by mizenhauer
- Mizenhauer


It’s astonishing how a few months can completely alter public perception. It only takes weeks, and the slow maturation of years, for someone to walk the royal road and go from unknown entity to center of the universe. It takes an equally short time for a perennial favorite to fall from grace. Players fall victim to the capricious ebbs and flows of form all the time, forcing the community to constantly reassess where everyone stands. Even the elite trade spots constantly in their unacknowledged game of musical chairs.

IEM Katowice yielded the first acknowledgment of what many had surmised: Rogue had indeed let his play decline. He admitted his focus had waned after BlizzCon. He still had all the talent in the world, though, and the means to unlock it again. He said his expectations were low heading into the tournament, though that could have been typical Korean-pro modesty. After all victory is the sweetest draught. Could anyone believe Rogue was satisfied never tasting it again?

Remaining hungry is a prerequisite to maintaining a position among the upper echelon. It’s nearly impossible to win a championship in such a hyper competitive scene—one can spend an entire career with dreams of carving their name into history—but that’s not even the hardest thing to do in StarCraft II. A champion’s greatest challenge is coming back and doing it again. How does one push themselves when their dream has become reality? What more is there beyond being the best? Whatever struggle arises or distraction enters to deter one’s focus, a champion finds the motivation to push through the wall ad infinitum. Apropos of such a task, it was only by doing so that Rogue reached and won the WCS Global Finals in such improbable fashion.

As Rogue flew west to Katowice, he must have felt a lifetime removed from his perfect BlizzCon victory. All the praise and adulation which came with it was been slowly replaced with frustration and haplessness. Rogue’s 2018 started with one failed qualifier run after another. He was knocked out of GSL by Scarlett, a result magnified by both parties’ eminence. It wasn’t clear what was wrong, but the element which had made Rogue so magnificent was now absent. For him, such a quick descent was the stuff of nightmares.

The manner in which Rogue charged to the top of the scene last year made doubt infectious. His rise was dizzying, an unexpected turn given the lack of omens in the four years preceding it. He made the impossible possible by winning IEM: Shanghai and the second Super Tournament in a two month span. His path saw him rise from unequivocal dark horse, a second-tier performer who reached a semifinal once in a blue moon, to the final qualifier for BlizzCon. It took magic repurposed from the greatest fairy tales, but Rogue wrote an epic in which he stood as the undisputed king of StarCraft II, the Gosu Trophy cradled in his arms.

His dip in form afterwards could only be classified as deflating. If we expected Rogue to continue cutting a swath through the scene after the WCS Global Finals, we were justified in questioning him as he failed to live up to expectations. While the naysayers remained assured he would recapture his brilliance, proclamations didn’t stop them from pouring over all the available data in search of answers. Statistics didn’t yield an immediate answer and the conundrum had no expiration date. If Rogue knew why he was languishing, he wasn’t talking. He wasn’t just answering the fans who made him the butt of jokes. He was staring failure straight in the face, weathering his own disappointment. Rogue was reaping what he sowed. Behind closed doors, Rogue rededicated himself to the grind.

January 13th was the day he got demoted from Code S. Now, spring is right around the corner and that cold winter night is oh so far away. Rogue stormed back with a vengeance at Katowice. He looked excellent in the group stage and RO12, showcasing his signature grit, wiles and muscle against the best two Terrans in the world. Despite Classic’s breathtaking results since BlizzCon, Rogue had his sights set on reclaiming his rightful throne. In what was feverishly anticipated as a bout of heavyweights, Rogue dispatched the supposed best player in the world as if he was a rank amateur. In one week Rogue had gone from fading giant to impossible to forget.



Rogue's precipitous fall after such a meteoric rise demanded some suspicion. We had seen brilliant comets flare out before. The reigning Global Champion could have been the perfect sacrificial lamb, his blood consecrating a new legend: TY's world title unification, Maru's salvation of the Terran race, or Classic's long awaited ascension. Instead, Rogue reminded us that he is still the story of StarCraft II. For now, he is no longer in danger of falling to a primus inter pares role. The once muddied picture is suddenly clear as day. What was written about his BlizzCon victory still holds true:

"Rogue is Jin Air’s newest world champion. He is worthy of this distinction in every sense of the word. He is Stats’ consistency, soO’s determination and INnoVation’s dominance combined to form the ultimate StarCraft II player. We have no way of knowing whether or not his victories will continue to pile up. It’s yet to be seen if he is one day considered the GOAT or if this was a flash in the pan and he slips back into the rank and file. Rogue escaped his past and formed a present all his own. What comes next isn’t important. What’s now is perfect."

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