EPT
free is yet another under-appreciated dragon whose career peaked around 2009, much like BeSt's belated experience on SKT, being a senior member, boasting impressive stats in two matches and eventually overshadowed by breakouts from teammates later down the line. It might be completely unknown to some readers to find out that free held the top 3 spot in PvZ ELO peak rating for years until Stork eventually barely broke it in 2011 (2209 > 2197). It is peculiar to note such striking similarities in the career paths of the protoss dragons, down to the minutest of details. A generational transition
free's career began on Hanbit stars (to be Woongjin Stars) when he was drafted into the roster in the second draft of 2005. Caught inbetween an older generation of legends who are either retiring or slowly passing their prime on Hanbit Stars such as 
H.O.T-Forever, GGPlay, 
Sync, Reach (indeed not many now know that H.O.T-Forever and Reach's 2v2 team on Hanbit Stars used to be the most formidable combo in history), Sunny, control, there was a great vacuum of talent in new recruits on Hanbit Stars, whose roster in 2003 was filled with League champions, yet now has to depend on the one two punch of their 2v2 combos to make it far into team leagues. With H.O.T-Forever leaving the captaincy to military service in early 2006, there were big shoes left unfilled in Hanbit Stars, and the team's performance despite best intentions would never recapture their 2004 peak. free[gm]'s beginnings went largely unnoticed in offline preliminaries as though he managed to qualify multiple times for Starleagues, he always dropped out in the first 1 or 2 rounds. His first televised match being during the K-SWISS ODT where he dropped 1-2 in uninspiring manner, despite having already defeated YellOw[ArnC], NaDa, and a budding Calm in the preliminaries. Being one of the few players on Hanbit now who could qualify for the WCG in 2006 and showing some infrequent appearance on the proleague roster, free's proleague record went off on an extremely rough start, sporting a 0-2 in WCG to Sync and a 1-6 in round 1 of 2006 SKY Proleague, having gotten extremely rough picks in sAviOr, iloveoov, Stork, Jaedong (who he won against) and ChoJJa. Similar to other protoss dragons free too started displaying an affinity for winning two match ups and being thoroughly uninspired in the third, sporting impressive games against Zergs and Terrans with PvP being a toss up. Despite a much better record in Round 2 (7-4), he continued to fail to make it out of the group stages of the Gomtv MSL S1 and second ODT 2006, dropping both 1-2. It would take another year for free to make his break out performances. A free spirited Star
Hanbit Stars was in very dire straits in 2007, the only previous hopes for the team in the 2v2 combos were faltering with
DaezanG joining the army and GGPlay in a slump after his OSL win. It seemed that no body was able to fill the shoes of the previous star players, free had just dropped out of his ODT group again to a rising Bisu and Flash (a trend that is hard to not notice, for every time free posted subpar records it is to the most staunch competition), no one had put any trust in the ability of someone who seemed to be a relative rookie. Despite being the only person on the team whose pulling any weight, it was reported that free was only making ~5000 to 6000 USD a year, which is paltry when compared with the extravagant salaries of other star players at the time.http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=49725#8
Hanbit
GGPlay, Kim Joonyoung - $23,000 - 4.2006-3.2007
DaezanG[GnH], Park Daemahn - $18,000 - 4.2006-3.2007
Free[gm], Yoon Yongtae - $6,000 - 4.2006-3.2007
Yet being a true star at heart,
free overcame these difficulties and started pulling off amazing records in proleague. Boasting a 17-7 and 15-12 record in R1 and R2 of Shinhan 07, these statistics may not look impressive, but just a glance at the quality of opponents that he had to face speaks volumes, being placed against the TBLS on a regular basis before their popular reception, forced to struggle withthe aces of other teams routinely in Reach, BoxeR, Midas, Anytime, sAviOr, and Sea due to the lack of depth on the Hanbit roster. free would continue to be Stars's unanimous ace for years to come. Taken for granted
Much like other fundamental freedoms and rights won off the backs of unanimous work houses and unsung heroes,
free's contribution would go relatively unnoticed for the next two years, mainly due to the failure to reach the Ro4 in Singles Leagues. Being the best player on a slumping team is never glamorous, free continued to fail to receive positive attention despite boasting better records than other team aces due to Stars failing to be serious championship contenders. Unwilling to simply be dismissed as someone who could only PvZ, when he was sent out on the ace match against Sea, he produced a match worthy of the meeting of these two team league champions. Spotlight:
free vs Sea Shinhan Proleague 2007 Ace Match+ Show Spoiler +
His run in WCG 2007 was also very impressive, sporting 2-1 wins over both undisputed proleague kings
Midas and Sea, but losing out to an in-form Stork and dominanting sAviOr. In the era of sAviOr's absolute dominance free was unlucky enough to have ran into the formidable opponent twice in Bo3's and Bo5's, managing to take one game. + Show Spoiler +
Not willing to simply back down from defeat,
free redoubled and avenged his series' losses against sAviOr with a hard fought 2-1, only to be stopped again by another Zerg, Jaedong. At this point you might be asking "where is this fabled PvZ mastery that was hinted at in the beginning of this article"? Well free would get the chance for revenge in spectacular fashion in the ClubDay MSL, Tyrants and Dragons
Jaedong's vP record was nothing to scoff at, sporting a near 79% win rate in series' against
BeSt, Stork, Bisu, JangBi, and Kal, and having just recently defeated free for the complete dragon slayer's credentials. Match 3 of the MSL Ro16 series would live on in infamy, as the only ZvP ever played on Athena 2, where zergs had a consistent 56% win rate on the previous iteration of the map, with a huge open area in the middle and difficult to defend expansions against the aggressive style of Jaedong. Spotlight:
free vs Jaedong ClubDay MSL Game 3+ Show Spoiler +
Yet as it often befalls even the best of us, it is the height of hubris to lessen our guard and not defend the very freedoms and rights which we so taken for granted. For the biggest enemy to
freedom lies with in. Though free would take the Ro8 of the ClubDay MSL in convincing fashion with a 3-0 over NaDa, his weakness in mirror matches would prove to be his downfall in an era of infighting and social disorder among his own kin. He lost 1-3 in the semis against eventual Champion Bisu. Similarly in the GOM Classic Season 2, having also made it to the Ro4 he would fall 0-3 against JangBi. Not possessing the necessary will and strength to turn on his own brethren, free would be deprived again of glory. Progress, a new generation
As the years went by
free saw great upheaval in the social climate, where before he struggled alone among a sea of mediocrity and indifference, now there are new generations rising to meet the changing BW landscape. The rise of ZerO, and Neo.G_Soulkey, the transfer of Kwanro and eventually Light, free's role as ace would eventually be phased out as others finally rise to the occasion of captaining the fate of Woongjin Stars. Being now one of the seniors on the team, having led it through 2 difficult years, and now finding the team with new found identity as a Zerg power house, free could finally redirect his attention to recreation and entertainment, creating some of the most entertaining games in recent memory. Spotlight:
free vs HiyA Hana Deatoo MSL Ro8 Set 4+ Show Spoiler +
This game is forever ingrained in our memories, there's already whole threads dedicated to it, need I say more?
Spotlight:
free vs Great SPL 2009+ Show Spoiler +
Massive contain into mass shuttle play, need I say more?
Spotlight:
free vs Light SPL 2010 playoffs+ Show Spoiler +
hallucinated arbitors and dragoons oh my
Here we go again
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/3gKUq.png)
+ Show Spoiler +
On December 23 2012 00:32 Caihead wrote:
You know, I've come to understand why people hateFlash so much, because it seems that every under appreciated or less known player has had their moments of brilliance and streaks dashed by Flash.
You know, I've come to understand why people hate
Flash so much, because it seems that every under appreciated or less known player has had their moments of brilliance and streaks dashed by Flash. free had managed to make it to both Ro4's of the Hana Daetoo MSL and Korean Air OSL S2, making it the fourth semi finals in which free was eliminated by the eventual winner. To this day free doesn't have a single silver to his name, despite posting impressive results and overcoming heavy fan favorites in multiple tournaments. With a ~55% overall, and considering the level of competition that he had to compete with, it's truly saddening to see him completely overshadowed by his teammates ZerO, Neo.G_Soulkey, Kwanro and even Light despite contributing for much longer time consistently. Slump and twilight
Since 2011,
free has posted a 41% record in BW, and was almost relegated to B-team status, at one point due to a wrist injury only achieving a 3-6 win ratio, and had even planned retirement. However he is one of the rare players who has expressed enthusiasm and renewed interest in SC2 in the introduction of the hybrid pro-league format and even fewer still one of the few old players whose had a better record in SC2 than BW (see here in interview). Having only played 2 games in the 2012-13 SPL so far and being kept off the line-up in favor of other players, the future still seems shaky and uncertain. I hope we see more of you free in the future, you have brought us alot of fond memories, despite not being as flashy or handsome or distinctive, you will always have a place in my heart, *The distinct lack of visual content is due to alot of shiz being blocked, even the one highlight video that Grobyc made -_-
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/lM3QZ.gif)
