EPT1. He is one of the three players that won the three major tournaments (OSL, MSL and the Proleague) of the progaming scene in a single season. The other two players are Nal Ra (though his Proleague victory before its fusion with the MBC Team League) and Oov (before the introduction of the 5 day Proleague schedule).
2. He is one of the four players who have won both the OSL and the MSL. Nal Ra, Oov and Savior are the only players aside from Jaedong who have won both leagues. Boxer and Nada also boast trophies in both leagues on a technicality, but their triumphs were in KPGA tournaments.
3. He is the all time leader in 1v1 victories in the Proleague with 76 wins and 36 losses (excluding post-season matches). Only other players that have over 70 wins are Nada and Stork (73 wins 56 losses for Nada, 73 wins and 47 losses for Stork). Considering Jaedong only made his debut in 2006, this is quite a feat, although it must be admitted that the number of Proleague matches have increased greatly in recent days.
4. He is the only player to have had the most wins from his race in each round of the Proleague season for four consecutive seasons. It looks like the number is only going to get bigger since he has the most wins out of the zerg players in this round also. In fact, Jaedong has always been the top zerg player in the Proleague excluding his debut season (Savior being at the top for zerg in that particular season).
5. He has the highest “career winning rate” out of all the progamers who have played over 200 matches with 68% (counting ALL matches against progamers). Only Flash comes close with 66.4%, but he has only played 259 matches as of today compared to Jaedong’s 372 matches.
6. He is only behind Leta and Best in terms of winning percentage for Kespa officiated matches out of all the gamers who have played over 50 Kespa officiated matches. TLPD, FOMOS and YGOSU all have faulty records for Kespa officiated games (some matches that should be there are missing, some matches that shouldn’t be there are present etc), but someone in the Korean boards have gone through the trouble of individually comparing the missing/added games etc to calculate the numbers in mid-January. Out of the top 5, only Jaedong had played more than 200 matches. Out of the top 10, only Oov, Stork and Midas had played over 300 matches.
7. Someone in PGR forums compared the best players today (namely Jaedong, Flash, Bisu and Stork) and compared their numbers to the greats of the past in mid-January. For the number of games he had played by then (361 matches in all competitions against progamers), Jaedong was only bested by Nada who won 252 matches for the same number of matches compared to Jaedong’s 246 wins. Oov was third in the list with 238 wins. For comparison reasons, Flash was bested by Nada, Oov and Boxer, and was equaled by Jaedong for the number of games he had then. Only Nada had a better record for the number of games Stork had played by then, and Oov had an equal record. Bisu’s numbers were much less impressive.
8. It goes without saying, of course, that he is the greatest mirror match-up player statistically. He hasn’t really have had the chance to beef up his numbers because after the 2006 season, zerg versus zerg has been the rarest mirror match-up on television. He didn’t get much chance to prove his “clutch” performances in his favourite match-up in the latter stages of individual leagues either because of the shortage of zergs in latter stages in recent years.
9. He is one of the three zergs in the history of progaming that can boast a winning percentage that exceeds 70% against terrans over the course of a season or a year. Only the great Yellow, Savior and Jaedong himself have managed this feat.
10. From this, we can reach the conclusion that Jaedong is without doubt the best Proleague player to have ever played the game (although the fact that the Proleague had a much smaller role in the past does shorten the list greatly). He is also one of the most impressive player statistically, with consistency in winning rates only matches by Nada (who is the greatest player in the history of progaming both in terms of trophies and statistics) and perhaps Stork to a lesser extent. He “weakness”, so to speak, is his relative lack of trophies and his relative inexperience in the individual leagues. Bisu is in stark contrast to Jaedong here. Bisu is around the same age, made his debut at roughly the same period (Bisu defeated Jaedong for his progaming license I believe) and both are acknowledged in Korean boards as semi-bonjwas (along with Nal Ra and July). Their difference lies in how they have show cased their talents.
11. Bisu, who I believe is the most talented protoss player to grace the scene (I still think Nal Ra is the greater player overall, but I think Bisu has more talent) has stormed onto the scene with his never-to-be-forgotten performance in the first season of Gom MSL. He has since then managed to keep his place in both individual leagues for an amazing five consecutive times (in fact he can keep the numbers going). So far, Bisu has managed to win three times in the MSL as well as a silver to boot, and has managed two semi-final runs in the OSL. Only Nada, Oov and Savior have more individual league trophies, and he has equaled Boxer and July in terms of 1st place finishes. His weakness lies in his fluctuations in performance. One day he is beating the most powerful zerg to walk the earth convincingly in the MSL finals, only to lose a couple of days later to ChRh in a lackluster performance. His MSL performance will go down as one of the greatest in history, but his comparative lack of success in the OSL, as well as sometimes down right awful performances in the Proleague have prevented him from reaching the bonjwa status. If only Bisu could figure out a way to keep his brilliance going at a steady rate, he’d be bonjwa in no time.
12. Jaedong, on the other hand, simply does not slump. Bisu’s winning rates fluctuate from the 40s to the sky scraping 70s over the course of several months, but Jaedong’s numbers stay inhumanly consistent. The guy who researched his numbers in PGR forums mentioned that people believe Jaedong is slumping in any periods where he does not reach his usual 68% percent winning rate. When Bisu sucks, he sucks ass, but even a slumping Jaedong will be the best zerg around and a threat to even the hottest players around. Like Bisu, Jaedong does well in offline qualifiers (Bisu and Jaedong lead the winning perecentage for offline qualifying stages I believe) and side competitions such as IEF, eStars Round of 256 and Gom leagues which depend more on “natural skill” rather than the “practiced to perfection” games we see in “official matches”. Their difference in “official matches” is much greater. Jaedong only became a force to be reckoned with in the individual leagues at the very end of 2007 season, and although he has done a tremendous job of catching up (one MSL title, one runner-up finish as well as an OSL victory), he simply does not have the same caliber of performance both in terms of trophy and overall consistency that Bisu boasts in the individual leagues.
13. I personally believe Jaedong would have caught Bisu up already in terms of trophy count if the maps were as kind to him as it were for Bisu. Bisu’s fluctuations prevented him from being a bonjwa, but I believe the map pool played a large part in Jaedong’s failure to become one. The two back-to-back individual league victories, along with his trophy count came at a time when the maps were actually in favour of protosses (ex) Katrina, Loki). Add to the fact that season 2007 (the season that will probably be remembered for Jaedong’s rise to superstardom in the midst of protoss domination), was one of the better years for ZvT because of the maximized utilization of mutalisk micromanagement. Jaedong crippled terrans despite the fact that there were maps that heavily favoured terrans. What the broadcasting companies remembered, was when one zerg was so good (ex) Savior) that any half-playable map pool for the zerg, the likelihood of a ZvZ finals (disaster for the ratings) would increase quite a bit. So they forgot the fact that the map pool was already infested with protoss or terran friendly “easy to get 3 bases” macro maps that crippled zergs aside from Jaedong and introduced the “NO MORE MUTALISK MICRO FOR YOU” factor to the maps that led to… well, the worst balanced individual league in the history of progaming in terms of statistics (Jaedong had a 22.2% chance of winning against terrans according to the maps) and a Proleague season that had 112 TvT matches compared to 28 ZvZ matches, which makes the 2008 Proleague the worst balanced Proleague since the incarnation of the 5 day system. The fact that Arena MSL wasn’t so ostracized so much (take this season’s OSL where the protoss players are already flooding the table with their complaints and excuses) was because we’re used to seeing zergs get shafted by the maps. Yellow had it tough against Boxer with the god-awful maps such as Ragnarok or Symmetry of Psy, July had no chance in hell of beating Oov with the maps like Ever Forte or Pioneer Period. Hell, zergs were even expected just to “cope” with situation ever since Savior managed to actually overcome these maps to grind out a victory. So when Jaedong came all guns blazing ready to own again, he came across the biggest map disadvantage seen in modern day progaming.
14. MSL 2nd place, Gom S1 1st place and WCG Korea 1st place goes to show Jaedong’s caliber even at times of trouble, but I think Jaedong’s prime was WASTED battling against the odds. When Jaedong first came to ascension, the mighty Bisu was unable to cope with him, terrans were terrified at the sight of his mutalisks, zergs were a free pass for him and only Flash was the only “worthy” adversary although Jaedong looked quite comfortable dismantling him in a BO5. At least Savior’s battle against the map pool towards the end of his reign got him his legendary status. Jaedong had to settle for being “the best zerg”, and “could-have-been-bonjwa” with the talent he had.
15. Oov once said that you only have the chance to shine in progaming. If it’s your time, you have to do the best you can with it because it is never going to come back. Boxer did that with his micromanagement, Nada did that with his mechanics, Oov did that with his revolutions in economy management and Savior did that with his own revolutions for the zerg. Jaedong looked unstoppable, and he was taking down Bisu, Stork, Flash, Mind, Luxury and Kal with such ease that many believed it was impossible to defeat him in a standard game. His mechanics was so out of the world it was like seeing a zerg Nada (though I must admit the difference in skill between players was more apparent when Nada was in his prime). But when the map pool made sure that his mechanics alone would cripple him even against opponents he would toy with in a more balanced setting, Jaedong looked… mortal. A supreme player no doubt, but, mortal nonetheless. It wasn’t what I wanted. I felt stolen of the opportunity to se the “perfect zerg” in action. They neutered Jaedong from the “perfect zerg” to the “I use queens now!” zerg that wins against terrans every once a while doing cute things. And I don’t think he’ll ever become bonjwa even if he doesn’t slump significantly. And I blame the map makers who made those few months of glory that never return into the same old story we’ve seen and heard for years, “yeah he is the best zerg around… still gonna get raped by that terran though”.
Footnote: I wrote this yesterday (January 31st) so the results of today's Proleague matches are not taken into account.
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