Kill the Boy

It's a well established concept in StarCraft II that the tiniest of margins often make the most sweeping differences. One moment of indecision or lost focus can prove the difference between clinching a trophy and watching someone else do it. Those moments are often identified easily, as mistakes are, by nature, easier to spot than the subtle brilliance we've come to expect from the very best. Sometimes, however, those moments are difficult to pinpoint. What action, for example, could TY have taken to change history? What we can say for sure is, that on the 15th of September, TY was as close to a GSL championship as he had ever been, and that it all fell apart for him.

His duel against Maru in the grand finals of Code S Season 3 was both mentally and physically demanding, with the Jin Air Terran continuing his onslaught of proxy builds map after map, resulting in brutally fought games. The success of those strategies was mixed, as TY was able to keep his cool for a long time, finding ways to defend and win. The Splyce Terran found himself on match point after winning the fifth game on Blueshift. One more win would have denied Maru a feat that would immortalize him, instead of making TY the latest stepping stone on Maru’s path to legend. One more map and TY would finally have held the Korean trophy he has been craving for so long. What could have ended in a sixth game on Acid Plant quickly turned into a calamity. A hair's breadth from a Code S championship TY, helplessly allowed the match to slip from his grasp.

Everything went wrong from the first minute, when Maru's SCVs hurried across the map. TY didn’t find the proxy everyone on the planet saw coming—everyone except TY. Where his counter aggression failed to turn the tide, Maru's persistent harassment proved more effective. The Jin Air Terran was faster in the important upgrades, took control of the map, and dictated the pace of the game. When the situation demanded, he was willing to make gutsy decisions with his tournament life and indeed his immortality on the line. TY, in what should have been his magnum opus, seemed unlike a champion, a mere spectator in awe of Maru’s sheer avarice on the brink of defeat. After being utterly dismantled on Acid Plant, there was no way to deny Maru his triumph. It took one more map, but it felt like a mere formality. The grand finals had been decided by then. TY was broken and defeated—again.



This duel had been over ten years in the making. It barely could have been more perfect in its constellation. Both players were once hailed as prodigies of their games. When he won his first match in Proleague, TY—aptly named BaBy—had been two years younger than the previous youngster of the scene, someone named Flash. Naturally, fans not only expected great things from TY, they expected him to rival other legendary Terrans of Brood War, illustrious names such as Boxer and iloveoov.

Whereas Maru had soon fulfilled, maybe even exceeded, the expectations laid on him, TY had been overshadowed by them for most of his career. He finally won his first championship in 2017, ten years after his professional debut. Ironically it was Maru who he barely edged out, 4-3, in the 2016 WESG grand finals. He needed more time to claim his first championship than many careers last in their entirety. He made up for it by winning IEM Katowice and another $100,000. Added to the $200,000 garnered at WESG, it catapulted him into the top 5 prize money earners in StarCraft II. Whether that is apt compensation for years of frustration and disappointment only TY can tell. Had TY been anyone else his career would be considered extraordinary, but with such crushing expectations placed on his shoulders from day one it may well be deemed a disappointment. Winning WESG and IEM Katowice over luminaries like luminaries like Maru and Stats is unarguably impressive, but it never will have the prestige of a Code S title. It will never fill the hole in TY's career.

When it comes to Code S TY has a habit of falling short in decisive moments. He did so in the Season 1 finals in 2016 against Zest, having waited the majority of his lifetime for the opportunity to play in a Korean league finals. This year, in Season 2, he could have gotten another chance, but again lost to Zest in the semifinals. Similar could be said about SSL 2015 Season 3, KeSPA Cup 2016, and BlizzCon 2017. And on the 15th of September, in 2018, TY was closer than ever before, and he lost again. This time to Maru, the personification of everything TY could have been himself—an exceptional talent realizing his full potential and becoming one of the best to ever touch the game.

TY has not become the next Emperor of Terran, the next Ultimate Weapon, or the next King. Instead he's mentioned alongside other top Terrans—Maru, INnoVation, ByuN. The question is, is he really their peer? Maru, INnoVation, ByuN come to mind—rather than on his own. And it only makes sense. Each of them has something uniquely theirs, an aspect to their play. Maru has always been famous for his abnormal unit control and aggression, a talent momentarily channeled by ByuN. INnoVation is nicknamed The Machine for a reason; his mechanics and near-robotic execution was long unrivaled. And TY? We are told TY is smarter than everyone else. But each of the other Terrans named alongside him have transformed their unique strengths into at least one Code S title. Is his supposed intelligence, but failure to win the titles for which he seemed destined, all there is to TY? When we look back, after Jun Tae Yang's professional career has ended, who will we remember? Who—what—was TY?

Right now, his name seems interchangeable with a number of other players. After all these years he is still chasing shadows; struggling to fulfill expectations laid on him as a child. There is no doubt TY has had a remarkable career, but he is still shackled by the past. Maru hammered the point home on Acid Plant. Every deciding game TY has ever lost in a Korean tournament playoffs is part of a larger pattern. TY goes on amazing tournament runs, but BaBy loses when it matters. TY is now faced with one of the most difficult things to do for any human being. He must leave the past behind, he must let go of all the 'what could have been's. TY must kill BaBy.

Paradoxically, falling short in this latest Code S final may be the best thing that could have happened to TY before BlizzCon. Losing to Maru, with his eerily similar origins, but wildly different career path, may have shaken TY's confidence, but it might also inspire him to re-forge himself as Maru did at the tail end of 2017. There was no player more fitting than Maru to rip the Code S trophy from TY's hands.

When we look back at StarCraft II will we remember that TY, with all the talent in the world and all the time to capitalize on it, never reached the heights for which he was destined? Or will we remember him as a symbol of perseverance, a reminder to all of us that frustration can be overcome through hard work? Will TY be remembered as a disappointment or a worthy successor to the legends of Brood War and StarCraft II?

There is yet time to change who he is. Earning titles at WESG and IEM Katowice is one thing, but with all his failures in Code S, winning the WCS Global Finals could be the best way to change the course of TY's career. But if he wants to succeed on an even bigger stage than Code S, BaBy, the child prodigy, needs to have died on the 15th of September 2018. TY must set his own standards and expectations from now on. Only by putting the ghosts of the past to rest can he recreate himself. Not as BaBy, not as Jon Sun, but as Jun Tae Yang, the WCS World Champion.