EPTAround this time last year, I was in love with a girl.
Around this time last year, I didn't drink near as heavily nor did I chain-smoke.
Now, I'm going to write about the Hero Protoss Park Jung Seok.
Now, I'm in love with a girl.
Now, I drink heavily and chain-smoke.
It seems like not that much has changed, but it couldn't be more untrue.
Mr. Park forms the other half of the Mi-nam MagicNs (Handsome Boy MagicNs) with Mr. Hong. While Jin Ho was intensely passionate, Jung Seok was as cool as a cucumber. His coolness bordered on shallowness. But it was a line he didn't see because it was a line which didn't exist.
He is a man. Men are not shallow. A true man lives with a goal and a dream. A man living without those things lives a truly shallow and empty life.
Let's talk about music for a moment, okay? I want to do this because 1) I've had 4 (working on my 5th) irresponsibly large glasses of half Jack and half Sprite and a whole lot of purple Kool-Aid powder and 2) Because Park Jung Seok loves music.
He loves pop music.
If the Emeperor is best personified by classical artists such as Albinoni, the Hero is best personified by Beyonce.
TO THE LEFT, TO THE LEFT. EVERYTHING YOU OWN IN A BOX TO THE LEFT.
IN THE CLOSET, THAT'S MY STUFF. YES, I BOUGHT IT, NIGGA PLEASE DON'T TOUCH.
(And that song is one of Reach's favorites, by the way)
Yes. A bouncy, shallow sounding pop tune. That is what [Oops]Reach is. But every once in a while, you find one with lyrics which cut deeply close to your heart. Let's have a look at his song.
So, Park Jung Seok. He was born on December 27, 1983 in Pusan. His mother is quite a ghastly looking woman. She does not look Asian at all. She has a very pointed and angular face. His father is quite an intimidating looking fellow. He has thick and knobby features and a wide nose.
These two human beings from opposite ends of the "unconventionally" attractive spectrum combined their genetics to make a son with a very specific face.
I first saw this face during a VOD streamed from a PC room's website who's name I cannot remember for the fucking life of me, you, and everyone in our families.
This was before he was the Hero (and even before he was the Power Punch Protoss) and before he made any TV appearances. He made it to the finals of this PC room tournament and defeated Fireworks Terran Byun Kil Sup in the finals. It wouldn't be the last time they would meet, though. They'd find themselves on HanBit together where they would each win a Starleague and then left together when KTF bought them.
And then in KTF, they fell apart like all of the other megastars they bought. Aime Jacques, the coach of the French football team which won the World Cup in 98, said a team needs a genius to be successful.
But what if they have several? They start to fight. They don't co-operate. They don't listen. You know the kittens have gotten too big when they no longer sleep with each other.
But that's another topic for another time.
So, the camera panned up to show him smiling widely as he picked up his winter coat off the back of his chair. This was my first exposure to [Oops]Reach.
I guess it's no surprise that he was a Tae Kwon Do student in his younger days. He threw away his dreams with this sport when he found StarCraft. When Reach's song was first sung, it was with another person. A duet.
He was a 2v2 specialist.
When HanBit coach Lee Jae Kyun still had the SM team with H.O.T and Kingdom, he himself was quite a 2v2 legend. After HanBit Soft asked him to coach their proteam (as long as he kept Kingdom in it), he began to go on a scouting spree.
I believe it was [Oops]Lee who introduced Reach to Lee Jae Kyun. Either way, H.O.T and Reach formed the fiercest 2v2 team ever in the history of progaming. Thanks to Lee Jae Kyun's sharp eye, his team dominated both the Starleague and the Proleague. He knew what made a good 1v1 player and he knew equally well about what made a good 2v2 player.
Park Jung Seok still qualified for the Starleague, though. But he was nervous. He was scared of losing. The practice of a progame team was something he couldn't adjust to. As a result, he was eliminated without a single win. I think. I don't remember. It was the Coca-Cola Starleague and I've ingested a lot of alcohol.
However, things got very interesting next year, 2002. This was known as the darkest year for Protoss due to the maps. This was the year which would make Park Jung Seok into who he is today.
The people who thought they knew him well enough from the GhemTV Starleague (where he was dubbed the Power Punch Protoss from his game against IntoTheRain) were in for a very rude shock. Reach had two very positive things going for him at this time.
1) Boxer's coach was trying to make him into a superstar and was taking up more and more of his practice schedule with media appearances.
2) The HanBit coach basically told Reach to start practicing however the hell he wanted.
No longer having strategies shoved down his throat, he pushed in his own style. And holy fucking God, what a style it was. His games against Yellow in the SKY 2002 Starleague were some of the best examples of masculinity in existence and he fucking sucks at PvZ.
I'm getting ahead of myself, though. Everyone sort of knew something was up with his performance in the KPGA Tour. Maybe he was lucky?
No.
He was a fucking man.
Sure enough, history repeated itself as he once again defeated Boxer in the Starleague finals. He ended the period of darkness for Protoss, created the Legend of the Fall, and was hailed as the Hero.
After the games, Garimto had commented that a progamer is very lucky if he can show even 50% of his skill in a televised game. And he had just seen Reach show 200%.
This was Reach's chorus. This was the part of the song where everyone who walked in half way said "OHHHH DIS MY JAM."
Reach was now one of the Big 4 along with Boxer, NaDa, and YellOw. He was part of the generation of progamers which made the game channels gear their advertising from game characters to actual progamers. The OGN intros no longer contained CG StarCraft clips. They featured the progamers themselves.
2003. This is when we really got to know Reach.
"A regular person can function on 5 hours of sleep. I use 4."
Manly.
"Thanksgiving isn't a holiday for me. I practice."
Manlier.
"I don't look at statistics. The game I'm playing now is all I think about."
Even manlier.
This is where his cool, manly persona started to really catch hold. However, during the MyCube (let's just skip Panasonic, okay? T_T) Starleague, his calm and cool persona would be stretched. It would produce perhaps his manliest move to date.
A week before the MyCube Starleague round of 8 moved to Reach's hometown of Pusan, something happened.
His grandmother died.
He hadn't seen her since his senior year of highschool. His coach told the press that he would be taking some time off.
He did no such thing. He knew he had to prepare for Perfect Terran Seo Ji Hoon.
"I live for the game, but I live because of my family. For my parents, my hometown, and my grandmother in Heaven, I am going to win."
He won.
He won in front of his entire hometown after such a tragic loss. In the post interview, he said he wasn't nervous at all.
The tempo of his song took a very bright turn after such a somber interlude. He would continue showing us his Mudang Storm, the Zealots which he held as his pride and joy, his insane winning streak in the Proleague and why he was called the Emperor of Paradoxxx.
Eventually, he had to switch up his playstyle to become more strategic minded. His love affair with macro maps was being pushed violently to the way-side as the new maps were increasingly harder for him to adjust to. He particularly had trouble with Zergs, more than he ever had before, as they were presenting so many new styles during this time.
But he kept his cool. His heart stayed steady. He won and he lost.
However, slowly but surely, his name fell out of conversation. Just like BoxeR, YellOw, H.O.T, and TheMarine, he was getting old.
I want to take a giant leap forward to 2007. This is about Reach and 2007 was about Reach.
DAUM Starleague. This was his 11th appearance in the OSL and his first since SO1. Reach was supposed to win this Starleague, just like he was supposed to win the MyCube, NHN, Gillette, and EVER OSLs.
He didn't win, but he won his games in his own style. It didn't seem like anything had changed that much, but that couldn't be more untrue.
For the first time while he was on that stage, his heart pounded. For the first time in his entire career, he actually said he loved his fans. For the first time in his life, he let us have a tiny little peek behind his masculine wall. For the first time, we finally sung his chorus again, like we did 5 years prior.
I don't know how he'll do with Air Force ACE. Nobody does. We can't predict the future. Even though his song is light and bouncy, I can't turn it off.
I just love the lyrics too much.
