End of the Line

Whatever begins, also ends - Seneca

End of the Line
by Arrian
Team Liquid: Final Edits

Foreword

The world of professional Starcraft is all about results. Winning as the exclusive goal has long been its legacy; in the past, before days of widespread corporate sponsorship, losing meant no money, and for some, no money meant no food. After corporate sponsorship, the burners were taken off the players to win for their teams, and put on the coaches to win for their sponsors.

Some teams flourished under this inflection point in Starcraft professional competition; others did not. But some teams have been sponsored practically from the start, and of these, the most storied is SKT T1, whose history is written by the victories of titans of the game. But there is another team, one which has existed for about as long as the Masters of the Universe. It is SKT T1's arch-rival, and comparing their histories and legacies is possibly the starkest contrast in professional Starcraft rivalries.

SKT T1

KT Rolster

Way Back When

KT Rolster was once a contender; once it stood as a colossus, rivaling the aces of the SKT T1 lineup with heroes of their own. The 2005 SKY Proleague Grand Final, one of the greatest Proleague finals of all time, if not the greatest, saw a constellation of the game's brightest stars, two of the most celebrated lineups of all time battling to define the future of their franchises and an era of Starcraft. Playing for the then KTF MagicNs were (P)

Nal_rA,

Reach,

Goodfriend, (Z)

ChoJJa,

YellOw and (T)

Sync, all accomplished players and mostly Starleague winners, facing off against the fearsome SKT T1 lineup spearheaded by a terrifying (T)

BoxeR-

iloveoov duo and backed up by (Z)

GoRush,

Midas,

Kingdom,

Canata and (P)

IntoTheRainBOw. Without a doubt, KT was once a powerhouse, one of the oldest and most talented teams to play the game.

Despite its wealthy sponsor and the legendary lineup which it flaunted at the SKY Proleague Grand Final, KT had humble beginnings. KT began in 1998, founded by coach Jung Soo Young and (Z)

Freemura, naming their new team the 'Raptors.' At that time, there was no Courage or draft or restrictions on who could play. Because of this, the Raptors' lineup was a curious mixture of players, including January (the current Samsung coach), (T)

JoyO, and

Autumn. They secured an early sponsorship through an airline which employed Soo Young's wife, and with this fortuitous start, they dominated the first three seasons of KPGL, both individual and team.

Despite this success, however, internally the team was not as stable. Very soon after their KPGL wins, they lost their sponsorship, and quickly fell into very dire straits. At this time in its history, progaming was still a peculiar niche. It had not demonstrated a potential to generate revenue for sponsors, and any prize money was instantly absorbed into the expenses of running a team, so teams spent a lot of their time trying to get attention, whether they won or not. When coach Jung Soo Young was offered a contract to coach a new progaming team with a hugely wealthy sponsor, Samsung Khan, he was faced with the choice to coach a different team but have a stable revenue, or to go with the team he built from nothing, with an uncertain future and no promise of any future wins. In the end, Soo Young stuck with his team, and, as luck would have it, he was approached by another sponsor soon after. It was a rapidly growing telecommunications firm by the name of Korea Telecom Freetel, or KTF.

The newly christened KTF MagicNs moved swiftly toward the goal of becoming a powerhouse team, flaunting their newly bottomless wallets by buying a host of players, most notably (Z)

YellOw, who joined a number of players who were, at the time, big names, like (T)

Oddysay,

Autumn,

SoNiC)BlacK, (Z)

Freemura, and soon joined by (T)

NaDa, who would play for KTF for about a year. That year would prove to be a very important one for KTF, because they did not see the results that their budget and management expected, and so they continued to shop for big market players. Lacking a strong Protoss, they set their sights on (P)

Reach, and at the same time went on a spree, acquiring (T)

Sync and

ChoJJa as well. This move appeared ill-advised, as these signings took important cash away from their renegotiation efforts with NaDa and YellOw.

XellOs just had to get into the picture.

Even as their negotiations with NaDa failed and their negotiations with YellOw were deadlocked, KTF didn't miss a beat, setting its sights on a powerful and inspired player, (P)

Nal_rA, who signed with KTF for a whopping $200,000, sporting both a MSL and OSL title at the time, and playing some of the best Starcraft of his career. Fortune smiled again on KTF as, almost two weeks later, they successfully re-signed YellOw, and just in time to start the 2004 SKY Proleague R1. Everything was seeming to come together, finally with an undeniably accomplished and talented lineup, sporting two aces in each race and a wealthy sponsor, KTF was set to become not only a contender for the playoffs, but a favorite to win the Grand Final itself.

ChoJJa and YellOw are clearly unconcerned about the match

At this time, the Proleague format was somewhat different. The first round combined all the professional teams, with one team (the worst) being disqualified because of an uneven number of teams. Disappointment from high expectations struck in the first round, as KTF only narrowly escaped disqualification, taking 7th place and going a mediocre 5-5, which was a dramatic under-performance for a team that was supposed to have become a contender after their big signings. They did not appear to improve much in the second round, which divided the teams into two divisions of 5 teams each, and had them round robin twice. KTF, with a mediocre 4-4 match record and an even worse 8-10 set record, somehow took third place.

In the third round, however, KTF finally broke through, going 8-0 in the match record and an astonishing 16-4 in the set record. In a riveting round three final, however, KTF choked, losing as many games in the final as they had the whole round, dropping 4-3 to KOR. The Grand Final playoff was next, involving the champions from the first three rounds, in this case P&C from the first round, the Hanbit Stars from second, KOR from the third, and then the best team statistically in terms of overall win ratio from the teams that did not qualify. In this case, that team was KTF. Their opponent again was KOR, and things were little different from the last time around. Despite playing in the 2004 Grand Final, KTF again walked away empty-handed.

At the same time as things were not working out in the booth for KTF players, it was becoming ever more clear that part of the KTF legacy was internal issues. In an incident that, to use the much overused term, 'rocked' the progaming world, allegations were made that the KTF head coach Jung Soo Young was manipulating what players were succeeding in the KTF Premier League. The incident is still hazy, but what is clear is that Jung Soo Young, in the dressing room before a match, approached Hexatron players Jinsu and JinNam, where there were heated words exchanged partly about Hexatron head coach Daniel Lee not refereeing a match because he was too busy, which quickly turned into nasty threats towards the players, with Jung Soo Young purportedly stating that they would not get into the next KTF Premier League. This became a very big incident, with the veracity of the allegation only supported by the fact that 8 of the 16 players participating in the invite-only league were KTF players.

This was not all, however. With all of this negativity about the KTF management being spewed around, rumors circulated that YellOw had not been allowed to practice with TheMarine or NaDa (the two best Terrans on the team at the time) for the TriGem MSL finals against iloveoov, which later turned out to be true. This frustrated YellOw fans, who blamed his loss on being forced to practice with a second-rate Terran against the macro monster iloveoov. KTF's luck worsened, as old frustrations over two incidents thought dead resurfaced, and bred seriously ill will toward KTF.

The first of these concerned NaDa's contract. At the time KTF first signed NaDa, they offered his manager a contract of over $100,000. Since he was a minor, his agent had legal rights over the contract, but KTF allegedly talked him into signing for less without consulting his manager. The KPGA, the forerunner of KesPA, accused the KTF management of exploiting NaDa, who was young and inexperienced at the complex workings of legal contracts. NaDa fans who felt that he deserved the extra money saw KTF as cheating their hero, and the KTF management got in hot water with the KPGA.

The second incident involved Oddysay's 'retirement.' As the story, uncorroborated but widely considered true, goes, Oddysay wanted to spend more time with his girlfriend, but the KTF management would not let him. So Oddysay told them that his grandmother died (or some such; it is unclear what he said exactly) and he needed to go to her funeral. Needless to say, Oddysay's less than clever deception was soon discovered, and KTF's management forced him into retirement.

This was a 'whoops' moment for iloveoov--and KTF

But that wasn't even all. It turned out, more to iloveoov's embarrassment than KTF's, but nonetheless, a secret contract between iloveoov and KTF was exposed, wherein KTF attempted to sign iloveoov while he was negotiating with SKT T1. When SKT T1 made a better offer (45 million won over 1 year compared to KTF's offer of 45 million won and 3 years), iloveoov attempted to cancel the contract. When this came to light, SKT T1 fans saw KTF as trying to steal their front man, and once again the judgment and reputation of the KTF management was questioned.

Forcing Reach to wear makeup was almost a scandal itself.

After alienating the NaDa fans, the YellOw fans, the Oddysay fans, the SKT T1 and iloveoov fans, KTF's less than popular management worked to improve its image by winning the Proleague, but those wins proved elusive. That is, until the start of the 2005 SKY Proleague.

The story of the 2005 SKY Proleague is as much Nal_rA's story as KTF's. At every clutch moment, in every big game, KTF leaned on Nal_rA, and he delivered. YellOw, Reach, and ChoJJa still carried their weight, but there was no denying who was the point man, the go-to guy of the KTF lineup, and with him as their rock they plowed through their competition all the way to the 2005 Grand Final. Opposite them, completing the greatest professional team rivalry in existence, was SKT T1. Even in its greatest season ever, however, KTF could not overcome its greatest enemy. You can read the full battle report courtesy Manifesto7 here.

There were still high hopes for the 2006 Proleague, however. They still had a deep roster, with Goodfriend playing solid, ChoJJa (playing the best StarCraft of his career, winning an MSL over (Z)

sAviOr and finishing his OSL run with a second place finish), rA, YellOw, and Reach. The team looked poised to recover from their disheartening loss and to continue to rampage through to the finals. KTF did something during this period that they cannot be said for many other times in its history: they minimized mistakes. Indeed, the mistakes again were being made predominantly by the management (for example, by consistently playing (T)

Hery, trying to develop him into a star, which they failed in doing--more on this below). KTF entered the playoffs hoping to steal the first berth with the R1 championship, but they were stopped cold by MBCGame Hero, with a stunning 4-0 loss that has resonated through its history from that point on.

The first set was (P)

Nal_rA against (Z)

July on Arcadia, and it proved to be the closest game of the night. rA valiantly harassed with his sair/reaver, but July is July, and the master of ZvP won by starving rA into surrender.

The next set was (T)

Hery against (T)

Sea on Peaks of Baekdu. Sea turned the game into a vulture war, and, using vastly superior mechanics and micro to the KTF Terran rookie, took the game without breaking a sweat.

The third set turned into a tragedy of errors. The KTF manager had saw fit to send out (Z)

aQua and

EJi, who squared off against (Z)

Saint and

Bisu on Iron Curtain. First among the head scratchers of the game, aQua mindlessly threw his lings at Saint, who defended them easily, giving MBC the lead. Then, comically, a single zergling of aQua's slipped into Saint's main and killed 5 drones, decisively returning the advantage to KTF. Instead of finishing a nearly helpless Saint, however, aQua and Eji put all of their might into Bisu, and crashed like waves on rocks against the emerging star. Their continued failures allowed Saint to come back into the game, and a vengeful MBC team overtook the inexperienced KTF gamers.

Then came (T)

Goodfriend v (Z)

Shark on New Cultivation, where KTF had sent out their stopper. Goodfriend was rock solid, an OSL finalist, and a TvZ machine. Shark, on the other hand, was a 'cheesy noob,' known for 5pooling and generally showing no promise whatsoever. This was the safety net; this was KTF's sure win in a worst-case scenario. What happened next is one of the more bizarre games in the history of the game because of the caliber of the players involved. The action is recapped in greater deal in "The Sniper" by Plexa, but essentially Shark stuck to a one base hydra/ling overwhelm tactic that completely threw Goodfriend, and when he tapped out, KTF tapped out for the season.

What happened in that match was really foreshadowing of what would become endemic in the modern KTF: the team, the invincible KTF lineup, losing in flabbergasting fashion. Nal_rA was the only bright spot, but even he could not overcome the ZvP monster. Hery was simply not a good player, aQua and Eji made terrible in-game decisions, and Goodfriend failed to improvise or react after scouting Shark's early aggression build. This loss shattered the team's reputation, it shattered their confidence, and it sent KTF to the darkest period in its history. KTF, and its players, would never truly seem to recover from this loss.

The Dreamer is probably just daydreaming

ChoJJa began the slump that would end his career. YellOw was relegated to 2v2, and Zergbong was irrelevant, completing a hopeless Zerg lineup. Sync caught ChoJJa's bug and slumped, Hery continued flopping, and Goodfriend was phased out of the lineup, rounding out the now-miserable Terran lineup. The only bright spots for KTF were the Protoss lineup, as Reach and rA caught second winds and basically held the team together from total collapse, and their 2v2 play. Predictably, however, they failed to make the playoffs in the second round, and essentially fell from contention. It was also on this note that long time coach Jung Soo Young retired as the KTF coach.

A shot of the KTF team huddle

By R1 of the '07 Proleague, KTF was being held together by a single man, as Reach also joined the 2v2 squad with YellOw, and that man was Nal_rA. rA battled it out through the end of R2, but when he began slumping, KTF missed the R1 playoffs. For the second round of the 2007 Shinhan Bank Proleague, KTF hit what they thought was the bottom of the barrel. Eventually even rA could not hold on any longer and went into retirement. With the loss of 2v2 some time later, Reach and YellOw became cheerleaders, rarely seeing any games at all. ChoJJa was long gone as was Sync, and Goodfriend was sold to eSTRO.

Fortunately for KTF, on May 22, 2007, KTF's only homegrown champion debuted against (P)

Rage, a quick-handed little monster by the name of Lee Young Ho, aka (T)

Flash. By the time of Flash's debut, the modern KT, the KT we know today, was dawning, and there is no questioning which man now carries the burden on his shoulders:

The question of where the modern KT began is an interesting one, and merits discussion. It is a question of who defined the team, who made the team what it was. YellOw helped build the team, Reach carried the burden brave and bold throughout his tenure, and Nal_rA led the team superbly through its darkest days. Unlike SKT T1, whose name conjures BoxeR, and iloveoov, and the mythic Terran lineup, the name KTF conjures these three, and without one of them, it is not KTF. YellOw made the team legitimate at its birth, Reach captained the team for a long time and without a doubt was its point man for the longest time of any, and Nal_rA is the closest thing to a hero that KTF had ever known. The history of the team is not complete without all of them, and so losing them all is what has closed the team off, and brought it into the modern era. The name KT does not mean YellOw and Reach and Nal_rA anymore.

The story of this team to the present is unique. As all teams, they came from nothing, but KTF's golden age has no iconic first place trophies or legendary struggles, just the stories of the heroes and legends of yesteryear. It could be said that KTF's finest days were its founding, back when it was a team full of promise and the professionalism that was soon compromised. At that founding, when KTF first approached Soo Young, they told him that they had only one goal--to win. Soo Young found, much to his pleasure, that his new sponsor and he shared exactly the same goal: to be the best, and nothing more. KTF was built on that foundation, a foundation of striving at all costs to win, and to be the best.

But that was then, and this is now.

Apathy & Amnesia

Today, KT Rolster is a team fighting for its identity. It is a team that can nearly fill a lineup with Starleague winners, but chokes in important situations. It is a team which in its past has won, and won frequently, but has never won the Proleague. It is a team that throws around large amounts of cash to bring the very best to fight under its banner, but somehow those players always slump long, and hard, never to return to their original form. There is no doubt that KT Rolster has potential; just a sweep over the talent that fills its ranks, what we know that these players can do because we've seen it, assures us that KT should always be a threat to win Proleague, but they always lose in the big matches. Always. Sometimes, you can even imagine them battling that R1 playoff against MBC in every match they lose: fighting hard, but fighting blind, fighting determined, but fighting hopelessly.

KT is a big market team, which, when it matters most, plays small market Starcraft. It still gets rolled in the most critical matches by the team which tormented it during its golden age. It has (T)

Flash, once the best player, once anticipated to be the fifth bonjwa, and still a monster in Proleague, who cannot get it done for his team when it matters most. It has (Z)

Luxury, who wins like (Z)

Jaedong and loses like (Z)

MuMyung. It has (T)

fOrGG, who slew the dragon Flash never could, Jaedong, but hasn't made waves since. It has (P)

Violet, once the most touted Protoss rookie, who showcased his potential in the STX Masters by blowing a lead to Frozean, rolling over to Movie, and flopping against type-b, mediocre opponents in each matchup.

The adoption of a mascot, the calamity that was the KTFingerBoom nonsense, the no-name period, and the loss of YellOw, Nal_rA, and Reach, have finally and completely separated this team from what once made it great. What afflicts KT Rolster is not a lack of talent, or impressive prospects, or bad conditions, or even external factors like overly tough opponents. No, what ails KT Rolster is entirely internal. What afflicts KT Rolster is a lack of soul, the soul they showed before that fateful loss; the soul they showed when they had leadership and professionalism and the determination to face down their opponents no matter the circumstances.

This is why they cannot cultivate any of their prospects, and why they then buy big names like fOrGG and Luxury who then slump as well, and this lack of soul is also displayed by the flagrant blunders of management and creative methods of failure in their matches. There is no other explanation for why Flash suddenly collapsed after his GOM-Bacchus-GOM warpath and has taken so long to recover aside from a lack of something, whether you choose to call it an intangible, soul, or heart. There is no other explanation for why fOrGG went from a 56% win rate to a miserable 37% immediately following his move to KTF. There is no other explanation for why Luxury went from a 61% win rate to a 52% win rate after his transfer. Something about the atmosphere, the very air, at the KT house is toxic to success. Before the modern era, KT could never have been accused of this; the players they bought played well and played with devotion to their team. But now, having lost that identity, that confidence, and their soul, KT finds ways to lose against all expectations.

Let me give a few examples of what I mean. Take the April 12th, 2009 Proleague match between KTF and WeMade Fox. A lackluster WeMade team fielding a lineup impressive only in the sense that so much mediocrity can constitute a lineup for a professional sponsored team swept the then (read, before the “emergence” of Violet) KTF ace lineup. (Z)

RorO rebuffed a cheesing (P)

Tempest on Battle Royal in embarrassing fashion, fOrGG blew a significant economic lead in an entrenched position to 2 hatch play with a delayed expansion, and Luxury ignored his pleading hydralisks as they slithered towards storms and scarabs, losing every unit he had (and leaving his lurker eggs morphing as they were being attacked) while barely injuring (P)

Pure's much, much larger force.

Each of these cases is a display of utter failure. Tempest cheesed half-heartedly, and while he was the only Protoss to win any games on Battle Royal, the decision by the coaching staff to send him out on that map was a very poor one as its incredible zerg slant was no secret, and indicates a further failure of KTF's management. fOrGG played like his keyboard had suddenly turned into a midget wielding a white-hot fire poker after fortuitously delaying (Z)

Shine[kaL]'s expansion, attaining a significant economic advantage, and building an absurd number of turrets. Luxury played like he was a fastest pro, completely ignoring micro, making an embarrassing series of mistakes, and then looking incredulous and surprised when he lost.

Fast forward to April 21st of that same year. ACE, still the worst team in Proleague, toppled KTF. Again, the KTF coaches put out a non-zerg on Battle Royal, but this time, it was not a random B teamer being sacrificed on the altar of the swarm, but their ace, Flash. And he lost to (Z)

OversKy. Then Tempest played a decent game against (P)

Anytime, whose marquee matchup has never been his PvP, but then fOrGG lost to the former KTF point man, defending against (P)

Reach’s reaver harass like he’d never seen a reaver before, and (Z)

FireFist was toppled decisively by (T)

Casy. It appeared as though ACE was well-prepared for the match, but these were 2 convincing losses to 2 very bad teams within 10 days of each other.

Of course, the most fascinating and illuminating incident of failure that also happens to address the kind of prospect KT cultivates was (T)

SaiR's GOM games against (Z)

hero on April 15th. After SaiR was flattened by hero in the first game, something strange happened in the second game. The game started with SaiR inflicting massive damage on hero’s economy with a sunken break, after which hero spawned 6 mutalisks. Hero’s total drone count could not have been over 10, and SaiR had two fully saturated bases, defended by turrets. SaiR chose not to micro his small force of marines, and then tapped out after they died. It was obvious that SaiR still had a chance in the game; just throwing up several turrets would have been enough to hold on long enough until a small force would finally do hero in. What this incident shows is that, whatever else is lacking in the KT house, fighting the good fight is certainly one of them. "Killer instinct," as Daniel Lee would call it, is one thing that some KT players would appear to lack. The rest of us may call it "trying."

KT’s failures are not isolated to April of 2009. This is just the way the team plays sometimes. No team swings so dramatically in level of play as does KT, which is perhaps best shown by their rookie Zergs. Once, (Z)

HoeJJa was the hottest new Zerg around. Now, he is the most inconsistent Zerg around. After HoeJJa's collapse, Firefist began to show some promise, and then, graciously, decided to shed that promise even faster. 815 was also a touted recruit, and made some impressive wins at one point or another in his career when it never mattered. None of these prospects panned out the way KT hoped they would, which is why they bought Luxury, at the time fast becoming Hite’s best player, and showing almost boundless promise during a Jaedong slump. Of course, then Luxury got a whiff of whatever they’re pumped into the ventilator system at the KT house, and his own journey into profound, dynamic, and consistent failure began.

What about KT's other prospects? Violet is certainly good, Tempest has shown promise at times, and (P)

Stats even has played some good games from time to time; the point being that all of these players have won games that nobody expected them to, and all of them have definitely played better Starcraft then they often show. That indicates potential, the ability to win games and with solid mechanics and inspired strategy, but the stark reality is that that potential is being wasted, or simply not employed or brought out during games. This general inability of KT to cultivate their prospects into becoming what past games suggest they can be is something to blame partly on the coaching staff and partly on the players themselves, but make no mistake, there is plenty of blame to go around between the two.

Toward the purpose of examining KT's general underperformance, I have compiled in the spoiler a (mostly) complete round up of every match played by KT in the last Proleague, their record against top and bottom teams, and what is generally solid evidence of their mediocrity.

+ Show Spoiler +

October 5
KTF v Estro
3-2 KTF
Luxury > by.funny
Flash < Tester
LuCifer < UpMagiC
SaiR > hyvaa
Flash > SangHo

October 8
KTF v WeMade Fox
3-1 KTF
Flash > Rock
Tempest < Pure
Luxury > Nal_keke
815 > pepe

October 12
KTF v Khan
3-1 Khan
Luxury < Stork
SaiR > Frozean
Tempest < Odin
Flash < Firebathero

October 15
KTF v Lecaf
3-2 Lecaf
Flash > HiyA
Luxury > Backho
Firefish < Jaedong
Tempest < Lomo
Flash < Jaedong

October 18
KTF v MBC
3-2 KTF
Violet < Sea
815 < Saint
Luxury > Hyun
Flash > Jaehoon
Flash > Light

October 21
KTF v CJ
3-1 KTF
SaiR > GGPlay
LuCifer < DarkElf
Luxury > Much
Flash > Memory

October 26
KTF v Ace
3-0 KTF
Flash > BoxeR
Tempest > OversKy
FireFist > MuMyung

October 28
KTF v STX
3-2 STX
Tempest < July
SaiR< Kal
Luxury > Calm
Flash > Hwasin
Luxury < Kal

November 4
KTF v SKT T1
3-1 KTF
Bisu > Luxury
BeSt < Tempest
Hyuk < FireFist
Fantasy < Flash

November 17
KTF v OGN
3-0 OGN
YellOw[ArnC] > SaiR
Leta > Tempest
Spear > Luxury

November 25
KTF v Woongjin Stars
3-2 Stars
PianO < Stats
free[gm] < Flash
GGPlay > Hery
ZerO > Luxury
ZerO > Flash

November 29
KTF v WeMade Fox
3-2 KTF
RorO < 815
Mind > Stats
Nal_keke > Luxury
Pure < Flash
Mind < Luxury

December 2
KTF v eSTRO
3-1 eSTRO
hyvaa < Flash
SangHo > Violet
UpMagiC > Luxury
Sea.Really > Hery

December 7
KTF v OGN
3-2 OGN
Flash > Chalrenge
Stats < Leta
FireFist < Justin
815 > YellOw[ArnC]
Luxury < Leta

December 10
KTF v Woongjin Stars
3-1 KTF
SaiR < MVP
Flash > GuemChi
Tempest > GGPlay
Luxury > ZerO

December 14
KTF v Khan
3-0 Khan
Stork > Flash
Juni > Tempest
firebathero > 815

December 17
KTF v Lecaf
3-0 Lecaf
fOrGG > Luxury
Jaedong > Flash
Young > Stats

December 22
KTF v ACE
3-2 KTF
Anytime < Flash
Casy > SaiR
Rage > Violet
MuMyung < Firefist
Casy < Flash

December 27
KTF v MBC
3-1 MBC
HyuN > Luxury
Jaehoon < Flash
Sea > Tempest
Light > FireFist

December 30
KTF v CJ
3-2 KTF
Movie < Flash
EffOrt > Stats
sAviOr < Luxury
sKyHigh > Zergbong
EffOrt < Flash

January 5
KTF v STX
3-0 STX
July > Tempest
Kal > Luxury
Hwasin > FireFist

January 11
KTF v SKT
3-0 SKT
Haran < Best
Flash < Bisu
Lucifer < Thezerg

January 17 - Start Winners League
KTF v Khan
4-2 KTF
815 < Jangbi
HoeJJa < Jangbi
Luxury > Jangbi
Luxury > Great
Luxury > Stork
Luxury > Firebathero

January 20
KTF v SKT
4-3 SKT
Luxury > Bisu
Luxury < BeSt
815 > BeSt
815 < Hyuk
Flash > Hyuk
Flash < fantasy
FireFist < fantasy

February 2
KTF v ACE
4-2 KTF
Anytime > Haran
Anytime < HoeJJa
Reach > HoeJJa
Reach < Flash
Casy < Flash
Sunny < Flash

February 8
Flash v Lecaf
4-2 KTF
Lomo < Hery
Lomo < Tempest
Lomo > Flash
fOrGG > Flash
HiyA > Flash
Jaedong > Flash

February 11
KTF v STX
4-3 KTF
Calm < Luxury
Hwasin > Luxury
Hwasin > SaiR
Hwasin > Hery
Hwasin < Flash
Kal < Flash
Notice < Flash

February 15
KTF v WeMade Fox
4-3 KTF
HoeJJa > inter.Mind
HoeJJa > by.BaBy
HoeJJa < Shine[KaL]
SaiR > Shine[KaL]
SaiR < RorO
Luxury > RorO

February 18
KTF v eSTRO
4-3 eSTRO
SaiR < hyvaa
HoeJJa < hyvaa
Luxury < hyvaa
FlaSh > hyvaa
Flash > Really
Flash > SangHo
UpMagic < Flash

February 21
KTF v MBC
4-2 KTF
Luxury > RuBy
Luxury > Sea
Luxury > Jaehoon
Luxury < Light
HoeJJa < Light
FlaSh > Light

February 24
KTF v Woongjin Stars
4-1 Stars
FireFist > GuemChi
FireFist < PianO
Flash < PianO
SaiR < PianO
Luxury < PianO

March 2
KTF v Hite
4-3 KTF
violet > go.go
violet < hogil
firefist > hogil
firefist < leta
luxury < leta
flash > leta
flash > yarnc

March 13
KTF v SKT
4-3 KTF
815 > Bisu
HoeJJa < Bisu
HoeJJa < Canata
HoeJJa > fantasy
Flash > fantasy
Luxury < fantasy
Luxury < BeSt

March 22
KTF v Lecaf
4-0 Lecaf
HoeJJa > Jaedong
Never_V_ > Jaedong
Luxury > Jaedong
Flash > Jaedong

April 12
KTF v WeMade Fox
3-0 Fox
RorO > Tempest
Shine[kaL] > fOrGG
Pure > Luxury

April 15
KTF v eSTRO
3-1 KTF
SangHo < Flash
hyvaa < Violet
UpMaGiC > Luxury
Really < fOrGG

April 18
KTF v MBC
3-0 KTF
Light < fOrGG
Sea < Luxury
Pusan < Violet

April 21
KTF v ACE
3-1 ACE
Oversky > Flash
Anytime < Tempest
Reach > Forgg
Casy > Firefist

April 25
KTF v Hite
3-2 Hite
HoGiL > HoeJJa
YellOw[ArnC] > Luxury
Leta < Tempest
Horang2 < Flash
Leta > fOrGG

April 27
KTF v Woongjin Stars
3-1 KTF
Piano < Flash
free[gm] < HoeJJa
ZerO > Luxury
GuemChi < Violet

May 4
KTF v Oz
3-0 Oz
Luxury < Jaedong
Flash < Hiya
Hoejja < Backho

May 9
KTF v CJ
CJ 3-2
EffOrt > fOrGG
sKyHigh < Flash
Kwanro > Luxury
Movie < Violet
EffOrt > Flash

May 13
KTF v STX
3-1 STX
Kal > HoeJJa
Notice < Flash
Calm > Tempest
Modesty > Luxury

May 18
KTF v Khan
3-2 Khan
Violet > Firebathero
Flash < Stork
HoeJJa < JangBi
815 > great
Flash < JangBi

May 21
KTF v SKT
3-1 KTF
Thezerg > Luxury
BeSt < HoeJJa
Bisu < Violet
fantasy < Flash

May 30
KTF v ACE
3-1 KTF
Violet > Anytime
Flash > GoRush
HoeJJa < XellOs
815 > OverSky

Games Total
103-111

Match Total

23-23

2-2 v eSTRO
3-1 v Fox
1-3 v Khan
1-4 v Oz
3-1 v MBC
2-1 v CJ
4-1 v Ace
1-3 v STX
3-2 v SKT
1-3 v Hite
2-2 v the Stars

Bottom 6

14-7 (eSTRO, Fox, MBC, ACE, Stars)

Top 6

9-16 (Khan, Oz, CJ, STX, SKT, Hite)

Round Format: 15-19 (44%)
Winner's League: 8-4 (66%)

Round Format: 64-75 (46%)
Winner's League: 39-36 (52%)

If you look through the spoiler above, you’ll see that KT way outperformed their performances from the typical Round style format (46% win rate) in Winner’s League (52%) (taking 3rd overall after being dominated by ~~Hwaseung~~ Jaedong), and then went back to their original plan of losing a lot. This would seem to say that when Flash gets more than one crack at it, KT does better, and that observation by itself is quite obvious. But Flash also fails sometimes, too, and the stark inability of his teammates to pick him up when he falls is part of the problem with this team. It is not that Flash does not have it within him to carry his team to the finals, it is that his team does not have it within them to take up even a part of their burden.

But also consider, as have been discussed before, the once-legitimate-but-now-mockingly-called-all-star lineup of fOrGG, Flash, and Luxury, Starleague winners all, and all very dangerous players at one time or another. At the very least, KT should have been able to do like Hwaseung and have their ace win his game, then, in the case of KT, have another Starleague winner win just one more game to send it to an ace match so they can hand it off to Flash again. But KT could do this only infrequently, which again calls in shared responsibility for the failure.

KT is a team that should, on paper, be winning a lot more in Proleague, and fighting hard for the top spot. They have three Starleague winners and a gaggle of talented young players, which if they all had developed properly, would no doubt be solid players capable of holding down their part of any odd Proleague match. The only teams with better on-paper lineups are SKT T1, CJ, and STX Soul. Yet KT is always the one which consistently underperforms. And they have been underperforming ever since they lost the R1 playoff match to Hero.

If there are any doubts that KT is a team in trouble, ask yourself why this team, once playing perhaps the proudest lineup in the history of the game, has fallen so far. Ask yourself why they struggle so much against bad teams, and indeed have struggled in practically every match, regardless of their opponent. Ask yourself what KT was thinking to decide to name the team ‘Fingerboom.’

No amount of question marks can adequately express what we were all thinking

All of this was true up until recently. Until the first round of the Shinhan Bank 2009-2010 Proleague, KT was exactly as has been described.

But something has changed. Something is not quite as it was last Proleague. KT is winning now, and winning consistently. Instead of failing in ways unimaginable and inexplicably losing in spite of themselves, KT has been doing the exact opposite. The first round of this Proleague has brought KT unprecedented success. They earned a 10-1 match record with an unbelievable 31-10 set record. Of the current top 10 performers in Proleague, three are KT players: Flash, Luxury, and Violet.

This is above and beyond the results they have posted in the past. Even in their best run to date, the 2005 SKY Proleague, they posted an inferior record and the same mistakes they always made, just fewer in quantity. But those mistakes are no longer part of the KT playbook, and their bag of tricks now seems to contain nothing but victory. Whatever caused this team to be unsuccessful, whatever crushed its spirits and suffocated its prospects, appears to be dispersing.

KT's performance this round is not only impressive, it is startling. Not only is KT leading the Proleague; they're running away with it. Their closest competitor, MBCGame Hero, is only 8-3, with a 29-18 record. In terms of points, it is not even close: 19 for KT, 9 for Hero. If fOrGG begins performing the way he has in the past and the way he is expected to, there may be no stopping this team from reaching the Grand Final.

Set in Stone, Etched in Sand

KT has gotten off to a hot start this Proleague. Except for some hiccups from its headline players, overall the team is showing the most promise since its 2005 SKY Proleague run. But it is still early, and there is plenty of time for KT to relapse. At the time of this writing, however, KT is on top of the Proleague. With only a solitary loss to CJ Entus, KT is playing better Starcraft than any other team, even laying their most hateful rival low in an exciting 3-2 victory over SKT T1's (T)

fantasy.

Perhaps the modern KT is at a point of evolution. There is no certainty that the team is returning to the spirit of the days of Nal_rA, YellOw, and Reach, but perhaps what KT became once its heroes departed is finally transitioning into the team it was when they left.

Where this newfound success leads remains to be seen. The right of the modern KT lineup to be spoken of in the same breath as its lineup of legends is something that must be earned, and there is no accomplishment short of a Grand Final win that will allow for it. Even losing in an exciting fashion, in the closest of matches, would disqualify this; unlike this lineup, KT's lineup of old were founders, players who built the team and wrote the history of the game with their victories and their innovations and their personalities. They were winners even in defeat because of the impact that they had on the game and on the culture and on each other, because they had the soul that the modern team so desperately needs and so obviously lacks. Nothing short of a title, nothing short of placing KT on the very top for the first time since its creation will satisfy the ambitions that were set forth at the founding of this team and restore the soul that they have lost.

KT's past is crystalline. In Korea, KT's heritage and history is as transparent as glass, known to all who follow the game and all who wear the KT uniform. It is a history both marred by the actions of its managers and coaches and made glorious with the victories of its champions. KT is a team that rose from nothingness to near greatness, and then fell as far, and until recently floundering, grasping at the fading wisps of greatness from its contrail.

KT’s future is anything but certain. Flash is finally playing at the level he did during his warpath culminating in his OSL victory, Luxury has rebounded from his post-Starleague victory slump, and fOrGG still looks like a monkey who so desperately wants a banana. The KT Protoss lineup is loaded with question marks, though Violet is showing immense promise, and the Zerg lineup minus Luxury seems to have a form of collective bi-polar disorder, often resulting in failure, but occasionally in domination. Overall, however, KT is finally looking strong and minimizing mistakes, which more than anything else has contributed to their success.

Even so, in order for them to reach, and remain at, the top of Proleague, KT Rolster must remember its heritage. It must remember that it holds the longest streak of Proleague wins at 23. It must remember that it is a team built by the greatest Protoss to play the game, by one of the most unique and beloved players ever to play the game, and the team made manly by the scourge of the SKT T1 Terran line, the Mantoss himself. But instead of remembering and embracing what made its former greats great—solid mechanics and inspired strategy—under the leadership of (P)

EJi and

H.O.T-Forever, KT looked like a team searching for heart among a sea of raw disappointment. That is, until recently.

One thing is clear about the months ahead for KT: it is a team reaching a critical point in its history. There are only two choices left: they can either break apart and fall into a restructuring period, pining again for the days when the Dreamer, the Storm Zerg, and the Hero Protoss struck fear into opposing teams, or they can win the 09-10 Proleague.

The way is made ready. Soon we will find out what waits for KT at the end of the line.

Thanks to keit for the banner, GTR, Plexa and Last Romantic for the history lessons and Insane for the editing!

End of the Line

End of the Line

Completed

Ongoing

Upcoming