How A Tournament Tried To Stop The Greatest Gamer Of All Time

[@Akshonesports]

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.

[@shivers222]

This video seems a little disingenuous given these pronunciations since anyone who actually follows the scene would just intuitively know how they were pronounced. Also the ending left out flash's reign of random terror as other commenters mentioned, and as i understand he is currently out due to military service, not an overuse injury as the ending suggests. Anyways, I didn’t know about the map poll being engineered to be anti Terran and seeing flash’s determination to beat it was cool so thanks for teaching me about that!

[@RocketPropelledMexican]

Your map of China also somehow included Tajikistan as well lol

[@Wieprzek]

@@shivers222 video seems disingenuous because they mispronounced a team? Lmao

[@Athinira]

@@shivers222 Only if you don't understand how such videos are made. The narrator is chosen for his narration skills (aka. his voice), not for his knowledge of what he is narrating. I would rather have a narrator with a great voice who might mispronounce a few words, than a SC fan with a terrible voice.

[@ioncannonmusic]

@@AthiniraSo you’re suggesting the narrator misread the properly written script every single time the game was mentioned, and then the writer/producer didn’t think repeatedly mispronouncing both the game and league the video concerns was cause for retaking those lines? I’m just trying to get straight what you’re suggesting, which is why I ask.

[@jerrytealeaf]

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.

[@livingreverie5951]

Imagine suffering health problems in the wrists to then just shatter the meta to let said wrists no be so strained as much

[@atanasangelov4943]

Unfortunately the goliath push doesn't work any more. Out of meta.

[@ultradevo]

And when people asked on his stream why he doesn't play SK Terran as often vs Z during scrims or online matches, he straight up said that he was only able to play 2-3 of those a day and the rest of the time he had to play mech because of the wrist situation.

[@qwektnn]

"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." Stop with your bs. You either dont play starcraft at all, only watch it, or you have incredible bias to lie favoring terran. TvZ is always a favoured match up for T. Likewise, it's PvT, ZvP and the balance is a circle like this T>Z>P>T. This can be backed up by statistic of mu winrate from premier/major leagues. You can also tell it by being an average C or B rank lol ZvT is a mechanically difficult mu for Z because muta is the only viable opening at higher rank (at low ranks you can rush worker+basic units and probably still win). And micro muta is much more mechanic demand than micro MnM, due to their fragile body and shorter range against medic healing and huge dmg from stimpack. Z also lacks of options to survive until hive for defiler, leaving only muta. It's true that mech is easier to execute than MnM, but terran is not the one to complain here when zerg literally uses small, many units in all match up, not to mention lacking of viable range against siege tanks, or reliable AOE dmg against MnM until plague

[@TheDasErdinger]

@@atanasangelov4943 Still viable, just not at pro level.

[@carmacksanderson3937]

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

[@formes2388]

Didn't flash start playing Random in competition basically to add more challenge to the game?

[@ekkovaan2261]

As a great tank engine once said 'You *dare* challenge *me, mortal?'*

[@alcimir5]

@@formes2388 Yes, in his last season before military service, he made the semis, witch was very impressive

[@ttak82]

Map pool shenanigans reminded me about HOTS pro scene where maps that favored macro or TLV were banned, even though other maps still favored the team that won the first objective.

[@QenaitheCustodianGuard]

This has been done since forever, OGN I think it was wanted the viewership not to stagnate because of terran dominance and wrote a storyline around "anti terran" maps such as katerina (I thinks its called that). The storyline is reffered to as "the legend of the fall" if iam not mistaken.

[@jerrytealeaf]

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

[@jerrytealeaf]

Akshon Esports - you should make a video about FlaSh playing as Random too! It was an absolutely insane move: how FlaSh had to learn all 9 matchups in Starcraft, how the other pros had to learn the vs Random matchup and slowly realized that playing vs Random is a huge pain (since your opponent's race is unknown at the start of the match, playing vs Random is different than the other matchups), how FlaSh taunted everyone saying that winning with Terran was too easy and became boring for both him and viewers, and how FlaSh made his insane ASL run as a Random player for the first time ever in StarCraft's >20 year history

[@Sc9cvsd]

@jerrytealeaf easily could make a whole video about his random run. The fact he won a ZvZ is insane. So many crazy points and even his quarter finals loss was sad, he lost a critical game as Terran and then almost came back as protoss after making a stupid mistake not to block his choke

[@user-et3xn2jm1u]

Those were some of the funniest matches, especially his games against Larva

[@stambe8605]

@@jerrytealeaf And he managed to finish 3rd in his 1st attempt. Insanity !!!

[@presentedbyconormctappersp4565]

His random run is a thing of legends. It's just further evidence of why he is the GOAT. The level of prep of knowing every possibly tactic to use and deal with on all 3 races on the map pool is galaxy-brain stuff that really only Flash pulled off. How absurd it would have been if he managed to win that ASL Season as a random player.

[@someguy710]

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.

[@sergeysmyshlyaev9716]

Still, Saviour was more creative and more dominant at his peak. In Flash era the meta and the maps were heavily favoured for terrans, just re-watch the 2 last series of Flash vs Jaedong in Kespa era.

[@Zraknul]

Non SC players probably don't appreciate how it's a combination of creativity and speed. You need strategic thinking, some of which is pre-planned with build orders and once the game gets far enough along there's ALWAYS room to move faster and control things more finely, because there's so many things to control. LOL/dota is a simplification of SC. You have few things to do, so do them with excellence. In SC you have overwhelming things to do, so do as many good things as possible and decide on priorities in the moment, if you're faster than your opponent all the better.

[@Zraknul]

@@sergeysmyshlyaev9716Savior is a single lone large peak, Flash is a mountain range. Flash's dominance has had multiple peaks, and he's sustained being a dominant player. Savior's best calender year was a 72% win rate in 2006, with 63% in 2005 and 62% in 2007. Flash was 69% in 2008, 74% in 2009, 75% in 2010, 74% in 2011, and peaked again in 2017 with 3 titles in a row. Flash has set the meta and has dominated in many map pools.

[@matthewcarroll2533]

@@Zraknul Yeah but AOE2 veterans look at SC like it's a simplification too. Less civs, less bonuses, less buildings to manage, less map in overall sizes, etc... So as a non SC player, it seems strange that pro players even can SELECT their one "civilization", whereas in the pro league for AOE it's a full-on draft system with a # of bans available for each player during. It seems weird to say a pro is "the best" when they only play 1/3 of the civs available to be completely honest.

[@Zraknul]

​@@matthewcarroll2533 AOE2 civs don't even look close to as divergent as SC races? Aoe2 doesn't look like it has anywhere close to the micro you can do in SC? Watching AOE2 it looks a lot slower of a game. What am I missing?

[@Shmandalf]

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.

[@thissitesgay]

I haven't followed SC2 as closely for several years now but I felt like Serral's unreliability came after he was pressured to change his play style to be more aggressive. I remember a fair amount of people not liking his sit back and defend/macro style but defense was always my weak point as zerg so I really enjoyed it.

[@RoguerXIII]

melee

[@XDezibellX]

Smash 4 is the only other example I can think of

[@sergeysmyshlyaev9716]

He is dominating a dead game. The level of skill and competition post-2012 will never be the same as in 2009-2012. In Kespa era they lived in team bootcamp houses all the time, had coaches and dedicated practice partners. A player preparing a build order/strategy for a particular map would play hundreds of games with it, while his practice partner (usually an aspiring player who dreams to one day get into team roster) tries all kinds of build order against him to make sure he is ready for any scenario. BW will never reach the same skill level after 2012. All those ex-pro players just exploit the skill they gained pre 2012.

[@daydreamer3576]

MvP in sc2 except his career was brief

[@gaah23]

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.

[@DarkLeviathan8]

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.

[@coastfan24]

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

[@coastfan24]

Awesome video!

[@Shmandalf]

lol That made it all around the SC2 community, too. He understands the game like no one else does.

[@colincasey9778]

he got terran like half the time tho and it actually ended up helping him lol

[@Zraknul]

​@@colincasey9778 40% (6/15) Terran, 33% (5) Zerg, 26% (4) Protoss. It's a pretty balance distribution, but definitely got a slight bump. He played 8 of 9 matchups in 15 games. As P: 3-1 (2 PvP) As Z: 3-2 (4 of which were ZvZ) As T: 5-1 (1 TvT) He went 6-0, 4 of which were non-T to get to the Semi-finals is pretty convincing to me that it wasn't a crutch he leaned on to get there.

[@Zraknul]

Of note, Flash is the only person to earn a top 4 finish as true Random in a premier tournament. Player sometimes playing Random basically hasn't been seen in a major tournament since 2000.

[@BlueV205]

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

[@levislooney]

I really dont see his loss against Snow as valid, especially considering the next time they faced off he pubstomped him. Which is really a shame as Snow obviously worked very hard to get there.

[@lewisnorden3744]

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

[@Vizorfam]

Can you please elaborate bit more?

[@FriggenChiggen.]

@@Vizorfamits more complicated then chess is what hes saying

[@Henbot]

No it isn’t

[@Henbot]

@@FriggenChiggen. It isn’t

[@lewisnorden3744]

@@Henbot They're both equally extremely complicated

[@tthunder878]

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

[@Materialist39]

iirc this game might have been one of the cleanest carrier based PvTs ever played, just a devastating attack at a perfect timing. When I first watched the vod i vividly remember the feeling on my heart sinking for flash kind of already sensing the series would be brutal. And at that time, for the past few years, flash had been untouchable. I’m just happy this story is getting attention, as it’s my shorthand to describe to non starcraft people how good Flash truly is.

[@Zraknul]

Korea casters screaming in BW is legendary.

[@jbwon2775]

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

[@Cernunn0s90]

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

[@TheDasErdinger]

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!

[@FranksAnimeClub]

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

[@Cernunn0s90]

Never too late to start watching professional Brood War! ASL is casted in English and the next season starts later this month! It's free on KZbin

[@ATOQ777]

How strange, I had a good friend in the early days of SC2 named Frank the Tank.

[@alexfriedman2152]

Just play starcraft dude , it's free and worth it to learn.

[@Spaz740]

AfreecaTV has a youtube channel, where you can watch the matches of professional SC2 and SC:BW.

[@jaehparrk]

why wont u play starcraft? it lives forever kinda like minecraft and roblox

[@akalapov]

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

[@ATOQ777]

while composing a song

[@gladman9634]

Lol starcraft is just masked rock paper scissors with execution

[@GaussianEntity]

Certainly feels like it when you're getting all-in'ed

[@TheDasErdinger]

@@gladman9634 SC2 is sadly more like rock paper scissors, BW much less so. Vultures can easily beat a couple Dragoons, while Hellions suck vs anything armored.

[@NoFutureForG0uda]

ye except that sometimes rocks beat paper if you have enough of them and the stars alignment is favorable to minerals because you're on a nice slope. Cmon man, you've played the game, its hard@@gladman9634

[@DaR3b3L]

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

[@codespeed01]

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

[@misterkefir]

The 1999-2012 South Korean professional Brood War competition experience will NEVER be repeated. E-sports reached it's absolute peak right there and then. Legendary stuff for sure. Very glad I was there to witness it all while it was still happening.

[@gave2haze]

What Korea achieved with StarCraft is what other mainstream esports titles dream of lol

[@MatildaHinanawi]

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

[@markmuller7962]

So true

[@hellowill]

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.

[@yaneshkukula7272]

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

[@paulvenn4447]

Gawd damn hearing that Daigo crowd gives ya goosebumps everytime.

[@misterkefir]

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!

[@hughspector1115]

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

[@Sc9cvsd]

There hasnt been an official balance patch since 2002 so they attempted to balance thru maps. Of course in early ASL it did definitely seem more like they tried to balance against flash instead of balancing 3 races

[@stambe8605]

@@Sc9cvsd To be correct, there hasnt been an official balance patch since May of 2001 not 2002 and yes OSL was doing a similar, but not so evident map favoring for Protoss during their autumn/winter tournaments aka "Legend of the Fall'', which was a cool story where during the Fall season a Protoss player was more likely to win a Starleague (OSL).

[@zanartofwar7892]

Protoss players has the less amount of titles in tournaments, Terrans the most. That can say enough about balance and Protoss.

[@QenaitheCustodianGuard]

Wasn't it called "the legend of the fall"? The Map called something like "katerina" featured heavily in this and I think the protoss player "anytime" won on the back of this narrative (I think it was over iloveoovie).

[@stambe8605]

@@QenaitheCustodianGuard It is called Legend of the Fall, but the term originates long before Anytime appeared on the scene. And the map Katerina was a map introduced way after Anytime won his OSL back in the fall of 2005. Katerina and Katerina SE were introduced in late 07 early 08 if im not mistaken. It was one of the best Carrier maps and almost no Terran won there vs P, except Flash, due to him developing the fast armory 2/1 build with Goliaths to counter the fast Carrier builds that were broken before he introduced this build. These days the build is called "upgrade terran" and is still super effective way to play for late game in TvP.

[@hennessey415]

Every sports there's injuries, this is no difference

[@fernandogomes7709]

Flash is the Magnus Carlsen of SC

[@luluonly486]

Magnus Carlsen is the flash tou mean 😎

[@Riri-oj1zs]

@@luluonly486 Bruh, I like Flash, but Magnus Carlsen is just pure genius. He literally defeated multiple people at the same time while being blindfolded and forced a draw against a prime Kasparov at the age of 13.

[@mescalinetrip]

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

[@mescalinetrip]

Sorry, Semi-Finals!

[@Lunareste]

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

[@jpVari]

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.

[@s1gma1368]

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

[@sk2790]

in the end.. he stopped himself by scamming all his fans and stream viewers with a form of eCommerce.. once a legend and arguably the best eSports player of all time, now just a fraud who betrayed his fans.

[@delosreyesgino]

I get tilted whenever he says "BROOD WARS."

[@banzaipiegaming]

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)

[@tmjones212]

Dude's APM was so high he needed surgery

[@mesaber86]

This is many players fear. I myself got issues from 300 APM. Thing is once you learn to play with high apm its hard to stop as it actually makes you a better player. The solution is to stop playing fast but this is counter-productive to your goal to get better at the game. When Flash returns after military it will be interesting to see what APM he has. Im sure he will keep it 400+ still.

[@satchels6451]

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

[@alexelectricx]

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!

[@NTC_whitecrayon]

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

[@vanevanhaagen4011]

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.

[@Materialist39]

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

[@Sapreme]

StarsCrafts Broods Wars, the game as old as Streets Fighters and Leagues of Legend.

[@Shmandalf]

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

[@snaffu1]

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.

[@Zraknul]

Yeah he went 3-0 and 3-0 to get to the semi finals, lost 2-4, then won the 3rd place 3-0. Overall his non-Terran results for the tournament were 6-3.

[@Sc9cvsd]

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

[@zabban]

korean are next level crazy ppl, the dude just did some advertising and thats it like any hollywood star doest for hundreds of companys. why they want their head over it is stupid af

[@4TechNeTium3]

"coin"cidence surely...

[@shivers222]

I'm pretty sure his military service date was decided months if not years in advance, no? I doubt it was intentionally timed with the crypto scandal if so.

[@XUndergroundRap]

Idk man if your dumb enough to fall for anything crypto related you gotta learn somehow?

[@KKKuma]

He was already announced his leaving for military service after finish the following ASL as random for a while before the crypto things happened. But it is kind of bad that he got involved in it just before he finally left

[@SonyEricson850]

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

[@CoralCopperHead]

*Coughs in Quake*

[@sinappanis]

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.

[@Flexy59]

i didnt even look at it that way, my caveman brain just went "hoho challenge cool", but youre right on the mark

[@majormononoke8958]

Dude, they had to do something. It was getting boring and people were getting upset that the other pros couldnt keep up.

[@haimduRAGE]

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

[@BigDad138]

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

[@Animefightforum]

He reached ro4 as Random. Getting ro4 is near impossible for most players already considering the competition - and that’s them playing 1 race. Lol Flash is the true God of SC

[@QenaitheCustodianGuard]

Other people had runs back in the day like nada, iloveoovie and such but flash is undoubtedly the fucking GOAT of this game and its not even close.

[@riri2803]

@@Animefightforum Guy placed 3rd while using Random the whole tournament. lol

[@dotanuki3371]

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?

[@Sc9cvsd]

Yep my feeling is none of the BW pros would have switched and BW would have continued uninterrupted if blizzard hadn't forced them and shut down kespa

[@danieln6700]

Broodwar was always more popular and still is in korea. Forcing the end of BW was dumb.

[@brandonjun1830]

Blizzard has not forced BW to close. The sponsorships from many different companies (especially banks) were dropped as there was match fixing where players would lose on purpose for money. The reputation for BW has shot down once it got on the news and no companies would sponsor such corrupted sport.

[@danieln6700]

@brandonjun1830 they wanted sc2 to be the new thing cos they invested millions into and didn't want ppl to keep playing the old game that makes them no money. They worked to have pro BW close untill ASL came out

[@dotanuki3371]

@@brandonjun1830 strange that they wanted the bw players to keep playing then, if matchfixing was so rampant, rather than just lifetime banning them as they did with savior

[@noblecyborg-savage]

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.

[@freekeess9245]

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.

[@billj4525]

Yeah, Flash was and I guess is still way ahead of everyone in brood war. He would hardly ever loss a game even against the top koreans.

[@JeffGodofBiscuits88]

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

[@jei1036]

Thank you for recognizing daigo.

[@fingerbvngbeng9851]

FLASH IS BACK FROM DEPLOYMENT THIS YEAR, 5th ASL win let’s go

[@yescooliotime]

Brood War, not "Brood Wars"

[@zachsmith4754]

Man great video but that little mistake was painful lol he said it like 5 times in a row and I just couldn't let it go

[@Bobbias]

@@zachsmith4754 yeah, I cringed every time. Though credit where it's due, the rest of the video was well made.

[@luizrafael7939]

lol they applied handicap against the man

[@Jdrunnin]

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

[@stefanweber6434]

'Greatest Gamer' of all time

[@Vognee]

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

[@jbwon2775]

He actually got that nickname from a previous opponent who was interviewed, he said no matter if Flash goes Bio (Marine, Medic, Tank) or Mech (Vulture, Tank, Goliath) he wins against the opposite match-up.

[@riri2803]

> Ultimate Weapon His last monicker, after being called the Ultimate Weapon, is 'God'.

[@mechwarrior13]

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.

[@kellereclub3828]

You should change the title. Gamer is grossly an understatement. He rightfully deserves to be called an e-sportsman or e-sports athlete.

[@oredaze]

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

[@-Raylight]

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

[@i2eB6L]

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

[@terminusest9179]

Worst map pool for terran. Best protoss vs terran matchup. player. A bit past prime but still capable. > Still claws 2-3 against all odds. Simply so good that you don't just get an easy win margin, only just barely scraping past.

[@nunyabisnass1141]

No wonder this spunds so familier, its basically every korean manhua ive ever read.

[@WeiweiCheng]

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

[@458Dubai]

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

[@dogbread7975]

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

[@Mayhamsdead]

Putting Faker on the same level with Flash would be insulting if it weren't laughable. I got a little chuckle out of it, but let's not kid ourselves: Flash is THE king of gaming. Period. Kudos to him for consistantly staying on top for what seems to be forever now. GG!

[@mathieutaillefer8418]

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!

[@meeu]

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.

[@Syzyguy]

Love some starcraft content!

[@nopixelstories3559]

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

[@WilliamWizer]

how low they need to fall that they were willing to destroy any chance of a terran player winning just to stop a single player. I can understand that they wanted to make it harder for flash, even if it's a cheap trick but by messing with the map pool they also made it harder for the rest of the terran players who had no fault at having choosen the same race as flash but were crushed because of that.

[@monkeebunz8580]

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

[@danieln6700]

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

[@cadulino83]

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

[@Skantaq]

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

[@Voy2378]

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

[@AntiDoctor-cx2jd]

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

[@luigienjoyer]

1:44 You mean: Ultramarines Tau Tyranids

[@tatsumakisenpukyakku5576]

"Africa Brood Wars"

[@Apr0x1m0]

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

[@Evan-lr8nq]

I am the Reverse Flash. I pretty much suck at these games! Good video btw!

[@Netizen56]

Great video!

[@Akshonesports]

Thanks!

[@enderspider5001]

Not about Technoblade, you guys really need to fire everyone from the research team.

[@duck8280]

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

[@dota2fanclub]

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

[@princevegeta3325]

why did u not mention the fact that he played random in asl.... that another stupid crazy stat

[@hugosantos7180]

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

[@uriel005]

Blizzard traditionally hates terran. I think it stems from the early bonjwa's Boxer, NaDa and Ilovoov all being terran and they've never gotten over it so when in doubt they nerf terran rather than risk another bonjwa streak.

[@hugosantos7180]

@@uriel005 all i know is that they gave us tank vacs and now we dont have that anymore xD because screw terrans

[@esporeno]

i remember everytime i got called a hacker because i was just soo good in the moment in the game i played. It fealt soo great. I can´t imagine how good he has to feel. Even if he lost. Just how he lost. They threw everything against him and it was barely enough xD Just for myself, if i knew that, and would have won that way against probably my Mihawk to Zoro, i would not like that win.

[@swarmk5809]

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

[@helenarosas6213]

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

[@chiliboy99]

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

[@sergeysmyshlyaev9716]

The fact that it's possible means that overall level of skill and competition in BW has fallen down to about 1999. Flash's achievements in 2009-2011 are more impressive than anything he wins today, because the competition was real back then.

[@chiliboy99]

@@sergeysmyshlyaev9716 true, the only exciting ones r just some small content creator competitions which they just randomly hold form time to time, as some still plays n has their old skills, some improved

[@dork2241]

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.

[@Zraknul]

There was world championships, the WCG from 2000 to 2010. Flash won the last one. Of course it's an extremely South Korea dominated game, and they took gold every year.

[@billj4525]

Starcraft is more complicated for the reasons you mentioned, but chess takes more intelligence, and players at the highest level are more intelligent that starcraft players at the highest level. Chess players at the highest level have extremely high iq's on average. I mean Fischer, Carlsen, and Kasparov are all considered to be above 180, which is out of this world high. Starcraft players at the highest level are brilliant too, but just no where near as what the top chess guys are. The book "genius and chess" documents grandmasters and chess players at the highest level and shows their tested IQ scores, and it's insane to see. It compares other very impressive occupations on average to chess players and chess players usually have higher iq's than every occupation. I mean chess is not directly correlated to IQ's obviously and neither are occupations, but it still gives you an idea. I love both chess and starcraft honestly. All the stuff I said is from things I have read. Broodwar was my favorite starcraft game by far. Chess is very different than starcraft though overall, just different kinds of games. Video games just don't last the way games like chess do. I wish some of them would.

[@graham1034]

If only Flash was able to compete in SC2, it would have been great to see how far he could go. Unfortunately we'll never get that Serral / Flash match up.

[@H1Smurf]

who tf cares about sc2?

[@graham1034]

@@H1Smurf well it is far superior to SC1/Brood War IMO

[@pikachu896]

I love watching Brood Wars electronic sport game on AfricaTV

[@woosel1]

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

[@SJNaka101]

I'm not huge into esports, but the only streak of dominance I'm aware of that even *comes close* to flash's is the STK/FB dominance of halo 1 and halo 2. However, all that was taking place in the early to mid 2000s, when esports were young. And, of course, halo 1 and 2 were much younger games in general compared to starcraft at the times flash was dominant, and less competitive than the insane environment of the South Korean starcraft scene. It's really not all that close. This dude has to be the most accomplished and dominant player in any esport, by a wide margin.