Hey guys, couple days ago I read an article on a Vietnamese E-Sports website and came across this one. I had asked a friend of mine to do the full translation of the article and we would like to share this story with all of you! It's a very touching story...
The Story of the blind pro-gamer: Lee Min Seok and the king of starcraft SlayerS_BoxeR
Even though he’s blind, he was still able to become a “pro-gamer”
Born in 1988 Seoul, Korea, Lee Min-Seok had been through some very rough times in his life. Shortly after his birth, he was hospitalized for a long period of time. One day, he lost his eyes due to the level of toxic from the battery from the hospital was given out.
Growing up, Lee was very passionate in playing Blizzard’s games through his friends in school. He was very curious since he never touched a PC before.
“Learning how to play starcraft to me is a very hard thing to do since I do not know what is going on in the screen, but I really wanted to play and have fun with my friends. After some time figuring out the game, finally I was successful” - Lee said in one of his recent interview.
Lee practiced more than any of the pro-gamer in Korea ever did. Learning every unit, sounds, listening to everything on TV that is related to Starcraft, slowly he was able to grasp the concept of the Zerg, Protoss and Terran.
“I am not able to see what the Zerlings look like, but I can tell the sounds of it. From that, I am able to tell what is going on”.
After losing his eyes, his other senses became even stronger. Before his passion in Starcraft, Lee’s hobby was music. When Lee first started playing the game, his mother agreed to let him have fun and socialize with his friends. Lee’s skills grew as each day had passed, his mom was worried that he might be addicted to Starcraft just like most of the younger kids in Korea.
His mom was very understanding, she knew playing Starcraft would not be that bad and that Lee’s probably not going to be able to compete with the other pro-gamers in Korea. The chances of Lee becoming a pro-gamer and earn money is very small. Because of that thinking, his mom wants him to concentrate more on learning the piano and the guitar.
Lee listened to him mom. But if this is it, there is really nothing interesting in this story of the blind Starcraft pro-gamer…
Lee’s reputation was acknowledge since January 1, 2004. In the Blizzard’s World Wide Invitational in Seoul Korea, Lee was invited to a special battle. His opponent isn’t just a player, he’s the King of Starcraft, SlayerS_BoxeR – Lim Yo-Hwan.
BoxeR spawned at the 12:00 position and with his eyes blind folded, it will be hard for him to control his army even though he’s the #1 Starcraft player at that time. On the other hand, Lee spawned at the 6:00 position and is in good form.
When the Zerg’s spawning pool was completed and the vaspene gas is almost ready, Lee was ready to go to Tier 2 (Tech Lair). As you can see, clicking on a unit/structure without seeing is a very hard thing to do, because of that he lost a little time finding certain things. Lee had a very smart strategy, gathering gas fast in the beginning so he can tech Speedlings and Lurkers will help him later on with a varieties of option to select from. During this time, BoxeR had to blind folded himself for 5 minutes, therefore Speedlings are very appropriate in this situation.
Source: esports.vn (the VODS can be found here)