Lee "Flash" Young Ho is a StarCraft progamer from South Korea who played Terran for KT Rolster.

He played Terran in StarCraft II for KT Rolster until 2015 before returning to Brood War on Afreeca in 2016.

Flash is known for his defensive capabilities, decision making, and exceptional macro and unit control of maxed-out armies. Boasting a 70% win rate in every match-up, the longest reign as the #1 ranked player on the KeSPA Ranking system since BoxeR and NaDa, the most Starleague wins of any player tying NaDa – four of them won in a single year, and three of them in which he had defeated Jaedong (who was considered by many to be the best Zerg player in the world) – he is widely considered to be the best StarCraft player of all time. Flash's dominance led him to be included as the fourth member of TaekBangLeeSsang and the fifth Bonjwa. The prize money he won from tournaments in his Brood War career exceeds $500,000 USD.

Biography [ edit ]

KeSPA Era [ edit ]

Drafted by Pantech and Curitel in 2007 and traded off to KTF MagicNs shortly after being drafted, Flash came on to the scene as one of the youngest progamers to be televised at 14 years old. Advancing to the Daum OSL from his first attempt in the offline preliminaries, his career started off in a strong fashion, quickly amassing a winning record in Proleague play and succeeding in getting into both the MSL and OSL. His early notable matches include ones against BoxeR, Bisu, and sAviOr. He became the youngest player to reach the semifinal of the OSL, losing to GGPlay in a series that went to game five. This series is notable for Flash attempting not one, but two 14 CC builds, both on Fantasy in Game One and Five. He subsequently lost both games. Although he put forth strong results, Flash was not a popular player. He was hated for using cheese to eliminate Bisu from the Daum OSL on Monty Hall, and was considered to be a very boring player. It wasn't until later in his career when his genius in relation to economic timings, defensive play, was revealed.

In 2008, Flash's career reached new heights when he defeated Stork in the finals of the 2008 Bacchus OSL and became the youngest Starleague champion ever at 15, defeating top players such as Jaedong and Bisu along the way. It was during this period that he earned his reputation as a TvP master, using his Dual Armory style Flash Build to counter the rampant use of 2 Base Carrier strategies. He also placed first in the GOM Star Invitational, again defeating Stork in the finals as well as Jaedong in the ro8. This was a dramatic turning point in Flash's career as he had previously been criticized for his inability to defend carrier-based builds (shown by his 3rd/4th place match against Stork in the Daum OSL). In the three months after the title win, Flash went on to have one of the most dominant winning sprees in progaming history: achieving a record of 24 wins and 4 losses and tying a Proleague record of 17 straight wins.

Flash stagnated in the year following his OSL victory. While he maintained one of the best Proleague records and consistently beat lesser opponents, he faltered repeatedly in the individual leagues against the very best players. He was knocked out of the GOMTV Classic in seasons 1 and 2 by Jaedong and Bisu respectively, defeated by the 2008 Arena MSL champion fOrGG in the semifinals, and lost in the Avalon MSL to the eventual silver-medalist Kwanro. Though Flash was still known as one of the best Terrans mechanically at this time, his strategies were in question; late turrets against the newer 2 hatchery styles cost him in several leagues, his overuse of 14cc was well known, and Protoss players adapted to his double armory build by rapidly out-expanding him. Nevertheless, he did take gold in Season 3 of the GOM Classic in this period, albeit going through a relatively weaker bracket.

Flash showed remarkable innovations in all his match-ups when the 09-10 season started. When KT failed to qualify for the 08-09 Proleague playoffs, Flash had extra time to reflect on his gameplay. In TvZ, Flash displayed a new pre-lair bionic pressure strategy where he used his initial medic marines to delay Mutalisk harassment and then to deny their third gas. Flash also deviated from the infantry based TvZ lategame; whereas Terrans were often having trouble versus Defiler and Ultralisks in the lategame, Flash fortified his expansions with mass tanks and ended up starving out Zerg. In TvP, Flash also showcased use of fac-cc-fac and 4 factory builds, as well as the mass factory build of iloveoov, all surprising departures from his signature late game double armory build. In TvT, Flash displayed remarkable resilience and went on the longest recorded TvT winning streak.

All these innovations led to Flash dominating the 09-10 season. The season was also notable for the numerous "LeeSsang" games that took place between top players Flash and Jaedong (the name meaning "Two Lees" since both have the last name Lee), a rivalry which Flash came out ahead in. Flash took the 2009 EVER OSL against Movie 3-1, defeating Jaedong 2-0 in the ro8. Flash then lost the 2009 NATE MSL against Jaedong 1-3, which contained some excellent play from both sides but was probably more remembered for the power outage in game three where Jaedong was awarded the win based on his advantageous position. Flash then went on to essentially win the Winner's League for KT, going 22-3 and crushing Sea, Tyson, and Jaehoon in the finals. Flash again advanced to both individual league finals in the spring. In the 2010 Korean Air OSL, he was defeated by the underdog EffOrt 2-3 after being up 2-0, where he displayed weaknesses against EffOrt's early aggression. However, Flash seemed unaffected when several days later he won the Hana Daetoo MSL against Jaedong 3-0, opening 14cc every game. During May 2010, Flash showed some weakness in Ace matches, going 0-5 in them during round 5 of the SPL. However, over the entire year Flash accumulated the most wins in Proleague and helped KT maintain first in the team rankings; Flash also won the final set in the Proleague finals against Hyuk to give the team its first Proleague gold. Flash yet again fought his way into both the Korean Air OSL Season 2 and the Bigfile MSL finals, both against his rival Jaedong. In the MSL, Flash took a close 3-2 victory using several unorthodox timing attacks. For the OSL, the two clashed in Shanghai, China. Jaedong used a burrowed Zergling trap which Flash didn't fall for in game 1, and then surprisingly attempted two four pools in a row, the first of which succeeded. In game 4, Jaedong tried an unorthodox lurker drop which Flash defended to take the series 3-1. Flash thus became the second player after Nada to claim dual individual league golds, and the first player to be in 6 consecutive MSL and OSL finals. He had also defeated his biggest rival Jaedong in 3 consecutive finals. Although Flash placed second in WCG Korea 2010 in which Jaedong took first, Flash was the victor in the WCG 2010 Grand Finals where he defeated both Kal and Jaedong.

In the 10-11 season, Flash has not enjoyed the same degree of success. Although he continues to dominate Proleague, he had two surprising setbacks when he was eliminated from both the 2011 PDPop MSL by rookies Ssak and Classic, and from the 2010 Bacchus OSL in the group stage by Kal and Hyuk. In January interviews, Flash admitted he had been suffering from RSI in his wrist but was optimistic about recovery. However, Flash has since regained his aura of dominance by helping carry his team through SWL 2011, and most recently, winning the 2011 ABC Mart MSL. His road to the championship included going through the Group of Death with Jaedong, Bisu and Sea, trouncing defending champion Hydra in the Ro4 to reach the final where Flash defeated ZerO to earn his 3rd MSL title. With this victory Flash has tied NaDa in terms of league titles, being the 2nd progamer in history to have six titles and to possess both the Golden Mouse and Golden Badge. He also led KT Rolster in the SPL playoffs, starting at the bottom of the playoff ladder. After defeating Woongjin Stars, Samsung Khan, and CJ Entus respectively, KT Rolster faced SK Telecom T1 in the finals for the second year in a row. After starting off the series down 1-3, Flash defeated BeSt on Fortress SE to bring the series to 2-3. After Stats beat n.Die_soO on Empire of the Sun, Flash played BeSt in the ace match on Circuit Breakers. After a tense 25 minutes, Flash emerged victorious to give KT Rolster their second SPL Championship in a row.

For the first half of the 2011-2012 season, FlaSh continued to show his dominance in the SPL. However, after reaching yet another finals appearance, once again facing SK Telecom T1, Flash could not pull through. He first lost to Fantasy on Ground Zero, then lost to Bisu in the ace match on Outlier. For the second half of the 2011-2012 season, Flash is currently playing in the 2012 Tving OSL. He advanced from the Dual Tournament to qualify for the Round of 16, where he moved on from a bottom-rung tiebreaker against his teammate Action, and Bogus. In the Round of 8, despite a regame in game 2 where he was in an advantageous position (he won the regame), he convincingly won against Shine 3-1. The semifinals was against the runner-up of the Jin air OSL, Fantasy. Hyped up as the clash of the titans and the last OSL Brood War TvT, the game attracted quite a bit of attention. However, the results were lopsided, where Flash was swept 0-3, ending his run.

On December 1st, 2015, Flash retired from StarCraft II.[1]

Over 2 months later, on February 14, 2016, AfreecaTV announced that Flash would be streaming Brood War again on February 21.[2]

Post-KeSPA Era [ edit ]

Flash's return to Brood War started with the 2016 Sino-Korean Carnival where he defeated Bisu in the finals 3-2. He then returned to his first off-line tournament at the Afreeca Starleague Season 1. Hyped to be the best player at the tournament, his run started in the Round of 16 after qualifying in Seoul, Korea. His group was dubbed the "Group of Death" with other top players like Mind, ZerO, and Sea. He escaped the group with a record of 2-1, defeating ZerO and Mind while dropping a game to Sea. Unfortunately, his tournament run ended in the Round of 8 where he lost to Last, 3-0, who he had dubbed to be the "AlphaGo" of Terran.

After the ASL, Flash continued to practice hard on the Fish ladder, as well as holding high win-rates in the "balloon matches" on Afreeca where players would bet balloons (AfreecaTV currency) on games. He made his next tournament return in the Nal_rA Starleague where he defeated the likes of Sea, Bisu, and Mind to win the tournament. Flash then competed in the Afreeca Starleague Season 2, earning the championship while defeating Sea, 3-1, in the finals. His road involved qualifying through the Seoul Qualifiers, defeating Terror and Soulkey in the Round of 24, defeating Sea and Movie in the Round of 16, defeating GuemChi 3-1 in the Round of 8, and Jaedong 3-2 in the Semifinals.

Following his strong performance in ASL2, Flash was seeded automatically in the Round of 16 in the Afreeca Starleague Season 3. From there he would display a convincing set of TvZs, defeating HyuN and Shine to advance without a loss. Flash's Round of 8 opponent was Last, the Terran who denied him in the Round of 8 in ASL1. Revenge would be sweet, as Flash swept Last 3-0 in a series of matches displaying Flash's expertise of the match-up. His next opponent would be Soulkey, who pushed Flash to the brink in a fifth match. A timely Scanner Sweep detected Soulkey's morphing Guardians in the final game, giving Flash the information to counter them and secure his spot in the finals. His last challenger was Shine, the Bag of Builds who displayed an impressive array of build orders catching even the best players off guard. Flash was not deterred, defending against Shine's unorthodox Lurker build on Circuit Breaker, and showed his preparation and skill in the next two games. Flash would then take his second trophy in the post-KeSPA era.

Style [ edit ]

Flash epitomizes the well-rounded StarCraft player, combining strategic versatility, decision making, and mechanics. During his early years in the StarCraft progaming scene, Flash often preferred strong late game macro-oriented builds, and excelled in defensive play. His strategy of getting quick upgraded Goliaths for defense and offense was once his signature move against Protoss, especially when Carriers are brought into play. Since 2009 he has showcased a number of aggressive and unorthodox builds. Sometimes Flash has been criticized for using risky strategies such as 14cc or Valkyrie builds against opponents his standard play would likely suffice for, but this makes him even more unpredictable in the long run. Although Flash was originally known for having superb macro mechanics, he is not a particularly fast player (APM in the low 300s). Rather, Flash's decision making is a more pressing reason why many players try not to get into a protracted macro game with him. Flash's timing, builds, and ability to detect cheese all reflect a deep understanding of the game. To quote iloveoov, "I think he has the ideal mindset as a Progamer that I've been thinking about. There aren't many players who set strategic moves, and in the case of Flash, I think he's looking about 10 games ahead." Flash is notorious for staging comebacks where his opponents will gain a seemingly insurmountable advantage but then fall apart. These aspects of Flash's play, coupled with his outstanding micromanagement, make him a dangerously unpredictable opponent, and have even led to his play being lauded by many as 'godlike'.

TvZ [ edit ]

Flash popularized the +1 5 Rax build to great effectiveness against Zerg. Counter developed against it have had mixed effectiveness. The build takes advantage of solid macro and effective anti-Mutalisk micro from Flash, which causes many Zerg to be overwhelmed by the amount of Marines and control over said units. Flash's mech transition is also highly effective, as his extremely high APM allows him to simultaneously control his MnM force to roam the map while his Vultures do work to set up corridors of Spider Mines to halt any Zerg counterpush in the late game.

TvT [ edit ]

Flash's TvT reached a remarkable 22 game winning streak at one point[citation needed]. He dominates the early game with superior micro to gain small incremental advantages to make use of his mid-game decision making. He uses effective Tank micro and pushes to break opponent Tank lines alongside potent Vulture micromanagement. In the late-game, Flash relies on his air control and ability to defend against enemy pushes, using strong control of both the ground and the air.

TvP [ edit ]

In the early game, Flash's Marine control counters early Zealot attacks. His mid-game can see powerful 4-6 Factory pushes that sometimes end games outright if not severely cripple the Protoss. Proper vulture control with good mine placement and intelligent tank micro allow him to push the Protoss back. In the late-game, Flash's Double Armory (vs. Protoss) build is very effective against the Protoss forces. Flash is effective at splitting his army into smaller forces to attack multiple Protoss bases before they are able to regroup. Effectively damaging the economy of the Protoss, Flash is often able to remacro a large enough force to end the game.

Facts [ edit ]

The Flash face is a common meme on the TL forums.

Notorious for using a ruler to measure the exact position of his keyboard and mousepad in the gaming booth table.

Flash holds the longest winning streak for both TvT (22 wins) and TvP (13 wins) in rated KeSPA matches.

Flash was the top-ranked Terran player on KESPA from March 2008 through August 2009, and then from October 2009 to July 2012.

Flash has the same name as his former teammate Lucifer and defeated him 2-0 during the Averatec Intel Classic Season 1.

Flash is the most successful player in the history of progaming in terms of qualification. He qualified for the OSL on his first attempt in the offline preliminaries. He has qualified for every single OSL Round of 16 since the start of his career and up until Batoo Starleague, every Round of 8 as well. Flash qualified for the MBCGame Survivor Tournament on his second attempt in the offline preliminaries. Flash has qualified for the Round of 32 of every MSL since then.

Flash earned the award for "Most Wins in Proleague" four times: in the 2008 Shinhan Bank Proleague, 2008–2009 Shinhan Bank Proleague, 2009–2010 Shinhan Bank Proleague and 2011–2012 Proleague Season 1.

Flash is the only player who defeated Jaedong on Katrina and Katrina SE, dealing him all 3 of his losses.

Flash has the highest Elo rating record of all time. He broke the Elo record six consecutive times.

Flash is the only player to have an Elo peak in the 2400s.

Flash had a 12 game win streak in TvZ games, spanning from the start of Round 1 of the 09-10 Proleague until partway through Round 2. His streak was broken by Hyun in a Proleague match between MBCGame HERO and KT Rolster.

Flash holds the highest KESPA Point record ever, with 4,292.5 points in September 2010.

Flash is the second player in history to win both individual leagues at the same time after NaDa in 2003.

Flash is the first player in history to reach both individual league finals 3 times in a row.

Flash is the fourth player in history to receive the Golden Mouse after NaDa, July, and Jaedong; he is the fifth to win the Golden Badge after NaDa, iloveoov, sAviOr and Bisu. He is the second player, after NaDa, to have won both.

Flash has been labeled as the 5th Bonjwa in Korea, with his latest dual starleague win, as well as with being to the finals of 7 major tournaments in a row (3 OSL, 3 MSL and WCG Korea), winning 4 of them.

According to TLPD, Flash is currently the only player with a winrate greater than 70% in all of his match-ups.

After his 2010 achievements, Flash was nicknamed God Young-Ho by Korean fans.

Flash has also acquired the nickname "Final Boss" due to KT usually fielding him as their last player during Winner's League and his strong record in that role.

Flash is the second player (after Jaedong) to win a Premier tournament in both Brood War and StarCraft 2.

Flash received a golden ruler after winning his third ASL championship, aswell as a golden trophy for winning three consecutive ASL championships.

Flash is the first player in the history of Brood War to win 4 seasons of the same Premier tournament, winning his fourth ASL championship in Season 8.

Flash has only lost to four players in an ASL elimination series, those four players being Last, Snow, EffOrt, and ZerO in ASL seasons 1, 5, 6, and 9 respectively.

Matchup Statistics [ edit ]

Matchup Games Wins Losses Winrate vs P 325 235 90 72.3 % vs T 237 174 63 73.4 % vs Z 335 238 97 71 % All 897 647 250 72.1 %

Accomplishments [ edit ]

Succession [ edit ]

Rivalries [ edit ]

vs. Jaedong [ edit ]

During Flash's sudden rise to stardom, he ended up facing Jaedong in three separate Ro8s within one month of each other: the Bacchus OSL 2008, the Gom Star Invitational, and the GOMTV MSL S4. Jaedong won the MSL series (which was a Bo5 compared to a Bo3 as the others were) in four games and went on to win that league. Flash won the other two series in the final set and ended up winning both leagues. In the period afterwards, both were considered the two best players in the world and the only players that could beat one another. The two finally met again in the finals of the GomTV TG-Intel Classic S1. The series was hyped up to be one of the greatest clashes of top players in the history of StarCraft, but the series was one-sided with Jaedong defeating Flash 3-0.

The next time Flash and Jaedong met in the final of a tournament was the 2009 Nate MSL. The Nate MSL was best known for its power outage incident, where an extremely close game 3 between the two was interrupted because of a power blackout. The referees proceeded to give Jaedong the win based on the Zerg player's advantage, and the series subsequently went to him as well. Afterwards, Flash made an amazing reversal of the matchup, defeating Jaedong in the next 3 finals they meet in 2010. He won 3-0, 3-2, 3-1 in the Hana Daetoo Securities MSL, Bigfile MSL and Korean Air OSL Season 2 respectively. In 2011 when both players began to show dips in their form, Flash lost four consecutive games to Jaedong, making their record 25-24 in Flash's favor.

According to the two players' interviews, they are good friends with each other, and both players have stated several times that they think of each other as their primary rivals, though the rivalry is friendly and they each often express deep admiration for the other's talent.

After their retirement from professional gaming, Flash met Jaedong again in the Afreeca Starleague Season 2, where Flash would prevail 3-2.

vs. Stork [ edit ]

Flash and Stork have met each other many times in Starleagues. Stork initially dominated their confrontations, only losing to him once in the first six games they played against each other (Flash lost to Stork three times in the Daum OSL and lost to him in the Ro8 of the EVER2007 OSL). In March 2008 the two met in two different finals within two weeks: The Gom Star Invitation and the Bacchus OSL 2008. In the Gom Star Invitation Flash defeated Stork in the fifth set, and then completely dominated Stork in the Bacchus 07/08 OSL 3-0 in the second shortest OSL final ever. This was the shortest finals until YellOw[ArnC] vs Jaedong in the Bacchus OSL 2009 (where Jaedong dominated YellOw[ArnC] 3-0). Their overall record stands tied 10-10.

vs. Bisu [ edit ]

Flash's first BoX victory against Bisu was in the Daum OSL and it was notable for the amount of Cheese Flash used against Bisu. Three months later, Bisu got his revenge and beat Flash twice in the GOMTV MSL Season 3 Round of 32. Flash then played an arguably perfect TvP game in his 3-1 victory in the semifinals of the Bacchus 07/08 OSL defeating Bisu. Since then Bisu and Flash have met very rarely with Flash defeating Bisu twice in the same day in Group D of the 2011 ABC Mart MSL Ro32, and Flash is currently ahead in head-to-heads at 14-10. Bisu beat Flash in the ace game of the 2011-2012 Proleague Season 1 finals to win SK Telecom T1 the title of the last Brood War Proleague.

Statistics [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Notable Games [ edit ]

TvT [ edit ]

TvZ [ edit ]

TvP [ edit ]

All-Kills in Winners League [ edit ]

Shinhan Bank Winners League 08–09 — vs. Hwaseung OZ:

Shinhan Bank Winners League 2010 — vs. SK Telecom T1:

Shinhan Bank Winners League 2011 — vs. WeMade FOX:





Gallery [ edit ]

Interviews [ edit ]

References [ edit ]



