What do Jaedong, Kal, Sheis, 815, Hyvaa, sKyHigh, Snow, By.Sun, and Dear have in common?

Quite a odd list of players to some, but for others, the order of the list will be a huge give away. It's a list of players who got the "Rookie of the Season" award for the ProLeague, ever since its inception in 2006.

Sheis made his debut in Shinhan 2007 ProLeague Round 1, which is my personal choice of the defining tournament of his career, alongside other super-hyped up rookies such as Flash, and JangBi, or players who went on to become huge stars for their teams such as FanTaSy, or Leta.

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Sheis took one of the very few titles Flash failed to get during his illustrious career

If we were to pinpoint some of the major turning points in the professional Brood War scene in terms of the ProLeague, we would select 2003, 2005, and 2007. The first big change was in 2003, when the ProLeague was first introduced. Then in 2005 we had the unification of the OGN ProLeague and the MBC Team League, and just as importantly, we saw the introduction of the drafting of semi-professional players into the teams, which solidified the now recognized tier of online amateur partners/semi-professionals/B-teamers/A-teamers.

There was now masses of players in a structured training environment, all training to become the next Brood War gods under a strict training regimen. With 2007, we saw the expansion of the ProLeague schedule to five days a week instead of three. All this extra gaming schedule meant way more opportunities for the rookie players who had yet to make their television debut.

And with two years down the road after the drafting was introduced, these rookies were locked and loaded, ready to tear down the scene with voracious appetite, wanting to show off their deadly skills honed from thousands of hours of strict professional training. Ever wondered why so many past legends had their last hurrah in 2006? Now you know the reason why.

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Notice some familiar faces? JangBi was one of the most highly contested picks in a plethora of players who would become monstrous players in the years to come such as Jaedong, Leta, Kal, Mind, ForGG, and UpMagic

So this was, in some ways, the toughest season to win the title of the "Rookie of the Season". Both Sheis, and Flashed performed adamantly in their debut ProLeague seasons, with Flash having a slightly better win rate, and Sheis having slightly more number of victories. In the end, the title went to Sheis, partly due to his team making it to the play-off stages, while Flash's team failed to do so.

Sadly, Sheis is more famous amongst Korean fans for a meme that was created after the 4th SuperFight Tournament. Sheis faced-off against the most popular gamer in history, BoxeR, and had his chance to make a big impression in the minds of thousands of fans. Tragically, he did make a big impression, but not in a manner he imagined. BoxeR made a fool out of him with a vulture run-by play. The caster at the time, instead of doing his job, kept wailing "he's ruined" repeatidly for what seemed like hours, and Sheis was appointed the new title of "Ruined Terran" by the Korean community.

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Sheis would become one with this new meme, being "ruined" by being nuked to oblivion in record time at the hands of Firebathero, or when he "ruined" a sure won game after he lost his entire army to what was probably one of the most spectacular mine drags in history.

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Was the meme all too much for Sheis? He would prematurely end his career by going off the army in 2008, despite showing great promise during the early stages of his career.

http://blog.naver.com/PostView.nhn?blogId=riffguy&logNo=100034991829

The man responsible for making a meme out of Sheis, had other legendary quotes such as how the "gorillas are attacking the dragons" in an attempt to explain how ultralisks were overwhelming the protoss dragoons

It wasn't all memes and failures for Sheis, however. Sheis was also known for his lethal abilities in the terran-versus-zerg. He was undefeated against the zerg race in eight televised matches, some of which were against respectable opponents such as Jaedong, or Luxury. If we included all games against professional players (including games played in offline qualifiers), he had a career record of 30-13 against zergs, with an overall win rate of 69.8%, a career win rate versus zerg that is only bested by Flash.

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Although his career was brief in nature, Sheis was a bright new talent who failed to live up to his promise, and instead became a victim to ruthless memes and mockery by the Korean fans. One wonders how his career may have turned out if he was allowed to grow as a player instead of being put under the radar for his next catastrophic failure.

207aicila

1237 Posts

July 10 2017 03:41 GMT

Dude your blogs are the best they should feature all of them forever.

Jealous

10081 Posts

July 10 2017 04:15 GMT

On July 10 2017 12:41 207aicila wrote:
Dude your blogs are the best they should feature all of them forever.

Seconded. Your knowledge of the game and history is tremendous and a great asset for the community

Thank you very much for all of your contributions!

Letmelose

Korea (South)3227 Posts

July 11 2017 06:10 GMT

While it's on my mind, I'll try explaining the overall outline of these KeSPA drafting systems.

The figures below show the total number of new professional players over the years, whether they were recommended in by their teams, or were selected from the drafting system.

2005: 45
2006: 91
2007: 88
2008: 87
2009: 63
2010: 49
2011: 39
2012: 9

The first noticeable rise in number can be seen in 2006, which can be explained by companies such as CJ, STX, and Estro getting involved in the professional Brood War scene in 2006, which allowed more finances for a lot of the teams, which in turn allowed them to take in more amateur players.

There was a slow gradual decline in new recruits as Brood War lost its place as the most played game amongst the youth in Korea. Other gaming titles such as Sudden Attack (a Korean rip-off of Counter Strike), and the Korean rendition of Defense of the Ancients known as CHAOS were just as popular, if not more so than Brood War to a lot of the younger generation of gamers.

After that, there was a rapid decline in the number of new professional players during the last few years of professional Brood War, accelerated by phenomena such as match-fixing, and heavy legal disputes between KeSPA and Blizzard, which dissuaded multiple companies from investing in the scene.

I'll list some championship material players (players who were capable of winning either OGN StarLeague, or MSL) who were in the KeSPA drafting era (2005 onwards).

Drafted in 2005

1) Luxury: drafted in early 2005
2) Bisu: drafted in late 2005 (first champion who was from the KeSPA drafting era)
3) Calm: drafted in late 2005

Drafted in 2006

1) Mind: drafted in early 2006 (first champion from players drafted in 2006)
2) Jaedong: drafted in early 2006
3) ForGG: drafted in early 2006
4) JangBi: drafted in early 2006

Drafted in 2007

1) Flash: drafted by recommendation in early 2007 (first champion from players drafted in 2007)
2) FanTaSy: drafted in early 2007
3) EffOrt: drafted in late 2007

Drafted in early 2008

1) Hydra: drafted in early 2008

After this point in time, there are zero players who managed to win a championship in the individual leagues. In fact, no one has even made in single appearance in the semi-finals of an individual league, not even once. This can be explained in part by the lack of time available for the gamers who made their debuts later to grow as elite calibre players, and the fact that it was a much smaller pool of players to begin with. I'll still add some noticeable players to the list if it is of any interest to anyone.

Drafted in late 2008

1) SnOw: He was awarded "Rookie of the Season" in Shinhan 2009/2010 ProLeague, and "KeSPA Rookie of the Year" in 2010. He also made it to the round of eight in PDPop MSL. When he was transitioning as an A-teamer, he took part in KeSPA 2009/2010 Dream League (ProLeague for B-teamers), where he went undefeated for twelve games and lead CJ Entus to victory. His coach said that he was one of the three geniuses of the game he had under his command (the other two being XellOs, and sAviOr).

2) Soulkey: He was the best performing zerg player in SK Planet ProLeagues, and was said to be the zerg that gaev Flash the hardest time during practice during the final years of Brood War. He had the most number of wins in KeSPA 2009/2010 Dream League (ProLeague for B-teamers), but was slightly outshined by SnOw.

3) BoGus: He became the leading figure for STX SouL, being the best player during practice on his team during the final years of Brood War, and had results to back it up with respectable performances in Shinhan 2010/2011 ProLeague.

4) Last: He was said to be the second best player during practice on STX SouL, and was the best player in KeSPA 2010/2011 Dream League (ProLeague for B-teamers)

Drafted in 2009

1) By.Sun: After being drafted in early 2009, he was awarded "Rookie of the Season" in Shinhan 2010/2011 ProLeague, as well as getting the award for the "Rookie of the Year" in 2011. He was said to be the best player during practice on SK Telecom T1 during the final years of professional Brood War.
2) Grape: After being drafted in early 2009, he made it to the round of eight in ABCMart MSL.

Drafted in 2010

1) Mini: After being drafted in early 2010, he made it to the round of eight in Tving OGN StarLeague.
2) sHy: After being drafted in early 2010, he lead Hwaseung Oz to a second place finish in KeSPA 2010/2011 Dream League, and was the second best performing player in that league after Last.

So of these inclusions were based on a few quarter-final appearances here and there, prestigious awards recognizing good rookie performances, performances in KeSPA Dream League, and hearsay about their prowess during practice games. It might not be of much value, but some of the greatest players had humble beginnings. All these players had their careers forcefully terminated, and was not allowed to realize their full potential.

Interestingly enough, some of these players, even after changing their line of profession, was able to fullfill their potential in other e-Sports titles. Perhaps those who are familiar with Starcraft 2 are able to recognize Soulkey, INnoVation, Rain (By.Sun), and sOs (sHy), while those who are familiar with League of Legends may recognize Ggoong (Grape).