Ongamenet kicked off it's own Team League last Saturday. It looks to be very different from other leagues up to now. The Starleague with pro gamers divided into teams, it is definitely not. It is a try at something genuinely new.
First off, instead of calling it a "team league" like MBCGame, they've decided to call it a "pro league". I think mensrea has mentioned that it implies the possibility of adding other games, such as FIFA or War3. Also, there's some focus on making it similar to other professional sports, with an All-Star game, MVP awards and so forth. The player records for the Pro League will be kept separate from the records for the Starleague. Originally they planned to use different maps from the Starleague as well, but it the idea was scrapped due to the excess practice pro-gamers would require on the new maps (already 3 different sets of maps for the 3 existing leagues). Also, the Pro League will be very long, taking 6 months to complete, compared to 3 months for the Starleague. It will be held on Saturday afternoons, which is a fresh idea as well. Other new concepts will be explained below.
With 10 pro teams capable of competing, OGN decided to hold preliminaries to cut this number down to 8 to make the league manageable over a long period of time. The preliminaries were quite complicated, even more complicated than the actual tournament. The league itself is quite complicated compared to the KPGA's simple, best three of five 1on1 style league.
During the first round, the 8 teams will play a game a piece versus all the other teams. After the first round, the bottom two teams will be eliminated. The remaining 6 teams will play vs each other once again, as was done in the first round. After the first two rounds, there will be an All-Star game before the playoffs. Then, the first and second round results will be added up and the teams ranked.
The first playoff match will be between th
e 3rd and 4th place teams. The victorious team will go on to play the #2 team. The victor of that match will go on to play the #1 team in the finals.
The Pro League is best 2 of 3 for the first and second rounds of play. A 1v1 is played first, then a 2v2, and finally a 1v1. During the first round, at least 3 players on one team must play that day. All 3 games are played even if a team has already won 2 games. A 3:0 victory will be worth more than a 2:1 victory in the case of a tie. During the playoffs, the format will change to best 3 of 5. The order will be 1:1, 2:2, 1:1, 2:2, and a final 1:1.
The two teams scheduled to play each other will be informed of their opponent and the order of maps in advance, and they are free to place their players as they please. However, each teams' placement of players will only be revealed 30 minutes prior to the broadcast. So the players must practice only knowing their map and the opposing team. For the 2:2s, the standard Korean rule of no same race teams is in place.
Another interesting quirk is the "permanent player" and "team captain" policy. The team captain and a designated player MUST play in at least one game each time the team has a match. Also, a single player is allowed to play twice, as long as he plays in a 1:1 and a 2:2. A single player cannot take charge of both the 1:1's.
Week 1
AMD Dream Team vs KTF MagicN's
AMD and KTF were the two teams to kick off the Pro League. Going in, both teams were strong contenders to win the whole league. KTF had its insane top 3 of Nada, Yellow, and Black. AMD had a 'free' win with its Jinnam/Jinsu team, and some top 1:1 players in Elky and Jinnam.
AMD: Jinnam(captain), Elky (permanent), Grrrr..., V-Gundam, Jinsu, Nazgul
KTF: Yellow(captain), Nada (permanent), Black, Oddysay, Autumn, Enough, Ssamjang, love[30D.O.M]
Game 1: Elky(AMD) vs Yellow(KTF) on Neo Bifrost
To no one's surprise, the two teams sent out some of their best to try and take the first game. Elky had made some pretty horrid performances versus Yellow on OGN, which caused some people to say Yellow had the advantage.
Yellow started on the left, while Elky started on the right. Elky opened by blocking off the entrance into his base with a supply depot, and then building a command center at his natural. Yellow started off safe, choosing to build his 2nd hatch in his main while going for quick lair. Having built his barracks after his CC, Elky had marines out just as Yellow started to pound on the supply depots blocking the entrances.
With a second source of minerals, Elky hastily built up M&Ms while preparing for the zerg lair tech to come. Elky showed some weakness, losing the supply depot blocking the entrance to his main to lings, despite having had the time to repair it. He lost some precious marines to the invading speedlings, but medics came out just in time to help stop the lings. Fortunately for Elky, the lurker follow-up was still some time away.
With lurkers out, Yellow expanded to 10:00. Instead of trying to test the entrance to Elky's main, Yellow sent a lurker and speedlings to the backdoor into Elky's natural. Before Elky could repair, the supply depot fell to concentrated zerg attacks. Breaking the supply depot, the zerg troops went at the bunker behind it. However, a firebat was inside, melting the lings easily. The single lurker was not much trouble.
That was not the end of Yellow's attacks, as he had scraped together the money to get overlord speed and drops as well. While the lurkerling occupied the terran troops, an overlord flew in with 2 lurkers. One dropped behind the minerals in the terran main, and one dropped right above it on the high ground.
Though it was a good attempt on Yellow's part, it didn't work as well as he hoped. Actually, it didn't work at all. His tactics had the combined effect of letting Elky take each lurker out separated from support fire. Elky was barely scratched, far up the tech tree and with plenty of M&M.
Elky loaded up 2 dropships and sent them to 10:00. Yellow had just gained spire tech, and had been unable to get up scourges patrols in time. The marines shot up the drones there, and were nearly through with the hatchery before lurkers and mutas took care of them. On the other side of the map, Yellow had been trying to put some pressure on Elky as well. Another 2 lurker drop had come in, but Elky was completely relaxed and used SCVs to help kill the lurkers.
Having had use of his expansion for quite a bit, Elky had built up an impressive force of M&Ms + tanks. As he moved out, it was clear Yellow would be no match for Elky's army. It looked like he might have bought himself some time when he killed Elky's single vessel with scourge. However, Elky seemed to have an unlimited supply of scan as he tore through Yellow. Yellow surrendered.
AMD 1 : 0 KTF
Game 2: Jinnam(z)/Jinsu(p) vs Nada(t)/Yellow(z) on Neo Jungle Story
It was no surprise to see Jinnam and Jinsu, considered to be the best 2:2 team in Korea, play for the AMD team. And similarly, no one was surprised when Nada and Yellow came out as a team. Despite having no prior 2:2 experience with each other, Nada and Yellow are still a team that people drool over. With the rule banning same race teams in place, Jinsu was forced to play protoss. This hadn't been much of a problem for Jinnam and Jinsu in the past, having won an OGN 2:2 tournament in the past with the same rules. However, that tournament was more of a series of exhibition matches than a serious competition. Also, they never had to play the #1 player in the world and the most consistent progamer ever.
Jinnam started at 12:00, and his twin brother Jinsu (I suppose some of you didn't know that!) started at 9:00. Nada started at 6:00, while Yellow started at 3:00. AMD immediately showed their intent to rush, as Jinnam went 9 pool, and Jinsu built his first pylon a far way out his main towards the middle. KTF showed a clear difference in strategies, Nada walling in and teching, while Yellow went for 12 pool.
AMD's first target was Yellow. Having gone for 12 pool, Yellow had started on his 2nd hatchery while Jinnam's was a far way off. Having to fend for himself, Yellow had built a well-protected sunken colony in his mineral line. After seeing the AMD troops headed his way, he started on a 2nd sunken colony, this one more into the open.
AMD attacked with 3 zeals and accompanying lings. The key piece in the whole attack was a single drone. Yellow's defense consisted of a completed sunken, a morphing sunken, and around the same amount of lings as Jinnam. As the AMD team attacked, the single drone went off to the side, starting a sunken colony next to Yellow's gas.
The result of the attack was a victory for KTF. Keeping the zealots and lings fighting his own lings, Yellow got his 2nd sunken colony up and working which forced the AMD team to back off and give up on the offensive sunken colony. More importantly, Yellow had taken the double team and kept Nada safe.
Nada soon showed the AMD team what he had been preparing. Vultures from 3 factories busted out to wreak havoc. Jinsu was caught completely off guard, having gone robotics facility to prepare for cliff drops, but not a goon in sight. Jinsu was spared the loss of all his probes by a single shuttle that came out just in time.
In the other AMD base, things were not going well either. Having gone pool first had left Jinnam with a very late 2nd hatchery compared to Yellow. Yellow was now threatening to overrun Jinnam with his large amount of lings. After getting rid of the probes, Nada's vultures went out and hunted down the slow zealots as well.
With his partner dead and no help coming, the AMD team conceded.
AMD 1 : 1 KTF
Game 3: Jinsu(AMD) vs Black(KTF) on Guillotine
Jinsu! Surprisingly, the AMD team used Jinsu instead of Jinnam. In the other camp, KTF brought out Sonic)Black, using all 3 of their star players. Zerg vs Zerg! Booo!!
Jinsu started off at 8:00, while Black started at 11:00. While Jinsu opened with 12 hatch and pool, Black opened with 9 pool gas. Black got lucky quick, his scouting overlord getting to Jinsu's base on the first try, while Jinsu's overlord went the wrong way around.
The game was mercifully short. Black had no qualms about exploiting the advantages of his build and sent a drone alongside his 6 lings to attack Jinsu's base. Unable to defend against this early attack, Jinsu surrendered in record time (not really a record).
AMD 1 : 2 KTF
KTF defeated AMD
Ongamenet successfully kicked off its new tournament, by following the current OGN trend of having really shitty games. Fortunately, as a backup plan, they had 2 team versus team matchups planned for the day. The next two teams to play would be IS and GO.
Woe, we don't have reports for this -_-. Just team information and results then!
IS: Mumyung(captain), Kos(permanent), Sir@Soni, Breeze[Akuta]
GO: TheMarine(captain), ForU(permanent), Xellos, Nal_Ra, Chrh, IntoTheRain, SaferZerg, Gorush
Game 1: Kos(IS) defeated TheMarine(GO) on Sin Gaema Gowun
Game 2: Nal_Ra(p)/ForU(Z!!) defeated Sir@Soni(z)/Breeze[Akuta](p) on The Huntress
Game 3: Xellos(GO) defeated Mumyung(IS) on Nostalgia
GO defeated IS 2:1