Written by Mizenhauer
Photo by TakeTV


Not every player is a champion, and that’s perfectly fine. Only ten players have kissed the GSL trophy in the last five years, leaving the majority to watch on wistfully.

It doesn’t doom one to a life of anonymity, through. Proleague gave Billowy and Guilty their fifteen (plus) minutes of fame in otherwise pedestrian careers. In the case of players like Rogue, TY and Stats, they were recognized long before they won championships for how well they played at their best. In the abstract, it’s easy to seperate players into two groups: champions and everyone else. But everyone who’s watched enough StarCraft II knows that things are much more complicated. Every player, each in their own place, is deserving of consideration.

Yet, for every player like TY and Stats, who fulfilled their potential in storybook fashion, there are even more players like Cure who have hit their ceiling. Cure has reached the GSL round of 4 twice, playing some excellent games along the way, but he never took that final step. His flashes of brilliance were just that: a flash.

And yet again, there are even more pros that don’t even reach Cure’s level. They remain mired in the early rounds of GSL, or in various other qualifiers. It’s not that they are “bad” in any objective sense—taking into account the hundreds of thousands of people who have played StarCraft II—but they are light years away from someone like INnoVation when he stood on top of the scene. They can easily count themselves among the top 50 players in the world, but when the field is narrowed down to 16, they are the first ones booted out the door. Whether it's an inability to keep up with monolithic macro, match surgical micro, learn every possibly proxy location or simply maintain their composure, they get exposed as pretenders, damned to a sputtering career of falling short.

Somewhere in the middle, is a certain Zerg who’s not quite Cure and not quite Guilty. We’ve been well acquainted with him long before he even made his WCS Korea debut. Impact was part of the central trio in the esports documentary State of Play, which offered a glimpse into the life of those who aspire to play StarCraft professionally. Breaking through in a hyper competitive scene was every bit as exhaustive as we would have imagined. The documentary left off with Impact still looking up to established superstars like his favorite player Jaedong. Five years later, Impact has reached his goal of being a professional gamer. But he’s still firmly entrenched below those who might be considered the new-age Jaedongs.

That’s not to say Impact’s career hasn’t been without its bright spots. He reached the finals of Dreamhack Bucharest in 2014, and became a “Royal Roader” in the VSL. Context is everything, though. TY’s success heralded future triumphs. Cure’s runs left us satisfied, our beliefs affirmed that every dog can indeed have his day. Impact’s greatest achievements leave us both tantalized and disappointed. They beg the question “how has he not done more?”



Impact is not the first player who comes to mind when you think of mechanical prowess, but his high octane playstyle is immediately recognizable. His natural sense for when to transition from defense to offense allows him to strike when the iron is hot. His ability to identify and even create openings in the defense pairs well with his ability to harass effectively. Impact has created a brand of play which allows him to press the tempo and command the pace of the game, thereby overcoming his shortcomings.

At the same time, his reliance on the those aspects of his play can also put him in freefall. Impact is at his strongest in the early and mid game. He is most comfortable on lair tech and has displayed a lack of proficiency as supply counts rise and tech routes reach their final destinations. He is stubborn and has a rigid playstyle—that's sometimes a strength but also makes it incredibly difficult to adapt to games which go off the rails.

It was his strengths that allowed Impact to win VSL Season 1 in 2017, a live tournament packed with Code S regulars. He reverse swept Zest in the semifinals, and then won a resounding 3-0 victory over herO in the grand final. Impact’s third game against Zest was particularly notable, as he throttled Zest with relentless harassment, tech switches, and attacks. The finals only went three games, but they were all Impact needed to impress us again. In game one, he hit a crisp timing with queens and ravagers. In game two, he chained together mutalisks, ravagers, and lurkers to leverage harassment into an unassailable lead. Finally, he ended the series with a traditional macro game.

These games are rare, but hardly seem uncharacteristic. They are defined by elements of Impact’s overall approach to the game that are present in his losses as well as his victories. When Impact wins big, it doesn’t feel like an inexplicable aberration—rather, it feels like everything finally coming together. When Impact qualified for IEM Katowice earlier this month—notching wins over soO, sOs and herO along the way—it wasn’t due to any massive change in his style. He played the same way to which we have grown accustomed, just better.



A Dreamhack second place and VSL victory are accomplishments worthy of respect, but GSL Code S will forever be the ultimate metric by which Korean StarCraft II players are measured. It is an arena in which Impact has been an abject failure. Despite playing StarCraft II since 2012, he didn’t even make it to Code S until 2016. He’s been a terror on the KR ladder for years, but failed to qualify for the first GSL of 2017 as even the #1 ranked ladder player. It was far from the first time that Impact had dropped out in the qualifiers, but that particular instance perfectly characterized how GSL has become a roadblock in Impact’s career. Back when Code A still existed, it tripped Impact up regardless of its specific incarnation (be it the new age bo5’s or the traditional four-player group). On the two occasions Impact did make it to Code S, he went out in the round of 32. Overall, Impact has a 3-11 lifetime record in GSL.

The most confounding thing about Impact’s shortcomings in the GSL is that there is simply no rhyme or reason to it. When Impact authoritatively 3-0’d herO in the VSL finals, it should have forced us to change our perception of him as a perennial disappointment. Unfortunately, that VSL victory came ONE DAY after he was eliminated from Code S by semi-retiree Losira. Impact’s problem isn’t a lack of talent. It’s not that he is incapable of concocting a strategy and executing it. What has kept Impact’s career stuck in place is the simple fact that he can never bring forth the best version of himself in the holy land of StarCraft II: the GSL.

Surely someone who has dominated ladder and experienced success elsewhere should have managed a better record. Perhaps the format is what’s getting in his way. The Code S groups require intense study and meticulous preparation—for whatever reason this process runs counter to Impact’s freewheeling, cowboy style. Aiming for the finals might be wishful thinking, since Impact was never cut from from the same cloth as prototypical champions like INnoVation, Zest or Rain. However, a few round of 16 appearances, maybe a quarterfinals or two would hardly be too much to ask for. Given Impact’s ability, one might even dare say they’d be deserved. Players like Hurricane, Bunny, Losira and Leenock have been passing the final Round of 16 spots between them like hot potatoes the fast few years. Why couldn’t Impact have taken their place on even just one occasion?

Impact will never be INnoVation and run roughshod over an entire scene. He will never be Rogue, who realized his potential and became a world champion. He will never be Cure who played out of his mind for a fleeting moment. Not every player is a champion and that’s perfectly fine. But Impact has all the tools to become just a little bit more.

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