EPT
2nd Triumvirate
In the late pre-Principate period of Roman history, the political scene was dominated by three political entities, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, Mark Antony, and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. Together, these men wielded the fate of Rome and the future of the Empire, each with their own armies and supporters. The ruled their areas and were rivals amongst each other, fighting for ultimate control and the throne of the Roman Empire.
History has repeated itself in e-Sports, as we witness the formation of the 2nd Triumvirate.
The first triumvirate was very different from the second. If we are to look to the past with all of this in retrospect, and to apply this sentiment, there is but one other time when such a trichotomy, as it were, also existed. The beginning of 2004 saw a new dominant Terran, iloveoov, a promising new generation Zerg, sAviOr, and an unlikely hope for Protoss, Anytime. Together, these appeared to make the 1st Triumvirate in late 2004 and 2005, as old time gamers petered out and their tactics phased out to the high mechanics, macro, and creativity of the new generation. Anytime dominated the 2005 So1 OSL over Boxer with iloveoov coming in third, sAviOr and iloveoov took second and third respectively in the 2005/2006 CYON MSL, iloveoov dominated the Shinhan 2005 OSL over July, and sAviOr came out over Reach in the 2005 UZOO MSL.
The ascent of these players is radically different from the ascent of the 2nd Triumvirate. iloveoov roared onto the scene going 34-8 in his first year, shortly becoming the most dominant new Terran in programing. sAviOr started 20-14 in 2004, a strong start, and only gained momentum, becoming the best Zerg of the new generation with his UZOO MSL victory. Anytime posted medial results in 2004, going 6-10, but with a dearth of new Protoss talent, Anytime eventually won out as the best of the new tribes of Protoss with his OSL title.
It has been a long time since 2005. The players of the 2nd Triumvirate are the best of the newest generation. Lee Jae Dong is the best Zerg in the world. Lee Young Ho is the best Terran in the world. Doh Jae Wook is the best Protoss of his generation, and will likely overtake Stork in time. Their career pasts are remarkably similar--that of steady, consistent results. The best of the next generation of Starcraft are achieving, but their futures are uncertain. With no clear best among them, they have, like iloveoov, sAviOr, and Anytime before them, come together to form the 2nd Triumvirate.
A New Hope
![[image loading]](http://www.gamereplays.org/community/uploads/post-14673-1190868994.jpg)
When in the GOM TV MSL Season 1, Bisu blitzed sAviOr in straight sets, the throne of bonjwa was made open, it felt like when the Visigoths sacked Rome. The whole world felt as though the mother of the world had been slain; in the aftermath of the MSL finals the bonjwa had been slain. With it, the Zerg king had been slain, and the throne was made vacant. An extensive treatment has been given to this in the TLFE ‘Heir Apparent’ by Hot_Bid. sAviOr continued to struggle, winning here and there, but clearly not to form. Zerg fans, desperately wanting a champion, began looking elsewhere, but still hoping for the return of sAviOr. When Lee Jae Dong quietly started his career, few eyes were on him, but he was for those who were, a new hope.
Lee Jae Dong’s story is a different path than many others in progaming. His emergence onto the scene was relatively quiet, posting steady and unlikely results for a new face. Instead of a rocky introduction to televised games, Lee Jae Dong emerged ready and full of talent, somewhat like iloveoov before him. Within his first two months on the scene, Jaedong had bested Reach, NaDa and GoRush, with strong showings in all matchups. In his first Proleague, Sky 2006 Round 1, the rookie Jaedong went 6-5. The next season went even better, with Jaedong becoming the vZerg sniper, going 11-1 in the ZvZ matchup and 2-0 in ZvT. In Shinhan Bank Proleague 2007 Round 1, Jaedong became Lecaf’s most dominant player, earning the most wins on the team going 15-7 and helping to carry his team to a second place finish.
However, Lee Jae Dong continually failed to make in-roads in the individual leagues. He had undoubtedly made an impact in the Proleague, rapidly ascending from an unknown, faceless Zerg to ace player for a second place team. Doubtless, Jaedong had quietly become the best Zerg in lieu of a dramatically slumping sAviOr and continued mediocrity from the likes of Kwanro, GGPlay, Rumble, Yarnc and Luxury. The only problem was, nobody knew it yet.
Then Lee Jae Dong walked the Royal Road.
Overnight, the anxious eyes of Zerg fans across the world had a new hope. He trashed the Proleague and individual league qualifiers, and his GOM Star Invitational group, until he hit Lee Young Ho. An extensive treatment of this relationship is below.
Skip ahead to the present. Lee Jae Dong is struggling. He lost the Arena MSL Finals to ForGG, whose previously untested TvZ steamrolled Jaedong’s tried and true ZvT. He failed to qualify for the Incruit OSL, and lost to a streaking Free handily in the Club Day MSL. Although he won a bid to the World Cyber Games, what is ailing Lee Jae Dong is unclear. He is 6-3 in Proleague, and the only individual league in which he remains is the GOM Averatec-Intel Classic. He is not in a position to have lost his status as the best Zerg in the world, but Zerg fans have much to worry about.
Lee Jae Dong’s future is far more than uncertain.
Flash in the Pan
![[image loading]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v122/JadedEnmity/Flash.jpg)
The highest ELO of any player in e-Sports history. GOM Star Invitational champion. Bacchus OSL champion. For four months, Lee Young Ho achieved Broodwar perfection. Nobody could touch him. During an awe-inspiring 26-3 run between March and June of 2008, only dropping games to Canata, go.go and BeSt, it was unclear when the domination was going to slow, much less end. For those four months, Lee Young Ho terrified the Broodwar scene with the relentless macro, impeccable game sense, and flawless micro of the next generation Terran.
Even as he started his career, something seemed to set Lee Young Ho from the rest of the rookie Terrans. In only his twelfth game, Flash halted and pushed back iloveoov’s 2 factory proxy Goliaths for the win. The look on Lee Young Ho’s face was as grim as oov’s. For him, it was strictly business. However, as his career progressed, Lee Young Ho became known for cheese with games against Luxury, and several times against Bisu, the supposed best player in the world after the GOM MSL over sAviOr. In the aftermath of these games, Lee Young Ho would meet for the first time a player who would change the course of his career.
In the Shinhan Bank Proleague, Lee Young Ho met Lee Jae Dong on Python. Lee Young Ho emerged victorious, face as stoic as ever. Both players foreshadowed flashes of their future brilliance, and the coming of their epic rivalry, in an action-packed TvZ.
+ Show Spoiler +
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9wMxzunHyo
Not long after, Lee Young Ho would face off in the Daum OSL against GGPlay, losing 3-2. Ending his first OSL run would be Song Byung Goo, 0-3, embarrassing Lee Young Ho with his dominant and agile carriers. Stork’s carriers would again plague Lee Young Ho in the EVER OSL. It would be this experience that would make Lee Young Ho’s career in the not so distant future.
After the embarrassment of the Daum OSL and EVER OSL, Lee Young Ho had to pick up the pieces. Qualifying for the GOMTV Season 4 MSL, the Bacchus OSL, and invited to the GOM Star Invitational, Lee Young Ho had finally broken out of the image as a young, inexperienced, cheese factory. However, he was a goner; everyone agreed. He had the misfortune of running into the new best player in the world, Lee Jae Dong, not only in one, but both StarLeagues, and the GOM Star Invitational. What ensued was one of the most defining moments of a career in progaming, and the result would be decisive. Would the relentless assault of the Legend Killer break Lee Young Ho’s new image? The answer, to the abject shock of the e-Sports world, would be a definitive no.
The MSL was a tense series, but Jaedong took it 3-1. After blitzing his GSI group, Lee Young Ho again met Lee Jae Dong in the Bacchus OSL, splitting the first two games, and taking it to a defining and decisive third set, which Flash took with a creative mech build. The chance for evening the series awaited in the GOM Star Invitational, where a more confident Lee Young Ho took the series 2-1. Going into the OSL series, Jaedong was on a tear of his own, at 24-3.
The rest was history of Lee Young Ho. He had slaughtered the best player in the world, and the only thing that stood between him and the StarCraft throne was Song Byung Goo’s carriers, who had so often cut Lee Young Ho’s quest for glory short. This time, however, Lee Young Ho was prepared. After showcasing inspired and technical builds vs Jaedong, Lee Young Ho extrapolated this creativity to his TvP by crafting the ‘Flash build’ to run Byung Goo’s carriers off the map in the GOM Star Invitational.
“And now Goliaths are coming around from the other side…taking out one Carrier! And coming in from another angle too! And it looks like Stork might be losing on a map that favors Protoss-to a fifteen-year-old StarCraft genius! Another one is taken out…GG Stork’s surrendered!” –Nick “Tasteless” Plott with the call in game one of the GSI Finals
The first game Flash outplayed Stork, straight up, on the Carrier-friendly Katrina. The second set was a protracted micro battle where Lee Young Ho grappled again with Song Byung Goo’s Carriers this time on the also Carrier-friendly Blue Storm, with Byung Goo coming out on top. In both of these games, Flash showcased an early armory build, knowing that in the past Stork’s Carriers had shamed him, and he was determined to keep it from happening again. The third set, Stork opted for a ground army, and Lee Young Ho could not keep up. On Katrina, Byung Goo again called on Carriers, and this time, as before, Lee Young Ho was ready. In the fifth set of the final, Flash smashed the player who had ended his Daum and EVER runs, and slain a personal demon. The rest was downhill for Lee Young Ho. Walking all over Byung Goo in the Bacchus OSL in one of the most one sided finals in recent memory, Flash claimed a vacant Terran throne.
The next 3 months showcased some of the most inspired and dominant StarCraft since iloveoov’s reign. For a brief moment, a flash in the pan, so to speak, Lee Young Ho flirted with a destiny only Boxer, NaDa, iloveoov, and sAviOr had before achieved-bonjwa. His dispirited rival Lee Jae Dong was slumping as greatly as he had dominated before Flash’s thrashings in Bacchus and GSI. Song Byung Goo was being tormented by the crystalline second-place mentality. There was no one to challenge Lee Young Ho, and he knew it. He had made it to penultimate; there was no Terran who could challenge him. The ultimate, the throne of bonjwa and uncontested king of the Broodwar world, was there for the taking.
Something stopped him. Whether he became predictable, or his creative spark petered out, or even a slowing of his fingers, Lee Young Ho came back down to Earth. Something drew him from the mentality of he, a god, directing his soldiers to crush the foolish mortal using a mouse and keyboard. After his historic ELO peak game against DarkElf, Lee Young Ho hit a wall. The first sign of trouble was his loss to Park Chan Soo in EVER 2008 OSL on historically strong maps for him. Up through his series with ForGG, Lee Young Ho went 7-12, and the fated bonjwa-to-be surrendered the throne.
He would get one last chance at fate when the ‘Dream Final,’ Lee Young Ho squared against his old rival, Lee Jae Dong. This one is known by every fan of Starcraft around the world.
Lee Jae Dong had his revenge.
Post Averatec Intel Classic, Lee Young Ho suffered even worse. Failing to advance from his MSL group, twice losing to Yarnc, Lee Young Ho was unable to shake it off. He was cut down decisively by GGPlay in the Round of 8 Incruit OSL.
KTF continues to rely heavily on Flash, but questions about his future must be asked. With ForGG’s continual failure to post results past the Arena MSL, the Terran throne remains open. ForGG, Flash, and fantasy are the only contenders, and none have posted consistent, recent results in both Starleagues and Proleague. Will Lee Young Ho remerge, creative and overpowering once again? Time will tell; his story is far from over.
Good Form
To this point I’ve ignored discussing the elephant in the room, the one player who is a pivotal part of each story I here enumerate. There are reasons he is coming before Doh Jae Wook. Stork is the best Protoss in the world right now (sorry Kal, OSL preparation > MSL preparation), and is, undeniably and forever more, a champion. Doubtless, Song Byung Goo’s story is being typed as I write this, to be a TLFE all its own, so I won’t step on anybody’s toes but for what Song Byung Goo is to the 2nd Triumvirate.
Three times Stork has met the members of the 2nd Triumvirate in finals, twice in the OSL, and he has squared off against Doh Jae Wook in one of the best OSL semifinals in a long time. He has been in three of the last four OSL finals, and for the only one he was absent from, his rival for the Protoss throne had taken his place.
This puts Doh Jae Wook in a unique position. When Song Byung Goo hits the end of the line and begins what promises to be a long and painful downward spiral, I contend with much agreement that Doh Jae Wook will step in to fill the void as his fellow members of the 2nd Triumvirate have themselves done for their races.
Indeed, of his comrades, Doh Jae Wook is the only one without a major title. He is the only one who has not defeated Song Byung Goo is a series. But he fits in with the mold of his company in the triumvirate. He has possibly the most solid mechanics of any Protoss in the game today, one of the best senses for the game (second only to Byung Goo, I think) and the most frightening macro of any Protoss. He plays with the style of the 2nd Triumvirate, with the potential and the future of it. Indeed, among the Roman triumvirate, Marcus Lepidus was considered the odd one out, the one without solid foundations, though he was still powerful.
When Song Byung Goo retires, or indeed goes the way of the sAviOr, who take the microphone? Who will be there to take the spotlight? Here’s a hint: It won’t be Jangbi, and it won’t be Kal.
The Devil Within
![[image loading]](http://www.mymym.com/gfx/BeStOSL.jpg)
Doh Jae Wook is no Anytime. Doh Jae Wook’s climax did not swiftly come through mixed results, but instead is in crescendo. His career started as a tremor, and has reached a roar in Shinhan Bank Proleague 2008. His OSL final against July is promised not to be the climax of his career, as he remains as dominant as ever. Like Mike Bacsik desires, Doh Jae Wook refuses to be remembered only as the guy who gave it up, the guy who gave up the record-breaking home run, or the guy who gave up the Golden Mouse and made July a legend.
+ Show Spoiler +
Doh Jae Wook’s is the youngest of the careers here discussed, which makes it perhaps even more impressive that he has made it within striking distance of an OSL title twice. His career, however, is also the least remarkable.
Most of the substance on BeSt comes in the form of questions. He is a clear favorite for whatever StarLeague he’s in which does not include Jaedong, Flash, or Stork. When will Jae Wook’s time come? When will his vZerg reach the heights of his other matchups? When will he be the champion that Protoss fans know he can be? When will the bottomless potential explode into the results that will strike the same fear into opponents as do the names of Lee Jae Dong and Lee Young Ho?
Look at those questions. To whom were those questions formerly directed? That’s right. Song Byung Goo. Each one of them came true of Byung Goo, and they will come true for Jae Wook. The parallels do not stop there. In his first Proleague, Byung Goo went 6-5 (a winning percentage of ~54%). In Jae Wook’s first Proleague, he went 12-10 (~54%). Even though Doh Wook’s career is young, he is criticized, as Stork was, for his inability to finish the deal. Both have displayed remarkable consistency. You can go on, to be sure.
Surely, Doh Wook is the most promising Protoss of his generation, but as with Lee Jae Dong and Lee Young Ho, his future is uncertain.
Vacuus Solium--“The Empty Throne”
The 2nd Triumvirate ended with blood. Octavian defeated both of his rivals in a series of brutal battles. Who, then, is who? The future will tell who, if any of these, will have the courage to fulfill their potential.. Already, the beginnings of a new generation are coming into place. Kim Jung Woo, CJ Entus’ hottest new Zerg is posting significant results against established players. Perhaps even the promising eSTRO Terran Sea.Really can have a breakout. The past is the past, particularly in programing. The future is forever marching. Lee Young Ho, Lee Jae Dong, and Doh Jae Wook all have to keep up, or they will dig themselves a grave of unfulfilled potential, with the next generation overtaking them without mercy.
What will become of these players is highly uncertain, an exciting prospect, and part of what keeps me watching. Which will emerge from among them, grasping for the title of bonjwa, is part of what makes watching each of their games so interesting.
Each of these players is very similar to each other. All have statistically the best mirror matchup of all time in their race (per most recent ELO ranking). Jaedong and Flash have won OSLs. They all play highly technical, brilliant games. Flash and Best have lost a series to Stork. Jaedong and Flash have won a series against Stork. They are all aces for their teams. The most striking similarities are in their styles, are in the way their units move, and in the complete lack of mercy with which they strike down their opponents. Indeed, they appear on all accounts to be more similar than they are different.
To close: the head-to-head numbers.
Jaedong v BeSt 4-2
Flash v Jaedong 6-9
BeSt v Flash 1-0
In the meantime, we will await our Octavion.
Edit: fix'd a couple mistakes/things pointed out by responders...and did it again...
