EPT
I’m surprised that after so many accomplishments, Lee Jaedong still has no satisfactory nickname. ‘Tyrant’ and ‘God of Destruction’ were attached to him by MBCGame and Ongamenet respectively to some initial backlash from the fans. However, the fans failed to agree on a suitable alternative, and the ensuing seasons of announcer repetition made the above two his de facto nicknames.
Korea has a very active fan community where people will grasp at straws just so a player can have any kind of nickname. GGPlay was known as the “Attention Zerg” during his early career, simply because he stood rigidly at attention in front of the audience, before and after proleague matches. Even the LACK of distinctive features will earn you a nickname, like in the case of Light, the “Invisible Terran.” Considering that Jaedong has a very aggressive style of play, and that his game face is one of the most distinct ones in Starcraft, it is really odd that nothing has caught on.
I can try to reason through the reasons that might explain this peculiarity, but nothing I can think of is satisfactory. Part of it might be because he didn’t have the time to get an early career nickname. Several players who have won Starleagues in their careers continue to be called by their old nicknames, given to them when they were low-mid level players. Some of these nicknames are outright insulting or just completely comical, but have changed into affectionate nicknames. Fantasy’s nicknames of “terrorist” and “Jung Laden” were attached to him because he was jokingly accused of committing acts of terror against the Starleagues by eliminating players who were considered better than him at the time. Now that he’s proven himself as an excellent player, the old names have become much more affectionate, and coincidentally rather appropriate for his harassing style of play. In a similar vein, Nada is still called “Otter” by some, and Iloveoov is still called “house servant” from time to time. Jaedong had a very short developmental phase in his career, going from a near unknown to a Zerg vs Terran monster with undeniable potential, to arguably the best player in the world. So there may have been no time to consider a casual nickname, because he became someone you had to take completely seriously before the fans had enough time to get to know him.
After a gamer has reached a degree of notoriety, the new nicknames tend to be based on their high level of skill like “Maestro” or “God of war,” although there are especially popular exceptions like Boxer’s many nicknames making fun of his melon-like head. In any case, Jaedong doesn’t even have a proper nickname to glorify his skill. Two of Jaedong’s contemporaries with similarly meteoric rises, Flash and Bisu, quickly earned their nicknames of “Final Weapon” and “Revolutionist” after they proved their skill. (Note: Bisu’s first popular nickname was “Phuket” as fans mocked him for going along on MBCGame’s Thai vacation just two weeks before his MSL Final date with Savior. Needless to say, the name only lasted for those two weeks.) Jaedong has spent over a year as a top five player and still can’t get a skill based nickname. He’s so unlucky with nicknames his name can’t even be paired with Bonjwa. None of the characters in the name Lee Jae Dong sound quite harmonious enough. Ma-Bonjwa and Taek-Bonjwa (for delusional Bisu fans) have a nice ring to them, but Dong-Bonjwa sounds absolutely terrible. Not even his suspiciously close friendship with Lomo has been of any inspiration, despite its practically begging for some sort of mockery.
The only fan nickname that’s semi-stuck is “Lee Jae Dong Nae Buk//이제동네북,” which came up during a brief two week slump in 2008. It’s a pun on his name which means “neighborhood drum,” an expression in Korean for someone who gets beat up by everyone else (think of ‘village bike’ in English, except with violence and not sex). This one still gets limited use in some situations, but is barely taken seriously.
I hope that if we wait long enough, a perfect source will come along. Maybe it will be an epic match, an embarrassing photograph, or entertaining anecdote. In any case, as with all the other nicknames, we’ll simply know if it’s right.
]
