MKP, Hurricane, Life, and Curious made their Proleague debuts in week one, but not all the new players had a chance to do so. Week two will feature yet more players playing their first Proleague matches, including the American player State!

Gumiho vs. Flash

CJ_GuMiho will be the first player in week 2 to have his Proleague debut match, barring a 3-0 result in the series. It didn't take long for Gumiho to find a new home on CJ Entus after fOu/FXO disbanded, and it's not surprising that the grizzled veteran has worked his way into the starting line-up ahead of Bbyong and Bunny. Though Gumiho is no longer the Code S regular he was in his prime, he can still be a valuable player for a Proleague team. He plays a very aggressive style that's not the easiest to prepare for, and he's also adept at making unusual builds that tailored to his style. It may not be the skillset you need to make a deep run in Code S, but it seems well suited for the best-of-one Proleague environment.

While no one wants to play the best Proleague player EVER in their debut match, TvT was the ideal match-up for Gumiho to draw. It's the match-up where players stay competitive the longest after their skills in other match-ups have deteriorated, and Gumiho was able to compete with the best Terrans in the world during his prime. Though this match doesn't favor Gumiho, he has a decent chance of winning.

Choya vs. Soulkey

Back in the days of FXO and GSTL, we used to joke that the only reason Choya got a chance to play was because he was the one making the line-up decisions. However, ChoyaPrime has now earned a start as part of another team and under a different coach, raising a lot of questions. Were we wrong all along? Did Choya actually earn all of those important game appearances for FXO based on merit? Is Choya quietly taking over the SC2 head coach position at Prime while Gerrard is busy playing HearthStone?.

Though we can't blame anyone for writing off Choya against Soulkey, you have to be reminded of another Prime Protoss who went up against Soulkey as the underdog. Back in round 1, JilaPrime scored a gigantic upset against Soulkey by employing cheesy, all-in tactics. Choya has pulled off similar upsets in his GSTL days (notably beating a peak-form MMA), and he's sure to have a trick up his sleeve against Soulkey.

State vs. Classic

With Prime, it's impossible to tell which roster decisions come out of desperation and which ones are based on merit. In round one, Creator was the only player to have a regular line-up spot. The other three spots almost seemed to be filled at random, as if Prime was just throwing players out haphazardly to see if anyone would stick.

In round two, Creator has been joined by MarineKing as line-up regular. However, the last two spots still seem to be getting picked by the same rotating door system. So even though we're cheering hard for State to succeed, realistically we can't be that optimistic about his chances. That said, PvP does happen to be the match-up where the most foreigner > Korean upsets have occurred in the past, so Classic is far, far from being guaranteed a win.

*On a side note, State is not yet an official member of Prime. Earlier reports from Korean media were incorrect.