Lee "Flash" Young Ho debuted in April of 2007 at fourteen years of age, becoming the youngest StarCraft: Brood War progamer to compete in a televised match.¹ The youngster proved to be a prodigy, qualifying for the OnGameNet Starleague—one of Brood War’s most prestigious individual tournaments—in his first attempt. A shock run to the final four followed, with Flash even eliminating #1 Protoss player Bisu along the way. Though Flash was narrowly eliminated by GGPlay in the semi-final match, the entire Brood War scene was already enamored with his potential. Flash's in-game style was reminiscent of many notable Terran players of the past: a foundation of rock-solid, textbook play, mixed with devious all-in tactics to keep opponents on their toes.

Within a year of his debut, Flash won his first major championship in the 2008 Bacchus Starleague. Despite a killer bracket that put him against elite opponents such as Bisu, Jaedong, and Stork, Flash overcame the odds to become the youngest Starleague champion in history at the age of fifteen.

Already, Flash had earned himself a mention in Brood War history. Unlike StarCraft 2’s scattered scene, only two major tournaments truly mattered in Brood War’s individual circuit: the OnGameNet Starleague (OSL) and MBCGame StarCraft League (MSL). Their lineages could be traced back to 1999 and 2002 respectively, and at the time of Flash’s win, the combined number of OSL-MSL tournaments was just forty. With his OSL finals win, Flash entered the rarefied company of twenty-two other players to have ever won a major title.

Flash’s momentum from the OSL carried over into team competition as well, and he took the following Shinhan Proleague 2008 season by storm. As KTF MagicN’s undisputed ace, Flash won the most games of any player, compiling a 17-8 record in a shortened season.² Even though a mediocre supporting cast left KTF short of a playoff berth, Flash was still awarded the regular season MVP for his individual brilliance.

After so much early success, it was only natural for fans to anoint Flash as the top Terran in the game. Furthermore, he was heralded as a next-generation superstar, a player who would be at the forefront of StarCraft for years to come.

However, expectations were much more easily set than met.

The Drought

Immediately after winning his first individual league title, Flash crashed into a brick wall. In the following twenty-two month period that comprised eight OSL and MSL tournaments, the best result Flash could attain was a single semi-final appearance. Frequently, Flash saw himself failing to even progress out of the round-of-16/32 group stages.³



To some extent, Flash’s losses were understandable. A few eliminations were due to unlucky draws which pitted him against difficult foes. On other occasions, he suffered one of StarCraft’s great inevitabilities: getting cheesed out by the underdog. And sometimes, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time during someone else’s run-of-destiny.⁴

Yet, there was no avoiding the big picture implications: Flash was consistently failing at the highest level. Hype turned to skepticism, and fans had to wonder if Flash had prematurely hit his ceiling as a player.

As Flash stumbled, others emerged as the headlining players of the period. Bisu—the revolutionary strategist who had “solved” the Protoss vs. Zerg match-up—solidified his position as the top Protoss player in the world. Jaedong—a rising Zerg star since 2006—came into his prime and tore off a series of impressive tournament wins.

Flash’s struggles in individual leagues even shone an unfavorable light on his team-level performances. On paper, Flash had a stellar ‘08-’09 Proleague season, tying for most wins at 54. Only KTF's failure to make the playoffs kept him out of MVP consideration. Yet, Flash could not fight his growing reputation as a player who excelled at steamrolling the rank-and-file of Proleague, but was unable to take on the Jaedongs and Bisus of the world.

Apotheosis

If Flash were a lesser player, his will would have been sapped by such a chain of setbacks. By the mid-2000s Korean Brood War had become an industry optimized for identifying, grooming, and squeezing every last ounce of performance out of young talent. While this produced amazing games played by increasingly skilled pros, there was a price to be paid: players burned out fast. A pro might hang around the scene for several years through force of will, but one's peak—the window to win a championship—was one, maybe two years long at best. Anyone who could contend for longer was a freak of nature.

For Flash, three years was merely preparation.

In October of 2009, the beginning of the 2009-2010 competitive circuit, a new Flash emerged armed with refined strategies and reinvigorated play. By January of 2010, Flash had reached the finals of both the OSL and MSL. It was an achievement in and of itself, as only four players had previously reached the finals of simultaneous OSL and MSL tournaments.⁵ As it turned out, it was also the beginning of the most dominant run of all time.



In a single year, Flash upped his individual title count from a lonely one to a phenomenal five, opening up the gates into Brood War’s pantheon.

The road to Brood War greatness went through four legends: BoxeR, NaDa, iloveoov, and sAviOr.⁹ Three-time champion BoxeR was included for his status as the original Brood War superstar, with his immense popularity being the catalyst behind the modern esports revolution that started in Korea.

As for the other three, they were revered for their sheer dominance and overwhelming weight of accomplishments. Of all the progamers to have ever played, they were the only ones to have won four or more major championships. sAviOr, the brilliant strategist who had defied ridiculous Zerg vs. Terran odds in the mid 2000’s, had four (sAviOr was later stripped of these titles for his involvement in the 2010 match fixing scandal). iloveoov, a pioneer of macro-centric play, had five. Finally, there was the timeless NaDa, who held the all-time record with six.

Based on Flash’s title count alone, there was no questioning that he deserved to be called one of the best to ever play the game. The debate was in where exactly Flash ranked in the top five, and there was a strong case that he had surpassed his forebears.

No one in the history of StarCraft had been as consistently dominant as Flash in his prime, where he performed at a championship level in every single competition. Before Flash, only four players (Reach, Chojja, sAviOr and NaDa) had managed to reach the OSL-MSL finals simultaneously.¹⁰ In 2010, Flash did so three times in a row, meaning he competed in every single grand finals that year.

Moreover, the previous dual-finalists had competed in an era where Brood War was centered around the OSL-MSL, with team competition taking a second seat. By the time Flash came along, Proleague had become Brood War’s new focal point, forcing both teams and players to shift priorities. For other progamers, this could be a detriment. sAviOr, the strongest player in the era preceding Flash, had always been noticeably worse when playing in Proleague. Three-time champion Bisu had failed to win additional titles after signing with the notoriously Proleague-driven SK Telecom T1, and had even blamed his team’s narrow fixation on team competition for holding him back.

In Flash’s case, his monumental year in individual leagues was simultaneous with his best season of Proleague ever. At the end of the Proleague 09-10 regular season, Flash outshone all of his peers with the most games played (73), won (57), and the highest win rate (57-16, 78%),¹¹ to become the runaway winner of the regular season MVP award.

To top things off, it was a season where KT Rolster finally managed to assemble a strong supporting cast around their star player. This allowed Flash’s astonishing run to peak during a short stretch in August and September, where he became the first and only player to ever achieve a triple-crown of OSL, MSL, and Proleague victories. In an eventful career where he had gone from being called “that cheesy brat”¹² to “the ultimate weapon,” Flash had a new nickname: “God.”

Title count wasn't the only statistic that showed Flash's dominance. During the competitive season that lasted between October of 2009 and October of 2010, Flash recorded an obscene 139-40 record for a 77.65% win rate. A long-term win rate of 70% was typically reserved for the defining players of an era, while 75% was a line that had only been approached by players of legendary stature—the NaDas, iloveoovs, and sAviOrs.¹³ Flash had not only surpassed his predecessors, but had done so over significantly more games.

The fact that Flash won more games at a higher win rate than anyone ever naturally revealed itself in ranking systems. In both KeSPA’s official points system (he claimed the #1 spot for 14 straight months) and TeamLiquid.net’s Elo ranking, Flash broke records for highest point totals and time spent at the #1 spot.

But for some fans, Flash's garish stats and gaudy collection of trophies were merely a reflection of the tour de force they were witnessing night after night: Flash was winning with unprecedented ease.

Already a top tier player before, Flash had doubled down on his strengths without fundamentally changing his style. He had improved his late-game macro play to be virtually unbeatable, while shoring up his defenses and minimizing his vulnerability to cheese. At the same time, Flash became the craftiest player in the game. Knowing full well that his opponents were terrified of him in standard play, Flash had learned exactly when to pull out unorthodox strategies of his own for effortless wins.

StarCraft’s God didn’t need numbers to prove his supremacy—he did so by utterly destroying his opponents.

The Rival

There were many remarkable things about Flash’s prime, but there was one defining factor that separated him from the bygone greats. Flash wasn’t just winning championships—he was winning them by beating a player who may otherwise have become the greatest of all time: Jaedong.

While Flash struggled in 2008-2009, Jaedong rose to the apex of competitive StarCraft, claiming championship after championship. When the dust settled after the controversial Nate MSL finals,¹⁴ it was Jaedong who seemed destined to enshrine himself alongside the legends. His victory against Flash—even with the figurative asterisk beside it—had brought his championship total to five. One criticism against Jaedong was that he didn’t exude the same aura of utter dominance as a NaDa or sAviOr. But with enough additional titles, such objections would cease to matter.

Unfortunately for Jaedong, Flash’s awakening abruptly brought his era to an end. After the Nate MSL finals, Jaedong reached three more grand finals in 2010. All three times, Flash wrested the championship from his hands.

Had just one of those series swung in Jaedong’s favor, he could have proudly thrown his hat in the ring for the title of #1 StarCraft player of all time. Had Flash not existed at all, there’s a solid chance that Jaedong would have taken that title undisputed. There’s no guarantee that Jaedong would have otherwise won those three finals, but given that Jaedong and Flash were rated to be in a tier of their own, he would have been favored against most of his theoretical replacement opponents.¹⁵ Jaedong would have had a realistic shot at winning seven or even eight titles.¹⁶

Even though NaDa, iloveoov, and sAviOr had all faced off against formidable finals opponents in their time, none of them could claim they had consistently gone up against the second best player in the world. Finals bouts such as NaDa vs. iloveoov (2003) and NaDa vs. sAviOr (2006) had occurred, but neither featured both players at the height of their powers. Flash fought the very best version of Jaedong four times, and went 3-1.

At the end of the 2009-2010 season, it was clear that the title of “God” wasn’t being used in vain. Flash had left Jaedong and sAviOr coughing in the dust. He had matched iloveoov with five titles, but surpassed him by all other measures.

There was just one, six-peak mountain left to climb.

From Great to Greatest

In many ways, NaDa was the proto-Flash. When he debuted in 2001 at the age of sixteen, he was hailed as a prodigy. His macro play was without peer, and he seemed to conjure units out of thin air to cruise to effortless victories. NaDa was nigh invincible at his peak, with his four championships in five finals between 2002 and 2003 (these include the aforementioned simultaneously MSL-OSL wins) standing as the most dominant one-year run ever, at least until Flash came along.

NaDa even possessed one thing Flash could never match in the short term: uncanny longevity. NaDa remained a championship contender well after his prime, winning his fifth and sixth titles in 2005 and 2006 respectively. His tenth and last finals appearance came in 2007—even though it ended in a loss to sAviOr, it marked an incredible five year span between his first and last finals.

Yet, even the reigning greatest-of-all-time couldn’t help but seem lacking compared to the young Terran. Flash had been more dominant at his peak, winning more games at a better rate. Flash had won multiple Proleague MVP awards and had dragged his team to a championship; NaDa had no such accolades. Flash had triumphed over the second best player of his era to attain greatness; NaDa had been challenged, but not to that extent. In spite of NaDa’s immense stature, the facts suggested that he who shined brightest had eclipsed he who shined longest.¹⁷

Still, the argument could not be settled as long as NaDa held the ultimate trump card: a sixth title.

Flash began the 2010-2011 season with a jarring crash back down to earth. In the first OSL and MSL tournaments of the year, Flash was eliminated from the group stages by players who would have needed minor miracles to beat him only a few months prior. A free-for-all ensued in wake of Flash’s return to the mortal realm, with the formerly oppressed rushing to snatch up titles and awards.

After a year where he had reached every single grand finals, Flash earned just one finals appearance in 2011. There, in the ABCMart MSL finals, he was pitted against ZerO, a top-class Zerg vs. Terran player. In the past, ZerO was one of the few Zergs who had been able to make god-mode Flash break a sweat. Against the diminished Flash, ZerO had even won a decisive victory in a macro-game, something that would have been a near impossibility in 2010.

The match-up looked to be close. In theory.

In the end, the result was all but a foregone conclusion. ZerO, a first time finalist, could not summon the confident, powerhouse Zerg vs. Terran that was his signature. For Flash, the finals stage was as familiar as his seat at KT Rolster’s practice facilities. Flash prevailed in a 3-0 sweep.

With his sixth title, Flash took his place as the greatest StarCraft: Brood War player of all time.

What Could Have Been

In 2012, professional Brood War came to an end. MBCGame shuttered its doors in January, a result of continuously declining ratings in an era where Brood War had lost much of its luster.¹⁸
In the summer, Blizzard and KeSPA finally reached an agreement at the end of a years long intellectual property rights dispute,¹⁹ opening the way for an official transition into StarCraft 2 that was completed by the end of the year.

It’s hard to say what Flash could have achieved if professional Brood War had continued. Though Flash won his sixth title in 2011, he faced tough competition from the likes of JangBi and FanTaSy to be the best player that year. Flash continued to excel in 2012, but JangBi improved even further to reinforce his status as the new top dog.

Yet, one has to wonder what could have been if Brood War’s greatest player had more time. Flash’s tenacity and ability to reinvent himself was what allowed him to emerge from a two year slump and utterly dominate in 2010. It was that combination of determination and talent that saw him overcome a rocky start in StarCraft 2 and win a long-awaited championship at IEM Toronto 2014. When looking at Flash’s career in its totality, that is one of his most underrated achievements: he won championships in two entirely different games, three years apart. What might Flash have achieved if he had kept playing the game he was the best in the world at?

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Acknowledgements and Credits

Writing: Waxangel.
Photos: silverfire.
Editing and miscellaneous advice: 2pacalypse, AdsMoFro, antoine, CarnivorousSheep, disciple, GTR, shiroiusagi, SirJolt, tank, Zess.