The Flash Forward

There are a lot of thing that can be said about Flash. He was a prodigy, a genius, a bonjwa, The Ultimate Weapon, The Final Boss. He has had a career spanning eight years across two games. A player hailed as the greatest player from one of the most respected and revered esports games. A living embodiment of the KT organization and one of the most recognized and respected players alive today.

Yet all of that doesn’t do his legacy justice. Because before he succeeded, he failed. Before he was a genius, he was a hard worker. Before he was loved, he was hated. And that is where Flash’s journey started. At the age of 14, he entered the BW scene and became one of the youngest pros to have ever debuted. In the Daum OSL, he cheesed Bisu, the greatest Protoss player in BW. It wasn’t just the cheese, but also the fact that he was a boring standard player. He was clinical and skilled, but without the style and awe of his contemporaries like Jaedong or Bisu. He quickly won his first OSL against Stork, and was hailed as an incredible talent and one of the best BW had to offer. But this was BW, and talent wasn’t enough. For the rest of 2008 and 2009, he never climbed those steps again and was constantly thwarted by his eternal rival Jaedong, who kept beating him over and over and over.



Flash was considered skilled, but Protoss had figured out his double-armory build and he was constantly abused for overusing 14 CC. At that point, he could have decided to stick to his guns and become a one hit wonder. Instead, Flash showed his intelligence and his tenacity. He fixed his strategic problems as he created subtle answers in every matchup. These adjustments led him to the peak of his career in the year 2010 where he won 2 OSLs and 2 MSLS. He got his comprehensive revenge on Jaedong and broke nearly every record in the book, whether it was ELO peak, winning percentage, win-streaks, amount of time as the top-ranked player, or wins in Proleague. By the end of 2010, he was given the nickname God-Young Ho.



While the rest of his BW career didn’t reach those heights again, he still ended it as one of the best players in the world and the greatest BW player of all-time.

Perhaps the best way to understand Flash's role in the scene is to contrast him with the first bonjwa, Boxer. Boxer was in many ways an inspirational father figure of esports in Korea. His play was creative, his games were exhilarating, he was a natural leader who would go on to have profound impact on the entire ecosystem of esports in Korea. Flash was different. Even during his own time, he was never loved. He had a following, but it was nowhere on the level of others like Jaedong and Bisu. But while he never had their love, he demanded their respect with pure awe. He was the last bonjwa of BW and he came to represent pure skill, dominance, mental strength, hard work, genius. Flash became the symbol of what everyone aspired to be when they first became a pro-gamer: the very best.

So when he moved over to SC2, the hype was monumental. KeSPA was coming and at its vanguard was Flash, the greatest BW player ever. But he came to represent more than just himself; he came to represent an ideal more than anything else. By the end of BW, Flash was no longer the unanimous best in the world, but this was ignored by a large number of fans. They believed he would come to dominate n untamed landscape and become the de facto best player the world had ever seen. He would raise the skill level of SC2 to a level never before seen with the unrivaled excellence he displayed in Brood War. In many ways, new fans saw Flash as the culmination of the 10 years of BW’s history and skill distilled into a single man.



But he never lived up to those expectations. There were flashes of brilliance throughout his career (most notably in his games vs Ryung, INnoVation, TaeJa and PartinG). He was still a good player (and a great player in 2013), but in retrospect it seems that his peak years of skill had gone by him in 2010/2011. Arguably the strongest point in his SC2 career was in early 2013, but it was stopped twice. First by Life in the finals of MLG and later on in the hardest group of death ever concocted with Life, INnoVation, Flash and PartinG. After that, Flash was unable to capitalize on his skill for the rest of the year as Bomber and Maru would knock him out in the following OSL and GSL respectively.

Flash’s glory days were over (though he was still a monster in Proleague), but the image of Flash as an unstoppable God remained. Thus the fans would hype him up far above his levels and he would inevitably disappoint—except once. At IEM Toronto 2014, Flash would rise up one last time and fulfill the hope of his fans. At IEM Toronto, he cleaved through the bracket as he beat MC, Scarlett, Snute, Taeja and Zest to win the entire thing. And for one night, the fans were rewarded with the sight of what they had been waiting for all along as Flash won one of the strongest international tournaments and showed the form he had had all those years ago when he came to dominate BW. Yet it was not to last as he would subsequently be eliminated by DRG and soO back in Code S.



While Flash never reached those heights again, he remained a Code S player and managed to get a few strong results, notably at HSC X and KeSPA Cup 2015 S2. But all careers must come to an end, even the most legendary players must bow to time and relinquish their mouse and keyboard. Flash’s road has lasted eight years. In that time he has won the Golden Mouse and the Golden Badge. He became BW’s greatest player and its last bonjwa. He became the physical representation of what it meant to be the very best. And though he was never able to recreate that kind of dominance in SC2, he was able to give the fans one night, one tournament, one transient vision of a time where he had once ruled the world. And though many feel that Flash had “tarnished” his legacy by not being able to resurrect himself in SC2 as he was in BW, he will forever remain the greatest BW player of all-time. His struggles in SC2 were testaments to both his work ethic and drive to still be one of the very best no matter the cost.

As for Flash himself: he may be retiring as a pro-player, but his story hasn’t ended yet.

The Greatest Games of His Career

BW

+ Show Spoiler [Flash vs FanTaSy - BigFile MSL 2010] +
+ Show Spoiler [Flash vs Jaedong - BigFile MSL 2010] +
+ Show Spoiler [Flash vs firebathero - SPL 2009] +
+ Show Spoiler [Flash vs Jaedong - WCS Korea 2010] +
+ Show Spoiler [Flash vs Clam - EVER OSL 2009] +
+ Show Spoiler [Flash vs Stork - GOMTV Star Invitation…] +
+ Show Spoiler [Flash vs BeSt - SPL 2010-2011] +
+ Show Spoiler [Flash vs Bisu - Daum MSL 2007] +

SC2
+ Show Spoiler [Flash vs Bbyong - SanDisk SHOUTcraft I…] +
+ Show Spoiler [Flash vs Ryung - GSL Season 5 2013] +
+ Show Spoiler [Flash vs INnoVation - MLG Dallas 2013] +
+ Show Spoiler [Flash vs TaeJa - IEM Toronto 2014] +
+ Show Spoiler [Flash vs PartinG - GSL Season 1 2013] +
+ Show Spoiler [Flash vs MC - IEM Toronto 2014] +
+ Show Spoiler [Flash vs DRG - SPL 2014] +

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Writer: stuchiu
Editor: lichter
Coder: FO-nTTaX
Graphics: lichter
Photos: Fomos, Blizzard