CJ Entus Point of View

Source: HERE by p4NDemik1755

Well, CJ really really would like to forget last week ever happened. After a hard fought match versus STX SouL they came up just short in the Ace match, and they were taken to school by Samsung KHAN, with firebathero adding one more win against the maestro to his repertoire. They need a stopper bad to keep from falling below .500 - but that won't come easy against the #1 team in the league, Lecaf Oz. Its a rematch of last season's Round 2 final: CJ vs. Lecaf. Game on!

Getting right into the action, Lecaf sends out one of their big three in Anytime, while CJ fields Kwanro in the opener on Blue Storm. Going on a purely by-name basis Anytime would seem like the favorite here, but you have to take into account that Anytime is in a big-time slump. In both his MSL and OSL opening groups he went out 0-2 and did not look good at all in the process. While he has managed to scrape by with a 2-1 record in ProLeague, his only wins came against questionable opponents, Sea.Really and oDin. Personally I think Kwanro is a level above those two players, and his recent play against Bisu should demonstrate that he has what it takes to win this one. After his play over the last week, we can pretty much put the nail in sAviOr's coffin, so now it's Kwanro's time to step up and fill those rather large shoes.

For the second contest of this set Memory finds himself up against the "God of Death," Jaedong. Memory has a fairly decent track record against Zergs, sitting at 6-5 for his career, and at first glance the map seems to favor Terrans over Zergs. But when you look at the games played, the Zerg players who have lost on Andromeda probably would have lost their match-up regardless of map - sAviOr has two losses on the map, OversKy lost to Flash, Firefist lost to Ruby (who is very proficient at TvZ), and oDin (4-15 lifetime in ZvT's) lost to Midas. So, granted the map really doesn't have any bearing on the play on this map, I believe Jaedong should still be heavily favored. He's lost his last four ZvT's, but there's still no way I can say Memory should have a very good chance here.

CJ is making picking the team play match every week easier and easier with each win the take. As it stands right now, CJ 2v2 teams are 5-1 overall, assuring that they will at least have a shot to win the match after the half-way point. Nbs has actually proven to be a success in the position he holds right now, holding down the Protoss half of the lineup. He's gone 3-1 with sAviOr at his side, and proved in their game against Samsung that he can be just as successful with a different Zerg partner in Kwanro. So why not EffOrt? Something tells me that CJ just knows how to get their 2v2 teams to work together well, regardless of who's sitting in there beside Nbs, so I'm betting on CJ until they show me otherwise. Haha oh yeah I didn't mention it yet, but f.y.i. the guys they're going to be pounding in this match are ShinHwa and N.ACE)Ever.

If you're Coach Cho, this game has to be the game where you want to end it. You have Much, your hands-down best player going up against HiyA, a Terran player that doesn't strike fear into the hearts of all who hear his name, but definitely demands some respect. Just recently HiyA beat Stork on Colosseum, so he's no chump on this map. Much has been a busy man the last 2 months, he's advanced through his OSL and MSL groups, but he has only managed a 2-2 ProLeague record in that time span. Maybe its the extensive amount of games he has to play, but he hasn't been as consistent as you'd like your ace to be. Regardless, the old man needs to play like he has in the individual leagues to win this one.

For the Ace match as always, CJ still has a wealth of options left, while Lecaf's seem a bit more limited, allowing for CJ to play for who they predict Lecaf will play. Oz's options seem to pretty much boil down to either #1 play Jaedong again, #2 play BackHo, who is pretty good but has only played once so far this season, or the most likely option, #3 play fOrGG, who is a mainstay in their lineup and is 4-2 so far this year. Taking those options into account, GGPlay probably won't be seen for CJ, as fOrGG's best match-ups are his off-race match-ups of TvZ and TvP and Jaedong would pulverize GGplay. That also rules out sAviOr (if there was still any lingering hopes that he might play another Ace match) and Kwanro. And, assuming there's zero chance that Much plays twice in a row, you can probably rest assured that CJ will play one of their Terran players, most likely DarkElf or Iris - which works out for CJ considering that fOrGG's worst match-up by far is TvT at about 36%. DarkElf has seen less action this season after a very successful Round 2 of last season, so there may be some incentive to get him out there, but Iris already has racked up a TvT win on Othello, and is overall a better TvT player for his career. Whoever comes out, it should no doubt be an exciting finale to the first rematch since the last time these two teams met.

CJ, in their usual dramatic style, take 2 of the first 3 games, but Much can't close it out leading to an ace match of epic proportions. XellOs comes off the bench for the ace match victory and all is right with the world ... sounding familiar? Yeah so I really wanna see XellOs back on top again - is there anything wrong with that? Any way you have it, whoever it is that takes it, I'll be happy, but here's to hoping!