The computer game StarCraft has an active professional competition circuit, particularly in South Korea. The two major game channels in South Korea, Ongamenet and MBCGame, each run a Starleague (Ongamenet Starleague, MBCgame Starleague), viewed by millions of fans. Starting in about 2002, pro-gamers started to become organized into teams, sponsored by large South Korean companies like Samsung, SK Telecom and KT. StarCraft is also the most popular computer game competition during the annual World Cyber Games thanks to its Korean fanbase, and it is overall one of the world's largest computer and video game competitions in terms of prize money, global coverage and participants.[1][2]
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There have been commercial attempts to bring televised professional StarCraft matches to audiences outside South Korea. GOM TV has hired Nick "Tasteless" Plott, an American who previously cast StarCraft at the WCG and other international events, to provide English commentary on the 2008 GOM TV Star Invitational and the 2008 Averatec-Intel Classic tournaments. According to GOM TV statistics, over 1 million viewers watched the GOM TV Star Invitational matches with English commentary.[3] Many Starcraft fans outside South Korea download video files of the pro games to watch on their computer. This has spawned a small community wherein StarCraft fans post the files to video sharing sites such as YouTube, but with their own English commentaries dubbed alongside the original Korean commentary.[4] Notable English-speaking YouTube commentators include Day9, KlazartSC,[5] Diggity,[6] Moletrap,[7] NukeTheStars,[8] and Rise.[9]
The Collegiate Starleague is a seasonal intercollegiate league that is modeled after Korea's ProLeague. It was founded in 2009 by students at Princeton University.[10] Its fourth season (Fall 2010) marks a shift from StarCraft: Brood War to Starcraft II, and includes the participation of over 100 North American colleges including Harvard, Yale, Cornell University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rutgers University, and Case Western Reserve University. Notable contributors and players include Sean "Day[9]" Plott, Kevin "QXC" Riley, and Andre "Gretorp" Hengchua.[11]
KeSPA[12] (Korean e-Sports Association) publishes a monthly calculation of rankings based on a point scale. It is a rolling system based on the past twelve months of performance in both major and minor events, awarding points based on wins. The most weight is placed on recent games, while games farther back have less emphasis.
| Rank | Player Name | Player In-game Name | Race | Team | Points | +/- Ranking | ||||||||
| 1 | Lee Young-Ho | Flash | Terran | KT Rolster | 2,430.8 | 0 | ||||||||
| 2 | Shin Dong Won | Hydra | Zerg | CJ ENTUS | 2,200.5 | 0 | ||||||||
| 3 | Kim Myung-Woon | ZerO | Zerg | Woongjin Stars | 1,879.5 | 0 | ||||||||
| 4 | Jung Myung-Hoon | Fantasy | Terran | SK Telecom T1 | 1,821.8 | +3 | ||||||||
| 5 | Lee Jae-Dong | Jaedong | Zerg | Hwaseung OZ | 1,818.0 | -1 | ||||||||
| 6 | Kim Taek-Yong | Bisu | Protoss | SK Telecom T1 | 1,663.0 | -1 | ||||||||
| 7 | Song Byung-Gu | Stork | Protoss | Samsung Electronics KHAN | 1,620.0 | -1 | ||||||||
| 8 | Kim Yoon-Hwan | Calm | Zerg | STX SOUL | 1,275.0 | 0 | ||||||||
| 9 | Yum Bo-Sung | Sea | Terran | MBCGame HERO | 1,252.5 | +2 | ||||||||
| 10 | Kim Min Chul | Neo.G_Soulkey | Zerg | Woongjin Stars | 1,215.0 | -1 | ||||||||
| 11 | Eu Yoon Su | n.Die_soO | Zerg | SKT Telecom T1 | 1,214.3 | +14 | ||||||||
| 12 | Kim Dae Yeob | Stats | Protoss | KT Rolster | 1,169.3 | -2 | ||||||||
| 13 | Heo Yeong Moo | JangBi | Protoss | Samsung Electronics KHAN | 1,162.5 | +14 | ||||||||
| 14 | Park Joon Oh | Killer | Zerg | Hwaseung OZ | 1,151.3 | -1 | ||||||||
| 15 | Lee Jae-Ho | Light | Terran | Woongjin Stars | 1,146.8 | -3 | ||||||||
| 16 | Jun Tae Yang | BaBy | Terran | WeMade FOX | 1,106.3 | 0 | ||||||||
| 17 | Lee Shin Hyung | Bogus | Terran | STX Soul | 984.0 | +1 | ||||||||
| 18 | Park Sung Gyoon | Mind | Terran | WeMade Fox | 978.0 | -4 | ||||||||
| 19 | Shin Sang-Moon | Leta | Terran | CJ ENTUS | 939.0 | -4 | ||||||||
| 20 | Goo Sung Hoon | HiyA | Terran | Hwaseung OZ | 936.8 | -1 | ||||||||
| 21 | Lee Kyung Min | Horang2 | Protoss | CJ ENTUS | 904.5 | -1 | ||||||||
| 22 | Shin No-Yul | RorO | Zerg | WeMade FOX | 876.0 | -1 | ||||||||
| 23 | Jin Young Hwa | Movie | Protoss | CJ ENTUS | 875.3 | -1 | ||||||||
| 24 | Kim Gu-Hyun | GooJila (Kal) | Protoss | STX SOUL | 858.0 | -7 | ||||||||
| 25 | Kim Seong Dae | Action | Zerg | KT Rolster | 792.8 | +1 | ||||||||
| 26 | Kim Jae Hoon | Jaehoon | Protoss | MBCGame Hero | 775.5 | +3 | ||||||||
| 27 | Ko Seok Hyun | HyuN | Zerg | MBCGame Hero | 774.0 | -4 | ||||||||
| 28 | Lee Sung Eun | firebathero | Terran | Air Force ACE | 753.0 | +3 | ||||||||
| 29 | Cha Myung Hwan | Great | Zerg | Samsung Electronics KHAN | 731.1 | -5 | ||||||||
| 30 | Kim Hyun Woo | Modesty | Zerg | STX Soul | 727.5 | +11 | - | 30 | Park Jae Hyuk | Hyuk | Zerg | SK Telecom T1 | 727.5 | +12 |
The Korean professional scene is currently divided into 8 teams, 6 of which are sponsored by corporations, one by KeSPA itself, and the remaining team by the Korean Air Force.
It was revealed on April 13, 2010 that a StarCraft cheating scandal existed in South Korea that involved popular StarCraft players intentionally losing games.[14]
As professional gaming has a legal status in South Korea, the consequences of these actions were very strict, with 11 players banned from all professional SC competition for life, and facing lawsuits, possibly bringing them to jail. All eleven players had all prizes and rewards revoked (e.g. Player of the Year Reward, Proleague Player Reward, Weekly/Monthly MVP Reward)
As of 9 June 2010, eleven Players have been banned from progaming as a result of the scandal, they are as follows: sAviOr, Hwasin, go.go, Type-b, Luxury,YellOw(ArnC), DarkElf, UpMaGiC, Justin, By.1st and ShinHwA.[15] In October 2010, sentences were declared.[16]
*Note: The suspended sentences mean the players can avoid prison if no wrongdoing is committed within the time period[16][17]
Known as the "Emperor of Terran", or sometimes just "The Emperor", Boxer's highly creative play has made him a popular StarCraft player. He is also one of, if not the most, successful as he is the first (of two) StarCraft player to win the World Cyber Games (WCG)[18] twice. He has also won the Ongamenet Starleague (OSL)[19] twice (only 6 players have achieved that). He is the first of two players to win two consecutive OSLs. He holds the record for being number 1 in KeSPA's rankings for 17 consecutive months. Boxer made a comeback in 2005, winning second place in the So1 OSL 2005, but had to retire from professional gaming to join the Korean military service, which is mandatory for all Korean males. On 3 October 2006 he played his rival [NC]...Yellow in "Superfight", which he won 3–2. One of the most popular fights [20] with [NC]Yellow was Boxer's Famous SCV rush, where he sent his SCV's and a couple of marines and won in five minutes. His total record of televised matches before he joined the Korean Air Force was 500 wins and 338 losses. Recently, Boxer became one of the first members of the Korean Air Force pro-gaming team ACE (an acronym of Air Force Challenges E-sports), where he continued playing as a pro-gamer. He made the GomTV 2 MBC Game Starleague in 2007, but was eliminated in the group stages. When his air force contract expired on December 24, 2008, he rejoined his former team SK Telecom T1, appearing actively in Pro League in July 2009. In October 2010 he switched over to StarCraft 2 and competed in GomTV GSL 2. In November 2010 he officially retired from his KeSPA pro-gamer status[21] to only focus on SC2 and have the opportunity to form a new SC2-team sponsored by Intel.[22]
The "Genius Terran" (also known as "Tornado Terran") started his pro-gaming career by beating ChRh (Choi In Kyu) on the "Amateur vs Pro" TV show. Statistically, he's the best player in history, having won the most starleague championships (6). He has a consistent and dominating style, backed up with excellent macro. Once believed to also have the best micro among all StarCraft players (e.g. Nada's Vultures). He has been on the team IS, KTF and now the Wemade FOX, formerly Pantech EX, formerly known as Toona SG. Nada has won 3 OSLs, 3 MSLs, and the first KT-KTF invitational tournament. After a resurgent OSL victory in late 2006, NaDa became the first player to have won the OSL 3 times, winning the "Golden Mouse". He recently qualified for his tenth MSL, but failed to qualify for the next OSL. Nada managed to reach the final sixteen in both the 2008 MSL and OSL, but was stifled of another attempt at a trophy by Hwasin and Jangbi respectively. As of December 2008 he is ranked 18 in KeSPA. As of June 2009, Nada has fallen to rank 31 in the KeSPA ranking system, making it the first time that he's been out of the top 30 since March 2002.
In October 2010 after his contract ended, he retired from playing Starcraft: Broodwar professionally instead NaDa is currently pursuing a professional gaming career in Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty. NaDa is currently in the Starcraft II team, oGs.
The next on line of successful Terran players after Boxer and Nada, iloveoov's macro is even better than Nada's, leading to him being jokingly known as the "Cheater Terran" due to his ability to create large armies in a short span of time. He is also known as "Monster" because of his dominance over his opponents. He has won the MBCGame Starleague (MSL)[23] three times in succession, an amazing feat, and in November 2004 finally won the OSL, cementing his place as one of the strongest players of the game. He won his 2nd OSL title in March 2006, defeating JulyZerg in the 1st ShinHan Bank tournament. iloveoov has now retired from professional gaming and is currently a coach for the SKT1 squad with Kingdom. However, in November 2008, he declared to come back to the squad and works as playing-coach in SKT. His first coming back game was held 17 November. He played against Kim Myung Un (Zerg) and lost, himself using Valiath (Valkyrie+Goliath).
He has an interesting relationship with Boxer (who was on the same SK Telecom T1 team with him), as he sees Boxer as a kind of "older brother" or mentor (Boxer brought iloveoov to the professional scene after seeing his talent in amateur leagues), and as a result, was somewhat regretful for beating him (3–2) in the finals of the EVER OSL in November 2004. He also won the WCG in 2006, beating Julyzerg 2–1 in the finals.
Nicknamed "The Little Monster", "God-Young-Ho", and "Ultimate Weapon", Flash arrived in the gaming scene by famously defeating Bisu in a Starleague game by "cheesing" his opponent. He was heavily criticized by Starcraft fans as a "cheap" player, but he dispelled all accusations by dominating the Starcraft gaming scene. He propelled his team KTF (now KT Rolster) into Proleague victories and championships by winning the 2010 Proleague. Flash is involved in one of the most intense and famous rivalries with Jaedong. Flash holds a variety of world records such as longest TvT winning streak, longest TvP winning streak, youngest Starleague winner, youngest Golden Mouse winner, highest KeSPA rank of all time, and the highest overall Elo, TvP, TvZ and TvT ranks of all time. He has been in 3 consecutive dual starleague finals, winning 4 golds within the past year. He recently defeated Kal (Goojila) in the 2010 World Cyber Games, eventually becoming the world champion.
Now retired from Starcraft 1. JulyZerg (or simply "July"), the "God of War", was credited with revitalizing what had been stagnant Zerg play, and of leading the way for a kind of "Zerg renaissance" with his highly dynamic and aggressive style, incorporating a strong understanding of his opponent's weaknesses and immaculate unit control. He is the first Zerg player to win an OSL; having accomplished this feat in 2004, and he also won the second KT-KTF Premiere League. In July 2005 he won a second OSL, something that to that date only four other players have accomplished, and after a long slump managed to win the Ever OSL 2008, making him the second player and first zerg to win 3 OSL titles and claiming the Golden Mouse trophy. July is known for being closer to the amateur community than the typical professional player, having played in amateur leagues such as the WGTour Speed Ladder in the past, and was one of the players on the Asian team for the friendly Blizzard Invitational Tournament held in early 2005. JulyZerg is currently playing Starcraft II on the pro team ST.
sAviOr (previously known as IPXZerg) has won three MSLs and one OSL, and reached five consecutive MSL finals during the height of his dominance. Nicknamed "Maestro" for his incredible play, timing, and game sense, he is often viewed as the most successful and fearsome Zerg of all time, having defeated BoxeR, iloveoov, NaDa, Midas, Nal_rA and many other top players. He is well known for his perfect defiler usage, particularly in the ZvT matchup. sAviOr made the semifinals of the 2007 September–November GOM TV MSL but was surprisingly eliminated by Terran player Mind 2–3. Soon after, he was eliminated 1–2 by Bisu in the 2007 Ever OSL quarterfinals. sAviOr is currently in a competitive slump, having been eliminated from the first round of both the most recent OSL and MSL. However, he has since qualified for the next upcoming MSL and is currently ranked 53rd in the February 2010 KeSPA ranking. On April 13, 2010, he was implicated in a cheating scandal involving several Korean pro gamers, illegal betting websites, and allegations of games being deliberately lost.[24] As the investigation continued, Savior eventually admitted his guilt on May 20'th, and was forced into retirement by KeSPA.[25]
Known as the "Lord of Destruction", and the "Tyrant", Jaedong is currently Hwaseung OZ's ace player, and gained fame from taking down many top players when he first entered the scene, earning the nickname "Legend Killer". He is known for his incredible micro of mutalisks, his trademark unit. His ZvT and ZvZ are among the best the progaming scene has ever witnessed, and he is currently regarded as the best Zerg player, if not the best player overall. He walked the Royal Road by qualifying for the OSL for the first time and defeating Stork in the EVER OSL finals 3–1. Soon thereafter, he proved that his ZvP matchup was not weak by defeating Bisu in the GOMTV MSL S4 group stages. Since his OSL win, Jaedong's ZvP has statistically been his second strongest matchup (71.25%)[26] Jaedong has also won the MSL season 4 by defeating Siz)Kal 3–1 in March, 2008, further proving himself as the top Zerg on the scene. Jaedong set a new record for the highest ZvZ streak by winning 12 games straight, only losing to Oversky in the Proleague. As of June 2009, he is 72–19 (79.12%) in ZvZ, and considering that ZvZ is thought to be one of the most volatile and luck based matchups, this is a very impressive feat. In July 2008, he was defeated in the Arena MSL 2008 Finals 0–3 by his teammate Park Ji-Su (ForGG), but he was able to bounce back from his loss and defeat his rival Flash 3–0 in the TG Sambo Intel Classic finals. He has won his second OSL title against Fantasy in the Batoo OSL 2009. In the Summer 2009 StarCraft season, he was the only player to make the quarterfinals of every Starleague: GOMTV Avertec Classic, OSL, and MSL. He also carried his team through the Shinhan Bank 08-09 Proleague and brought them a second place finish. On August 22, 2009 he once again proved that he is one of the best StarCraft players in the scene by winning the Bacchus OSL (his third OSL title) and thus winning the Golden Mouse. Jaedong was ranked 1st in the February 2010 KeSPA rankings. Jaedong has also been a very popular person outside of StarCraft having done commercials for various Korean companies and attending several international competitions such as the World Cyber Games 2 years in a row(2008–2009) and is the WCG champion for 2009, after beating his fellow Korean, Stork in the finals. He is well known for his intense and focused demeanor during play and his tendency to excel under pressure.
Reach, nicknamed "MAN-TOSS" (due to his muscular build and brute strategies) or "Hero Protoss", is the Protoss player who has been most consistent in the long term, beating Boxer in an OSL final near the height of his dominance, and generally placing well in tournaments. He is generally known for his standard/solid/safe style of play, with flawless macro and use of Psi Storm (the latter of which earned him the other nickname "Mudang Protoss", meaning shaman Protoss in Korean, owing to the uncanny accuracy of his Psionic Storm use), although he has been leaning away from this slightly in recent times due to changes in the playing style of the other races. Reach is known for his PvP and PvT skills, with his PvZ being inconsistently brilliant. Park was the captain of the KTF progaming team. Reach has been absent from the Starleagues and KeSPA rankings for 18 months but has recently returned to StarCraft pro-gaming tournaments, successfully qualifying for the 2007 Season 1 OSL. Reach has slumped since his return and is currently enlisted with Yellow in Air Force ACE. Currently, Reach has shown some return to form with impressive victories in the ProLeague.
The 'Dreaming Protoss' is often considered to be a Protoss version of Boxer due to his highly creative and daring play. He frequently hides his buildings in other parts of the map and pioneered and standardized several notable Protoss strategies such as fast expanding and using corsairs and reavers in tandem against Zerg. He won an OSL and MSL in the same season and does exceptionally well in team tournaments, playing for KTF. He has won the Blizzard WorldWide Invitational tournament during early 2006. He has recently recovered from a severe slump; and qualified for ShinHan Bank 2 OSL and made it to the Pringles MSL finals by defeating Kingdom, but lost 3–1 to sAviOr. He also made it to the Semi-Finals of the subsequent Pringles 2 MSL, only to lose again at the hands of sAviOr. Nal_rA has now retired from progaming and is currently a broadcaster for OnGameNet. In 2009, it was announced that Nal_rA would retire from commentating and that he would pursue a career in teaching at Seoul Institute Of The Arts.
Bisu (meaning "assassin's dagger" in Korean), nicknamed "Ninja Toss" for his creative Dark Templar use, plays at the highest level of progaming. He had moderate success in Shinhan OSL 2 where he made it to the sweet 16 playoff round. Bisu rose to prominence when he unexpectedly defeated sAviOr 3–0 in the March 2007 GOM MSL final at the height of Savior's dominance. Bisu is also known as the "Revolutionist" for his strong PvZ, and changing how Protoss players play the matchup. He also recently won the July 2007 GOM MSL 2 by defeating Stork 3–2. Bisu is the first Protoss player to reach the 1st spot in KeSPA history. Bisu lost 1–3 to Mind in the finals of the September GOM MSL 3 and was eliminated by Stork in the semifinals of the EVER OSL. Bisu was eliminated in the group stages of GOM MSL 4, losing most notably to Jaedong. However, he made it to the semifinals of the Bacchus OSL, but was eliminated by Flash. Bisu recently regained his dominant form by defeating free in ClubDay MSL semifinal, and defeated Jangbi in final to win his 3rd MSL title, the first and only Protoss to achieve this feat. For the first time in StarCraft progaming history, two opponents faced in a final back to back, once again, Bisu defeated Jangbi 3–1 in the GOM Averatec-Intel Classic Season 2 tournament. Inexplicably, his performance in OSL did not yield him any championships which is the only knock on his career so far. Bisu is known for his amazing plays against zerg having popularized the forge fast expand and the Bisu build. He is currently ranked 2nd in the August 2009 Kespa rankings and is considered to be the best protoss in history. His team SKT1 also won their second proleague grand finals with Bisu being the ace player of their team having won the most matches for them and having the best win-loss ratio in the entire tournament. Unfortunately, he has been slumping for a long time and has one of the lowest Elo ratings among the top players of each race.
All listed from oldest to most recent. Note that many of the Starleagues are named after the corporate sponsor for that year and that the other finalists are given in descending order of their finish. P/T/Z after a player's name indicates whether they played Protoss, Terran or Zerg respectively. The players are from South Korea except when noted.
2003:
2004 SKY:
2005 SKY:
2006 SKY:
2007 Shinhan Bank:
2008 Shinhan Bank: (There is no Season1 or 2.)
2008–2009 Shinhan Bank (Introduced Winners' League into format):
2009–2010 Shinhan Bank:
2010–2011 Shinhan Bank:
Winners of the KBK:
Winners of the OGN King Of Kings tournament:
Winners of the MBC Winner's Championship:
Winners of the KT-KTF Premiere League:
Winners of BlizzCon:
Winner of the CKCG (China-Korea Cyber Games)
Winner of the Snickers All-Star league:
Winners of WEF (World e-sports Festival):
Winners of Blizzard Worldwide Invitational:
Winner of IEF (International e-sports Festival):
Winner of the Shinhan Masters tournament:
Winner of GOM Star Invitational:
Winner of GOM Averatec-Intel Classic:
Winner of GOM Averatec-Intel Classic Special Match:
| Player | OSL Wins | MSL Wins | WCG Wins | Total Championships |
| FlaSh | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 |
| NaDa | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
| Jaedong | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| iloveoov | 2 | 3 | 1 | 6 |
| BoxeR | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| sAviOr | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| July | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Bisu | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Garimto | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Nal_rA | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Stork | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| XellOs | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| GoRush | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Luxury | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Anytime | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Casy | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| EffOrt | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Fantasy | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| FreeMuRa | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| GGPlay | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Grrrr… (Canada) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Jangbi | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Kingdom | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Reach | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Sync | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Calm | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Hydra | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| ChOJJa | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| ForGG | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Mind | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| fOru | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Ogogo | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
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