EPT~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What happened was there was some kid living in America who just found out about starcraft 2 and wanted to buy it but his parents said he would have to wait until christmas. so he decided to try out the original starcraft broodwar. he started to play on iccup and somehow he played really well...eventually he reached c+, then b-, then b+, then he made it to a-...
at this point he was the best foreigner, and he was beating the best non koreans and although he struggled with the best koreans, he tried and never gave up. his efforts paid off when he reached a, then a+. his thirst to be the best was not yet quenched however. he was 1 game away from reaching olympic rank, and it was a zvt. thinking fast on his feet, he decided it would be best to 4 pool...
little did he know he was playing the one and only flash. flash was unprepared for the 4 pool and he was caught completely off guard by the foreigner's zergling micro. at least, his dream of being not only the best foreigner but also the best starcraft player on iccup was realized...
at this point he was causing an uproar in korean circles. several pro teams were interested in buying him, and the netizens were labeling him as the 'foreign kwanro'. after a 2 month negotiation, during which time the foreigner wasn't interested in moving to korea due to not understanding any korean, he continued to be flash's tvz practice partner. eventually he decided to make the move to hwaseung, partly because his idol was jaedong and partly because he was a huge fan of the 'hwaseung house' comics. it was reported that he fared well in his zvz practice games with jaedong, although jaedong preferred keeping the score a secret...
the foreigner caused a stir in proleague and also individual leagues. he beat many of the best players and acquired quite a few all-kills. he was well known with the korean audience as being good mannered, charming, handsome, and very skilled at starcraft, but his biggest tests were yet to come...
after great games in the league, he had scored more wins than jaedong for his team and hwaseung was looking to overtake both kt rolster and sk telecom. but his first great test was against his teammate, jaedong. he was slated to play the tyrant in the msl quarterfinals. however, despite his strong previous performances, he flopped against jaedong's aggression, mechanics, and multitasking. the msl finals were (yet again) a jaedong vs flash encounter. the foreigner helped jaedong practice, at times pulling all nighters...
the msl finals. flash vs jaedong. the first game was a bunker rush by flash, but jaedong defended excellently and his defilers ensured victory. it seemed jaedong's lategame play had improved. in the 2nd game he pulled a rabbit out of his hat: he used queens!!! after this game flash famously said that queens are OP. in the final game jaedong decided to 4 pool, taking the finals by storm...
instead of rushing out and kissing the trophy, jaedong ran into the audience and embraced one of his team members. it turned out to be the foreigner. jaedong admitted that all the ideas he got for these games were inspired by his practice games with the foreigner....
in the meantime, hwaseung had won proleague ahead of kt rolster and sk telecom. at the same time the foreigner had reached #1 on the kespa ranking; 2 was jaedong and 3 was flash.
in the osl quarterfinal, the foreigner was up against bisu, who had started to perform unusually well, picking up inspiration, he said, 'from an unlikely source'. the foreigner started dropping games immediately, as if he was almost distracted. after losing the first 2 games, he then proceeded to win the next 3 games in a row. after the games, the foreigner rushed out from his booth and kneeled before the great protoss ex-bonjwa, weeping and seeking forgiveness for letting his respect nearly blind him...
osl final. flash vs mysterious foreigner. it was a once-sided affair, to say the least. when asked about his performance, the foreigner only said 'effort is the best way to realizing your dreams', suggesting that he had taken advice from the ex-progamer effort in preparation for the finals. after the osl, the foreigner announced his retirement, saying his time in korea had been enjoyable, but that he would like to return to america to see his friends and family.
when asked if he played starcraft 2, the foreigner merely laughed, saying 'that is akin to asking a fish if he can swim or a bird if he can fly. i have a brain, and i will not allow blizzard to tell me what to think'.
understandably, the mysterious foreigner had many enemies, as well as friends. in the broodwar pro scene, he was respected by flash, jaedong, and bisu, but many others simultaneously loathed and revered him. boxer called him 'a great man of high morals'.
blizzard had threatened to file a lawsuit against him, quite understandably. many foreigners, 90% of whom had switched to starcraft 2, didn't like him for taking the spotlight away from starcraft 2 and his refusal to speak more clearly in terms of the starcraft 2 community. however, these same people also deeply respected him for raising the bar of foreign broodwar competition. although he persuaded some non koreans to play more broodwar, for the most part, starcraft 2 was so popular by then that nothing really materialized.
the foreigner himself was a huge fan of 'giyom', a notable french-canadian who had been one of the great foreign players in broodwar's early days and who had also won an osl. he is reported to have said, upon announcing his retirement, 'the first great bonjwa was a foreigner, so the last one too'.
The End
