Life career story (part 1)

The first win came only a month after beginning to compete in online tournaments, slaying eventual GSL champion jjakji in the final of the ESV TV Korean Weekly Season 1 #6. Another early moment of note came competing in the FXOpen KotH #9, where Life put together a six win streak before finally being beaten. While a few players would typically get the better of the lad, it was TaeJa who stood out as the true nemesis for him, losing in all five of his ESV TV Korean Weekly matches against the future Terran star. Had the world known what TaeJa would become, perhaps Life's rise would have been identified earlier on, instead TaeJa prevented him from even reaching the semi-finals in four of those five instances.

As treacherous a path as that may seem to tread, the god-king of Korean SC2 had done exactly that two seasons prior, defeating elite Protoss after elite Protoss, in his worst match-up no less, en route to his fourth GSL title, all by virtue of brilliant use of mind-games and a no hesitation approach to high risk high reward player. The Terran mastermind had not only reached the final of the GSL this season with such play, he had navigated a field of Zergs at IEM Cologne to win out a time when Terran Bo5 series wins over Zergs seeming required godlike predictive ability or impeccable micro-management.

In the final Life meet Leenock in a mirror match for the ages. Leenock had also played the role of youthful conqueror, winning the MLG Providence year end championship in late 2011, also at the young age of 16. The FXO Zerg had then made it all the way to a GSL final, but had fallen there in his chance to become one of the youngest champions. Setting in place a future rivalry between the two youngsters, the series went to seven games before Life was able to clinch the crucial fourth map win. Life had added the feat of becoming the youngest ever MLG Championship winner to being the youngest ever GSL champion.

The finals opponent was StarTale team-mate PartinG, a Protoss star who was the WCS World Champion and fan favourite of Protoss players the world over for beating out Zergs with his wonwonwon all-in build. As if to conjure up images of Muhammed Ali's trash talking, PartinG would openly boast to his Zerg opponents that he utilise the build and beat them with it, only to go into their series and do just that. At a time when PvZ was considered at its hardest, PartinG was killing Zergs left and right. Two weeks prior, in the online MLG tournaments of Champions, PartinG had made Life one of his victims as he had wonwonwon'd his way to the final of the tournament and won.