Jaedong - The Tyrant who hated to lose

In February of 2007 Jaedong was recognised with the Best New Player award at the second annual KeSPA (Korean e-Sports Association) awards. With opposing coaches now fully aware of his ZvZ excellence they would wisely choose to avoid pairing him with their Zergs, instead he would be thrown in with the league's Terrans. Jaedong responded by establishing ZvT as a monster match-up for him in his own right. Facing only two Zergs in the first round of the 2007 ProLeague Jaedong went 15:7, a 68.18% win-rate which established him as the rising star of the Korean scene.

With his career already marked with wins over all-time great names like iloveoov, NaDa, Reach and sAviOr, the young man from Kyungsang-Do was living up to the reputation of his people, who are considered to be more passion-fuelled than the denizens of Seoul, Korea's capital. His victories had earned him the nickname "The Legend Killer" and only his ZvP held him back from being an elite player across the board, though he still lacked any individual league success.

GOM had begun to introduce a new series of individual leagues, which would run alongside the traditional big two of the OSL and MSL. With three leagues running Jaedong found himself in quite the peculiar situation in February of 2008, scheduled to face Flash in all three individual league quarter-finals, over a span of less than two weeks. Thus began the LeeSsangRok which would become the defining rivalry of Jaedong's career.

Fantasy looked to be a man possessed with a desire to overcome the previous season's failure, taking the first two maps off the back of some at-the-time revolutionary mech play, builds co-authored by iloveoov's devious mind. Only once in the history of the OSL final had anyone come back from 0:2 down to win the title, GGPlay's legendary return against Iris. Jaedong was on the ropes but something inside him would not give up.

Fighting back, game by game, he tied the series up at 2:2 and sent it to a decider. This was the first fifth map decider of Jaedong's career, and he would mark it with a victory. The Batoo OSL title had seemed all but lost and now had remarkably swung back to the Zerg, giving him his second title. He had become the sixth player in OSL history to win multiple titles.

Flash had won the EVER OSL a week earlier, earning his second OSL title, and three of the four bonjwas (BoxeR, iloveoov and sAviOr) had predicted the KT Terran would take the MSL crown as well, completing his destiny. From October 1st 2009 to January 22nd 2010, the day before the MSL final, Flash had gone 26:4 in TvZ, a mind-boggling 86.67% win-rate. Of those four map losses three had been single map losses in series Flash had gone on to win.

Flash had not lost two maps in a series against a Zerg since September 14th 2009, 131 days prior. Flash's life-time TvZ record at that point stood at 104:44, a godly 70,27% win-rate. Even the map pool was said to favour Flash, with some calling it one of the worst for ZvT ever, especially with the inclusion of Odd-Eye. From Jaedong's side of things there was no bright spot from which to summon hope, he had only played seven official maps against Terrans since October 1st, going 4:3 for 57.14%.

For those who know the history of what followed it can be easy to forget just how fearsome Jaedong was up to this point in time. Jaedong was one of the most clutch players in BW history, if not the most clutch outright. Under the most pressure he seemed unwavering, finding the winning play even when it seemed not to exist. Prior to his Hana Daetoo Securities MSL final date with Flash Jaedong had only lost two Bo5s in his OSL and MSL playoff career. Counting Bo5s played in the playoffs of the OSL, MSL and GOM leagues he was 20:2 in series won, an otherworldly 90.90% win-rate.

Beyond just the numbers and trophies Jaedong was an incredible specimen aesthetically, constantly pressuring his opponent and looking for that opening from which to kill his opponent and end the game. Like a prowling wolf seeking out the scent of blood from wounded prey Jaedong's aggressive playing style, backed up by second-to-none mechanics, ensured he was not just a great player but a great winner. There were times in BW history when Jaedong could end games simply with his mutalisks around the nine minute mark, even against the likes of Flash.