Some of my all-time favorite games were from Taeja. Always inspiring to watch him play late game TvP confidently back in the day. Shame he didn't quite deliver on the promise of nearly beating Serral right after Blizzcon 2018 but what a fantastic career nonetheless. Thanks for the memories, Taeja!

Stetkaer

Denmark23 Posts

May 12 2021 17:10 GMT

#43

Sad to see you go. You were one of my favourite players

Kaizor

Singapore909 Posts

May 12 2021 17:11 GMT

#44

His Blizzcon series against Inno and the-one-who-shall-not-be-named, are among the best sc2 games i have ever watched.

The summers of taeja, the many glorious games he showed us...

To me, he retired when he joined the army.

Thank you Taeja. You are truely one of the greats of SC2.

NonY

8751 Posts

May 12 2021 17:24 GMT

#45

one of my fav players to watch, up there with nada, jaedong and bisu

Noonius

Estonia17413 Posts

May 12 2021 18:49 GMT

#46

one of the classiest players of all time.

PyroNswe

Sweden23 Posts

May 12 2021 19:52 GMT

#47

An absolute legend. I think the most stunning games from him were from back in the day when he played Zergs under the Broodlord/Infestor era. And man did he dominate! just beautiful play! Reminds me of Clem these days.

PartyBiscuit

Canada4525 Posts

May 12 2021 20:49 GMT

#48

Best of luck, Taeja

Cokefreak

Finland8095 Posts

May 12 2021 21:13 GMT

#49

Farewell TaeJa!

Waxangel

United States33581 Posts

May 12 2021 21:59 GMT

#50

TaeJa vs INnoVation forever!

I remember TaeJa saying way back in the day that he might become a social studies teacher after he was done progaming. I wonder if he's actually going to chase that goal

ZerOCoolSC2

9037 Posts

May 12 2021 22:27 GMT

#51

I think my favorite memory was being a moderator on his Twitch. One night, he's going against a zerg (I think) and was basically dead. Had the GG typed out and everything. Then he just said nah, erased it, and then went on and battled back and took the game. Was a good 15 minutes or so of him just scrapping out a win and it was the most amazing thing. Then he did it against Zest and I wasn't as surprised because I knew he could do it.

TaeJa provided a lot of great games either on his own stream or in tournaments that cannot be duplicated. You just had to root for him. HSC GOAT.

Kitai

United States880 Posts

May 12 2021 22:30 GMT

#52

Farewell (again) to my favorite player ever. Forgive the copied shitpost, but this feels appropriate:

Our lord Taeja, who art in Korea, hallowed be thy macro. Thy Orbital come, thy +3 be done, on ladder as it is in IEM. Give us this day our daily cheese, and forgive us our BM as we forgive those who BM against us. Lead us not into all-ins, but deliver us from Protoss. For thine is the 3rd CC, and the MULES, and the Stim, for ever and ever. Amen.

BronzeKnee

United States5219 Posts

May 12 2021 23:51 GMT

#53

TaeJa vs INnoVation in the WCS Season 3 Finals of 2013 has a strong case to be called THE single best game ever played (even Blizzard agrees).

TaeJa didn't make the 2013 WCS Season 3 Finals. That amazing game happened during the 2013 WCS Season 2 Finals. Even Blizzard says so.\

Good luck TaeJa. And have fun.

[Phantom]

Mexico2170 Posts

May 13 2021 03:18 GMT

#54

Taeja was a great player. I kind of started to root against him when TL.net put him as the ( I think) 3rd best player of all time in the power rankings, which tainted my view of him.

However there's no doubt he is in the top 15 of all time (don't know which number, but not top 3). He played very well, specially considering he was in a foreigner team. Not only that, he is a historically significant player for the SC2 global scene and for TL, so he definitely deserves a spot in the Hall of Fame of Starcraft.