As the most popular StarCraft player with a fan club of more than 600,000 members and a DVD compilation of his greatest games released in South Korea, he is widely regarded in e-Sports as an iconic figure. Because of his long dominance during the rise of StarCraft’s popularity in South Korea Lim earned the title of The Emperor within the StarCraft community.

Boxer first came to fame by dominating professional StarCraft while choosing to use the Terran race over Protoss at a time when this was seen as a relatively weak choice in comparison to the other two StarCraft races. His first major win was the Hanbitsoft OSL, a great victory for the Terran race and Boxer himself, as there were no Terrans at all the previous OSL. His near-undefeated run through the whole Starleague (with only one loss to Kingdom in the semi-finals) would start a new era of progaming.

Lim Yo Hwan is a two time Starleague champion, KPGA Tour champion, two time WCG champion, and also the former captain of SK Telecom T1, a team that was originally built around him with players he hand-picked. After his loss to Reach in the SKY 2002 OSL, his father disputed with the team he was currently in, IS (now Lecaf), and Boxer was forced to make Orion (now SKT T1), initially containing talents such as Sigamari, IntoTheRainbow and the monster Terran, iloveoov. Boxer took iloveoov under his wing and he eventually became a two time OSL and three time MSL champion. His team has consistently been one of the most successful in the team leagues.

BoxeR, along with GARIMTO and YellOw, have been said by many fans as the progamers who revolutionized early progaming strategy, with such strategies as the Tank Drop and the Double Barrack Cheese. During this early time in his career he innovated heavily, notably making much more effective use of the Terran Dropship unit than had been achieved in the past. BoxeR also gained a reputation for being able to turn around matches against the odds and having excellent Micromanagement skills. In contrast, his weakness is thought to be his macro management, at least when compared to other top-level professional StarCraft players. [2]

Although no longer as strong of a player as during his prime, he ranked 11th in the April 2006 Korea e-Sports Association (KeSPA) rankings, and made it to the final of the EVER OSL 2004, only to lose 2-3 to his team member iloveoov, as well as the final of the So1 OSL 2005, again losing 2-3 to AnyTime. In August 2006 Lim announced at the MSL group draws that he had received his draft letter from the government, and would be entering the Air Force 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.

After Lim joined the Air Force he started putting his fame into work, after a month and a half an army progaming team was created, and BoxeR found some retired progamers who joined the army before him, including H.O.T-Forever, Clon, ChRh, fOru, Rage, Qoo)Sunny and MuMyung. Together they formed the first army progaming team ever. After 2 months the team was announced, ACE (Airforce Challenge E-sports) was official, Air Force ACE. ACE’s first team league was the Shinhan Bank Proleague 2007 and has played in every Proleague since.

In December 2008, when his mandatory military service ended, Boxer returned to his team SK Telecom T1 and was on the A-team roster. However, he saw little play time, and in 2010, Boxer did not renew his progaming license. Instead, he began to play StarCraft 2.

Lee Yoon Yeol is a serious contender for the greatest StarCraft progamer of all time, and for good reason. As the most successful player he has achieved a championship almost every year since he started including 3 consecutive MSLs followed by 3 OSLs to win the Golden Mouse. Almost universally feared in his prime, it says something that the opponent with the greatest success against him is iloveoov, in many ways his successor. He maintained a 61% win rate over a span of 1100 games: more than anyone else, and is one of a handful of players with this win percentage or higher. NaDa also carried his team in Proleague having twice won the KeSPA Award for most Proleague victories out of all the players.

Drafted by Pantech and Curitel in 2007 and traded off to KTF MagicNs shortly after being drafted, Flash came on to the scene as one of the youngest progamers to be televised at 14 years old. Advancing to the Daum OSL from his first attempt in the offline preliminaries, his career started off in a strong fashion, quickly amassing a winning record in Proleague play and succeeding in getting into both the MSL and OSL. His early notable matches include ones against BoxeR, Bisu, and SaviOr. He became the youngest player to reach the semifinal of the OSL, losing to GGPlay in a series that went to game five. This series is notable for Flash attempting not one, but two 14 CC builds, both on Fantasy in Game One and Five. He subsequently lost both games. Although he put forth strong results, Flash was not a popular player. He was hated for using cheese to eliminate Bisu from the Daum OSL on Monty Hall, and was considered to be a very boring player. It wasn't until later in his career when his genius in relation to economic timings, defensive play, was revealed.

In 2008, Flash's career reached new heights when he defeated Stork in the finals of the 2008 Bacchus OSL and became the youngest Starleague champion ever at 15, defeating top players such as Jaedong and Bisu along the way. It was during this period that he earned his reputation as a TvP master, using his Dual Armory style Flash Build to counter the rampant use of 2 Base Carrier strategies. He also placed first in the GOM Star Invitational, again defeating Stork in the finals as well as Jaedong in the ro8. This was a dramatic turning point in Flash's career as he had previously been criticized for his inability to defend carrier-based builds (shown by his 3rd/4th place match against Stork in the Daum OSL). In the three months after the title win, Flash went on to have one of the most dominant winning sprees in progaming history: achieving a record of 24 wins and 4 losses and tying a Proleague record of 17 straight wins.

Flash stagnated in the year following his OSL victory. While he maintained one of the best Proleague records and consistently beat lesser opponents, he faltered repeatedly in the individual leagues against the very best players. He was knocked out of the GOMTV Classic in seasons 1 and 2 by Jaedong and Bisu respectively, defeated by the 2008 Arena MSL champion fOrGG in the semifinals, and lost in the Avalon MSL to the eventual silver-medalist Kwanro. Though Flash was still known as one of the best Terrans mechanically at this time, his strategies were in question; late turrets against the newer 2 hatchery styles cost him in several leagues, his overuse of 14cc was well known, and Protoss players adapted to his double armory build by rapidly out-expanding him. Nevertheless, he did take gold in Season 3 of the GOM Classic in this period, albeit going through a relatively weaker bracket.

Flash showed remarkable innovations in all his matchups when the 09-10 season started. When KT failed to qualify for the 08-09 Proleague playoffs, Flash had extra time to reflect on his gameplay. In TvZ, Flash displayed a new pre-lair bionic pressure strategy where he used his initial medic marines to delay Mutalisk harassment and then to deny their third gas. Flash also deviated from the infantry based TvZ lategame; whereas Terrans were often having trouble versus Defiler and Ultralisks in the lategame, Flash fortified his expansions with mass tanks and ended up starving out Zergs. In TvP, Flash also showcased use of fac-cc-fac and 4 factory builds, as well as the mass factory build of iloveoov, all surprising departures from his signature late game double armory build. In TvT, Flash displayed remarkable resilience and went on the longest recorded TvT winning streak.

All these innovations led to Flash dominating the 09-10 season. The season was also notable for the numerous "LeeSsang" games that took place between top players Flash and Jaedong (the name meaning "Two Lees" since both have the first name Lee), a rivalry which Flash came out ahead in. Flash took the 2009 EVER OSL against Movie 3-1, notably defeating Jaedong 2-0 in the ro8. Flash then lost the 2009 NATE MSL against Jaedong 1-3, which contained some excellent play from both sides but was probably more remembered for the power outage in game three where Jaedong was awarded the win based on his advantageous position. Flash then went on to essentially win the Winner's League for KT, going 22-3 and crushing Sea, Tyson, and Jaehoon in the finals. Flash again advanced to both individual league finals in the spring. In the 2010 Korean Air OSL, he was defeated by the underdog Effort 2-3 after being up 2-0, where he displayed weaknesses against Effort's early aggression. However, Flash seemed unaffected when several days later he won the Hana Daetoo MSL against Jaedong 3-0, opening 14cc every game. During May 2010, Flash showed some weakness in Ace matches, going 0-5 in them during round 5 of the SPL. However, over the entire year Flash accumulated the most wins in Proleague and helped KT maintain first in the team rankings; Flash also won the final set in the Proleague finals against Hyuk to give the team its first Proleague gold. Flash yet again fought his way into both the Korean Air OSL Season 2 and the Bigfile MSL finals, both against his rival Jaedong. In the MSL, Flash took a close 3-2 victory using several unorthodox timing attacks. For the OSL, the two clashed in Shanghai, China. Jaedong used a burrowed Zergling trap which Flash didn't fall for in game 1, and then surprisingly attempted two four pools in a row, the first of which succeeded. In game 4, Jaedong tried an unorthodox lurker drop which Flash defended to take the series 3-1. Flash thus became the second player after Nada to claim dual individual league golds, and the first player to be in 6 consecutive MSL and OSL finals. He had also defeated his biggest rival Jaedong in 3 consecutive finals. Although Flash placed second in WCG Korea 2010 in which Jaedong took first, Flash was the victor in the WCG 2010 Grand Finals where he defeated both Kal and Jaedong.

In the 10-11 season, Flash has not enjoyed the same degree of success. Although he continues to dominate Proleague, he had two surprising setbacks when he was eliminated from both the 2011 PDPop MSL by rookies Ssak and Classic, and from the 2010 Bacchus OSL in the group stage by Kal and Hyuk. In January interviews, Flash admitted he had been suffering from RSI in his wrist but was optimistic about recovery. However, Flash has since regained his aura of dominance by helping carry his team through SWL 2011, and most recently, winning the 2011 ABC Mart MSL. His road to the championship included going through the Group of Death with Jaedong, Bisu and Sea, trouncing defending champion Hydra in the Ro4 to reach the final where Flash defeated Zero to earn his 3rd MSL title. With this victory Flash has tied NaDa in terms of league titles, being the 2nd progamer in history to have six titles and to possess both the Golden Mouse and Golden Badge. He also led KT Rolster in the SPL playoffs, starting at the bottom of the playoff ladder. After defeating Woongjin Stars, Samsung Khan, and CJ Entus respectively, KT Rolster faced SK Telecom T1 in the finals for the second year in a row. After starting off the series down 1-3, Flash defeated BeSt on Fortress SE to bring the series to 2-3. After Stats beat n.Die_soO on Empire of the Sun, Flash played BeSt in the ace match on Circuit Breakers. After a tense 25 minutes, Flash emerged victorious to give KT Rolster their second SPL Championship in a row.

For the first half of the 2011-2012 season, FlaSh continued to show his dominance in the SPL. However, after reaching yet another finals appearance, once again facing SK Telecom T1, Flash could not pull through. He first lost to Fantasy on Ground Zero, then lost to Bisu in the ace match on Outlier. For the second half of the 2011-2012 season, Flash is currently playing in the 2012 Tving OSL. He advanced from the Dual Tournament to qualify for the Round of 16, where he moved on from a bottom-rung tiebreaker against his teammate Action, and Bogus. In the Round of 8, despite a regame in game 2 where he was in an advantageous position (he won the regame), he convincingly won against Shine 3-1. The semifinals was against the runner-up of the Jin air OSL, Fantasy. Hyped up as the clash of the titans and the last OSL Broodwar TvT, the game attracted quite a bit of attention. However, the results were lopsided, where Flash was swept 0-3, ending his run.

Mind made his 1st appearance on TV in the SKY2006 Proleague R1. He played very few games in Proleague throughout the next year and failed to qualify for any Starleague until the GOMTV MSL S3. In the GOMTV MSL S3 Mind went on fire, defeating iloveoov, Memory, and Savior to reach the finals where he met Bisu, who had won the last 2 MSLs. Mind displayed excellent TvP skill with impeccable timing and game sense and won the MSL walking away with the most-feared TvP in Korea. Mind became one of the top Terrans in Korea and the star player on his team, appearing on his team's Proleague lineup every week and being invited to the GOMTV Star Invitational. At the end of 2007 Mind was voted in a poll of e-sport experts as most likely to be the next big Terran on the scene (although in reality Flash, who came in 2nd place in the poll, became that Terran). Mind managed to reach the semifinals of the GOMTV MSL S4 where he lost to eventual champion Jaedong. After the GOMTV MSL S4, Mind failed to reach the semifinals of another league, dropping out of the Arena MSL and EVER2008 OSL in the Ro16. Mind did manage the reach the Ro8 of the Incruit OSL where he lost to eventual finalist Fantasy in a close TvT series.

After the Incruit OSL, Mind's performance dropped substantially; doing much worse in Proleague (which in combination with teammate's Pure and NaDa's faltering performances lead to Wemade Fox dropping far in the Proleague rankings, finishing as the 2nd lowest ranked team in the league) and failing to qualify for any Starleagues since the Incruit OSL.

Mind showed strong results in round 1 of the 09-10 Proleague finished with results of 6 wins and 4 losses. Mind qualified for the 2009 EVER OSL but was knocked out 1-2 by HoGiL in the round of 36.

After WeMade gave up its Starcraft team, Mind was transferred to KT Rolster.

Calm has been a steady Zerg player for STX SouL since 2005, making his first 1v1 appearance in the SKY2005 Proleague Round 2. He spent the majority of his early career playing a mix of 1v1s and 2v2s on STX's Proleague lineup, being the primary Zerg player on the 2v2 team, typically being paired up with SoO, Hwasin, or BestGod. In his early career, Calm displayed very poor results in individual leagues, with the Arena MSL being the 1st Starleague that he qualified for (two and a half years after he became a progamer), where he dropped out in his Ro32 group.

After the Shinhan Proleague 2008 season, 2v2 was dropped from all competitive StarCraft. This left many previous 2v2 specialists (such as SoO, 910, Clon, and many others) in a lot of trouble as they were unable to keep up with strong 1v1 opponents. Fortunately for Calm, he easily adapted to the 1v1 environment, and quickly became one of STX's leading players in the SPL 08-09 season. Calm appeared on STX's lineup almost every match and combined with teammate Kal made up the vast majority of STX's ace match appearances. Calm took an early lead in the SPL 08-09 season, and in round 1 he was one of the leading players of the whole league stats-wise. In round 2 however, Calm became much less dominate and also failed once again to qualify for any leagues. In Winner's League he also displayed poor results at first, but towards the end became much more improved, with a 3-kill versus eSTRO, and an all-kill versus Samsung KHAN. In rounds 4 and 5 of the season Calm seemed to of have retaken his form from round 1, having impressive results and helping his team go 10-1 in the 5th round, which was the best record of any team for any round, which brought STX to finish in 3rd place for the entire season. Calm finished the SPL 08-09 season with 41 wins and 20 loses, or a 65.6% winning ratio, which was the 5th best record in the league.

Calm finally qualified for another Starleague after almost a year of not doing so when he qualified for the Avalon MSL. He made a clean sweep of his Ro32 group by defeating Sea with a strategic play that involved 2 Hatch Lurkers and a fast, 2-gas Defiler rush. He then defeated ZerO in the winner's match with some tricky play by hiding Zerglings from ZerO's scouting Overlord, giving ZerO a false sense of confidence to expand, and was soon overrun with more Zerglings than he thought Calm had. In the Ro16 Calm faced fOrGG. Calm managed to play very smartly versus ForGG, and defending a strong cheese from him on Heartbreak Ridge and then out maneuvered him and outsmarted his mech play on Outsider, winning the series 2-0.

Meanwhile STX was playing Samsung KHAN in the first round of the playoffs. Although STX was strongly favored vs KHAN at the time, KHAN played uncharacteristically well during the time, and pushed STX to an ace match in the 1st series, where Great was able to outsmart Calm by hiding many of his Mutalisks to a scouting Zergling (and also out-micro'd Calm during the ensuing battle), which gave KHAN the win on day one. On the 2nd day of the Playoffs STX played much better, and defeated KHAN 4-1, bringing the entire series down to one Super Ace Match, with the winner's team advancing. Calm, being the strongest player on the team at time, was chosen as STX's Ace player, whereas KHAN chose their most well-rounded player JangBi. In the game JangBi went for a somewhat old-school strategy by going for a fast, +1 Speed-Zealot rush which Calm did not scout in time, which hit at such a timing as that Calm did not have adequate defenses at all, and lost the game. Calm said in interviews shortly afterward that his failure in 2 ace matches during the playoffs lead him to lose sleep at night.

Soon after STX was eliminated from the Playoffs, Calm was to face EffOrt in the Ro8 of the Avalon MSL. Many considered these two Zerg players to be competing for the spot of "number two Zerg," with Jaedong still being the undisputed number one Zerg player in the world. EffOrt was the huge favorite to win, with ZvZ being his most successful match-up, ZvZ being Calm's weakest match-up, and coming off of a recent 2-0 victory over Jaedong himself in the Ro8 of the GSL S3. Surprising many, Calm defeated EffOrt 3-0, with the last two wins being direct build-order counters (9-pool to 12-hatch), which many contribute to Calm's ability to read that EffOrt was going to 12-hatch in both games (although it is still disputed). In the semifinals, Calm was to face none other than Jaedong, who is known for being nigh-untouchable in ZvZ; with a career winning ratio of over 78% in the match-up at the time, and who has only lost one Bo5 in his entire career. Calm once again shocked the entire StarCraft community by defeating Jaedong 3-1, displaying excellent micro and incredible mind-games and tricks (including hiding Zerglings from Jaedong's Overlords and getting +1 attack researched for his Mutalisks). It is worth noting however that Jaedong had two other leagues to practice for at the time - Proleague finals and the OSL semifinals - while Calm was able to focus solely on this one series. Nevertheless, Calm became the 1st Zerg to ever defeat Jaedong in a Bo5, the 3rd player on STX to ever reach a Starleague final, and the 2nd player ever who had spent his career on STX to reach a final (the other being Kal).

In the finals Calm faced off against CJ Zerg and EffOrt's teammate Kwanro, who had recently upset his teammate Iris to reach the final. The final was one of the least hyped finals in Starleague history, being the least popular match-up (Zerg vs Zerg) and 2 players who had little star-power compared to the likes of Bisu, Flash, or Jaedong. The finals proved to be entertaining though, and also one of the most exciting and entertaining ZvZ series of all-time. Calm came out on top, winning 3-1, and becoming the 1st player from STX to win a Starleague (July also won a Starleague while on STX, but spent the majority of his career on other teams and was only on STX for a few months beforehand). Over the course of the Avalon MSL Calm was given the nickname "Brain Zerg" for his strategic play and excellent decision-making.

Park Chan Soo first broke out into the scene in 2005 with a win against DoGGi in the SKY Proleague 2005. Going 4–0 in his first four broadcasted games (all in Proleague), he secured his place as a Proleague starter on team KOR (later to become OGN Sparkyz). In the early years of his career, Luxury was overshadowed by his twin brother Yellow[ArnC], who until 2008 was considered the “better twin” as he had much more individual league success until then. In 2008, Luxury burst onto the scene by making 2 Starleague Semi-Final in a row (first in the Bacchus Starleague where he lost to Stork and then again in the EVER Starleague 2008 where he lost to BeSt). In a short amount of time Luxury became known as the undisputed “second best Zerg in the world,” always performing much better than every other Zerg except for Jaedong (who was considered the best). Luxury became most known for having excellent ZvT after defeating tournament favorite Flash in the Ro8 of the EVER Starleague 2008, although statistically ZvZ is his best match-up, and he has the third highest ELO peak in the match-up of all time (only behind Jaedong and YellOw).

In September 2008 Park Chan Soo transferred from OGN Sparkyz to the KTF MagicNs (now known as KT Rolster). Although initially Luxury had good results on the new team, he quickly started to perform worse, most notably in Proleague. Luxury dropped out of the Incruit OSL in the Ro16 and failed to qualify for the Ro32 of the CludDay MSL during that time. In early 2009 Luxury managed to qualify for the Ro16 of the Batoo OSL and reach the Ro32 of the Lost Saga MSL, although he continued to show poor results in Proleague. Although Luxury ended up losing in the Ro8 of the Batoo OSL to fantasy, he performed extremely well in the Lost Saga MSL, defeating Hwasin, Leta, and ZerO to reach his first ever finals where he faced off against JangBi. Luxury triumphed over JangBi in a rather 1-sided series with the results being 3-1.

After the Lost Saga MSL, Luxury entered a severe slump. He continued to perform poorly in Proleague, and failed to make it out of his Ro32 group in the Avalon MSL, and failing to qualify for the Ro16 of the Bacchus 2009 OSL. In the WCG 2009 Korea selection Luxury showed that he may be back to his old form when he defeated Calm and his brother Yellow[arnc] to reach the semifinals of the tournament (where he lost to eventual champion Bisu and then lost to Jaedong in the 3rd place match), but it was unclear as whether this was a sign of true improvement or not.

Luxury qualified for the 2009 EVER OSL but was knocked out in the round of 36 after losing 1-2 to Guemchi. Despite this, Luxury had a very strong showing in Round 1 of the 09-10 Proleague, finishing with results of 7 wins and 2 losses, and strongly contributed to KT Rolster's end of round stats of 10 wins and 1 loss.

In 2010, it was discovered that he was involved with the Match Fixing Scandal, and was permanently banned from progaming by KeSPA.

First bursting on the progaming when it was just only starting off, he impressed many with his Protoss vs. Zerg play, as well as his many uses of hiding buildings. Playing for Hanbit Stars, winning two OGN Starleagues and being known as the protoss who has revolutionised modern Protoss, he eventually retired, settling onto a life of commentating with OGN for Proleagues and game designing with a company. His last hurrah was during the Panasonic OSL, where, even though he was semi-retired, was able to put on an excellent last stand, especially against the Emperor, SlayerS_`BoxeR`.

GARIMTO won two major OnGameNet Starleagues in Freechal (defeating SKELTON, 3-0) and the Emperor himself in the SKY 2001 OSL, BoxeR (3-2), where the latter would go on to have a tough time in later OSL finals. Besides the OGN leagues, he would rarely appear in Teamleagues for Hanbit or KPGA Tournaments.

After his military service, he decided to return to progaming. He quit his job as a commentator, and signed a lucrative contract with KTF MagicNs. He was listed on the roster as a player, but most viewed him as more of a mentor and a coach. He played once, losing to Free during the 2007 Shinhan Proleague R2 before once again retiring.

GARIMTO is as a vocal member of the Starcraft community with many famous sayings, amongst which, GARIMTO coined the phrase "Sense of Star."

GARIMTO was also very active in the early online Starcraft forums GemQ. During this era, GARIMTO was a part of a vocal faction which included Autumn and H.O.T-Forever. When GARIMTO lost a match to Boxer's hidden double barracks strategy, Autumn critized Boxer for cheesing. This resulted in a series of heated arguments between Boxer's fans and Autumn's faction.

From Pusan, Park Jung-Suk was initially taken on by Hanbit to be a 2v2 specialist. Partnered with H.O.T-Forever, he gained a fearsome reputation as a powerful team player. After the release of revealing photos depicting an unclothed Reach posing with a similarly naked H.O.T., his fame increased.

However, he showed lackluster performance as a 1v1 player. In 2001, he made somewhat of a splash in SKY2001 OSL--though he was eliminated early on, he was the only Protoss player in the tournament to have a winning record against BoxeR--and the only player in the tournament aside from GARIMTO to have taken a game from him. The win was due to those qualities that made him famous: his incredible macro, uncanny storming abilities, and godlike micro. He was the prototype macro player; before iloveoov, there was Reach. While his micromanagement of all Protoss units shone, his ability to crank out legions of holy Protoss to do his bidding led to the rise of his star.

The following year, he won the 2002 SKY OSL, again beating BoxeR in a convincing set of games in the finals to take the crown. Of note is their game on Neo Forbidden Zone; Reach shows signature shuttle/templar play, giving him the nickname Mudang Toss. From then on, he was hailed as the hope and the Hero of Protoss – throughout the dark times of Protoss, he maintained top 5 KeSPA Ranking for longer than any other. Sometime during early 2004 Reach was offered an 80,000,000 won per year contract by KTF; he took them up on their offer; it was renewed the following year for 230,000,000 won. During the crisis of the Mercury era - Gamevil OCL, G-voice OCL, Gillette OSL, EVER 2004 OSL - Protosses were being annihilated. Mercury holds a sub-30 percent win rate for PvZ; but in that time, Reach lived up to his name, and trampled his way through all opposition.

However, in Gillette, he still fell to a horribly dressed watermelon (July) 1-3 in the finals; and in EVER, he lost 2-3 to the monster known as iloveoov in semifinals. In the third place match of the latter , he beat his friend and teammate YellOw 3-2. In the post-game interview, he announced that the second game on Requiem was his favorite because he won “in true Protoss fashion” with a two-gate rush – he ended by claiming that “a true man’s pride should be his zealots”. Along with such statements as “Protoss is a man’s race – it is both tough and straight”, these publicity affairs gave him an aura of manliness.

The following year, Reach triumphed over his teammate ChoJJa 3-2 to advance to the finals of 2005 UZOO MSL. There, he suffered defeat against the up-and-coming ipxzerg – another loss to another zerg 1-3 in the finals. Shortly thereafter, he entered a long slump – the fabled KTF Captain's slump - and again he reverted to his old role of 2v2 specialist in ProLeague, partnering first with YellOw and subsequently with ZergBong. Yet, in 2007, after over a year in offlines, when all hope seemed lost Reach woke up, and remembered he was the Hero of Protoss. Trampling through offlines with a perfect record, and then losing only one game in Dual Tournament, Reach returned to the arena in Daum OSL. Amidst cries of his fangirls he advanced with a perfect record to quarterfinals. Yet, tragically, he lost to Stork 1-2, and was eliminated from the tournament.

He continued to be a valuable 2v2 resource for KTF, and also played a large part in the upbringing of their newest star, Flash. In 2008 Reach joined Air Force ACE and entered another severe slump, but qualified for the 2010 Korean Air OSL, though was knocked out early by Hiya. He has since returned to KT as captain.[1]

Reach was, together with Nal_rA, the key Protoss on KTF during their prime and one of The Three Kings. Their partnership is the reason why Protoss players from KTF have a bit of mystique around them. The KT Protoss players haven't reached this pinnacle again. Only recently, Stats and Violet have started performing well.

He retired at the end of the 2011-2012 Proleague Season 1. His retirement ceremony took place on May 6th 2012.

Stats first began playing StarCraft seriously in the eighth grade after having watched Reach play on televised matches. He has stated that he chose Protoss because he was inspired by Reach's play.

Stats played rarely in Round 1 of the 09-10 Proleague, with KT Rolster opting to play Violet in a majority of matches. He did play three games though, and finished with stats of 1 win and 2 losses. He managed to qualify for the 2009 NATE MSL. He was placed in a group with Jaedong, Crazy-Hydra and July. While many expected him to lose to July and Jaedong and get eliminated, he shocked many fans by defeating July twice, qualifying 2-1 behind Jaedong. He was due to play Jangbi in the Round of 16. JangBi removed Ultimatum from the map pool for their encounter. Playing in a split-day Best of 3, Stats dropped the first game after his DT Rush was unluckily disadvantaged against Jangbi's Proxy DTs. With a closer Gateway, Jangbi managed to sneak a DT through the cannon line dealing enough damage and giving Jangbi the win. However, in the following two game's Jangbi's sloppy play was easily defended by Stats with Jangbi losing more units that necessary. Stats stuck with his solid play and won the series 2-1. Stats moved on to face Jaedong but lost 0-3 in a series that was described as one-sided.

Stats improved markedly in 2010 and claimed the second most wins for KT in rounds 4 and 5 of the 09-10 Proleague, replacing an inconsistent Violet as the team's main Protoss. He contributed to KT's victory over SK Telecom T1 in the Proleague Grand Finals by defeating Bisu. During this period, Stats also advanced to the ro16 of the Bigfile MSL, where he lost 1-2 to Calm.

Stats had a chin reduction in late August of 2011. The reason for the surgery was because Stats's chin kept him from closing his mouth properly. The surgery was a success and has not seemed to affect his play at all with his strong showing thus far during the SK Planet Pro League. Despite the plastic surgery, his fans still lovingly refer to him as Chin-toss.

Known for particularly amazing probe and dragoon control and for being one of The Three Kings of Protoss, Park Yong Wook is one of the great Protoss users in StarCraft history. Before his contract with Hanbit, Yong Wook was already a well established player. He had already participated in various KBK tournaments but did not turn pro until much later due to his education. So when Yong Wook made his first OSL in the 2001 Hanbitsoft OSL he was doubling as a part-time gamer and full-time student. Given his skill and how far he had advanced into the tournament, his teacher (who had taugh him during his time in KBK tournaments) realized his potential and gave him time off to practice for his match against BoxeR. Despite finishing 4th in he OSL, he did remarkably well for a full-time student.

Obviously, when he turned full-time pro in the late half of 2002 Hanbit readily took him aboard. But to do so, meant that he had to turn his back on his parents. They were pushing for him to continue in his education, or be sent to the army and did not approve of his career. Nevertheless he went to Hanbit and lived his dream. Yong Wook would follow BoxeR to Orion after Hanbit after he decided to leave he team. The manager for Orion, Joo Hoon, talked to Yong Wook before recruiting him, and upon hearing the issues with his parent went to sought it out. Thus, Joo Hoon organized a conference in which he persuaded them to let him play with their blessing, they agreed.

About this time he earned the nickname "Devil Toss". Popular myth would have you believe that the nickname stems from Yong Wook being the anti-hero to Reach. However, the real root of the nickname came from two things. Firstly, when he was little he would always root for the bad guy over the good guy; he would always try to be the opposite. And secondly: Well let’s see… it probably started around the Hanbit Tourney… I think it was Jong Ill-Hoon who said it first I guess that’s how nicknames start usually. At first it was weird but after a while I wanted it to have a strong impression so I worked harder. -Park Yong Wook

In the MyCube OSL, Yong Wook would show an impressive semifinal against Junwi defeating him 3-0, and then go on to defeat Nal_rA in the final 3-1. This impressive MyCube performance solidified Yong Wook's claim as the third Protoss King. Defeating Nal_rA here would start the fan circles dreaming up the "rA > Reach > Kingdom > rA" triangle. This victory is also noted by Yong Wook as the highlight of his career, as he got to win in front of his parents. After the expected OSL Curse slump, Yong Wook bounced back in 2004 blitzing his group 3-0 in the Gillette OSL while simultaneously reaching the winner bracket semi-finals in 2004 SPRIS MSL. While just losing out to Silent_Control 1-2 in the Round of 8 in OSL, he stormed through MSL; losing to iloveoov in the winner's final, defeating Nal_rA in the loser's final, and losing again to oov in the Grand Final 3-2. Yong Wook has remarked that of all terran players, iloveoov is the hardest for him to play against.

During WCG Korea 2004, Yong Wook lost 1-2 to July but on Korhal of Ceres earned himself an unpimpest play award for performing a proxy 2 gate zealot rush, only to trap his zealots in with his gateways. This move, dubbed 'Kingdumb', has gone down in WCG and Starcraft history as one of the worst rushes ever preformed. Yong Wook was invited to participate in KT-KTF 2004 and preformed weakly, going 4-7 overall. In 2004 You Are the Golf King MSL, Yong Wook would showcase another impressive performance. Notably against Rage on Arizona where he defeated a fully operational base with 2 dragoons (he had lost his main thanks to a zealot rush). This display of micro is one of the most impressive demonstrations of control recorded on TV and has been immortalized because of it. However, he did not go too far in the tournament losing in the Loser Bracket Ro8-2. Yong Wook made appearances in Starleagues during 2005, but did not get out of the group stages. However, he did play a vital role in SK Telecom T1's 2005 Proleague victory. Aiding his team in winning both Round 1, Round 2 and the Grand Finals in 2005. He would also aid in the the 2006 Proleague Season 1 victory over MBCgame Hero.

Yong Wook also participated in both 2006 Pringles MSL Season 1 and 2006 Pringles MSL Season 2. In Pringles 1, he made an impressive showing; including a Dark Archon mind control rush against July on 815 III, and demolishing old-time barrier iloveoov Sung 2-1 and the Emperor himself, BoxeR, on his way to the semi-finals. Despite losing to Nal_rA 3-0, it was an impressive showing nonetheless. In Pringles 2 he again made an impressive showing. Against NaDa on Blitz he showed some uncharacteristic insane macro, which completely destroyed his opponent. He eventually lost out to Silver in the quarter finals.

Yong Wook assumed the captaincy of SKT after BoxeR departed for the army. When Kingdom retired he became a coach for SKT and later a commentator for OnGameNet. He hosts a show on OGN called "Mr.Yong's Manner Pylon", and participates in the "After Talk" show alongside Kim Tae-Hyung (Kim Carrier), Uhm Jaegyung and Nal_rA

Ma Jae Yoon is nicknamed ‘The Maestro’ for his superior macro/micro management and control over his units. He is considered a Bonjwa of his era, joining the likes of NaDa, iloveoov, and BoxeR. He is also known as the player who revolutionized Zerg gameplay by popularizing new builds such as the 3 Hatch Mutalisk Build in ZvT. sAviOr’s impact on the Zerg race is said to be the biggest since the dawn of professional StarCraft.

Lee Jae Dong joined team Plus (???-Plus) in 2005, which in early 2006 (March 23) became Lecaf OZ.

He made his progamer’s debut on 13 February 2006 and his big stage debut in SKY Proleague 2006 Round 1, on the 30th of April. He achieved his first win in Proleague about a week later, against JiHyun (Hul at the time). Although 2006 was Jaedong’s first year in the professional StarCraft scene, he was already doing extremely well, having an overall record of 51 wins and 27 losses (65.4% win rate). This was the second best Zerg win rate of 2006, right behind sAviOr (GGPlay was third with 63.5%). His early wins against notable players included sAviOr, Reach, NaDa, GoRush, July, and iloveoov. It was clear early on in Jaedong’s career that his Zerg vs. Protoss and Zerg vs. Zerg were outstanding, being both above 70% (vs. Protoss 75% and vs. Zerg 71.4%). After the 2006 Season Lee Jae Dong was prized on 2nd Annual Korea e-Sports Awards with the Rookie of the Year Award.

It was Jaedong’s massive streak against Terran in mid-late 2007 that brought him into the mainstream spotlight. During this run he went 12–0 against Terran, which included scalps against NaDa and Hwasin. Jaedong’s rise during 2007 coincided with the demise of sAviOr. He finished off his brilliant 2007 by capturing his first Starleague title. Finally in January 2008 Jaedong captured the throne of No.1 Zerg according to the KeSPA Ranking, a title that he has held on for more than two years and a half, and still counting. After the 2007 Season Lee Jae Dong was prized on 3rd Annual Korea e-Sports Awards with the Best Winning Percentage, the Best Zerg, and the Player of the Year Awards. 2008 proved another successful for Jaedong claiming an MSL gold (technically in the 2007 Season) and a silver. He also managed to claim the No.1 overall KeSPA Rank for four straight months.

Later on in his career, Lee Jae Dong demonstrated that his monstrous Zerg vs. Zerg wasn’t just a chain of lucky games. Even though Jaedong was extremely successful at Zerg vs. Zerg in his early career, he later said that he didn’t feel confident at all playing it. However, his great success in televised games, especially in Zerg vs. Zerg, allowed him to get even better at it (see also). Soon, Zerg vs. Zerg became Jaedong’s trademark match-up with a winning rate of over 81% in the middle of 2009, allowing him to become the most successful Zerg vs. Zerg player in history. Indeed, Jaedong’s ZvZ mastery allowed him to reach the highest vs. Z ELO ranking ever recorded, edging out previous bonjwa and TvZ monster iloveoov. After the 2008–09 Season Lee Jae Dong was prized on 4th Annual Korea e-Sports Awards with the Best Zerg Award, and the Player of the Year Award.

After his win in the Bacchus Starleague 2009 and the resolution of the Free Agency Controversy (see below), Lee Jae Dong announced that he would undergo Lasik eye surgery to repair his rapidly deteriorating vision. His surgery is scheduled for September 28th. On 26 January 2009 Daily eSports announced: accepted to Seoul Cyber University School of Multimedia Design Lee Jae Dong will be a freshman in university this March. He applied for the regular admission which had its deadline on the last December 29. Overcoming a low admission rate, he received the acceptance letter.

Lee Jae Dong was the WCG 2009 champion and has won five major league titles: the EVER Starleague 2007, the 2008 GOMTV MSL Season 4, the Batoo Starleague, the Bacchus Starleague 2009, and the NATE MSL. Jaedong took out YellOw[ArnC] in the Bacchus Starleague 2009 in a 3–0 sweep, becoming the third Golden Mouse holder and the second progamer (after SlayerS_`BoxeR`) to win back-to-back Starleagues. In addition to his major league titles, Jaedong also won titles at the Seoul IESF 2007, the WCG 2008 Korea Championship, the WCG 2010 Korea Championship, and the TG-Intel Classic Season 1, a surprisingly one-sided series where he defeated Lee Yong Ho (Flash) 3–0 in the Final. He was No.1 overall KeSPA Rank from April 2009 till February 2010 (for eleven straight months).

2010 was the year defined by the rivalry between Jaedong and Flash. The two progamers faced each other in no less than 5 finals: WCG Korea, NATE MSL, 2010 Hana Daetoo Securities MSL, 2010 Bigfile MSL consecutively, and the Korean Air OSL 2. In these finals Flash came ahead 3-2, though Jaedong held a slight edge in their head-to-head record, an incredible feat considering Flash's domination at the time. Jaedong finished the year with a monstrous 70% win rate, behind only Flash, and yet again received the KeSPA Award for Best Zerg.

In 2011 Jaedong fell into a relative slump, with a win percentage lower than his rookie year (though he reached the round of four in the 2011 PDPop MSL and 2011 ABC Mart MSL). Peculiarly, his best matchup ZvZ and favored matchup ZvP fell to the 50% range, whereas his ZvT rose to an all-time high of 81.1% for the year (TLPD). After the disbandment of Hwaseung OZ, WeMade FOX, and MBCGame HERO, KeSPA formed an eighth team to allow the players of the former teams to continue to play. Though the Eighth Team has struggled in Proleague, Jaedong has remained their top-performing player.

Drafted into Pirates of Space (now MBCGame HERO) during the 2005 KeSPA rookie draft due to a lack of Protoss players on the team at the time, Bisu predominantly played in Proleague matches and Starleague qualifying matches during his first year and a half as a professional. Notably, he defeated Nal_rA, ChoJJa and Goodfriend during the early part of his career. By the end of 2006 he managed to obtain a career average of approximately 60% and was considered a solid player at the time.

Bisu burst into stardom after his stunning 3-0 defeat of sAviOr during the 2007 GOMTV MSL finals. During this time, he earned the nickname of "Revolutionist," forever changing the Protoss vs Zerg (PvZ) matchup. This was the most significant turning point of his career and the following months solidified his status as one of the greatest players of all time. During this period he managed to collect another MSL title by defeating Stork 3-2 in the finals, as well as a Starleague top 3 finish. His MSL streak was ended up a disappointing 3-1 loss to Mind in the Season 3 GOMTV MSL finals. Nonetheless, Bisu was also credited with reviving Protoss after years of Zerg and Terran dominance.

After leaving MBCGame HERO and signing with SK Telecom Team 1 in February 2008, Bisu entered into a slump; during this approximately half-year period, Bisu's win rate dropped to 50%. Bisu was knocked out of the individual leagues during their early stages and displayed disappointing Proleague results. In October 2008, Bisu broke out of this slump by going on a personal-best 12 game winstreak. As his performance continued to improve, he captured first place in the 2008 ClubDay MSL and first place for GOMTV Season 2 by defeating JangBi 3-1 in both finals.

After his two new titles, Bisu was disappointingly knocked out early from the following two MSLs (LostSaga and Avalon). His OSL "curse" culminated in the Batoo OSL, where his 11 game win streak was ended with a 3-0 upset loss to his teammate Fantasy. The overall strength of Bisu's play did not decline, however, and his win rate for the rest of the 2008-2009 Proleague season shot up to 80% (the best win/loss ratio of anyone), which contributed to SKT T1's first place finish for the regular season. SKT T1 would go on to win in the playoff finals against Hwaseung Oz, with Bisu winning his only game against Perfectman in day 1 of the finals. His achievements in the 08-09 Proleague regular season led him to win the title of MVP, sharing the award with Jaedong.

While Bisu was seeded into the 2009 Nate MSL and the 2009 EVER OSL, he was knocked out of the two leagues in the round of 32 and the round of 36, respectively. These results were seen as highly surprising due to his caliber of opponent. He was eliminated from his MSL group 1-2 with losses to Guemchi and Bogus and was knocked out of the OSL 1-2 by Shine. Bisu played up to his usual standard in the opening round of the 09-10 proleague, finishing with very strong stats of 7 wins and 2 losses. His two defeats came at the hands of Luxury and a relatively unknown Protoss, Haksoo. His sound play continued in round 2, finishing with an 8-3 record and ace stats of 1-1, the second best Protoss stats for the round alongside Jangbi. This leaves him at 15-5, some of the best stats going into Winner's league.