The Last Slayer

That’s quite the bold claim. At a time when he had yet to progress past the Round of 16 in a starleague; when the original benchmark of three GSL titles set by NesTea and matched by Mvp had stood unbreached for four long years (and remains so); when the strength and depth in Korean Starcraft was at its zenith, Dark was already looking ahead. While part of that is clearly Dark’s natural bluster and showmanship—a fact he references earlier in the interview—it gives a measure of his calibre that despite his lack of results at the time, we only questioned the size of his claim, rather than the achievement itself. Just one awkward fact remained: no trophies followed.

When Dark gave that interview, he looked destined for glory. Slotting straight into SKT’s Proleague lineup for 2015—even being sent out as the team ace—while progressing with ease in the opening rounds of both starleagues, it looked like he had finally emerged from his long apprenticeships on SlayerS and SKT, fully formed and ready for victory. His corruptor style in ZvT was the talk of the town, and with a 3-0 over PartinG in the SSL Challenge, it looked like the sky was the limit for the rookie.

Then, the disappointments kicked in. Six early exits across both starleagues in the year—not even making a single playoffs appearance—while enduring a heartbreaking set of losses on the weekender stage. Throwing a won game against Trap in the semifinals of IEM Katowice; falling in game 7 of a messy KeSPA Cup Final against herO; outmuscled by soO in the follow-up a few short months later. For a player with such confidence, such desire to stamp his name in the history books, 2015 was a year of opportunity and near-misses. After an entire year of competition, he missed out on a BlizzCon spot by a mere 100 points. The greatest stage in the Starcraft II year; and he wouldn’t be standing on it.

We’ve seen before how near misses can dent a player’s confidence; can dull their skills as time and pain eat away at their desire to win. You only have to look at Dark’s ex-teammate soO for a grim display of the side-effects of missing out one too many times. But right from the start of the year, Dark’s looked a different player. Calmer; more experienced; more willing to play the opponent than the game. He swept his way to SSL glory in Season 1, brushing aside MyuNgSiK, Classic, Stats, Solar and Stats once more while barely breaking a sweat, not even dropping a map before the Winners’ Finals. It was a run every bit as impressive as Zest’s path to GSL glory, displaying clinical control of the ZvP matchup (12-2) as well as the skill and mental fortitude to beat Solar in the ZvZ mindgame. As one of the sole zergs able to fight head to head against the terran mid-game at the time, with wins over GuMiho, aLive, and TY (three times!), Dark was rightly regarded as one of the best players in the world.

Not ‘the’ best player in the world though; not the acclaim that he so clearly chases. Zest’s rise from the ashes of 2015 was marked as the story of the first half of the year, and whether it’s due to his previous high water mark of 2014, his unquestionable domination of the PvT matchup, or the fact that the SSL had been built on shaky foundations of qualifiers run at a time of extreme instability, it’s Zest who was proclaimed ‘Best in the World’.

Season 2 put his claims to the test and found him wanting. Instead, it was Dark once more pushing to glory, driving his way to consecutive SSL Grand Finals. In the history of Starcraft II, there has only been one repeat starleague winner in Korea—NesTea in his pomp, taking home the May and July Code S titles in 2011. That came in an age with fewer top tier players, and with a professional player base that lacked many of the refinements that are now common knowledge. With his innate understanding of many of the key zerg mechanics, NesTea dominated his race and the game with ruthless efficiency. Dark is playing in a time where that kind of inherent advantage is much less prevalent; he has to game the system for smaller and smaller edges. To pull off the feat of defending your own starleague title is an achievement unthinkable in the modern age. Dark failed.

Not by much; a 3-4 loss coming off a 14 pool in Game 7 is just about as tight as they come, but a loss nonetheless. It’s strange to look at his loss to Solar as an anticlimax; that somehow failing to match a 5 year old record is somehow a disappointment; that a mere silver medal is beneath him now. To understand that though, you have to look at the historical record. In the Starcraft II scene, we’re used to players peaking and dipping in short succession. It’s common that a player might impress in a tournament by turning up to a weekender in red hot form; rare that they might extend that run over a month or so of starleague competition; rarer still that they continue to reap the benefits any further. At the very top end of the scene, we’re used to seeing the best of the best peak for about six months—think Life’s 2014-15 run from BlizzCon to GSL S1, or Zest’s first half of 2016.

Dark’s purple streak has lasted for the whole of 2016.

Gold in SSL 1; silver in the first Cross-Finals; silver in SSL 2; followed by a season-capping gold in the Cross-Finals once more. It’s a record of sustained success that he has maintained throughout the year. Yes, there are arguments against him—his dual ‘failures’ in the GSL, with two exits in the Round of 16; and the fact that the vastly reduced Korean schedule has given him both fewer opportunities to shine and fall—but at the end of the day, the fact is that Dark possesses the most intimidating record in 2016 of any player in attendance this weekend. Fact is, he’s the best in the world right now. Zest and TY pushed him for the throne over the first half of the year; Solar and ByuN for the second; but over the ten months of Korean Starcraft competition this year, there has only been one constant.

Famously plucked from obscurity by BoxeR, before becoming one of the Brood War superstar’s first recruits on SKT T1, Dark’s always been tipped for the very top. BoxeR’s always been known as an incredible judge of talent—his twin picks of MMA and DongRaeGu for future success back in 2010 bordered on psychic—and the fact that he had hand-picked Dark to follow him to SKT led to a near-fetishisation of the “Last Son of BoxeR”. Year on year, his rise has been almost meteoric. SKT B-teamer in 2013; consistent Code S player in 2014; weekender hero in 2015; starleague champion in 2016. The only question left is where he goes from here? There are players who drop off after their success; there are players who plateau and remain at a consistent level; and there are champions who push on to greater things.

In Starcraft II history, there hasn’t been a single player who has won the Global Finals after dominating the year. Life underperformed for much of 2014, while sOs’ peaks came right at the end of 2013 and 2015. Even Mvp failed to win Blizzard Cup 2011, after rewriting the record books all year long. Should Dark win BlizzCon, he will have completed a year of competitive play that is the match of any run in Starcraft history.

Fifteen other players are converging on BlizzCon aiming to win the tournament. Dark is here to cement his legacy.