My game plays continued to develop after my first victory. However, something happened that would help me understand the saying that the true grandeur of victory comes after tasting the bitter pain of defeat.

The Ongamenet Starleague, which received the most attention from all tournaments in the gaming world, began its preliminaries. Though I had always been able to pass the preliminaries of most tournaments with ease, I experienced the bitterness of being eliminated from the preliminaries of the Freechal Ongamenet Starleague. While I had been refining my speed and strategies, I had forgotten one thing. I had overlooked the first fundamental principle that a game was ‘a fight with oneself.’

On July 2000 during the first preliminaries of the Freechal Ongamenet Starleague, I faced Lee Jaehang SiR@SoNi~, who was in the same team as me. For four days I did not sleep and only practiced for this event. It was an event worth striving for, and I was full of confidence with the thought that it was about time for me to accomplish something. It was a bit problematic that I would meet a fellow teammate in the first round of the preliminaries, but it was a match that would have to be played one way or another if I was to fight my way to the top. For the first match on the map Space Odyssey, I got Protoss after selecting random and won the game. Before I switched my main race to Terran, I used to play with Protoss, so at times I would alternate between Protoss and Terran. For the second match, I selected Terran and lost; now the third game remained.

My mind became cloudy after the first two games. My whole body was telling me that it had reached the limits of its physical strength. Because I had not slept the night before, my mind was gradually becoming faint. I decided to select random for the third game. The countdown for starting the game began. 5, 4, 3∙∙∙∙∙. Lee Jaehang first picked Zerg. Now it was my turn to pick the race, but somehow I ended up picking Zerg, as he did. The game began, and on my screen appeared a hatchery and drones. In a moment of bewilderment I asked Lee Jaehang if we could restart the game. I said something that didn’t make sense at all. When a game has started, there is no reason to stop the game unless GG is typed. Of course, it was also possible for me to get Zerg if I selected random; everything was my responsibility and it was something that I decided, so what was I to achieve by griping to my opponent? Until that moment, I had never played against a Zerg with a Zerg, whether it was randomly selected or not. At the time, my skills with Zerg were only that of an average amateur. Hastily, I was unable to do much of anything and eventually typed GG. What if I had gotten Zerg even if I selected random? If I had not become so confused after selecting Zerg and boldly accepted the situation, would I have given up so easily and typed GG? Through this painful mistake I realized that maintaining one’s condition was just as important as practice.

No matter how hard one practices and tries, if he ultimately cannot execute his plays properly, the efforts come to nothing. Up to that point, I had been thinking that I could beat my opponents simply by practicing a lot. But with this amateur mindset I cannot completely subdue my opponent. It’s expected for one to practice hard before a match, and all players try their best to practice. In that case, what determines the winner on the day of the match? The winner is the one that is able to bring out his greatest potential. Of course, luck also plays a role. But if one was to enter the event in an exhausted state like I was after practicing all night, it is only logical that he cannot properly employ his plays. Ultimately, I had lost to nobody but myself.

I don’t know whether people remember more of the games where I won, but until I rose to the top, I tasted the bitterness of defeat in many games. However I had not once thought of defeat as failure. Even though I lost at that moment, I thought of myself as the final victor and I could not remain in that state. After scrutinizing why I lost, I started practicing again to win the next match. And so my preparations for the next event began.

As I defeated progamers one by one that were considered to be good at the time, I continued to develop as well. I raised my standings in the ranks of another tournament that I entered, and I had a good feeling that the prime of my gaming career was approaching. In May 2001, I welcomed the spring that was blindingly more beautiful than any other day.

Game broadcasting stations were established and many people that liked games began to gather in front of their televisions. If one truly wants to be accepted as being the best, he has to appropriately prove himself in front of many people. Because I was eliminated before from the Freechal Ongamenet Starleague preliminaries, I was at a state where I definitely wanted to prove myself in the HanbitSoft Ongamenet Starleague. At the time, Terrans were rated as the weakest of the three races. To put it briefly, it was a period when Terrans were viewed as nothing, so no one saw me as a winning candidate. It was not surprising, as I did not play against a single Terran from the 16th rounds to the finals. Today, many say that one must defeat a Terran to win the finals, but at the time it was only expected for a Terran to lose, and they were only thought of as an extra that the Zerg or Protoss passed through as they won the finals. But from the moment I entered the preliminaries, I had my eye on the championship. No one asked me, “What is your goal?” If someone did ask me that question and I were to reply, “To win the championship,” the person would not have believed me. Others thought of me merely as a rookie with an ambitious spirit, but I was confident. No matter who the opponent was, I had the confidence to beat him.

The hardest part was when I met Park Yongwook Kingdom in the semifinals. I had not lost once since the preliminaries and had entered the semifinals with six consecutive wins. But in the first match of the semifinals, I lost to Park Yongwook. Anyone who receives one loss after carrying consecutive wins is bound to feel an enormous mental pressure. I made an effort to find my own pace. After winning the second match, I faced the last hurdle, the third game that took place at Neo Jungle Story.

Because of the long rush distance and the topographic conditions with slopes, I determined that the Protoss would not use the strategy of an early push with dragoons, but a fast tech build. So I prepared a plan to quickly enter the opponent’s base early with a large number of vultures. If the Protoss was using a fast tech build, it was certain that there would only be a small number of dragoons, and this scenario was to neutralize the dragoons with the vultures and enter the main base. This scenario turned out to be right on target. In those days, Terran users did not use the vultures much. The vultures were swift units, but they were not easy to control, as they were not strong and their striking power was not very high. How well one attacked from a favorable position was the same as how well one freely controlled the vulture. I was able to enter the finals after winning the last match of the semifinals in this way.

On May 5, 2001, Children’s Day, the opponent of the finals was Jang Jinnam Kiss)JinNam, who was enjoying his greatest peak at the time. He was a Zerg user and had a significantly high name-value among the fans. Because I was close to being anonymous as well as being a Terran that entered the Ongamenet Starleague for the first time, there were not many that predicted I would beat Jang Jinnam who was recognized as a cho-gosu of the Zerg. However I did not give up a single game and embraced the championship cup with three straight wins. HanbitSoft Ongamenet Starleague – 11 wins and 1 loss.

From that moment on, people started to call me the ‘Hope of Terran.’