EPT
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Waxangel/SPL2014_logo.png){kind=logo}
And some Q&A with the coaches to conclude media day.
Q: I've heard you made a lot of builds in SC2 as well. When do you plan to use them in touranments?
Iloveoov: I was honored to have a reputation as an artisan of builds before I went to the military, and I think I have talent in that area as well. I thought as soon as I returned that I would create some strategies, and I have a one or two in mind. Once they're ready, we'll test it out on some team.
Q: What was your analysis of PL when you were with the eSF?
Hirai (IM): There have been a lot of player changes, patches, and map changes since then, so I didn't think analysis of the past season was meaningful.
Lim Seok Hyun (MVP): At least in the early days of PL, the eSF teams were confident. But with time, the KeSPA teams grew very quickly, and I think they've caught up now. Now, we all have to work hard.
What do you think of the format without much of the GSTL's all-kill style matches?
Hirai: I think for our team, the Proleague style fit better. We have a lot of solid, mid-high tier players, and that format fits us.
Lim Seok Hyun (MVP): There's no problem, since it's still the better team that wins.
Gerrard: It's the first time in this format for me and the players. In terms of motivation, at least there I think we have an adv. I like that there are lot more games.
Whats' changed for the coaches who are now head coaches?
iloveoov: I've been a coach 3 years, and a head coach for 2 months, and a lot has happened. The weight of responsbility is much heavier. But that weight feels good. You experience a lot of things as a coach and think of a lot of things, but often they just end as thoughts. Now, you can try out things and see what happens before your very eyes.
Cha ji Hoon(Jin Air): Honestly Im a bit flustered even now. I was a coach for 7 years on four teams, and I've learned a lot of styles from great head coaches. I have a chance to combine all their strengths, and try out things that had only been in my head before. The responsibility has become unimaginably heavier.
Lim Seok Hyun (MVP): I was with MVP early on, and the team ended up making an SC2 team and a LoL team. I've come to feel that experience is very improtant in esports. You learn a lot of things that you can't explain with words as you keep accumulating experience. I really respect the other coaches and head coaches. I've come back to SC2, and I hope I can use the experience of the past 3 years to have a sense of duty and lead the team well.
12:55 - Who do you think is strong? Who do you think is weak?
Lee Ji Hoon (KT Rolster): Honestly I had to sigh when I saw the moves that were made. A lot of big names moved, and many fans and industry workers are looking at SKT as the most likely to win. I too think they are the #1 contender. As for weak teams, I'm sorry to say it but I think PRIME is weak now that Maru is gone.
Oh Sang Taek (Samsung): Until a little while ago I thought we were in the middle of the pack, but Jin Air seems strong now that they've bolstered their line-up. Their present players have gotten better, and their new players are good as well. I also think PRIME is weak.
Choi Yeon Seong (SKT): Before I joined the army, I was a coach under Head Coach Park at SKT. I learned a lot from him about how to run a team. He is excellent at making psychological plays, and I think it's showing up in his player's skill. Besides us, I think CJ is a strong team. I don't want to pick a weak team, because they could use that as motivation.
Park Yong Woon (CJ Entus): Just yesterday morning I was imagining that our team could win, but looking at the transfer market I'm feeling a lot of pressure. iloveoov said some nice words for me, looking to my left and right it's two guys who were once on my coaching staff - so I'm in the gold medal spot on the podium? SKT is strong, but living with our guys I think our team is a strong team. As for the weak team, it's the one everyone thinks of as weak.
Cha Ji Hoon (Jin Air): I can't think of any strong teams besides us. After us comes SKT or CJ. Being talked about so much gives us motivation.
Kang Dong Hoon (IM): There are map advantages/disadvantages, and the format is Bo5. So regardless of what happened in the transfer market, I think everyone is about the same and everyone is beatable. Samsung and PRIME look weak, and it doesn't seem like they're willing to spend much money. We will beat all of the former eSF teams, and of the KeSPA teams we'll beat two or so while advancing.
Lim Seok Hyun (MVP): Honestly I'm not that knowledgable about roster strengths. I've always seen Flash doing well, so I thought that KT would be good. I think it's rather even for the opposite reason of coach Hirai. PRIME should be motivated to do even better. I think we should perform above average as well. Our goal for round one is finishing higher than the top 4.
Park Oi Sik (PRIME): It's true that we appear as the weakest team. We received a lot of attention for the past 3 years, and it was always hard. But we're a team that won a miraculous championship in that situation, and we'll try to show you a miracle this season as well. Because of various circumstances I haven't been able to focus on SC2 lately, but with the start of PL I'm putting my full strength behidn it. In terms of strong teams, I think SKT is a strong team.
12:48 - A word from the players
CreatorPrime: I'm happy to compete in the PL for the first time. It was the stage I had dreamed of as a kid, and I'm very happy and honored. I will work hard to get good results.
MVP.DongRaeGu: I had thought it would be great if our team could compete in Proleague as well, and we'll work hard to get good results.
IM.Mvp: I have a lot of bad memories from playing in PL when I was with Woongjin. Now that it's SC2, I hope I can make some good memories as well. We will win the championship.
JinAir.sOs: I'm excited to join a new team, and to see new teams join PL. We're really motivated right now, and that will show up as results this season.
CJ_Effort: A lot of people say they're excited; I'm excited to see the new announcer. It feels new to compete in Proleague with a new head coach. We're getting good results in a variety of domestic and international events ahead of Proleague, and I think we can perform well in PL as well. There's a jinx that says if you become the team captain your results decline, but I'll try to break that curse.
SKT_Fantasy: Media day makes you really feel that PL is approaching. Our team had a captain-jinx too, and we'll have to try and break it as well.
Samsung.Stork: I think our team had the most changes over the long off-season. Looking at the articles lately regarding the various player moves, it seems like our team is considered as one of the weaker teams. But you don't know what the results will be until you open up the box, and we'll try to outperform the other teams.
KT_Flash: It's been a few years since we won a championship. Before, we won championships like it was breathing and eating. Starting this season, we'll make it so we win every year.
12:45 - A word from the head coaches.
Lee Ji Hoon (KT Rolster): It's a new take on PL. We WILL win.
Oh Sang Taek (Samsung): We're playing with a mind to enjoy. I hope you can see us as a team with a warm heart and plays feel-good games. We will do our best.
Choi Yeon Seong (SKT): Our goal is to become the top team in the world. We will produce results fit for that reputation.
Park Yong Woon (CJ Entus): I don't think of myself as an old head coach. I feel two things: first that it feels new, and I'm also excited. I'm bringing a new team to competition, and I'm excited about the other teams that have joined on, and the new tournament format. Only 2 weeks are left, we will win teh championship.
Cha Ji Hoon (Jin Air): I was abruptly promoted to head coach yesterday. This is our first Proleague with the Jin Air name, and my first Proleague as Head Coach. I hope it will be a fun league.
Kang Dong Hoon (IM): I'm excited to play in PL for the first time. We've won touranmetns like GSTL and IPTL, and I've thought that we want the PL title as well. I hope everyone keeps an eye on us. The SC2 market is a bit down, and the reason we partnered with TeamLiquid is so we can work together on/offline to help create interest in SC2. A lot of people are working hard in Proleague, so I hope it grows to show it.
Lim Seok Hyun (MVP): I'm happy to be sitting here today. Our team has the goal to show everyoen good games. This is my first time out as PRoleague head coach; the reason I switched to Proleague after being a coach for other games (LoL) is because I wanted the challenge. I hope to learn from the many head coaches and people who came ahead of me. I'm happy to keep learning and experiencing new things.
Park Oi Sik (PRIME): I participated in PL when I was a part of the Hanbit Stars, and I'm happy that I can bring a team to the Proleague. We will do our ebst to show good games.
12:28 - Player/coach Q&A to be held after lunch.
12:10 - For the Media Q&A Session, here's SPOTV director Mr. Park Chan Yong, and Mr. Cho Man Soo from the KeSPA front office.
Q: The post season seems fun, but there are criticisms that it doesn't give the top teams enough of an advantage.
A: We talked to the various teams about the complicated league format. I think there's a sufficient advantage give [to the top teams]. They will be given map choice priority.
Also, in the previous "challenge" format (where teams climb a ladder and to the top, where the #1 regular season team awaits), the lower ranked teams ended up receiving the most attention. We decided to just give the final playoffs a change.
Q: SPOTV2 will be broadcasting women's basketball. What happens to that once SPL starts?
A: We are running 3 sports channels. As we prepped for Proleague, we realized that our new channel wasn't receiving enough recognition. Because the sports and games audience have overlap, we decided to broadcast both of them live at the same time. We plan to broadcast women's basketball through SPOTV1.
Q: Would it be possible for a team to join the league midway through?
A: We are at the stage of thinking about how that might be possible. We want to go to the end with the 8 teams we have, but we are also discussing event mathes with the eSF or foreign teams. We're trying to make it so other famous players can play in Proleague through partnerships and other methods.
Q: Why did you found an entirely new channel?
A: With MBCGame's sudden closure, only OGN was left to broadcast Proleague. In the midst of that SPOTV2 started broadcasting Proleague. We know there were a lot of complaints about the matches held at the Shindorim studio, so I hope you can forgive that as we are moving to a new channel.
12:08: Broadcasted on Sun-Mon-Tue at 7PM KST from a NEXON esports stadium in Gangnam.
12:05 - Broadcasters: SPOTV Games, SPOTV2 will broadcast at the same time. Available in 8.5 million households with IPTV. SK B TV, LG U+, and OllehTV will broadcast (each telecom company's mobile channel). Also on NAver sports, Youtube, and TwitchTV.
12:04 - Ladder Maps included: Bel'Shir Vestige, Frost, Star Station, Yeonsu.
New Maps: Sejong Science Base, Outboxer.
12:02 - Prize money. 15,000,000 won/5,000,000 won to the Round champion/runner up. 50,000,000 won/20,000,000 won to the season champion/runner up.
5,000,000 won to player with most wins, 2,000,000 won to rookie of the year, 1,000,000 won to head coach of the year, 3,000,000 won to finals MVP.
The MVP winner and other players with top rankings in the Proleague will be given support to compete in WCS class international tournaments.
11:58 - Format explanation. There are four rounds, and your placement in each round gives you points. The four teams who have the most points at the end of the season enter the season playoffs.
Points for placing in a round:
1st: 81
2nd: 71
3rd: 61
4th: 51
5th: 45
6th: 40
7th: 35
8th: 30
In addition, each round has its own ROUND playoffs and champion. The round champion earns 40 points, the round runenr up wins 10 points.
11:57 - SK, KT, Samsung, CJ, Jin Air, MVP, IM, Prime are the eight participating teams.
11:50 - Speeches from the luminaries.
11:39 - Contract signing ceremony between KeSPA chairman and SK Telecom exec.
11:38 - SK Telecom announced as the 2014 Proleague sponsor.
11:35 - Media day starts.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/LzN1F6u.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/1OdNmIQ.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/gHtKwgD.jpg)
