Moon (gamer)
moon | |
---|---|
WeMade FOX | |
2012 | Fnatic |
Career highlights and awards | |
Korean name | |
Hangul | 장재호 |
Revised Romanization | Jang Jae-ho |
McCune–Reischauer | Chang chaeho |
Jang Jae-ho (known as spirit_moon or moon) is a South Korean professional gamer of the popular Blizzard
Professional gaming career
Korean Champion
After
World Champion
Known for his innovative strategies, fans nicknamed Jang Jae-ho "Fantasista". After the release of The Frozen Throne he developed into the dominating player of the Korean WarCraft III scene (which he is considered still today). Few major Korean competitions concluded in 2004 (aside from several qualifiers for international tournaments only the MBC Daum Prime League IV). Jang Jae-ho qualified for the 2004 World Cyber Games global finals, meaning he would make his first international appearance.
He was considered the insider favorite for the tournament which took place in San Francisco, California. He was stopped by his countryman Tae Min "Zacard" Hwang in the round of 16 however, considered a major upset since Jang Jae-ho had an unbeaten televised record versus Hwang Tae-min's race of choice, Orc.
Upon his return to Korea he progressed to the last stages of the
He went undefeated in the first season of the World e-Sports Games, beating names as
The league was followed intensely by WarCraft III fans around the globe and fully established Jang Jae-ho as a gaming icon. Around the same time he won MBCGame Prime League V and became the runner-up of the 2004–2005 Ongamenet War3 TFT Invitational, losing to Korean prodigy
Throughout the rest of 2005 he would win the second season of the World e-Sports Games beating Kim Dong "Gostop" Moon in the grand finals, the MBCGame Warcraft League and several tournaments in China. His winnings in the year were approximately US$83,000 which was by then the largest sum won by any player throughout a year in WarCraft III.
He also signed with the Korean company Pantech & Curitel during this time, representing them in leagues.
During these events a "rivalry" was created between him and Dutch professional gamer
As they dominated different circuits they did not meet in any off-line matches throughout the 2005 year . Despite several online matches the rivalry was not resolved during this time as Jang Jae-ho was perceived as having a "racial advantage" with his Night Elf vs. Manuel Schenkhuizen's Orc.
2006 Slump
By late 2005 Jang Jae-ho's results weakened, he was eliminated from the second group stage of the World e-Sports Games in the longest tie-breaker (for second place) of the series history which included him, Korean professional gamer Jae Wook "Lucifer" Noh and Swedish professional gamer Kim "SaSe" Hammar.
He signed with Danish professional competitive gaming team MeetYourMakers in February 2006.
He was considered the favorite for the masters of the World e-Sports Games, which took place April 21 – May 3, 2006 in Hangzhou, China. This eight player invitational saw all top two finishers of previous seasons return, and invited a number of players considered the world's strongest at the time.
He went undefeated through the group stages of the tournament, beating French professional gamer
Jang Jae-ho lost the match 1–3, which was considered an upset but not totally out of the realm of possibilities as a patch by Blizzard Entertainment as well as strategic adaption to Jang Jae-ho's playing style had made the Night Elf vs. Orc match-up more balanced. He subsequently lost the match for fourth place vs. Xiaofeng Li 2–3, a match widely anticipated by fans as Xiaofeng Li's World Cyber Games victory made him Jang Jae-ho's main WarCraft III rival in Asia.
After that he went through an extended dry spell in tournaments in what is termed a "slump". The professional Korean WarCraft III scene was in decline and Jang Jae-ho had to drop out of the only televised league the country had in the year, MBCGame International League, because it conflicted with the World e-Sports Games.
He did not qualify for any individual international tournament but did have success in team competitions. He was a key factor in Meet Your Makers victory of WarCraft III's most prominent professional team leagues, WarCraft 3 Champions League and the NGL One Professional league. His dry spell ended in October 2006 when he won Global Gaming League's Digital life in New York City, New York, picking up US$5,000. He went on to do well in a series of televised show matches in South Korea, beating Manuel Schenkhuizen 2–0 in a US$10,000 match in the Korean "SuperFight" series.
Manuel Schenkhuizen commented afterward:
"I think the old Moon, the Moon from 2005 is back."
In December he was invited to International Electronic Sports Tournament in
2007 Domination
It was reported February 2007 that Jang Jae-ho had extended his contract with Meet Your Makers for a year with a US$10,000 monthly salary.[4]
Building on his strong run towards the end of 2006, 2007 looked to be Jang Jae-ho's strongest year yet. He has so far this year defended his MBC Game World War title four times, which is a televised series of show matches in South Korea paying out US$10,000 to a seasonal champion.
He won the biggest amount of prize money ever turned out in a WarCraft III competition in
2008 Legendary Status
Jang Jae-ho started his year with a second-place finish in the Chinese tournament, PGL behind the upcoming Chinese human player TH000. He then went on to win the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational beating at this time the world's best Orc player Lyn in a best 2 out of 3 sets series. The next week he won his second title of the year the
With the tides turning in racial balance even Moon himself admitted that "Orc was imba",[5] but he has fought on becoming one of the only Night Elf players still able to withstand the apparently inevitable Orcish monopoly. However his legendary status not only extends to his playing style but also for the content of his character, known and respected for being humble despite his level of stardom, and even revealed he still lives with his grandmother despite international success.[6]
However, ESNation licensed the franchise rights for all MeetYourMakers teams to Frontspawn ApS,
Switch to StarCraft II
Moon started playing Starcraft II competitive following its release, but it was only after his switch recruitment to
Awards
Won
- 2008 Esports Award Best Warcraft 3 Player
- 2008 ESports Award Korea Player of the Year
- 2007 KeSPA Greatest WarCraft III Player Award
- 2007 GGL Warcraft 3 Player of the Year
- 2006 KeSPA Greatest WarCraft III Player Award
- 2005 KeSPA Greatest WarCraft III Player Award
Nominated
- 2007 ESports Award Best Warcraft 3 Player
- 2006 GGL Warcraft 3 Player of the Year
- 2006 Gosugamers GosuGamer of the Year
- 2006 ESports Award Best Warcraft 3 Player
- 2005 ESports Award eSports Player of the Year
- 2005 ESports Award Best Warcraft 3 Player
References
- ^ "WarCraft III" – http://weblogs.hollanddoc.nl/beyondthegame/heroes/ Archived October 26, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ nedro (March 8, 2014). "Legendary WCIII player Moon retires". Mineski. Retrieved December 21, 2014.
- ^ "Moon's Comeback: Talk Show and Showmatch at Midnight (KST) Dec 11". Reddit. December 9, 2015. Retrieved December 10, 2015.
- ^ 1on1-Markus "Army" Stefanko – part 1 – Brightcove[permanent dead link]
- ^ Athens: Moon says Orc is Imba – SK Gaming
- ^ 1on1 interview with Jang Jae "Moon" Ho – SK Gaming
- ^ ESNation turns MYM into a franchise Archived February 21, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Goodbye and Thank you MYM Archived February 20, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Ciara completes MYMs roster Archived February 21, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Moon in WeMade Fox
- ^ Shields, Duncan (December 17, 2012). "fnatic officially adds Moon". SK Gaming.
- ^ Qualifier List for Day 2 of GSL Open 2 Preliminaries
- ^ Intel Extreme Masters 5 Results
- ^ Moon's NASL Profile Archived June 5, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Home - ESL". May 20, 2022.