BeSt[WHITE] BW reminiscence

2008 has been a trying year for the forces of Aiur. We have watched a new generation of vP monsters dethrone 2007's Protoss greats, Bisu and Stork, to claim the GOMTV MSL S4 and Bacchus OSL. Contending with the likes of Flash, Jaedong, Mind, and fOrGG requires a new level of Protoss play and, accordingly, a new class of Protoss players. STX SouL's Kal, Samsung KHAN's JangBi, KTF's LuCifer, and Hanbit's free have all made runs at claiming the title of "World's Best Protoss" in 2008 - however, none have approached the performance of SK Telecom T1's Do Jaewook (도재욱) a.k.a. BeSt.

BeSt has (seemingly) come out of nowhere to establish himself as Starcraft's most powerful Protoss user and vie with Flash and Jaedong for the number one spot on Power Ranks everywhere. By completing his 2-0 sweep of Much last night and advancing to meet Luxury in the OSL semifinals, he brought his 2008 record to a staggering 24-8 (75%, four percentage points higher than Flash) and improved to 7-0 in this EVER OSL.

Obviously, BeSt hasn't always been so good - though I contend he's always been better than the foreign community was willing to recognize. Even BeSt's recent dominance has been eclipsed by a similar performance from Flash, but now that he is two series away from his first OSL Championship it's finally time to acknowledge BeSt as the world's premier Protoss and the breakout player of 2008. In that spirit, here is the story of Do Jaewook's meteoric rise, from BeSt[HyO] to Super-Toss.






BeSt began his professional gaming career in early 2006, when he signed on with SK Telecom T1 as a practice partner. At that time BeSt was a member of clan [HyO], one of the most prominent and well-established Korean clans. A few of BeSt's clanmates have also gone on to become big names in Starcraft, most notably [Z] Stay (WeMade FOX), [Z] 815 (KTF), and [T] Hery (KTF). You may still see Jaewook referred to as BeSt[HyO], but he's no longer a member - [HyO] recently disbanded and BeSt joined clan [WHITE] along with fellow [HyO] member 815 (coincidentally, the other Protoss EVER 2008 OSL semifinalist, BackHo, is also a [WHITE] member). So, Jaewook's current alias is BeSt[WHITE] but, to get technical, his playername in televised games is usually SKTelecomT1_Best.

For BeSt's first months at T1, he was one of the youngest and weakest players in the team house - but he was still in the T1 house, and at that time there was absolutely no better place for an aspiring Starcraft player. T1 owned the Proleague in 2005 and 2006 behind a roster that would make a pretty good Brood War Hall of Fame: [T] BoxeR, [T] iloveoov, [Z] GoRush, [P] Kingdom, [T] Midas, and [P] IntoTheRainBOw all sported T1's teal and white when BeSt joined the team.


Amongst teammates who were not only the world's most talented gamers but also its Champions, BeSt developed not only his Starcraft skill but also a fierce desire to win. As Lim Yohwan (BoxeR) writes in his autobiography, "The dream to become the greatest in Korea, no, the greatest gamer in the world, was somewhat like a disciplinarian that trained me." After watching every single one of BeSt's games this year, "disciplined" is precisely the word I would use to describe his demeanor. As the latest in a long line of SK Telecom T1 giants, BeSt is heir to the the unparalleled motivation that propelled BoxeR to greatness.






BeSt's first professional tournament was the Korean qualifier for the World Cyber Games 2006, WCG Korea 2006. The tournament was made up of single-elimination best-of-three series and designed to narrow a field of 16 Korean gamers to three finalists who would represent South Korea at WCG 2006. Due to the popularity of eSports in Korea, its representatives are always favored to win WCG. Therefore, though it wasn't a big money tournament itself, the stakes at WCG Korea 2006 were high.

As an amateur gamer, BeSt had to play through a grueling tournament just to reach WCG Korea 2006's big stage. Four of WCG Korea 2006's 16 slots were filled with the previous year's winners and eight with the top professional gamers of the day - leaving just four slots for amateurs. To claim one of these four slots, BeSt had to battle through 63 other amateurs and semi-pros in a massive, single-elimination bracket composed of best-of-three series. In the Korean Starcraft scene, even a qualifier for a qualifier features world-class competition, and BeSt had to face some of the tournament's biggest names to advance to WCG Korea 2006.

BeSt took down Beggar]1st[ 2-0, [Z] Crazy-Hydra a.k.a. Pro_NT.Hydra (Hanbit) 2-1, and [T] coolsummer a.k.a. Orange[3.33] (CJ) 2-1 to reach the quarterfinals, where he would face none other than [T] JooHeung12 a.k.a. Lomo (Lecaf). The winner of the best-of-three series between BeSt and Lomo would advance to make a name for himself at WCG Korea 2006, and the loser would remain anonymous.

In his early days, BeSt was known for ridiculous, almost out-of-control macro play which made PvT his most notorious matchup. Even before his WCG Korea run, replays circulated which showed him destroying Terrans with an economy that could support enough gateways to stay at 200/200 even when sustaining massive losses. BeSt could afford to simply pump zealots and attack-move waves of them into the Terran defense until his opponent conceded. This was a brutal, unrefined, pure macro-style Protoss. This was Do Jaewook.


BeSt showed no mercy in his series against Lomo, winning 2-0 to claim one of the four remaining slots at WCG Korea 2006. The other amateur qualifiers were [Z] Dream.t)OriOn (CJ), [T] kizoo_academy, and BeSt's T1 teammate and Courage League rival [T] In_Dove (T1). BeSt[HyO] had earned his first professional gaming appearance - but what chance did this no-name, amateur Protoss really stand against the best progamers in all of Korea? With BeSt slated to face the reigning WCG Korea champion [P] fOru (ACE) in the first round of play, we would soon find out.

None of the other three amateurs who qualified alongside BeSt won a single game at WCG Korea 2006. I've just watched the replays, and take it from me: they didn't just lose, they were destroyed. Not even close. As for BeSt's series with fOru, it was a little more competitive. Well, actually it was quite a bit more competitive. BeSt won. Yes, BeSt went 2-1 to shake up WCG Korea 2006 and become "the guy who beat fOru".

After losing the match's first game, BeSt stayed focused and relied on his macro. In set two, he somehow managed a game-breaking contain bust despite allowing fOru to storm all four of his reavers, and in set three he simply out-gooned fOru in a well-executed timing attack.



And thus, BeSt eliminated the defending champion fOru and advanced to WCG Korea 2006's second round (where he lost 1-2 to his teammate and eventual second-place finisher Midas).

BeSt's victory over fOru caught the Starcraft community by surprise, to say the least ("O..M...F...G NO FORU NO!!!", "how the fuck did foru lose to an amateur Protoss?") but, in retrospect, watching BeSt pull WCG Korea 2006's biggest upset should not have been so shocking. PvP has always come naturally to Do Jaewook.

A 63-game BeST[HyO] replay pack released shortly after WGC Korea 2006 ("The man who killed fOru on the final stage of Korean qualifying, the new generation of SK T1 - BeSt[HyO]. This guy makes art! Recommended viewing for all.") prompted one interesting response: "PvP - he won almost everything." By continuing that habit even once he reached the game's highest level, BeSt has established himself not just as today's premier PvP player, but as the most talented PvP player in the history of professional Starcraft.

Over his entire two-year progaming career, BeSt is 21-5 in PvP. Such a run is literally unprecedented: no Protoss before BeSt has gone 21-5 against other Protosses at any point in his career - not even 2007's master of PvP Stork, whose best 26-game stretch is 18-8, Pusan, who in his prime fell one game short at 20-6, or Reach, who at his height also hit 20-6. For BeSt to accomplish this feat in the first 26 PvPs he has ever played is remarkable. That those games began when he was an amateur is nothing short of astonishing.

BeSt's 21 PvP wins include almost all of his notable Protoss contemporaries: JangBi (twice), Nal_rA, DaezanG (twice), Anytime, Much (thrice), Stork (twice), free, and most recently Kal have all fallen to Do Jaewook's unparalleled natural ability in this his strongest matchup. How is it possible to achieve an above 80% winrate in a matchup which is so dependent on blind build order choices? BeSt defies PvP's odds with flawless execution and an uncanny ability to win the matchup's crucial mind games.






After his WCG Korea 2006 run ended on August 5, BeSt slipped out of the spotlight as quickly as he had earned it. He continued to improve through training with his teammates at SK Telecom T1, but did not make any appearances in T1's 2006 Proleague lineups.

The 2006-07 offseason brought many changes at T1. BoxeR left the team to begin his military service and, for the first time in years, T1's top players began showing poor performances in the Starleagues. oov dropped out of the third Shinhan OSL in its round of eight, losing 0-2 to YellOw[arnc]. Kingdom failed to qualify for either individual league by losing four PvTs between the MSL Survivor and OnGameNet Dual Tournament, and RainBOw actually fared worse by not managing a single win in his two late-2006 Survivor and ODT appearances.

T1's collection of fading stars spelled doom for its 2007 Proleague season. The once-mighty SK Telecom T1 finished eighth in Round One and tenth in Round Two, with a pathetic combined record of 16-27. For BeSt, T1's fall from glory was bittersweet: he saw his teammates struggling to win, but also an opportunity to prove himself. With a full generation of T1 players making their not-so-grateful exits, there was plenty of room in T1's lineups for young, untested players like BeSt.

BeSt made his first-ever Proleague appearance for T1 on April 16, 2007 against Air Force ACE's veteran Zerg MuMyung.


As he recently admitted in an OSL interview, PvZ is widely regarded as BeSt's weakest matchup - though only because his PvP and PvT are exceptionally strong. It is true that BeSt is just 7-6 against Zergs in his career, but most of those losses came in 2007 when he was still a developing player, especially in PvZ. Since, BeSt is 4-2 against Zergs with his wins coming at the expense of Jaedong, sAviOr, OversKy, and Child. For evidence of BeSt's much-improved PvZ you need look no further than his game against Hanbit's Child, which can only be described as the sort of bloodbath that earns Starcraft:Brood War its "T for Teen" ESRB rating. BeSt has also promised to elevate his game for his upcoming series against Luxury:


BeSt no doubt remembers his first televised game against MuMyung last April. The wily old Zerg gave BeSt a cold welcome to the Proleague by edging him out on Nostalgia and claiming their set for ACE.

Despite his rocky start, BeSt would soon emerge as T1's most reliable Proleague player - and avenge his loss to MuMyung along the way. The two met again on June 3, less than two months after their first game. BeSt crushed MuMyung to improve his Proleague record to 2-2 and help T1 take the match 3-1 over ACE. BeSt has taken his revenge against MuMyung one step further: since his debut game, BeSt is 4-0 against Air Force ACE players.

BeSt finished Round One of the 2007 Shinhan Bank Proleague with a mediocre 3-4 record, but in Round Two he cruised to a team-best 10-5 record that included wins over Casy, Much, and Anytime (who went 18-6).


Nine of BeSt's 10 Round Two wins were against other Protosses, which left plenty of room to doubt his other matchups. However, BeSt would soon lay some of those doubts to rest in his first Starleague.






With the 2007 Proleague season coming to a close, BeSt set his sights on Starcraft's oldest and most prestigious tournament: the OnGameNet Starleague. He broke through the ODT with two hard-fought wins over Hwasin, the second of which came in the group's pivotal final set. This game is reminiscent of BeSt's second-set win over fOru at WCG Korea 2006 - with his tournament hopes on the line, BeSt yielded map control to his opponent and allowed him to set up a seemingly invulnerable contain. Just as suddenly as BeSt had overrun fOru's defenses, though, he broke Hwasin's tank line by recalling into the Terran main twice while simultaneously pouring speedlots out of more gateways than could fit on the observer's screen. In a matter of seconds, BeSt transformed from "holed up in his base" to "OSL qualifier".

The major storylines of the Bacchus OSL were Stork's long quest for a Starleague title, Jaedong's chances at back-to-back Championships, and which Terran would emerge to fill void left by BoxeR and iloveoov. Nobody paid much attention to BeSt, who was stuck in the tournament's group of death with defending champion Jaedong, former Bonjwa sAviOr, and l'enfant terrible Sea.

Once again the underdog, BeSt showed some extremely gritty play to qualify out of his group next to Jaedong. He got wins when he needed them most - against Jaedong on Demon's Forest to force a tiebreak, and against Sea on Troy to seal his position in the round of eight.


A handful of observatory hitpoints and one clever DT drop were the margin by which BeSt advanced from his OSL group to play the three most important games of his entire Starcraft career.

Those games were his Bacchus OSL quarterfinal series against Stork, and they were the first and only time that BeSt would lose two of three consecutive PvPs. At that time, Stork was a perennial favorite to win the OSL and widely recognized as the game's strongest PvP player. When Stork met BeSt in the OSL round of eight he was fresh off his aforementioned 18-8 PvP run and the only Protoss in the world who could challenge BeSt in a series.

After looking sloppy and outclassed in the first set, BeSt returned from the seven-day mid-series break to take its second game with relentless reaver micro. He looked poised to send Stork home, and only someone who had never watched a BeSt PvP could call such a result an upset. However, after pulling ahead early in the third set BeSt showed his inexperience by allowing Stork to claw his way back into the game - mis-microing some key battles that gave his opponent the opportunity to take advantage of Fantasy II's exposed 11 o'clock main. Eventually, Stork cracked BeSt's front door and forced the GG.


Though their series sent Stork on to the Bacchus OSL semifinals, it was far more important to BeSt's career. By most standards, a round of eight finish from a first-time Starleague qualifier is impressive - but BeSt yearned for more.






After his Bacchus OSL run came to a close on February 22, BeSt faced a two-month offseason to prepare for the EVER 2008 OSL and 2008 Shinhan Bank Proleague. This was all the time BeSt had to hone his skills for a season of professional gaming that would likely define his career. Would he perfect his PvP, refine his PvT, and rework his PvZ to improve upon his 2007 performance, or fade into obscurity by joining Starcraft's host of promising but ultimately unsuccessful young talents?

Driven by his loss to Stork, BeSt practiced diligently in the offseason under the guidance of new teammate Kim Taekyong (Bisu) and new Coach Park Yongwook (Kingdom). Though Bisu's performance at T1 this year has been disappointing, he will always be a two-time MSL Champion and one of the most feared PvZ players ever - a strength which he would help BeSt develop. As his roommate in the T1 house along with 2v2 player [P] Bul_T, Bisu fast became BeSt's friend and mentor.


The 2008 offseason also saw T1's long-time Protoss ace Kingdom retire from progaming to become an Assistant Coach for SK Telecom T1. Kingdom's decision to retire was due primarily to a chronic shoulder injury for which he received surgery on January 9th. He knew the recovery process would prevent him from playing Starcraft for months, and therefore made the difficult choice to end his career as a T1 player.

Kingdom, the Devil Toss, had been BeSt's role model and teacher since BeSt first joined the team in 2006, and he continued to fill those positions as Assistant Coach.


BeSt became known as the Devil's Apprentice for his relationship with Kingdom, and appropriately so: over the 2008 offseason Coach Kingdom helped BeSt perfect a diabolical brew of Starcraft power that would take the 2008 Proleague and EVER OSL by storm.

BeSt has emerged from the offseason to silence his doubters by going on a monstrous 16-3 tear. His run includes an 11-game winstreak and wins over Flash, Kal, Much, DaezanG, free, NaDa, UpMagiC, and Stork himself; at their rematch on Andromeda in the OSL's group stage, BeSt proxy gated and out-microed Stork to even their rivalry at two games apiece. The proxy gates were actually Kingdom's idea - a devilish build indeed.

BeSt's Proleague performance has also seen him prevail in some grudge matches. He combined aggressive fast arbiter play with his signature mind-blowing macro power to utterly demolish OGN's go.go (Kim Changhee) on May 12, and then capped off his win with a surprisingly out-of-character ceremony. After go.go yielded to BeSt's maxed, 15-gateway, seven-base Terran-metal-shredder, BeSt made some waves amongst Starcraft fans by strolling over to the OGN Terran's booth and giving him an emphatic thumbs down.


Animosity between BeSt and go.go dates back to before their progaming days, but go.go took the rivalry to a new level at their Proleague game last November by beginning construction of a command center in the Protoss natural just before BeSt typed out.


After the game, go.go insulted BeSt's Starcraft skill in an interview and thus set the stage for BeSt to wipe the floor with him in their rematch on May 12, a game that proved just how far BeSt's play had progressed since the 2007 Proleague. BeSt sent go.go a message during the game with two proxy nexuses, immediately after the game with his fiery celebration, and the following day with these comments in his post-match interview:


BeSt's win against go.go was his third of the 2008 Proleague season, and he has since tacked on six more to claim one of the league's strongest records at 9-3. He is also 2-0 in ace games for T1, and the main reason that figure isn't higher is that his coaches are urging him to focus on his preparations for the EVER 2008 OSL.

They must have a point, because as I write this article BeSt is through to the tournament's semifinal as its only undefeated player. Yes, BeSt is now 7-0 in the OSL and making Starcraft's most prestigious tournament look like child's play. He has continued his habit of excelling on new and unorthodox maps by putting together convincing come-from-behind wins on both Troy (against NaDa) and Hwarangdo (against Much). BeSt exploits his enemies' weaknesses without showing any of his own - even his 7-0 record doesn't capture the confidence and control with which BeSt has conquered his OSL opponents.


As BeSt calmly defended relentless pressure from Much's proxy gateway and proxy DT tech on his way to taking the first set of their quarterfinal match, I realized how far Do Jaewook has come since he appeared on the scene as BeSt[HyO] almost two years ago. Dating back to his progaming debut at WCG Korea 2006, Jaewook has never been "just another Protoss". However, with his recent play Do Jaewook has set himself a cut above his contemporaries to earn not only the name he chose for himself when he began playing Starcraft, but also the name his fans chose for him when he began dominating Starcraft: Super-Toss.

Any player with BeSt's audacity, skill, and drive seems fated to become a legend of the game, but the reason BeSt will actually meet this destiny is that he doesn't acknowledge it. Asked about his chance for an OSL Championship yesterday, BeSt responded with an answer that, coming from him, should make his semifinal opponent Luxury more than uneasy:








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