• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 08:50
CEST 14:50
KST 21:50
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Serral wins HomeStory Cup 2914Serral wins Maestros of the Game 243ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play3Team Liquid Map Contest #22: Results and Winners7Code S Season 2 (2026): RO4 and Finals Preview12
Community News
IntoTheTV X SOOP SC2 League : Weekly & Monthly4Clem: "I don't have that much hope in Blizzard"2ZeroSpace Early Access is Now Live!28Weekly Cups (July 13-19): Terran & Protoss rise; Zerg falters2Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16)92
StarCraft 2
General
Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16) How would you feel about frequent/monthly balance patches for SC2? Reynor: GSL Loss Wasn't About Preparation Format What's the best tug of war? Clem: "I don't have that much hope in Blizzard"
Tourneys
PIG STY FESTIVAL 8.0! (13 - 23 August) RSL Revival: Season 6 - Qualifiers and Main Event IntoTheTV X SOOP SC2 League : Weekly & Monthly INu's Battles#18 - Cure, herO, Rogue & ByuN Master Swan Open (Global Bronze-Master 2)
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
[M] (2) Industrial Park New Map Maker - Looking for Advice - Love or Hate
External Content
Mutation # 535 Assembly of Vengeance The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 534 Burning Evacuation Mutation # 533 Die Together
Brood War
General
BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ BW General Discussion Recent recommended BW games screpdb: new Starcraft reporting tool ASL22 General Discussion
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues Star Con San Diego 2026 BSL LAN Party - Kraków 29-30 August - OPEN SIGNUPS Escore Tournament - Season 3
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers PvT advise for noobs Fighting Spirit mining rates Creating a full chart of Zerg builds
Other Games
General Games
ZeroSpace Early Access is Now Live! General RTS Discussion Thread Nintendo Switch Thread Path of Exile Diablo IV
Dota 2
Looking for a Dota Mentor Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
TSM pausing esports and CLG Dead
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Power Rank TL Mafia Community Thread NeO.D_StephenKing vs This Guy From 1 Million Dance
Community
General
European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Artificial Intelligence Thread US Politics Mega-thread How to buy a book - shipping from Korea to Europe
Fan Clubs
The IdrA Fan Club The HerO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! Anime Discussion Thread Series you have seen recently... [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread 2026-27 Football Thread placeholder TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Formula 1 Discussion MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread Simple Questions Simple Answers FPS when play League Of Legend on laptop
TL Community
Northern Ireland Global Starcraft The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Games, Hormones, and "Dark" …
TrAiDoS
Hello guys!
LIN1s
ASL S22 English Commentary…
namkraft
Poker (part 2)
Nebuchad
An Exploration of th…
waywardstrategy
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 4633 users

Can we call Jaedong the 5th Bonjwa?

Forum Index > Closed
Post a Reply
1 2 3 Next All
samsammy
Profile Joined December 2005
United States76 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-04-21 02:49:03
April 21 2009 02:42 GMT
#1
http://www.ygosu.com/?m=starlife&m2=manual&idx=1913 Original Korean user article
Writer Topgun

Bonjwa - Originally a term used in martial arts novels to indicate a unbeatable martial artist, the SC community uses it to describe a SC player who was unbeatable at his prime.

1st Bonjwa - Boxer
2nd - Nada
3rd - iloveoov
4th - SaviOr
5th - ???

Can we call Jaedong the 5th Bonjwa?
- By Topgun (Translated by samsammy)
[image loading]


Although the 5th Bonjwa theory went down with Bisu's recent losses, after Jaedong's win the SC community has started once again talking about who the 5th Bonjwa is.
If you look at Jaedong's current career

2007.01.07 Sky Proleague 2006 2nd half MVP
2007.08.12 Seoul eSports Festival Champion (vs Jangbi)
2007.12.22 Ever OSL 2007 Champion (vs Stork)
2008.03.08 GomTV MSL Season 4 Champion (vs Kal)
2008.03.19 Kespa 2007 Year's best player, Zerg best player, Highest win rate
2008.07.26 Arena MSL 2nd place (vs ForGG)
2008.08.10 TGSambo-Intel Classic Season 1 Champion (vs Flash)
2009.04.04 Batoo OSL Champion (vs Fantasy)

- Both leagues added up 3 champion titles, 1 2nd place title

Jaedong has currently conquered both leagues, and recently in the Batoo Finals he accomplished a reverse sweep against Fantasy, and won two OSL's, which only a few players in SC history were able to accomplish (Garimto, Boxer, Nada, July, Jaedong).
He is also showed immense "force" in the winners league playoff, Finals by making 4 kills and 3 kills.

Due to this the SC community is now saying things like
"Lim Lee Choi Ma Dong!' [Each word represents the players last name, or nickname, or part of the first name of the 4 bonjwa's, there really is no pattern to it actually - in this case Dong is from Lee Jae "Dong", indicating he is the 5th Bonjwa]

Now can we say with JD's career and stats, that he is a 'Bonjwa'?
[image loading]


Using Savior, "the 4th Bonjwa"'s case, i will explain and give the ultimate reason why JD can not 'yet' become the 5th Bonjwa.
[image loading]


The picture above, or what we Koreans call "Jjalbang" describes the "holy war" which occurred between Savior and Nal_Ra. To be truthful, although it was called the "holy war", the score was one-sided, almost to the point of pure massacre. But why was it that this kind of rivalry formed between Savior and Nal_Ra?

This is because at the time, besides Nal_Ra, there weren't any pro-gamers who actually challenged Savior. People who watched SC at the time probably know, at the time great terran players like iloveoov, Nada, midas, Xellos and also all the protoss players like Reach, Kingdom, Pusan and Nal_Ra all fell down in front of Savior.

Even what was known to be Savior's weakest match up ZvsZ was proven wrong when Savior beat s.s.mSilver, the "gambler".
All in all, it can be said at the time, there was simply NO pro gamer out there who was able to beat Savior.

In Nal_Ra's case, although he had a history of taking championship from both leagues and had a very high win rate, at the time there were pro-gamers out there who seemed like they could win Nal_Ra anytime, and there were pro-gamers who had leading scores against Nal_Ra. This would be the reason why Nal_Ra was unable to enter the Bonjwa line. Same goes for Bisu and July.


[image loading]

[image loading]

[image loading]


Then what does Jaedong, currently the player most closest to the title of the "Bonjwa" need the most? Is it a better record? A win ratio above 70percent? This is probably not so. Like the pictures I posted above, there ares still pro-gamers out there who people consider can beat JD (Flash, Bisu, SkyHigh, free, etc). In other words, JD is not "unbeatable." It is too quick yet, therefore, to say JD is the 5th Bonjwa.

[image loading]


But I am not saying JD does not have the possibility of becoming the 5th Bonjwa.
Depending on how he does now, he can beat the pro-gamers above and grab the "Bonjwa" title as his. Like how Savior did in the 2006 Shin-Han Starleague Season 3, vs Nada.

Everything, depends on Jaedong's hands
More anger plz-
MoRe_mInErAls
Profile Blog Joined November 2007
Canada1210 Posts
April 21 2009 02:43 GMT
#2
Yes. Yes we can. There is no debate.
Jyvblamo
Profile Blog Joined June 2006
Canada13788 Posts
April 21 2009 02:45 GMT
#3
No. No we can't. There is debate.
funkie
Profile Blog Joined November 2005
Venezuela9377 Posts
April 21 2009 02:47 GMT
#4
no after CJ vs Hwaseung.
CJ Entusman #6! · Strength is the basis of athletic ability. -Rippetoe /* http://j.mp/TL-App <- TL iPhone App 2.0! */
n.DieJokes
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
United States3443 Posts
April 21 2009 02:47 GMT
#5
On April 21 2009 11:43 MoRe_mInErAls wrote:
Yes. Yes we can. There is no debate.

Seconded
MyLove + Your Love= Supa Love
erin[go]bragh
Profile Joined December 2008
United States815 Posts
April 21 2009 02:48 GMT
#6
I think it's possible. He isn't right now, he wasn't before, he probably won't be for a while.


He's got the potential. He has the mechanics but he's missing something. That little bit of Star power than makes him more than just a mechanically sound Zerg.

I don't want to insinuate he's somehow a stupid player but he's missing that meta game sense Savior had. Right now I see him as more of a terribly efficient robot. If someone could somehow clone JulyZerg and Jaedong together into one Zerg, then you'd have quite a bonwja!

Interesting read though, thanks for translating! It's nice to see what the Koreans think.
JulyZerg! by.hero, effOrt, KTY.
Rostam
Profile Blog Joined December 2008
United States2552 Posts
April 21 2009 02:48 GMT
#7
It amazes me how quickly the conversation swung from "Is Bisu Bonjwa?" to "Is Jaedong bonjwa?". Isn't a bonjwa supposed to dominate for an extended period of time? A month before the OSL finals, would any sane person have claimed Jaedong was dominating the scene?
BW forever || Thall
pubbanana
Profile Blog Joined June 2005
United States3063 Posts
April 21 2009 02:50 GMT
#8
NO!!!!!
Wachet, stehet im Glauben, seid männlich und seid stark.
iLoveKT
Profile Blog Joined October 2008
Philippines3615 Posts
April 21 2009 02:51 GMT
#9
NO!!!!
Woo Jung Ho
NovaTheFeared
Profile Blog Joined October 2004
United States7232 Posts
April 21 2009 02:53 GMT
#10
I agree with the conclusions. Too early and too many players crowding the top. Jaedong will need more time as the undisputed #1 to claim the bonjwa title.
日本語が分かりますか
aznanimedude
Profile Joined April 2009
United States199 Posts
April 21 2009 02:55 GMT
#11
jaedong has certainly proven he is capable of owning and manhandling even the best players.
and his matchups are unquestionably among the best in the Zerg line much less progamers overall.
-the hands down BEST mirror matchup player out there
- the top 4 in the ELO of every matchup (vP, vZ, vT)
- 13 straight wins until the debacle that was a 5 pool on a heavily terran favored map
but his inconsistency is worth noting too
when he is in his game, i believe he is indeed a force to be reckoned with
but he's also known to just have WTF JAEDONG moments, and other moments that just leave you wondering.

so imo it's still up to debate
which is exactly why he is not considered bonjwa, because there must be no doubt for him to be classified as such, it has to be sound, unanimous, and obvious
HOI POLLOI
3 Lions
Profile Blog Joined October 2007
United States3705 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-04-21 03:01:53
April 21 2009 02:55 GMT
#12
Isn't a literal bonjwa one who dominates and wins 2 MSL's and an OSL? So only Nada, Oov, and Savior fit the criteria?

edit: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=61602
Carnivorous Sheep
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
Baa?21245 Posts
April 21 2009 02:58 GMT
#13
The article makes such a retarded argument. Just because people can "beat" Jaedong so he can't be considered bonjwa? I love how he conveniently overlooks stuff like Chojja beating Savior in a MSL in the midst of his "bonjwa domination." He's trying to make it sound like JD needs 100% winrate against everyone or something. Stupid argument imo.
TranslatorBaa!
MoRe_mInErAls
Profile Blog Joined November 2007
Canada1210 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-04-21 02:59:47
April 21 2009 02:59 GMT
#14
The only literal bonjwa is (Z)sAviOr. The title was given to other players because some fans just had to capitalize on the 3 MSL 1 OSL correlation, oh and (T)BoxeR too because he was special.

(Z)sAviOr is the true bonjwa. He gave the term its meaning.
Icysoul
Profile Joined December 2007
Canada254 Posts
April 21 2009 03:01 GMT
#15
3 msl and an osl. I don't want jaedong to be a bonjwa, bonjwa after a period of time falls from grace, i don't want to see jaedong to ever do that.
p4NDemik
Profile Blog Joined January 2008
United States13896 Posts
April 21 2009 03:03 GMT
#16
If anyone out there is going to fit the bill soon, it's going to be JD, not Bisu/Flash etc. imo.

Currently though, he needs to go 2 more seasons in a row of being the reigning champ in either the OSL/MSL for me to consider him being bonjwa. No doubt the odds are stacked against this happening.
Moderator
sagrado_corazon
Profile Joined March 2008
United States100 Posts
April 21 2009 03:04 GMT
#17
As much as i like (Z)Jaedong I must say no this time.
integral
Profile Blog Joined February 2009
United States3161 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-04-21 03:06:00
April 21 2009 03:05 GMT
#18
there are some ridiculous posts in this thread, there is obviously debate
3 Lions
Profile Blog Joined October 2007
United States3705 Posts
April 21 2009 03:06 GMT
#19
In my opinion, the progaming scene is completely different now compared to the time of the previous Bonjwas. The skill level of all players is so great that it is impossible for anybody, even Jaedong, to dominate on the level that Savior, Nada, and Oov did.

Back in times of Shinhan 3, Savior was favored against everyone he came up against. It really felt like nobody was at the same level as he was. However, nowadays there are some strong players who could take down Jaedong in a Bo5 imo (Flash, Bisu). Jaedong obviously is the best zerg, but he is not dominating enough to be called a Bonjwa imo.
Nightmarjoo
Profile Blog Joined October 2006
United States3360 Posts
April 21 2009 03:07 GMT
#20
Imo except for zvz, Jaedong is too inconsistent. When he wants to, he goes and completely dominates his opponents. But then there are still days where he decides he doesn't care, and loses games through carelessless, or somehow just gets raped. I don't think a bonjwa can have bad days like that. Jaedong's losses can't really imo be called flukes, they're quite legitimate. So aside from zvz he's not unbeatable, atm.

He's a zvz bonjwa though :O
aka Lyra; My favourites: July, Stork, Draco, MistrZZZ, TheStc, LastShadow - www.broodwarmaps.net - for all your mapping needs; check my stream: high masters mech terran: twitch.tv/lyrathegreat
1 2 3 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
OSC
12:00
King of the Hill #256
WardiTV538
EmpressLilyy42
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
IndyStarCraft 306
Rex 121
StarCraft: Brood War
Rain 3898
Shuttle 1914
EffOrt 816
Mini 606
Soma 419
BeSt 402
Light 283
Stork 210
Larva 199
Last 174
[ Show more ]
JYJ 147
actioN 139
hero 138
Free 70
ZerO 70
Dewaltoss 60
ToSsGirL 49
Sharp 49
Sexy 33
sSak 31
soO 23
Sacsri 22
Barracks 21
910 19
HiyA 15
Rock 11
yabsab 11
zelot 10
Shine 10
Icarus 8
firebathero 0
Dota 2
Gorgc3692
Dendi1088
syndereN197
Fuzer 158
Counter-Strike
fl0m2354
FalleN 1345
byalli862
x6flipin544
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King133
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor319
Other Games
singsing1777
B2W.Neo1223
DeMusliM273
ToD127
XcaliburYe62
Organizations
StarCraft: Brood War
lovetv 14
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 13 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• StrangeGG 58
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• WagamamaTV578
League of Legends
• Jankos1444
Upcoming Events
Online Event
2h 10m
WardiTV Weekly
22h 10m
Sparkling Tuna Cup
1d 21h
INu's Battles
1d 22h
Cure vs herO
ByuN vs Rogue
PiGosaur Cup
2 days
The PondCast
2 days
Kung Fu Cup
2 days
Patches Events
3 days
Replay Cast
3 days
CrankTV Team League
3 days
[ Show More ]
Replay Cast
4 days
CrankTV Team League
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Afreeca Starleague
5 days
RSL Revival
5 days
ByuN vs SHIN
Solar vs Lambo
WardiTV Summer Champion…
5 days
Afreeca Starleague
6 days
RSL Revival
6 days
Clem vs Serral
herO vs Rogue
WardiTV Summer Champion…
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

ASL S22 SEASON OPEN Day 2
HSC XXIX
Eternal Conflict S2 E3

Ongoing

CSL 2026 Summer (S21)
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3
RSL Revival: Season 6
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
SCTL 2026 Spring
Eternal Conflict S2 Finale
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S3: W5
ASL Season 22: Qualifier #1
ASL Season 22: Qualifier #2
Acropolis #5
CSLAN 4
ASL Season 22
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
HSC XXX
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
PiG Sty Festival 8.0
Light Tournament 2026
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
Logitech G Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #5
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.