No one can choose where they are born. If you’re lucky you can choose where you die. But for most of us life is like being cast adrift in the ocean. We wander in the vast wild as forces beyond our control attempt to consume us, push us, prod us, kill us. All the while we try to stay adrift, try not to drown in the mess of the world. And some of us are able to swim, to dive towards the thing we have been searching for all this time. Something. Anything to hold on to, to strive for, to fight for, to dream for.
And in the microcosm of SC2, the struggle is no different. Players are constantly in search of what they want and desire the most. INnoVation left one of the best foreign teams in the world because he realized that to be the best in the world, he needed to go back to KeSPA. Others like Soulkey and Rain left KeSPA for smaller salaries and the chance to travel and see the world beyond Proleague. Players like Choya and Golden have retired and come back because the urge to play, to be part of SC2 in any way, shape or form was too strong.
"It's not hell but, nor is it really much of a practice - it feels like working out in the park." - Taeja on his practice regime Even among the diverse and massive player list of SC2 players, TaeJa stands alone. Not because of any inherent struggles, but because of the ease with which he has dealt with them. Team switches, patches, wrist problems, ambitions, overall life goals, Taeja has dealt with them all as others might deal with a passing cough. There are no questions for Taeja, because he already has the answers.
Yet many find that boring. Hard to identify with. Hard to grasp. And who can blame them? Taeja is as hard to understand in-game as he is out of game. There is no one game, no one moment that can tell you who Taeja is at his core. To understand who he is and how he plays, you need to see them all to understand why his terran play is on a different level, a different plane compared to any other player in the world.
When SlayerS released Taeja in 2012, only two groups of people realized how huge the news was: the ESV TV team and Team Liquid. When Liquid rushed to sign Taeja, they expected mass opposition from every team in the world. Instead they found no one. Not even the SlayerS team realized what kind of player Taeja actually was. To understand him, you'd have to see not just one game, not just one series, but a mass of games only found in online cups. Liquid was always watching, and in the greatest signing in all of SC2, they took on Taeja. In his announcement Nazgul wrote,
"With each and every game, a sense of disbelief gradually grew until it became downright shocking: How was someone with such a great natural feel for the game and the amazing mechanics to back it up, now a free agent?"
And a majority of those games came from the ESV Weekly, a small online tournament made specifically for Korean players to practice their game in online tournaments that pitted them against increasingly difficult opponents. It was in that series of online tournaments that Taeja honed to perfection the tools would one day make him one of the greatest terrans in the world. At the time I thought what made Taeja great was his mechanics, his multi-task, his micro.
I was wrong. At the only LAN finals I attended, I was witness to the first Summer of Taeja. The drive was long, the cast lasted about ten hours—with five hours of downtime—, my voice was hoarse from yelling Inca at every DT made, and I ended up getting sick. None of that mattered. I saw Taeja play live at IPL TAC 3 finals. I watched as he knocked down the best players in the world. Players like YoDa, Nestea, Seed, Yonghwa, Losira. I was awestruck. Yes he had great mechanics, great macro, great micro. But what stuck with me most was his consistent decision making. At any given time, against any given opponent, in any given situation Taeja assesses the situation perfectly and makes the move that will make the game his.
When Taeja plays, he is as water. He has no form. He can be utterly still in one moment, and a havoc of movement the next. He flows with ease throughout the game, absorbing blow after blow before crashing into his opponent in an overwhelming wave. What makes Taeja special isn’t his mechanics, or his micro, or his macro. It’s not the fact that he is one of only 3 terran players who feel comfortable playing TvP late game without resorting to SCV pulls. It’s not the fact that he was the only terran player to win during the blink era of protoss this year, or that David Kim mistook him for an entire race. It is that he’s been at or near the top of the terran race for 3 years and no other terran has ever imitated his style.
When a player reaches the top of their race, they not only become the target, but also the inspiration of their race. Their builds, responses, compositions get analyzed, dissected, copied and eventually imitated by the multitude of players across the world. It has happened to Nestea, MC, Mvp, Rain, INnoVation and most recently Zest. Yet no other Terran plays like Taeja. They can’t. It is more than a style or a build or a composition: it is a way of thinking. A mode where Taeja’s experience combines with his understanding and his instinct; a place of transcendence that lets him make the best decision almost every time.
It is that state of mind that has allowed Taeja to become the most successful SC2 foreign tournament player of all time. He doesn’t counter the opponent. Taeja lets the opponent play their own style in the best way possible and he out does them with that one extra step. Take for example his clash with INnoVation last year. The two players met for a long 50 minute tactical slugfest on Newkirk where action and fighting sprawled all across the map from the 12 minute mark to the end of the game. It strained both players to their very limits as they had to take into consideration: reinforcement routes, harassment, counter-harassment, army positioning, economical standing, expansion, resources left on the map, macro, micro. But it was Taeja who went that one step further and closed out the game with a 50th minute banshee. That one banshee would be the the pebble that caused the avalanche and eventually close out the game in Taeja’s favor.
And later on he played Rain and in their most famous match ever. Rain was a player famed for three things: His patience, his reactive defensive play and his map vision. Taeja took it all from him. In that game Taeja killed all 28 observers.
He made Rain blind. After taking his sight, he chipped away at his defensive play. Made Rain scared, frustrated and annoyed. Rain had played his entire career as if he was a wall. A shield. But Taeja found the cracks and he chiseled away at it while building his own iron wall where Rain had no chance to harass, no chance to storm, and no chance to fight. He took Rain's own style and used it against Rain. It is telling that the game ended with Rain being forced to take an uncharacteristically terrible fight against the one player in the world who had proved to be even more patient than he was.
Even more recently Taeja played Zest in an insane base trade on FoxTrot Labs. Zest a GSL Champion and a player known for his clutch decision making and control was completely outdone. Zest had Taeja nearly dead. With a perfectly executed immortal bust, the game should have been over. But Taeja did what no other Terran would do. In a split second, he assessed that his base was forfeit and instead of hopelessly defending, he loaded up in his medivacs and went for the base trade. He had changed the entire dynamic of the matchup. It was no longer a game of numbers, a game where the better army won, but one of strategical decision making. Even with the base trade, everything should have gone in Zest’s favor. He had a better army, more bank and more probes. But in that frantic scramble situation, against a player that had superior numbers in everything, against a player that had won 1 GSL, 1 KeSPA Cup and 1 Global Championship, Taeja proved he was strategically superior. Taeja moved his bases to the polar opposites of the map, making sure neither could be taken out instantly. Zest in his haste and impatience made the wrong move and expanded to the low ground natural. Only a mistake against a player of Taeja's caliber who instantly saw the weakness and exploited it over and over and over. Where Zest fell apart, Taeja kept making smart move after smart move until he left the GSL Champion bleeding on the floor.
That is the kind of player Taeja is. In a game as complex as SC2, thousands of decisions are made per game. It is impossible to make those split second decisions every time which is why players practice anywhere between 8-12 hours a day. And it is in practice where we learn what is optimal, what to do in any instant so that our play is as sharp as possible and we can focus mentally on other aspects of the game. Now imagine how many decisions have to be made per series. How many deviations you have to make per decision based on the player. How many series you play per tournament. How many times you have to come up with off the wall instant reactions to situations you have never seen before despite having played hundreds or thousands of hours previous.
It is in this arena, this chaos that Taeja thrives. Because at each juncture, at each moment, Taeja continues to make the right decisions and the right moves every time. It is that consistency, that intelligence that has made Taeja one of the greatest to have ever played. It is why when terrans are given a choice between playing like Taeja or playing like INnoVation, they all flock to INnoVation. INnoVation simplifies the equation. Here is the build order. You start attacking at this moment and never stop attacking. At this moment you pull the SCVs and you either win or lose. In order to play like Taeja, you have to to think constantly, unendingly, where do I scan, what do I scan, what do I build, when do I build it, how do I react to this composition, how do I defend, where do I move my units. Even one mistake, one bad decision will cost you the game.
Yet Taeja does this every time he plays in the booth, in every game, in every series. Against INnoVation, the greatest mechanical terran of that time, he turned the game into a massive complex game of economic and tactical chess and came out on top. Against Rain, a player known as a fortress of defense, he created an iron curtain that allowed Rain no chance to react, to counter Taeja's moves. Against Zest he turned small mistakes into landslide victories. Now imagine doing this against not just three of the best players in the world, but nearly all of them over almost 3 years with constantly shifting metas, maps, players, and styles. And that is what puts Taeja on a plane on his own. Taeja sees exactly one move ahead of nearly every game he's played. The right move. When you take all of that into account, you start to understand the enormity of Taeja's understanding, consistency, and strategic vision.
There is a common criticism of Taeja that he should never be counted among the greats because he has never won a GSL, a WCS. But no one has ever flipped the question. Can any GSL or WCS Champion ever do what Taeja has done? In 2.5 years he has won 11 Premier Tournaments (some as hard as any GSL), he has gotten 2 silvers, he has gotten multiple semi-finals and quarter final finishes. He has done this during a time when BL/infestor ruled the world, and during the protoss blink era. Taeja might not have won a GSL or WCS, but no GSL or WCS Champion has ever done what Taeja has done either.
And for Taeja this year is the end. A final farewell to the summer of his youth as he plans to retire and go finish his military service. No man chooses where they are born, but Taeja has chosen this year to be his end. To finish his SC2 career now and to end it on his own terms. Whether Taejas wins Blizzcon or bombs out, he leaves the scene as the greatest foreign LAN player SC2 has ever witnessed. And once he’s finally retired I predict two things:
1) No other player will ever win 11 Premier tournaments in 2.5 years. (At this point I’m not sure if any player can even just win 11 total)
2) We will never see a defensive macro terran who wins games off of his consistent superior strategic decision making like Taeja ever again.
Taeja entered this scene as a promising young talent, a member of the first class of players to ever play in the GSL Open Season 1. He leaves it on the grandest stage possible. Having played for nearly 4 years Taeja has accomplished more than many thought possible when he started. 11 Premiers, deep runs in GSL and WCS, a great team league player, one of two players to have had a perfect run in a tournament and one of the few to have stayed on top of the scene for 3 entire years. When we look back on Taeja’s career, we will wonder to ourselves, “The hell kind of player was this?”
Ahhhhh Stuchiu, you were there with me then at IPL TAC 3.
That tournament was run like shit (10 hours for 10 matches, and 5 hours of downtime in between those), but I remember still very clearly the sentence that summed up that tournament :
I expect the impossible from TaeJa when terran is at its weakest, when terran victory looks impossible. So I would say that his victory in a world where terran is not downtrodden is impossible... which is why he will win.
This has to be my favorite write-up yet. Others have been dramatic and personal, they've established storylines and stakes, they've talked about players' careers, mentalities, and playstyles... but none have so passionately delved into what makes that player unique. Probably because no one is as unique as Taeja. And I'm not some fanboy of his, I'm not even sure he would crack my top 5 of favorite Terrans... because I don't understand him. I never have. His play feels different from everyone else's, but I can't understand how. It's not a tangible thing. He builds the same units.
I doubt Taeja himself understands. Roger Federer once said that he doesn't think he's a genius, because his reflexes on the tennis court are purely physical. There's no room for conscious thought. I can't help but be reminded of that now.
My favourite write-up yet, and they've all been wonderful. That Rain game was incredible. It's a shame that two amazing players like taeja and soO have to meet in the Ro16.
On October 29 2014 14:27 vult wrote: I really hope that Taeja can do well here.
Is it definitely confirmed that this is his last WCS tournament and that he is retiring at the end of the year? Though it is completely understandable, I halfway hope that he continues playing.
The only person that can really confirm it is himself...
I've said it repeatedly, gsl deserves more weight but foreign tournaments are still their own type of accomplishment. Personally, with everything Taeja's done in his career I'd put him above every gsl champ except Mvp with regards to the current all-time greats. He's pretty much been a mid to godly-tier Terran his entire sc2 career. If he wins Blizzcon, DH, and HSC there might even be an argument for putting him over Mvp.
I don't know if I'd agree on prediction #1 though. Provided Taeja doesn't win anymore this year, Life might catch or exceed him in premieres within 2.5 years. He's still got about 6 months and is 7/11 of the way there. It'd be fitting that it's Life, he's very similar to Taeja in background and in his amazing reactionary play.
He will forever be my favorite player of all time. I've never been more awestruck, entertained, and excited watching anyone else play before. Go out with a bang, you monster.
Ill never forget watching one of his first games with Liquid in IPL TAC 3 against IM. They were done 3-0 with Hero already dead and thinking well lets see what this Taeja guy can do. Ever since then he has always seemed different to everyone else. He has been my favorite player ever since then and it honestly won't be the same once he is gone. Heres to hoping he can pull out the big one before he leaves
TAEJAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I BELIEVE! Captain of my fantasy team!
This write up is definitely the best so far - for me at least. And I really have to agree. Even if Taeja's never won a GSL, there's definitely something to be said about his consistency which dated back to WoL. Players fall into low to mid tier category regardless of high their peak is, but Taeja's always been at the mid to top tier even with traveling around the world so often for tournaments. Kespa players all have their peaks in certain metas, but they're sitting in their team house practicing all day. Taeja hasn't had the luxury to practice until he finds his groove in a certain meta.
He said that Blizzcon would be his last tournament, but he's confirmed for Homestory Cup. Anyone know if he'll make the trip to Dreamhack as well or will he cancel?
On October 29 2014 15:44 Kitai wrote: He will forever be my favorite player of all time. I've never been more awestruck, entertained, and excited watching anyone else play before. Go out with a bang, you monster.
Indeed a really good article. I find it kinda sad for Taeja though. Last years blizzcon he got matched up with Dear in the first round and now he has too face soO. And since soO is gonna be 2nd place.....
Can Taeja beat Soo??? Man....that is a huge ask...it seems like Soo is destined to reach the finals...to do so Taeja will have to be overcome...so be it....Soo is the real deal...Taeja - depends on which Taeja shows up.
I've said it repeatedly, gsl deserves more weight but foreign tournaments are still their own type of accomplishment. Personally, with everything Taeja's done in his career I'd put him above every gsl champ except Mvp with regards to the current all-time greats. He's pretty much been a mid to godly-tier Terran his entire sc2 career. If he wins Blizzcon, DH, and HSC there might even be an argument for putting him over Mvp.
Totally agree, if we were to crown bonjwa's in SC2, these 2 players would be the ones. What is absolutely insane is that Taeja does most of this without any teamhouse full of players handing him tips and practise games. He really is a hermit, much wiser than the rest. A path no other can follow. SoO will be his hardest challenge this BlizzCon, not only because it's probably the strongest player he'll meet, but because Taeja is very much so a player that rides momentum, if he gets a good start, this tournament is already his. Another thing is 11-2 in finals is an absolute insane stat, the 2 silvers he has gotten though were one sided stomps 3-0 and 4-0. Hinting that something in his mindset was terribly off. Favourite article so far.
I love Taeja so much, one of my very favourite players. He does suffer from MVP syndrome (totally f***ed wrists but somehow keeps winning anyway) though, I feel he'd have probably snuck another tournament or ten (he's just that good) if he hadn't had so many problems with his wrists.
This one gave me goose bumps. "The summer of his youth", a chillingly perfect way to phrase it. Well done. I'm looking forward to innovation and sOs' too (and whoever else. Zest?) but I just don't see how they can top this.
Until reading this article, I never fully realized how insanely good Taeja was. He still was for me the really good Terran that entered rampage mode during the summer.
But... whoaw.
Side note: the fact I went through all the articles and that for 3/4 of those I ended the read with the wish to see the player I just read about winning Blizzcon just shows how important storylines are in esports IMO. But now I don't know who to cheer for Can't they just all hold the trophy once?
Great article, Taeja is a beast, even if he retires now, he will always be a legend of SC2
On October 29 2014 22:31 Ragnarork wrote: Until reading this article, I never fully realized how insanely good Taeja was. He still was for me the really good Terran that entered rampage mode during the summer.
But... whoaw.
Side note: the fact I went through all the articles and that for 3/4 of those I ended the read with the wish to see the player I just read about winning Blizzcon just shows how important storylines are in esports IMO. But now I don't know who to cheer for Can't they just all hold the trophy once?
I like half of the players, but my mind and heart already decided. soO all the way!
I became a fan of Taeja as well since I thought that there was something special about his playstyle even when Slayers was about to disband, for how faithful he was to the team when winning games that actually did not even matter that much on the rational scheme of things. For a lack of better words I used to think of him as a free-form terran, but I think you spotlighted exactly what makes him great and particularly hard to play against in tournaments that last no more than few consecutive days.
Probably the only way to counter him is to study and craft ad personam builds like it could happen at Blizzcon... but... well, Taeja decided to postpone his retirement at least twice (or at least that's my take on it, more informed people could correct me) just for this occasion. Allow me to quote myself from the first time he did look actually sure about his retirement, during HSC IX (which he won, btw):
On June 08 2014 23:28 MavivaM wrote: (...) I think this time Taeja's speaking for real... but actually I'm not sad. It looks like he's not slacking around before the retirement, but actually wants to give his 110% and end with a bang.
If I'd have to define Taeja in few words, I'd say "innate talent" and "enormous hunger for victory". Slayers disbanding? He kept winning. Not that he was always training at their facility, iirc back at then he was already training by himself. Alone and teamless? He kept on winning. Playing in team leagues and your teammates are having troubles? He kept on winning basically as a one man team. Wrist problems, terran's rise and fall through patches, huge tournaments with GSL players competing while he wasn't even on a team facility - one of those things that man believe are a fundamental asset for winning constantly? He kept on fucking winning.
And that's why I believe that Taeja will win Blizzcon as well. For other players this may be a huge hit or a stepping stone. For Taeja, this is the reason why he kept playing when he could actually say "screw it, I got my money, let's take my deserved break before military service, make my hands rest and just hang around". Time for your next and last trophy, Taeja.
Aweosome article. Taeja really is something else. Like others, though, I am disappointed he has to play soo round 1. Would have loved a soo vs taeja finals.
Very nice article, I've always thought that I didn't understand Taejas play. It doesn't look like there is anything speciala about his play but for some reason he crushes. This explains it all very well, I guess I've had a hunch, a feeling that there is no one thing he does that makes Taeja great, its the ocean of things he can do and how he chooses what to do.
On October 29 2014 21:55 TheDougler wrote: This one gave me goose bumps. "The summer of his youth", a chillingly perfect way to phrase it. Well done. I'm looking forward to innovation and sOs' too (and whoever else. Zest?) but I just don't see how they can top this.
only soOjwa, Zest, and INnoVation left. $O$'s not invited to the party this time. I think that soO's article could definitely top this, he's got the coolest story of the year.
I was one of the people who was confused and even dismayed when Liquid picked up Taeja instead of Ganzi. An unproven, untested kid instead of a solid veteran? A player who was perhaps #4 in SlayerS' Terran depth chart? Surely Nazgul's gone crazy! Boy, was I wrong. Hands down the greatest pickup in the history of SC2.
Man, I really hope Taeja wins this Blizzcon. More than anyone else, he deserves to go out with a bang.
Innate talent is exactly what describes Taeja the best imo. Even above his great mechanics (micro especially), I'd say he probably understands and feels Sc2 better than almost anyone, and this is what allows him to identify the tiniest weaknesses of his opponent and take advantage of it (one of the previous article was actually comparing him with a shark that would be unrelentingly attract by the scent of blood). And this is why his playstyle seems so natural and spontaneous (and eventually beautiful to watch at).
There was this funny anecdote I couldn't fit in, but one time Rotterdam was casting a TvZ Taeja game and Taeja scv scouted. After seeing the mineral line, he immediately started defending for a proxy hatch build. Later Rotterdam asked how Taeja knew and he said there was 1 less drone than there was supposed to be. Then Rotterdam said, "Disgusting, you're disgusting." or something like that.
People thought I was crazy over how good I said this kid was, he went onto to show them why THEY were all crazy. I REALLY hope he wins Blizzcon, what a crowning achievement that would be!
On October 30 2014 02:33 stuchiu wrote: There was this funny anecdote I couldn't fit in, but one time Rotterdam was casting a TvZ Taeja game and Taeja scv scouted. After seeing the mineral line, he immediately started defending for a proxy hatch build. Later Rotterdam asked how Taeja knew and he said there was 1 less drone than there was supposed to be. Then Rotterdam said, "Disgusting, you're disgusting." or something like that.
Amazing article, Taeja has been my favorite player for many years now and this article sums up why is he is the most entertaining awesome terran for me to watch. GOGO Taeja!
The saddest thing about Teaja's career is that he's only 19. I honestly expected him to play for at least 2 more years and win about 11 more tournaments.
TaeJa at his best was always the most impressive/talented terran player for me, and I love all the top terrans. He is just outrageously good and it's sad he will be gone.
Godly writing, Taeja is the player who fascinates me the most. With other players you can always point out why they win and how, with Taeja... not so much.
On November 04 2014 06:13 Kitai wrote: Meh, he won't get very far. Everyone knows that foreign Koreans can't beat top KeSPA players like soO and INnoVation and Zest.
But he exactly beat top KeSPA players like soO and INnoVation and Zes--ooohh sarcasm.
On October 30 2014 02:33 stuchiu wrote: There was this funny anecdote I couldn't fit in, but one time Rotterdam was casting a TvZ Taeja game and Taeja scv scouted. After seeing the mineral line, he immediately started defending for a proxy hatch build. Later Rotterdam asked how Taeja knew and he said there was 1 less drone than there was supposed to be. Then Rotterdam said, "Disgusting, you're disgusting." or something like that.
Which game is that?
If I remember correctly, I recall either HerO or Taeja doing this on Metropolis in some team league. In Hero's case, it was a PvT and one of the casters said that HerO realized there was 1 less SCV mining and he automatically knew it was a proxy 2 rax. I don't remember too clearly though, but I think HerO still lost even after holding off the 2 rax
On October 29 2014 15:16 FrostedMiniWheats wrote: This is one of the best write-ups so far.
I've said it repeatedly, gsl deserves more weight but foreign tournaments are still their own type of accomplishment. Personally, with everything Taeja's done in his career I'd put him above every gsl champ except Mvp with regards to the current all-time greats. He's pretty much been a mid to godly-tier Terran his entire sc2 career. If he wins Blizzcon, DH, and HSC there might even be an argument for putting him over Mvp.
I don't know if I'd agree on prediction #1 though. Provided Taeja doesn't win anymore this year, Life might catch or exceed him in premieres within 2.5 years. He's still got about 6 months and is 7/11 of the way there. It'd be fitting that it's Life, he's very similar to Taeja in background and in his amazing reactionary play.
On October 29 2014 15:16 FrostedMiniWheats wrote: This is one of the best write-ups so far.
I've said it repeatedly, gsl deserves more weight but foreign tournaments are still their own type of accomplishment. Personally, with everything Taeja's done in his career I'd put him above every gsl champ except Mvp with regards to the current all-time greats. He's pretty much been a mid to godly-tier Terran his entire sc2 career. If he wins Blizzcon, DH, and HSC there might even be an argument for putting him over Mvp.
I don't know if I'd agree on prediction #1 though. Provided Taeja doesn't win anymore this year, Life might catch or exceed him in premieres within 2.5 years. He's still got about 6 months and is 7/11 of the way there. It'd be fitting that it's Life, he's very similar to Taeja in background and in his amazing reactionary play.
8/11 of the way there!
Life's coming
Almost as soon as Life won last night I thought of this post too!