Things That Happened in Week 4

• Prime Ribbed - Oh Prime. We really had high hopes for these guys after the first two weeks. But after Weeks 3 to 4 where they went 1 - 12 (their sole win coming from SalvatioN, of all people), it looks like they'll continue to be the butt of all the jokes. With their season now over, it's difficult to call it anything but a failure. Sure, no one expected the team to do well, but their combined record of 5 - 23 with a mapscore of -45 suggests they hardly ever looked close to decent. An appearance in Round 4's playoffs, which looked like a possibility after Week 2, could have salvaged their season, but it looks like redemption was a bit too far to reach.
  
  Without strong reinforcements, it's difficult to see the team doing any better next season. Creator started strong, but he ended the season on a 4 game losing streak and a record of 15 wins, 17 losses. MarineKing looked set to finally turn things around, but 4 straight losses of his own have left him at 10 - 13. With no one else managing more than 5 wins, it's hard to see Prime as anything other than an AirForce ACE consolation team.
  
  
• Jin Air Bounce Back - Well you could pretty much see this coming a mile away. After struggling through 3 straight losses against KT, CJ, and SKT T1, Jin Air definitely felt glad to be facing Prime and MVP this week. And they didn't let the opportunity pass as they beat both teams, with sOs, Maru, and Rogue each earning 2 wins. The Fleet's fortunes rise and fall depending on the state of their two stars, and the Marine Prince has looked like a shadow of his former self since the start of the Round.
  
  They looked like the team to beat after dominating Round 2, but they have looked rather thin lately. Rogue, TRUE and Cure have all shown flashes of dependability, and they'll need at least one to step up come the playoffs. But that won't matter unless sOs and Maru are in shape.
  
  
• Samsung Have a Lifeline - It's been a while since Samsung looked like a solid team, but despite missing out on the playoffs for Rounds 2 and 3, Samsung still have a shot at making the season playoffs. CJ's loss to IM and their 2 wins against Prime and MVP have moved Samsung within a game of clinching a round playoff spot. If they can take first place in the round finale and CJ continue to falter, Galaxy could still displace Entus in the points ranking. It's a longshot, but if they can beat SKT T1 while CJ lose to the Telecom giants, anything is possible.
  
  In fact, Samsung can still mathematically overtake Jin Air. The Green Wings can still fall as far as 6th this round, and a first place in the playoffs from Samsung would see them overtake the 3rd spot. The drama's not yet over, folks.
  
  
• CJ Finally Lose - And swept by IM, too. Hydra, Bbyong, and herO all lost to their IM counterparts, and while the games were reasonably close, a sweep is a sweep. CJ have still looked like the most impressive team of the round, but this does send them back down to earth. SKT T1 and even Samsung now have a shot at catching up with them, and such a disappointment would certainly dampen their championship credentials. Of the current top 4 teams, CJ are the only team yet to win a round. If they want to be taken seriously as a contender, their final regular season match against SKT T1 will be the date to prove it.
  
  
• Inexplicable Miracle - 26 matches later, and still nobody knows whether IM are any good or not. They swept CJ this week, and they narrowly lost to SKT T1 in Week 2. But they were also swept by MVP in Week 1. They've always kept within striking distance of the playoffs, mostly earning 5th/6th places and staying within a win of 4th place, but they've yet to actually appear in it.
  
  If IM win their remaining 2 matches with a favorable map score, they'd be at 50% for the season and they'd finally make a playoff appearance. Fans expected much more from the STIM alliance, but the team has so far flattered to deceive. The biggest positive so far is ByuL's rise as the team's unexpected ace, but we all once thought that Life, Squirtle, and even YongHwa were ace worthy players. This round is IM's last chance to show they aren't just a bunch of underachievers, and they'll hope that their win against CJ is the start of a good closing run to the season.
  
  
• SKT Equal KT? - Early in the season, it looked like KT was Best KT. Their 3-1 and 3-0 dismantlings of their great rivals seemed to suggest that KT's big 4 were too much for SKT T1 to match despite their impressive roster. Zest's monster performance in Round 1 Playoffs, exterminating the Telecom Team 4-0, put an exclamation mark on KT's dominance.
  
  But things have turned around since then, as SKT T1 rallied for two bigs wins in Rounds 3 and 4. They registered 3-0 and 3-1 wins of their own, while KT have limped as the season has gone on. Heading into the season finale, it looks like SKT are Best KT, but they have yet to beat their rivals in a round playoffs. Many an armchair pundit expect these two teams to square off in the finals, and things could not be any closer.
  

by lichter

Line-up Notes: Week 5

• TvZ Week - We've neglected the matchup in recent weeks, but TvZ is still considered the classic Starcraft race rivalry for many fans. With the resurgence of Terrans in Proleague recently, we finally get a week with 4 TvZs, and they're big ones too. Flash vs Life is always a premier matchup, but Soulkey vs Bbyong could outmatch it in terms of form and quality. soO vs GuMiho will likely verge on madness, while we are set to see Ace vs Ace in Maru vs ByuL.
  
  This is Flash vs Life's 10th televised game against each other, and so far, Flash leads 5-4 and is on a three game winning streak. Their games at Shoutcraft were both excellent, with Flash showing a preference for early hellbat attacks before transitioning into mech. Life meanwhile has tried to adapt to using swarmhosts against that Terran composition, but with little success as his strengths have always been harassment and multiple army control. It will be interesting to see whether both players stick to what we saw at Shoutcraft, or if they'll change things up for Proleague.
  
  One player unlikely to alter his play style is Bbyong, who should be called the Station Attendant considering he only ever comes out on Habitation Station and Waystation (thanks stuchio). His Gangnam Terran antics recently caught the eye of TL Strategy, and everyone will be anticipating whether he goes Oppa Bbyongnam Style on Soulkey. As the Iron Zerg, Soulkey shouldn't fall for such a predictable trick, so we could see something funky here.
  
  The most low key of the 4 matches might be soO vs GuMiho, but don't expect it to deliver any less. soO is now a three time GSL Finalist, and GuMiho has so far been one of the best new additions to any Proleague roster. We're all still waiting for that moment GuMiho finally realizes that he can go full nine tailed fox with drops with speedyvacs, and his fans will expect him to punch through every hole in soO's often impenetrable defenses.
  
  Closing out our set of TvZs will be Maru vs ByuL in a rematch on Merry Go Round. ByuL won the last time they met on the map (which was the only time they'd ever faced each other), and it was blistering back and forth. Maru preferred using banshees for map control and looked to stay even in worker count, but ByuL map presence with mutas and his ability to snipe orbitals eventually strangled Maru into submission. The Little Prince has since shown a renewed vigor in playing bio TvZ and simply bludgeoning his opponents to death with his micro, so expect something different this time around.
  
  
• soO Times twO - While soO does deserve to be fielded each week, arguably even ahead of Soulkey, soO has a GSL Finals to play this weekend. You'd think that iloveoov would give him a break from Proleague, but instead the head coach has chosen Week 4 to be soO's turn in the line up. Will his preparations be affected by a plate full of high profile matches?
  
  
• No TvTs this week - After two weeks with several high profile TvTs, the mirror disappears once again to close out the season. This isn't such a bad thing though, as the TvTs we've had so far have mostly disappointed. I guess that's what happens when you don't get much practice in it.
  
  
• Playoff Rosters are Set - This round has seen many more bench players in action, but it looks like the list of potential players is more of less set. Action, MyuNgSiK, Dark, Hush, GuMiho, and even soO were hardly regulars in the first two rounds, but their teams will count on them to be the fifth or sixth man in the season finale. With the format expanding to Best of 7s, having a big 3 or 4 may no longer be enough, and these players have all shown that they deserve to be fielded. Hush and GuMiho in particular have impressed, enough to even put them on par with regulars like EffOrt and Hydra. Only Jin Air have failed to truly explore alternatives to the inconsistent trio of TRUE, Rogue and Cure, but their small roster doesn't exactly have the wealth of talent that the other playoff teams have. This fact could be exploited come the season playoffs, but we should see how the week plays out before we make any predictions.
  

Matches to Watch: Asserting Dominance

Upon first inspection, a match between the 5th and 6th place teams of the round might not seem very important, but this match could define both team's seasons. On the one hand, KT have struggled since pounding teams in Round 1, and their slow decline could finally see them miss out on the round playoffs. With a core of Flash, Zest, Stats, and TY, this looked close to impossible even after their players started to lose form one by one; we just never thought it would happen at the same time. On the other, we have the underachieving team IM, who many thought could challenge even the strongest of Kespa teams. Their alliance with a flailing Startale team did little to improve their fortunes, and a team this talented shouldn't be scrapping it out with MVP and Prime to avoid the bottom.

For KT, this match will be about finding their rhythm and proving they aren't a team in losing their way. It's difficult to pin their struggles on their bench, who have combined for an impressive 4-1 record between Action, MyuNgSiK and Sleep. The real concern is TY, who looked like the best Terran in Proleague in Round 1. He has since gone 4-3 in Round 2, 2-2 in Round 3, and is currently 1-3 in Round 4. His steady fall from grace should be a big worry for KT fans heading into Best of 7s, and he isn't even playing this week. Will KT start fielding one of their bench ahead of their talented Terran?

For IM, this match will be about redemption. They are a team stuck in mediocrity, always hanging just outside the playoffs but never good enough to join in on the fun. With two matches left this round and with an acceptable record of 2-3, two good games against KT and Jin Air could still propel them into their playoff debut. It's much less than many of their fans expected, but it'll at least be a sign that IM do have the talent to compete with the best. MVP's surprising run in Round 2 showed that streakiness matters in a format this short, and few will argue that IM don't have what it takes on paper.

Fortunately for the latter, KT aren't sending out Stats and TY. However, that isn't much consolation considering Action and MyuNgSiK have both performed well when sent into the booth. For IM, Ruin has been one of their best players of the round and could take his game against Zest, while YongHwa won last week against the powerful Bbyong. I expect this match to be close, with Zest and Ruin likely to be the swing match, but IM should be desperate to prove they are still a team to be reckoned with.



* IM still have to beat Jin Air to make it to the round playoffs though, so a win here won't entirely save their season.



The two most in form teams in Proleague face off on its penultimate match day, and it could decide who goes on to win the round. SKT T1 proved last week that they had banished their KT hoodoo by beating them again 3-1, and the fact that they have 2 players playing in the GSL Finals this weekend--two players who aren't even locks to play each week--shows that there isn't a more talented team in the league. For all that talent though, SKT T1 have still shown signs of weakness, most noticeably in their loss to Prime in Week 1. They've since bounced back and have set their sights on earning another 1st place in round robin. CJ meanwhile started the final round with 5 straight wins, but a drubbing at the hands of IM last week denied them a perfect round. That disappointment could be chalked up to IM playing well more than CJ playing poorly, but it does show that Entus aren't invincible even though they are still atop the standings for Round 4.

Mathematically, CJ aren't out of the woods yet. If they lose this match and Samsung win against SKT T1 with a favorable map score, Samsung would come out of nowhere to top the round. If CJ fail to do better than Samsung in the round playoffs after that, they could still be leapfrogged by Galaxy in the season standings. Their final place will also be decided by the fate of a Jin Air team in danger of falling to 5th or 6th this round if the Green Wings lose to IM. CJ will be desperate to accomplish something this round as they have yet to place first in either the round robin or the playoffs, and it would go a long way in silencing their doubters.

For SKT T1, this is all about playoff placing and proving they are Best KT. Already a lock in the season finale, they are still only second to KT in the standings and everyone knows that for the great rivals, that's even worse than losing to Prime. They've yet to beat KT in the playoffs and it stands as the lone red mark on a successful season, but another first place in round robin should dispel that sense of inferiority.

Both teams will be looking ahead to the round and season playoffs, and this duel is all about momentum and making a statement. However, they've settled on sending out their less seasoned players, and both teams will hope that their bench can pull off an upset or two. CJ's backups have been a revelation the last 2 rounds, so I expect them to do better than their counterparts on SKT T1, but every fan of the game will be hoping for this to go to an Ace match.



This has looked like CJ's round, and I think they'll have enough to prove it.