Belated Ascension

What does it mean to struggle?

The fighter is the most revered archetype in StarCraft, in esports and, at its extreme, the general cornucopia of activities we designate as sports. Down on his luck, facing impossible odds, grasping at one last chance at glory, the model offers endless opportunities for entertainment and empathy. Nothing is as captivating as a failure by slim margins, or arresting as the shooting star that knocked its head on the ceiling. But we—consciously or unconsciously—paint these archetypes with broad strokes, and force people into these roles even if they do not naturally fulfill the criteria.

In a field of players so weighted down with medals the floor threatens to buckle under its weight, with soO in one corner and INnoVation in the other, it seems so very simple to dismiss SpeCial as a prototype. If soO embodies the fighter and INnoVation the determined practice machine, it must be said that SpeCial, replacing MajOr and others, freely traversed the space between both archetypes at different points. Circumstance and serendipity lifted soO, INnoVation and their similarly accomplished peers to the forefront. By contrast, SpeCial has not even entered the same ballpark.

Shelve for a moment any instinct to bring up opportunity and infrastructure, and consider this: in his more than six-year tenure in professional Starcraft, the Mexican Terran has never faltered. His career resembles a wave function, with an Y-axis denoting prominence.

It is easy to elevate soO as a paragon of resilience. His shortcomings are numerous and prolific, with each one reinforcing the image of a weary man futilely struggling against strange, impersonal forces. But even in his failings and self-flagellation, soO has consistently been one of the best players on the planet. I hesitate to call any Starcraft career cushy, but it would be difficult to argue that soO's career stability hasn't far outstripped SpeCial's. Yet the latter has persevered nonetheless and for lesser rewards. Is that not worthy of applause? If there is a virtue we fans venerate above all others, it is rugged single-mindedness.

But evaluating career performance is a fuzzy endeavor. We often attempt to establish objective measures; GSL and WCS victories alternately are held to the highest standard. Players whose achievements fall outside this binary view are puzzled over as anomalies. It is in this flux that players like Taeja and herO continue to confuse viewers and divide rankings, the same world of outsiders where SpeCial has planted his claim to glory. With 12 Copa América titles, the South American region will always carry his mark, and as the first non-Korean player to play for a KeSPA team, SpeCial was allowed the rare opportunity to fulfill a dream that eluded many others. Moreso, he will always retain the honor of having been the first to achieve what was always his dream.

If there is a common struggle between every professional athlete, every aspiring progamer and little league soccer player, it is the sobering distinction between dreams and reality. SpeCial has elected to travel the less comfortable road in a scene already perilous for those who aren’t at the top. Where he was once guided to KeSPA by the immense recognition which came with Team 8's embrace, it seems SpeCial's new guiding star is less glamorous and all the more dramatic. Only the difficulty in achieving that dream remains constant.

Had you asked me a year ago, SpeCial is the last option I would have included among the eight players from the WCS Circuit. The fault lies with me instead of him: there was no indication that his perseverance had petered out, or that he had run out of chances. If Patience and ByuN showed us anything last year, a return to prominence is only a matter of being seen. Most of the work that goes into maintaining a spot in the upper echelon is done in the dark, where your greatest efforts can go unrewarded for weeks, months, years. The unfortunate truth is that hard work is seldom a reward in itself—how could it be, when one’s eyes are relentless fixed on the future?—and when there comes a time for effort to be measured, the scales don’t only measure your virtue against the feather of Ma’at. Surprises are due when the tables turn and we suddenly find that all the work that was put in can be rewarded, even if it feels long overdue. ByuN's fabled disappearance had become a tired joke before he resurfaced, finally ready to actualize the potential he displayed back when he was given a puppy for his performance.

I expect the same holds true for SpeCial. Delays happen, sometimes seemingly without a reason. Although SpeCial might never have disappeared, it is no stretch to say that he is better now than he has ever been, that what many (myself included) might have thought was his crowning achievement was in fact only a stepping stone. To see SpeCial climb to the heights that he has reached this year, with his particular aptitude for Legacy of the Void over Heart of the Swarm, has re-painted his image. Perhaps he never had a clear image. Perhaps he was never so clearly defined as those archetypical players, and therefore continues to confound - because he is ascribed characteristics that were never really his. What is clear is that SpeCial's 2017 has been many years in the making. To fight against seasoned GSL players on their home turf, to pass infamous qualifiers, to actually contend with players regularly described as being some of the world's best -- these are achievements in their own rights, of the kind that we must begrudgingly accept as immutable.

All of this is a roundabout way of saying Juan Carlos Tena Lopez is something special. His legacy offers no discernible peak, its records devoid of stunning victories and Herculean efforts, instead favoring bouts of consistency so long that they are perceived as background noise. SpeCial has flown under the radar not for being insufficient, but for remaining true to his established principles. Perhaps he once considered tethering himself to KeSPA and Proleague his ultimate goal, or those were road stops on his missions to become the best. It doesn’t really matter now. His life stands as a defiant assertion against the entropy inherent in this profession. One does not need to struggle in the dark forever, and old desires fulfilled can give birth to new ones. It is never too late to shine.