Thursday, August 4, 2011

DAILY SC2 PLAYER PROFILE

Lim Yo-Hwan (born 4 September 1980), known by the pseudonym SlayerS_`BoxeR` (usually shortened to Boxer), is one of the most successful players of the real-time strategy computer game StarCraft to date. Dubbed The Emperor by his fans, he is the most popular Starcraft player with a fan club of more than 1,000,000 members and a DVD compilation of his greatest games released in South Korea.[citation needed] He is also a newly signed member of his own founded team SlayerS.

Success

Lim has a record with 547 wins and 416 losses (56.80%)[2] in his professional career. He is one of the highest-paid professional gamers, with annual earnings that exceed 400,000 US Dollars and endorsement contracts that bring in an additional $90,000 per year.[3] In 2004 he was voted the greatest gamer of all time by readers of ESReality, a popular Western electronic sports website, and in June 2006 he was included in an MTV list of "The 10 Most Influential Video Gamers Of All Time.

History

Lim first came to fame by dominating professional Starcraft while choosing to use the Terran race. The following reign of dominance earned him the nickname the "Terran Emperor", a reference to StarCraft lore. During this early time in his career he innovated heavily, creating many new strategies which are still used today, most notably making much more effective use of the Terran Dropship unit than had been achieved in the past. He also gained a reputation for being able to turn around matches against the odds and having excellent micromanagement (unit control) skills. He would often continue the game despite heavy disadvantages yet still pull out a victory. In contrast, his weakness is thought by some commentators to be poor macromanagement (economy/unit production) skills in comparison to other top-level professional Starcraft players, although his macromanagement has improved over the last few years.
BoxeR is most renowned for his creativity; oftentimes building proxy barracks. In many games, he has gone for quick attacks ("rushes") or special ops units ("ghosts") which make the games extremely entertaining. He is very well respected in Starcraft both in Korea and abroad being called the "Legendary" BoxeR.[citation needed]
Though he is no longer as dominant as he once was, he was ranked 11th in the April 2006 Korean e-Sports Players Association (KeSPA) rankings, and made it to the finals of the EVER Ongamenet Starleague (OSL) of late 2004 (losing to iloveoov by three games to two) and the finals of the 2005 So1 OnGameNet Starleague (losing to Anytime by three games to two).
Lim has played professionally since version 1.07 of Starcraft, and has managed to stay competitive by constantly changing his style, and has had a great influence of the development of modern playing styles, especially for Terran players. He is the all-time leader in games played and wins. He is a two time OSL champion, one time MSL champion, two time WCG champion, and leader of the SK Telecom "T1" team. He is considered to have a strong eye for talent in that position, as he drew Choi Yeon-Sung (iloveoov), among others, from the amateur ranks. His team has consistently been the strongest in the Proleague.[citation needed]
On August 2006 Lim announced at the MSL group draws that he had received his draft letter from the government, and would be entering the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) by the end of the year. He later said he would try his best to return after his 2 and a half years of service.[citation needed]
After Lim joined the Air Force, he started putting his fame to work. After a month and a half an Air Force pro-gaming team was created. Lim found some retired pro-gamers who joined the Air Force before him, including H.O.T-Forever, CLon, ChRh, fOru, Rage, Qoo) Sunny and MuMyung. Together they formed the first military pro-gaming team. After 2 months the team was announced, ACE (Airforce Challenge E-sports) was official. ACE first played in the 2008 ShinHan Proleague, and has participated ever since.
On December 22 2008, Boxer returned to SKT1 and played on that team as military service was ending, and has remained on its A-Team; however, he has concentrated on playing individual league matches since then.
In September 2010, Boxer began playing high level Starcraft 2 games against other pro gamers[5] as Terran under the username "ManofOneway,"[6] but has switched to SlayerSBoxeR since he announced his return. He is now playing Starcraft 2 at a professional level and has made it to the Round of 4 in GSL (GOMTV Global Starcraft II League) Open Season 2, where he lost 0–4 to NesTea.[7] However, he would not fare as well in following seasons, even dropping to Code A (the lower GSL League) in March 2011.
He is currently forming a Starcraft 2 clan, SlayerS (sls).[8] As well, he is featured in a documentary T.V. show, named Boxer's Wings, about his Starcraft career and his transition from StarCraft: Brood War to Starcraft 2.[9]
In March 2011, SlayerSBoxer's newly formed "SlayerS Clan" Starcraft 2 team won the GOMTV Global Starcraft II Team League, defeating teams IM (Incredible Miracle), Startale, and oGs (Old Generations). The same month SlayerSBoxer was also one of the few Koreans drafted for the North American Star League, a new tournament outside of the Korean Starcraft scene, with a prize pool of $100,000. "SlayerS Clan" repeated the feat winning next GOMTV Global Starcraft II Team League In May 2011 beating "MVP" in final and proving to be a very solid and well-rounded team.

Major achievements

  • Most wins on televised matches (500)
  • Semi-Finalist (4th place) in Starcraft 2 GSL Season 2 2010
  • Two times World Cyber Games champion (2001, 2002 as gonia119_kr)
  • First player to achieve 100 wins in Ongamenet Starleagues (OSL)
  • First player to win more than one OSL (Hanbitsoft 2001, Coca Cola 2001), and the first to win two consecutive OSLs
  • First player to make the OSL finals three times in a row
  • Longest time to hold first place in KeSPA (Korea e-Sports Players Association) rankings (17 months)
  • Earned an income of over $US 300,000 (annual)
  • Won the first KPGA Tour (now MBC starleague)
  • Has finished 2nd in Ongamenet Starleague 4 times (2001 SKY, 2002 SKY, 2004 EVER, 2005 SO1)
  • Finished 2nd in the first KT-KTF Premiere league
  • KPGA MBC Starleague Champion February 2002 to March 2002
  • Signed with "Team Razer" February 14th, 2011
  • Leader of SlayerS Clan, the championship team of GSTL March 24,2011 and GSTL May 19th 2011



Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Daily SC2 Player Profile

HuK is a Canadian American player, playing as Protoss. He is a member of Team Liquid.

HuK has one of the strongest fan base among North Americans players commonly being called "HuK Norris", "The Incredible HuK", "HuKeules" and "DreamHuK". Showing much love to his supporters, his fans/supporters in return are known to make cute images and pictures to display their appreciation of his play.
After playing for Milennium a while after release, HuK was announced as the newest member of Team Liquid on September 25th 2010

HuK was among the 10 invitees to the IEM Season V - Global Challenge Cologne, the first major live Starcraft event in Europe. HuK managed to take a series off Tarson 2-1, but was knocked out of his group after losing to MorroW and Artosis
Only a week after his disappointing performance in Cologne, HuK stormed through the brackets at MLG Raleigh to win the $2500 prize. He went all the way through the Winners Bracket without dropping a series. He defeated top players SUGGY, qxc, CauthonLuck and ultimately beat KiWiKaKi 4-2 in the Grand Finals.
His first big competition as part of Team Liquid was at IEM Season V - American Championships where Chris won his group but lost to qxc in the semi finals 3-1, but then winning the third place final against drewbie 3-2.
At MLG D.C. he got to the winner's brackets final but lost to IdrA and then placing third after a very infamous game against SeleCT on Scrap Station, where he mothership rushed because the crowds had been calling for it. He was also invited to BlizzCon 2010 StarCraft II Invitational, although losing to Loner in the third round and later knocked out by MakaPrime in the consolation bracket.
HuK, together with all of the other Team Liquid members, competed at MLG Dallas, where he got knocked down to the loser's bracket by Ret and then knocked out by TLO finishing in ninth place, which meant he never lost his number one seed rank in the MLG tournaments.

Korea

After Dallas HuK flew to Korea staying at the oGs-Liquid house to practice and qualify to the GSL. But he was eliminated from the GSL 3 qualifiers, losing to Aya in the bracket final.

Code A

In late January of 2011, HuK would be selected as one of the four foreigner invites to participate in the Code A tournaments for 2011 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ GSL March. He would be accompanied by teammates HayprO and Ret as well as Australian Moonglade. He would be the only one of the invitees to advance past the first round. He would make it to the Round of 8 before falling to Losira. Making the top 8 qualified HuK to participate in the up/down matches to attempt for a Code S spot. HuK would be held off by teammate InCa 2-0, but managed to take down Choya 2-1 to earn a place in Code S for the following season, making him the third foreigner to do so.

Code S

After qualifying for Code S for the GSL May 2011 Tournament, Huk ended up in Group H with players July, Rain and Inca. Unfortunately, he lost both his matches to July and Inca, leaving him only one chance to remain in Code S in the Up/Down matches. In his Up & Down match he decisively defeated MMA 2-0 to retain his Code S position.
HuK's return to Korea saw him in the Round of 32 in Group G of GSL July where he advanced, decisively defeating TSL players ALive and Killer. He played against MC once more in the Round of 16, but lost 0-2 to his teammate.

GSTL

In the GSTL Season 1 Jupiter Group Week 5 featuring teams oGsTL and Prime, HuK made his first appearance. He defeated both Check and MarineKing, bringing his team to victory after a 2-3 lead by Prime. This meant that oGsTL would qualify for the playoffs.[3]

Outside Korea

When HuK began training in Korea, his success in many European and North American tournaments was at first limited. During DreamHack Winter 2010, he flew to Sweden together with oGsInca and oGsTOP. He went undefeated (3-0) in the group stage, but then lost to Socke during the first round of the playoffs.
In 2011, HuK continued to have difficulty in the foreign scene. HuK would be one of the 3 Korean Protoss invites to the TeamLiquid StarLeague 3. He was subsequently eliminated in the first round by HasuObs, 1-2. He would also be selected for the StarsWar Killer 6 tournament where he also was defeated immediately by Morrow. His performances in notable LANs such as Assembly Winter 2011 and MLG Dallas 2011 saw modest finishes of 8th and 10th place, respectively.
HuK's breakthrough tournament came during DreamHack Summer, in June. Huk managed to place first in his group with an impressive score of 5-0. He would later defeat PredY, Socke and July before facing Moon in the finals. In the finals, HuK managed to defeat Moon once again, this time with a score of 3-2. Huk then competed at the HomeStory Cup III where he faced off against Naniwa in the finals and managed to win 4-2.
Huk participated in MLG Anaheim where he was seeded into pool play. There, he placed second falling only to DongRaeGu. In the Championship Bracket, he beat SjoW 2 - 0, but ended up falling to GanZi in the second round 0 - 2. Although he failed to reach the podium, he finished in 7th, giving him the highest placement of any non-Korean player.