WATCH THIS MOVIE! It's a great look into the twilight years of the Korean Brood War scene (yes, this concerns the original StarCraft, very little of the sequel).People might be interested to know that the semi-pro, Kim Joon Hyuk, is Axiom's own
Impact.
The real highlight of the movie, though, is
Jaedong. He is, without question, the greatest Zerg to ever play Brood War, and the second greatest player to ever play the game. He dominated the scene, from late 2007 into early 2010, one of only 4 players ever to win the Golden Mouse - three OSL titles - on top of another two MSL titles. His reign was only halted when
Flash,
the greatest player to grace the game, rose to dominance and broke almost every record previously set. The two of them fought a furious rivalry over the next year, their head-to-head record dead even, their ELO and KeSPA ratings leagues beyond the rest of the pack. Think Federer vs. Nadal, and you're right on the money. No other e-sport has seen such a spectacular rivalry.
This is mostly beyond the scope of the documentary, which instead focuses on the uncertain years of transition after 2011. It does a great job of humanising these people, who are, in one case (Korea), treated as Rock stars (they actually have Rock stars as
fans), and in the other (the rest of the world, America and Europe in particular), seen as baffling oddities and, at best, curiosities. It is very well produced and resembles the older National Geographic documentary
StarCraft: World Cyber Games 2005. Worth a watch, too, if you're curious what to expect.
skaiano: Looks really interesting! Though, these e-sports "underdog stories" have got me wondering if there has been an e-sports equivalent of Rocky and Ivan Drago yet. I wanna see an 80's Starcraft training montage dangit!
(But seriously, Jae Dong's pretty well known even to non-SC2 players thanks to the SC2 Youtubers, might give this film a look! :D )
There's a few stories of past-their-prime players returning for one last triumph ( NaDa in the 2006 Shinhan Bank OSL Season 2 , JulyZerg in the 2008 EVER OSL), but they're rare and not quite as dramatic as what you're after. Such runs usually end in disappointment :(
Alternatively, in StarCraft the concept of the
Royal Road refers to a player who wins an individual tournament the first time he participates in it. These don't always end with shocking upsets, though the one that stands out, and the first thing that came to mind is the
2006 GOMTV MSL Season 1. Drafted a mere 5 months earlier, Bisu was an upstart Protoss with solid results but no distinct portents for greatness. Making his way to the MSL finals, he showed great potential, but nothing that would make him a contender. He was facing sAviOr: In the prime of his career, following a year of solid dominance, coming off of two straight MSL wins and an OSL championship, no one expected anything short of a dominant performance from him. His defiler play had raised the Zerg late-game to new heights and heralded a new era of ascendancy for the race. Going into any match, sAviOr was the undisputed favourite. It was a done deal.
The results shook the sport. Everyone watching, all around the world, was stunned. Bisu presented a specialised, Corsair-Dark Templar build, pitch perfect in execution, that left sAviOr reeling. It would hence be known as the Bisu build, become standard for PvZ, be improved, eventually countered, outmoded. But on the day, sAviOr simply had no answer. In three straight games, Bisu dominated the reigning King of the sport, the first declared "Bonjwa". sAviOr was never able to recover from the hit.
