[NOTE: I do not claim credit for this translation, that is all thanks to BinaryStar and Marencielo. The original site on which it was hosted is no longer live and this is exists only to preserve it for the future. The biography was published in 2004]



Foreword: Progamer Lim Yohwan, The E-sports icon

The addition of e-sports organizations to major companies, with spectators in the hundreds of thousands, and the advance of e-sports led by the government, is a phenomenon that displays our country’s blooming vision of e-sports. The vital function to this e-sports renaissance is the PC game known as Starcraft. Since its first appearance to the world in April 1998, it has kept its throne for over 6 years among many other PC, online, and arcade games. Aided by the increase of PC cafes and their mutual benefits, with 6 million copies of the game sold in our country alone, and over 10 million users which is enough to reach the Guinness Book of Records, it has received nationwide affection.



E-Sports, with the representation of Starcraft, has increasingly expanded its territory and created at least 200,000 related occupations, completely rejuvenating the related industries. Moreover, it has had extensive effects socially, economically, and culturally, enough for professional gaming to be the youth’s most desired occupation. The person who has played a crucial role in intensifying such love for Starcraft is the progamer Lim Yohwan.



Receiving affection from the fans and media, which could be considered as the most important factor to e-sports, Lim Yohwan, with the thorough mentality of a professional as his foundation, has imprinted on the minds of the public through his sincere games that progamers are not “game-addicts without any prudence,” but “hard-working professionals.”



The unrelenting efforts of Lim Yohwan that are placed in this book vividly portray the movement and evolution of our country’s e-sports. Furthermore, by uncovering a realistic view of the spectacular progamers, I believe that the book acts as a compass to the youth, telling them what they need to keep in mind if they are to realize their dreams of becoming progamers.



As a fellow e-sports member, I would like to again congratulate the publication of this book, and hope that through it many people will be able to have the correct understanding of e-sports and progamers.

October 2004

Korea E-Sports Association President

Kim Yungman



I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.



Every time I read Frost’s poem ‘The Road Not Taken,’ I feel a twinge in one side of my heart. Six years after my transformation from the ‘Internet Café bum’ to a ‘progamer,’ I look back at myself from where I am now more and more often. I look back at the road that I took, quietly examining the footsteps I left behind. As there are footsteps that lead in one direction, there are also interrupted ones. These footsteps make me think with satisfaction, ‘I’ve walked many difficult paths.’ At the same time, I also feel traces of altruism when I think, ‘I’d like the footsteps I left to be someone’s guiding light when he is lost.’



That satisfaction and altruism made me mature as a ‘progamer.’ When I first began playing, I played only for myself. Like a 100m sprinter who only looks forward, becoming the champion was my only and final goal. I could not even hear the voices of my fans, my unwavering supporters. Then, one day, I realized that the satisfaction that I took pride in was planted there by the people cheering me on for taking ‘the road not taken,’ that the ones who did not leave but watched silently, even if I lost, were the ‘guides’ who encouraged me to keep going down the road as a ‘progamer…’ Now I play for the ones who enjoy my games, the ones who come to watch my games. Maybe this is why I try even harder to do my best than when I ‘only played for myself.’



Through this book, I want to convey how someone worthless like me was able to stand up to the world; my own ‘dreams and hopes’ that I never gave up even when everyone ignored me. I want to share my bloody tears with those who cry because the road they chose was too difficult, or those that gave up their dreams to take the road that was a little easier.



-From autumn’s doorstep in 2004

-Lim Yohwan

CRAZY AS ME

Chapter 1: The Game-Crazed Kid

Cutie and rascal, my two childhood nicknames.

When my bright round eyes and thick lips harmoniously created a million dollar smile, the neighborhood adults couldn’t handle the cuteness. If only I could have remained a cutie. I wonder how upset my parents were since I didn’t study and was mad about games. Still, mesmerized by gaming, I couldn’t trade it for all the world and gave it all of my teen years.

Chapter 2: Birth of a Progamer

I cannot forget the day when the title ‘Progamer’ was added to my name.

On the day I freed myself from their cynical words of ‘Internet Café bum,’ I came to a resolution – to become the greatest progamer. I chose Terran, which was treated as worthless by others, took the dropship, which was considered inferior because of its slow speed, and made it my weapon, developing it and practicing with it over and over again.

Chapter 3: The Hidden Passion Explodes

During middle and high school, the worthless me narrowly escaped being last in class, so even I wonder how I am able to practice gaming everyday and became so attached to victory. Like someone once said, ‘Passion is talent; its accumulation becomes ability,’ my passion that burns for games may perhaps be the answer. The passion that I myself do not understand – dragged by its fearsome strength I challenge myself again today.

Chapter 4: A Period of Loss

That day when I became 24, I realized that the priorities in my life had reversed.

During my 20s, when I should be traveling and meeting with friends, I had already established my life’s goals and was striving towards it, as though I was in my 30s.

Blindly aiming for that goal as ‘the best progamer,’ it was until that day when my life suddenly felt empty, that I was born as a young man in my 20s.

Chapter 5: I Will Not Stop

From where I stand presently, I do not know whether it is the period in which Lim Yohwan has passed, as people say, or whether it is still the period of Lim Yohwan that has not yet passed. But, today as well as tomorrow, I will continue to play, I will analyze how to win, and I will practice again and again. Until that day when my heart stops beating…

Chapter 6: Dreaming of a Progamer in his 30s

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

– From Frost’s ‘The Road Not Taken’

I had resolved to take the path that none had taken.

With all the endurance and passion until now that fought the prejudice against games, I will be walking down the path of a progamer in his 30s that none has walked before.