Here's a quick rundown of all the major events that happened during the recent offseason:

- Woongjin Stars: GGPlay retires due to carpal tunnel
- Air Force ACE: RuBy and DarkElf join roster
- Woongjin Stars: Daezang completes his Air Force duties and returns to the Stars. Officially made a captain.
- STX SouL: FrOzean leaves Samsung KHAN and signs with SouL
- hite SPARKYZ: Chalrenge joins army, retires from progaming
- SK Telecom T1: Midas signs deal with WeMade FOX, leaves T1
- MBCGame HERO: 910 retires
- CJ Entus: Much heads off to Air Force ACE
- CJ Entus: Kwanro signs a deal with Woongjin Stars, leaving CJ Entus

There was also one announcement by KeSPA about this season's playoffs. Instead of last season's format where the series went to a "super ace match" in the event of a tie, this season team's will go into a third and final set of best-of-seven games if the series goes 1-1. Go CJ?

Finally, as most people have already heard, KT went through a bit of an identity crisis as they searched for a new name to go with their new sponsor, officially changing their name from "MagicNs" to "Fingerboom" and now finally to "Rolster". I personally was cheering for "V Chef", but what can you do?

The first young gun to watch out for showed us glimpses of his prowess in the 08-09 Proleague semifinals. PerfectMan's situation is ripe for success: he not only took down Iris with precision, but he played a great game in a losing cause against Bisu as well. As for his team, OZ's starting Protoss line is ripe for the taking. BackHo, while a decent Protoss, has his flaws and can't play forever, and there aren't any better choices in the Hwaseung depth chart. If BackHo's play doesn't improve, look to see PerfectMan fill the gap for OZ in the long-run.

The next pick is a little more hard to see, but the confidence is there. Mong, a young Terran from the SK Telecom depths, should see a decent amount of appearances this season. Midas has left the T1 camps for WeMade FOX, leaving only Canata and fantasy at the forefront of the Terran line. BeSt is in a massive slump, as displayed by his quick exit from the OSL Offline Preliminaries, and Bisu won't have much help from the maps - expect T1 to only send one Protoss each week. Finally, the T1 Zerg line is a joke in itself. This adds up to the fourth slot likely being alternated between Canata and Mong for the better part of the first round. Mong has the talent, and he's a T1 Terran, so expect good things from the young kid.

Finally, we have a duo. CJ's proclaimed depth from last season took two big hits in the offseason. Kwanro was sent to the greener pastures of Woongjin to replace the retired GGPlay, while Much is leaving to do his compulsory military service at ACE. This leaves holes in the Zerg and Protoss lines that CJ needs to fill. While EffOrt and sAviOr are two solid Zergs, sAviOr's play is slowly falling further and further off and EffOrt can't hold everything. Expect Hydra to see some more playing time for CJ and come out of the woodwork. Hydra has spent a few seasons rocking the Minor League and also showed some grit in the offlines before running into a seemingly rejuvenated firebathero in both qualifiers. For the Protoss counterpart, Snow should see some time backing up Movie, who is a streaky player at times. Snow will not be the main Protoss, but will definitely see some time in when Movie is overwhelmed with the individual leagues.

So there are four faces to watch out for in the 2009-2010 Proleague season. The stage is set, the lights are dimmed, and now it is time for them to step it up to the next level and ascend to the top of the league. New faces will run the course of the 2009-2010 Shinhan Bank Proleague. Are you ready?

One year ago, it was T1 who fell in Round 1 when their Zerg lineup failed to meet expectations (not that there were any to begin with) while MBC surprised everyone with a stellar opening round thanks to Pusan's breakout performance. This is a new season, however, with a lot of new faces and changes in the league. Which players and teams will shock and surprise us all this time around? Here are my three major predictions as I look into the crystal ball:

WeMade will end Round 1 in the top six...okay eight.
While WeMade hasn't quite done anything to become playoff contenders over the past several months, they have an underrated roster of players at their disposal and a few hidden threats on the bench that could surprise many. The best sign they have going for them right now is their success in the offline prelims. RorO and Shine[Kal] were able to qualify for both leagues, while Pure, BaBy, and Mind were able to qualify for one a piece. WeMade is a team that thrives on streaky players, so this is definitely good news for FOX right now. With the consensus in map balance this round being Zerg-favoured at the moment, expect RorO and Shine[Kal] to get more playing time in the next few weeks.

KT will dominate Round 1.
KT may have ended last season on a sour note, but if things work out the way they planned, they'll be starting this season on the perfect chord. Flash needs no mention, but fOrGG and Luxury looked like they were in shambles in the final weeks of Proleague last season. With their recent offline performances though, it seems like they are back and ready for action. If these two kick it into high gear, KT will be able to abuse the big three like they had hoped to last season. I expect they will, and when it does happen, there will be few that can get in their way.

The fun doesn't stop there for KT though. A look into their bench reveals some extra firepower in the form of Stats and Violet, two Protoss hopefuls for the team. Violet is hoping to continue his role as lead Protoss after his success late last season, but he'll have to get past his Protoss teammate Stats who officially qualified for the MSL just a few days ago after convincingly defeating both fantasy and type-b. Add them to the mix, and you have a very dangerous combination brewing over at the KT camp.

SKT1 will end Round 1 outside of the top six.
Wait, what? How could the defending champions fall so quickly you ask? The answer is not simple. The first of T1's problems still lie in their Zerg line. Hyuk has hinted that he might be able to turn things around with his recent success, but I don't think his performance will be dramatic enough to make a difference. The maps are the key here; with many considered to be Zerg-favored - and more importantly Protoss-unfriendly - this could easily turn into an ugly Round 1 for T1. A look at T1's line only makes things harder. BeSt isn't even an ounce of his former self it seems, and his immediate exit out of the OSL this season is proof of that. fantasy failed to make it out of the MST, getting rocked by Stats and type-b, and his once unstoppable TvP has come under fire as more and more players find ways to pick his vulture style apart. T1 could be in for a very unexpected opening the way things are shaping up, but then again, they did it last season and walked away the champions.

During this year’s Proleague off-season, many new maps have been introduced to be tested. And of course, the mapmakers take their time titling their work with the most fitting name they could think of. I mean, after giving hours of work and thought to produce a map worthy of being nominated to be tested by Proleague, mapmakers would not take titling of the maps too lightly. Or even further, the mapmakers might have already had a name ready as they came up with the overall theme of the map’s game play or design. We’ll explore some of the maps and see the mapmaker’s naming intend.

The first stop for us is “Asgard.” The map is a two-player 96x128 Twilight map where the players either start out from the 5 o’clock or the 11 o’clock position. What is Asgard? To those of you who are quite not aware of Norse mythology, Asgard is the land of the gods in their myth, something similar to Mt. Olympus in the Greek mythology. But the very important fact revolving Asgard is that the outer wall of Asgard is made of ice (which explains why the creator used the lighter of blue color more dominantly, or just the color blue in general) and incomplete. So each starting point is supposed to be Asgard, the inner city itself. In the earlier version, like v0.90, the highlands in the middle was to mimic the incomplete outer walls of Asgard will little ramps and valleys that allow units to get past the “wall.” The next version, v0.91, came out with to introduce more low land to the map for technicality in racial balancing, however the idea of the center “wall-with-many-holes” is still retained.

The next map is “MoonGlaive.” The map is a three-player 128x128 Twilight map where the players start from either 12 o’clock, 4 o’clock, or the 8 o’clock. A moonglaive is a weapon that was made popular by WarCraft 3, another of Blizzard’s games, used by the Nightelf race. The center of this map has a simple drawing of a moonglaive, made by the color schemes depicted by the different terrains of Twilight. (Just like the little snake in the middle of “Python”) However, the little doodle in the middle isn’t the only thing the “MoonGlaive” parallels with its name. A glaive is a single-edged pole-arm. A special feature that the glaive holds over other pole-arms is that these weapons were often made with a hook on the blunt side of the edge. That back part of the blade would be the place where the center outposts are placed on this map. The hooks on the pole-arm allowed infantries to catch cavaliers and bring them down to level so fighting would be easier, since in those times cavaliers would be like the air-force of modern day warfare. In this map, the outposts would parallel the purpose of the hooks the glaives used to have. The faster and hastier the rush was, the better served these outposts would be. Just by siege-moding a few tanks up there would greatly hinder a rushing enemy force, just as an old day infantry would bring down a cavalier charging in with the hook of a glaive.

The last map I’ll be discussing here is “Acro.” The map is a four-player 128x128 Jungle map where players start from either 1 o’clock, 5 o’clock, 7 o’clock, or 11 o’clock. The word "Acro" is actually an abbreviated version of the word Acropolis. If you know your Greek, you would know that the word acropolis means the highest city. This had no figurative or abstract meaning. If a city was an acropolis, it just meant the city was made on the highest level of elevation around. The primary reason for this was so that defending your city would be much easier if your enemy had to climb a mountain-like hill just to get to attack you. The steeper the hill, the easier life was. On this map, your gas natural stretches your main high land to the choke point that leads to your mineral-only base. Using this terrain to your advantage, players can annoy their assaulting enemies by literally camping out with well-ranged units on that stretch of land. (The most tank-bias thing I’ve witnessed since “Destination” and “Lost Temple”) This map is to promote the defensive abilities of a player by amplifying it with the terrain advantage, just like the ancient cities that dwelled and defended their high lands.

Some names are pulled out of thin air. Sometimes this is literally the case. (I won’t point fingers just yet) However, taking a moment to search into these names of the maps can help you notice some detail points, or even a major point, of the map. These maps discussed above are definitely not an exception to my claim and the points made may have been obvious, or not very so. But it is very clear that mapmakers try to incorporate a lot of meaning into a title that will of course sound fair to the ear as well. I hope this article has opened up a curiosity to many of the readers on the etymologies and meaning behind each map. For a starter, go grab a copy of the Othello and see why the map is so harassment friendly.

October 10, 2009
SK Telecom T1 vs Woongjin Stars
Bisu vs PianO on Fighting Spirit
Hyuk vs Kwanro on Tornado
fantasy vs free on Match Point
Thezerg vs ZerO on Moon Glaive
Ace Match on Heartbreak Ridge

KT Rolster vs eSTRO
fOrGG vs SangHo on Match Point
Luxury vs UpMagiC on Outsider SE
Flash vs Really on Fighting Spirit
Violet vs hyvaa on Heartbreak Ridge
Ace Match on Moon Glaive

October 11, 2009
hite SPARKYZ vs Hwaseung OZ
Leta vs HiyA on Fighting Spirit
HakSoo vs PerfectMan on Match Point
HoGiL vs Killer on Tornado
YellOw[ArnC] vs Jaedong on Outsider SE
Ace Match on Heartbreak Ridge

STX SouL vs CJ Entus
by.hero vs EffOrt on Tornado
FrOzean vs Iris on Moon Glaive
Calm vs Movie on Heartbreak Ridge
Kal vs sAviOr on Fighting Spirit
Ace Match on Outsider SE

October 12, 2009
WeMade FOX vs Samsung KHAN
RorO vs JangBi on Fighting Spirit
Shine[Kal] vs Juni on Tornado
Pure vs M18M on Match Point
Mind vs firebathero on Moon Glaive
Ace Match on Heartbreak Ridge

Air Force ACE vs MBCGame HERO
RuBy vs Shark on Match Point
Reach vs Hyun on Outsider SE
DarkElf vs Light on Fighting Spirit
GoRush vs Jaehoon on Heartbreak Ridge
Ace Match on Moon Glaive

October 13, 2009
KT Rolster vs Woongjin Stars
Luxury vs Special on Tornado
Stats vs ZerO on Moon Glaive
HoeJJa vs GuemChi on Heartbreak Ridge
Flash vs Kwanro on Fighting Spirit
Ace Match on Outsider SE

SK Telecom T1 vs eSTRO
Bisu vs SangHo on Fighting Spirit
fantasy vs UpMagiC on Match Point
BeSt vs Classic on Tornado
Thezerg vs hyvaa on Outsider SE
Ace Match on Heartbreak Ridge

October 14, 2009
STX SouL vs Hwaseung OZ
Shuttle vs HiyA on Fighting Spirit
Kal vs Jaedong on Tornado
Calm vs BackHo on Match Point
Hwasin vs Killer on Moon Glaive
Ace Match on Heartbreak Ridge

hite SPARKYZ vs CJ Entus
go.go vs sKyHigh on Match Point
YellOw[ArnC] vs EffOrt on Outsider SE
HoGiL vs sAviOr on Fighting Spirit
Horang2 vs Movie on Heartbreak Ridge
Ace Match on Moon Glaive