When Flash first was recruited to kt rolster

On July 30 2019 07:32 ii.blitzkrieg wrote:
Lol thanks for the translation. It's crazy how in a lot of things the greatest are really insanely skilled from a young age.

I don't remember there being much hype behind Flash before he debuted on tv though? Maybe they kept this under wraps to not embarrass the team? What time period would this have been like late 2006 or early 2007? I remember he started out in tv matches something like 16-2 in proleague/starleague qualifiers only losing to bonjwa Savior and then a game to Boxer.

I can't remember the story behind Flash transfer from Pantech -> KTF but I don't remember it being a big deal. I guess Pantech didn't see his potential and let him go for cheap

On July 30 2019 07:54 jinjin5000 wrote:


I believe he was highly regarded even before whole kt and he was offered contract much better than regular recruit would get

On July 30 2019 12:04 Ideas wrote:
Damn were any other pros just instant fire like flash was? I guess oov right? JD/Stork/Bisu all took a while before they hit their strides IIRC. Not really sure about the earlier eras though.

On July 30 2019 12:30 Highgamer wrote:


Really makes you wonder how the hell Flash became that good before he joined KT, apart from genuine talent.
Of course thousands of hours of practice, his mechanics were praised to be insane from the beginning of his career. But how did he develop that understanding of the game that is just one level above everyone else? As a middle schooler or even earlier.
I think, in an interview he said that he was crazy about BW as a kid, thinking about it all day, in school, in the shower, before sleep or s.th. like that. Not just "thinking about", but pondering about every possibility, strategy, counter etc.
But I assume he must have also had just the right environement around him, online and irl (friends, PC-bangs), at the time or shortly after he stumbled across the game. Before joining a sponsored team [liquidpedia says "Drafted by Pantech and Curitel in 2007"] he was in By-clan, wasn't he, on Fish or where they played at the time? Thus his aka by.Flash. I think I read somewhere that that clan was know for collecting talent and breeding monstrous rookies at some point - but maybe that is mainly because it brought forth Flash (?).

On July 30 2019 07:32 ii.blitzkrieg wrote:
Lol thanks for the translation. It's crazy how in a lot of things the greatest are really insanely skilled from a young age.

I don't remember there being much hype behind Flash before he debuted on tv though? Maybe they kept this under wraps to not embarrass the team? What time period would this have been like late 2006 or early 2007? I remember he started out in tv matches something like 16-2 in proleague/starleague qualifiers only losing to bonjwa Savior and then a game to Boxer.

I can't remember the story behind Flash transfer from Pantech -> KTF but I don't remember it being a big deal. I guess Pantech didn't see his potential and let him go for cheap

On July 30 2019 13:02 jinjin5000 wrote:


I belive korean clans did a lot to help these aspiring progamers

For example, Lee young-ho(FlaSh) was originally in FlaSh clan and went with name www[FlaSh], but the clan leader disbanded and transferred FlaSh to by. clan (that focused more on transitioning gamers to pro-level) to try to help Lee to take the next step to being progamer as the clan leader felt Lee outgrew the clan.

FlaSh relunctantly went to by clan but instead took on the username of "FlaSh" to honor the old clan name that became defunct for him to become by.FlaSh, and rest is history

Idk the details since i only really began to play 1v1 bw after starcraft remastered and only watched little bit when younger

On July 30 2019 13:02 jinjin5000 wrote:


I belive korean clans did a lot to help these aspiring progamers

For example, Lee young-ho(FlaSh) was originally in FlaSh clan and went with name www[FlaSh], but the clan leader disbanded and transferred FlaSh to by. clan (that focused more on transitioning gamers to pro-level) to try to help Lee to take the next step to being progamer as the clan leader felt Lee outgrew the clan.

FlaSh relunctantly went to by clan but instead took on the username of "FlaSh" to honor the old clan name that became defunct for him to become by.FlaSh, and rest is history

Idk the details since i only really began to play 1v1 bw after starcraft remastered and only watched little bit when younger

On July 30 2019 13:02 jinjin5000 wrote:


I belive korean clans did a lot to help these aspiring progamers

For example, Lee young-ho(FlaSh) was originally in FlaSh clan and went with name www[FlaSh], but the clan leader disbanded and transferred FlaSh to by. clan (that focused more on transitioning gamers to pro-level) to try to help Lee to take the next step to being progamer as the clan leader felt Lee outgrew the clan.

FlaSh relunctantly went to by clan but instead took on the username of "FlaSh" to honor the old clan name that became defunct for him to become by.FlaSh, and rest is history

Idk the details since i only really began to play 1v1 bw after starcraft remastered and only watched little bit when younger

On July 30 2019 13:02 jinjin5000 wrote:


I belive korean clans did a lot to help these aspiring progamers

For example, Lee young-ho(FlaSh) was originally in FlaSh clan and went with name www[FlaSh], but the clan leader disbanded and transferred FlaSh to by. clan (that focused more on transitioning gamers to pro-level) to try to help Lee to take the next step to being progamer as the clan leader felt Lee outgrew the clan.

FlaSh relunctantly went to by clan but instead took on the username of "FlaSh" to honor the old clan name that became defunct for him to become by.FlaSh, and rest is history

Idk the details since i only really began to play 1v1 bw after starcraft remastered and only watched little bit when younger

On July 30 2019 16:20 Antisocialmunky wrote:
I remember at the height of Flash's dominance, some of the players in KT said they couldn't remember how to win after practicing with Flash. Kinda explained all the Flash reverse all kills during the 'Child Labor Terran' era.

On July 30 2019 13:50 GTR wrote:
For as good flash was rated at the time, iirc he didn't pass courage until his third or fourth time so yeah.

On August 01 2019 09:12 SlayerS_BunkiE wrote:
This is gold.
Flash is really like an anime/manga.
I remember old boy episode where they revealed Flash's practice nickname is Kira.
And those interviews where JD recounted how he first heard about Flash after a teammate lost to him in OSL prelims.. and then that time where Flash recalled a time when he was still an amateur and Bisu destroyed him in a practice session, so he had to start working harder..


Haha, I think that's Hoejja: "If you play 10 games in a day with Flash, you forget how to win a game. You forget how to win! He's that good."
And there's the classic from Violet: "After I practiced with Flash, I slumped for around a month."

On August 01 2019 14:11 Highgamer wrote:
I've been asking myself this: Do they literally say "god" in Korean for Flash? And if, is it the word for the monotheistic or polytheistic notion of god? or one where it's not really distinguishable?

On August 01 2019 13:50 Jealous wrote:

No one calls Flash a bonjwa. He is just God. The bonjwa line and discussion ended with Savior, or perhaps more accurately with the failure of Bisu to continue it, and the duality between Jaedong and Flash thereafter.

On August 01 2019 22:58 SlayerS_BunkiE wrote:

And also, despite how this paints him as a genius player, he went through a pretty tough two years after his first championship. He didnt become god/bonjwa overnight as some would believe. His story has more defeats and challenges than a lot of people actually remember.

On August 02 2019 02:37 Highgamer wrote:


Well, that's because these defeats drown in a sea of wins... Flash was just measured by another standard not long after the start of his career. First like "will this middle-schooler win again today?", then "Flash surely is the favored here", later like "wtf, someone beat Flash?". His losses just quickly became something noteworthy.

If by first championship you mean the 2008 Bacchus OSL in march 2008, the next two years are only "rough" by Flash standard.
From april 2008 to april 2009 he had this record: 111 wins - 53 losses (67.68%)

A "rough" year for Flash, an exceptional year for almost anyone else.

And for the rest of 2009, until shortly before his 2nd OSL in january 2010, he did this: 76 wins - 24 losses (76.00%)

(Source: TLPD)

On August 02 2019 06:44 GGzerG wrote:

Any chance you can find this VOD ?

On August 02 2019 05:40 SlayerS_BunkiE wrote:

You can choose to look at just stats, but the thing was, he had almost no real believers back then. There are always players who have high win rates but unable to win anything. The only thing Flash had going for him was that he already won once. But aside from that, a lot of people already saw him as a "flash in the pan" -- a player whose style has been figured out, won one title, and will now fade into mediocrity as far as individual leagues were concerned. And when you watch his uninspired losses in tournaments, it wasn't an unreasonable claim.

On August 02 2019 12:27 Highgamer wrote:


Thanks for the insights. I wouldn't say that there is only one correct judgement about his career, I think it's a matter of perspective. Admittedly, only the stats would be a little one-sided, but then they say "the record speaks for itself".
I didn't follow pro BW before 2011/12 (last proleague/starleagues-ish) so I cannot re-grasp how "the public" (surely manifold at any time) experienced Flash's performance over these months post his first OSL-win. Obviously watching sports feels differently if you wait for the games weak after weak, fill the time in between reading and talking about what will happen, hype up big games, then analyze what happened at length afterwards. That creates a reality of its own, but what people perceive at the time of events is pretty much bound to be a more close-up, rushed experience, oftentimes even warped by preferences and under-informed as far as the big picture is concerned.
I have re-watched all of Flash's games as VoDs, and it's amazing how a player of his age piled up wins and notoriety. If he didn't win all the big games, well he lost to some big names back then. Now, when re-watching those Vods, obviously I knew what would be coming from 2010 onwards, but in hind-sight you can esteem some things he did even better than at the time.

On August 02 2019 07:10 SlayerS_BunkiE wrote:

youtu.be
Casted by the legendary Klazart

On August 01 2019 13:28 SlayerS_BunkiE wrote:

I thought Flash had a deal with his mom that he would get a pro-license within 3 months (and win a SL a year after), otherwise he would quit. I seem to recall hearing Flash got a license within a month.. if true, I'm assuming that means he passed courage on his first try.

On August 03 2019 10:13 Jealous wrote:

It has been at least a decade since he has done it, from what I recall. Part of the reason is because, in my humble opinion, as you pointed out - he catered to the casual viewer decently well, but the issue was that his knowledge of the game was at a very low level so he often made mistakes and this attracted the ire of many veterans in the scene. This goes beyond whether people liked his voice or liked his "style" of commentary - he was just straight up wrong sometimes, and disseminating that kind of knowledge prolifically without recourse may have a net negative effect on the foreign BW audience.

If I recall correctly, the above was just one of the factors that contributed to his leaving. The other was the fact that he wanted to become a serious author, and when he published his works on an online writing space that was supposedly reviewed critically by publishers, his endeavors led to not only hilarity but also extremely limited success following his crowd-sourcing of interest. This is, again, just based on my vague recollections from ten years ago so hopefully someone else can either back me up or correct me. Either way, the result was that Klazart neither had the time nor interest to continue pursuing BW commentary, apparently.

On August 03 2019 10:29 Jealous wrote:

I feel you bruv, I definitely feel both cursed and blessed to have gone through the past ~15 years of BW's history. I don't want to sound preachy but at the end of the day, if you appreciate the beauty of the game and have fun with it, it shouldn't matter what you missed out on. I doubt very many chess or go players seriously lament the fact that they weren't alive, much less present, in the era of so-and-so grand master. The experience is what you make of it, and as the proverb goes, "The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second-best time is now." So, if you are following, enjoying, improving in, or just casually participating in the community of Brood War now, then I don't think you should feel bad about missing out. The VODs are largely still there because this was still the first premier eSport, the community of veterans is still here to talk about "back in my day before kids ran on my lawn spouting all this nonsense about FlaShes and Fantasies," so on and so forth.

In short, it's not a bad time to be in Brood War. I don't think there is ever such a time.

On August 01 2019 13:50 Jealous wrote:

No one calls Flash a bonjwa. He is just God. The bonjwa line and discussion ended with Savior, or perhaps more accurately with the failure of Bisu to continue it, and the duality between Jaedong and Flash thereafter.