What's this, a KT Flash fan boy blog about an SKT player, and BeSt of all people? I look forward to all the terrible jokes and ad hominem attacks and fan-boyism!
Au contraire sir, I find that BeSt is probably one of the most under appreciated players in recent memory, to truly understand why, just think about these facts:
BeSt, despite being one of the infamous FBB (Fantasy, Bisu, BeSt) trio on SKT, does not have a single community nick name to his credit. And is routinely overshadowed by the other two. BeSt's most recent claim to fame is as a meme regarding one of his failures, that many people didn't even know about! BeSt's historical claim to fame in the community's eye include: coining the term Dohsairs, and... that's about it.
To truly understand why BeSt is underappreciated in the modern scene, we have to take a trip back in memory lane, to 2006.
Humble beginnings
BeSt first emerged onto the scene in WCG 2006 (a very unusually breaking out point to be sure), qualifying through the WCG and playing his first televised series posting a 1-2 against Midas (who posted a 64.1% win rate against protoss in 2006 and a 55% against protoss) and a 2-1 against a fOru past his prime. His first appearances with SKT was during the 2007 Shinhan proleague Round 1, Fantasy wasn't a standard A-teamer on SKT yet (playing only twice during the entire season, and Bisu was still playing on MBCGame Hero. No one took much notice of Best, who only boasted a 3-4 record during round 1.
During round 2, people started noticing Best's strange tendencies of winning against protoss and losing against zergs, taking down a then strong Nal_rA, Much, Anytime, Pusan, and JangBi, yet losing to the likes of 815 and Jy, a trend that would continue through out his career.
During the 2008 Bacchus OSL, he made an impressive run with wins over Jaedong, sAviOr, and Sea, no easy task by any imagination given his reputation for only being a PvP sniper, before losing to a dominant Stork who would go on to make it to the finals of the tournament. Again his performance was vastly overshadowed by other protoss' during the era, Stork for winning the Bacchus OSL, Bisu for starting a revolution, and Jangbi for finals appearances.
The Best Dragon During the era of the six dragons, Best shined brightly carrying an insane 70% overall win rate in 2008, and a 76.67% against protoss'. Against the hardest competition possible: A 16 win streak against Stork, free[gm], JangBi, and Kal, every one of the 6 dragons excluding Bisu who was then also on SKT.
What went unnoticed beyond this already titanic feat, is a 78.57% win rate against terran, Maintaining a 78%+ win rate against the likes of Flash, NaDa, UpMaGiC, Leta, Really, BoxeR, Hwasin. Yea.
With everything set out for Best to make the break into BW super stardom, and making it into the finals of the 2008 EVER OSL, it seemed like Best was unstoppable and would solidify himself as one of the greatest protoss players ever. And here's where I hang a big warning label on the screen flashing
TRAGEDY STRIKING IN 3, 2, 1...
The ultimate disappointment.
Best finds himself in a finals against surprise finalist July who has done nothing of note since 2006, some alarm bells were set off when July won 6-1 over two protoss' in the Ro8 and Ro4 to make it to the finals, however they were against the likes of Rock and BackHo. Where as Best had just come back from a 0-2 deficit to 3-2 heavy favorite Luxury (a feat NEVER yet reproduced, the closest being Jangbi coming back from a 1-2 deficit against Zero in 2012 OSL Semi's).
The result? I will let the games speak for themselves.
Bitter defeat Coming off an amazing record in PvP, Best suffered a 4-10 in 2009, losing to the likes of SangHoShuttle, and Pure, whom despite being competent opponents was no where near the caliber of players he encountered during his 16 win streak. His PvZ continued to dip below 50%. The only saving grace was his PvT, still boasting a 65% record before heading into the Nate MSL, being one of the only people in the league who has a perfect record (3-0!) against then major contender Flash. Hopes were high that Best, whose signature methodical macro style has been able to defeat Flash in 3 base macro games at the post 20 minute mark would be able to recreate the feat and snipe the ultimate weapon.
The result?
Game 1. 10 Minute sieging up the main, standard.
Game 2. The 25 minute Emp nuke.
Game 3. Even the gods of BW itself hate Best
Too little too late BeSt astounded every one in the start of the 2011-12 proleague season, netting wins over the most insane line up of ZERGS. Jaedong? Hydra? Neo.G_Soulkey? EffOrt? Ez-pz. But this was quickly forgotten and overshadowed by the emergence of Jangbi vs Fantasy rivalry that emerged in the twilight of BW, and Best never truly got the recognition that he deserved for making such an amazing run in his weakest match up.
The ultimate Irony BeSt being sent out against Flash in the Ace match of Proleague 2010-11 to the cries and moans of fanboys every where who wanted to see Fantasy / Bisu
The ultimate irony is that BeSt's strengths became his weaknesses, his spectacular early on PvP career lend his play to be completely taken for granted, so much so that any loss' even against the strongest of Protoss opponents, multiple OSL/MSL winners and runner ups such as Stork / Jangbi, recieved the booing of fans every where. His amazing PvT play of almost immaculate macro and greedy methodical play would have earned any other protoss the admiration that Bisu or Stork would have gotten for their distinct brand of PvZ and PvP, yet was down played as BORING. His longer presence and continued contribution to SKT before the rise of Fantasy and the transfer of Bisu only earned him increased scrutiny and criticism. Even his heavy gate way play has been vastly outshined in popularity by Horang2, just because his looks prettier
None of this is highlighted more than in the 2010-11 proleague finals.
Where is my Bisu vs. Flash Ace match?!!!!
why not bisu whyy
did january hijack SKT? what's going on
oh god, y send the hardest choker in sc history for the super ace?
ZZZ I stayed all the way up for a Best vs Flash?
Quotes taken from SKT fans.
Flash, who is also notorious for his greedy methodical macro play that bored the living hell out of anyone cheering against or even for him that has gained him prolonged periods of lolturtlenoob status, is vastly more popular than BeSt for the sole reason of championship results.
What does the future hold? With all the slumps and streaks that BeSt's been through, it may be surprising that he still sports a 62.16% win rate against terran and a 60% win rate against protoss, and a 56.39% overall. Let me just repeat that. 56.39% overall, even with his sub 50% zerg win rate at only 47.71% which constitute over 35% of his total games played. This puts him in the upper echelon of players with a 55%+ win rate and he was definitely S-class material in PvZ and PvP. Yet he ranks considerably lower than other comparable players in terms of popularity and has been left out of most polls and hall of fame mentions.
As of now Best's SC2 career is nothing short of average and forgettable, with the imminent competition between kespa and esf / foreign players, can he ever recapture the spotlight and regain his 2008 glory?
I appreciate the hell out of best. He makes more gateways in BW than a lategame SC2 toss could ever make. He is the king of macro and held the PvP crown for quite some time.
I will always remember best as the protoss who had like 50+ gateways on 4 or 5 bases, pumping out army like crazy and yet losing to a terran (who was that again?) because he didn't make a single arbiter the whole 1h game
On December 22 2012 03:19 fabiano wrote: I will always remember best as the protoss who had like 50+ gateways on 4 or 5 bases, pumping out army like crazy and yet losing to a terran (who was that again?) because he didn't make a single arbiter the whole 1h game
I'm having trouble finding the game where he made 50, would love if some1 could post it!
Well, that spider mine pic was the best place for it to cut off at least xD Always liked Best, so thanks for the article and glad to hear this will be series.
On December 22 2012 03:19 fabiano wrote: I will always remember best as the protoss who had like 50+ gateways on 4 or 5 bases, pumping out army like crazy and yet losing to a terran (who was that again?) because he didn't make a single arbiter the whole 1h game
I'm having trouble finding the game where he made 50, would love if some1 could post it!
You guys aren't talking about the foru nada game are you?
On December 22 2012 03:19 fabiano wrote: I will always remember best as the protoss who had like 50+ gateways on 4 or 5 bases, pumping out army like crazy and yet losing to a terran (who was that again?) because he didn't make a single arbiter the whole 1h game
I'm having trouble finding the game where he made 50, would love if some1 could post it!
You guys aren't talking about the foru nada game are you?
Yeah, the only 50 gateway game I can't remember is Foru-Nada
On December 22 2012 03:19 fabiano wrote: I will always remember best as the protoss who had like 50+ gateways on 4 or 5 bases, pumping out army like crazy and yet losing to a terran (who was that again?) because he didn't make a single arbiter the whole 1h game
I'm having trouble finding the game where he made 50, would love if some1 could post it!
A lot of people found Best boring to watch but he was one of the players that I made an effort to watch every game of. There was something very entertaining about watching some guy lose his corsairs stupidly ALL the time (this was around when he was just breaking out in the scene) but win games a couple minutes later by suddenly shoving down a huge army down the opponent's throat.
I think people often called him "monster" when he just popped out in the scene. He never really regained his popularity once he got utterly overshadowed by Bisu and STORK though.
On December 22 2012 07:33 koreasilver wrote: A lot of people found Best boring to watch but he was one of the players that I made an effort to watch every game of. There was something very entertaining about watching some guy lose his corsairs stupidly ALL the time (this was around when he was just breaking out in the scene) but win games a couple minutes later by suddenly shoving down a huge army down the opponent's throat.
I think people often called him "monster" when he just popped out in the scene. He never really regained his popularity once he got utterly overshadowed by Bisu and STORK though.