with Bisu ever improving, I think anything can happen. In the ace match, if we get to that, we will probably see Innovation vs Rain. Both are probably the best players in the world in their respective matchups, so anything can happen. I would give an edge to Rain though. My opinion is, STX Soul 49% - 51% SKT1. But as I said, anything can happen. Seriously.
As far as the whole series are concerned, it is too hard to predict anything without knowing the lineup. My best bet would be, this will be taken into third match. And there, Rain will win over Innovation in the ace match. Why? Because I like Rain more. That’s about everything that can be said, these two teams are too even and anything is hard to predict. We will have to let players play it out...
Sources
I used official Kespa player rankings for SPL stats and Aligulac for winrates (Aligulac was set to only incorporate HotS offline matches for those, so your results may vary).
