The life of a progamer was not smooth from the beginning. There were no down payments or annual salaries; they only provided an area where we could practice with other progamers. But it was very different from gaming at a local PC bang. A professional communicates in terms of his scores and results. I was now no longer the amateur that played games at the local PC bang for fun.

In 1999, the player “SsamJang” Lee Gisuk was the idol of the gamers. I also envied him. Though I was envious of his gaming skills, it was more of how he showed that a person can make money, become popular and have the recognition to appear on a commercial only by playing a game well. Until then, those that loved to play games were considered to be ‘people who have nothing better to do,’ ‘people that cannot come to their senses and are caught in a fantasy,’ and ‘immature children.’ But Lee Gisuk showed that one could become a popular star only by playing games. It was one of the many hopes I had. It was not some distant hope, but a realistic one. He showed that progamers could earn respect through their work. I also wanted to be a progamer that was acknowledged by others. To do that, the first thing was to practice, and the second thing was also to practice. I practiced relentlessly.

When I began my career as a progamer, there was no concept of a coach or a gaming organization. It was hard enough with only practicing, so it was not an easy task to go and look one by one for game tournaments, register for them, and plan out the schedule. After a while, the company took care of that work, and I was free to focus only on gaming. As I practiced with progamers of similar abilities, my skills quickly improved.

It may have been difficult to endure if I simply practiced and showed no results. No matter how much one loves his job, if he does not have the confidence in his own work, it is difficult to continue for a long time. Everyday, I could feel myself grow. Little by little, I made my own way and searched for my style and strategies. The feeling of actually putting this into practice and bringing good results was an experience unlike anything else.

Before the 1.08 Starcraft Patch, there were significantly more Protoss and Zerg users. I did not listen to other people’s talks of what was easy or hard. The reason why I chose Terran was not because I purposely wanted to take a difficult path. It was also not because I thought it was easy. It was because I thought the strategies could change dynamically and I was certain that if the strategies were used properly, the Terrans could manifest a strength much more powerful than the Protoss or Zerg. During this time when people would say, ‘Terrans can’t do it!’ I practiced even harder with the thought of, ‘Why can’t they?’ On Battle.net, I frequently encountered many Zergs, but I only thought, ‘There are many that use Zerg,’ and never thought of changing to Zerg myself.

In those days, there were no established build orders for Terrans such as going mechanic or two-factory rushes, as we do now. Perhaps I was able to create strategies more freely because there were no standard plays. Among the Terran units, the dropship in particular was not used by many Terran users. The reason was because of its slow speed, but I used the dropship often. Many people expressed that my plays were innovative and unique, but it was hard for me to understand why others did not use the dropship. In the beginning, I thought all Terran users used the dropship. It may have been that I saw someone using a similar play and adapted it to my own style. Before becoming a progamer, I almost never watched other people’s games. Of course, I used the play of blocking the entrance that Lee Gisuk first introduced, but other than that, I never saw other people’s games and thought, ‘I could win like that,’ and used the same method. At the time, the majority of Terrans would first construct a safe defensive line, secure stable resources, and place the siege tanks leading the attack. There were almost no Terran users that used early offensive plays or guerilla plays with the dropship. Many times, my opponents would be troubled by my strategies, and my win percentage continued to increase steadily.

Then came my first opportunity for victory. It was the December 1999 SBS Multi-Game Championship. After the entrance application and passing through the online preliminaries, I gradually gained more confidence. Because the SBS Multi-Game Championship determined the top sixteen finalists through the online preliminaries, passing through the preliminaries was not guaranteed. However, I boldly entered as one of the sixteen and fought my way up to the finals with consecutive wins.

My opponent in the finals was Kim Iljae SpecialDra. He was a Protoss and Zerg user, and I played all my games with Terran. The biggest problem was the second game. In the first game Kim Iljae used Zerg, and in the second game, he used Protoss. I had already won the first game, so I had a strong desire to end the match with the second. The thought of victory appearing before me caught me off guard, and I lost the second game. The moment I typed GG, I looked at my opponent. Kim Iljae was also looking at me. I slowly nodded my head. I gave a confident expression, as though to say, ‘Now I can see through all of your plays.’

It makes me laugh when I think about how I could act in such a way during that brief moment, but it seems that in the end, I was victorious in the psychological warfare. Of course, it didn’t matter to me whether the opponent was a Zerg or a Protoss in a 1:1 situation, but the fact that I gave my opponent some difficulty in choosing the race gave me the advantage. Kim Iljae looked worried for a moment and did not choose Protoss that won him the second game, but Zerg, which he lost with in the first game. I pinned against my opponent like I did in the first game and walked off with the victory cup. It was the moment when I finally stood as a champion that I had yearned for so long.

My first championship prize money was 3 million won. When one thinks about it now, it may not be a large amount, but to me it was more valuable than 30 million or 300 million won. It was a year and six months since I started playing Starcraft and ten months since I graduated from high school. The memories of seeing Starcraft for the first time, when I placed a wall between me and my studies, when I ran away to play when my father came to get me at the PC bang, and when I disappointed my mother as she took me to the exam academy passed me by like a panorama. It was a path that I chose as I gave up college, but this was a priceless victory that compensated the times when I felt hopeless and could not see in front of me. It was also an exhilarating moment that gave me the confidence that I too could become the best.

There is a saying, ‘Victory belongs to one the most persevering.’ I never seriously considered whether I had the talent or not. The only thing I could trust was practice. The persistence of spending 24 hours a day practicing and thinking about the game, even in my dreams, was what brought me the victory.