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Over the past couple of months I have found that I enjoy StarCraft more as a spectator than as a player. The game has finally transcended the boundaries of just being a game and become something more for me. It’s become an e-sport.
Not only does StarCraft provide interesting games to watch but also brings us interviews, drama and new topics of discussion appearing more or less every day on the forums. The StarCraft community has grown and flourished and the level of competitive play has never been higher than it is right now.
Naturally, the reason that StarCraft has become so evolved is due to all the things that have happened in the scene in the past. Without the efforts of gamers and organizers of yesterday, professional StarCraft would look a lot different today than it does.
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images/0/03/Nal_rABio.jpg) What would StarCraft have looked like without players like Nal_rA?
Being interested in history as I am, I have since I found out about professional gaming and Teamliquid tried to dig into the history of StarCraft. To me, these trips to times of StarCraft I never experienced, have been a thrill and a hobby. Without Teamliquid and similar sites, I wouldn’t have had that opportunity.
Had it not been for the countless hours nerds have spent on documenting StarCraft and all the texts that have been written about players and their impact on the scene, I wouldn’t have been able to take these trips back to the past and I wouldn’t have known who  Nal rA, H.O.T-Forever or TheMarine were.
Of course, the first name I encountered while digging through the vaults of StarCraft history, should come as no surprise.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Manifesto7/boxernum1.jpg) SlayerS_`BoxeR`, the Terran Emperor.
Even before I discovered Teamliquid I had heard of BoxeR. Even for somebody who knew as little about StarCraft progaming as I did, I still had heard of him.
BoxeR’s uniqueness and his innovations along with his diligent efforts to promote e-sports are most likely what has made him be able to make a name for himself even outside the circle of StarCraft professional gaming followers. In fact, I am not alone in knowing of Lim Yo Hwan prior to watching professional StarCraft. He has become an icon of e-sports and somebody who is known to a broader audience.
In many ways, this fact reminds me of Pelé. While I am definitely not “in the know” when it comes to football (or soccer for all you Americans), I still have heard of him and odds are that I am far from alone in that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QEmnP48PEc
It’s hard to argue that Pelé wasn’t influencial when it comes to football.
BoxeR and Pelé are part of a small handful of players whom people who never even saw them play still can “remember”. People who weren’t present back in the prime of these players still occasionally talk about the “good ol’ days”. I am one of those people.
Players like BoxeR and Pelé stand out and are remembered more than other contemporaries or even their predecessors. We remember them as the giants the were and the legends they have become, while others, whom also had huge impacts on the scene, fade away in our collective memory. Because for every Pelé out there, there is an Arthur Friedenreich.
Arthur “The Tiger” Friedenreich
Arthur was a star of his time and has scored more goals than any other football player in the world ever, perhaps only surpassed by Pelé depending on how credible some of FIFA’s records are.
These days I doubt that very many have heard of him, even amongst those who follow football actively today.
The same can be said within our community too. While everybody knows who BoxeR is, how many of you know who this man is?
Do you recognize this man?
No? Well, let me go so far as even stating his name and ID.
His name is 이기석 (Lee Kee Seok) and he is better known under the ID SSamJang.
While I am sure that a lot of the people who have been around and observed the StarCraft scene since the beginning know who SsamJang is, I am willing to bet that the majority of the newer StarCraft fans have no idea.
Back in the days, before BoxeR rose to fame, SsamJang was the superstar of StarCraft. He was the face of StarCraft and the person who was in the frontline of promoting it. Before BoxeR took the place as figurehead of e-sports, SsamJang was there, appearing in commercials and representing StarCraft to a wider audience. If you knew one Korean progamer by appearance and reputation, odds are that it was SsamJang.
In fact, even BoxeR looked up to him and saw him as a source of inspiration. Many are the players who have been inspired by the Emperor. Well, SsamJang was one of those who inspired BoxeR. SsamJang was pretty much the hottest name on the scene for the time.
These days, who remembers him amongst us gamers? If BoxeR is the Pelé of StarCraft, SsamJang is the Friedenreich.
To put things in perspective, Friedenreich was born in 1892. SsamJang in 1980. That’s how fast we forget.
If it only takes us say 10 years or so to forget about SsamJang, then what does this mean about the future of StarCraft? In ten years from now, will gamers have an idea who Flash was? What about Jaedong, Bisu or Stork? Is it that unreasonable to think that the future generations of gamers, who might not even have played StarCraft 1 and instead grew up with its sequel, will have no idea who these players were? I don’t think so.
This is why Teamliquid and Liquipedia matters for us StarCraft gamers. Not only is it a way for us to discuss what is going on the the scene today, it’s also a way for us to remember what happened yesterday. Teamliquid serves as the anthill to which we all contribute.
Together we all form the collective memory that is Teamliquid.
This is where you all come in. Yes, you. Everybody who visits this site can contribute to it and to Liquipedia. Wait, wait. I know what you are thinking. You are thinking “but I know nothing about StarCraft history or about StarCraft strategy! How can I possibly contribute with anything?”.
You can and I am going to tell you how.
There is one thing that is true about StarCraft as a spectator sport and that has made it survive for so long. It’s exciting to watch. Forget about the issues of balance for now. Forget about build orders, army positioning and strategy for a while. Let’s look at StarCraft as entertainment.
Everybody who has watched StarCraft matches has that one game that blew their mind. We all have seen matches that amazed us. Editing Liquipedia isn’t harder or more requiring than thinking of a game that stands out in your mind and then go to Liquipedia and add it as a notable game from the league that it was played in. Sounds simple? It is. Why should you do it? Because otherwise, how shall we and future gamers remember the things that made the StarCraft of today and yesterday so amazing? It’s not just the players and the scholars that make StarCraft a great game; it’s the audience as well.
There is more to do. Interviews have been held, royalty free photographs have been taken, videos have been produced and texts have been written. Adding these as references to Liquipedia is also something can and should be done and that doesn’t take any vast knowledge of StarCraft to do.
We need to make Liquipedia great. We need to do it for the sake of e-sports and for the sake of future gamers. Let’s make the legacy of StarCraft not be forgotten ten years from now. Let’s write it down.
/Slugbreath
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Amazing article that should be front page'd instantly =)
I completely agree with everything you wrote. If we all care about promoting StarCraft as an esport or even a culturally significant medium, everyone has to contribute to its history because the history and impact of StarCraft is what makes it so unique.
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Dang a sub 200 poster creating an excellent OP? Awesome. Enjoyed reading.
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Osaka27154 Posts
Into the front page spotlight.
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On March 16 2010 21:17 Slugbreath wrote:
In ten years from now, will gamers have an idea who Flash was? What about Jaedong, Bisu or Stork? Is it that unreasonable to think that the future generations of gamers, who might not even have played StarCraft 1 and instead grew up with its sequel, will have no idea who these players were? I don’t think so.
Anyone remotely familiar with modern korean sc will know who Flash and Jaedong are. I know the point you are trying to make but together they are to the current scene what Boxer was to the scene in his prime.
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Damn a fellow swede producing such an excellent article, good job man 
Liquipedia will definantly serve as a documentation for an epic era in the e-sport history.
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Osaka27154 Posts
On March 16 2010 21:32 Crunchums wrote:Show nested quote +On March 16 2010 21:17 Slugbreath wrote:
In ten years from now, will gamers have an idea who Flash was? What about Jaedong, Bisu or Stork? Is it that unreasonable to think that the future generations of gamers, who might not even have played StarCraft 1 and instead grew up with its sequel, will have no idea who these players were? I don’t think so. Anyone remotely familiar with modern korean sc will know who Flash and Jaedong are. I know the point you are trying to make but together they are to the current scene what Boxer was to the scene in his prime.
I totally disagree. While they may perfect the game, neither of them are the innovator or ambassador that Boxer is. Read the Boxer and Tossgirl interview for his thoughts on how these two need to better place themselves in the world of e-sports. For this reason, they are more forgettable than Boxer.
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It's great to read and learn about Starcraft, but the most important thing is the games themselves. My biggest fear for Starcraft is losing the VODs. I don't know what most people would do without Jon747/nevake. TL's tracker has a good collection, but the older ones lack seeders (something that could be corrected if it was made private).
I read that BoxeR once had an official DVD of his games released. Fingers crossed that a Flash or Jaedong DVD is released one day. I would gladly pay for something that I have enjoyed for free for so long.
EDIT: Great OP. It's good to see people still put effort into creating threads. Off to Liquipedia I go!
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Thank you for this amazing writeup.
The effort to document all this history and lore in Liquipedia is extremely important. I hope someone with the skills can turn it into a book some day (perhaps a community project too? although I have doubts about collaborative narrative writing).
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Russian Federation405 Posts
Nice reading! GJ Slugbreath!
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Canada5565 Posts
On March 16 2010 21:59 J1.au wrote:
It's great to read and learn about Starcraft, but the most important thing is the games themselves. My biggest fear for Starcraft is losing the VODs. I don't know what most people would do without Jon747/nevake. TL's tracker has a good collection, but the older ones lack seeders (something that could be corrected if it was made private).
I read that BoxeR once had an official DVD of his games released. Fingers crossed that a Flash or Jaedong DVD is released one day. I would gladly pay for something that I have enjoyed for free for so long.
I made a blog a while ago asking about DVDs of OSL/MSL, didn't hear of any.
I've also been thinking of this recently, as I'm pretty new to StarCraft progaming there are a TON of games I haven't seen with Oov and some of the other older players. There's also the fact that I don't want to lose games by Jaedong either when he becomes a figure of the past.
So yeah, I really hope VODs are preserved. When I get my new computer I think I'm going to download a ton of games from youtube if I can't find them anywhere else. Not the best quality but better than nothing.
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Osaka27154 Posts
On March 16 2010 21:59 J1.au wrote:
It's great to read and learn about Starcraft, but the most important thing is the games themselves. My biggest fear for Starcraft is losing the VODs. I don't know what most people would do without Jon747/nevake. TL's tracker has a good collection, but the older ones lack seeders (something that could be corrected if it was made private).
Many of those torrents were from sources and people outside TL, thus the death. Nevake is the TL youtube account though, so we can keep those.
I read that BoxeR once had an official DVD of his games released. Fingers crossed that a Flash or Jaedong DVD is released one day. I would gladly pay for something that I have enjoyed for free for so long.
The DVD was more of a biography / highlight games rather than just all his games put together. Someone on TL has it though, we should rip it.
EDIT: Great OP. It's good to see people still put effort into creating threads. Off to Liquipedia I go!
There is also the Boxer biography that was translated. Here is a link to the blog. http://boxerbiography.blogspot.com/
Maybe your first contribution could be importing that blog to liquipedia so we don't lose it if the blogspot site goes down.
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FREEAGLELAND26781 Posts
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great great article. loved the read, thank you slugbreath ^>^
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On March 16 2010 21:59 J1.au wrote:
It's great to read and learn about Starcraft, but the most important thing is the games themselves. My biggest fear for Starcraft is losing the VODs. I don't know what most people would do without Jon747/nevake. TL's tracker has a good collection, but the older ones lack seeders (something that could be corrected if it was made private).
I read that BoxeR once had an official DVD of his games released. Fingers crossed that a Flash or Jaedong DVD is released one day. I would gladly pay for something that I have enjoyed for free for so long.
EDIT: Great OP. It's good to see people still put effort into creating threads. Off to Liquipedia I go!
I heartily agree. We should make more of an effort to preserve VODs. Getting them on to youtube is a start (here's to hoping Google doesn't die anytime soon) but it would be good if we could put out some compilation torrents (not sure about legal ramifications).
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On March 16 2010 22:10 Manifesto7 wrote:
The DVD was more of a biography / highlight games rather than just all his games put together. Someone on TL has it though, we should rip it.
really? who? I have been looking for it and havent find it =(... I even ask my boss when he went to China last year to look for it but couldn't find it either...
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Hungary11304 Posts
This is such a cool read. Thanks Slugbreath!
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The problem with preserving VODs is the fact that once the nevake account is deleted all is lost.
Same goes for teamliquid.net
I dont know if any of the staff has a full backup of the DB. I suppose only Smuft and few progarammers have it. If the circumstances are bad (e.g. smuft dies + the hosting company shuts down), all backups might be lost with all the articles.
Of course in theory there is web archive, but it doesnt really work.
Ive seen multiple forums "die" in this way - due to lack of backups - even damn big forums; like blizzforums.
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Great post, took half my class to read it, i kept getting distracted xD
I love that graphic of the carrier, looks so cool. And nice ant hill!~ 
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i731.photobucket.com/albums/ww316/Slugbreath/Anthill.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/Arthur_friedenreich.jpg/150px-Arthur_friedenreich.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://img88.exs.cx/img88/1483/ibbayi_11.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Ameisenbau-1.jpg)
