Lee Jae Dong is the most succesful E-Sports-player ever, earned more than $500.000 in prize money, would play Starcraft 3 at the age of 35, likes California and „Les Miserables“ and turns 24 years today. Happy Birthday to one of the greatest Starcraft2-players out there.

When [jaedong] joined Team Plus in 2005 as his first professional step, he was just 16 years old, but playing Broodwar since he first saw it as a 5th-grader at a friends house. Despite his age he turned the Broodwar-world upside down. His debut in February 2006 marked the start of an astonishingly succesful first season which ended with a „Rookie-of-the-year“-award for the Zerg-player.

Seven major-titles, six KeSPA-awards

Just one year later, [jaedong] was on the top of his play: When 2007 ended, Koreans association for professional gamers, KeSPA, awarded him with four more awards: „Player of the Year“, „Best Player in the World“, „Best Winning Percentage“ and „Best Zerg-player“ – though [jaedong] stated at the ceremony that „i was in a bad condition during the beginning of the 2007 season.“ Nevertheless he had won his first major title at OSL claiming about $20.000 in prize money. Two more OSL-titles followed in later years, earning him a „golden mouse“ for three OSL-wins – an achievement only met by [nada] und [july] before and [flash] later. During his Broodwar-career, [jaedong] accumulated seven major titles, including MBC and WCG, two more KeSPA-awards and is up to now one of only two players with a career record of winning more than two thirds of their professional matches.

Hard transition from Broodwar to Starcraft 2

With that much success as baggage, [jaedong] switched to Starcraft 2 in 2012. His ambitions were clear: „I will be Number One“, he claimed in an interview during his first great appearance at an american MLG-tournament for KeSPA-players. But the way to the top in Starcraft 2 proved to be a hard one: „It’s very difficult to adjust myself to the easier interface and different play styles“, [jaedong] said half an year later. The hard transition from Broodwar affected his tournament performances: It took the Zerg until early 2013 to finally win his first trophy at HyperX 10-Year Anniversary Tournament.

Part of that is due to a team change: In December 2012, [jaedong] joined Evil Geniuses, meeting a different culture in training: „In Korea every team has coaches and a tight schedule“, the korean explains, „now every player has to care for himself – but i am very good at that.“ In fact, he copes that good with the new situation that he is one of the few former KeSPA-players to have success at Starcraft 2 as well, though he lacked a major title until December 2013, when winning ASUS ROG NorthCon in Germany and earning $10.000.

A month ago he was the runner-up of WCS Global Finals, which earned him another $45.000. What makes this so special is the fact that he overtook former Quaker-player Fatal1ty and his former Broodwar-mate [flash] in tournament winnings, becoming the most succesful eSports-player ever with roughly $500.000 earned in tournaments.A milestone for [jaedong]? „I don’t care that much about all the winnings, i rather enjoy having so many fans that cheer for me.“

Besides Gaming: California, Hamburger and Amanda Seyfried

The korean frequently points out how important his fans are to him. He even declares them as responsible for the fact he mastered the transition to Starcraft 2: „I enjoy the game and meeting my fans“, he says, giving autographs in trains and shaking hands in winning ceremonies. Back in Korea, [jaedong] used to have a large fanbase too, though mainly consisting of male fans: „I sometimes get fan-mail from male fans“, he says – just when he spoke to teammates about it he realized that this is something special. „I don’t even think there was ever a progamer around me that said that he received letters from male fans“, says his friend [bisu]. But girls get wild about [jaedong] too: At the end of 2012 he sold his keyboard at an auction at a charity event, two of his female fans bid for it until one bought it for about $250.

Meanwhile, [jaedong] has adapted to Western culture. When asked about his favorite place to travel to, he names California. Why? The korean likes to eat Hamburger in the sun, unlike players like [taeja] or [hero] who tend to bring Korean food to foreign events. And besides gaming, he is a great fan of Hollywood movies, especially Inception and Les Miserables (because of Amanda Seyfried).

Among all the awards and winnings during his career in the past eight years, the now 24-year-old faced a rather new honor just recently: Forbes magazine named him one of the „30 prodigies under 30 years“ in games, along with Oculus-Rift-CEO Palmer Luckey and Halo-producer Jessie Coombs. So how long does [jaedong] want to continue his success story? „I probably gonna play Starcraft 3 when it comes out – even if i am 35 by then. Why not?“