EPTThis was UpMagic, a former progamer whose creativity had no bounds disorienting his opponents to no end. He developed his unique playstyle and rode it to victory. UpMagic is noted for a playstyle that depended on confusing the opponent into submission with a wide variety of builds and mind games that lined his arsenal. I believe in many ways he embodies an old school terran being creative game after game with an aggressive style, a clear outlier among the current trends of modern Terran. UpMagic embodies the characteristics of a micro heavy, aggressive Terran in many ways, somewhat uncommon by today's standards. First, comes a brief explanation of the evolution of the Terran from the beginning.
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images/1/1b/Upmagic_suit.jpg)
UpMagic Swag.
Boxer was one of the most creative Terran players who elevated progaming to new heights no one thought possible. He played an essential role in creating the foundation of Brood War and E-sports as a whole regularly wooing crowds with his impeccable micro with his signature dropship play and marine splits. He was truly the first bastion of the Terran race, gracing the progaming scene and the non believers at a time when Terran was thought to be the weakest of the three races. This was..... Boxer, the Terran Emperor, the New Hope.
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images/2/26/Boxer_mycube03.jpg)
Boxer pic from liquipedia
Over time as the macro revolution took hold with iloveoov leading the way, ironically Boxer's apprentice, the creative micro plays and one basing became less popular. Boxer's style grew outdated as players used an expand and then defend mindset, the pinnacle mindset of the macro revolution that continues to be the popular mindset of today.
Boxer while still showing his fans flashes of his past brilliance and creativity, he slightly adjusted his playstyle to more properly fit the macro mindset. The era of dropship play on Lost Temple, one basing, and island maps were over. The micro heavy 2 base plays everyone thought was essential for Terran in TvZ was a perception crushed by iloveoov's macro style. He was nicknamed "Cheater Terran" for the seemingly unfair amount of units he would produce.
Upmagic.....so magic
Upmagic debuted in 2006 for the progaming team eStrO, reminiscent of older style Terran he used aggressive, cheesy, and unorthodox builds with unabashed frequency but he also had the strange qualities of a poor standard game unusual in a progamer. In many ways UpMagic was just as creative as Boxer while having his own distinct playstyle and was possibly in many more ways outrageous.
Upmagic in his first televised game against Protoss shown in the Teamliquid Player Database was played versus Anytime, a one time OSL winner who went head to head with big names like Julyzerg, GGPlay, Boxer, and Nada, all OSL winners. UpMagic managed to steal a win from Anytime, but the most profound part was his unit choice- medic marine. He managed to catch Anytime off guard with a medic marine timing push when Anytime was on 3 bases.
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Game versus Pusan
This was a daily occurrence against Protoss opting to go bio, and adversely against Zerg he’d go mech, an unorthodox trend, especially for the time 2006 when mech against Zerg wasn’t normalized far before Fantasy had made it all the rage with his Fantasy build around 2009 with vulture drops into the Valkyrie+CC expand to counter the 3 hatch muta. This was no fluke however as he would manage to take games off of big Protoss names off of players like Pusan and Nal_Ra. Even when they knew it was coming UpMagic would prepare for even the longer mid game if need be with a stunning marine , medic, tank, science vessel combo. He detracted from bio against Protoss and began playing mainly mech in all three matchups.
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The face of Nal_ra after being defeated by marine medic in a 20+ minute long game.
He's the only progamer to have ever gone Mech against Zerg and bio against Protoss. His mech play along with Fantasy's was believed to have solidified Terran mech trends today. Contrary to helping standardize TvZ mech his TvP bio trends have not caught on.
While UpMagic’s TvZ and TvP standard game were poor his Terran standard game, almost out of necessity was adequate. He went head to head with Nada, firebathero and several other Terran players trading games off of them. His best crowning achievement would be beating Flash in this highly talked about game: In the face of defeat when everyone expected Flash to win, Upmagic causes a tremendous upset.
His signature play included his double edged sword 3 port valkyrie/wraith build to counter 3 hatch mutalisk that would leave him highly vulnerable to ground units in a longer game. He was fond of proxying Barracks and Factories and then lifting them off to land hidden in the opponent’s base, making a Barracks at the very edge of his main base to make his opponent think he proxied, and many more. Making use of map terrain was his forte such as in this game against Yellow[aRnc] on the map Blitz X and he often went for aggressive marine attacks if the map’s spawn points had you spawn on the low ground.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/n1A3aA7.jpg)
UpMagic lifted his first barracks and made an academy shortly after. Notice how units spawn at the bottom left. Marines are small enough to spawn at the left of the barracks where they're unreachable, but the firebat is too big to spawn at the left.
Some hefty firebat marine micro takes care of 6 zerglings
. Sadly due to some poor firebat micro UpMagic loses his 1 medic 1 marine 4 firebat force to about 18 zerglings and after doing a 3 factory mech transition loses to a zergling speed attack.Mini Battle Reports
Mind games vs. By.Hero
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In this game By.Hero goes 11-12 pool out of fear of a bunker rush happening on this 2 player map. If you look towards the sky blue circle you'll see an orange dot. That is UpMagic's Barracks placed at the very top right of his base opposite of his entrance! By. Hero's scouting drone didn't find a Barracks assuming he had gone for a proxy rax strategy pulling 5 drones in total. UpMagic transitions into a fast CC after factory with some speed vulture aggression. Hero decides to ditch his 2 hatch muta and instead goes for a hydra attack which fails causing him to GG OUT!!!!
Mind Games Versus Jaedong
After going 2 barracks academy UpMagic stops at 6 bio units and transitions into a late 2 port wraith. He catches Jaedong off guard
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/f6h68uf.jpg)
He kills 3 drones and 7 overlords in the first few minutes of his wraith attack. However, the economic backstab caused by the heavy tech off of one base backfires with Jaedong capitalizing on it with superb Muta micro picking off stray wraiths and marine medic groups. UpMagic is sadly forced to gg out. This is the 2nd game in a bo5 series in the semifinals of the 2007 EVER OSL. Jaedong goes on to defeat UpMagic 3-0 and eventually take 1st place.
End
Upmagic's most notable achievements include being the former captain of the eSTRO progaming team and getting 4th place in the 2007 EVER OSL.
In 2010 UpMagic was found guilty of participating in the Match Fixing Scandal along with close to a dozen other progamers including Savior, yellow[arnc], Hwasin, and more.
His progaming license was revoked and he was banned from playing in all Kespa events. While he was guilty of a crime it doesn't overwrite his truly unique and unorthodox playstyle that has entertained many. 
