In light of HerO and Liquid parting ways, and among recent discussion about WCS and its merits and profits, I've decided to review his career on the team. I have always been one to enjoy when Koreans were given a chance to compete abroad. There are a few examples of players who may never have had such illustrious careers had they never seized this opportunity. Liquid’HerO—I’ll be calling him that for the last time—was the prime example of a player we may have never gotten to know otherwise.

I must admit that I didn’t know HerO before he joined Liquid in 2011. He was on oGs before, where he came in contact with Liquid players due to a partnership between the two teams that let Liquid’s players stay in the oGs house. He ended up joining Liquid as one of the first ever Koreans to join a foreign team in StarCraft II. In this, just as he was in so many more aspects in SC2, he was a pioneer.

I was relatively new to the game then, had picked Protoss as my go-to race and was looking for someone to show me the way. And thus, HerO. When he began streaming, it was a completely new experience unlike anything ever before. Not only did he play an extremely entertaining playstyle that nobody else was capable of pulling off at the time, he was also tearing apart the Korean ladder. Suddenly there was an absolute top Korean on a foreign team actually streaming his games frequently.

The way it usually goes with top Koreans is that success follows them abroad. In HerO’s case however, it was a little different. He’d had none before he joined Liquid. He went abroad without any notable results to speak of. He was recruited for his potential and personality, both of which we hadn’t gotten to know before. Fans couldn’t look into the walls of the oGs house and had no opportunities to meet him at events to discover that he actually spoke English very fluently. In HerO’s case, he found his success abroad and carried it home.

His first few tournament appearances weren’t mindblowing, but he showed the foundations for greatness. A sixth place at MLG Raleigh 2011 and similar performances at another MLG and in Code A weren’t what you’d expect from someone who consistently ranked at the very top of the Korean ladder. Then along came Dreamhack Winter 2011. In many ways, this tournament epitomizes HerO’s career. Somewhere within himself he finally found a rhythm that let him overcome nerves and emotions and showcase his real skill. In just one swift tournament run he got Artosis to call him the “best Protoss in the world”, turned everyone’s heads and became a beloved figure in the community.

He showed play that was unseen before. Where others had been relying on 2-base all-ins for almost two years, HerO took PvZ to a lategame stage with remarkable ease, seemingly getting more into his zone with every passing minute. He introduced warp prism centered harassment, colossus-free macro playstyles, a large variety of openings and a way to pressure Zergs without fully committing. Looking back, HerO never entirely got the credit he deserves for his innovations to the entire Protoss race and the absolutely groundbreaking impact he had on pushing the metagame forward.




At Dreamhack Winter 2011, HerO finally conquered not only his fears, but those of all Protoss. To remind you, this was at a time when Protoss was in its most dire state ever in SC2. Zergs had figured out essentially every all-in (until immortal/sentry came along) and Terrans had an almost unbeatable 1-1-1 at their disposal, all empowered by a map pool that gave Protoss huge disadvantages against the other two races. PvP didn’t help either, as great Protoss players were often knocked out due to the incomplete, coinflippy nature of the matchup in Wings of Liberty.

And then along came Dreamhack Winter 2011. Beating strong macro Zergs at their own game, HerO secured a place in his very first Grand Finals, only to be faced with fear itself. His opponent was not only a Terran, it was THE most deadly 1-1-1 Terran in the world at the time—Puma. HerO was tasked with overcoming his own struggles, a statistically factual imbalance in maps and strategies, and an opponent that knew perfectly well how to make use of all these factors.

When HerO shattered Puma’s 1-1-1 on Dual Sight, the best 1-1-1 map in the pool, in their third game, every Protoss in the world rejoiced. HerO ended up winning the series in a deciding seventh game, perfectly encapsulating his triumph over himself, the game’s own hardships, and his opponent. It was a magical moment that’s now forever engraved in StarCraft’s history.




It invigorated HerO’s career. From that moment on he was a champion. No matter how much he struggled at times, he was always a champion. Maybe that thought helped him overcome the personal issues that were holding him back time and time again. Maybe it simply changed his mindset. We will never truly know, but in that moment he evolved from someone who had the talent to make it big into someone who was a contender to win any tournament he entered.

For a long time, HerO was one of the greatest players to look up to. He was dedicated, played the game in ways that never became boring, drove the metagame forward like few other Protoss players ever did, and had what it took to compete with and beat the absolute best.

When the 1-1-1 terrorized Protoss, it was HerO who showed the way to beat it. When Zergs started to clue into broodlord/infestor, it was HerO who showed how to tear them apart with warp prism usage.




When blink was at its strongest, it was HerO who showed how to make the absolute most of its strengths .
It was HerO who figured out how to play Protoss in an aggressive, yet not committed macro playstyle - an ideal that to this day is regarded by many as the optimal way to play Protoss and SC2 in general. He did all this with a race that nobody else thought had the potential to play this way until he came along.





In the grand scheme of SC2, these are all concepts we’ve come to accept as pillars in gameplay by now. Yet what’s always forgotten is that even these constants have their roots somewhere. And in the case of the Protoss race, a lot of them can be traced back to none other than Liquid’HerO.

When KeSPA announced their switch over to SC2, a lot of their players (such as Bisu, Stork and Rain) were asked who they followed to study the game and whose playstyles they enjoyed. Almost every Protoss then named HerO as the one to watch. The one who “knew what he was doing” (quote: Bisu - http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/news-archive/339200-interviews-bisu-coach-park-and-jaedong). HerO was always that player, the one who pushed Protoss to its limits and explored strategies. It’s no coincidence that HerO’s IEM Cologne victory came at a time of Protoss dominance over Terran. Few players ever understood how to push their race as far as HerO did, and in this case he may well have been the straw that broke the camel’s back and forced Blizzard to finally make balance patches.

How many players in the game’s history can say that they won at least one Premier tournament each year for four years straight? I don’t have the exact number for you, but HerO is among them. Dreamhack Winter 2011, 2012, NASL Season 4, WCS America 2013 Season 1, IEM Cologne 2014. Other top placements include a semifinal and a quarterfinal in Code S, second places at another Dreamhack and NASL, second places in stacked online tournaments like the Warer.com Invitational and the StarsWar League S3. Semifinals at another IEM, another Dreamhack, another MLG. HerO can look back on his career with Liquid and be proud of his accomplishments.

HerO became a champion with Liquid, because of Liquid and he played a massive part in making Liquid a championship caliber team. “Class is permanent” they say, and in HerO’s case that has certainly proven true. HerO is back in Code S now, where he was a mainstay in his prime. So despite him leaving Liquid, there is still a road ahead for him. WCS is harsh on Korea, but HerO has shown time and time again that he has the ability to overcome anything. It’s an ability he found within himself when he was given the chance to shine on Liquid. And that’s precisely why, despite parting ways with the team now, a part of him will always remain Liquid’HerO.

Writer: Olli - Olli on Twitter
Gfx: shiroiusagi - shiroiusagi on Twitter
Photo Credit: ESL
Editor: Olli