Experience the MSL Through its Champions:

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As an individual league, the MSL has long stood as an arena for the best players of Brood War to compete at the highest level. Providing the scene with a benchmark upon which to measure the greatest minds of Starcraft, the MSL can be well understood through its most dominant players. In addition to their transcendent mechanical skill and strategic ingenuity, the best players possess a fundamental understanding of the game that eludes even their most fierce competitors.

But who is the most dominant? Debates rage on regarding who among the many players to ascend the ranks of the various Starcraft leagues are worthy of titles such as "The Greatest of All Time" and "Bonjwa." In their time, five players have proven time and again that their place at the top is indisputable.

NaDa. iloveoov. sAviOr. Bisu. Flash.

Each of them, 3 time MSL winners. Each of them, winners of the Golden Badge.

The history of the MSL is vast and storied, but perhaps the best way to capture the spirit of the tournament is to follow the storylines of its most decorated champions.

Select a player above to walk through the history of the MSL or click here to start with NaDa

Lee Yoon Yeol: Nada

By: WaxAngel

The Golden Badge was an award given to the five progamers who had won three MBCGame Starcraft League championships in their careers. It was more than just a statistical milestone, or else it would not deserve its own dedicated section as we celebrate the memory of MBCGame. My colleagues will be more than happy to relive the tales of Golden Badges two through five, but we must start at the beginning to understand its meaning and significance.

Like most sufficiently legendary entities, Lee "Nada" Yoon Yeol carries an aura of timelessness. Six championships, six hundred career wins, and the title of greatest to ever play the game. It's hard to imagine a time before these immortal feats truly existed, and such a time surely must have been a wild, untamed age.

That’s not as far from the truth as it might sound. Nada appeared on the radar in 2001, the last year of Korean Brood War's wild west. It was a time before replays, when such things as hidden gosus truly existed, and small organizations found it worth their while to try and ride the wave of Starcraft's astounding popularity in South Korea. Names such as Game-Q, iTV, GameTV, KIGL have long since gone the way of the 2-Gate zealot opener, but they were an ideal space for an aspiring professional gamer to hone his skills.

Nada was a revelation from the start, and his reputation quickly grew as he defeated numerous OnGameNet Starleague (OSL) alumni during his journey through the wilds. Without ever stepping foot in the OSL – disproportionately the most popular and important tournament at the time – he had become a household name among Starcraft fans. By the time Nada got to GemBC (the previous incarnation of MBCGame), he was expected to do big things. He was the rock band that had already killed on the indie circuit, and the question was not if, but when he would stop playing in basements and burst out into the mainstream.

Though it wasn't something to be declared with resounding confidence, the opening season of the 2002 KPGA Tour on the new gaming channel GemBC qualified as 'mainstream.' GemBC had held four previous monthly KPGA tours as dress rehearsals before ramping up the prize money and scale of the tours to compete directly with the OnGameNet Starleague. As a dedicated cable channel, it had the reach to compete with OnGameNet unlike the many online-only contenders. Also, the MBC (one of Korea's major broadcast networks) and KPGA (the previous incarnation of KeSPA) brand names lent some weight to an otherwise untested organization. What they really needed, though, was a great story to fuel to the league along, something OnGameNet was already proving as a necessity in a young industry. In other words, they needed the most rapidly rising player in Korea to drop some jaws.

Alas, after taking down a few more OSL Stars in Chrh and TheMarine, Nada suffered early elimination from the 1st KPGA Tour at the hands of an in-his-prime IntoTheRain. Fortunately for GemBC, they were able to find their storyline for success elsewhere. Boxer defeated Yellow in the finals, allowing the two mega-stars of progaming to continue their growing rivalry and giving GemBC the spotlight it needed (we would learn much later that the formula of Boxer 1st, Yellow 2nd truly did validate the first KPGA tour as a legitimate major tournament). Though it looked like a failure for Nada at the time, in retrospect it simply set a grander stage for history to be made upon.

Nada tore through the 2nd KPGA Tour and took home his first championship. The next season, he took home another. And the season after that, he did it one more time.

Admittedly, there is a distinct lack of narrative. However, that is due to there being only one narrative that really mattered; Nada was unstoppable. Nada's finals opponents were Yellow, Reach, and Chojja, three of the best progamers to ever play. He out-produced, out-controlled, and out-strategized them all. Over his three championship runs, Nada's record was 33 wins and 10 losses.

It is difficult to say that one thing made Nada such a dominant player. One could point to the fact that he was one of the first players with truly superior mechanics, which allowed him to be better than his opponents at essentially every aspect of the game. The most frequent criticism levelled against Nada's play was that it was so efficient that it lacked personality, as if Nada were a machine created solely to win at Starcraft.

His macro was his most visible strength, and he routinely won games because his opponents simply had never seen so many units at certain timings. As strange as it might seem in a world with macro-monsters such as Flash, Best and Zero, "Nada on two bases" was an early colloquialism for someone with a lot of units.

On the other hand, he had the best micro as well. Though Boxer was the player who made micro famous, Nada took all of the Emperor's marine splits, vulture tactics, dropship harassment, etc. and made them routine. Nada had a knack for finding undefended workers, and could as easily win a game through harassment as he could through a head on engagement.

To round it off, Nada was a brilliant thinker as well. Though he could beat anyone in a straight-up game, he cheesed enough to keep his opponents honest and collect the easy win when it was available. In one of his most famous games, where he actually was out-macroed by PvT specialist ForU, he came back from a dire situation by staying calm and understanding his limited advantages. Though ForU had fifty gateways and map control, Nada knew that turtling, upgrading, and waiting for the Protoss player to defeat himself was the solution – all before Flash had ever built his first tank.

In short, Nada microed more, macroed more, in more places and in a smarter way than his opponents. It was one of those rare periods in progaming where a player made it look like he was playing an entirely different game from his opponents. Boxer had done it in 2001 with his micro; Nada in 2002 achieved it with every facet of his play.

In 2002, it was difficult to know what to make of it all. Without seeing hundreds more careers, no one could know that they would never see anyone quite like Nada again. Without seeing so many of those careers come and go without reaching the ultimate goal, no one could fully the appreciate the value of a single championship, let alone three (long story short: in 2002, Yellow and his fans still thought he had a chance). And certainly, there was no way to know that the KPGA Tour would live on for ten more years as the MBCGame Starcraft League, with only the most elite players ever tying the record for three championships again.

As it turned out, Nada wasn't just writing history for himself. Nada was giving MBCGame the foundation for the identity it would carry to its final day: He who dominated the MSL dominated all of progaming.

Once Nada ceased to be the undisputed best player in the world, he stopped winning MSLs. While Nada would remain an excellent player for years, he would never again be the dominant player he was in 2002. Nada's competitors had learned from him and the way he played the game, and had all grown stronger as a result. Though Nada reached the MSL finals for the fourth straight time in 2003, he was decisively outplayed and shut out by the crafty Nal_Ra, marking the end of an era. Slowly but surely, with every passing OSL and MSL, with every one-time champion that never recaptured his momentary glory, with every day the Nada didn't seem quite as dominant as he did in 2002, it became more and more obvious that what he had achieved was truly incredible.

Later, whenever the MSL was conquered and forced to surrender another Golden Badge, it would only be to dominating, game changing players who had achieved the same level of excellence in their times. iloveoov, who took the concept of economic superiority to its limits, Savior, the disgraced master of strategy and tactics, Bisu, who re-invented a match-up that had been static for seven years, and Flash, a machine that synthesized every lesson of the past into what resembles perfection. These players shared the aura of absolute superiority Nada had at his time. By joining his company, they did not dilute the MSL tradition, they only furthered it.

Since his MSL debut, Nada has gone on to have a storied career of ten years. He capped off 2002 by winning an OnGameNet Starleague as well, having won a record four championships in a single year. Further down the line, he would receive another rare award in completely different circumstances, by winning a Golden Mouse (awarded to three time OSL winners) as the representative of the long eclipsed, but still defiant first generation of Korean progamers. Later still, he would even grace the stage of an entirely different game, becoming a top level Starcraft II player at an age where most of his colleagues would have retired.

Throughout this time, his legacy is still inevitably tied with GeMBC. Dozens of announcers have bellowed his nickname, "Genius Terran," over stages around the world. Each time, it reflects his origins. For the name was coined at a time when the meaning was closer to "prodigy," when an eighteen year old progamer was making history in the MSL.


Click Here to Return to the Intro | Continue with iloveoov...

Choi Yun Sung: iloveoov

By: Ver

Choi Yeon-Sung, also known as iloveoov, had the most meteoric rise of any player in Starcraft history with his triple MSL win. iloveoov qualified for the Trigem MSL at the very beginning of his career, won it, and never looked back. However, iloveoov lost in the very first round to Nada, the reigning best player in the world. At that point, iloveoov was just another nobody, a first-time player who luckily managed to qualify. Yet, after being knocked into the losers’ bracket in round one, iloveoov tore through and humiliated every opponent, including getting revenge against Nada 3-1 in the loser's finals.

He went on to 3-0 Yellow, who was then in the best form of his life, having previously beaten Nada for the first time. However, oov's Trigem victory was just the beginning. From Trigem to Spris, he accumulated a terrifying record and placed himself as the leading player of his era. Overall, his triple MSL victory featured the toughest set of opponents anyone has ever had to face back-to-back.

He repeatedly squared off against Bonjwa of the time Nada, while taking down other current champions or finalists in peak form like Yellow, rA, July, and Kingdom. His ELO record of 2353, a number incomparable to those of any of his contemporary rivals and only eclipsed by Flash/Jaedong/Bisu thanks to rampant inflation, signifies just how far ahead of the pack he was and just what he had to overcome in his MSL runs. No player has ever held such a league record against the very tip-top competition.

35-8 Overall (81.4%)

8-3 vP (73%)
16-5 vT (76%)
11-0 vZ (100%)

So how did iloveoov do it? What made him so special? Perhaps the most obvious reason is his mind set. In every area you could compare, oov was different from other players. oov was and is an outspoken, honest person who never hesitated in saying what he believed was right. He has never lacked confidence in public, always believed in himself, and made damn sure that other players knew it. In this area, he was a role model for another future champion, Savior.




Yet that brash, confident exterior was also part of the picture. In private, oov didn't aim specifically at winning or being the best. He simply focused on the game itself, not on other "minor" concerns. This approach is quite unconventional, like much about iloveoov, yet one cannot argue with his success.





Yet this alone is not enough to explain his success, so let's look at his victories from another angle. While oov was very good at keeping himself fuelled, at his best he also excelled in making his opponents play worse. This is most apparent when looking at his lopsided record against Nada of 17-6. oov repeatedly beat Nada down, the best player of all time, when Nada was still around the peak of his abilities. This wasn’t due to a difference in player skill; it was because iloveoov was just that much smarter.







This phenomenon held true against players other than Nada as well. Many of iloveoov's famous victories make little sense on the surface. Frequently it appeared that his opponents would simply be playing into oov's hands for no apparent reason. oov often looked like he was maphacking, managing seemingly blind build order counters and consistently coming out ahead. In the Spris finals against his teammate Kingdom, Kingdom went for a DT drop on the island map Parallel Lines in both games 1 and 5, and both times oov correctly predicted this move and easily held with detection and a fast expansion.

In other cases, such as his famous marine split game versus July, oov would apply a more thorough principle. Specifically, he would show his opponent a consistent illusion that would mislead them into thinking oov was doing a certain build, then oov would do something else, something entirely designed to defeat his opponent's predicted response.

In this game against July oov faked a 2 rax academy expansion, a build with which he had remained undefeated with against the best Zergs, and instead went for an older 2 rax tech build with a much later expansion. July played a greedy style, aiming to get ahead of oov economically, and oov consistently shut down his economy by always having a superiority of force at the right moments. Later on in his life he explained how he could consistently create such dangerous builds and win games so often in one of the most illuminating interviews out there:



oov's victories made him known as the "Cheater Terran," because he did what nobody believed was possible at the time. Frequently, he would just seem to have more units than conceivable, as if he were cheating and making them out of thin air. This ability came from his aptitude for forcing his opponents to follow his lead all game long and making them fight in game plans he had designed and knew inside and out.

In his Cengame finals against Nada, oov won games 4 and 5 by quickly gathering siege tanks and pushing Nada's natural. This early threat made Nada afraid, but instead of committing to the hasty and premature push, oov expanded twice and held his ground. By the time Nada correctly ascertained oov's strategy and broke out, oov already had an overwhelming force and crushed Nada with a mass of units.



The MSL made iloveoov's dazzling rise to fame and colorful storyline possible. Despite its Korean reputation as an inferior tournament, compared to the OSL (due to production value, lack of drama, and other largely superficial concerns) the MSL has been the breeding ground of champions. The OSL, while viewed as the more prestigious tournament, possessed a more luck-based format and random map selections whose only consistent trait was their lack of balance. Yet no player in the OSL ever could look this scary:



For much of its history, the MSL ran with a dual elimination format. This aspect was a crucial factor in iloveoov's first title victory, where he lost to Nada in the very first round but proceeded to beat down every single opponent, including Nada and Yellow, from the losers’ bracket. The MSL system also made sure that iloveoov's second and third title victories were against the very best players, not whoever happened to be the luckiest.

Not only did the MSL give iloveoov his deserved second chance at a victory in the Trigem MSL, but it also made sure that he earned every one of his victories. Compared to the rigors that oov faced in the old MSL system, the modern league formats that let Jaedong win a Starleague over Yellow[arnc], Calm over Kwanro, or Flash over Movie seem like something of a joke. The MSL was crucial in establishing oov's legacy and, at least for some time, making players really earn their titles, thus creating the best storylines. For that, if nothing else, it deserves appreciation.


Click Here to Return to the Intro | Continue with sAviOr...

Ma Jae Yoon: sAviOr

By: Xxio

Professional Starcraft is a new phenomenon with decades of growth to come; it is only in recent years that even the first line of Korean professionals have begun to end their gaming careers. The age of esports is at its dawn. Yet, in the past decade, it has developed a history rich in culture, and while there are many gains to be made in the world of progaming, there are also achievements that can never be surpassed. For the progamer of today and ad infinitum, there will always be the ceiling that is Ma Jae-Yoon.

No other name in esports evokes such a myriad of memories and emotions. The godfathers of the Terran race, Boxer, Nada, and iloveoov, defined progaming in their prime. Savior broke them. He usurped Oov's throne and had the world eating out of the palm of his hand. Boxer, Nada, iloveoov, Nal_ra, and Reach would never again be dominant, or truly contend, in professional Brood War. Savior's unprecedented style of play and clear transcendence ended their era and created his own.

The MSL was Savior's proving ground. In his reign from 2005-2007 he played in every MSL final, finishing first three times and second, twice. The MSL was where he made fundamental strategic innovations and became the Savior of Zerg. By making the MSL the theatre of his legend, he defined the league as much as it defined him. Until the advent of Kim Taek-Yong in 2007, the MSL booth was the seat of Savior's power. In that booth, he was king.

The Digital Age is reshaping the world. Modern technology gives agency to billions and defines cultures, and yet, there will always be an inability to recreate the glories of the past. The likes of the Roman Empire, the Tang Dynasty, and Classical Greece will never again be seen. Indeed, how can we compare? For how long will we live in the shadow of these great civilizations? In esports, the shadow of Ma Jae-Yoon is long, and Brood War's longer still. Though esports is still in its infancy, it is arguable that Ma Jae-Yoon and the Bonjwas before him created its golden age.

Look on his works, ye mighty, and despair.


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Kim Taek Yong: Bisu

By: disciple

The year of my high-school graduation, 2007, was utter bliss; I had the most wonderful time of my life, most of it spent with my buddies. It was also the year I found out about the Korean BW proscene and, just like anyone introduced to something exciting and exotic, I was consumed by it.

My first MSLs in 2007 were deeply personal experiences – they marked my passion for the entire universe of esports, one specific progamer and TeamLiquid in general. Those memories are the reason I'm telling you all this, they’re the reason I'm here today, and the reason I don't want to go anywhere else.

The Golden Badge winners’ club consists of only the brightest and most dominant players the Korean BW scene has ever produced. It wouldn't do his accomplishments any justice if I were to say Bisu doesn't belong to this exclusive club, but unlike the Bonjwas before him, Bisu never managed to establish his own long lasting reign of dominance.

His career, from glorious triumphs to lamentable losses, has been marked by the huge expectations the community has of him; just like all great champions, Bisu was challenged to prove his worth in every tournament he has attended. Ultimately, this has resulted in some of the most significant and memorable moments of the MSL.

Bisu's meteoric rise to stardom began during the 2007 GOMTV Season 1 MSL. By then Kim Taek Yong was already considered a prodigious young Protoss player with a solid performance in the Proleague for his team – MBC. With a loss to the Protoss legend nal_ra, followed by wins over the Terran powerhouses Iris and Canata, Bisu had managed to make it through a very hard group in the Ro16. The Ro8 was to be no easier, with the MSL format placing him in a group with two more Terran players – the rising stars Hwasin and Light, as well as an MSL runner up in the form of the Zerg player, Silver. Bisu managed to overcome the odds in fine style and stage was set for a rematch with nal_ra in the final.

The community was on the side of the Dreamer; a win would mean he’d face his nemesis, Savior, in long awaited continuation of their Holy Wars. The underdog shocked everyone though, as Bisu easily bested nal_ra 3-0 in their encounter. It seemed as though everything was lining up for a fourth title in Savior’s fifth consecutive final appearance.

The Starcraft fan's memory is a funny thing though; the scene is so dynamic that months and years can feel like aeons. Events from just three or four years ago are considered legends. In the end, people will always remember how Anytime denied Boxer his golden mouse, how the legend of fall in the OSL was born, and how Flash managed to beat Stork in about half an hour to take his first OSL title.

We all remember the events, but no one remembers the dates. There's one exception though, and that’s 3.3.2007.



The games themselves, and the PvZ revolution that Bisu's win over the Maestro prompted, have been much discussed. Even if we detach ourselves from the significance of the metagame shift that followed those games, the Bisu vs Savior final of GOMTV MSL Season 1 is the most famous, and arguably the most important, match in the history of BW. It marked the end of the so-called Golden Age and the beginning of the last chapter in the scene's development.

Outplaying a Bonjwa in a Bo5 against all odds is, without doubt, the most bombastic way for a newcomer to make his mark in the scene. Following the historic trend of succession, the new poster boy of the scene, Bisu, was to show that he is not just flash in the pan. The upcoming GOMTV MSL Season 2 was eagerly anticipated by the community – it was to answer the question, was there a new Protoss superstar in the making, or would the Maestro reclaim his throne?

Still, Bisu was not alone leading the Protoss race renaissance. After advancing out of his group, defeating Bisu in the process, CJ captain OverSky enlisted in the army, leaving his Ro8 bracket spot vacant. In the resulting Wild Card tournament, the Protoss Commander Stork managed to earn a second chance at the title. Meanwhile, on the upper side of the bracket, a shocking result had been produced as the TvZ specialist firebathero bested the Maestro himself in a thrilling Bo5, ensuring that the MSL finals streak of Savior would not continue.

After another win over Light in the Ro16, the reigning champion Bisu was up against the Red Sniper, Hwasin. Since both iloveoov and Nada had fallen from grace, no player had quite been able to recapture the brilliance of the Bonjwa Terrans. Still, it's fair to say that in 2007 Hwasin was playing the best Starcraft of his life – even managing to take the 2007 Korean WCG over Stork.

Bisu was equal to the challenge though, managing a 3-2 victory in a knife-edge series, and keeping his back-to-back MSL dreams alive. The following semi-final against GoRush had the feel of formality, as Bisu's PvZ had been summarily dismissing Zerg opponents since the 3.3 Revolution. In order to be the first Protoss player ever to win back-to-back MSL titles, Bisu would have to the defeat the Commander, Stork.

The full weight of the community’s attention was focused on this final, with both players taking completely different approaches to the race they were playing. It was the energetic style of Bisu, focused on his trademark multitasking, versus the calm and deeply methodical play of Stork.



If Bisu vs Savior had been a bombshell, Bisu vs Stork was better still. Fans and tournament organizers couldn't have hoped for a better final. The two Protoss stars traded wins in epic games, setting the stage for a fifth and final game worthy of bardic song and poetry. Over the course of a nail-biting, ball-sweating, 50-minute game, Bisu was able to force Stork into submission. The first Protoss back-to-back MSL champion and KeSPa #1 was a reality. After years of struggling in vain, there was finally a Protoss hope.

Sure enough, Bisu soon got his chance to seal his Bonjwa claims and finally establish himself as the undisputed best player in the world. Full of confidence, during the Ro16 of GOMTV MSL Season 3 he was able to win yet another close match with his Terran rival and so called "Insurance" Hwasin. In truth, it was a match Bisu was expected to lose, but, in that way that real champions have, he was able to somehow pull through.

Up until the final, the bracket had been a breeze for Bisu, with this MSL turning out to be the swan song of a couple of old Starcraft legends, with both nal_ra and XellOs generally considered long past their prime. So, after smashing Kwanro and easily overcoming XellOs in the semi-final, Bisu was yet again in a match for the title, breaking all records about Protoss player performance in the MSL.

At this point though, the comparisons between the Revolutionist and the other warriors of Auir were irrelevant; all that mattered was whether or not Bisu would go on to become the fifth Bonjwa. The other side of the tournament bracket was a real dogfight, with Savior and Stork trying to earn their shot at revenge against Bisu. Surprisingly, it was the young Terran player Mind who made it to the final, a fantastic feat considering he had to overcome two Bonjwas (iloveoov and Savior) along the way.

The Golden Badge had been forged – all arrangements for Bisu's Bonjwa coronation were made. The Revolutionist, holding his hands high, kissing his 3rd consecutive MSL trophy, and all was well, all was right with the world... but somehow, it wasn’t to be.

The real outcome was no less perfect, no less right. In true Cinderella style, the dark horse Mind denied Bisu his birthright, completing his extraordinary tournament run. Bisu's weakness, his PvT, was exposed as Mind played perfectly against him, adapting his style to the stale and predictable play of the Revolutionist. As shocking as this defeat was, Bisu's Bonjwa claim and MSL dominance were not yet put to rest.

During the next MSL’s group selection ceremony, Bisu decided, with his wounded pride, that it would be best to quickly re-establish his authority in the scene by challenging the fresh royal roader, and rising Zerg star, Jaedong. As in the cases of his triumphs against Savior and Stork, Bisu crashed and burned in fine style. He lost an epic game to Jaedong on Blue Storm and was eliminated soon afterward. Jaedong on the other hand proceeded to win the tournament, beating the reigning champion, Mind, and his soon-to-be arch-rival Flash on the way.

Feeling the prize slip through his fingers during the group stage of 2008 Arena MSL, Bisu desperately tried to get his revenge on Jaedong, but the Revolutionist's play was weak and uninspiring, all the flare of his groundbreaking PvZ against Savior had long since dimmed. It became increasingly clear that Bisu couldn't establish long-lasting dominance against the new heroes of the day – Jaedong and Flash. After just two group eliminations, people considered the Protoss champion finished, he was in a deep slump with his career shaping up to be one of missed opportunities and dashed hopes. Bisu needed time and a new environment to reinvent his play. Perhaps his transfer to the fading powerhouse - SK Telecom T1, was exactly the boost his career needed.



With the format changes introduced to the Proleague for the 08-09 season, all star players faced a new and different challenge. The tight team league weekly schedule, as well as the three individual leagues running at the same time, meant the amount of games played increased dramatically. Carrying KT and OZ respectively, Flash and Jaedong started posting inconsistent individual league results. Meanwhile, attempting to return to its former glory, SKT withdrew from the new GOMTV Starleague, focusing all of its players’ attention on the Proleague.

As it happened, playing fewer games and having less pressure on him had been exactly what Bisu needed. Entering the 08-09 ClubDay MSL, the Revolutionist was placed in a group with firebathero, as well as the two Protoss players, Much and BackHo. Unburdened by high expectations, Bisu managed to advance from the group after winning two mirror match-ups and losing to firebathero.

Coincidentally, in the Ro16 the Revolutionist was to face his old adversary, the Red Sniper Hwasin, now deep in a slump of his own. Community expectations of a close and thrilling encounter were dashed as Bisu easily overcame his Terran rival. Otherwise, the rest of the Ro16 was marked by total domination by Protoss players, the most notable of which being free’s elimination of Jaedong 2-1 in a close series. Bisu was recognised as the driving force behind this Protoss rejuvenation.

After smashing firebathero 3-0 in his Ro8 match, memorably humiliating him with scouts, Bisu was set for his first MSL semi-final in almost a year. The old flair and confidence was back, this was Bisu as fans remembered him. With all other MSL semi-finalists being Protoss players, and with Stork dominating the OSL, the community started talking about the Golden Age of Protoss and the Era of the 6 Dragons.

With a delay of almost a year, Bisu was finally able to take what belonged to him. Having defeated Free and JangBi, the Revolutionist was awarded the Golden Badge and became undoubtedly the most successful Protoss player of all time. Despite his MSL victory not being worthy of the Bonjwa title, the Golden Badge was ultimately what Bisu needed to regain the reputation a player of his talent and skill deserves.

Following his tournament triumph, Kim Taek Yong entered the most dominant period of his career, winning GOMTV Starleague Season 2, setting a personal winning streak record, reclaiming the top place in the KeSPa ranking as well as becoming #1 in the TLPD all-time ELO ranking. Proclaimed by Boxer himself as the best player in the world, Bisu became once again the subject of a heated Bonjwa debate in the community.



And the rest, as they say, is history. From mediocre team league player and individual league champion back in 2007, Bisu had become SKT's ace and banner-man in 2010 and 2011. His MSL performance on the other hand was nothing short of tragic. His elimination in every group stage meant that the only accolade he was afforded was that of Most Consecutive MSL Appearances, but the results, despite his obvious skills and high expectations, never returned him to the glory he’d known.

For all the MSLs he had attended, Bisu had only managed to make it out of the group stage on six occasions. In four of those six, he had reached the finals, three times a champion. The Revolutionist remained undefeated against Zerg and Protoss in the elimination stage of the MSL, a fact that only serves to highlight Bisu's infamous Achilles’ heel – his predictable and stale PvT.

Comparing Kim Taek Yong to the other great champions of the Golden Badge club, it's almost painfully obvious that, unlike the Bonjwas, Bisu was unable to overcome his weakness. The Revolutionist’s play leaves no one neutral though. While the MSL is generally considered the less prestigious tournament, Bisu has been responsible for the majority of memorable moments in its recent history.

Building expectations and drawing the best from his opponents, Kim Taek Yong has managed to constantly provoke the emotions of the fans – whether those emotions are immense disappointment or ecstatic joy. Even if the Golden Badge is a massive feat in its own right, it is the least the Revolutionist should had accomplished.

Click Here to Return to the Intro | Continue with Flash...

Lee Young Ho: Flash

By: riptide

If you've been on TL long enough, you will remember Flash as a rookie KT Terran who became famous for cheese. He most notably cheesed Bisu (on Monty Hall) in the Ro8 in the Daum OSL. This was long before Bacchus 2008, and long, long before we started arguing whether we should call him the B word. This was a very young Flash, the By.Baby of that era. Known for his cheese and criticised for being unable to handle longer games. It was his Bacchus 2008 win over Stork and his subsequent destruction of a string of GOM tournaments that made us look at Flash as a top progamer.

You know the rest. His golden mouse, his back-to-back individual league titles and, more importantly in this context, his golden badge, the result of three MSL wins, an achievement that puts him up there alongside the likes of Savior, Iloveoov, Nada and Bisu. It is worth noting that Jaedong doesn’t join him in this prestigious company and that, with no more MSLs to play, he never will. This is indeed poetic justice, especially when you consider that it was Jaedong who relegated him to a 2nd place finish in NATE 2009. It is a testament to Flash’s perseverance that he came back to win the Hana Daetoo Securities and Bigfile MSLs in 2010, both against Jaedong, and then solidify his MSL dominance forever by winning the ABC Mart MSL 2011, the last individual league ever to be run by MBCGame. In this achievement he nods to The Emperor himself, winner of the first KPGA tour in 2002. The predecessor of the MSL, KPGA tours #2, #3 and #4 and were won by NaDa, and through this hat-trick of wins Flash draws parallel with one of Broodwar’s greatest Terrans.

His stats speak for themselves.

On the other hand, when we look back on Flash’s career, we see much more than stats. We see a Terran who took the chaos of a post-Savior (and let’s just say it, post-Bonjwa) era and brought order to it. Flash is the culmination of years of Brood War development. If reports are true, Flash is also the apex of decades of biometrics research, and is in fact an asset of the Korean intelligence community, a trial of their next generation smart soldier.

Rumours aside, Flash is more than NaDa, more than Boxer, more than Iloveoov. His micro perfect, his macro impeccable, he is a more complete player than anyone before him. His decision-making is, in a word, perfect. He can play any opponent on any map and win convincingly. On an average day, the Ultimate Weapon is undefeatable. On a bad day, he will still give you a run for your money. In reality, we’re at a point in the development of the game where beating Flash is an achievement in itself. Some might say that the fact that he is in the golden badge club enhances the credibility of the MSL, and not vice versa.

With the MSL now dead and gone, and with the future of Professional Starcraft itself up in the air, we as Brood War fans can be thankful that this scene created someone of the likes of Lee Young Ho, a professional so good at what he does that his performance seems to break the very game.

It took more than a decade and thousands of games for it to happen, but we’re finally here. Nada, Savior, Iloveoov, Bisu are indeed the best of the best, and they have golden badges to prove it. However, only one player in the history of Starcraft has mastered every matchup, won every league and performed with a consistency that looks like it will go unrivalled for as long as the scene exists.

Lim Yo Hwan, Lee Yoon Yeol and Choi Yun Sung forged Broodwar with their bare hands.

Lee Young Ho took it apart, piece by piece, and for that we celebrate him.

The MSL is dead. Long live its king.


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