Lee "Leenock" Dong Nyoung[1] is a Zerg player from South Korea, who is currently playing for TitanEX1.

Biography [ edit ]

Leenock was an amateur Brood War player who reached A rank on iCCup. Some of his games are still available from IdrA's Ladder Replay Pack during TSL2.[2]

Wings of Liberty [ edit ]

2010 [ edit ]

Leenock made his first competitive appearance in the GOMTV 2010 Sony Ericsson Starcraft II Open Season 2, representing fOu. Being 15 years old when he first entered, he was one of the youngest players to play in the GSL, behind Life and Maru. He gained recognition by reaching the Round of 16 where he faced off against NaDa and managed to take a set with a 6 pool before ultimately losing the match 1-2. He would again qualify for the Season 3 and reach the Round of 16, where he would lose 1-2 to MarineKing. During this season, he played a famous series against Clide where he eventually won 2-1. His performance qualified him for the inaugural Code S season in 2011. During this time period, casters Artosis and Tasteless have praised Leenock as a player with "unlimited potential".

2011 [ edit ]

Leenock was one of the initial Code S players, but would drop to Code A after the first season, taking 3rd place in his Ro32 group. Leenock competed in the first two GSTL seasons as a player of fOu and later for FXOpen e-Sports after fOu's acquisition in July. While in Code A, Leenock took 3rd place during the second, fourth and fifth seasons. After the Up & Down matches, Leenock re-qualified for Code S, for the October GSL season. He would lose 1-2 to GanZi in the Round of 16, but would qualify for the November GSL season.

The Leenoctopus tore through 2011 MLG Providence, defeating several MLG and GSL champions.

In October, Leenock traveled to Las Vegas along with teammate Lucky to participate in IPL 3.[3] However he was not allowed to participate due to the tournament taking place in a casino and him not being of full age.[4]

His first major international event was the 2011 MLG National Championship in Providence where he stormed through the Open Bracket, defeating five MLG champions (MMA, IdrA, HuK, Mvp and NaNiwa) and two GSL Code S champions (MMA and Mvp). He ultimately met the unstoppable-looking NaNiwa in the grand finals. NaNiwa used greedy Forge Fast Expand PvZ play throughout the tournament that stomped Zerg titans like DongRaeGu and NesTea. After falling behind one game, Leenock recognized the greediness of NaNiwa's play and used roach-ling cheeses to eventually defeat the swede 4-1. Leenock sported an overall 34-7 record by the end of the tournament. During this time, Leenock was the only player to have won a championship after falling to the Losers Bracket. Throughout his run, "Leenock" was trending worldwide on Twitter, creating large stream numbers, opening up Leenock's popularity worldwide, rather than GSL fans exclusively.

Before competing in MLG Providence, Leenock played in the November GSL season, where he took second place in his Round of 32 group and his Round of 16 group. About a week after MLG, Leenock would advance to the finals of GSL November by defeating Mvp 3-2. With this victory, he became the youngest GSL finalist at the age of 16. Due to hype surrounding Leenock after MLG, he was highly predicted to take GSL, but would lose 2-4 to jjakji. By taking second place in a GSL, Leenock was invited to participate in the Arena of Legends: The King of Kongs, but was eliminated in the first round by TOP and MarineKing.

2012 [ edit ]

There was a lot of hype going into 2012 for Leenock. Doing extremely well in the end of 2011 people had their eyes on him. In the first GSL season of the year he was placed together with another hyped player ForGG who came from Brood War where he won a MSL. The other two players in the group was MC and SuperNoVa. Leenock crushed ForGG 2-0 and was looking really strong. It turned really fast however when he lost to both SuperNoVa and MC 1-2. Finishing third in the group Leenock got knocked down to Code A. This is where his slump first began.

After MLG had announced their new league system Leenock tried his luck in the MLG Winter Arena tournament in New York. He won versus both the two terrans dde and ThorZaIN but lost to his FXO teammate Oz. After getting knocked into the loser’s bracket he faced NaNiwa, a rematch of the previous MLG final. NaNiwa got his revenge and won 1-2. Leenock showed a big weakness in his Zerg vs Protoss and that would continue throughout the first half of the year.

Going back to Korea Leenock had to play his Code A games. Where he won vs the Zerg July 2-1 but lost in the next round to the Protoss Seed 0-2. Having one last remaining shot at getting into the upcoming Code S, Leenock played the GSL Up and Down. He absolutely smashed his way going 4-0 vs in 4 best of 1s versus InCa, Sniper, GanZi and AcE and reclaimed his Code S spot.

Leenock once again flew over to the United States to play in the Open Bracket of IPL 4. In the single-elimination bracket Leenock went 2-0 versus all of Zephyr, NonY and Golden. However like always, Protoss would be the stop of his runs as he lost 1-2 to PartinG.

Soon after the IPL tournament in Vegas, Leenock had to play his Code S group. Together in the same group as the second place finisher of IPL Squirtle as well as the Terrans MMA and NaDa this was by no means an easy group. Leenock started off by beating NaDa 2-0 and had to face the Protoss player Squirtle. Squirtle proved to be too much for Leenock who lost 0-2. In the final game of the day Leenock faced off against MMA. With burrowed infestor play Leenock took the series 2-0 and got into the Round of 16.

The only other Zerg except for Leenock who managed to get into Round of 16 was July. Both of them was placed into the same group by HerO during the group selection with the 4th player Mvp. Neither of the Zergs would survive the tough group as HerO and Mvp proved to be too strong. Leenock who finished third in the group after his win vs July did finish as the highest placing Zerg of the season.

In Code A Leenock had to play aLive who came off a huge win at IPL 4. The cheeky player Leenock did a 6 pool and took the series 2-1 and reclaimed his Code S spot. He said in the post-game interview that he hopes Terrans stay prepared for his aggressive strategies.[5]

Leenock flew to America twice in the late spring, for both MLG Spring Arena and MLG Spring Championship. But he could not perform as well as he would liked and finished 9th-12th in both tournaments.

In the third Code S season of 2012 Leenock was placed with AcE, Ryung and TaeJa. Going 0-4 in the group, losing to the two Terrans, people started to wonder if his amazing performance in late 2011 was just a one time thing. Not having shown close to the results people expecting of him going into the year.

However things were about to change. Leenock smashed his way through Code A beating TAiLS 2-1, Life 2-0 and Ryung 2-0 getting back into Code S.

Leenock also played a very important match for his team FXO in the GSTL semi final vs Team MVP. FXO was down 2-4 in a Best of 9 which meant with Leenock as their final player, he had to win vs three opponents in a row. Beating both the Protoss TAiLS and Lure he faced of against the Zerg DongRaeGu who very recently won MLG Summer Championship. In an epic Zerg vs Zerg Leenock took the game with an infestor move[6] that would be remembered for a long time and took the series in FXO’s favour. It was a huge victory to him as both him and his team captain Choya cried after the game.[7] After this game, Leenock became the beast he was the second half of 2012. FXO would also become the champions as GuMiho All-Killed Team SlayerS in the finals.

It was time for the MLG Summer Championship. Leenock went over to America once again to fight his way through the Open Bracket. Going overall 10-1 vs Apocalypse, Agh, ViBe, RaNgeD and HuK he got into group play. Dropping straight into the loser’s bracket after a loss to Alicia 1-2 he had to fight his way through Sheth, Binski and PuMa until he got matched against Alicia again. Even with the extended series rule he took the series 4-2 and faced aLive in the group finals. Leenock had a loser’s bracket disadvantage which meant he had to beat aLive in two best of threes. Which he did, both 2-1 and secured a top 8 finish at MLG. But top 8 is not where Leenock stopped, as he won his first game vs viOLet 2-0. Then took the series vs TheSTC 4-3 which would mean he was in his first final of 2012. In the final he was up against First a protoss, which was the race Leenock had struggled with all year long. But Leenock was out of his slump, and took the finals 4-1.

Back in Korea Leenock had to play his Code S group. He was in the same group as PartinG, SuHoSin and the previous GSL champion Seed. After a first initial loss to PartinG, Leenock fought back and won vs Suhosin and the rematch vs PartinG in the final game. Zerg vs Protoss seemed to no longer phase Leenock. In the group after that he faced placed with two very strong Protoss HerO and Squirtle plus the Terran Heart. Not only did Leenock win the group, he won vs both the Protoss players, HerO 2-1 and Squirlte 2-0. This was the Leenock people expected to see way earlier in the year.

On the 14th of October Leenock played his Round of 8 match vs TaeJa another player whom was on a hot streak. Leenock lost the match 1-3 as expected since he was the underdog. It did not bother him however, because just a few days later Leenock traveled to China and won the World eSports Masters tournament. A small tournament but with strong competition. Leenock did not lose a set and won 2-1 vs MMA, NesTea and JYP. The finals was a rematch between him and JYP where 3-0’d the Korean Protoss and claimed $12 000.

Only a week later Leenock had to go back to USA to play in the MLG Fall Championship. Facing only Protoss players in the entire group stage beating Rain, San and Oz he topped his group and was once again in the top 8 of MLG. Facing Bomber in both the quarter and semifinals he took both games with an overall score of 4-1. He then had to face Life who came off a big win after beating Mvp to win the GSL season. With a strong start of going 3-1 Leenock choked and lost the series 4-3. This would be the start of a longlasting Zerg rivalry between Leenock and Life.

Since Leenock finished top 8 in the previous GSL season he was placed straight into Code S for the 5th GSL which was the last of the year. He got into the same group as KeeN, Squirtle and the up and coming player INnoVation. Leenock topped the group after two Zerg vs Terran wins going overall 4-1 (2-0 INnoVation, 2-1 KeeN).

Soon after his Code S match Leenock’s team FXO had a very important GSTL match versus team Prime. His team had a huge deposit of being down 1-4 before it was Leenock’s turn to play as the ace of the team. Leenock brought the game back by winning versus Maru, Terius, ByuN and MarineKing and winning the game for his team 5-4. Leenock had once again saved his team and once again the team would ultimately win the championship vs team MVP.

In the GSL Round of 16 Leenock had been picked into a group of death. Consisting of 4 amazingly scary Zerg players, including himself, Life, Soulkey and Symbol. With a really strong Zerg vs Zerg performance Leenock won his first game versus Symbol 2-1 and then versus Soulkey 2-0, finishing first in the group.

In the Round of 8 Leenock had to face off against Sniper who people did not think would be so scary. But he took the win versus Leenock 1-3 and he would end up taking the entire GSL season.

In late fall one of the most hyped tournaments IPL 5 started. With a huge player pool this was one of the hardest tournaments of all time. Leenock breezed his way through the Open Bracket. Going 2-1 vs Apocalypse and then 2-0’ing Goswser, Life, XiGua and TheStC. Being placed in the winner’s bracket Leenock faced the Korean Terran Polt who he also beat 2-0. In the winner’s final he played viOLet and ended up beating him 3-1 which meant Leenock was in the IPL5 finals. He would face off against viOLet in a rematch in the finals which he won and grabbed the championship and in his opinion, the biggest win of his life.[8]

Shortly after, Leenock won the online tournament Ritmix RSL 2 after a long lower bracket run. Beating PartinG, fraer, Feast, TitaN, Bomber, VortiX to eventually face Scarlett in the finals. Leenock ended up winning 4-3 in a close series versus the Canadian Zerg.

The last tournament of 2012 was the 2012 Blizzard Cup. Leenock beat HerO, PartinG and Mvp which was enough to place first in the group even with the loss versus DongRaeGu. In the semifinals. Leenock was once again up against his rival Life who he lost to 1-3 in a good Zerg vs Zerg series. Life would win the end up winning the entire tournament. The top 4 finish at Blizzard Cup would be the end of Leenock’s amazing year 2012.

Heart of the Swarm [ edit ]

2013 [ edit ]

Leenock's first foreign tournament in 2013 was the 2013 MLG Winter Championship, a single elimination tournament. He beat BabyKnight 3-0 in the first round but then lost to INnoVation 0-3 in the Round of 16. Despite a largely disappointing performance, having been one of 4 players invited to skip qualifiers, he was still defeated by a player who would go on to be widely considered one of the best players of 2013.

Leenock won his first major championship after the release of Heart of the Swarm by defeating NaNiwa 3-2 in the finals of DreamHack Stockholm.

In the first WCS season of 2013, Leenock ended up in the Group of Death in the Round of 32. His group consisted of himself, Life, PartinG and Last. Despite an initial 2-0 win against Life, he lost 1-2 to PartinG and 0-2 in a rematch against Life to finish third and be sent down to the Up and Downs group. He finished first in his group after wins against Maru, DongRaeGu and Ruin and a loss against Bunny.

After 9 seasons of GSL Code S + one WCS OSL season, Leenock lost his Code S streak by missing out on 2013 WCS Season 3 Korea GSL Premier League. Although he did manage a streak of 10 consecutive Code S/Premier League finishes, the requirement for the NesTea Award, since one of the seasons was an OSL, it did not count towards the award. He was unable to requalify for the next season of Code S and his streak was broken. He lost to Dream in the Challenger League Round of 32 and did not make it through his Up and Down group after losses to KeeN, Avenge and Pigbaby.

On October 10, 2013, Leenock participated in the GSTL all-star game. He faced off vs Aphrodite and after an easy win with hydralisks vs mech he went over to get a beating by his teammates. Then he went over to Aphrodite's booth to ask for forgiveness on his knees.[9]

In GSTL Leenock performed well, but nowhere near good enough to carry his team into the finals as he often did in 2012. FXO often times did not make the playoffs in 2013. As a result of poor results and poor return on investment, the team's main sponsor FXOpen terminated the contract. From November 2013 Leenock continued to play with his teammates under the fOu tag instead (the team's name prior to FXOpen's sponsorship).

The first time he would represent his new team came in HomeStory Cup VIII. He crushed his two first groups and went into the playoffs. In a very anticipated Round 8 match he faced off against jjakji, a repeat of the Code S final. After a back and forth series, he ended up losing 2-3 and was thereby knocked out of the tournament.

In the end of November he participated in DreamHack Winter, having earned his spot with his win at Stockholm. He was placed into a tough group with Jaedong, HerO and Goswser. He had to finish 1st or 2nd to make the winner's bracket but he lost to both Jaedong and HerO. The second day, having dropped into the losers bracket, he faced off against ForGG. He claimed a 2-0 victory in that series, including a game where he used an unorthodox proxy-hatchery strategy at ForGG's natural expansion. Leenock then went on to face NaNiwa in a repeat of the Stockholm final. He ended up losing the series 1-2 and was eliminated from the tournament.

Leenock's team fOu would end up disbanding towards the end of the year and Leenock became teamless.[10] But from December the 16th he got a personal sponsorship with Global e-Sports management.[11]

2014 [ edit ]

Even though Leenock didn't have a team for most of January, he still lived in the fOu house. Most of the former fOu members was also teamless so they practiced together in the house. Which made sure Leenock's practice wasn't too hindered.[12]

Leenock played in the Code A qualifier and qualified on the 8th of January. He lost to Pet in the final 0-2. But the qualifiers has two spots and he claimed the second spot by beating TurN 2-1.

Still not yet signed with a team, Leenock played his Code A group on the 16th. Together in the same group as YongHwa, BrAvO and Flash. He managed to get through the group by beating BrAvO twice 2-1. He lost to YongHwa 2-0 in the winner's match. Leenock was now back in the premier league for the 12th time.

On January 28, Leenock joined yoe Flash Wolves.[13] The reason he chose Flash Wolves over other teams was mainly due to their ability to send him to foreign tournaments. He said that he wanted to participate in more oversea competition in 2014 than he had been the previous year.[14]

The first time he would represent his new team would be in the upcoming Code S match, placed in the same group as Zest, Trap and SuperNova. He 2-0'd SuperNova to get into the winner's match against Zest (who would later win the entire tournament) where he lost 0-2. The last game would be versus another Protoss player, Trap. In Leenock's worst matchup at the time (Zerg vs Protoss),[15] he lost against Trap 1-2 and was eliminated from the Round of 32.

Leenock's first oversea event 2014 came with IEM Cologne where he would try to qualify through the open bracket. With only two qualifier spots and 3 other Koreans it would be a tough group to get out from. The first opponent was the German Protoss Socke who he beat 2-1. After that he played another Protoss, this time the Korean Patience. A 0-2 loss in his worst matchup would send him to the loser's bracket. There he faced off against another German Protoss Tarrantius. After a 2-0 victory the 4 Koreans (including himself) were fighting for the 2 spots. After beating viOLet 2-0 he would face HyuN in the loser's bracket final. Whoever won would qualify for the main event but unfortunately Leenock couldn't pull off the victory and lost 0-2.

During a Startalk, Leenock confirmed he would try his luck in the IEM World Championship. With a huge prize pool of $100 000 and winner takes it all, Leenock joked about committing suicide if he would lose in the finals.[16] IEM World Championship began a few days later. For the second time he would try to fight his way through the open bracket. His first opponent was the Terran funkay who he 2-0'd. Then he faced off in another Zerg vs Protoss vs HasuObs where he lost 0-2. Already in the loser's bracket this early was not a good sign for Leenock who tried his best to stay alive. Beating both DieStar and Tefel 2-0 he would then face another Protoss Dear. He lost to Dear and was eliminated going 6-0 with non-Protoss and 0-4 vs Protoss. Still seemed to be his worst match up.

After IEM WC Leenock didn't go back to Korea. Instead he went together with San to the Yoe Flash Wolves team house in Taiwan. He stayed there all up until a few days before his upcoming Code A game. During this time Leenock competed in the online tournaments Esports Champion League and Acer Teamstory Cup. In ATC he would perform his first ever All Kill vs team NewRoSoft.

Leenock's Code A game was on April the 18th. Once again in a group with 2 Protoss eMotion and MyuNgSiK plus the legendary Terran FanTaSy. Still known for his poor Zerg vs Protoss it was a bit of a shock when he beat eMotion 2-0. But he then lost to MyuNgSiK 0-2 and faced off in a last game vs FanTaSy. Having a really good Zerg vs Terran match up Leenock won the game 2-1 and claimed his premier league spot for the 13th time.

After his Code A win, Leenock traveled to Romania to play in DreamHack Bucharest. After an amazing performance going 8-0 in groups beating players like HuK and HerO he then had to face off versus his long time Zerg rival Life. After a tough loss in the first game Leenock came back in the second game with his amazing burrow play.[17] But it wasn't enough to clench the series and he would eventually lose 1-2 to his rival. He got knocked out of the tournament by Life, who would eventually win the entire tournament.

On May 14, Leenock faced off against the 4 times GSL champion Mvp in King of the Iron. Playing a best of 7 where Leenock took the series 4-1.

It was a bit unfortunate when Leenock was placed in the Group of Death.[18] Not only due to the high caliber players, but also because of his group once again consisting of two Protoss players herO and Squirtle. Plus the Terran machine INnoVation who is still seen as one of the best Terran in the world. Leenock took the first series versus Squirtle 2-0. But that was the end of his luck as he lost both to herO 1-2 and INnoVation 0-2. He was once again knocked out from the GSL Round of 32 and into Code A.

Leenock went back to Taiwan to practice a bit before 2014 MLG Anaheim where he started from the open bracket. He did make it really deep into the bracket and beating notable players like HerO and SeleCT. But eventually he lost and got knocked out from the tournament by Bomber and StarDust.

After his time in America he traveled back to Taiwan to prepare for his upcoming Code A game. His group consisted of Terminator, EffOrt and the old Terran player SuperNoVa. For the first time in a year Leenock would not make it back into Code S. By having no Korean tournaments he would spend a large amount of time in Taiwan for the rest of the year, only leaving to go overseas for tournaments in Europe and America.

On 16 July, Leenock would go to DreamHack Valencia in Spain. He made it to the playoff stage by going 2-0 and then 2-1 in his group, beating players like ForGG and Grubby. In the playoffs he 2-0'd the Spanish player Majestic and then after that beating Golden 2-0 as well. He made his first Round of 4 in a tournament since DreamHack Stockholm, the tournament he won. Unfortunately for Leenock his luck would run out as he faced up against MC whom always seemed to get the better off Leenock. Leenock lost 0-2. By placing top 4 Leenock had clenched a spot in DreamHack Winter. Once again Leenock would take the plane to Taiwan instead of Korea to the Yoe Flash Wolves team house.

In mid-august Leenock played in the tournament Taiwan eSports League on "home turf" in Taiwan. As his team Yoe Flash Wolves has a lot of fans in Taiwan he had a big crowd cheering for him. The tournament started amazingly for the slumping Leenock by beating TaeJa 2-0. TaeJa is a very successful overseas tournament player so beating him was a big step for Leenock. However the hopes didn't last long as Leenock lost 2-1 to HyuN in the Ro8. At least this time he didn't have to travel far to get back to the team house.

Leenock went to Canada for the first time in his life to participate in IEM Toronto. In the open bracket he started off by getting beat by HuK 1-2 but then going on a roll in the loser bracket. He ended up beating Bones, Oz, Jaedong and then lastly HuK in a revenge match 2-0. But in the group stages he immediately got knocked out to viOlet and YoDa.

On 19 August, Leenock performed the Ice bucket challenge. He challenged his former coach Choya, his current teammate San and a good friend of his JYP. You can watch the challenge here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN4Ne1u7Wts#t=147

In September, Leenock would play his second to last tournament of 2014 which was DreamHack Stockholm which he had won the previous year. He got placed in the second group stage phase where he beat Zanster and ViBe to get out of the group. The luck was against him as he got placed in the same group as the two previous GSL finalists Classic and soO. In some well fought games Leenock ended up losing and got knocked out of the tournament. The last tournament Leenock participated in was DreamHack Winter, the last stop for the DreamHack tour and the yearly final. Leenock earned his spot by being top 4 at DreamHack Valencia previously in the year. The last stop of DreamHack is always the toughest and Leenock got placed in the same group as his teammate San, as well as Bunny, Life and TaeJa. TaeJa and Life going through was almost for certain so the last 3 fought for the third and final spot. Leenock ended up losing to his teammate and lost his spot. Back on the plane he went as he travelled back to Taiwan.

At the end of the year Leenock played in two very important qualifiers, one for SSL and one for GSL, both in Korea. For the first time in Leenock's career he would not qualify to GSL. He lost to both TaeJa and Dear in the end stages of the qualifier. But in Starleague he ended up qualifying by beating CranK, fox, Hurricane and the GSL winner Zest 2-1.

The very last thing Leenock did in 2014 was play his first SSL game versus YongHwa. Leenock won the series 3-0 in a very easy fashion, which was uncharacteristic of him considering his record against Protoss throughout his career.

2015 [ edit ]

After having teamed out with team Prime last year in Proleague, his team Yoe Flash Wolves would this time team up with Startale. This meant Leenock would play on the same team as his longtime rival Life. The announcement was made as early as October,[19] but the Proleague season started very late December in 2014. Startale-YoeFW only had time to play one game before the New Year.

Leenock participated in the SSL Group Selection for his round of 16 group. During the group selection he picked a golden ball which meant he was allowed to switch a player (including himself) to a different group. In the end of the group selection he swapped out Dream from his own group to Terminator. Resulting in his group consisting of Super, FanTaSy and Terminator.

January the 15th Leenock played his SSL Round of 16 game. Leenock ended up losing the very first game versus Super but ended up winning the series 2-1. A thing to note about this series was that in the third game Leenock played a mind game on his opponent. Leenock had shown in earlier matches that he likes to expand quickly to the enemy gold expansion on Overgrowth. An example of such a game was his Proleague game versus Hurricane.[20] However when Leenock played against Super he used this to his advantage. He expanded to his own third base first, making Super believe he had taken the gold once again. After that Leenock took his own natural. Super who had gone for forge first to specifically counter an early hatchery could not find Leenock's new base. He searched all over the map until he finally realized what Leenock had done but by then it was too late. Leenock had successfully gone three hatcheries before pool versus a forge first expansion without getting punished at all. After his game versus Super, Leenock played against Terminator in the winner's bracket whom he beat 2-0. This was the first time since GSL Season 5 in November Leenock had advanced to the Round of 8 in a Korean tournament.

In late January, Leenock went overseas for the first time to participate in IEM Taipei in Taiwan. His team at the time, Yoe Flash Wolves, is from Taiwan, which made him feel more at home than other overseas tournaments. Leenock also spent almost all of 2014 living in Taiwan. At IEM, Leenock had to play in the open bracket because he failed to qualify.[21] For his first match he was up against the Dreamhack champion Sacsri. In a quick 2-0, he moved on to face one of biggest enemies Jjakji. Even though they are friends outside of the game, ever since Jjakji won GSL November all the way back in 2011 Leenock has never truly gotten over it. This time at IEM, Leenock would get the better off Jjakji and take another 2-0 victory starting his run in the open bracket. In the Winner's bracket match he lost against TRUE 1-2 and then got knocked out by Soulkey 0-2. This ended Leenock's run and it was very upsetting to him because he wanted to play in front of his "semi home crowd" in Taiwan.[22]

He lost his quarterfinal match in StarLeague to Maru with an 0-3 score. However, he remained a solid contributor to team SBENU's Proleague efforts whenever he was fielded, bringing in 11 wins and losing only 7 times. This brought him the second best win rate on the team, eclipsed only by DongRaeGu. At the end of August, Leenock left his former team, the yoe Flash Wolves. Unfortunately for Leenock, he did not find much success in individual tournaments in 2015. His best results ended up being a top 8 finish at DreamHack Stockholm and his aforementioned run in StarLeague.

Legacy of the Void [ edit ]

2015 [ edit ]

On November 24, 2015, it was announced that he had joined SBENU alongside KeeN after spending most of the year with the team.[23] In December, he qualified for Code A where his opponent would be the legendary Jaedong.

2016 [ edit ]

On January 27, 2016, it was announced that the Afreeca Freecs (formerly known as SBENU) and KT Rolster had reached an agreement: Leenock would join KT Rolster, while Life would join the Freecs in exchange.[24] This trade was concluded very late, as the day before a Proleague teaser for KT Rolster, featuring Life, was released by SPOTV.[25]

Matches & VODs [ edit ]

Wings of Liberty [ edit ]

Lessons about Leenock's Builds [ edit ]

First Person View Match VODS [ edit ]

Trivia [ edit ]

Achievements [ edit ]

Team Achievements

Rivalries [ edit ]

Life [ edit ]

Leenock and Life are both top Korean Zergs that share several qualities. They both have been hailed as teen genius players with Leenock claiming 2011 MLG Providence championship after incredible run through the open bracket (compiled record of 10-0) and championship bracket (20-5) with his only loss coming from DongRaeGu, though the two met again in Championship's Losers' Final and Leenock emerge victorious. At the time Leenock was 16.

Life, on the other hand, has risen to star prominence after winning - in short time frame - both 2012 MLG Fall Championship and 2012 GSL Season 4 - also at the age of 16.

The two players clashed on several occasions. Their first encounter was at the FXOpen KOTH Korea, Week #9 where Life - en route to his impressive 6 win run - beat Leenock in a single match: 1-0. Their next encounter was during IGN ProLeague Season 4 online qualifier, where Life - once again - was victorious, beating Leenock 2-1. The luck has turned during their next match - at 2012 GSL Season 3 Code A where Leenock won easily 2-0.

Their Rivalry peaked during end of the 2012 year. First - Life came back at the 2012 MLG Fall Championship final from the 3-1 deficit to claim the Championship 4-3. Next month, at 2012 GSL Blizzard Cup's semifinal, Life won decisively 3-1.

In 2013 - the two met again in Iron Squid II round of 16. Life emerges victorious once more after a close series 3-2.

The following encounter took place at the 2013 WCS S1 Code S in Group G of Group Stage #1. In first match Leenock managed to get a straight 2-0 victory over Life but couldn't repeat his success again when they met in the loser's match of the group - Life would decisively win 2-0 over Leenock and make his way out of the group.

Their Rivalry as for 2013 was summed up during 2013 GSTL S2 Round 1 where in the team match between FXOpen and Startale, Leenock managed to score a 1-0 win over Life and carried his team to the decider game.

The most recent encounter happened at 2014 DH Open: Bucharest in the Ro16, where Life's dominant Zergling play in the third game of the series put him heavily ahead, and let him finish the series with a 2-1 score.

In total - Life is leading the rivalry 7-3 in matches and 17-13 in sets.

NaNiwa [ edit ]

NaNiwa has had an ongoing rivalry with Leenock, as the two have met each other in the grand finals of a couple tournaments. The first time this happened was during the finals of MLG Providence 2011, where Leenock advanced through the losers bracket to face NaNiwa in a best-of-7 match. NaNiwa, looking to claim his third MLG title, was defeated convincingly by Leenock in a 4-1 sweep however.

NaNiwa met Leenock once again 2 years later, in the finals of 2013 DreamHack Stockholm. NaNiwa already went beyond expectations after upsetting Jaedong in the semifinals, and he looked primed to take his first DreamHack Open against Leenock, in a best-of-5 series. Unfortunately for NaNiwa, he would be denied yet another first-place finish by Leenock this time falling 3-2 to the Korean Zerg player.

Championships [ edit ]

Gallery [ edit ]

Interviews [ edit ]

2017 [ edit ]

2015 [ edit ]

2014 [ edit ]

2013 [ edit ]

2012 [ edit ]

First Person View Match VODS [ edit ]

Statistics [ edit ]

Matchup Statistics

vs vs vs vs Total Record Win% Record Win% Record Win% Record Win% Record Win% as 556 - 346 61.6 % 533 - 407 56.7 % 418 - 338 55.3 % 8 - 0 100 % 1515 - 1091 58.1 % as 1 - 0 100 % 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 4 - 3 57.1 % 5 - 3 62.5 %

Earnings Statistics

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Medal Statistics

Tier Total Premier 4 2 5 11 Major 3 1 3 7 Minor 1 3 6 10 Monthly 0 1 3 4 Weekly 10 10 13 33 Daily 4 2 4 10 Show Match 2 1 0 3 Total 24 20 34 78