Flash (gamer)

Lee joined KT Rolster in 2007 at the age of 14.[3] He quickly established himself as a top player, carrying KT in the Proleague team competition and achieving fourth place in the 2007 Daum OnGameNet Starleague.[4] The following year, he won the Bacchus OnGameNet Starleague,[4] becoming the youngest player to win a premier Korean tournament - a record still unbroken. His career arose to new heights in the 2009-10 season, when he reached the finals of seven premier tournaments - every one held that season - and won five. Three of those victories were against Lee Jae-dong, a famous rival of Lee Young-ho and the second-best player of the time. These achievements have cemented him as one of the greatest players of all time.[5]

When he first emerged as a professional gamer, Lee received criticism for his use of gimmicky "rush" strategies. However, he soon developed a versatile and well-rounded play style which revolved around strong mechanics, defensive play, and exemplary late-game army control. Choi Yeon-sung has praised Lee's strategic depth, saying that "there aren't many players who set strategic moves, and in the case of [Lee], I think he's looking about 10 games ahead."[6] Lee is famous for coming back in games where he was at seemingly insurmountable disadvantages by playing defensive and exploiting small mistakes in his opponents' play to regain the advantage.[7]

Lee Young-ho set numerous records in StarCraft: Brood War professional competition. He has both the highest career win-lose ratio and highest peak ELO of any player, at 71.74%[8] and 2443[9] respectively. He has won six OnGameNet Starleague (OSL) and MBCGame StarCraft League (MSL) tournaments (a record shared by only one other player), and won four of those in twelve months (a record unmatched).[5] He has also won the most games in the Proleague competition and has done so with the highest win-lose ratio of any player.[10]

Lee Young-ho announced his retirement on December 1, 2015.[11] He subsequently returned playing Starcraft: Brood War, and started his personal broadcast in February 2016 in Afreeca (personal broadcasting platform).[1] Lee would go on to win the Afreeca Season 2 Starleague later that year.

In 2017, Lee competed in the Afreeca Season 3 Starleague and won first place.[12]

In 2017, Lee won the ' Golden Trophy ' for three straight seasons in ASL alone. At the Olympic Stadium in Hanyang University, Seongdong-gu, Seoul on Friday, Lee defeated Cho Il-jang at 3:1 in the final match of KT GiGA Internet Afreeca Star League (ASL) season 4. He won the championship three times in a row. Lee won a substantial amount of money by achieving a milestone that he failed to make during his career as a professional gamer. Lee Young-ho hit the 100 million won accumulated in ASL alone.[13]

In 2018, in the finals of the "Olleh TV Afreeca TV Star League (ASL) Season 6", Lee was defeated by Kim Jung-woo (Effort). Kim Jung-woo also won in OSL finals against Lee Young-ho (FlaSh) in 2010, in a famous comeback, by 3:2.[14]

In 2019, Lee skipped the 7th season of ASL due to his arm injury. He took longtime break skipping all major tournaments (ASL season7 and all KSL seasons). Fortunately, his arm got better after the break and he competed in the following ASL. In ASL season 8, he won his 4th ASL against Jang Yoon-chul (Snow) (4-0).

After his retirement, He played in 8 seasons (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 & 10) of ASL (Among 10 seasons) and Flash solely won 4 times, with a runner-up and a third place.

In April 2020, Flash announced that he would switch his race and play future seasons of ASL as Random, rather than Terran. By selecting Random as his race, Flash will have a chance of playing either Protoss, Zerg, or Terran in any match.[15] He played the remainder of ASL Season 9, as well as the Afreeca StarCraft Team League (ASTL) as Terran. He played his first match as random in the T.E.N. FlaSh random match.[16] There, he lost to BeSt and ZerO 2-1,[17][18] while defeating Bisu 2-0.[19] He debuted as random in a premier tournament for the first time in ASL season 10.[20]

Most consecutive wins against Terran: 22 consecutive wins[25]

• 2009.05.10 - vs Skyhigh (SPL 08-09 4R)
• 2009.05.13 - vs Notice (SPL 08-09 4R)
• 2009.05.23 - vs Fantasy (SPL 08-09 4R)
• 2009.06.06 - vs Leta (SPL 08-09 5R)
• 2009.06.09 - vs Mvp (SPL 08-09 5R)
• 2009.06.15 - vs Iris (SPL 08-09 5R)
• 2009.06.20 - vs go.go (Avalon MSL)
• 2009.06.20 - vs Canata (Avalon MSL)
• 2009.06.24 - vs Classic (SPL 08-09 5R)
• 2009.06.30 - vs Firebathero (SPL 08-09 5R)
• 2009.10.10 - vs Seiya (SPL 09-10 1R)
• 2009.10.20 - vs Firebathero (SPL 09-10 1R)
• 2009.10.28 - vs Hiya (SPL 09-10 1R)
• 2009.11.09 - vs Fantasy (SPL 09-10 1R)
• 2009.11.21 - vs Ruby (SPL 09-10 1R)
• 2009.11.24 - vs Mind (SPL 09-10 1R)
• 2009.12.01 - vs Cuteangel (SPL 09-10 1R)
• 2009.12.09 - vs Hiya (SPL 09-10 2R)
• 2009.12.14 - vs Sea (SPL 09-10 2R)
• 2009.12.19 - vs Adamas (SPL 09-10 2R)
• 2009.12.22 - vs Mind (SPL 09-10 2R)
• 2010.01.04 - vs Firebathero (SPL 09-10 2R)

Flash also holds the longest winning streak for TvP (12 wins) in sanctioned games.

• StarCraft: Brood War professional competition

• Flash on e-Sports Earnings
• Flash on Liquipedia
• Flash on Sc2 Liquipedia
• Flash on Twitch
• Flash on Afreecatv