Ammanas Profile Blog Joined July 2011 Slovakia 2159 Posts Last Edited: 2013-12-23 23:38:52 #1



Few disclaimer before the actual ranking: all of this is my personal opinion obviously, which may differ from others (although I will try to be as objective as I can).



the actual Bo5 format of PL is unknown at this point. Only thing we know is that it will be Bo5. The power rank counts with the format being the same as last season, only difference being Bo5 instead of Bo7 (so basically predetermined 4v4 with 5th game being Ace Match if needed).



the 'ace' section of every team will name a player that will most probably be used as ace the most , not necessarily every time and will also take into account the overall strength of a player.



, not necessarily every time and will also take into account the overall strength of a player. the 'best lineup' section will take into account the standard Proleague rules, most importantly the necessity of fielding at least 1 of T, P and Z. So even if a team has 4 terrans who are all better than any P or Z on a team, the 'best lineup' will consist of at most 2T (+1P and 1Z). Also, will try to order players in this section starting with the 'most probable to play every match' ending with 'most probably will be subject to rotation' if possible.



also, even if I don't really expect too many transfers happening till the start, lineups are obviously not finalized, transfers can happen and partnerships can be made/announced. If so, will try to update ranking ASAP.



guess that's all, so without further ado:





2014 SK Telecom Proleague Preseason Power Rank











8. Prime







Team Prime is generally considered to be the weakest team in the league. Hell, even their coach kind of admitted this in the Q&A during Media Day. And no wonders - both of their most succesfull players left the team somewhat recently (MarineKing trying to break out in LoL and Maru transferring to JinAir Green Wings) while no real additions to the lineup has been made. The only significant player that has joined is Goojila (previously Kal), who has finished his military service. And while Kal has been a great player in Proleague in the past (in BW and in WoL), he has not yet played any official televised HotS matches because of his military service. The first match he played was today against soO, which he lost because of unscouted muta switch. Before that, he looked very good though. If Prime has any chance of not being the worst team in the league, it will probably have to be Goojila who will have to step up and take the responsibility upon himself. Because while the other players (like Creator or Byun) are good, they are not as good as top players in other teams, leaving the veteran Goojila as the biggest hope for the team.



Full Roster

Jila (c) eins TerrOr

Creator ByuN KassiA

Splendid SalvatioN DeParture

Remember

Barbie





Ace Player





is probably an ace player for the team right now. May be switched with Byun though, as none of them had too many matches in the recent past, so their form remains mostly unknown. Problem is, as I said earlier, that while both of them are strong players, I don't believe they can consistently take out any of the aces from other teams, if it would come to that. Therefore, Prime team should be hoping that they either score some BIG players in tansfer market (or partnership agreement) before the start, or that Goojila will take this role upon himself. Otherwise, I don't think they stand too much of a chance.



Best Lineup

Creator

ByuN

TerrOr

GooJila











7. Samsung Galaxy Khan







Samsung Galaxy Khan is in a similar situation as Prime. They also lost their best player (JangBi retired) and on top of it, they also lost a head coach. Same as Prime, they were not active in the transfer market (aside from acquiring 2 LoL teams) and they don't seem to have any plans to hit it. As opposed to Prime though, they have the money to spend, if they wanted. Still, with their experience in Proleague and a little deeper lineup, they are better off then Prime in my opinion. Are they a team that could reach playoffs? Well, that mostly depends on one thing - will they find a reliable ace? JangBi certainly was one, one of the top (if not THE top) player as far as ace matches were concerned. Other players though? Not so much. RorO has some experience with aces, as well as Shine and Reality. But they never were too succesful in them. Stork was a strong ace player in BW, but in SC2 he did not step it up. Can he? I guess we will see.



Full Roster

Stork (c) Reality oDin

Trend TurN RorO

Kop Shine

eMotion Solar

Armani





Ace Player





For now, RorO is probably the ace player of Samsung. Which is not that great for them, considering he is just a shadow of RorO who won the last WoL GSL. Did the other players become better, or did RorO become worse? Well, the game changed for one and HotS seeems to be a bigger challenge for RorO to overcome. One thing it clear though - do NOT put him on your anti-team. He will probably fuck you up, just because he can.



Best Lineup

RorO

Reality

Stork

(or Solar)











6. Team MVP







Team MVP is another one of the three eSF teams that switched over to Kespa and are participating in this season of Proleague. And while Prime is considered the weakest of them all, MVP are certainly no pushover. But still, there are few things that may not allow them to move higher in the league table. First of all, they lost a head coach, who left for Samsung together with their LoL teams. And while they were left in good hands (at least that's what they claim), an experienced head coach is one of the biggest assets in a league such as Proleague. Another thing is their novice status. Remember EG-TL last year? How everyone was saying they have the best players, the most experience with SC2 out of all the teams in Proleague? Well, they came there and... KT Rolster basically said 'bitch please'. They didn't have the experience necessary for a competition such a Proleague. They most probably also didn't take it seriously enough, from the beginning. Addition of an experienced coach Park helped them, but couldn't save the situation anymore. And while I fully expect MVP to take this more seriously, the experience will be missing. It will be missing in both, new head coach and the players. The missing experience is the biggest reason why I think they will not be as successful (from the beginning) as other, more experienced teams.



Full Roster

Swagger (c) Dream DongRaeGu

Billowy KeeN Shine

Super Sniper

TAiLS





Ace Player





is currently the strongest player on MVP. As he was last year, year before that and also before that. One of the best Zerg players in Korea is no pushover. If it comes to ace matches, I believe he can win over almost anyone. His biggest advantage is, that he is used to carry his team. Whether it was all-kills in GSTL, winning in individual leagues in Korea and over the world, he always held the flag high for MVP. And I fully expect him to do the same for this Proleague season.



Best Lineup

DongRaeGu

Super

Dream

KeeN











5. Incredible Miracle







IM seems like a strongest team from the three that transferred over to Kespa. They were the only former eSF team, that advanced during the preseason. Granted, they were matched up with Samsung, which is further down the ranking, not any of the really scary teams, but it is still a nice accomplishment. As opposed to MVP, they have not lost their head coach, who has some experience of being a coach in Proleague team (although not being the head coach), so that is good news for them. They also secured a parnership with Team Liquid, that allows HerO to play for them, which is great, considering his experience with Proleague from last year. They also recently announced an acqusition of Trap, the last year Proleague champion and MVP of the finals. And last but not least, they have Mvp and Nestea, who were on Proleague teams for a long time and even though they didn't have any truly breakout performance, they surely know how things work there and how hard the league is. The bad news for them is, that one of the strongest players on the team, Losira, recently left.



Full Roster

Squirtle Mvp NesTea (c)

YongHwa UngNim ByuL

Ruin

HerO

Trap





Ace Player





To be honest, coming up with the ace player for IM is probably the hardest thing. Of course, is a great player and will probably be leading the team in ace matches, but still - they have so many great players, it is very hard to pick. Besides Trap, there are several players who were the best on their teams at certain point in time, so nobody should be surprised if players like Squirtle, HerO, or even with a sniper build will come up and win an ace match. Add to that the notoriously weird player picks of IM coach in GSTL and it can really be almost anyone. With January leaving the league, somebody has to be sending all dem Shines to ace matches, I guess...



Best Lineup

ByuL

Mvp

Trap

(or or - really hard to choose in this case).











4. KT Rolster







KT Rolster. The multiple times winner of Proleague, led by none other than Flash himself. KT is coming into the season strong. Didn't lose any of the important players from last year, none of the staff members and they actually got even stronger with TY. It is basically the same team that ended last season at 2nd place overall (and 3rd after play-offs) with the addition of TY. More to that, both teams that surpassed them are now away from the league (WJS disbanded and Soul lost core players and joined eSF). So why are they only at 4th place overall? Well, mostly because their players have been very silent after Proleague ended, which is already half a year ago. Besides Zest qualifying for IEM NY and Flash having some showdowns in foreign events, they did basically nothing. Flash reached WCS KR Ro16, which is nice, but still... When we look at other teams above them, their players won at least something. But wasn't it always like that? Yes it was. Even though I place them at the 4th place now, I fully expect them to 'surprise' everyone and win at least one of the rounds.



Full Roster

Stats Flash HoeJJa (c)

Zest TY Action

MyuNgSiK Miso hitmaN





Ace Player





What a surprise, eh? If coming up with an ace player for IM was the hardest, doing the same for KT is the easiest. . The Ultimate Weapon. The God. Whatever you want to call him. Even though he was not as successful in individual leagues as he used to, in Proleague Flash is still the same Flash. Most terran wins, most wins overall, terran MVP - all last year. In SC2. And with his determination, he will only become better. Everyone should be afraid of ace matches against KT. The real question for KT is, will the supporting staff be able to bring it?



Best Lineup

Flash

Zest

Action

TY











3. JinAir Green Wings







Formerly known as Team 8, the Kespa sponsored team finally found a title sponsor shortly after the last season ended. The team underwent some changes after that, but those were mostly towards the better. TY left? Replace him with Maru! Argo retired? Replace him with sOs! check left? Replace him with Coca! Mostly with the recent surprising addition of sOs and Maru, JinAir was catapulted from the 'middle of the pack' into 'championship contender'. Surely they will be one of the strongest teams this time around. The negative may be they do not have a head coach with team leading experience. According to his own words, he only found out about his new role with the team few days ago. Also, their roster is not the deepest, compared to maybe teams like KT or SKT, but almost every single one of their players should be capable of taking the games off of anyone. Still, JinAir is a force to be reckoned with this time around!



Full Roster

Terminator (c) Cure TRUE

sOs Maru Rogue

Pigbaby CoCa





Ace Player





The recent world champion crowned at Blizzcon, , is probably going to be considered ace for JinAir. But , one of the best terrans in the world, may be one as well, without any problems. It will all probably come to the opponent - expecting terran? Send Maru. Expecting Zerg? Send sOs. Expecting Protoss? Flip a coin, cause they both have great vP. The new JinAir head coach will be able to choose from more world class players for ace matches, which is exactly what a team needs in order to be the best.



Best Lineup

Maru

sOs

CoCa

Climax











2. CJ Entus







CJ Entus seems like one of the best Korean teams recently. They are trying to do things for the fans, ranging from



Full Roster

herO sKyHigh EffOrt (c)

Sora Bbyong SonGDuri

Hush Bunny Hydra

Trust rare





Ace Player

]



Again, it is very hard to pick an ace player for this team. Yes, the most recent IEM Singapore champion is the most likely pick, but may be as good of a pick as him. Even could probably be considered. Most importantly for CJ and Coach Park, situation is the same as with JinAir. He has several world class players, that he may choose from and he will be probably choosing depending on expected matchup. For a strategist as good as coach Park? Nothing better could have happened.



Best Lineup

herO[jOin]

Bbyong

Hydra

EffOrt











1. SK Telecom T1







I don't think this is a surprise for anyone following the Korean scene at least a little bit. After departure of several players (notably Bisu and BeSt) as well as the head coach Boxer, SKT T1 has been spending like crazy. Throwing money left, right and then left again. The result is a strongest team in the world. That's what they are in LoL and that's also what they are in SC2 now. Hell, they could create a B team, replace Prime and they would still probably get more wins then Prime can ever hope for. With such a stacked lineup though, there are also some negatives. First of all, with format changed into Bo5, they won't be able to play all their best players every match. They will have to rotate. And having so many star players on the same team, will they be satisfied with just rotating? And what about B-teamers or rookies? The new head coach iloveoov will have to deal with such things, most probably on daily basis. Will he successfully lead the team towards the title or will they fail? We will have to see...



Full Roster

Rain FanTaSy (c) Soulkey

PartinG Sorry Dark

Classic BrAvO soO

ParalyzE Journey Sacsri





Ace Player





Well, in SK Telecom every second player is an ace candidate. But out of all of them, I think is the best one. I don't think is good enough to be an ace considering this lineup, not yet anyway. has proven numerous times that he tends to crumble in very tense situations, so he may be a backup for Soulkey but most probably not the primary choice. But anyway, I am sure all 3 of them will be considered as potential aces, and as the previous teams, everything will depend on the opposing player and the map.



Best Lineup

Soulkey

FanTaSy

Rain

PartinG









If you find any mistakes please tell me, it's 4AM here and I was doing this since like midnight, so I am pretty tired :D Anyways, hope you liked it and feel free to discuss! So, with Proleague coming up and preseason on the way, I decided I will write my own team power rank. Reasons being mostly that it helps me hype myself better/more, prepare for FPL and also to start a discussion about this, as I like predictions and besides making my own, I also like to read what other people think.Few disclaimer before the actual ranking:Team Prime is generally considered to be the weakest team in the league. Hell, even their coach kind of admitted this in the Q&A during Media Day. And no wonders - both of their most succesfull players left the team somewhat recently (MarineKing trying to break out in LoL and Maru transferring to JinAir Green Wings) while no real additions to the lineup has been made. The only significant player that has joined is Goojila (previously Kal), who has finished his military service. And while Kal has been a great player in Proleague in the past (in BW and in WoL), he has not yet played any official televised HotS matches because of his military service. The first match he played was today against soO, which he lost because of unscouted muta switch. Before that, he looked very good though. If Prime has any chance of not being the worst team in the league, it will probably have to be Goojila who will have to step up and take the responsibility upon himself. Because while the other players (like Creator or Byun) are good, they are not as good as top players in other teams, leaving the veteran Goojila as the biggest hope for the team. Creator is probably an ace player for the team right now. May be switched with Byun though, as none of them had too many matches in the recent past, so their form remains mostly unknown. Problem is, as I said earlier, that while both of them are strong players, I don't believe they can consistently take out any of the aces from other teams, if it would come to that. Therefore, Prime team should be hoping that they either score some BIG players in tansfer market (or partnership agreement) before the start, or that Goojila will take this role upon himself. Otherwise, I don't think they stand too much of a chance.Samsung Galaxy Khan is in a similar situation as Prime. They also lost their best player (JangBi retired) and on top of it, they also lost a head coach. Same as Prime, they were not active in the transfer market (aside from acquiring 2 LoL teams) and they don't seem to have any plans to hit it. As opposed to Prime though, they have the money to spend, if they wanted. Still, with their experience in Proleague and a little deeper lineup, they are better off then Prime in my opinion. Are they a team that could reach playoffs? Well, that mostly depends on one thing - will they find a reliable ace? JangBi certainly was one, one of the top (if not THE top) player as far as ace matches were concerned. Other players though? Not so much. RorO has some experience with aces, as well as Shine and Reality. But they never were too succesful in them. Stork was a strong ace player in BW, but in SC2 he did not step it up. Can he? I guess we will see.For now, RorO is probably the ace player of Samsung. Which is not that great for them, considering he is just a shadow of RorO who won the last WoL GSL. Did the other players become better, or did RorO become worse? Well, the game changed for one and HotS seeems to be a bigger challenge for RorO to overcome. One thing it clear though - do NOT put him on your anti-team. He will probably fuck you up, just because he can. TurN (orTeam MVP is another one of the three eSF teams that switched over to Kespa and are participating in this season of Proleague. And while Prime is considered the weakest of them all, MVP are certainly no pushover. But still, there are few things that may not allow them to move higher in the league table. First of all, they lost a head coach, who left for Samsung together with their LoL teams. And while they were left in good hands (at least that's what they claim), an experienced head coach is one of the biggest assets in a league such as Proleague. Another thing is their novice status. Remember EG-TL last year? How everyone was saying they have the best players, the most experience with SC2 out of all the teams in Proleague? Well, they came there and... KT Rolster basically said 'bitch please'. They didn't have the experience necessary for a competition such a Proleague. They most probably also didn't take it seriously enough, from the beginning. Addition of an experienced coach Park helped them, but couldn't save the situation anymore. And while I fully expect MVP to take this more seriously, the experience will be missing. It will be missing in both, new head coach and the players. The missing experience is the biggest reason why I think they will not be as successful (from the beginning) as other, more experienced teams. DRG is currently the strongest player on MVP. As he was last year, year before that and also before that. One of the best Zerg players in Korea is no pushover. If it comes to ace matches, I believe he can win over almost anyone. His biggest advantage is, that he is used to carry his team. Whether it was all-kills in GSTL, winning in individual leagues in Korea and over the world, he always held the flag high for MVP. And I fully expect him to do the same for this Proleague season.IM seems like a strongest team from the three that transferred over to Kespa. They were the only former eSF team, that advanced during the preseason. Granted, they were matched up with Samsung, which is further down the ranking, not any of the really scary teams, but it is still a nice accomplishment. As opposed to MVP, they have not lost their head coach, who has some experience of being a coach in Proleague team (although not being the head coach), so that is good news for them. They also secured a parnership with Team Liquid, that allows HerO to play for them, which is great, considering his experience with Proleague from last year. They also recently announced an acqusition of Trap, the last year Proleague champion and MVP of the finals. And last but not least, they have Mvp and Nestea, who were on Proleague teams for a long time and even though they didn't have any truly breakout performance, they surely know how things work there and how hard the league is. The bad news for them is, that one of the strongest players on the team, Losira, recently left.To be honest, coming up with the ace player for IM is probably the hardest thing. Of course, Trap is a great player and will probably be leading the team in ace matches, but still - they have so many great players, it is very hard to pick. Besides Trap, there are several players who were the best on their teams at certain point in time, so nobody should be surprised if players like YongHwa or even Mvp with a sniper build will come up and win an ace match. Add to that the notoriously weird player picks of IM coach in GSTL and it can really be almost anyone. With January leaving the league, somebody has to be sending all dem Shines to ace matches, I guess... Squirtle (or HerO or YongHwa - really hard to choose in this case).KT Rolster. The multiple times winner of Proleague, led by none other than Flash himself. KT is coming into the season strong. Didn't lose any of the important players from last year, none of the staff members and they actually got even stronger with TY. It is basically the same team that ended last season at 2nd place overall (and 3rd after play-offs) with the addition of TY. More to that, both teams that surpassed them are now away from the league (WJS disbanded and Soul lost core players and joined eSF). So why are they only at 4th place overall? Well, mostly because their players have been very silent after Proleague ended, which is already half a year ago. Besides Zest qualifying for IEM NY and Flash having some showdowns in foreign events, they did basically nothing. Flash reached WCS KR Ro16, which is nice, but still... When we look at other teams above them, their players won at least something. But wasn't it always like that? Yes it was. Even though I place them at the 4th place now, I fully expect them to 'surprise' everyone and win at least one of the rounds.What a surprise, eh? If coming up with an ace player for IM was the hardest, doing the same for KT is the easiest. Flash . The Ultimate Weapon. The God. Whatever you want to call him. Even though he was not as successful in individual leagues as he used to, in Proleague Flash is still the same Flash. Most terran wins, most wins overall, terran MVP - all last year. In SC2. And with his determination, he will only become better. Everyone should be afraid of ace matches against KT. The real question for KT is, will the supporting staff be able to bring it?Formerly known as Team 8, the Kespa sponsored team finally found a title sponsor shortly after the last season ended. The team underwent some changes after that, but those were mostly towards the better. TY left? Replace him with Maru! Argo retired? Replace him with sOs! check left? Replace him with Coca! Mostly with the recent surprising addition of sOs and Maru, JinAir was catapulted from the 'middle of the pack' into 'championship contender'. Surely they will be one of the strongest teams this time around. The negative may be they do not have a head coach with team leading experience. According to his own words, he only found out about his new role with the team few days ago. Also, their roster is not the deepest, compared to maybe teams like KT or SKT, but almost every single one of their players should be capable of taking the games off of anyone. Still, JinAir is a force to be reckoned with this time around!The recent world champion crowned at Blizzcon, sOs , is probably going to be considered ace for JinAir. But Maru , one of the best terrans in the world, may be one as well, without any problems. It will all probably come to the opponent - expecting terran? Send Maru. Expecting Zerg? Send sOs. Expecting Protoss? Flip a coin, cause they both have great vP. The new JinAir head coach will be able to choose from more world class players for ace matches, which is exactly what a team needs in order to be the best.CJ Entus seems like one of the best Korean teams recently. They are trying to do things for the fans, ranging from video of pure awesomeness to interesting showmatches. More to that, they added one of the most respected Korean Starcraft figures to their roster - head coach Park. And with his addition, players started performing. While they didn't make splash in WCS (yet), they have been through hell known as Korean open qualifiers. And they succeeded. Why do I hold this in such a high regard? Well, take all the WCS KR Premier League players. Add all the Korean players from other WCS regions, who are living in Korea. Then add all the Korean challenger league players. And then add all the B-teamers and A-teamers who are still stuck outside of WCS. And add few foreigners (mostly from SEA) for good measure. Have them? Now throw them into one huge bracket (single or double elim). And now consider this: Hydra and herO got into the last phase of DH Winter qualifications, only one match away from advancing. The same two players have repeated the performance in IEM Singapore qualifications and not only that - this time they both advanced and herO ended up winning the thing (and Hydra taking 3rd place)! And also one more thing, Sora - at that time a trainee with only 6 months of being a progamer under his belt, has ended second in Korean WCG qualifications (after a miraculous run) AND also took second at the event itself. Taking all this into consideration and also taking the knowledge and experience of coach Park (and just a little bit of fanboyism), I cannot do anything else but place them here, at 2nd place. Of course, the arguments could be made for JinAir being 2nd and CJ 3rd, but those two teams are so equal (imo) that it doesnt really matter. If you don't like it, just imagine there is '2. - 3.' near both teams, instead of 2. near CJ and 3. near JinAir. Or just flip a coin...Again, it is very hard to pick an ace player for this team. Yes, the most recent IEM Singapore champion herO[jOin] is the most likely pick, but Hydra may be as good of a pick as him. Even EffOrt could probably be considered. Most importantly for CJ and Coach Park, situation is the same as with JinAir. He has several world class players, that he may choose from and he will be probably choosing depending on expected matchup. For a strategist as good as coach Park? Nothing better could have happened.I don't think this is a surprise for anyone following the Korean scene at least a little bit. After departure of several players (notably Bisu and BeSt) as well as the head coach Boxer, SKT T1 has been spending like crazy. Throwing money left, right and then left again. The result is a strongest team in the world. That's what they are in LoL and that's also what they are in SC2 now. Hell, they could create a B team, replace Prime and they would still probably get more wins then Prime can ever hope for. With such a stacked lineup though, there are also some negatives. First of all, with format changed into Bo5, they won't be able to play all their best players every match. They will have to rotate. And having so many star players on the same team, will they be satisfied with just rotating? And what about B-teamers or rookies? The new head coach iloveoov will have to deal with such things, most probably on daily basis. Will he successfully lead the team towards the title or will they fail? We will have to see...Well, in SK Telecom every second player is an ace candidate. But out of all of them, I think Soulkey is the best one. I don't think FanTaSy is good enough to be an ace considering this lineup, not yet anyway. Rain has proven numerous times that he tends to crumble in very tense situations, so he may be a backup for Soulkey but most probably not the primary choice. But anyway, I am sure all 3 of them will be considered as potential aces, and as the previous teams, everything will depend on the opposing player and the map.If you find any mistakes please tell me, it's 4AM here and I was doing this since like midnight, so I am pretty tired :D Anyways, hope you liked it and feel free to discuss! JangBi forever <3 || Classic! herO! Rain! Zest! | Rogue! Hydra! Solar! | Fantasy! Cure! Reality! Sorry! Journey!