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Taek-Beng-LeeSsang are widely considered to be the greatest players of the closing years of professional Brood War, they have won fifteen individual leagues between them, as well as reaching the finals a total of twenty-six times collectively. They also are the four players with the highest number of ProLeague victories, and have replicated their astonishing success in less important tournaments such as the GomTV Classics and WCGs.
Best-of-fives are also widely considered to be a solid metric for judging the entire scope of a player's ability to defeat a top class opponent. Mind games, pre-game preparation, having nerves of steel, and actual gaming ability all play an important part.
I will rank players by the number of times they beat the members of Taek-Beng-LeeSsang in a best-of-five setting. If there is a tie, whoever had the higher success rate will be ranked higher, then I will count the the win-loss differential:
1. Jaedong: 6 times (a total of 9 attempts)
1) 3-1 win versus Stork
2) 3-1 win versus Flash
3) 3-0 win versus Flash
4) 3-2 win versus Bisu
5) 3-1 win versus Flash
6) 3-2 win versus Stork
2. Flash: 6 times (a total of 10 attempts)
1) 3-1 win versus Bisu
2) 3-2 win versus Stork
3) 3-0 win versus Stork
4) 3-0 win versus Jaedong
5) 3-2 win versus Jaedong
6) 3-1 win versus Jaedong
3. FanTaSy (a total of 7 attempts)
1) 3-0 win versus Bisu
2) 3-0 win versus Stork
3) 3-0 win versus Flash
4. ZerO (a total of 3 attempts)
1) 3-0 win versus Stork
2) 3-1 win versus Jaedong
5. ForGG: 2 times (a total of 4 attempts)
1) 3-1 win versus Flash
2) 3-0 win versus Jaedong
6. Iris: 2 times (a total of 4 attempts)
1) 3-0 win versus Stork
2) 3-2 win versus Bisu
7. Bisu: 2 times (a total of 5 attempts)
1) 3-2 win versus Stork
2) 3-2 win versus Stork
8. Stork: 2 times (a total of 8 attempts)
1) 3-0 win versus Flash
2) 3-0 win versus Bisu
There were only two players who managed to defeat all members of Taek-Beng-LeeSsang in a best-of-five setting, and that was LeeSsang themselves. No other player, not even Bisu, or Stork, managed to beat all members of Taek-Beng-LeeSsang who were on form enough to compete under a best-of-five setting.
FanTaSy came extremely close to shutting out all four members of Taek-Beng-LeeSsang by a score of three to zero, but got reverse-swept by Jaedong in the finals of Batoo OGN StarLeague.
ZerO is the only player apart from Flash, and Jaedong, to have a win rate over 50% against Taek-Beng-LeeSsang in a best-of-five setting.
Now I will look into the best-of-five records of these eight players against non-Taek-Beng-LeeSsang members. I will rank by whoever had the most number of best-of-five victories, then by their success rate, and if there is a tie after that, their overall win-loss differential:
For the record, I will not count best-of-seven series showmatches. Flash won one of those versus sAviOr, and Bisu lost one of those to Anytime. These two showmatches will not be considered because there wasn't that much money on the line, and this post is purely about best-of-five series.
1. Flash: 20 best-of-five set wins (a total of 24 attempts)
+ Show Spoiler +1. 2-3 loss versus GGPlay
2. 3-1 win versus Anytime
3. 3-1 win versus Mind
4. 3-2 win versus Lomo
5. 1-3 loss versus ForGG
6. 3-0 win versus BackHo
7. 3-0 win versus July
8. 3-1 win versus Iris
9. 3-1 win versus Calm
10. 3-0 win versus BeSt
11. 3-1 win versus Kwanro
12. 3-1 win versus Movie
13. 3-1 win versus MVP
14. 3-0 win versus Pure
15. 3-0 win versus free
16. 2-3 loss versus EffOrt
17. 3-0 win versus ForGG
18. 3-2 win versus FanTaSy
19. 3-1 win versus free
20. 3-1 win versus Leta
21. 3-0 win versus hydra
22. 3-1 win versus Shine
23. 3-0 win versus ZerO
24. 0-3 loss versus FanTaSy
2. Jaedong: 19 best-of-five set wins (a total of 24 attempts)
+ Show Spoiler +1. 1-3 loss versus TheROCK
2. 3-0 win versus UpMaGiC
3. 3-1 win versus Mind
4. 3-1 win versus Kal
5. 3-1 win versus Hwasin
6. 3-0 win versus Much
7. 3-0 win versus Shuttle
8. 0-3 loss versus ForGG
9. 3-0 win versus By.herO
10. 3-2 win versus FanTaSy
11. 3-2 win versus Canata
12. 1-3 loss versus Calm
13. 3-1 win versus FanTaSy
14. 3-0 win versus YellOw[ArnC]
15. 3-0 win versus Stats
16. 3-0 win versus Kal
17. 3-0 win versus Midas
18. 3-1 win versus Calm
19. 3-1 win versus Sea
20. 3-2 win versus Light
21. 3-2 win versus SnOw
22. 2-3 loss versus hydra
23. 3-1 win versus Grape
24. 1-3 loss versus ZerO
Okay, I just went nearly insane trying to chronologically list the best-of-five victories for the other players, so I'll just keep it simple.
3. Bisu: 12 best-of-five set wins (a total of 16 attempts)
4. Stork: 8 best-of-five set wins (a total of 13 attempts)
5. FanTaSy: 5 best-of-five set wins (a total of 7 attempts)
6. ZerO: 3 best-of-five set wins (a total of 7 attempts)
7. ForGG: 1 best-of-five set win (a total of 1 attempt)
8. Iris: 1 best-of-five set wins (a total of 4 attempts)
FanTaSy is the only non-Taek-Beng-LeeSsang player in the modern era to be good against both the members of Taek-Beng-LeeSsang, and other less celebrated players under a best-of-five setting. FanTaSy may not have been quite as good as Leta under in the ProLeague, but he was a solid lock as the 5th greatest player overall, in the more recent era of professional Brood War, and perhaps could have moved up even higher had professional Brood War not come to an end.
Both Stork and Bisu had considerable success against non-Taek-Beng-LeeSsang members in a best-of-five setting. Bisu in particular had amazing win rates versus non-Taek-Beng-LeeSsang members in a best-of-five setting, but wasn't nearly as good as Flash or Jaedong in terms of progressing far enough to play under a best-of-five setting in the first place, which is why he only played twenty best-of-five series in his entire career, a number that is smaller than Flash (34), Jaedong (33), and Stork (23).
Stork was similar to Bisu in terms of reaching the best-of-five stages, but enjoyed much less success, partly due to the fact that he met in-form members of Taek-Beng-LeeSsang a total of eight times, but he also struggled harder versus non-Taek-Beng-LeeSsang players than Bisu.
ZerO, ForGG, and Iris didn't have much noteworthy performances, with ZerO losing a lot of zerg-versus-zerg best-of-five sets, ForGG struggling to even go far enough to reach the best-of-five stages after the one time he looked fantastic in 2008, and Iris being generally unsuccessful against the best players (Taek-Beng-LeeSsang or not) in a best-of-five setting.
As a total non-sequitur, NaDa has won more best-of-five series than anyone in history:
+ Show Spoiler +Total number of best-of-five set wins:
1) NaDa: 40-12 (76.92%) (did not count his 0-2 defeat versus Nal_rA because that best-of-five started with Nal_rA starting from 1-0, and did not count his 2-4 defeat versus GoRush because that was a best-of-seven)
2) Flash: 26-8 (76.47%)
3) Jaedong: 25-8 (75.76%)
4) BoxeR: 15-14 (51.72%)
5) Bisu: 14-6 (70%)
 
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interesting. i always felt zero was really underrated. did he ever win a major tourney? if not I think he's the best player to never win an OSL/MSL
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On August 31 2017 12:30 jaeboss wrote:
interesting. i always felt zero was really underrated. did he ever win a major tourney? if not I think he's the best player to never win an OSL/MSL
No he did not. I personally believe that ZerO was one of those cases where he was better at the game, than he was winning at it. He probably still makes it into what I consider to be the top ten greatest zerg players of all time, even if his competitive spirit was somewhat lacking.
All time ProLeague record (play-off rounds included) for zerg players with over a hundred ProLeague wins:
1) Jaedong: 240-107 (69.2%)
2) ZerO: 132-120 (52.4%)
3) Calm: 131-105 (55.5%)
Total number of semi-finals reached after 2007 (post-sAviOr era) (since Jaedong is the only multiple finalist from the zerg camp in the modern era):
1) Jaedong: 12
2) Calm: 4
3) ZerO: 4
Quotes on ZerO:
TheMarine: "If ZerO had more of a killer instinct, and more confidence in his play, he would have won at least one or two individual leagues."
Bisu (a protoss-versus-zerg specialist): "After being beaten by a random zerg online for ten consecutive games, I thought it was either Jaedong or ZerO."
Light (a terran-versus-zerg specialist): "I always had confidence against the zerg race, and practiced mainly for the other match-ups. The only time I would practice versus zerg players was when I had a match coming up versus Jaedong, ZerO, or SoulKey."
It is true that ZerO didn't have the best mirror match-up ability, but I don't think any single player could be pointed out as the clear second best player in terms of skill in the zerg-versus-zerg match-up after Jaedong. ZerO was a good candidate as the second best player in zerg-versus-protoss, and zerg-versus-terran match-up in terms of raw gaming ability.
I think an apt analogy to make from today might be Larva. Nobody doubts that he is one of the best zergs of today in terms of pure gaming ability, but his ability to compete with everything on the line, with your opponent doing literally everything he can to push you off your comfort zone, has been lackluster in general. Of course, it is an insult to ZerO to contrast his career achievements to Larva current achievements as a competitor, but I believe there are some parallels to be drawn here.
I don't think ZerO ever excelled as a competitor, but I personally believed him to be the second best zerg of the modern era in terms of sheer aptitude for the game itself. Best player to have nevr won a major trophy? I wouldn't go that far, even if I had a personal fondness for the dude.
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I've always felt FantaSy to be a more logical pick for 4th best player than Stork, especially if we're considering them for "the greatest players of the closing years of professional Brood War". Why do you think he was never added to the big 4? Did he blossom too late, or do you believe there was a significant difference between FantaSy and Stork?
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On August 31 2017 14:55 Artanis[Xp] wrote:
I've always felt FantaSy to be a more logical pick for 4th best player than Stork, especially if we're considering them for "the greatest players of the closing years of professional Brood War". Why do you think he was never added to the big 4? Did he blossom too late, or do you believe there was a significant difference between FantaSy and Stork?
If you ignore everything Stork accomplished from 2005 to 2007, and compare the two from the moment FanTaSy became a top level player, then yes FanTaSy, in my opinion, was the superior player to Stork.
Ignoring the last ever hybrid-ProLeague, here are the best performing players in the ProLeague starting with Shinhan 2008/2009 ProLeague. This list contains at least the top two performing players of each race in the ProLeague from October 2008 to April 2012:
1) Flash: 194-61 (76.1%)
2) Jaedong: 178-76 (70.1%)
3) Bisu: 163-60 (73.2%)
4) FanTaSy: 136-83 (62.1%)
5) Leta: 131-78 (62.7%)
6) Light: 130-86 (60.2%)
7) Stork: 122-79 (60.7%)
8) ZerO: 122-102 (54.5%)
The best performing players in the individual leagues in terms of bracket stages, starting from Incruit OGN StarLeague:
Most number of championships:
1) Flash: 5
2) Jaedong: 3
3) JangBi: 2
4) Everyone else (Stork, Bisu, Luxury, Calm, EffOrt, FanTaSy, and hydra): 1
Most number of finals:
1) Flash: 7
2) Jaedong: 7
3) FanTaSy: 5
4) JangBi: 4
5) Stork: 2
Most number of semi-finals:
1) Jaedong: 9
2) Flash: 8
3) FanTaSy: 7
4) Everyone else (JangBi, Calm, Stork, and ZerO): 4
Most number of quarter-finals:
1) Jaedong: 10
2) Flash: 10
3) ZerO: 9
3) Stork: 8
5) FanTaSy: 7
Most number of round of 16 appearances:
1) Flash: 15
2) Jaedong: 14
3) Stork: 13
4) FanTaSy: 12
5) ZerO: 10
If you consider all three forms of competition from October 2008 onwards, FanTaSy was probably better than Stork. He was also probably better than Bisu, considering how poorly Bisu did in the individual leagues after FanTaSy became relevant as a top player.
By adjusting the criteria of only taking into account what happened after FanTaSy became a top player, I would say that FanTaSy should probably rated as the third best player across all three important forms of competition (OGN StarLeague, MSL, and the ProLeague), only behind the likes of Flash, and Jaedong. Depending on how far you are willing to make the cut-off point, FanTaSy should be held in higher regard than Jaedong, and if you take it to the very extreme, you could make a good argument that FanTaSy was the best player towards the end the professional Brood War. I personally thought that was the case, anyhow.
However, once you take into account what happened before October 2008, Bisu and Stork comes out on top in almost all aspects of competitive results.
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while zero didnt get 1st, he did go up against flash in 2011's msl finals. definitely underrated, he's a great zerg to learn from on a mechanical level (his stream is also great quality, almost 0 bullshit like 2v2s, bgh, drama, or socializing)
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It is really interesting that 3 out of the 5 bo5 losses of JD against non TBLS members were against zerg.
Thanks for doing this!
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oh yeah I forgot about clam, the mighty mollusk... he was a great zerg too. I think if BW hadn't died then you would have seen action become a top-tier zerg. He entered the scene late but had very impressive games and think he had a lot of potential.
fantasy's use of vultures was absolutely insane TvP. It's like if you froze the game right before his vultures encountered units/probes and asked me how effective they would be often times I would think, "nah this isn't going to do much damage" but he constantly proved me wrong and would do obscene amount of damage, squeezing out every last bit of use possible. by far my favorite TvP player to watch.
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On August 31 2017 23:06 The_Red_Viper wrote:
It is really interesting that 3 out of the 5 bo5 losses of JD against non TBLS members were against zerg.
Thanks for doing this!
I have a theory to why this might have happened. I think the loss versus Calm might have been partly due to how thin Jaedong was stretched due to the insane schedule demands at the time. Within the space of a week, Jaedong played in the ProLeague finals, the semi-finals of Avalon MSL, and the semi-finals of Bacchus 2009 OGN StarLeague. To make matters worse, there was an ongoing conflict between his parents and Hwaseung Oz had at the time regarding his upcoming contract. Jaedong said that he was extremely stressed out emotionally, and didn't practice at all going into the finals of Bacchus 2009 OGN StarLeague. His parents said that if Jaedong wasn't going to be treated with the respect that he deserves, he would be better off retiring.
As for his additional zerg-versus-zerg defeats in 2011, I believe that it was somewhat influenced by the constant butt-fucking he received from Flash, a player he previously had comprehensively outclassed in a best-of-five setting no matter what the map pool was.
Jaedong's zerg-versus-terran win rate in 2010: 58.21% (40% against Flash)
Jaedong's zerg-versus-zerg win rate in 2010: 75%
Jaedong's zerg-versus-protoss win rate in 2010: 81.58%
After an entire year of reaching the finals consistently only to get molested by Flash, something changed about Jaedong, and people in Korea said he made a deal with the devil.
Jaedong's zerg-versus-terran win rate in 2011: 81.82% (80% against Flash)
Jaedong's zerg-versus-zerg win rate in 2011: 54.55%
Jaedong's zerg-versus-protoss win rate in 2011: 52%
Jaedong went from being a god in two match-ups, but being mortal in one, to being a god in one match-up, to being relatively mortal in the other two he used to be nearly unstoppable in.
It was as if the devil approached Jaedong for his deepest desires, and Jaedong had his wishes fulfilled, but at the cost of losing top level zergs he used to beat soundly beforehand. Jaedong was finally able to establish his dominance over Flash once again, but never got far enough to show it in a best-of-five setting.
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I like how top three bo5 winners and PL performers consists of all three races.
And they're in order too, best race first.
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On September 01 2017 10:15 Piste wrote:
I like how top three bo5 winners and PL performers consists of all three races.
And they're in order too, best race first.
That wasn't a comprehensive list though, I only picked out players who won versus Taek-Beng-LeeSsang multiple times in a best-of-five setting, and the ProLeague records started have a cut off point of late-2008 to early-2012. The all time records are a little different.
All time best-of-five record:
1) NaDa: 40-12 (76.92%)
2) Flash: 26-8 (76.47%)
3) Jaedong: 25-8 (75.76%)
4) BoxeR: 15-14 (51.72%)
5) Bisu: 14-6 (70%)
6) sAviOr: 14-9 (60.87%)
7) JangBi: 11-4 (73.3%)
8) illoveoov: 11-5 (68.75%)
9) July: 11-6 (64.71%)
10) Stork: 10-13 (43.48%)
4 terran players, 3 zerg players, and 3 protoss players (forgot about JangBi initially). There is a reasonable balance across all eras due to the fact that the earlier eras had a greater number of individual leagues, and the latter eras implemented best-of-five series very early in the bracket stages. Not a terrible overall representation of how the individual leagues played out in my opinion.
All time ProLeague record (play-off stages included, Brood War records from the hybrid league included, only one-versus-one victories included):
1) Jaedong: 240-107 (69.2%)
2) Flash: 233-82 (74.0%)
3) Bisu: 192-86 (69.1%)
4) Stork: 191-121 (61.2%)
5) Sea: 172-110 (61.0%)
6) Light: 154-120 (56.2%)
7) Leta: 150-95 (61.2%)
8) free: 147-120 (55.1%)
9) Kal: 145-129 (52.9%)
10) FanTaSy: 144-89 (61.8%)
5 terran players, 4 protoss players, and 1 zerg player. There is a horrible misrepresentation of players from the earlier eras, and the entire list is filled with players who thrived when the overall scheduling was around five times as extensive compared to the scheduling from 2003. This isn't an accurate representation of the ages, but a more accurate portrayal of how things were once the era of Taek-Beng-LeeSsang kicked in (notice the entire list is filled with players who made their mark on the scene in the post-sAviOr era).
There was a serious lack of quality zerg ProLeague performers from 2007 to 2008, which is why the list doesn't have the likes of ZerO, or Calm in the overall top ten. People like Sea had excellent presence in the ProLeague throughout the ages, which is why he ranks above FanTaSy, even if FanTaSy out-performed him once he became a top level player circa 2009.
I personally think that terran race was overwhelmingly powerful in the professional Brood War scene ever since the ascension of BoxeR as the number one player. Zergs took the throne in the individual leagues for a while after the effects of mutalisk stacking, combined with sAviOr's meta-game revolution kicked in, before FanTaSy neutralized it once again with his meta-game advancements in 2010.
I don't think zerg was ever a dominant force in the ProLeague. Successful ProLeague teams were built off the backs of terran, or protoss aces. GO's tremendous success in MBC Game Team Leagues was mainly due to the heroics of XellOs. Orion/4U/SK Telecom T1 relied on iloveoov for their initial success in the ProLeague, and when he fell off as a top level player in 2006, MBC Game HERO took the throne. July's peak as a player was in 2004 to 2005, but he wasn't able to lead his team to glory at the time, and it with the transformation of Sea as a top level talent that finally enabled MBC Game HERO to topple the SK Telecom T1 empire. Samsung Khan found their greatest success after Stork replaced JJu as the ace of the team. Lecaf Oz's greatest success was found not when Jaedong was at his absolute peak, but when Anytime hit his stride as a ProLeague superace. KT Rolster, and SK Telecom T1 were at each other's throats for the ProLeague number one spot for years without a proper zerg ace. Flash had Stats as his back-up, while Bisu had FanTaSy as his back-up.
There has never been a ProLeague team who could have shitty terran and protoss line-ups, and ride on the success of their zerg aces. Hwaseung Oz, and Woongjin Stars were famous for their top level zergs, but never found much success. I would actually argue that if you had to abandon one race in your ProLeague line-up, I would almost always go with the zerg race everytime, and just send the shit-tier zerg players to play zerg-versus-zerg in hopes of a build-order win.
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TLADT24920 Posts
Interesting blog and this last post regarding zergs in PL lol.
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haha, so Light actually didn't practice much TvZ, but mostly focused on TvP and TvT. wtf who would have thought... :'D
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Zero was my favorite Zerg, by far. The only Zerg who had the skill to beat everyone in standard games, yet always seemed to prefer doing creative/original plays. Always tuned in with the thought of "wonder what cool stuff he will do this time." And ofc, no homo, but obv cute, too. Has to count for something.
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I absolutely loved the Soulkey and Zero banter.. God I miss that era.
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It is my personal opinion that ZerO was more of a trend setter than any other zerg in the modern era. He was one of the first zerg players to minimize the strength of early zealot harassment by optimizing his building placements, which was one of the core reasons why the protoss race went back to getting their ass handed to them by the zerg race circa 2009. He also was one of the earliest adapters to the late-mech transition from the terran race, leading by example, rather than the more individualized methods of winning shown by other great zergs of the time such as Jaedong (overwhelming the enemy with his sheer level of execution), Calm (out-smarting the enemy before the game with optimized build orders), and EffOrt (out-smarting the enemy in game with unexpected movements).
ZerO was the most methodical in terms of approach within game in my opinion, with a high level of execution and great understanding of the overall meta-game. He may have not had the brute force of Jaedong, or had the cunning to repeat the numerous unexpected mind games EffOrt pulled off to upset Flash at the peak of his powers, but ZerO was the text-book example of a great modern zerg player. He was, in my eyes, the leading expert of the zerg race. He may have not been the best competitor, but he was my favourite zerg player of the modern era alongside Jaedong.
"Some of my contemporaries approached practice as if it were a matter of life and death. Perhaps I should have done so as well."
I think this quote by ZerO is telling of how he approached competition in general. In a vacuum setting without mind-games, or specific build-counters, ZerO was closer to the optimal standard zerg play than almost any other player in the scene. He was not only a trend setter, but had strong execution to back it up throughout the years. In terms of displaying text-book standard zerg play, I think he was even better than peak-form Jaedong.
This trait found in ZerO is also why I think he was more of a balance whiner than someone like Jaedong. Jaedong was someone who surpassed the expected confines of the zerg race with his unfathomable level of killer-instinct, execution, and multi-tasking. I can't count how many games Jaedong had where within the context of any other player, the zerg player was doomed for sure, but Jaedong somehow brute-forced his way to victory through sheer will-power and execution. ZerO was someone who was more confined to the limitations of the zerg race, and when he lost, it often felt like he did everything he could, but it was the power level of the zerg race that let him down.
+ Show Spoiler +
Other players may have understood winning better, but it is my belief that ZerO understood the zerg race better than almost any other player in modern history.
If I had to categorize the players:
Book-smart: ZerO
Street-smart (before game): Calm
Street-smart (in game): EffOrt
Brawns-over-brains (pre-2009): Jaedong
Less brawns but more street-smart (post-2009): Jaedong
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I've heard a lot of people try to analyze what made Jaedong the greatest zerg and I never really bought any of the ideas that I have heard others say: his micro, his macro, his muta micro, his decision making, etc... honestly, from watching his FPVODs I still can't seem to figure out what it is. He's not the fastest or most accurate player and I see him make a lot of mistakes. This could be oversimplification without addressing any actual details but from my point of view the thing that separated jaedong from everyone else was just his ability to win games. When it comes down to it, no matter what qualities you have as a BW player they all come secondary to this most important quality of simply being able to win, no matter how you achieve that goal. There are so many games that come to memory where from an objective point of view that he definitely should have lost, but somehow was able to leave his booth with a W. Take that ZvP where he accidentally blocked his ramp and had like 30 supply stuck in his main for a large section of the game. A mistake like that should cost you the game 100% of the time against professionals but somehow he was able to hold on and eventually convert the game to a win.
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To me Jaedong was like a brute force algorithm. He doesn't care about your defenses, he'll just ram it down your throat and if you can't cope, you'll lose. I think this is also one of the reasons he wasn't able to beat Flash after a while in Bo5s any more, he was figured out more or less in the sense that Flash could counter that aggression if he wanted to or that his defense was good enough that he didn't crack like the others.
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One way I tracked Jaedong's characteristics was by his zerg-verus-zerg form. Zerg-versus-zerg was a match that was suited nearly perfectly for Jaedong's proficiency for micro-management and aggression. It was a match-up that did not vary that much in terms of meta-game evolutions, nor was it heavily influenced by the imbalance caused by the map pool.
For example, the most played map in the duels between Flash and Jaedong in 2010 was Polaris Rhapsody. By 2011, the map pool changed drastically, with Circuit Breaker (with Jaedong winning all matches played on this map) being the most frequently used field of battle between the two. Meta-game evolutions, and the overall map pool played a huge part in deciding victor between these two players. It is harder to pin-point certain patterns when the overall circumstances are so drastically different from one point to another.
Jaedong's zerg-versus-zerg results by calendar year, with the best performing player apart from Jaedong, in terms of win rate (minimum requirement of ten victories), presented for comparison:
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/I7RB4jI.png)
+ Show Spoiler +Jaedong in 2006: 20-8 (71.43%)
ZergMaN's in 2006: 13-5 (72.22%)
Jaedong in 2007: 25-7 (78.13%)
Luxury in 2007: 24-7 (77.42%)
Jaedong in 2008: 23-5 (82.14%)
EffOrt in 2008: 14-8 (63.64%)
Jaedong in 2009: 52-18 (74.29%)
Shine in 2009: 18-7 (72.00%)
Jaedong in 2010: 45-15 (75.00%)
Modesty in 2010: 13-3 (81.25%)
Jaedong in 2011: 18-15 (54.55%)
hydra in 2011: 30-12 (75.00%)
I personally think Jaedong's peak form as a brute force player came in 2008, when he was less well rounded as a competitor. This period in time in Jaedong's career is best represented in his performances in GomTV MSL S4, when Jaedong literally brute-forced his way to the top versus formible opponents like Bisu, Luxury, Flash, Mind, and Kal, often giving up strategic advantages over to the opponent during the early stages of the game, only to come back from the deficit through sheer brute-force.
Jaedong grew more well rounded over the years, and relied much less on brute-force, but in terms of out-muscling the enemy within established confines, I think Jaedong was at his best circa 2008.
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On September 05 2017 01:27 jaeboss wrote:
I've heard a lot of people try to analyze what made Jaedong the greatest zerg and I never really bought any of the ideas that I have heard others say: his micro, his macro, his muta micro, his decision making, etc... honestly, from watching his FPVODs I still can't seem to figure out what it is. He's not the fastest or most accurate player and I see him make a lot of mistakes. This could be oversimplification without addressing any actual details but from my point of view the thing that separated jaedong from everyone else was just his ability to win games. When it comes down to it, no matter what qualities you have as a BW player they all come secondary to this most important quality of simply being able to win, no matter how you achieve that goal. There are so many games that come to memory where from an objective point of view that he definitely should have lost, but somehow was able to leave his booth with a W. Take that ZvP where he accidentally blocked his ramp and had like 30 supply stuck in his main for a large section of the game. A mistake like that should cost you the game 100% of the time against professionals but somehow he was able to hold on and eventually convert the game to a win.
I wouldn't take a game from 2012 as a good sample of what characterized a well-practiced, in-form Jaedong. Jaedong was in Team 8 at the time, a team that had literally zero infrastructure (no cooks, no practice partners, and no strategical coaches). Almost everyone on that team said that the conditions broke their will power (whether it was due to the lack of guidance from the coaches, reduction of salaries, poor practice environment, or the increased amount of everyday chores). It brought about the demise of Jaedong as a top level player.
If you take a look at his zerg-versus-zerg games circa 2008, you can clearly see his obscenely superior execution of plays compared to the other top class zergs of the era. There are many iterations of Jaedong, and there's one thing that remained a constant throughout his years as a professional player, and that was his overwhelming desire to win as you point out. That's what allowed Jaedong to persist over the years, but the thing that allowed him to reach the top in the first place was his extraordinary execution in my opinion.
I am someone who has a reasonable liking for the game of football, and Jaedong during his earlier years reminded me of Ronaldo (the Brazilian one), someone who brute-forced his way with technical and physical domination over the other players, even if both of those players weren't the most cerebral at the time.
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EPT
