Here We Are

Focus Match: The Decider

Week 7 Spare Previews

MVP vs Jin Air

Sbenu vs Prime

CJ Entus vs SKT







This is it, then: the end of the 2014-15 SK Telecom Proleague Round Robin. Through to the very last week, four teams are still in active competition for the one spot in the season playoffs that remains open. Last year, few would have expected one of those three to be KT Rolster. After Round 1, even fewer would have expected the nearly-defunct StarTale to also number among them. And MVP, how the hell did they string together enough successes with the barebones roster now missing most of the players that originally brought the team into the spotlight of prominence? I will not delve into the rollercoaster that is Samsung in 2015, but suffice to say that they, too, in the end have found enough strength to level even KT Rolster.It has been a crazy season, if not for the inexplicable breakdowns of players we would have expected to rate among the best then for the relentless shutouts suffered by every team bar none. In a scene often nearly stagnant in its tiers, Proleague has offered respite from the gray and predictable by offering no reason at all. Solar, what? It has been a crazy season, one of triumphant returns and last-minute rescues of a team otherwise doomed to eke out the last minutes of their existence. It has been the season, even more so than the last, that solidified -- at least to me -- the legacies of players we thought were on the brink of fading. DRG's days of significance were looked back on as afterthoughts in the modern day before his irrefutable success in the SpoTV studio proved otherwise. Panic -- hardly a name worth remembering at all -- received a lease of life and did with it the most he ever could have, carving out a streak truly worthy of mention.There are more stories to be told than are fit to be crammed into this article, and a recap of the full season will be forthcoming once the dust of the playoffs has settled. For now, ease into your chairs and enjoy the last four best of 5's of the season. To the very last minute, they are significant. To the very last minute, there is a battle to be fought. Sit back and enjoy, and we'll see you soon.Praising KT's performance as a whole would demand a good bit of reality-bending. Though the second and third rounds of the season were sound successes for last season's champions, their losses to the Dynamic Duo of MVP and Sbenu this round have hardly inspired confidence. Currently tied with both of the aforementioned teams for a coveted seed into the Round 4 playoffs, KT are in serious trouble: Sbenu face Prime with favorable lineups and MVP face the struggling Jin Air.To feel reasonably secure in their playoffs chances (though Proleague tiebreakers are never entirely clear, KT would lose out to both Sbenu and MVP if head-to-head records were to be used), this means that KT need to win 3-0. Anything would force the Telecom giant into a position of uncertainty - Samsung would edge ahead by merit of map differential, while MVP and Sbenu could potentially do the same based on the outcomes of their matches.The kicker? If KT drop to #6 in the rankings (which would happen following a loss to Samsung and MVP/Sbenu both winning their matches), they are at serious risk of not making the season playoffsWith that in mind, here is the season's most important individual match:Solar is absent from the final week's line-up, and the weight of his yoke falls to Armani , who has to face Zest . Not a great position to be in as a Zerg, particularly not one with a recent record including losses to most Protoss players imaginable . Now, Zest himself hasn't been entirely convincing either , but the Protoss we once dubbed Kingslayer seems quite the match for Samsung's most prolific online player.Given Zest's usual reliance on relatively standard play (particularly against opponents of limited merit or limited exposure), it would be reasonable -- just as it usually is -- to say that Armani's best bets lie with one form of a dice roll or another. Zest has been known to suffer against a number of early, punishing attacks in the past (or, in fact, most kinds of Zerg shenanigans), and hitting Zest early and hard could also provide the added benefit of taking away KT's footing. If the KT players are forced into their matches fearing underhanded tactics, that could be a great boon for the weaker (though certainly more flexible) Samsung roster.Then there is the conondrum of Stats. Once and underrated, twice a Starleague semifinalist, Stats has -- as is now a well-publicized fact -- fallen on hard times. What's worse, whichever block or difficulty may presently be hindering Stats, it isn't visible enough for outsiders to make any clear or informed kind of judgment. One week (such as last week, in fact) he might punch through a gauntlet containing both Zest and Solar, only to struggle against the likes of Trust and jjakji mere days later. Stats' bag of recent results is so mixed that drawing conclusions or making decisive predictions would be a fool's errand. Against Hurricane -- not exactly known as the most orthodox player of all time -- I can only feel that the Chintoss' best chance lies with the kind of play he himself might be fearful of. Whatever his current struggle, a hard base of mechanics and unit control still remains. If he lacks confidence and stability elsewhere (and if Dear and Jim present serious obstacles, that seems almost certain), Stats should, but simply: cheese the hell out of Hurricane.And speaking of conondrums, Life will face Dear on Cactus Valley in the third game. Coming off what should have been a landslide victory (but ended up being 'only' long-winded and seemingly effortless) against Trap last week and mixed success against players of similar caliber in the weeks before, Life continues his streak of mediocrity without shame. Whether it is the result of laziness (which many would have you believe) or a struggle with some aspect of modern Zerg match-ups, Life insists on playingwell enough that calling him 'bad' is unfair, but betting on him to beat anyone feels risky enough not to do it. In the words of Life fans all over: "God damnit, Life."I know Dear's name hasn't inspired true confidence since late in 2013, and Life has made a habit of doingat every opportunity, eking out the bare minimum of map wins necessary for KT not to fall behind and falling short of most others, but this game lies firmly in Dear's court. The man is currently on a 6-match win streak against Zerg, a streak which includes (hold your breath if you insist on Dear being overdue retirement) Impact (2-0), Sacsri (2-1), soO (3-2), Losira (1-0), Check (1-0) and ByuL (2-1). It is no equivalent to Parting's annual record against Terran, but it is enough to say that Life will need to put in more than his bare minimum of effort to beat Dear. And when map wins have never been more important for KT, can the Ling King's once-fabled reliability under pressure come through? Knowing the two players involved in this face-off, a few aptly placed gateways may be all that will be needed to deny him. Flash and BrAvO share several common features in this match. Both sport recent shut-out victories against Maru,where the once nearly invincible SSL champion was made to look, quite frankly, inadequate. Both have recently lost 0-2 to INnoVation and complement this loss with a slew of losses to other Terrans. I'll be entirely honest: if I had to pick a favorite for this match, it would be Flash (in spite of the wide difference between his 3-6 record and Bravo's of 7-2), His play is cleaner and appears more thought-out by far than Bravo's, representing the only match-up in which Flash seems to consistently maintain the initiative on merit of good decision making alongside his (often exploited) other strengths. While the so-dubbed Ultimate Weapon struggles eternally with build choices and unit compositions in other match-ups, he seems to have the Terran mirror more or less figured out, both in the area of positioning and in the abstract art of tech switching. Bravo, on the other hand, leans slightly more in the direction of the aggressive brand of Terran, sometimes forfeiting the slow-and-steady for the double-edged sword of constant attacks. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, and Bravo isn'tof slowing down and easing into a game of mech, but against a player renowned for slower play, he is likely to be the one putting on early pressure in the game on Coda.If all goes according to KT's plans, of course, the two will not even have to play. But as if I haven't yet made that clear enough, if the Round 4 iteration of KT show up to play on Tuesday, there are more than a few concerns ready to violently throw monkey wrenches into KT's flickering playoffs hopes.: After a disappointing year, MVP have one final chance to atone. Three teams currently sit at 3-3 with a 0 map score differential—KT Rolster, Sbenu and MVP—and up against a Jin Air squad who seem in serious trouble, MVP will likely have to score a clean sweep to keep pace with Sbenu’s probable battering of Prime: Trap’s status as a PvZ specialist has taken a knock in recent weeks, with consecutive losses to Life and ByuL, and he’ll be looking to bounce back against a dangerous opponent in Losira, who showed great early aggressive play against Rain earlier this month in the GSL. GuMiho’s been one of the hottest players of the past month, with a 5-2 record in Round 4 and a clean 4-0 over his GSL group last week, while Cure has struggled in the mirror matchup this year with a 2-5 record in Proleague. Next up is one of the surprise packages of this Proleague round. Perhaps it’s all in the name change, but Blaze’s aggressive tendencies have worked wonders for him recently. Meanwhile Symbol has been suffering a pretty dreadful year so far (47% win rate offline), and although he’s taken the odd game or two, he’s winless in ZvP series since March. Finally, we get another chance to see Rogue’s mirror matchup, after his evisceration of soO. He’s up against another of MVP’s big improvers this year in DeParture, and hopefully we’ll see more of the preparation-based play that both are becoming known for.: Blaze vs Symbol—last year, Symbol played out one of the funniest sets in GSL history with MyuNgSiK in Code A (Suffice to say that the game ended with the traditional 22 minute 1 base immortal all in). Up against another protoss with a talent for invoking the bizarre, we could be in for fireworks of the stupidest, most glorious variety.: This is it —the final test for Prime this season. Will it be a second 0-7 in a row? More interestingly, will they get the two maps necessary to beat last season’s record? They currently sit at 3-18 for the round. On the other side of the coin, Sbenu are still in the hunt for a first playoff spot since the StarTale squad’s forfeit in Round 1. They still have complete control of their fate in Round 4, as a 3-0 win would secure their spot in the top 4.*: jjakji continues to be a regular in Sbenu’s Round 4 lineup, but unfortunately, his results haven’t matched Sbenu’s faith in him. He’s currently 1-3 (his win coming in bizarre fashion over Stats), and his match against KeeN is Prime’s best chance of taking a map. Next up is our weekly check-in on B4—now 1-13 for the season—and nailed on for the worst PL record in history unless he can pull a win out of the bag here. Leenock has struggled this year in ZvZ (42% against Korean zergs), but will probably have enough in the tank to fend off the hapless Tomato Zerg. Speaking of hapless players, YoDa’s record for 2015 now stands at an abysmal 31%. It’s been a precipitous decline for a terran who made the finals of WCS EU this time last year. His TvZ is the best of his three matchups, but that’s hardly saying a lot, and even with Curious’s regression following his Season 2 peak, it’s difficult to see him picking up a win here. Meanwhile, Bomber must surely be favoured against a still winless TANGTANG.: jjakji vs KeeN—both are players who’ve displayed great play in spurts this year, yet are often incapable of closing out a match, and this should be the closest of the sets on offer.: While Prime are fighting for respectability at one end of the spectrum, table toppers CJ and SKT finally go head to head in the last match of the round. SKT have actually confirmed their qualification for the playoff finals, while CJ’s spot is all but nailed on due to their single penalty point received, but there’s still plenty of jostling for seeding positions to go. Despite their records this season, both teams have actually been pretty sloppy this round, and this match may show if either team can get their sharpness back before the truly important matches begin.: After his surprise win over sOs a couple of weeks ago, Bunny’s back to try to claim a spot in CJ’s starting lineup, while soO will be looking to bounce back from his shock defeat in GSL last week. After patchy rounds 2 and 3, herO seems to be back in peak form, with only two dropped matches in all competitions since the start of Round 4 (to Flash and Solar in Proleague). His PvZ has looked good whenever he’s been allowed to reach his favoured compositions, but Dark may try to emulate Solar’s ling aggression to punish HerO’s greedy proclivities. Next up, ByuL must be thankful that INnoVation wasn’t rolled out again on Terraform—he may have emerged victorious in their SSL clash, but it certainly looked like his nerves took quite a shredding in the process. Instead, he’s got a considerably easier challenge in Impact. The former Axiom zerg has barely had a look in since his move to SKT, and it’ll be interesting to see what his current level is. Finally, we’ve got Bbyong vs Classic. Bbyong has struggled against top tier protosses, while Classic has faltered in the past few weeks following a great first half of 2015.: Anyone who can remember last season’s playoffs between CJ and SKT will have fond memories of the crazy game between Bbyong and Classic on Outboxer, where Bbyong unveiled an ultra-greedy mech strategy with hidden island expansions. Logically, it’s unlikely that Bbyong will deploy such a bespoke strategy in a somewhat meaningless match, but hey—we can always hope.* Note: If SBENU and MVP both record 3-0s, then they will tie on map score. If the ruleset is the same as last year’s , then this would go down to a BO1 tiebreak match; if they use head-to-head, then SBENU’s 3-2 win in Week 1 would give them the edge.