Greatest Gamer of all Time: Round 2, Game 2

BoxeR

Name: Lim Yo-Hwan
Clan(s): SlayerS, Orion

PROFILE

Which gaming scene has the most progamers? Which progamers put in the most time? Which progamers have wages and annual contracts? Which progamers are recognised when they walk down the street, and cause queues of autograph hunters to form? Which progamers appear on national TV, in the news, in commercials and in lifestyle shows?

South Korea has dozens of Starcraft professionals, and has done for over five years now. In a country that has two TV stations dedicated to the game, where school children everywhere know the players, and where finals have been known to draw 8,000 people to watch the game - LIVE - which player has dominated the scene for four years and is still going strong?

Lim Yo-Hwan, a.k.a SlayerS_'BoxeR' has a fan club with 100,000 members. He has won more televised tournaments than most the people in this competition have attended LANs. He has a regular wage that is several times the national average, and more income from endorsements and tournament prizes than I care to calculate. He has won two World Cyber Games in a row, written books, used his name to help sell chocolate - is there anyone else on this poll who has done even half as much?

However, it's dominating arguably the most popular competitive online game - there are more people on battle.net with Starcraft than there are with Warcraft 3 or on a Counter-Strike server at the moment - against scores of other professionals, that makes Boxer the most deserving recipient of this award. Voting against him just because you haven't heard of him until today, or because he doesn't play Quake, would be an admission that skill or influence on the world of gaming is being ignored.
Grrrr...

Name: Guillaume Patry
Clan(s): AMD

PROFILE

At the WCGC, when all the players were using the on-site practice/internet access room during the games, a queue started to form. Eventually snaking around half the room, it was composed of Korean children on a school trip, waiting for an autograph from French-Canadian professional Starcraft player, Grrr… One of the first professional gamers, Guillaume Patry moved to Korea five years ago to play Starcraft for a living. He won dozens of tournaments in the first couple of years, and is still a force to be reckoned with, as one of only two western pro-gamers who can honestly say they have a chance at winning things.

It’s a measure of his popularity and success that he appeared on a TV show where a celebrity does a job completely out of their normal way of life for a week, with the cameras following them. He thatched roofs for a week and got the biggest ever audience figures.

With endorsements, a book, scores of tournaments wins, one of the most lucrative contracts, and celebrity, what gamer has been more successful? When you consider that he led the way for not just other Western gamers to play Starcraft, but also influenced tens or hundreds of thousands of Koreans in the way they play, practice and compete at the game, it’s hard to imagine how any other gamer could beat Grrrr… in this poll.

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