We are entering week 3 of the Gabangpop Proleague, and the battlefield is slowly taking shape. As of this week, every team has played, and one team is now by necessity leading the pack while others have fallen off. These victories have been hard-earned, but there's many more grueling weeks ahead. Small victories like these will end up winning the figurative war, and persistence is the key to success. Our writing staff persists as well, with recaps, previews, and an article about Pure. Get hyped.
--mustaju
Table of Contents
Week Two Recap
The complete review
Player Spotlight: Pure
Worse than StarCue
Week Three Preview
The battle is heating up
Liquipedia
R&S Thread
Week Two Recap
The complete review
Player Spotlight: Pure
Worse than StarCue
Week Three Preview
The battle is heating up
Liquipedia
R&S Thread
Table standings after the first two weeks.
Week Two RecapBy: BW Staff
SKT vs. MBC
Midas <Fighting Spirit> Lazy
Midas <Circuit Breaker> Pusan
Midas <Neo Electric Circuit> Tyson
sSak <New Wind and Cloud> Tyson
sSak <Neo Jade> Sea
Pure <Blue Storm> Sea
Larva <New Sniper Ridge> Sea
Bisu <Circuit Breaker> Sea
<Fighting Spirit>
Midas <Circuit Breaker> Pusan
Midas <Neo Electric Circuit> Tyson
sSak <New Wind and Cloud> Tyson
sSak <Neo Jade> Sea
Pure <Blue Storm> Sea
Larva <New Sniper Ridge> Sea
Bisu <Circuit Breaker> Sea
Game of the Match: Larva vs. Sea (set 7)
The battle of the Proleague titans took an unexpected twist right from the start, when Lazy, MBC-s best performing player last season, got demolished by Midas. Midas proceeded to take offense from my Latvian chocolate comparison last week, and took out Pusan for good measure, only to be stopped by an interesting build from Tyson. Tyson's victory over Midas was the only non-Terran victory that day, however, as he was promptly taken out by sSak, who in turn fell to a rampaging Sea. SKT's players dropped one by one, sending out Bisu in a last ditch effort. Bisu proceeded to have his fast nexus taken down by just two marines and had to tap out in probably the biggest letdown of the week.
KT vs. STX
Ample <Fighting Spirit> Mini
Modesty <Circuit Breaker> Mini
Modesty <Neo Electric Circuit> hero
Modesty <Mist> Britney
Modesty <Neo Jade> Terror
Modesty <Blue Storm> Shuttle
Light <New Sniper Ridge> Shuttle
Eagle <Circuit Breaker> Shuttle
<Fighting Spirit>
Modesty <Circuit Breaker> Mini
Modesty <Neo Electric Circuit> hero
Modesty <Mist> Britney
Modesty <Neo Jade> Terror
Modesty <Blue Storm> Shuttle
Light <New Sniper Ridge> Shuttle
Eagle <Circuit Breaker> Shuttle
Game of the Match: Light vs. Shuttle (Set 7)
STX looked to have a pretty good shot at taking down KT in week two. Mini started out by destroying the only true KT player on the opposing team. KT then decide to throw out an STX player to destroy his own kind. Modesty proceeds to beat hero, Britney, and Terror, leaving STX at the brink of defeat. Being down 1-4, STX send out their ace player, Shuttle. He makes short work of the traitor and proceeds to beat Light in a PvT. Eagle takes the last set to complete KT's victory 5-3.
Stat breakdown
STX players: seven wins and six losses
KHAN player: one win and zero losses
Stars/MBC player: zero wins and one loss
KT player: zero wins and one loss
The conclusion is that KT didn't win, STX beat themselves.
Hwaseung Oz vs. Woongjin Stars
Sky <Fighting Spirit> ZergMaN
Sky <Circuit Breaker> HoGil
beast <Neo Electric Circuit> HoGil
Killer <Mist> HoGil
Killer <Neo Jade> Brave
Killer <Blue Storm> ZerO
Killer <New Sniper Ridge> PianO
SalDaGa <Circuit Breaker> PianO
HiyA <Fighting Spirit> PianO
Sky <Circuit Breaker> HoGil
beast <Neo Electric Circuit> HoGil
Killer <Mist> HoGil
Killer <Neo Jade> Brave
Killer <Blue Storm> ZerO
Killer <New Sniper Ridge> PianO
SalDaGa <Circuit Breaker> PianO
HiyA <Fighting Spirit> PianO
Game of the Match: Sky vs. HoGil (Set 2)
In the last match of the week we saw Hwaseung Oz taking on Woongjin Stars where incidentally both had a 1-1 score prior to this team war. Unexpectedly, this was a debut of an old school player HoGil in SOSPA scene, who made quite an entrance by taking down two Oz players before he lost to Killer. We also saw remnants of the old Oz here with Killer assuming the role of Jaedong, a player which made the Oz seem like a one-man team. Killer managed to take three wins before losing to PianO who is supposedly practicing 13 hours a day. It certainly looks that way as he won all the remaining games which brought Woongjin Stars another win.
Player Spotlight: PureBy: ArvickHero
Pure has 1 win, and 18 losses: a 5.62% winrate.
PianO and ZerO, who debuted around three weeks later than Pure, hold very respectable winrates at 65.22% (30-16) and 55.56% (20-16), respectively. ZeuS and Britney sit at 25% (4-12) and 15.79% (6-32). StarCue, the infamous Headset Zerg, is 2-28: 6.67%.
Statistically, Pure is arguably worse than Britney and StarCue. StarCue. Let that sink in for a bit.
In all fairness, Pure isn't actually as bad as the numbers seem to suggest. He hangs around the low B ranks of the Fish ladder, which is certainly nothing to sneeze at. He's even managed to take games off of top-tier ex-pros on stream, such as HiyA and Killer. However, with four months into his stint on Afreeca, one would expect a former OSL semi-finalist to shape up much better than he has. So what gives?
Cheer up HiyA, it's okay. At least we haven't lost to StarCue yet.
The first problem lies with his preferred playstyle: safe, standard, reactive macro Protoss, with almost no cheese employed. Sort of like a Korean IdrA, who happens to play Protoss but doesn't rage quite as much. While this attitude would certainly earn the Sayle stamp of approval, Pure currently lacks the skills required to make this style work at the highest levels. His mechanics are adequate, but not exceptional; his decision-making and transitions are okay, but not great. Pure's play rapidly deteriorates after the early-midgame, and is simply outclassed most of the time.
The other problem is his exceptionally bad luck in leagues. Most of his opponents so far have been exceptionally strong players. When he has faced slightly weaker competition, Pure has often ended up as the victim of some clever strategy or cheese. His first and only break was when he was matched up against ZeuS, where Pure managed to quickly scout a fast Nexus strategy and crush it accordingly.
Four months in, Pure has definitely improved since his debut, but it has been at a painfully slow rate. It may be prudent for Pure to switch up his playstyle to something a bit more stylistic, or strategic. However, let's not forget that many of the current top ex-pros were also painfully bad when they had begun streaming. Killer, Movie and Hero all had a very rough time back when they had first started. Tyson went on an embarassing 12 game ladder loss streak in the D-C ranks. Shuttle started with a 9 game loss streak in SOSPA games and was 5-15 for his first 20 games. In addition, the environment back then was much easier than it is today. Perhaps things would be markedly different if Pure had begun streaming a year or two ago instead.
Regardless, it is fair to say that Pure's horrible record does him no justice. Should he continue to stick around, we may see him return to a form worthy of a former OSL semi-finalist. At this point, Pure has nowhere to go but up.
Week Three PreviewBy: mustaju
Hwaseung Oz vs. KT
Monday, February 17th
Ah, Oz vs. KT. When these two step into the ring, one can't help but remember the gritty beat-downs of KT.Flash and Jaedong.Oz. Now, Killer has been called "minidong" quite a few times, not only because the Brood War community suffers from immaturity, but also because his play improved a lot from his humble beginnings in Oz to being the dominant force of the SoSPA scene for a period, only to be supplanted by a Terran (who in turn might be supplanted by a Protoss?).
KT, on the other hand, only bears the name for balance reasons, as anyone familiar with the old proleague can already tell, and I don't think anyone is of the opinion that Mind or Light are the neo-Flashes of our current era. Luckily (if you are a KT-supporter), Modesty and Mind have been performing great, while Killer has been slightly slumping. Fortunately for Oz, however, HiyA decided to show he is still relevant by showing the best form in months. We live in strange times, for the deciding match in KT vs OZ will probably be a TvT between HiyA and Mind or Light.
My prediction: First blood of the week goes to Oz, 5-3.
Woongjin Stars vs. CJ
Wednesday, February 19th
After Kwanro's, Mong's and Movie's advances and ZerO's spectacular burnout in the SSL, this could be an extremely one-sided bout. Sonic Proleague is all about the Ace players, and PianO and ZerO have shown themselves to be fairly capricious contenders. One day, they show spectacular play, the next, they show up arrogant and get crushed. Well, the latter part goes mostly for ZerO, but PianO has yet to play in the SSL ro16, and he has thrown games as well. Bar a Rocky (or possibly Rock?) style turnaround, I imagine the CJ squad will deliver a beating on them, considering Movie's overall play.
My prediction: CJ 5-2
SKT vs. STX
Friday, February 21st
Even though STX hasn't ever been considered a top team, SKT and STX have a long history of leaving people both elated+ Show Spoiler +
usually SKT fans
usually me
I'd give the edge of the non-aces to SKT, especially given Midas improvement in performance. Hell, even Pure looks as if he'll take a game off someone again (that someone being Britney). sSak doesn't look as hot as just a week ago, but he's still pretty good, and Larva has great ZvP, which will come in handy against STX-s 3 Protosses. Mini and Shuttle are in the ZerO and PianO boat. Some weeks they can punch the living daylights out of SoSPA's best and brightest, the others can show them failing against the amateur team. When we're lucky, this will come down to a very close series and a match between the two aces of the teams. If not, SKT will probably stomp.
My prediction: SKT (HTML) 5-4
WRITERS: mustaju, ArvickHero, Epoxide and 2Pacalypse-
GRAPHICS: KasPra
PHOTOS: dailyesports