Table of Contents
Final Week Review
Playoffs Set
Most Wins of the Season
Flash leads
Games of the Week
Best vs HerO
Fantasy vs HerO
BravO vs RorO
Hammer vs Flash
Postmortem Analysis
Samsung KHAN
SK Planet Proleague table and results at Liquipedia
Week 5 Review
By: Wunder
It’s over! The regular season of Proleague has come and gone and four teams go along with it as we move into the playoff season. Unfortunately for Samsung KHAN, SK Telecom T1 snuffed out their chances before they even had a chance to play - with SKT narrowly defeating EG-TL on the first day, the four playoff teams were locked. Nevertheless, we recap this week’s games along with SKT’s close call with disaster. All this and more in this week’s Proleague recap!
Round 6 Week 5 Matches
July 6
SK Telecom T1 vs EG-TL
Bisu <Akilon Wastes> Oz
BeSt <Korhal Floating Island> HerO
Rain <Whirlwind> TaeJa
s2 <New Fighting Spirit> Revival
PartinG <Neo Planet S> JYP
FanTaSy <Newkirk Redevelopment Precint> Snute
Ace: FanTaSy <Bel'Shir Vestige> HerO
SK Telecom T1 wins 4-3!
Team 8 vs STX Soul
Terminator <Akilon Wastes> INnoVation
TY <Korhal Floating Island> hyvaa
check <Whirlwind> Trap
Cure <New Fighting Spirit> Dear
Argo <Neo Planet S> Classic
Savage <Newkirk Redevelopment Precint> Mini
Ace:<Bel'Shir Vestige>
STX Soul wins 4-0!
Bisu <Akilon Wastes> Oz
BeSt <Korhal Floating Island> HerO
Rain <Whirlwind> TaeJa
s2 <New Fighting Spirit> Revival
PartinG <Neo Planet S> JYP
FanTaSy <Newkirk Redevelopment Precint> Snute
Ace: FanTaSy <Bel'Shir Vestige> HerO
SK Telecom T1 wins 4-3!
Team 8 vs STX Soul
Terminator <Akilon Wastes> INnoVation
TY <Korhal Floating Island> hyvaa
check <Whirlwind> Trap
Cure <New Fighting Spirit> Dear
Ace:
STX Soul wins 4-0!
July 7
Woongjin Stars vs Samsung KHAN
HammEr <Newkirk Redevelopment Precint> JangBi
Organ(Piano) <Whirlwind> Stork
BrAvO <Naro Station> RorO
Mekia <Bel'Shir Vestige> Kop
Flying <Korhal Floating Island> Reality
Aria <Neo Planet S> TurN
Ace: Light <New Fighting Spirit> JangBi
Samsung KHAN wins 4-3!
KT Rolster vs CJ Entus
Crazy <Newkirk Redevelopment Precint> herO
Stats <Whirlwind> Bbyong
Zest <Naro Station> Hydra
Flash <Bel'Shir Vestige> EffOrt
MyuNgSiK <Korhal Floating Island> SonGDuri
Puzzle <Neo Planet S> Bunny
Ace: <New Fighting Spirit>
KT Rolster wins 4-0!
HammEr <Newkirk Redevelopment Precint> JangBi
Organ(Piano) <Whirlwind> Stork
BrAvO <Naro Station> RorO
Mekia <Bel'Shir Vestige> Kop
Flying <Korhal Floating Island> Reality
Aria <Neo Planet S> TurN
Ace: Light <New Fighting Spirit> JangBi
Samsung KHAN wins 4-3!
KT Rolster vs CJ Entus
Crazy <Newkirk Redevelopment Precint> herO
Stats <Whirlwind> Bbyong
Zest <Naro Station> Hydra
Flash <Bel'Shir Vestige> EffOrt
Ace:
KT Rolster wins 4-0!
July 8
SK Telecom T1 vs Team 8
Bisu <Bel'Shir Vestige> TRUE
s2 <Newkirk Redevelopment Precint> Cure
PartinG <Neo Planet S> Argo
Rain <Akilon Wastes> Pigbaby
FanTaSy <Naro Station> Terminator
soO <New Fighting Spirit> TY
Ace: <Korhal Floating Island>
Team 8 wins 4-1!
STX Soul vs EG-TL
Classic <Naro Station> JYP
Dear <Akilon Wastes> TaeJa
INnoVation <New Fighting Spirit> Jaedong
hyvaa <Korhal Floating Island> Oz
Trap <Newkirk Redevelopment Precint> Revival
Mini <Bel'Shir Vestige> HerO
Ace:<Whirlwind>
STX SouL wins 4-2!
Bisu <Bel'Shir Vestige> TRUE
s2 <Newkirk Redevelopment Precint> Cure
PartinG <Neo Planet S> Argo
Rain <Akilon Wastes> Pigbaby
FanTaSy <Naro Station> Terminator
Ace:
Team 8 wins 4-1!
STX Soul vs EG-TL
Classic <Naro Station> JYP
Dear <Akilon Wastes> TaeJa
INnoVation <New Fighting Spirit> Jaedong
hyvaa <Korhal Floating Island> Oz
Trap <Newkirk Redevelopment Precint> Revival
Mini <Bel'Shir Vestige> HerO
Ace:
STX SouL wins 4-2!
July 9
Woongjin Stars vs KT Rolster
Light <Naro Station> Stats
Aria <Akilon Wastes> Crazy
BrAvO <New Fighting Spirit> MyuNgSiK
Hanbin <Korhal Floating Island> Puzzle
HammEr <Newkirk Redevelopment Precint> Flash
Mekia <Bel'Shir Vestige> Zest
Ace: <Whirlwind>
KT Rolster wins 4-2!
CJ Entus vs Samsung KHAN
herO <Bel'Shir Vestige> JangBi
Bunny <Newkirk Redevelopment Precint> Reality
Bbyong <Neo Planet S> TurN
EffOrt <Akilon Wastes> RorO
Hydra <Naro Station> Trend
SonGDuri <New Fighting Spirit> Shine
Ace: <Korhal Floating Island>
CJ Entus wins 4-1!
Light <Naro Station> Stats
Aria <Akilon Wastes> Crazy
BrAvO <New Fighting Spirit> MyuNgSiK
Hanbin <Korhal Floating Island> Puzzle
HammEr <Newkirk Redevelopment Precint> Flash
Mekia <Bel'Shir Vestige> Zest
Ace:
KT Rolster wins 4-2!
CJ Entus vs Samsung KHAN
herO <Bel'Shir Vestige> JangBi
Bunny <Newkirk Redevelopment Precint> Reality
Bbyong <Neo Planet S> TurN
EffOrt <Akilon Wastes> RorO
Hydra <Naro Station> Trend
Ace:
CJ Entus wins 4-1!
Standings
SK Telecom in the Playoffs
As much as we would like to think of SKT as the team with the star studded line-up, in possession of arguably the two best Protoss players on the planet and a phenomenal Terran player as backup, they had a visibly hard time trying to make the playoffs. They struggled, and it was made painfully obvious during the first match against EG-TL this week, where they narrowly closed the series out 4-3.The first two games featured two of SKT’s ailing Protoss players, Bisu and BeSt. While Bisu has been showing good progress and has taken down a number of players, BeSt hadn’t seen the light of day for a good number of weeks prior to his reappearance just last week. Down 0-2, it was up to Rain to pull it back for SKT and pull it back he did, as he capitalized on TaeJa’s missteps and decimated the Terran’s army with some choice storms. However, SKT was then pinned against the wall as their unstable Zerg, s2, failed to stop the onslaught of Revival. The all-star team was suddenly 1-3 against the lowest ranking team and a game away from allowing Samsung to make their final sprint.
Luckily for SKT, PartinG managed to dismantle JYP in a quick PvP utilizing some blink stalkers to pick apart the EG Protoss easily. With the score being 2-3, it was up to Fantasy to close it out and bring it to an ace match and while actually ended up being a close match, Snute just couldn’t keep up with FanTaSy and had to tap out before his infestor tech started paying its dividends. With the ace match in sight, one could have expected a Rain vs HerO showdown, but it was Fantasy who was sent out instead, perhaps in an attempt to trip out the Liquid Protoss. Though we look at that game more in-depth later, it was the frantic nature of the game that was the most interesting to me. For Fantasy to play so aggressive at such a pivotal point in the series speaks volumes about how he stays true to his style regardless of the situation.
With the win against EG-TL secured, SKT was through to the playoffs. With the other matches not really bearing much weight, the rest of the week was less interesting to say the least. Nevertheless, SKT’s final match of the regular season, against Team 8, was something of note -- especially since they lost 4-1. With Bisu being the only player to win a game, it’s interesting to speculate whether or not SKT simply didn’t practice or was attempting to hide strategies against Team 8 to preserve their hopes against STX this coming week. SKT has definitely shown weakness in the past few weeks, and if they don’t find a fast fix, they’ll be hard pressed to perform against STX Soul next week.
Most Wins of the Season
Player | Team | WoL Win - Loss | HotS Win - Loss | R6 Win - Loss | Total Win - Loss | Total Win % |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Flash | KT | 19 - 11 | 23 - 10 | 5 - 3 | 42 - 21 | 67% |
INnoVation | STX | 17 - 11 | 20 - 8 | 4 - 3 | 37 - 19 | 66% |
Rain | SKT | 16 - 9 | 20 - 10 | 3 - 5 | 36 - 19 | 65% |
JangBi | SAM | 12 - 13 | 20 - 11 | 8 - 3 | 32 - 24 | 57% |
sOs | WJS | 18 - 8 | 13 - 7 | 4 - 1 | 31 - 15 | 67% |
Hydra | CJ | 18 - 10 | 12 - 16 | 4 - 4 | 30 - 26 | 54% | Zest | KT | 11 - 6 | 18 - 6 | 4 - 3 | 29 - 12 | 71% |
EffOrt | CJ | 16 - 12 | 13 - 14 | 4 - 4 | 29 - 26 | 53% |
RorO | SAM | 16 - 10 | 12 - 9 | 3 - 4 | 28 - 19 | 60% |
FanTaSy | SKT | 14 - 13 | 14 - 10 | 5 - 3 | 28 - 23 | 55% |
herO | CJ | 17 - 9 | 10 - 12 | 2 - 4 | 27 - 21 | 56% |
Soulkey | WJS | 11 - 7 | 15 - 7 | 3 - 2 | 26 - 14 | 65% |
TY | T8 | 8 - 13 | 18 - 13 | 3 - 3 | 26 - 26 | 50% |
Stats | KT | 11 - 7 | 13 - 6 | 5 - 1 | 24 - 13 | 65% |
free | WJS | 12 - 5 | 12 - 10 | 2 - 2 | 24 - 15 | 62% |
Dear | STX | 11 - 9 | 13 - 8 | 5 - 2 | 24 - 17 | 59% |
HerO | EG-TL | 10 - 10 | 15 - 13 | 5 - 4 | 24 - 23 | 51% |
Argo | T8 | 14 - 13 | 10 - 11 | 3 - 3 | 24 - 24 | 50% |
ZerO | WJS | 14 - 9 | 6 - 6 | 1 - 1 | 20 - 15 | 57% |
With the end of the regular season, the title for the most wins in Proleague has been decided. With a 67% win rate, KT Rolster’s Flash has earned the title with a 5 win lead over second place INnoVation. While at one point, Flash, Innovation, and Rain were in a complete deadlock for first place, Flash took a substantial lead in the all-kill round by getting put out as the starting player and managing to perform several multi-kills as well as a few all-kills along the way.
A surprising entrant in the top five, JangBi managed to sneak in at the fourth position even though his team didn’t make the playoffs, which is just another testament to how much he contributed to his team. Though Woongjin Stars’ sOs barely skidded into fifth with a one game lead over the sixth place, it should be noted that Woongjin has the most players in this category, topping it out with a total of four. Because of their team strength, Woongjin Stars often closes out matches early before all their players can play.
All in all, this ranking should go to show that while Innovation may be leading the charts in individual leagues, there is stiff competition at the top and no single player should be considered immune, especially in the bloody arena that is Proleague.
Games of the Week
by kollin
BeSt <Korhal Floating Island> HerO - VOD
HerO is a player well known for his multitasking and control, and his willingness to constantly harass with warp prisms or zealot runbys through out the game. However, in this game he took it a step further as not only did he and Best repeatedly sneak warp prisms into one another's bases and warp in DTs and zealots, but HerO also decided that he would use the four tempests he made midway through the game to go and snipe one of Best's bases. Despite them only doing thirty damage apiece for each extremely slow shot, it still worked and made everyone rather confused. Apart from this odd moment, the game was still an extremely fast-paced immortal archon face off, with the harassment ultimately deciding the game.
Tactical Nexus Snipe
FanTaSy <Bel'Shir Vestige> HerO - VOD
Sometimes as a Protoss, you decide to attack. Sometimes, you do virtually game ending damage and find yourself significantly ahead in economy and army size. Due to that advantage, you might even sometimes let your composure slip and relax the intensity of your play as you believe you've already won. This is the situation HerO found himself in, and against almost any other opponent but Fantasy he would have been fine to ease off the throttle a little and begin thinking about how to cry in a celebratory fashion. However, it just happened he was playing Fantasy, who is known for his incredible comebacks and his refusal to GG until the last possible moment. Fantasy's multi-pronged aggression with drops sniped off not one but two nexuses, and left him a base up against HerO only ten minutes or so after being virtually dead. Hero lost two colossus for no gain, and a doom drop by Fantasy that killed off every single gateway and the cyber core was the final nail in the coffin for the EG-TL Toss. The SKT fans and team celebrated the secured play-off spot, and HerO sat in his booth looking stunned that he had thrown such a won game away.
Rain is amused
BrAvO <Naro Station> RorO - VOD
While it's fair to say that not everybody loves infestors and widow mines, whenever a huge widow mine hit goes off on a worker line, or a fungal catches forty mutas and slowly ticks their health down to zero, surely you can't help but giggle a bit inside? Well if that's the case, this game is second only to perhaps ForGG vs Stephano in WCS EU, as it has widow mine explosions aplenty on drones, queens, infestors, marines, brood lords, marauders and almost every other easily blown-up unit you care to name. Combined with Innovation-esque constant frontal aggression with bio mine, and crushing through RorO's infestor brood lord in a direct engagement without too much effort, this action packed TvZ is definitely one to watch.
boom
HammEr <Newkirk Redevelopment Precint> Flash - VOD
Despite being a mech vs mech, forty minute long macro-fest this game was played at an extremely high tempo, with both players crossing to opposite sides of the map at the same time, and being forced to defend back home with whatever popped from their factories that minute. Despite taking damage early on, Flash's macro proved to be superior later in the game and he took the win with his late game sky Terran. Despite being a clear underdog, HammEr put up a good fight, though you could clearly see the difference in the macro abilities of the two players.
A culmination of an hour of aggressive mech TvT
HerO is a player well known for his multitasking and control, and his willingness to constantly harass with warp prisms or zealot runbys through out the game. However, in this game he took it a step further as not only did he and Best repeatedly sneak warp prisms into one another's bases and warp in DTs and zealots, but HerO also decided that he would use the four tempests he made midway through the game to go and snipe one of Best's bases. Despite them only doing thirty damage apiece for each extremely slow shot, it still worked and made everyone rather confused. Apart from this odd moment, the game was still an extremely fast-paced immortal archon face off, with the harassment ultimately deciding the game.
Tactical Nexus Snipe
FanTaSy <Bel'Shir Vestige> HerO - VOD
Sometimes as a Protoss, you decide to attack. Sometimes, you do virtually game ending damage and find yourself significantly ahead in economy and army size. Due to that advantage, you might even sometimes let your composure slip and relax the intensity of your play as you believe you've already won. This is the situation HerO found himself in, and against almost any other opponent but Fantasy he would have been fine to ease off the throttle a little and begin thinking about how to cry in a celebratory fashion. However, it just happened he was playing Fantasy, who is known for his incredible comebacks and his refusal to GG until the last possible moment. Fantasy's multi-pronged aggression with drops sniped off not one but two nexuses, and left him a base up against HerO only ten minutes or so after being virtually dead. Hero lost two colossus for no gain, and a doom drop by Fantasy that killed off every single gateway and the cyber core was the final nail in the coffin for the EG-TL Toss. The SKT fans and team celebrated the secured play-off spot, and HerO sat in his booth looking stunned that he had thrown such a won game away.
Rain is amused
BrAvO <Naro Station> RorO - VOD
While it's fair to say that not everybody loves infestors and widow mines, whenever a huge widow mine hit goes off on a worker line, or a fungal catches forty mutas and slowly ticks their health down to zero, surely you can't help but giggle a bit inside? Well if that's the case, this game is second only to perhaps ForGG vs Stephano in WCS EU, as it has widow mine explosions aplenty on drones, queens, infestors, marines, brood lords, marauders and almost every other easily blown-up unit you care to name. Combined with Innovation-esque constant frontal aggression with bio mine, and crushing through RorO's infestor brood lord in a direct engagement without too much effort, this action packed TvZ is definitely one to watch.
boom
HammEr <Newkirk Redevelopment Precint> Flash - VOD
Despite being a mech vs mech, forty minute long macro-fest this game was played at an extremely high tempo, with both players crossing to opposite sides of the map at the same time, and being forced to defend back home with whatever popped from their factories that minute. Despite taking damage early on, Flash's macro proved to be superior later in the game and he took the win with his late game sky Terran. Despite being a clear underdog, HammEr put up a good fight, though you could clearly see the difference in the macro abilities of the two players.
A culmination of an hour of aggressive mech TvT
Postmortem Analysis: Samsung KHAN
by Wunder
Previous Postmortem Analyses
Retrospective: Samsung KHAN
Probably the most eccentric team, Samsung KHAN is home to some of the quirkiest players; from Jangbi’s hilarious hyena-like laugh, to Shine’s bathroom etiquette, it’s clear that this team is a close knit group of players that share a sense of camaraderie. Since the start of the season, Samsung has had it’s highs and lows; though they had an abysmal start, they picked it up in the next round. They took the rankings by storm when Heart of the Swarm came out and made a dash for the playoffs. Unfortunately for them, it was a little too late and their fate was no longer in their own hands. And as hard as they fought, Samsung barely missed making it to the playoffs. While they dwell on their losses, we’re here to take a look back at some of Samsung’s greatest moments as well as some of their worst.
Biggest Strength: Perseverance
With a quick assessment of their players, it’s clear that Samsung doesn’t have the star power that a team like Woongjin or SKT possess. At the start of Proleague, they didn’t even have an individual player with as much raw strength as KT or STX. But they didn’t give up and stop practicing. With the end of the round things began to look up and the reign of RorO(28-19) began as anti-teams across Teamliquid were shattered with RorO netting 25 points that round. Samsung’s slow progress continued, and they managed to claw their way from being the laughing stock of the Proleague community to a respectable team that was inches away from claiming a playoff spot.
Biggest Weakness: Questionable line-ups
A huge problem that plagued Samsung throughout this season were the questionable choices made by Coach January and her team. Of course, there is no way to know their thought process and they could very well have good reasons for why they did the following things, but it is still important to note the occurrence of them nonetheless.
- Continuously fielding Shine while keeping better players under wraps
- Debuting Solar(2-5) in Round 2
- Debuting Trend(0-1) in Round 6
- Fielding Kop(3-4), TurN(9-11) and Reality(19-20) with regularity in Round 4
Greatest Moment: Round 4
With the release of HOTS, many teams experienced change, for good or bad. While teams like CJ Entus and SK Telecom T1 had trouble adjusting to the expansion, teams like STX Soul and Samsung KHAN benefited greatly from it and capitalized by taking a few much needed wins to keep them in the game. While we would see Samsung and RorO take a large performance hit in the next round, round 4 featured the rise of Reality, with notable wins over Flash and Hydra.
Worst Moment: Round 1
There is nothing worse than starting a seven month long league by going 1-6, but that’s exactly how Samsung KHAN started this season of Proleague. With an absolutely abysmal start, no one on the team had a positive W/L record. However, there was a silver lining through the tragedy, which was the fact that Jangbi had potential. Out of all the players, Jangbi was the only one who won an ace match, and against CJ’s herO no less.
Player most deserving of a Playoff team: JangBi
While RorO may have had the last Wings of Liberty GSL title under his belt and contributed to his team’s success tremendously, let us not forget his performance in round 5, where he had a 4-5 score and his team went 2-5. Meanwhile, Jangbi was in the top 6 scorers with an 8-5 record, trying his hardest to keep his team afloat by himself. While not the most known player to new viewers of Starcraft, JangBi(32-24) has been performing admirably in Proleague and though he hasn’t had too many chances to prove himself in individual leagues, there should be little doubt that he will rise to become a top contender soon.
Special Shine Award: Shine
Dude has a 5-15 record in Proleague, and had a -1 score in FPL in one of the rounds. STOP FIELDING HIM.
Special Shine Award #2: Stork
Stork(14-29): See also: HotS record
Player to look out for in the future: TurN
An up and comer, TurN already boasts wins over players like Innovation and Cure. With a lot of room to grow, TurN has the potential to become a solid anchor for his team in the future. Though he had a rough start in the first few rounds of the season, he, along with many other players in Samsung KHAN, rebounded at the start of Heart of the Swarm and as a result found himself in starting line up often. It wouldn’t be much of a surprise to see this Terran player continue on the road of improvement and become a staple in the Samsung KHAN roster.
Key areas to improve on for next season: Roster depth
Let’s face it: Samsung KHAN has one of the most bare bones rosters out all the teams in Proleague. There isn’t a simple solution for how they can improve, because there are a number of things that can be improved. Their starting line-up is essentially made up of Jangbi and RorO and is sprinkled with a severely underperforming Stork, three developing Terrans and Shine. On the sidelines they also have Solar and Trend, but we haven’t seen much of them so it is hard to speculate on their skill level. However, even with all these problems, they still managed to finish 5th, which is an incredible feat to accomplish. Moving forward, Stork has to continue to work on his game because if he somehow manages to find his groove back, it could be exactly what Samsung needs to push them over the edge. Couple that with their Terrans who have shown good potential and perhaps a new recruit or two, and Samsung is in good shape to take the next season by storm.