Youngest player to ever win a GSL. Youngest player to ever win a MLG. Youngest player ever in the Top10 of the World Ranking. You simply cannot talk about Starcraft 2 records without mentioning Lee ‚Life‘ Seung Hyun. He has won more prize money in two years than most players will in their lifetime – and just turns 17 years today. Happy Birthday.

Some players beat all the records when it comes to the terms „youngest“ or „first“… so let me count just some of them: [life] is the…

• youngest player to ever win a major title in Korea (2012 GSL season 4)
• youngest player to ever win a MLG Championship (2012 Fall Championship)
• youngest player to ever enter the Top10 of the World Ranking (#7 on January 2013, 15 years and 354 days old)
• third youngest player to ever join a professional Starcraft-team (Team Zenex, March 2011, 15 years old)
• third youngest player to ever compete in a televised match (January 2012, GSTL)
• first Royal Roader in Starcraft II (meaning a rookie winning a GSL or OSL at first participation)
• first player to win two MLG Championship in a row (2012 Fall and 2013 Winter)

Struggling with school

Keep in mind that while doing that, [life] was still attending school in Korea, which sometimes conflicted with his programing career. In the Korean Online Qualifier for Iron Squid Chapter 2 in October 2012, he lost to [brown] 1-4 – but not because of bad play, but because of a „forced shutdown“. By law, korean students under the age of 16 (Life was 15 at that time) are not allowed to compete in online matches from 12am to 6pm. „It’s the law, so what can I say?“, [life] says laughingly. But things are serious: During the Royal Road to his first GSL title in 2012, the young korean was unable to practise most of the time because of school.

Not being able to practise as much as his older colleagues, [life] took Starcraft 2 as spare-time-activity for quite a year after joining Team ZeNEX in 2011. „I used to play the game as a hobby“, [life] says. This changed when ZeNEX merged with Team Startale in 2012. Suddenly, [life] got coaches, strong partners for regular training sessions instead of just playing on korean ladder and a practise schedule. „The coach got me to practise in a structured manner and that definitely made a difference.“

From GSL to MLG: $140.000 in six months

Throughout 2012 Life stressed in interviews the benefits of being in a professional team. His confidence grew along with his skill. Prior to the 2012 GSL Season 4, [life] was already sure to win the title as a rookie. „It’s perfectly possible for me to make it to the finals“, he said at the start of the tournament. And he delivered: When the semi-finals were over, [life] had won 15 matches and lost just 2. [mvp] was the only one that could challenge the young zerg, leading 3:2 in the Best-of-7-final and shaking the confidence of his opponent: „I felt an enormous amount of mental pressure. I had anticipated that I would lose“, [life] said after the set, which he actually won 4:3.

From there on, the youngling was on a streak: From October 2012 to March 2013 he won five major tournaments with a total prize money of $142.300. By today, his total tournament winnings equal about $200.000. During the mentioned time period,
[life] too proved to a magnet for fans: His MLG FInal against [flash] was seen by 140.000 spectators on streams.

Not succesful at WCS

But after winning MLG for the second time in March 2013, [life] disappeared from the award ceremonies for quite some time. Choosing not to go abroad because he loves Korea too much, he has not been succesful in WCS throughout 2013, even got eliminated from Premier League in Season 2. The Zerg made his comeback at Intel Extreme Masters New York in November, winning against [naniwa] in the finals. One month later, he got a silver medal at Dreamhack Winter, losing only to [taeja] in both Winner-Bracket- and Grand Finals with a combined score of 2:6. Nevertheless: Is he fully back now for 2014? „I am not completely sure“, [life] says, „the only way to determine this is if a win another GSL.“