EPT![[image loading]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/puckman/jdflash.png)
Leaving aside moot questions like which is Nadal and which is Federer, or what it means to be the "Greatest of All Time" there can be no debate that
Flash and 
Jaedong are two of the best players Brood War has ever seen, and have been for years. Their primes have been contemporaneous: they have combined to dominate both Starleagues as well as the KeSPA ranking since early 2008 (9 of 17 Starleague titles, counting the current MSL); 26 of 30 months #1 in the KeSPA ranking [with 
Stork and Bisu accounting for the 4-month hiatus]). Their extremely close head-to-head record includes many high-stake games and several classics.+ Show Spoiler [classic] +The Inexorable Terran
Unfortunately, the sobriquet
Perfect Terran was assigned long ago, but if anyone ever deserved that title, he is certainly Flash: both for the perfection of his play and for its "Terran-ness". Flash is known for the careful, methodical, and above all safe nature of his approach to the game. Although in interviews, Flash likes to say that he takes one match at a time, his overall approach is almost the diametric opposite of this: it might be more correct to say that Flash takes one match-up at a time. Whether it's 14CC or one-rax CC, Flash goes for literally months at a time playing the same opening nearly every game, to the extent that to the untrained eye, it seems almost ludicrous to expect that he will continue to win each time, with his opponent knowing exactly what to expect. Yet win he does, with a consistency that is reflected in the astonishingly high winning percentage of 70.42% (as of this writing, per TLPD.)The reason behind this counter-intuitive consistency is that Flash does not simply develop openings--he develops entire systems. Behind the bland, pre-fab facade of each of Flash's build orders lies an extensive, meticulously prepared system of tiny tweaks and adjustments that aims to account for every possible response his opponent can throw at him, at every stage. From his notorious double-armory build and later refinements on the Fake Double against Protoss, to his aggressive expansionism vs. Terran, to his early M&M groups and pressure attacks against Zerg, Flash has revolutionized more match-ups more times than any other pro-gamer in history. Stork is known for the outstanding builds he prepares for individual games, but Flash's preparation goes far beyond this: he designs builds that are meant to work for every game--no matter whom his opponent is or what he does. And, indeed, even when Flash is 'slumping', all but the very best players in a given match-up find it almost impossible to stop him. More than any other S-class progamer, Flash is known for consistently beating the players that he "should" beat.
The downside of such extensive preparation is that, if and when opponents manage to adapt to Flash's systems, he is slow to react. Except within the framework of one of his systems, Flash rarely improvises in games; if a hole has been poked in one of Flash's watertight builds, he will go down with his ship--at times he will even go into a slump until he manages to build an entirely new system from the ground up. The classic example of this happening was late 2009, when Flash's stubborn fast-expands and turret skimping against Zergs led to a string of losses to 2-hatch muta. But these vulnerable moments are few and far-between, and excepting those rare times when his system has been compromised, Flash's formidable, well-prepared gameplay is possibly the hardest nut to crack in all of Starcraft.
In his well-prepared, consummately "safe" approach to the game, Flash seems to exemplify the Terran race. Terrans are known and feared as the toughest opponents to beat, when they are entrenched. With their floatable buildings, repair ability, siege tanks, bunkers and turrets, Terrans who have had the time to set up defenses can hold a position against far greater numbers, and the strongest army in the game is a Terran army that has been allowed to build to maximum supply and upgrades.
Terrans are typically slower to expand than other races, but they make up for that by making the most of what they do have. If you were given just one base that you must hold on to at all costs, and told to pick a race, you could surely do no better than choosing Terran. In fact, Terrans exemplify the philosophy of, "Put all your eggs in one basket--and watch that basket."
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images/4/4d/FlashFace.png)
"watch that basket!"
The downside of this philosophy is that if your basket breaks, or runs out of room to hold your eggs, then you are in trouble. The Terran weakness is immobility: Terrans are most vulnerable in transition, when they have just unsieged their tanks, for instance, and haven't had time to siege up again, or when a recall or doom drop hits their main when the army's away, or when they are trying to set up a new base, if they don't have map control. At those moments when their existing framework does not suffice to cover all their weak points, Terrans become vulnerable.
On the other hand, when things go well for a Terran, they can go very well. If your one basket doesn't break and you don't need another yet, you don't even lose even a single egg. When an opponent hurls armies against you time and again, and every one of them seems to break without doing anything, it's easy to see why Terran can seem overpowered. It's no coincidence that the most vocal outcries of "IMBA!" have always been heard against Terran--and against Flash.
The Volatile Zerg
Zerg are almost the polar opposites of Terran. If Terrans are a race of concrete and steel, Zerg are a race of...well, shifting purple ooze. Even in game lore, Zerg are the adaptable, opportunistic race, quick to evolve in any direction where they find a niche. This is true in game play as well: the strongest attribute of the Zerg is their flexibility. Destroy a base of theirs and they'll just set it up again somewhere else. Fail to scout for too long, and they'll have completely switched tech before you know it. Supply for supply, cost for cost, in a time and place that has been chosen and agreed in advance, a Zerg are no match for Terran, but in an actual game, the Zerg will never let the Terran pick his battles. They attack from unexpected angles, at unexpected times, whenever or wherever they find an opening; if they lose a battle, they will tactically retreat, and regroup again somewhere else.
The current leader of the swarm, Lee Jaedong, perfectly embodies his race's characteristics. In some ways he is the opposite of Flash, and of Terran: whereas with the former, you know exactly what is coming--and can't do anything about it--one of the most fearsome things about Jaedong is his unpredictability. His standard game is every inch good enough to make it a devastating threat in its own right, but if an opponent cuts corners to gain an economic boost against Jaedong's standard game, he runs the risk of dying to mass lings, or mutas, or hydras, or lurkers, or any of a dozen deaths that Jaedong is capable of inflicting with impeccable micro--and usually does at least once in any best-of-5 series.
On the few occasions when Flash cheeses, his cheese is usually exquisitely planned, and almost never all-in. Jaedong, on the other hand, will commit to a 4- or a 5-pool without ever blinking an eye.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/riptide/proleague200809/pl_sf_jaedongstare.jpg)
ever
But Jaedong doesn't have to flip the all-in switch to destroy his opponents before they have the chance to react. Jaedong is famous for his peerless tactical game sense: if he sees even the sliver of an opportunity, he will decisively attack, without stopping to weigh pros and cons. Rarely, if ever, does hesitation cost Jaedong an opportunity to win. On the other hand, unlike Kwanro, who can technically boast the same thing, Jaedong's Starcraft transmission is not permanently locked on "attack": he is as quick to retreat, should the tide of battle run against him. No one--not even Flash--is quicker than Jaedong to reckon up a situation in the moment and act on it.
In the short run, the unpredictability of his play means that on any given day, Jaedong can lose to anyone, even a Hyuk. Even Jaedong's dominance of ZvZ cannot be relied on to save him if he goes 12-hatch against 9-pool speed. Yet Jaedong does go 12-hatch in ZvZ, frequently, even against lesser opponents, a fact that occasionally confuses people. What they do not realize is that the very fact that he cannot be relied on to go with a "safe" opening like 12-pool contributes to this dominance, even if here and there it loses him a game or two. And in the long run, "JvZ" has been the most one-sided match-up in the game.
In the same manner, though he frequently drops a game or two along the way, Jaedong almost never loses a best-of-five series. There may be many reasons for this, but at least one of them surely is that while Jaedong can (and does) prepare for his opponents, his opponents cannot prepare for him.
Flash, the consummate Terran, is a safe player. He likes to be in control of every aspect, both of his surroundings (his famous ruler-measured setup), and of the game: this is both his strength and his weakness. If Flash were Zerg, he would probably go 12-pool almost every game--but Flash could not be a Zerg. It is almost impossible to imagine him as such. Flash is the ultimate Terran.
The only man who can be mentioned in the same sentence as Flash, Lee Jaedong, stands opposite him in almost every way--their constant clashes in finals being the very least of these. Where Flash is a master strategist, Jaedong is a master tactician. Where Flash is inevitable, Jaedong is unanticipable.
Flash is steel; Jaedong is quicksilver. Flash is yin; Jaedong is yang. Flash is Terran; Jaedong is Zerg.
The twain are Starcraft.
![[image loading]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/puckman/jdflash2.png)
+ Show Spoiler [fine print] +
I started writing this three months ago, before the first JD/Flash MSL, but I didn't have the energy to finish, and I put it aside and didn't think of it again until today, when the upcoming final and hype surrounding it inspired me to dig this out and finish it. I did a rush job, I'm afraid and ordinarily I might have polished it a bit more, but I wanted to post it before the final tonight, and I won't have time to do it later. Sorry for the lack of pictures to break up the text, links to document it, spiffy things to spiffify it, and any other lack that resulted.
Credit to riptide and polgas for the pictures which I shamelessly stole for this post.
Credit to riptide and polgas for the pictures which I shamelessly stole for this post.
