Jaedong should be one of the bonjwas - Page 3

Anyhow I think the article misses out on something that defined the term bonjwa. Let's exclude Flash from this and I'll address that later.

The separating factor between Boxer/Nada/Oov/Savior and other dominant players such as July and Jaedong is that they dominated through innovation. No other players have changed the game in a more fundamental way than those four, the domination was what came about because of their innovation. They not only dominated the game, but did so in a way that completely mystified fans and other players alike -- it wasn't an issue of how good, or successful they were, as these things were just side effects of their gamechanging ways.

For instance, Savior was a bonjwa even when he only had 2 MSL titles, and even after he lost to Chojja in the MSL while dropping in qualifiers of the OSL. Oov was the most dominant player on the scene through his gamechanging macro plays despite not qualifying for an OSL (though the term was not created at this time, he still had this level of domination and mystique). This entire article does nothing but cite titles and how deep Jaedong has made runs into starleagues over a very long period of time. Jaedong might be the most impressively consistent player since Nada, but Nada was not given the moniker of Bonjwa because he could come back five years after his time of dominance and still win an OSL, it was what he did in a brief period years before in how he changed the game and dominated through it.

This is why I believe Flash being a bonjwa is an aberration. Flash has not fundamentally changed the game in even close to the same way Boxer, Nada, Oov and Savior have -- I'd argue he hasn't changed the face of the game as much as even Jaedong. Flash's discrepancy is that he did achieve a level of dominant mystique similar to the bonjwas, but did it by creating so many different builds and tactics that, while not fundamentally changing the game, he rocked the foundation of the scene for a straight year in a way that not even previous bonjwas have. Flash became a bonjwa through sheer dominance at a level that Jaedong can't match, and did so at Jaedong's expense (Jaedong has been startingly consistent, but at no point in his career was he even close to what Flash did in 2010).

This is not a slight to Jaedong, as Flash clearly isn't the same level of dominant he was in 2010 and I think it is completely unreasonable to expect that out of anyone. Becoming a bonjwa through sheer domination as this article implies is almost impossible and Jaedong has not done that. He has not reached a level of domination through innovation that every non-Flash bonjwa has. He comes up short in the particular reasons that the other Bonjwas are considered, and frankly it's not that fair because I don't think any player has worked as hard for his success as Jaedong.

Flash is a completely different bonjwa from the previous ones, and Jaedong has not lived up to that level of dominance (It took flash beating Jaedong in both finals to do it, what has Jaedong done similarly?), and unless Jaedong finds something out that rocks the foundation of broodwar from a sheer fundamental standpoint and uses that to dominate, he's not going to have the same mystique that the others had and receive their monikers through.