Whenever I talk to people about the historical context of great players, I'm suprised by how much they try to judge everything by a modern eye. By modern eye, I mean the fixture of the holy trinity of OGN StarLeague-MSL-ProLeague as the bread and butter of the professional scene with a few random WCGs, GomTV Classics, and STX Cups scattered in between.
While even the minor leagues of the modern era tend to be remebered well due to the recency bias, better English coverage, and the records from the past being harder as you go back further, I wanted to back track, and go over some of the important tournaments and competitions that did not exist in the modern era.
I'm by no means an expert, but if I don't do this, I get the feeling that nobody will ever remember anything, and think that if BoxeR got to three OGN StarLeague finals in a row, that's nothing special, because he didn't win any MSL titles, or had good ProLeague results, when the fact of the matter is that those competitions didn't exist back then. It's not as if players from BoxeR's era waited around for three OGN StarLeagues, and then jerked off the rest of the time. There were important tounrnaments back then too, and just because they faded away, doesn't mean all the past records can be dismissed due to how they cannot be judged accurately with the method by which we measure modern players in terms of rating their careers.
Now, the records from 1999 to 2000 will be the most fragmentory. It was before the televised Starcraft became mainstream, and it was more like how other e-Sports titles operated in that era. Just random tournaments held here and there for a few days, each with different sponsors, different formats, and varying sizes of the prize pools. Much of the records are lost in time, and the few records that does exist in sites such as YGOSU, and TLPD are incomplete, to say the least. I wasn't there to witness it all, so I have to go by the word of mouth from past professionals who wrote some of it down, but even that is unsatisfactory, to say the least.
I will only count Korean professional leagues, so non-Korean leagues held by Blizzard or PGL will not be discussed in detail. There were many large tournaments with huge prize pools held outside of Korea in the earliest era of Korean Brood War e-Sports. If you want to know who did well in those tournaments, I'm sure there are sources for that as well, but I would be even more out of depth with those, so I will stick stricly to Korean e-Sports only.
I will also not count any OGN StarLeague, MSL, or ProLeague tournaments. I have already discussed these to death, and so has thousands of other people. This blog is strictly about the other leagues that shaped the Korean professional Brood War scene.
Any tournament held in Korea, with a prize pool greater than the OGN StarLeague, or KPGA Tournament/MSL of its era, will have individual standings listed in detail.
1999 Jan
KPGL (Korea Pro Game League) is set up as the first national level domestic competition in Korea, with invites to players from all over the country. The prize pool was around $4,000. SSamJang wins 1st place.
1999 March
2nd KPGL sets up a bigger tournament with roughly a thousand gamers participating. SSamJang wins 1st place again.
1999 April
3r KPGL takes place, and DiGamma wins 1st place.
1999 May
4th KPGL takes place, and Kill wins 1st place.
A tournament called Net Club Game Tournament with a prize pool of roughly $8,000 takes place. Honest wins 1st place.
1999 August
Seoul World Championsip takes place, with a ridiculous prize pool of around $45,000 (by far the largest prize pool of this year).
Seoul World Championship placement is as follows:
1st: October 2nd: Grrrr... 3rd: Byun 4th: DiGamma
1999 October
5th KPGL takes place with roughly 3,000 participants from around the nation. St.Eagle, often coinded "the father of mechanic terran play", wins 1st place.
1999 November
With the success of KPGL, more and more tournaments with bigger prize pools are hosted, and four team leagues, this era's "ProLeague" in Korea (KGL, KIGL, CNGL, and MPGL) are set up. The records for some of these team leagues can be found in TLPD.
1999 December
SBS Multi-Game Championship happens. This tournament had a prize pool of less than $3,000, but is significant because it is the first tournament to be hosted on national television (SBS is the third biggest television channel in Korea behind KBS, and MBC). This is different from the cable television that OGN is classified under. BoxeR wins his first major tournament of note at this tournament.
1999 Summary
There are a lot of tournaments held inside and outside of Korea. SsamJang wins the most number of domestic tournaments (four), and also wins a Ladder Tournament held by Blizzard, but all these tournaments all relatively smaller in scale. His total prize pool earnings is around $16,000, which is more than what Freemura earned that year (the original OGN champion, his prize pool record found at esportsearnings.com is inaccurate). However, October, with his one huge victory at the Seoul Championship earns close to $30,000 in 1999. Grrrr... who enjoys good success in both non-Korean, and Korean tournaments collects more than $35,000 according to Esportsearnings.com.
From my incomplete research, the best players of this year, considering the e-Sports scene was almost fully prize pool based during this period, and there were no leagues with prestige or legacy.
1st: Grrr... (older players such as TheMarine thought he was the best player during this period) 2nd: October (domestically the most successful player in terms of prize pool) 3rd: SsamJang (most Koreans would consider SsamJang to be the best "overall" Korean player of this era due to his consistent performance across the board, including a top four finish in the first OGN StarLeague)
2000 January
KBK hosts its second tournament with a prize pool of roughly $14,000. TheMarine wins this tournament over I.Love_Star.
2000 February
APGL (Asian Pro Game League) is hosted with a prize pool of $30,000. Many players said that they took this tournament really seriously due to the high prize pool it had.
APGL placements is as follows:
1st: St.Eagle 2nd: V-Gundam 3rd: Kill 4th: SoulKey (the founder of SK Terran, not the Woonjin zerg)
The results of this tournament (four terrans in the top four), dispels the myth that BoxeR somehow became a bonjwa despite terrans being underpowered earlier on, just because terran players did not do well in OGN tournaments before he came round. That myth was started by people from OGN, and due to the legacy OGN has created since then, people forget about the plethora of other important tournaments that took place.
2000 March
PKO Korea Open takes place. Hundreds of gamers compete in a cut throat best of one single elimination setting, for the 1st place over a 21 hour period. It's a tournament with horrendously unforgiving tournament format despite having a prize pool similar to KBK tournaments. H.O.T-Forever loses the BO1 finals to GARIMTO, but the tournament hosts change the rules after the 1st game, and proceed with a BO3 format, which H.OT-Forever ends up winning.
2000 April
1st iTV Ranking League takes place, hosted by a local cable broadcasting company with less coverage than the likes of Ongamenet. They go on to host 7 tounrnaments over the course of five years. The first tournament is won by SKELTON, a future runner-up in the OGN StarLeague.
1st Game-q tournament, hosted by a site of the same name, is hosted. The tournament isn't that large in scale, but the excellent coverage it had at the time, with good cataloging of the VODs leaves a large impression for the hardcore Korean fans of that period. IntoTheRain wins this tournament over BoxeR, who gets noticed by the Korean fans for his excellent dropship usage.
2000 August
KBK hosts their third tournament. It is won by the non-Korean player Slayer, who leaves a strong impression on the minds of the Korean fans by defeating strong opponents such as IntoTheRain, considered one of the, if not the, strongest protoss players in Korea.
2000 October
WCGC 2000, the precursor for WCG 2001, takes place, and has a really good prize pool for this season ($50,000 compared to $13,000 ~ $18,000 range of OGN StarLeague, KBK tournaments). More professional gamers took part in the qualifiers for this tournament than either of the OGN StarLeague tournaments, making this probably the most prestigious tournament of the year. This was the placements:
1st: GoRush 2nd: I.Love_Star (who gets 2nd yet again just after coming second to Slayer in his back to back 2nd place finish in KBK tournaments) 3rd: NTT 4th: Bassy
2000 December
The KIGL Kings of Kings tournament, with a prize pool similar to WCGC 2000 (albeit more top heavy), takes place. It takes the high placed players of four KIGL tournaments that took place with moderately mediocre prize pools. BoxeR wins 1st place at this tournament despite having never won the regular seasons of KIGL (coming in 2nd, or 3rd at various seasons). The placement is as follows:
1st: BoxeR 2nd: KIMDONGWOO
I'm not sure exactly what went on here, since both YGOSU, and TLPD records this tournament as a glorified show-match between two people, but why would BoxeR be in place of the numerous other regular season KIGL winners for this tournament with the highest prize for the winner for this entire year? If any old-timers are more informed, I'd love any insight.
2000 Summary
Non-Korean tournaments such as PGL starts to die off, and Korea becomes almost the last remaining stronghold of professional Brood War play. Although the exact numbers are hard to find, it seems like Grrrr... remains the most successful player in terms of prize pools, winning the Hanaro OGN StarLeague (the third biggest tournament alongside Freechal OGN StarLeague only behind APGL, WCGC 2000, and KIGL Kings of Kings) and numerous tournaments inside and outside of Korea (five inside Korea, and two outside of Korea) to amass more money than any other player this year.
OGN StarLeague also increase their prize pool by about two times, which makes it bigger than other tournaments such as KBK, Game-q, or iTV tournaments. Only three tournaments have bigger prize pools this year (APGL, WCGC 2000, and KIGL Kings of Kings), compared to four tournaments (mostly non-Korean tournaments) that was bigger in scale to OGN StarLeague in terms of prize pools.
1st: Grrrr... (Most prize pool overall, most number of titles overall, and second most prize money won within Korea) 2nd: BoxeR (Second biggest prize pool, the most prize pool won domestically within Korea) 3rd: Up for debate (probably GARIMTO, due to his Freechal OGN StarLeague win, which allows him to have bigger tournament earnings than any other player not mentioned here besides St.Eagle, who earned about the same, but lacks good placements in other tournaments unlike GARIMTO).
2001 August
The first KPGA tournament, hosted by a new broadcasting company named Gembc (latered re-named as MBC Game) is won by [z-zone]SoO.
2001 September
KPGA September is won by H.O.T-Forever.
2001 October
KPGA October is won by Taewoo.
2001 November
KPGA November is won by MuMyung.
2001 December
WCG 2001, with the largest prize pool of the year happens. YellOw once said he wanted to win WCG more than OGN StarLeague during this era. The placement were as follows:
1st: BoxeR 2nd: Elky 3rd: GoRush 4th: 2000
2001 Summary
Gembc (became MBC Game later on) hosts a bunch of tournaments as a potential rival to OGN, and all the tournaments were won by various top zergs of the era. OGN StarLeague actually scales down their prize pool, and we see a sharp drop off non-Korean tournaments hosted by the likes of Blizzard and PGL, and other independent one-off tournaments that outscale the televised leagues. WCG 2001 is the only tournament to have a comparable prize pool of Seoul World Championship of 1999, APGL 2000, WCGC 2000, and KIGL Kings of Kings Tournament of 2000. Game-q, iTV, KBK tournaments still exists, but are now totally oveshadowed by the more broad television coverage of OGN, and have a new rivaling competition in Gembc who host the KPGA tournaments.
1st: BoxeR (Earned over $90,000 purely from tournaments according to one article, he also reaches all three OGN StarLeague finals, has an undefeated WCG 2001 run, and a bunch of other Game-q, ZZGame tournament wins makes him by far the most successful player, and the first bonjwa of Starcraft, although Koreans usually mention Grrrr... as the "pre-bonjwa")
According to a research done by KPGA, BoxeR was not only the most successful in terms of prize money won, but also had seven tournament wins, and three round of four appearances in 2001. The players with the most amount of cash prize won from tournaments was TheMarine, H.O.T-Forever, and Taewoo. This is probably because the prize pool of OGN StarLeague in 2001, was lowered to the level of a KBK tournament, which was won by TheMarine.
2nd: Up for debate (TheMarine if we go back tournament prize won according to an official KPGA announcement)
3rd: Up for debate (H.O.T-Forever, if we go back tournament prize won according to an official KPGA announcement)
This is amazing, love reading about the history of the Korean tournaments, especially the early years. If only there were some VODs available from that time.
WCG 2001 was huge for me. I watched pretty much every replay of that tournament. I don't think I spent more time following any single SC event than WCG 2001 lol.
Probably my favorite performance from that era was actually Smuft? I think on a weird semi-island (not Valhalla). Will pay $20 for the rep.
TheMarine plays against the reigning OGN StarLeague champion Freemura in his first ever large scale tournament triumph (fifth largest tournament in terms of prize pool). I have zero idea about which bracket stage it is, but this kind of play from TheMarine let him have the title of being one of the best standard plays around. There are multiple quotes from back then such as:
"TheMarine can win his timing attack army, whenBoxeR would lose in the same situation"
"Zergs lose to BoxeR without having done anything. Zergs lose to TheMarine despite having done everything."
1st Game-q tournament, hosted by a site of the same name, is hosted. The tournament isn't that large in scale, but the excellent coverage it had at the time, with good cataloging of the VODs leaves a large impression for the hardcore Korean fans of that period. IntoTheRain wins this tournament over BoxeR, who gets noticed by the Korean fans for his excellent dropship usage.
This is the oldest VOD of BoxeR available from this tournament played in June 2000. Before the game starts, the commentator gives a brief introduction to H.O.T-Forever (who recently finished second in the Hanaro OGN StarLeague), and BoxeR. This is some of the translation:
"As for Lim Yo Hwan. You may not know of heard of that name. But I'm sure there are many of you who have heard the ID, SlayerS_`BoxeR`. You may remember from the last game, I mentioned [NC]...no.1, who could be described by his orthodox playstyle. Along with the forerunner of unorthodox terran play, St.Eagle, BoxeR could be described by his fluid change of playstyle according to his opponents, and unpredictable strategies. He is most known for his SBS Multi-Game Championship win. He also recently finished in the round of eight in the Hansol M.Net Tournament (a tournament held in February 2000, won by [n2]Rookie), as well as a round of sixteen performance in the BuyKoreaFund Tournament (a tournament held in March 2000, won by SiR@SoNi).
KBK hosts their third tournament. It is won by the non-Korean player Slayer, who leaves a strong impression on the minds of the Korean fans by defeating strong opponents such as IntoTheRain, considered one of the, if not the, strongest protoss players in Korea.
The following is a nice documentary on the eventual winner of the tournament Slayer, also known as Hasu Lurker. He manages to win the third KBK tournament, which has the joint 5th largest prize pool after WCGC 2000, KIGL Kings of Kings 2000, Hanaro OGN StarLeague, and Freechal OGN StarLeague.
KT Kings of Kings takes place between seven players that performed the best in 2001 OGN StarLeagues. YellOw wins the tournament to win approximately $8,000 dollars, which is higher than the amount BoxeR won in his first KPGA tournament win (considered widely as one of the major individual leagues in history as the first proper MBC Game hosted individual league). The placement is as follows:
Now. This tournament is odd, in that it's not just an All Stars type event, it was instrumental in the seeding of the following OGN StarLeague (NATE OGN StarLeague). YellOw and V-Gundam both got seeded into the next OGN StarLeague, and a seeding placement tournament between YellOw and V-Gundam, and the finalists of the previous OGN StarLeague (SKY 2001 OGN StarLeague) was done to decide the seeding for NATE OGN StarLeague. YellOw won that as well, and entered the NATE OGN StarLeague as the number one seed. So YellOw basically won two consecutive all star type tournaments to gain the number one seed of NATE OGN StarLeage, only to crash out in the round of 16 to have his previous performances all but forgotten.
2002 March
1st GhemTV StarLeague is hosted by the third biggest television broadcasting studio (GhemTV) dedicated to gaming after OGN, and MBC Game. GhemTV also broadcasted WCG 2002, so they weren't that obscure of a broadcasting station. More players participated in the qualifiers for the first GhemTV StarLeague than for the 1st KPGA Tournament, and the prize pool was slightly higher for GhemTV. The placement is as follows:
1st: Oddysay 2nd: Grrrr... 3rd: NaDa 4th: Zeus
2002 June
2nd GhemTV StarLeague is held. KPGA tournaments start to have bigger prize pools than GhemTV StarLeagues. H.O.T-Forever wins the league.
If you were a fan of the "Pimpest Play", this moment, aptly named the "Divine Wind" by non-Korean fans, was one of the most memorable moments of H.O.T-Forever's career.
2002 November
WCG 2002 is once again the tournament with the biggest prize pool of the year.
1st: BoxeR 2nd: YellOw 3rd: Blackman 4th: Elky
2002 Summary
This is the time of the three individual leagues (OGN StarLeague, KPGA Tournaments, GhemTV StarLeague). The prize pool for OGN StarLeague doubled from last year, and the other two leagues had less than half of the total prize pool of the OGN StarLeagues. While NaDa managed to win the most amount of titles this year with two KPGA titles, and two iTV Ranking Tournament titles. These tournaments were not that large in scale, and there were other players who had higher prize pool won overall. For this year, it was whoever did the best in the OGN StarLeagues, and WCG 2002, that swept the prize pool rankings no matter how many other tournaments other players won. While NaDa was the best player in terms of titles won, win rate, and level of play, he could not overcome the deficit by either playing poorly in some of the more important tournaments, or failing to attend some of them due to conflicting schedules (the individual leagues were in competition back then, and had overlapping scheduling).
The 3rd and final GhemTV StarLeague is held, and NaDa wins this tournament to complete his grand slam of OGN StarLeague, KPGA, and GhemTV StarLeague championships. GhemTV starts to have financial struggles, and starts to shut itself down.
2003 March
KeMongSa Team League is held as the answer of MBC Game to OGN's ProLeague (only OGN broadcasted ProLeague during this period). There were differences in format, most noticeably in the exclusion of 2v2 games in Team Leagues, and after KeMongSa Team League, all of the following Team Leagues had the incorporation of the All Kill format as opposed to the standard ProLeague format.
Most number of wins: Jju (5-2)
2003 July
LifeZone Team League
Most number of wins: MuMyung (7-1)
2003 October
GhemTV and MBC Game share the broadcasting rights to 2003 KT KTF Premier League, the largest tournament in terms of prize pool. The finals, between NaDa and BoxeR got the highest viewership numbers of any Starcraft competition ever. Yes, even higher than the legendary So1 OGN StarLeague. It was a passing of the torch from the greatest Starcraft player thus far, and the upcoming legend of the same race. It was hyped so much, since a final that had both these players in it never happened before. BoxeR fans were finally admitted defeat after claiming that BoxeR was the superior player of the two due to his legacy, and better performance in bigger stages such as OGN StarLeague and WCG. The following are the placements:
1st: NaDa 2nd: BoxeR 3rd: XellOs 4th: Sync
WCG 2003 happens, but the interest for it drops heavily after BoxeR (who is the biggest box-office star in Starcraft history) forfeits from competing in the tournament. By the time WCG 2003 takes place, MSL (transitioned from KPGA Tournaments) has comparable prize pools, which means that WCGC/WCG, which used to be the biggest tournament in terms of overall prize pool from 2000~2002, drops below three tournaments in terms of importance (KT KTF Premier League, OGN StarLeague, and MSL). Ogogo wins 1st place in this tournament.
2003 November
LG IBM Team League
Most number of wins: iloveoov (13-2)
2003 Summary
This era marks the drop in importance of WCGC/WCG as a premier tournament. Both OGN and MSL have comparable prize pools by the time WCG happens, as well as the most heavily anticipated league of the year in 2003 KT KTF Premier League. There are two simultaneous team leagues going on, ProLeagues broadcasted by OGN, and Team Leagues broadcasted by MBC Game. The success of 2003 KT KTF Premier League isn't enough to save GhemTV, and they go out of business. In the team based leagues, GO (precursor of CJ Entus) is the most successful team, while Orion (precursor of SK Telecom T1) is the second most successful in terms of overall prize pool in team based leagues.
7th iTV Ranking League takes place with over a hundred players taking part in the qualifiers. July wins over iloveoov.
2004 June
Tucson MBC Team League
Most number of wins: RainBOw (7-2)
2004 September
After the incredible success of 2003 KT KTF Premier League, a second one takes place, broadcasted by both OGN and MBC Game. It is the tournament with the largest prize pool, but doesn't get much attention. After a flop in the ratings with a zerg versus zerg finals, the tournament does not continue. The placements are as follows:
Snickers All-Stars takes place, with a prize pool for the 1st place being slightly higher than the OGN StarLeagues of that time. Placements are as follows:
July had some wicked games during this tournament, and including this epic game against NaDa when bunker rushes were all the rage in terran versu zerg match-up.
2005 August
WCG 2005 took place, and had comparable prize pools to OGN StarLeagues that took place this year. The placements are as follows:
1st: fOru 2nd: Androide 3rd: Legionnaire 4th: SoZStorm
2005 Summary
I couldn't find any news articles covering the prize pool rankings of the various players unlike the other years, will do some research for the other players if I find the time. Yet again, I'm reminded of the fact that July was never embraced as a superstar by the general populus despite his success.
1st: July
2006 October
WCG 2006 takes place with iloveoov winning over July.
2006 December
3rd Superfight between sAviOr and NaDa had as much prize pool for the winner than the winner of the first OGN StarLeague of 2006, although the prize pool for the other latter OGN StarLeagues were much, much higher than for the final Superfight. The showmatch was really hyped, and foreshadowed the OGN StarLeague finals that would take place in 2007.
2006 Summary
In addition to dominating the scene, sAviOr boosts his prize pool count with two highly watched Superfight showmatches against BoxeR, and NaDa. Will do the prize pool rankings for the other players if I find the time.
1st: sAviOr
2007 March
Shinhan Masters takes place, with NaDa getting his revenge over sAviOr in the finals.
2007 August
Seoul e-Sports Festival was the largest open tournament of this era, with about two hundred gamers participating. The whole tournament is completed within three days, emphasizing basic gaming ability over specific preparation. Bisu, NaDa, and sAviOr were noticeable absentees from this tournament (they competed in IEF 2007 that took place in China). Jaedong wins first place over JangBi, both of whom were players famous for being freakishly good during practice, even if they had yet to accomplish anything in the individual leagues.
Okay. I'm basically losing my mind after going through text after text. I trust the average reader has enough familiarity with the more recent tournaments such as GomTV Invitational, STX Cups, WCG tournaments of recent years, and GomTV Classics.
On December 24 2016 01:28 TheNewEra wrote: I love reading your posts about the history of starcraft Great read Thank you!
Short note: The first MBC teamleague that was using allkill format was the LifeZone KPGA not KeMongSa
Good stuff. It's sad that a lot of Team League performances are forgotten due to how it was replaced by the ProLeague. It was getting better viewership than MSL, and the unique All Kill format was responsible for creating a lot of exciting storylines.
2004 OGN ProLeague viewership: 1% 2004 MBC Team League viewership: 0.83% 2004 MSL viewership: 0.76%
Of course, OGN usually was always getting more viewership than MBC Game, but what's interesting is that MBC Team Leagues was carrying the flag for the MBC Game channel.
XellOs was a beast in Team Leagues, leading his team to two titles and one second place finish out of four Team Leagues. He also had the highest overall number of wins in the Team League setting. The overall records are as follows:
Also, as a trivia, this is the top ten most watched Starcraft games of all time.
1) 2003 KT KTF Premier League finals between NaDa and BoxeR: 2.3% 2) So1 OGN StarLeague finals between Anytime and BoxeR: 1.7% 3) So1 OGN StarLeague semi-finals between BoxeR and PuSan: 1.4% 4) SKY 2005 ProLeague R1 Finals between SK Telecom T1 and KTF MagicNs: 1.3% 5) MyCube OGN StarLeague finals between Kingdom and Nal_rA: 1.25% (first in the list without BoxeR) 6) IOPS OGN StarLeague semi-finals between GoRush and NaDa: 1.2% 7) EVER 2007 OGN StarLeague finals between Jaedong and Stork: 1.2% 8) SKY 2006 ProLeague Grand Finals between MBC Game HERO and SK Telecom T1: 1.2% 9) Bacchus 2008 OGN StarLeague semi-finals between Flash and Bisu: 1.16% 10) 1st SuperFight between sAviOr and BoxeR: 1.14%
BoxeR is present in eight out of the top ten most watched games, his games are the most re-watched VODs in history also, with his game against JoyO being the most watched OGN VOD in record. His Daum Cafe, at its prime, had the highest number of followers (today's version of Twitter followers I guess) out of any sports stars or celebrities out there save one (there was one boy band who had more followers). His status within Korea as an e-Sports icon is still unmatched to this date. When Brood War was dying outside of Korea, and the large scale tournaments were starting to dwindle in number, he caught the imagination of the entire nation, and played an enormous part in making this past time into a viewing experience, a culture unique to Korea, and competitive scene that made Korea such a force to be reckoned with in competitive video-games.
I used to hate BoxeR for being such a pivotal figure in e-Sports, and thought all those rabid fans of BoxeR were cancerous to the scene. In reality, they were the bloodline of a scene, and although other players tried to replace him, we never actually had a superstar who could captivate the entire nation quite like he did. When I look at some other games, and other competitive scenes, I'm so thankful that Starcraft had BoxeR as its original superstar. He was hardworking, dedicated to his profession, and above all used his superstardom to actively sought out to enrich the scene. The way he pulled this off was so miraculous, and the seeds of his efforts are still being seen today. The more I read and study about the history of the scene, the more I'm in awe of BoxeR.
Also, as a trivia, this is the top ten most watched Starcraft games of all time.
1) 2003 KT KTF Premier League finals between NaDa and BoxeR: 2.3% 2) So1 OGN StarLeague finals between Anytime and BoxeR: 1.7% 3) So1 OGN StarLeague semi-finals between BoxeR and PuSan: 1.4% 4) SKY 2005 ProLeague R1 Finals between SK Telecom T1 and KTF MagicNs: 1.3% 5) MyCube OGN StarLeague finals between Kingdom and Nal_rA: 1.25% (first in the list without BoxeR) 6) IOPS OGN StarLeague semi-finals between GoRush and NaDa: 1.2% 7) EVER 2007 OGN StarLeague finals between Jaedong and Stork: 1.2% 8) SKY 2006 ProLeague Grand Finals between MBC Game HERO and SK Telecom T1: 1.2% 9) Bacchus 2008 OGN StarLeague semi-finals between Flash and Bisu: 1.16% 10) 1st SuperFight between sAviOr and BoxeR: 1.14%
BoxeR is present in eight out of the top ten most watched games, his games are the most re-watched VODs in history also, with his game against JoyO being the most watched OGN VOD in record. His Daum Cafe, at its prime, had the highest number of followers (today's version of Twitter followers I guess) out of any sports stars or celebrities out there save one (there was one boy band who had more followers). His status within Korea as an e-Sports icon is still unmatched to this date. When Brood War was dying outside of Korea, and the large scale tournaments were starting to dwindle in number, he caught the imagination of the entire nation, and played an enormous part in making this past time into a viewing experience, a culture unique to Korea, and competitive scene that made Korea such a force to be reckoned with in competitive video-games.
I used to hate BoxeR for being such a pivotal figure in e-Sports, and thought all those rabid fans of BoxeR were cancerous to the scene. In reality, they were the bloodline of a scene, and although other players tried to replace him, we never actually had a superstar who could captivate the entire nation quite like he did. When I look at some other games, and other competitive scenes, I'm so thankful that Starcraft had BoxeR as its original superstar. He was hardworking, dedicated to his profession, and above all used his superstardom to actively sought out to enrich the scene. The way he pulled this off was so miraculous, and the seeds of his efforts are still being seen today. The more I read and study about the history of the scene, the more I'm in awe of BoxeR.
Interesting thanks. Where did you get those viewership stats from?
And yeah I'm not surprised that BoxeR has the most viewed games. I only knew of his name and legend but never really saw him play because I came into the scene waaay after his time. Not too long ago I wanted to update the Notable Games section of Liquipedia of the Player pages. For that I went through the Pimpest Plays Series. It was so crazy to see that a quarter of all featured games were BoxeR games. That's when I first grasped how hype it was to watch that man play.
Also, as a trivia, this is the top ten most watched Starcraft games of all time.
1) 2003 KT KTF Premier League finals between NaDa and BoxeR: 2.3% 2) So1 OGN StarLeague finals between Anytime and BoxeR: 1.7% 3) So1 OGN StarLeague semi-finals between BoxeR and PuSan: 1.4% 4) SKY 2005 ProLeague R1 Finals between SK Telecom T1 and KTF MagicNs: 1.3% 5) MyCube OGN StarLeague finals between Kingdom and Nal_rA: 1.25% (first in the list without BoxeR) 6) IOPS OGN StarLeague semi-finals between GoRush and NaDa: 1.2% 7) EVER 2007 OGN StarLeague finals between Jaedong and Stork: 1.2% 8) SKY 2006 ProLeague Grand Finals between MBC Game HERO and SK Telecom T1: 1.2% 9) Bacchus 2008 OGN StarLeague semi-finals between Flash and Bisu: 1.16% 10) 1st SuperFight between sAviOr and BoxeR: 1.14%
BoxeR is present in eight out of the top ten most watched games, his games are the most re-watched VODs in history also, with his game against JoyO being the most watched OGN VOD in record. His Daum Cafe, at its prime, had the highest number of followers (today's version of Twitter followers I guess) out of any sports stars or celebrities out there save one (there was one boy band who had more followers). His status within Korea as an e-Sports icon is still unmatched to this date. When Brood War was dying outside of Korea, and the large scale tournaments were starting to dwindle in number, he caught the imagination of the entire nation, and played an enormous part in making this past time into a viewing experience, a culture unique to Korea, and competitive scene that made Korea such a force to be reckoned with in competitive video-games.
I used to hate BoxeR for being such a pivotal figure in e-Sports, and thought all those rabid fans of BoxeR were cancerous to the scene. In reality, they were the bloodline of a scene, and although other players tried to replace him, we never actually had a superstar who could captivate the entire nation quite like he did. When I look at some other games, and other competitive scenes, I'm so thankful that Starcraft had BoxeR as its original superstar. He was hardworking, dedicated to his profession, and above all used his superstardom to actively sought out to enrich the scene. The way he pulled this off was so miraculous, and the seeds of his efforts are still being seen today. The more I read and study about the history of the scene, the more I'm in awe of BoxeR.
Interesting thanks. Where did you get those viewership stats from?
And yeah I'm not surprised that BoxeR has the most viewed games. I only knew of his name and legend but never really saw him play because I came into the scene waaay after his time. Not too long ago I wanted to update the Notable Games section of Liquipedia of the Player pages. For that I went through the Pimpest Plays Series. It was so crazy to see that a quarter of all featured games were BoxeR games. That's when I first grasped how hype it was to watch that man play.
Old articles from news reporting sites such as Fighterforums, compiled lists on sites such as PGR21, and Korean wikipedias. I checked for the numbers on various sites to make sure they weren't off, then compiled it. Most lists are identical, but some have the 2003 KT-KTF Premier League missing, since it was aired on GhemTV and that broadcasting station is long gone.
I never got the full dosage of BoxeR's prime either, and I actually mistook NaDa for BoxeR. All my friends were raving on and on about this god, and when I saw NaDa just pounding everyone's ass on television, I just assumed that it was BoxeR. Then I realized that this terran that was playing worse than NaDa was supposed to be the god, and I didn't have the best of impressions on him back then, what with the screaming fan girls who would literally scream whenever BoxeR was about to approach hidden Lurkers, and the special treatment he got from everyone in the industry.
However, what I didn't realize was that BoxeR was winning tournaments way back in 1999, and still making it to the finals in 2005. Seven years of always being in the limelight, being compared to St.Eagle, TheMarine, NaDa, XellOs, and iloveoov. Always finding a way to win against new generation of players. Even against top players more than ten years younger than him, BoxeR would still win against the likes of Bisu, and Flash. If you watch the level of play back in 2000, and how rudimentary the level of play was back then, it's amazing how he managed to stay with the times. No other players that won tournaments in 1999, survived that long, and the legends from that period of time, even the most famous ones, like Grrrr... or SsamJang would die out as relics of the past when there was no strict training or optimization of play. Can anyone even imagine SsamJang playing Flash, then winning?
BoxeR was there competing for twelve years. Most of us only caught onto the twilight of his career after he inspired generation upon generations of players, who all took the game to the next level trying to be the next BoxeR. Sure for the final several years he was no where near a top level player, but it makes me frustrated when people make light of his career. BoxeR's generation is more like IntoTheRain, H.O.T-Forever, and St.Eagle. Imagine Flash played in an era where Starcraft was not dying out, but it was all everyone was talking about, with him as the absolute top dog. Imagine not playing the same old opponents, but having new generation of players constantly challenging the spot with multiple championship winning players from his era, like Bisu or Jaeong being replaced with newer, hungrier players, not just once, but one wave after another. After battling the likes of IntoTheRain and GARIMTO, BoxeR faced Reach, then he faced Nal_rA, after which he battled against PuSan, and Anytime, he even played against the recent waves of protoss stars like Bisu and free in the ProLeague. I don't think many players can boast having overcome such a wealth of varying opponents, each of whom brought something new to the table.
I personally don't think that it's a coincidence that after 2006, when BoxeR was enlisted, the viewership plummeted, and the new generation of players that came into their own, circa 2007, actually had a fine time staying at the top until the scene died. Part of it was because Taek-Beng-Lee-Ssang was so insanely good. Another part of me makes me think that the interest in the scene died with BoxeR's career trajectory after he went to the army. While the level of play grew, and the number of games increased, the actual number of the average kid trying to become the next best Starcraft player wasn't as high as before in my opinion.
You have to consider re: viewership ratings that back then, some cable providers didn't have MBCgame, only OGN and vice versa which funks up some of the numbers. Also limited web streaming at the time (I remember having to ask people for their OGN/MBC log-ins to watch streams at 300kbps, 240p, and even then it wasn't consistent).
I keep vouching for Faker being Korea's next Boxer, but I don't know if he has the personality in him to be that. Sure, he's skilled as fuck, but it feels like he lacks the charisma that Boxer had in his prime.
On December 24 2016 09:02 GTR wrote: You have to consider re: viewership ratings that back then, some cable providers didn't have MBCgame, only OGN and vice versa which funks up some of the numbers. Also limited web streaming at the time (I remember having to ask people for their OGN/MBC log-ins to watch streams at 300kbps, 240p, and even then it wasn't consistent).
I keep vouching for Faker being Korea's next Boxer, but I don't know if he has the personality in him to be that. Sure, he's skilled as fuck, but it feels like he lacks the charisma that Boxer had in his prime.
I know. I was a watching it on television back then.
That's part of the reality though. Game-q has had insane online support back in 2000, and was responsible for putting BoxeR on the map in the eyes of many Starcraft fans, but died out due to having poor television coverage. Both iTV Ranking Tournaments, and GhemTV StarLeagues had periods of time where they had better viewership numbers than the KPGA Tournaments/MSL tournaments ran by Gembc/MBC Game (couldn't find the exact numbers, but the word of mouth on various forums seem to point in that direction).
OGN as a broadcasting channel just had more financial backing, viewership, better distribution throughout its entire history. I get that MBC Game had their own funky thing going on, but the fact of the matter is that competitions that were broadcasted by Ongamenet had better viewership, more exposure to the general populus, better treatment from teams and organizations (SK Telecom T1 pulled out of MBC Game Survivor Tournament when they had poor ProLeague results, KeSPA used to give more points for winning OGN StarLeague than MSL), and even the players (to varying degrees) would consider the OGN StarLeagues more prestigious than MSL. The prize pool more or less evened out after about a few years, but you have to consider the reality of the situation in terms of other factors as well. Otherwise we should be calling GomTV Classics huge tournaments for having prize pools that exceeded the contemporary OGN and MSL leagues of its era, despite having zero television coverage, no backing from KeSPA, having less players overall due to some of the teams refusing to participate, and some of the players openly treating as an unofficial tournament that has less importance than the KeSPA-officiated leagues.
The top twenty games of all time in terms of viewership is purely dominated by OGN. Of course, this is due to the fact that data from stations that died out such as iTV, GhemTV are mostly unavailable. MBC Game has its some of its data published by the media. I could find one quote from the head of MBC Game Jang Keun-Bok releasing a quote "the round of eight of NATE MSL broke all the previous viewership ratings for the MSL with an impressive figure of 0.827%". If the finals of 2003 KT-KTF Premier League could get 2.3% despite being covered by GhemTV, or SuperFight between sAviOr and BoxeR got 1.14% despite being covered by XTM (a channel not even dedicated to e-Sports), there's not much excuse for none of the MBC Game broadcasted games hitting really high numbers. If I could find some more numbers for some of the other leagues from iTV, or GhemTV, I think the excuse that OGN had the monopoly in terms of viewerships would be lessened. MBC Game just failed to succeed to a level of Ongamenet, and was shut down after the turbulence caused by the match-fixing scandals, and the ongoing lawsuits with Blizzard.
Faker is probably the next BoxeR of the e-Sports scene just due to his international fame, he probably even overtook BoxeR from a global perspective considering the wide reach League of Legends has with its coverage on the internet (which is a medium with much more power than before), huge player base, and the more frequent clash of various e-Sports scene from around the world. From a pure domestic point of view, however, it's not even close. Everybody knew who BoxeR was, even if they didn't know what Starcraft was. Your mother would know. Your teachers would know. The president of the nation would know. He had more internet fandom than any single celebrity or sports star. He was not only a e-Sports icon, he was an icon of his generation, and he transcended his own realm to a degree Faker has not been able to even come close to.
I never rated e-Sports outside of Korea that highly. I remember discussing with a League of Legends fan that I thought the level of competition in Starcraft was higher, due to the fact that it normally took years for a top amateur to break into the top of the competitive ladder, and the difference between top amateurs and top professionals was insane. Even to this date, five years into the professional League of Legends in Korea, you'll still sometimes see top solo-que players just being slotted straight into a professional team and having decent success. He retorted by saying that League of Legends was a more global phenomenon, and Faker had reached the top from a much wider player base.
I want to point out though? Exactly how much of that player base is truly competitive? Was Starcraft 2 more competitive than Brood War because it had tons of more foreign players competiting? How much of that non-Korean player base ended up being relevant when compared objectively to the best players of the era? Exactly by which logic do the likes of TSM, EDG, and Fnatic, provide more challenge than the championship material players such as Flash faced, in the form of Jaedong, Bisu, and Stork? I basically consider League of Legends World Championship as an equivalent to WCG in Brood War. Yes, it's hard to qualify for it, and yes, sometimes there are upsets due to the more erratic nature (jet lag, having less quality practice leading up to the latter stages of the tournament, being in an sub-optimal environment) of these global tournaments, but the end result is more or less the same.
What was the challenge Faker faced in his career? Overcoming talent from Season 2 such as Ambition and Ryu (who got to the top in a domestic client that was less than a year old) in Season 3? Being humiliated by Samsung Galaxy White in Season 4? Winning the domestic season after all the top players left for China, and losing to a multi-language team in EDG in the MSI of Season 5? Losing a domestic championship KT Rolster, then barely edging a 3-2 victory over the fluke team of the season in the shape of Samsung Galaxy in Season 6? Is this the kind of stuff legends are made of? He is a superlative talent, yes, but the legacy he has built is the greatest player of all time in the biggest e-Sports game of all time, is kind of tame once you look into it. He dominated the domestic scene with style in the infancy stages of KeSPA teams investing in League of Legends, then when the fruition of that investment reached its peak with multiple great teams like Samsung Galaxy White, Samsung Galaxy Blue, and KT Rolster Arrows, Faker looked mortal. After Season 4, with a plethora of top level talent such as MaTa, RooKie, PawN, and DanDy basically cashing in on their legacies in less structured regions, Faker has found success at a marginally impressive rate (one out of four regular season wins, three out of four play-off wins).
I don't know. Totally different games, totally different circumstances, and the appreciation of skill is totally subjective. Faker has done so much as a global icon, and the most successful and respected player in a game that has reached a broader global audience than any other gaming title. That is an incredible achievement in itself. However, from a pure competitive point of view, the global aspect is actually just increasing the overall cash-flow of the scene, not increasing the level of competition. You can delete all the players outside of Korea, and it wouldn't make much of a difference in Faker's overall career. As for the competitive level of the domestic scene, it's been leaking talent left and right, compared to the concentration and constant upgrade of competition in Brood War. Imagine Flash and Jaedong taking a break from Korean Brood War scene after dominating the scene in 2010, to stream and chill with fans in China in 2011.
It irks me whenever League of Legends players are associated with past Brood War legends, and the undertone of the comparison is that Brood War was never appeciated as much outside of Korea. I don't think that matters much. Competitive Brood War kept growing in size and popularity with BoxeR, and the competitive aspect of the scene is unmatched to this day in my opinion. Faker is a legend. BoxeR is a legend. Both were legendary under different circumstances, what BoxeR has achieved, Faker can never match. What Faker has achieved, BoxeR probably cannot match also, however, it's not fair for Faker to have that mantle of being the most famous global e-Sports icon, and have the "next BoxeR" title (a title that shouldn't be used that freely in my opinion) to accompany his already massive status in the modern context.
On December 24 2016 12:49 Letmelose wrote: I never rated e-Sports outside of Korea that highly.
Yep, other countries are still catching up...and it will take forever.
After having watched a lot of competitive games over 10+ years, there are barely any that come close to BW. Melee is probably the best candidate, as it has a similar skill ceiling. Koreans taking Melee seriously would be a dream becoming true. But at least Americans + few Europeans playing the game and improving is still interesting enough.
On December 24 2016 12:49 Letmelose wrote: I never rated e-Sports outside of Korea that highly.
Yep, other countries are still catching up...and it will take forever.
After having watched a lot of competitive games over 10+ years, there are barely any that come close to BW. Melee is probably the best candidate, as it has a similar skill ceiling. Koreans taking Melee seriously would be a dream becoming true. But at least Americans + few Europeans playing the game and improving is still interesting enough.
I have next to zero knowledge of games that are not played extensively in Korea. I'm vaguely aware of the scenes of games that minor success in Korea such as Warcraft 3, or Starcraft 2. They both had noticeable success outside of Korea, and had similar levels of overall financial backing overall if I'm not mistaken, but neither titles were able to re-create the level of intensity and high level gaming the Brood War scene was able to in my opinion. There number of KeSPA registered professional gamers were much smaller for both scenes (43 for Warcraft 3 in 2006, 25 for Starcraft 2 in 2015), but according to the site, Esportsearnings.com, Korean players won approximately 40% of the available prize pools, and about 70% of the available prize pool in Starcraft 2. Even League of Legends had only 40 KeSPA registered professional players in 2015, but won about 40% of the available prize pools despite being late to join the party, and Riot Games implementing a strict region lock to prevent Korean players from fully taking over.
I don't know about the other gaming scenes such as Melee, the scenes I am more familiar to a limited degree, in my opinion, had less fully developed KeSPA involvement, but still had great sucess from Korean players with potential for even greater level of success had there been more accumulation of talent trained under the KeSPA regimen. I'm a little more familiar with the League of Legends scene, and the level of financial backing outside of Korea is almost astounding, but some of the mindset of the players so rotten, and the general fan base reminds me of the BoxeR and Bisu fan-girls who mindlessly cheer on for the handsome players without even knowing what races they play (mindless drones who want to just cheer for something, not actually admire the craftmanship of the professionals). All that money. All that active involvement from the parent company has created an enormous global scene that is not even comparable to Brood War in terms of overall scope and size, but the actual level of dedication, competition, and craftmanship isn't as high as what I was used to seeing in the Starcraft scene, personally speaking. Some of the players, despite being some of the biggest names in the most financially lucrative competitive gaming scene of all time, are just glorified streamers in my eyes, just like the Afreeca broadcasting Brood War players are right now. It's an insult, and rather than an homage, to have terminology such as "bonjwa" or "neo-BoxeR" thrown around with such ease, when we're discussing the players of other scenes, if we're not paying full tribute to the insane levels of competition the Brood War scene was able to acquire.
Perhaps Melee has a smaller, but a more refined scene that is less about the money and hype, but actual perfection of a craft, with intense competition from talented players. I wouldn't know, but if it is so, I'm glad there's one out there.
As a side note, I wanted to add one more competition that was played in December of 2007. It was a team league battle between MBC Game HERO, and Woonjin Stars called Cheonam Grand Prix.
It's an incredibly small tournament in the grand scale of things, and but history was made here. It was the first time GGPlay used the now famous three hatchery lair (to match the tech of the protoss going for fast corairs) into five hatcheries play, and Jaedong used a slightly refined version of the build shown in this game to defeat Bisu in the very same map in GomTV MSL S4.
On December 25 2016 21:29 Letmelose wrote: I don't know about the other gaming scenes such as Melee, the scenes I am more familiar to a limited degree, in my opinion, had less fully developed KeSPA involvement, but still had great sucess from Korean players with potential for even greater level of success had there been more accumulation of talent trained under the KeSPA regimen. I'm a little more familiar with the League of Legends scene, and the level of financial backing outside of Korea is almost astounding, but some of the mindset of the players so rotten, and the general fan base reminds me of the BoxeR and Bisu fan-girls who mindlessly cheer on for the handsome players without even knowing what races they play (mindless drones who want to just cheer for something, not actually admire the craftmanship of the professionals).
Yep, that's part of what I meant when I said that the other countries are still so far behind. In Korea, structure was brought into everything (especially the training) to improve, improve and improve some more. Elsewhere, team houses etc came much later and apart from that, not much happened. There is no training on how to be a professional. In other games, you read often enough about insults, drama and bad behavior. I despise that. As for the rabid fangirls...there were at least still enough that knew about how to play BW.
On December 25 2016 21:29 Letmelose wrote: Perhaps Melee has a smaller, but a more refined scene that is less about the money and hype, but actual perfection of a craft, with intense competition from talented players. I wouldn't know, but if it is so, I'm glad there's one out there.
Hype is actually a rather big factor. Since Super Smash Bros. Melee is a fighting game (albeit no traditional one), combos and movement is what gets the crowd going. But rabid fanboys cheering for one player is still a thing (at least it's not about the looks), especially since the players come from different regions and personality plays a much, much larger role than in BW. The game is for Gamecube, came out in 2001 and was actually declining in players until the documentary about the scene was released in 2013 (well, it did actually recover before but the documentary gave it a big push). It has survived its sequel so far and will probably survive the one after that too (unless they release some HD remake (which I don't want, same with BW actually)). Money in the scene was rather low at some point but it's increasing. There are five players that are dominating the scene for years now (with one player catching up) and I hope others will do so as well. The skill gap is closing at least since new and hungry players are coming. If you look at the number of players attending Evolution (largest event for fighting games, once a year) for example:
EVO 2007: 270 EVO 2013: 696 (garnered attention due to a fundraiser + documentary) EVO 2014: 970 EVO 2015: 1869 EVO 2016: 2372
So the interest is growing which is very good. But as with BW, you have the developer/publisher trying to meddle with it. Blizzard sued to pave the way for the successor (which only got as much attention because it was the sequel), Nintendo blocked the broadcasting but had to relent after backlash from the fans back in 2013. What sets this game apart from other fighting games is that it's a freestyle one with "custom combos" which depend on the stage and how much percent damage the opponent has. Additionally, it has so many mechanical quirks (high skill ceiling) that it's impossible to do everything (same with BW). Sure, other fighting games have fierce competition too but their ceiling isn't anywhere near as high. If it was, we would have our BW in China with King of Fighters 98.
Unfortunately, apart from those two games, there isn't anything in that category anymore. 1v1 shooters died a long time ago (Quake was the BW equivalent of that category) and CS 1.6 doesn't really exist anymore either (the closest in the team shooter branch). As for arena games....DotA was actually king. The sad part is that it split into League of Legends, HoN (for a while) and Dota 2. LoL is a watered down version which made things way too easy and thus decreased the skill ceiling while DotA 2 started off okay but has been going down the wrong way for the past years (from my perspective). So arena games are probably done for...or rather, we will never see the best we could have seen in that genre.
Looking into the future, it's not looking too good. Too many people play on consoles these days and apart from fighting games, I don't see what could work there. Shooter belong on the PC and they suffer a lot. The RTS genre is pretty much dead while MOBAs are dominated by the "too-easy" games. It's funny that, contrary to what you see internationally, I have the feeling we are further from e-sports than we were before (at least in my country). Over 10 years ago, we had leagues for a lot of games and I was able to watch BW, Warcraft 3, DotA, CS 1.6, FIFA etc on free TV. That's not the case anymore. Interest in CS:GO seems to be below 1.6 which was "the" competitive game here. Oh well, I will see where it goes.
If you want to see how technical Melee is, there is always this video.
Also, the game is always evolving and new tech is being discovered, as it should be.
i think what's very unique about melee (and why its stood the test of time) is that you HAVE to meet up to play with other players. there is a forced social aspect to the game. no official online play or any of that crap.
sure you have netplay/dolphin now, but before then, you had to play in person.
Getting back on track. Here's are the biggest "non-major" tournaments in terms of overall prize money in history.
1. KT-KTF 2004/2005 Premier League: 121,000,000 Korean won (at least, could be higher, added the prize pool from the regular season and the prize money for 1st, and 2nd place in the play-off stages, sources say the proposed prize pool is 120,000,000) 2. GomTV Classic S3: 115,000,000 Korean won 3. GomTV Classic S1: 105,000,000 Korean won 4. GomTV Classic S2: 105,000,000 Korean won 5. KT-KTF 2003/2004 Premier League: 102,500,000 Korean won (at least, could be higher, added the prize pool from the regular season and the prize money for 1st, and 2nd place in the play-off stages, sources say the proposed prize pool is 120,000,000)
For reference, the modern era of OGN StarLeague and MSL tends to have the highest total prize pool due some of them incorporating what would have been the minor leagues in the past, as lower brackets of their respective top league (round of 36 for OGN StarLeague, round of 32 for MSL). They range around 116,000,000 ~ 126,000,000 Korean won according to various sources. They basically have around 100,000,000 Korean won in terms of total prize pool since the mid-2006 for OGN StarLeague, and since mid-2007 for MSL. There are only five "minor" individual leagues that had similar in scope in terms of overall prize pool to the modern day OGN StarLeague/MSL.
I'll break down the reasoning for how these tournaments should be rated in history.
1) KT-KTF 2003/2004 Premier League
Had the highest viewership in history (2.3%) despite the finals being broadcasted by GhemTV, a broadcasting station that had less prestige than Ongamenet. The hype behind it came from the fact that the overall prize pool was over two to three times larger than the tournaments that had the largest prize pools during that era such as OGN StarLeague or WCG Finals. It had both the viewership, and the prestige of being the largest tournament held thus far. NaDa's victory here over BoxeR should not be taken lightly.
However, this tournament was an invitational for twenty selected players. It did not have the player who was probably the most successful in iloveoov. The fact that it was not an open tournament, and the fact that the tournament was discontinued after the relative commercial flop of the second tournament lessens its impact as the only tournament that not only matched the prize pool of leagues that took place more than two to three years, but had the highest viewership for a Brood War tournament of all time.
2) GomTV Classics (S1~S3)
An open tournament that had similar prize pools to the OGN StarLeague circa 2008~2009. Unlike the KT-KTF 2004 Premier League, they did not have triple the prize pool of contemporary OGN StarLeagues, so the interest that came from prize pool alone wasn't as impactful. The English coverage GomTV Classic had allowed it to reach global audiences more effectively, and it's the reason why it's more fondly remembered by many posters on this site.
However, due to political reasons, and GomTV Classics were never recognized by KeSPA, and only a handful of teams participated, with up to five teams refusing to take part (OGN Sparkyz, MBC Game HERO, SK Telecom T1, Estro, and Air Force ACE). Although SK Telecom T1 did change their minds once for GomTV Classic S2. Due to this reason, GomTV Classic S2 was more competitive than the other two leagues, which makes Bisu's win the most impressive. GomTV Classic S3 had the least participation from professional players with only about half the professional players participating, which makes Flash's triumph the least impressive.
Despite the high prize pool, the level of practice for this tournament was lacking compared to the KeSPA sanctioned leagues of the time, and eventually spelled the end of GomTV participation in professional Brood War, although they would use their international viewerbase they accrued during this period to good use in the professional Starcraft 2 scene.
3) KT-KTF 2004/2005 Premier League
After the enormous success of the previous league that justified its gigantic prize pool, a second tournament was held, with ten players being invited back, and a qualifiers being held for the remaining ten spots. So if you count the original ten players as seeded players from the first tournament, this tournament is an open tournament unlike the first tournament which was a pure invitational tournament. Less than half the professional players participated in this tournament, compared to the contemporary OGN StarLeagues and MSLs of its time, but it had much hype due to the commercial success of its predecessor, and an overall prize pool that was over twice as large as the OGN StarLeagues and MSLs of its era.
However, although there were 51 participants in this competition due to the inclusion of a qualifying stage, it was still not a fully open league due to lack of B team players participating in the qualifying stages unlike the OGN StarLeague and MSLs of its era. Also, this competition was a relative failure in terms of viewership, and could not justify the enormous prize pool it had for its time, and was discontinued after a zerg versus zerg finals.
So in conclusion, the winners of the first and second KT-KTF Premier League, NaDa, and July respectively, should be more respected than how they are viewed within the modern context. The tournaments they won were two to three times bigger than the next largest tournaments of their era in terms of prize pool, plus the first tournament had the commercial success on top of that (2.3% viewership that remains the record to beat to this date), while the second one had a little more competitive integrity with a qualifying stage that was open for the A team players of its time.
GomTV Classics are well remembered by the foreign fanbase for the English commentary, a prize pool that matched the biggest tournaments of its era, but cannot be rated that highly because of the lack of participation from numerous teams, being kind of blacklisted by everyone else in the industry, and the minimal impact they had domestically speaking due to the lack of television coverage. If having a comparable overall prize pool to contemporary OGN StarLeague/KPGA Tournaments/MSL was all that was needed, here is the list of tournaments that qualifies:
1999 (x6) International tournaments (there could be more but I'm not sure at all): PGL Season 4 ,1999 BW Tournament World Championships, i2e2 Brood War Invitational Korean tournaments: Net Club Game Tournament, Seoul World Championsip, 1st KBK Tournament
KTF Battle of the Four Kings, KTEC KPGA Winners Championship, KBK 2003 Jeju, WCG 2003
2004 (x2)
KT-KTF 2003/2004 Premier League, WCG 2004
2005 (x3)
KT-KTF 2003/2004 Premier League, Snickers All-Stars, WCG 2005
2006 (x0)
2007 (x0)
2008 (x1)
GomTV Classic S1
2009 (x2)
GomTV Classic S2, GomTV Classic S3
There were 25 other tournaments that had prize pools that was comparable to the "major" tournaments seen by the modern context. GomTV Classics were one of the many tournaments, although it has bonus points for being an open tournament, even if a lot of teams chose not to participate.
EPT
Great read 
