Tras el anuncio hace dos años de su retirada de StarCraft II profesional debido a tener que realizar el servicio militar obligatorio, por fin Tajea finalizó dicho entrenamiento el pasado mes de Agosto tal y como anunció en su Twitter.
For those of you who kept the candle burning, congratulations. Your faith proved true in the end. After an excruciating break, the Crown Prince will indeed be returning to Team Liquid.
For the skeptics out there, this comes as no surprise. Quitting in this profession is usually as permanent as the deaths of comic book characters. Of course we regret watching our favorite characters depart to the afterlife; it is customary to grieve, offer well-wishes, reminisce, and ultimately accept their departure. Yet no one dies in comic books except Uncle Ben. TaeJa was finished in the same manner as Jason Todd, Bucky Barnes, Multiple Man, Bruce Banner and every “deceased” character stretching back to Batman’s pistol-wielding days. He was simply waiting in stasis, biding his time until the new story arc began. Players who relinquish their spot in the field inevitably return as something else. They don a new costume for a new team, kick start a rebranding narrative involving a role switch (the most common one being the “coach repentance arc”), or leave the moment of unmasking for a shocking out of left field reveal.
TaeJa’s retirement was accompanied by an atypically somber mood. The sendoff was as grateful and heartfelt as every other epilogue to a player’s career. The sole difference was a lack of that niggling doubt. It felt like an irrevocable swan song. It felt final in a different way than when other great players had quit. It wasn’t a transition into the next stage, but a moratorium on the only avenue TaeJa had into SC2.
The hints had been accumulating for years. In the past they were the subject of in-house jokes and memes, reminding us TaeJa could be unwieldy and goofy as the rest of us mortals. He suffered from bouts of flagging motivation which turned into mock threats of retirement. Every tournament was going to be the last one. If only he wasn’t so darn good. Lack of practice was an easily surmountable obstacle for someone with his talent. Skill alone could carry the day. Hell, it worked for an entire tournament. Once upon a time the wrist soreness was accepted as a minor point of pride. It showed how dedicated he was to the craft in-between the periods of weariness.
Until the intermittent complaints about his wrists became chronic...which revealed themselves to be debilitating. Previous peaks and troughs of enthusiasm dwindled to troughs. He was forbidden from participating in overseas tournaments, where he had earned his fame, and had to grind it out in the sole tournament he had never conquered. Every blow was reflected in TaeJa’s results. By the time he said farewell, he was just another good player in the GSL. Not fantastic, not great, just good. It belied just how spectacular TaeJa had been at his peak.
Noticia completa: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/starcraft-2/537555-liquidtaeja-the-prince-returns
