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The time has come my fellow Terrans to rally to a new banner. In unity lies strength; already many of the dissident factions have joined us. Out of the many we shall forge an indivisible whole capitulating only to a single throne. And from that throne, I shall watch over you.
Much has happened since Arcturus Mengsk proclaimed himself leader of the Terran race. Battles have been fought left and right and with the tide of battle constantly changing, new innovations, strategies and tactics have been formed to ensue the continuous victories of the Terran race.
But what is the present if not a result of the past? What are the innovations of today if not a continuum of the innovations of yesterday? So lets stop here for a while and look back, shall we? Look back all the way to 1999 and the empire that Mengsk left us with. Who stood up and fought? Who brought fear into the heart of Protoss and crushed the relentless swarms of the Zerg?
Let's look back and see.
Disclaimer: Since I am new to observing the proscene (read: since about june), I have missed a bit of StarCraft's history, say 10 years or so...! Thus, this list is how I have interpreted the Terran lineage from reading on (mainly) Teamliquid and watching VODs. I can not stress enough that I was not watching the scene back in the day and that I thus do not -know- who was significant and who wasn't.
If you think that I have missed somebody important from this list or that somebody is superfluous, please state so in a response and list why somebody should be added or removed.
I'm trying to sort them in chronological order but, once again, my knowledge is only based on what I can read online, so it might be incorrect. Please help me get it right.
Second disclaimer: While I know that people like [GG99]Slayer and SsamJang did contribute a lot to the developement of Terran, they were racepickers and not strictly Terran players. That's why they haven't been included. I am willing to change this, however, if you can tell me how they affected Terran play.
Third and final disclaimer: This article was inspired by the much better writing of Marencielo. Check it out!
Also, check out the fantastic writing of FrozenArbiter.
So without further ado, here's the people I have on my "notable" list so far:
[B-Blade]Leader
You know that going mech against Protoss is rather standard? You know how using vultures isn't a surprise to anyone? Well, such wasn't the case once upon a time and Leader is one of the reasons why that changed.
St.Eagle
St.Eagle showed us that we could use buildings to block the path of troops at our choke point so that marines can shoot from behind the buildings without being hurt. Walling in was born.
Maynard
The art of constantly building workers and then transfering them to expansions is these days, without a doubt, standard play. This process is called Maynarding after its innovator, Maynard.
TheMarine
The "By-the-book" Terran was one of the best terrans back in the days and went on to become a very popular commentator. He didn't play very originally nor innovative, but darn it he was good.
SoulKey
The SK Terran is a TvZ style of play that focuses on lots of Science Vessles with Irradiate to tackle Defilers and Lurkers. SoulKey was the innovator of this. Before his SK Terran, that was later perfected by other players, tanks were the way to go.
Oddysay
While I don't know a lot about Oddysay, I know that he was pretty good back in the days. Perhaps somebody can help me with more info about this guy?
SlayerS_`BoxeR`
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/players/225.jpg) Any list of important Terrans wouldn't be complete without the Emperor himself being on the list. BoxeR has brought so many innovations to StarCraft that it's almost ridiculous. However, the most notable is his use of the Dropship that was radically different from what was common back then.
V-Gundam
V-Gundam invented the Gundam rush (also known as the Bamboo rush) that in the earlier days of StarCraft crushed quite a few Protoss foes.
Sync
Say hello to the creator of the Sparks Terran build that aims at breaking a Sunken Colony line by pumping from three early barracks, skipping a factory. The sunkens went down so fast that their destruction animations combined into what looked like fireworks or sparks, thus the name.
XellOs
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/players/130.jpg) XellOs revolutionized TvT with his more mobile gameplay and changed the TvT matchup from a siegeline stalemate to one where the terran army moved around a lot more.
JoyO
While technically being a racepicker (he played PvT on island maps), he is most remembered for being the creator of the JoyO rush that caused a lot of trouble to Protoss players back in 2003.
NaDa
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/players/147.jpg) The Tornado Terran is the most sucessful StarCraft player of all time and his vulture control is that of legends. His spot on the list is a given.
iloveoov
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/players/5.jpg) BoxeR's pupil iloveoov is, together with players like Reach and maps like Luna, is a major factor to why StarCraft has shifted to a much more macro focused game than before. He macroed so hard that he always seemed to have more troops than what was probable, giving him the nickname "Cheater Terran".
Casy
Casy was called "The Neo Emperor" for his innovative play that was reminiscent to BoxeR. It gave him an OSL title in 2006. His TvZ was impressive.
Midas
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/players/4.jpg) Midas was "raised" by iloveoov and was a monster at TvP, proudly carrying the Terran banner on!
Goodfriend
Goodfriend had a rather agressive style of play with double factory dropship builds against Protoss.
Iris
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/players/129.jpg) Nicknamed the "Berserker Terran", Iris is known for being a very agressive player and was a presence to be reckoned within OSL, especially back in 2007.
Flash
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/players/424.jpg) Flash probably needs no introduction since his climb to fame is rather recent. Being, arguably, the strongest Terran around, Flash has dominated with his Double Armory build, also known as the Flash Build.
Fantasy
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/players/6.jpg) Being in the same team as both BoxeR and iloveoov has to have some benefits, doesn't it? Fantasy is proof of this and his Fantasy Build showed us that Valkyries were in fact not a useless unit. It only took us 10 years to come to that conclusion!
And with that we have reached the present. What innovations awaits us in the future? Who will rise to power and lead the Terran race forward? Or has evolution finally come to a halt? Is there still room for innovation?
Much has changed since 1999 and much has been learned, but with StarCraft 2 on the horizon new challenges will arise. With these new challenges new, brave and cunning Terran players will rise up and once again and with them will come new innovations and solutions.
And it is as Mengsk once said:
Gentlemen, you've done very well, but remember that we've still got a job to do.
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Nice read, but each of the player's bios are pretty damm short. More info on each of them would be great.
Aka, too much bone, not enough meat.
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Yes, I do agree with you, neobowman. Sadly, I don't know too much about each individual player (since, as I stated, I pretty recently discovered the proscene) and also wanted to just write about the very basics of how they affected terran play.
However, I did link every player to their Liquipedia page, so more info about them can be found there.
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United States4796 Posts
Good write. Thanks!
We don't get Leta for the wraiths here?
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On December 10 2009 07:50 neobowman wrote: Nice read, but each of the player's bios are pretty damm short. More info on each of them would be great.
Aka, too much bone, not enough meat.
This. Research more first
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Katowice25012 Posts
Still a fun read, good work
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needs a lot more research
the so-called "fantasy build" was beaten right after incruit, including everyone who used it - fantasy, midas, iloveoov.
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commendable effort
enjoyable read, especially as a fellow terran :D
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I had suspisions that people would complain about the amount of info about each player. Thing is though, that info about them is hard to find. I have tried!
That's why I need your help to fill in the blanks. Let's work together, shall we, to make the article better! 
Thanks heyoka, El.Divino and hyst.eric.al for the kind words.
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Man, could've included Leta for his Wraith.
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If iris is up there, Leta and possibly UpMaGiC should be there
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On December 10 2009 08:53 Kenpachi wrote: If iris is up there, Leta and possibly UpMaGiC should be there Totally agreed. Leta's wraith micro should be up there. As well as UpMagic for his unorthodox builds. Also I don't know if this is true, but is Boxer the one that made good use of ghost to cast Lock-Down on carriers and annihilate them with goliaths?
This article is a good read though. Some of those early players beside Boxer that I've never heard(started following SC pro-scene in mid 2006 from Crunchyroll.com) about. It is interesting to learn how the term "maynard" came about. Please continue to update if you have more infos to write! I'm bookmarking this page.
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Well I dont think every decent Terran can be included. But the part about Flash being arguably the best Terran right now, wrong, he is the best Terran player right now.
Note: Flash fanboyism only makes up 50% of the above statement.
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Gundam, what a great guy.  Bamboo Master !
Nice reading, ty so much.
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You might want to sort the Terran players in recent times by their teams (SKT Terran, CJ Terran, Sparkyz Terran, MBC Terran, Pantech/Wemade Terran, etc.), otherwise you basically have just a long list without any structure to it.
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That's cool, now make for for Protoss!!
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On December 10 2009 08:53 Kenpachi wrote: If iris is up there, Leta and possibly UpMaGiC should be there upmagic MUST be there.he may have not been the most successful terran out there but damn he is the most creative one for sure.
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On December 10 2009 09:14 EvoChamber wrote: You might want to sort the Terran players in recent times by their teams (SKT Terran, CJ Terran, Sparkyz Terran, MBC Terran, Pantech/Wemade Terran, etc.), otherwise you basically have just a long list without any structure to it.
yea i was thinking this would be better.
skt lineage is an epic one for sure. wemade is a pretty interesting lineage as well.
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Where is the red sniper? or dare i say it- upmagic?
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Agree with all the people who said leta.
His cute 2 port tvz play!
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Lyriene
United States346 Posts
That was fun and short to read! Thanks a lot and good job!
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Just fyi It was OOV that popularized 2port wraith builds iirc.
he used them quite often atleast
also pretty much invented the use of wraiths to take faster 3rds in tvt also i think
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On December 10 2009 10:32 Misrah wrote: or dare i say it- upmagic? loudly and proudly mouthafucka!
warmech carried terrans through out PL 0809
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Good read. I always thought SKTerran comes from South Korea .
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what about upmagic's wachanic build, as the koreans would call it, i think
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No Hwasin?
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On December 10 2009 11:08 economist_ wrote:No Hwasin?  Although he's been good in proleague for a long time, his lack of innovation coupled with his failures in individual leagues keep him off the list, I believe.
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On December 10 2009 11:26 horang3 wrote:Although he's been good in proleague for a long time, his lack of innovation coupled with his failures in individual leagues keep him off the list, I believe. His MnM play TvsZ is one of the greatest, I believe
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fun read  not a lot of info but it was good
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Nice read, didnt even know who Leader, Maynard or St.Eagle was!
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Uhh...what..? You missed out on pretty damn a lot of things on their bio, you practically assumed we know what you're talking about eg Joyo rush, babmoo rush.......you need to expand on those..
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Letaaaa!
his wraith micro is so orgasmic
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Vatican City State1650 Posts
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On December 10 2009 11:32 economist_ wrote:Show nested quote +On December 10 2009 11:26 horang3 wrote:On December 10 2009 11:08 economist_ wrote:No Hwasin?  Although he's been good in proleague for a long time, his lack of innovation coupled with his failures in individual leagues keep him off the list, I believe. His MnM play TvsZ is one of the greatest, I believe Yes, but MnM is very standard and he's never done really well in a starleague.
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On December 10 2009 12:51 horang3 wrote:Show nested quote +On December 10 2009 11:32 economist_ wrote:On December 10 2009 11:26 horang3 wrote:On December 10 2009 11:08 economist_ wrote:No Hwasin?  Although he's been good in proleague for a long time, his lack of innovation coupled with his failures in individual leagues keep him off the list, I believe. His MnM play TvsZ is one of the greatest, I believe Yes, but MnM is very standard and he's never done really well in a starleague.
iirc, he's good about qualifying, but he doesn't seem to go far ever.
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On December 10 2009 10:32 Misrah wrote: Where is the insurance Terran? or dare i say it- upmagic? =P
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Katowice25012 Posts
On December 10 2009 08:13 Slugbreath wrote:I had suspisions that people would complain about the amount of info about each player. Thing is though, that info about them is hard to find. I have tried! That's why I need your help to fill in the blanks. Let's work together, shall we, to make the article better!  Thanks heyoka, El.Divino and hyst.eric.al for the kind words. 
Theres a goddamn pen next to my name so surely my opinion here outweighs the haters!
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Very nice read, found out a lot that I didn't know but Boxer's bio was one of the shortest
Come on man i know you can do much better for the emperor!
THE EMPEROR!!!
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51399 Posts
On December 10 2009 14:36 heyoka wrote:Show nested quote +On December 10 2009 08:13 Slugbreath wrote:I had suspisions that people would complain about the amount of info about each player. Thing is though, that info about them is hard to find. I have tried! That's why I need your help to fill in the blanks. Let's work together, shall we, to make the article better!  Thanks heyoka, El.Divino and hyst.eric.al for the kind words.  Theres a goddamn pen next to my name so surely my opinion here outweighs the haters!
*waits for an awesome 'shove that pen up you're ass' comment*
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I love you for this post. Very fun and a nice recap of years gone by.
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thnx a lot.good work.but could use a bit more detail.plus you left out sea
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WTF you must gather your party before venturing forth!
Leta Canata Light
all respectable Terrans.
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Congratz on the spotlight!! you certainly know more abt professional starcraft than i do.
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Feels kind of short and unfinished, but cool initiative either way!
Go terran! :D
Btw, the info on Nada is way too short and doesn't really say anything. Also Nada started sick terran mechanics and combined it with awesome macro. Oov didn't start the terran macro trend, he just perfected it. Oh and Nada was owning up maps like Luna with his near perfection SK-terran, which was feared by zergs
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I wouldn't add Canata and Light, but Leta made that wraith build and was dropship heavy in pvt before Fantasy. Quoting forgot who "Midas standarized FD build".
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bah joyo stole that push shit from the greatest terran of all time "HovZ" back in WSL --; lol
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On December 10 2009 09:21 drug_vict1m wrote:Show nested quote +On December 10 2009 08:53 Kenpachi wrote: If iris is up there, Leta and possibly UpMaGiC should be there upmagic MUST be there.he may have not been the most successful terran out there but damn he is the most creative one for sure.
yes go upmagic
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Ok, up until today I thought maynard was an actual verb.
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I thought ELKY could be mentionned in that article, He was playing a lot on his economy (desperate terran) and I think he also work on the amount of workers you need for a perfect economy.
otherwise nice to read
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nice but too short =(... but I guess the idea of this post is that people CONTRIBUTE, too bad I am not well versed on this subject, but I am sure there are a lot of members that know about them, also you could find about they on the Final Edit Section, I remember there was an article about iloveooV which was in fact 2 articles long..
EDIT:
iloveoov I loved Victory I I loved Victory II
Flash Mental Strenght
Fantasy Terran Revolucionist
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honestly this does absolutely no justice at all to the players you are honoring. I really like the concept though, but right now it feels pretty underwhelming
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Thanks for the write-up I don't mind that the descriptions are short, it makes it a more fun read, and this way lesser known players also get a chance to be in the spotlight. For example, being not a native english speaker, I assumed maynarding was an english word but it turns out it is named after a player. How about some links to liquipedia pages for completeness sake.
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I must admit I've found this ... article disappointingly low on content. I appreciate your effort though, both in writing pieces at all, and in asking for community effort for improving it, so keep it up, and it will surely become better. (Actually I think the prospect of articles put together by random community members is quite intriguing.)
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Thanks for all the feedback. I'll look into the UpMagic and Leta thingies!
And Badjas, I think you'll find that if you click on the names above pictures, you will be linked to Liquipedia. 
Thanks for the thanks also!
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Short bios, or in the case of Oddysay, no bio at all.
This isn't even an article; it's a bullet list.
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You forgot sea the prototype ultimate weapon.
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a bit shabby.
oddasay was a Terran on KT. He was a solid terran, nothing spectacular but bought by KTF so that must mean he was good.. -_____- (KTF was like the Real Madrid of E-sports)
Midas was a master of all three MU's in his prime with his "bunker rush if close 14 cc if far TvZ" Always a contender and one of the few pro's to ever bother Savior to an extent
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On December 10 2009 09:14 EvoChamber wrote: You might want to sort the Terran players in recent times by their teams (SKT Terran, CJ Terran, Sparkyz Terran, MBC Terran, Pantech/Wemade Terran, etc.), otherwise you basically have just a long list without any structure to it. I think it's pretty obvious he was sorting them in order of time (when the players became prominent), and I like this order.
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Russian Federation1208 Posts
I want Zerg Lineage and Protoss Lineage
PLEASE
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Nice list. I can really tell it is the work of a newcomer, though.
It would be nice if a veteran were to get in-depth and more specific on each player, though, to make it truly worthy of being featured on the front page.
for example:
The Tornado Terran is the most sucessful StarCraft player of all time and his vulture control is that of legends. His spot on the list is a given. Not only does mentioning just vultures sort of discredit The Nada, but perfect vulture control really isn't that hard (Don't flame me for this; I know vulture control is very impressive when it alone wins the game, but all I'm saying is it's really not that hard to do it and it would be nice for thread to have a little more details
Nice thread, though
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On December 11 2009 07:53 Bifur wrote: I want Zerg Lineage and Protoss Lineage
PLEASE
you could do it lol
maybe not good point
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On December 11 2009 08:30 StorrZerg wrote:Show nested quote +On December 11 2009 07:53 Bifur wrote: I want Zerg Lineage and Protoss Lineage
PLEASE you could do it lol maybe not good point looooool xD
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Zileas for popularising reaver drops. haha
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On December 11 2009 07:38 DreaM)XeRO wrote: Midas was a master of all three MU's in his prime with his "bunker rush if close 14 cc if far TvZ"
Wasn't that ooV's mind set?
On December 11 2009 07:38 DreaM)XeRO wrote:Always a contender and one of the few pro's to ever bother Savior to an extent
I am not sure about Midas, though only FBH was a countender to him...
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as stated before a bit brief, but a good read none the less. I did learn a few new things like maynarding, I never new that before.
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On December 12 2009 00:59 kawoq wrote:Show nested quote +On December 11 2009 07:38 DreaM)XeRO wrote: Midas was a master of all three MU's in his prime with his "bunker rush if close 14 cc if far TvZ" Wasn't that ooV's mind set? Show nested quote +On December 11 2009 07:38 DreaM)XeRO wrote:Always a contender and one of the few pro's to ever bother Savior to an extent I am not sure about Midas, though only FBH was a countender to him...
Midas and Iris both took it to savior in his prime...fbh was around to kick savior while he was going down for the most part.
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st. eagle invented walling? wow.
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I think some people are underestimating how insanely difficult it is to list all the players that helped shape the way we play a certain race, not to mention come up with an adequate description for each player. It's next to impossible to truly appreciate the innovations and mastery of the older generation of players if you missed their era.
I'm never going to try to do a project of this scale (I'd love to if I had the knowledge) but I have to say this is a pretty solid list of the notable terran players. There's some details that need fixing though. I'll add a short note for St. Eagle. I personally never watched him play, but he is pretty well known, and it's not that hard to get some basic information on him if you can read Korean.
St. Eagle: Many people credit this guy for making TvP on a high level playable. He is known for being the first person to successfully use the 1 factory expansion build on television. Known as the “father of mechanic play”, not because he was the first one to utilize factory units against protoss, but because he modernized the match up.
After learning how to defend with minimal troops with the art of walling-in from Ssamjang himself, St. Eagle abused vultures (with an efficiency never seen before) to keep the protoss at bay while massing tanks for that killer push. This may seem like common sense now, but back then, it was said to be revolutionary. Boxer himself mentioned that he was heavily influenced by St. Eagle’s VODs.
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Why is Iris there? He's not the only 'Agressive' Terran.
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CA10825 Posts
the reason why nada is on there is not just because he's the most successful player of all time, it's because his (at the time) unreal mechanics raised the bar significantly
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Iris on this list is just lol.....he only became know for putting up good fights against Savior. This was mostly due to them being on the same team. And if anyone knew what Savior was going to do it was Iris.
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Hong Kong20321 Posts
On December 15 2009 12:11 Fixed wrote: Iris on this list is just lol.....he only became know for putting up good fights against Savior. This was mostly due to them being on the same team. And if anyone knew what Savior was going to do it was Iris.
and he was totally pwnage in TvT for a while !
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you forgot sea{shield} 21000 points on iccup
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and firebathero known for his cermonies
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