Hello everyone, we wanted to apologize for the mispronunciation of Brood War and Afreeca in this video and will make sure something like this doesn’t slip through again.

Another fun Brood War fact: At 3:08 the video mentions that FlaSh had RSI in his wrists. This severely affected his ability to play the Terran vs Zerg matchup which relies heavily on marines and medics, a fragile and APM intensive unit comp that requires a lot of quick and precise mouse movements. How did he solve this problem? He invented the 5 factory goliath build which revolves around the mechanical Goliaths, a much less demanding unit comp, and absolutely disrupted the meta and forced players to spend several ASL seasons figuring out how to counter his strategy. It was also an incredible gift for lesser-skilled players since the Terran vs Zerg matchup was widely considered the most mechanically difficult matchup in the game until FlaSh invented this new build.

AfreecaTV: We will control the map pool to make it impossible for Flash win! Flash: Ah, finally, a challenge

Non sc players can't appreciate how good flash is. Another example: during his latest ASL championship run, they would poll the other pro players on who they expected to win before each match. Every time, they voted almost unanimously for flash. And they were right. He stomped everyone.

ASL: How do we stop FlaSh? Let's make the maps unwinnable for Terran! FlaSh: *switches to Random*

This level of dominance is almost unheard of in any other E-sport. Its actually insane how big of a skill gap there is between this one player and his closest contemporaries. In Starcraft 2, you can bet on Serral, Reynor, Clem, Maru or Dark and still lose, for example. With Brood War, betting on Flash was just a guarantee.

You should've mentioned that he played as random in the last tournament before he joined the military and placed 3rd in that ASL. That's just insane.

One of the very few times on the internet where you read "best ___ of all time" and it's actually not clickbait. Flash is the goat.

I would have loved to have seen some mention or reference to his run playing as RANDOM in one of the most recent ASLs before he left for military service. It was just another one of the bullet points that showed how far and away better of a player he was than the other pros and having a professional random player in an offline tournament made for some very interesting games

Starcraft is as complicated as chess but you then have to make 1000 movements in a minute

Bro lost for the first time to a Protoss player in 11 years, given a huge disadvantage, and it was 2-3. Then he came back next season and stomped the shit out of him 4-0. Crazy

6:32 I may not understand anything about the game but I can tell from their vices that it was legendary

"While we could make an entire video about his feats and accomplishments... and we might.." - you should!

Crazy to think about how Starcraft birthed E Sports. When the game came out there wasn't even a spectator mode in the game so the spectator had to be a third player as Terran, float the CC into a corner and have the SCVs kill each other. Still makes me laugh when I remember the old casts of scouting workers find a random SCV chilling in a corner next to his CC

This is why this channel is amazing. I will never play StarCraft, let alone check out Korean esports on my own, yet I have immense respect for Flash regardless of the fact I only knew he existed like 10min ago. That was an inspiring story and well made video

Flash is an anomaly, a glitch in the matrix. Legend.

StarCraft was the prime of eSports for myself and my excitement for it. Really cool to see a video talking about a legendary figure of my fond memories

Thank you so much for shining a light on Starcarft 1! More people need to know about it and I think you did a good job explaining why this game is so wonderful. BTW Starcraft 1 is free so if anyone wants to check it out, please do so!

I'm glad you're bringing more attention to Brood War. Even today, it feels like a criminally underrated e-sport.

Gawd damn hearing that Daigo crowd gives ya goosebumps everytime.

Thanks for the great video! If you've never heard of him before, yes, Flash is THAT good! They call him the Ultimate Weapon!

You forgot him switching to random to get around future map rigging

Need more videos about the 1999-2012 South Korean professional Brood War scene for the "new kids" for sure. It's when e-Sports reached it absolute peak after all ;) Appreciated!

Great video, 2 things, it’s “brood war” not “brood wars” unfortunately haha. And it would have been nice to mention that Starcraft tournament organizers did this all the time before Sc2. Protoss winter was famous when they would put Protoss favored maps into the pool so that they would stand a chance against the other races when they were considered underpowered. They have done it a few other times too, but it’s been a constant throughout the history of the game. Still great video, though I think knowing that would have added to the story. It’s not the first time flash had to deal with the maps hurting him specifically

great video. although i was sad you didnt mention his road to the ASL finals in the later seasons AND the season where he went RANDOMMMM

Every sports there's injuries, this is no difference

FlaSh was my inspiration to improve in Brood War, unbelievable guy

Playing Star Craft Brood War is like calculating complicated math problem for time, while someone is attacking you with a knife.

Flash is the Magnus Carlsen of SC

Ahhh SC:BW the greatest eSport of all time! I miss those days, when staying up into the middle of the night meant catching live Korean SC: BW tournaments. It was still so niche to be into eSports back then!

Starcraft 1/2 and fighting games are the pinnacle of eSports, for me. I just enjoy team games the same way. Maybe that's why baseball was always my favorite sport, the head to head element.

Thank you for the vid. But mostly, wow, flash seems amazing, not just to be the best, but to be so utterly dominate at a game that it is soo tough to play that organisers felt they had to tip the table. It's almost more of an achievement.

SPARKLE AND 3RD WORLD IN THE SAME SEASON LMAO this was an absurd season of ASL but one of my favorites to watch

You forgot to mention that Flash played ASL Season 10 as Random race and made it to the quarterfinals

Flash will almost certainly return to Starcraft. Its hard to imagine a pro BW scene without him in it.

I get tilted whenever he says "BROOD WARS."

The bigger issue of him coming back is the crypto scandal. He didnt admit it, but the timing of his military leave right after the news broke is a large coincidence. Bisu also took cover for over a year and missed at least 1 maybe 2 ASLs but was able to come back with strong fan support, but it will be seen if flash will come back from military service with the same forgiveness as Bisu

Fun Fact: Flash went on to perform ANOTHER 3-peat in ASL, and then in his final season at ASL10?--he decided to play Random. That's right, random. He made it to the Round of 4 with no guarantee what his race would be, having to plan multiple potential strategies for each outcome against each different player, losing a hard fought 4-2 series. I grew up on competitive gaming, from Starcraft, Quake3, UT99, Street Fighter, Tekken, Halo, War3, DOTA2 and many more--I have watched greatness unfold in these communities. Daigo, Boxer, Grubby, Fatal1ty, OG, so many legends made--None of them come close to the level of dominance Flash has had in Brood War. It was beyond belief, and I still can't quite wrap my head around it to this day.

So happy to see this channel make a video on Brood War -- the godfather of esports.

SC2 wasn't "taking over", Blizzard strongarmed the switch, forcing BW players to convert to SC2. I believe they threatened Kespa to go SC2, or they would lose broadcasting rights. Oh and you're not gonna mention Flash competing in ASL as random?

0:18 How fitting that the roar of the crowd sounds exactly like it does in Mike Tyson’s Punchout

Never played starcraft in my life, very funny to see someone so good at something he can literally redefine how the game is played

Dude's APM was so high he needed surgery

As a pro Starcraft watcher, Flash is truly the greatest and most unbeatable player I've ever seen. Watching him play other top players and just crush them was truly incredible. Didn't he play a more recent season set at Random? What a true God lol

I remember the first time i've seen him was in OSL i think somewhere around 2006 or 07. He was still new to the scene and Bisu was still regarded as the best at that time. . . and Flash cheesed him twice (i think). i lol'ed at his audacity.

“It won’t be enough” 😂😂 and it so ridiculous that a tournament organiser can get away with meddling

You didnt mention his success in his random tournament. That was awesome

Fun fact: Kang Min aka Nal_rA, one of the 3 kings even surprised that Flash (he was a middle schooler btw) dominates everyone else in KT team house, even top guns like Reach, Yellow and everyone else tries to take him down but they all lose 2-0 to Flash

I've never played or spectated SC but this is a pretty convincing story. Now I hope flash makes a successful re-return!

It's sad to see things like this happen. Rather than expect everyone else to rise to the occasion and improve they handicap the better player and try to lower his chances of winning. We should always encourage and promote people to become better rather than pulling others down. Punishing someone for being great is a horrible outlook on life.

Why did we not talk about Flash playing random? That's the craziest thing about him is how dominate he is in tournaments playing random.

You should have talked about how he started to play random for an additional challenge and still beat everyone.

Love some starcraft content!

you guys i haven’t been notified of your videos or see you on the home page

Thanks a lot for the valuable content on the Legend. #FlashGod is one of the living legends.

Ultimate Weapon - that moniker of Flash I like the most: everyone was underdog against Flash either a team or individual player. When Flash had going to the stage everyone knew the it’s over for an opposition, no matter what the current score was. Fun times

You seem like an expert, you can even pronounce Brood War

It's practically unheard of except for the times we've heard of it.

Thanks for the vid

Brood War, not "Brood Wars"

Bruh i used to stay up all night and watch MSL and OSL live for this guy. I literally have never been as passionate about any pro eSports since then.

now i understand the artosis memes, thx a lot!

Great video!

Should have gone for the head.... They couldn't nerf Flash so they make life harder for all Terrans. The poor other Terrans xD

THanks to talk about Flash and Starcraft, the best game ever created.

LETS GO FLASH U CAN DO IT!!!!!

Well dont forget the time byun got the reaper nerfed... twice xD

Personally, I think the video missed the part where Flash won the 3rd place at ASL 10 **with random**. Most impressive.

bro went to military's service. he gone come back with a stronger wrist

its brood WAR.. Starcraft: Brood War. Hearing it called Brood Wars over and over made it sound like someones parent or grandparent talking about playing: "Marios" or "Zeldas" .. "Oh theyre down there playing the Zeldas.. They just love the Zeldas" (really this is just nitpicking / teasing.. its not that huge a deal) Other than that great job dude!

It was never about the games.... it was always about the gamers stepping up.

You talk about winnigs, but his salary was insane too. Starcraft players had 200k/yr salaries in 2000-2010, while other games were barely esport tier.

Thank you for recognizing daigo.

My original nick in SC2 was RuFLaSH and im a terran player. Cant wait to see if he returns after his service.

When I saw the video title I knew it had to be a Brood War player.

lol they applied handicap against the man

Amazing video

FRASHUUUU! Truly the greatest in RTS. His understanding of the game can make it seem like he's bending it to his will. 12 units per hotkey, controlling upto 100 units at a time, while also zoom in and micro individual units to perform ankle-breaking moves... I'd love to see a dedicated video on Flash. It's fair that ASL tipped the map pool against him or else tournaments would become stale. He even decided to play as random race for a season, probably just to flex but maybe on recommendation from ASL as well. Who knows

Good vid, but there are a few more things to mention with Flash. Particularly his run as RANDOM in his last ASL getting to round of 4 which is Insane considering most players, even the elite of the elite barely make it to the rd of 4. Flash has almost never gotten lower than ro8 in ASL which is a feat in itself and points to his consistency. As random he beat many mirrors PvP and ZvZ which against life long P and Z players really.. shouldn’t be possible haha. He also has some amazing feats regarding his GOD nickname - but he has other nicknames such as The Ultimate Weapon and The Final Boss. The Final Boss title is a reference to when he played in team battles. When he played in 2009 Shinhan league finals he was rostered last on his team to play. His 2 teams mates went first and both Lost to the first opponent on the other team. This left flash having to beat 3 consecutive players to win the finals… which he did, beating them all in less than 25 mins game time collectively. He brought with him 3 pocari sweat drinks into the booth - 1 for each opponent hahha. He has won the most titles among all the tournaments where even the best players hope to win 1 or 2 titles even winning 1 tournament is a big achievement! Flash has to date: 4 Asl, 3 MSL, 3 OSL, 3 GOM, 3 Shinhan League. The only ASL opponents that beat him during the other 4 ASL’s would all go on to win that respective ASL. He holds the record for Starcraft ELO ladder ranking. Which he broke 6 consecutive times. And when you consider sc:bw players back in his peak would practice full time in team houses day after day, and usually devise weird strategies to beat flash - which would 90% of the time never work against him you gotta give him his due credit. What makes him so good though? His ability to adapt to his opponent, always making the absolute right choice when faced with a surprise attack or weird build. His ability to predict his opponents - seriously his game sense is on a totally different level, he just knows what his opponents will do and when, its uncanny! His ability to macro and micro non stop - literally no one can out macro Flash. His build orders and timings always never waiver. Thats how he beat Snow in PvP as protoss! He had 1 base, snow had 2 and yet Flash outproduced him in Dragoons… how the f..? If he needs to pull workers to help fend off an attack he will usually pull the exact amount required - no more, no less - to minimize lost mining time. He invented many builds for terran - particularly the goliath tank build (iirc). By the end of his last ASL he had a 80%+ win rate against every race, as Terran (hence going Random to challenge himself). Just the magnitude of accomplishments and his consistency is unheard of in gaming. Nobody can say they dominated their game for over 10+ years. And starcraft is far harder than dota games or shooters, far far harder.

i miss this era.... moletrap, diggity.. i could cry

Loved to see the Chess-SC comparison in the comments section. And as said, SC is WAY more complicated obviously for various reasons (RTS- not turn based, speed, reaction time, and endless options of actions) but chess does require much more calculation ability. I wish SC1 will rise in popularity outside of Korea again, it's a masterpiece of a game and that Chess comparison makes me sad that SC couldn't remain a worldwide popular game the same way Chess could for hundreds of years. Also loved the Magnus - Flash comparison, they both are the goats of their respective sports- I'd have to say that Magnus distinguished himself from the pack over the years even more than Flash did imo (but I do believe that if there was a 1v1 world championship in SC the same way there's in Chess, Flash would be a multi champ easily). Nice to see the many fans that are still around, wish there were more ;-) SC is the goats of games, that I know for sure.

It's insane how good flash is and they had to cripple Terran with the maps to stop him winning

Brood WAR. Just 1. For fuck's sake.

I love watching Brood Wars electronic sport game on AfricaTV

It's called Brood War.

Imagine being so good to being compared to omnipotent that the real omnipotence (tournament organizers) had to acknowledge his existence through their direct manipulation of the rules (namely the rule of being impartial in all decisions)

Ryu just can't catch a break huh 🤣😂

Flash is like Michael Jordan, Messi, Tom Brady, Tiger Woods and Babe Ruth altogether in one person but in the E-Sports world. There is no harder e-sport than broodwar nothing can compare and may never compare again. And this man was a legend at it

As a Sc1 player its honestly breath taking watching Flash play holy shit you people have no idea just how good this guy is.

you know you are good in a videogame when other pros nickname for you is God

I loved watching Flash play back in the 2000s on Gomplayer with Tasteless casting from Korea. I felt like Jaedong and Bisu got more love from Korean fans, but Flash was my favorite to watch. Flash against Jaedong or Bisu, though, I only got to see a few of those matches and they were CRAZY.

id like to see video analyis explaining how maps favor certain races

Kept saying brood warS.........like nail on chalkboard

It took the best Protos against Terran Player AND a Map that puts Terrans at a disadvantage, to barely beat him 2:3? Yeah, hes the Goat.

Great video.

I remember the story when he was asked how he spends his free time and Flash response was: “I play other races.” Fcking chad

I'll watch any videos that you want to make about Flash!

Terran is a race that knows no lengths- but often causes wrist issues from all the skill

fr, flash is the only crazy scbw player who would play random race and still win the game even if he gets rng into a bad race for the map in tournament

I read about this guy when during LoL S3 and damn this was the og before Faker😊