Progamers: The Next Generation
by GTR-2-Go

As years go by, players come and players go. Some gamers have to go to do military service, and some gamers might just simply retire because they feel like it. With these retirements, the progamers leave a gap on their team. Whether if the gap is large or small, they have to be replaced some time. Usually it is done by drafting fresh and determined kids, or buying seasoned and prepared veterans.

A classic example is the SK Telecom Terran lineage. Boxer would start off a new era in top terrans, with iloveoov determined to be his new apprentice, or 'jeja'. It would soon follow as Midas transferred from GO (now CJ Entus) to SK, who would be the 'brother', of sort, to iloveoov. Then the next terran, Canata, albeit not as succesful, would bring on the lineage.

With Boxer moving to the Air Force, iloveoov and Midas aging, and Canata not performing to his best, we have a few Terrans from SK Telecom who can be named to follow this tradition. One of them is Shudder .

After qualifying for the next MSL, he said that 'I would hope to get to the Round of 16'

Shudder is an extremely young gamer, at the tender age of 17. Personally, I remember Shudder playing on the old WSL and WGT ladders, so I can imagine him as being, what, 14 or 15 at that time? Pretty 'wow' to me.

It is pretty understandable as well that he has that natural talent of a SK Telecom Terran. By-the-book playstyle, with some flair in his game, such as his TvZ games on Hitchhiker. I believe this has some markings of a Neo Boxer (although Up and Casy have already tagged that nickname, Shudder is a genuine Neo Boxer.)

While cruising through all of his Dual Tournament and Survivor Tournament games advancing through the Winners Game, some say he is a potential Royal Roader for the OGN Starleague. But with tough opposition such as Jaedong, it will be hard for him. Hopefully he will be able to adapt fast and get a nice placing, settling him ready for the next league.

KTF used to be stereotyped as a team who couldn't earn their talent, and would buy grown veterans to fill their lineup. This has changed recently though, with Flash being the noticable player.
Some of these names are 815, Haran, Tempest, SaiR, Raid and Lucifer .

Yeh, I would feel like this too if I qualified to a major league for the first time.

What impresses me so much about Lucifer is that his imagination is right up there with the likes of Up and Nal_rA. Many people have dubbed him 'The Magician 2.0' or 'Nal_rA jeja' because of this.

One prime example is what would become to be his last game in the Survivor Tournament against Sheis on Desperado.

Set back in the game by a far way, Lucifer would become MacGyver as he would use 3 Dark Templars and 4 Spider Mines to Destroy 10 Tanks, 25 Vultures and you get the picture. This would turn out to be a massive spider mine bomb, as it set back Sheis so much, Lucifer would eventually over run him with the little money he had (The above picture was right after the game was played).

I would like to see Lucifer go and do well in the MSL, but try and qualify for the next OGN Star Challenge, to see if he can top it on the other side.

CJ has groomed, grown and grazed many players. Xellos, Iris, Oversky and the grand daddy of them all, Savior.
Will CJ and Savior breed another star Zerg player? Who is it though? Kwanro is his name.

No comment except he looks like Iris?

Kwanro has a lot of qualities which make a great zerg. One of them is good pressure.

As shown in his qualifying game vs Midas, he would pour a non-stop stream of Zerglings to screw Midas over, until Mutalisks came and mopped him up.

Besides this, he has not really played any 'long' and 'decisive' games, so I cannot really comment.

Qualifying for this season's MSL, I hope he will go far, as he is young.

So before you go 'what? no name? other guy ftw' while voting your Liquibet, think about it. These young guys can play, and they can be champions.

nemY

United States3119 Posts

August 31 2007 21:34 GMT

Cool blog; good to know who the next superstars are.

+ Show Spoiler +

you're still kicked from x.1 though

Kennigit

Canada19447 Posts

August 31 2007 21:36 GMT

Awesome write up :D i love the new era that is coming in, especially Lucifer.

However, in regards to liquibet, Pic always beats No Pic just like Mass Carriers always wins

New Zealand6137 Posts

August 31 2007 21:41 GMT

Good times. Nice article, too.

oshibori_probe

United States2932 Posts

August 31 2007 22:02 GMT

Does By.Flash get an honorable mention more than 1 word?

Of all the new players, hes the youngest and most succsessful.

TheGreatOne

United States534 Posts

September 01 2007 00:37 GMT

Shudders tvz is majorly weak compared to all the SKT1 terrans.

Pressure

7326 Posts

September 01 2007 02:25 GMT

On September 01 2007 06:34 nemY wrote:
Cool blog; good to know who the next superstars are.

+ Show Spoiler +

you're still kicked from x.1 though

wut happened with art

clan hopper

PiSCeS

Canada80 Posts

September 01 2007 03:25 GMT

Nice write-up. Was an interesting read.

alffla

Hong Kong20321 Posts

September 01 2007 03:35 GMT

nice write up gtR! should be in final edits

BlueMorning

United States96 Posts

September 01 2007 03:38 GMT

#10

Thanks, I enjoyed this a lot. The rookies of this generation will be very interesting to watch if they if they combine different aspects of many older players & develop a whole new style of their own.

Equinox_kr

United States7395 Posts

September 01 2007 04:22 GMT

#11

Wow; awesome write up. GJ

nofAcedAgent

United States951 Posts

September 01 2007 05:18 GMT

#12

Nice write up yo!

Daigomi

South Africa4316 Posts

September 04 2007 10:47 GMT

#13

I never realised you had a blog (of content, that is), until I saw it mentioned on VioleTAK's youtube profile. I'm so glad I came here.

I absolutely love following the new players. I often find myself voting against my own team when some of the lesser liked older players (goodfriend) play against an up and coming young player.

Shudder is one of the 9 players that qualified for both the OSL and the MSL, and along with Flash, Shudder is the only new-ish player to do this (although he is only 2 months younger than Light, and 6 months younger than Bisu, these players can't really be considered "new" anymore).

Players that qualified for both starleagues: Savior, Flash, Bisu, Light, Nada, Stork, July, Shudder, Hwasin

Lucifer is actually quite old for a new player, exactly 2 months younger than Stork. But he did play well, and hopefully we'll see some more play from him this coming proleague season.

Kwanro played well in the MSL qualifiers, and I really hope he does well. CJ seems to be rearing lots of young players, and especially this season they have a ton of new players in the leagues, with TheManiaMST (on a side note, is TheManiaMST the same person as Memory that did so well in the Seoul E-sports festival), Kwanro, and Orion all entering their first starleagues.

As Oshibori points out though, Flash is a good 2 years younger than Shudder, and has been much more successful so far, and even Sea is only 2 months older than Shudder, and he's already legendary. These two players surely have to stand out as the real "up and coming" players.

A final note: Someone pointed out that Shudder's tvz is not as strong as the other SKT terrans'. I haven't really seen Shudder play against zerg players, but his TLPD profile shows only 2 games: One against Terror[fOu], and one against Luxury, both of which he won.

Elsi

United Kingdom8173 Posts

September 04 2007 12:13 GMT

#14

Nice post, very nice.

Kwarno has been round for years, don't think he's quite got it.

He played Midas on Monty Hall, and he looked horrible. On Desperado, he played ok. More like Midas for playing sloopy.

As for Shudder, same again, he's been round for years, think the training has finally paid off, he does look good.

Lucifer, still early days.

Tempest, quite promising results in the prelims, only just joined a proteam. Think this guy will do quite well in the next 6 months.

Hope to see more of Terror[fOu] his style is very entertaining

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