sAviOr

This player has retired from competitive StarCraft.

sAviOr
Background Information
Name:	마재윤 Ma Jae Yoon
Team:	(Retired)
Race:	Zerg
Birthday:	1987-11-23
IDs:	sAviOr, IPXZerg, sAviOr[gm]
Height/Weight:	176 cms / 65 kg
Nicknames:	The Maestro, Ma Bonjwa
Fansite:	http://cafe.daum.net/ipxzerg
Career
ELO Rank:
Peak ELO:	2321.96
Team History:	CJ Entus
Draft History:
TLPD:	sAviOr

Ma Jae Yoon, a.k.a. IPXZerg or sAviOr, was a Korean StarCraft progamer. He played as Zerg and was a member of CJ Entus.

Biography

Ma Jae Yoon is nicknamed ‘The Maestro’ for his superior macro/micro management and control over his units. He is considered a Bonjwa of his era, joining the likes of NaDa, iloveoov, and BoxeR. He is also known as the player who revolutionized Zerg gameplay by popularizing new builds such as the 3 Hatch Mutalisk Build in ZvT. sAviOr’s impact on the Zerg race is said to be the biggest since the dawn of professional StarCraft.

Beginning

sAviOr started his progaming career back in 2003 as a 16 year old, mainly participating in preliminaries and qualifying games. The trend continued in 2004 although he got to play a handful in major television games. His entry into the SPRIS MSL and Proleague wasn’t spectacular but fairly solid. It was not until 2005 that sAviOr made it big when he won the UZOO MSL in only his second attempt at a major league. Although this was a big achievement, sAviOr did not receive the praise of an MSL champion. During the MSL sAviOr only played against Protoss and Zerg, which coincided with the era where Protoss was massively struggling against Zerg. As a result many people credited the win with Zerg vs Protoss imbalance.

Rise of a Legend

Heading into the 2005 CYON MSL as reigning champion, sAviOr up to this point was still not recognized as a champion player. But this was all to change when he demolished an inform iloveoov in a bo3 and bo5 at the same tournament. It was not only the result that amazed fans but also the style in which he won. sAviOr defeated iloveoov in straight up macro games, essentially beating iloveoov at his own game. Although sAviOr finished second in the MSL, he left the tournament with a 5–0 record against the legendary iloveoov.

This was the defining point of sAviOr’s career, it was much more important than his first MSL title. The rivalry with iloveoov continued throughout the year and including unofficial games sAviOr at one point had an amazing 11–0 record against the Terran powerhouse. In 2006 sAviOr rose to even higher heights and continued to revolutionize the macro management style of Zerg vs Terran. He become Greatest One’s (Now known as CJ Entus) leading Proleague player, raking up an incredible 16–4 record during the Proleague rounds. But it was his form in the leagues that had everyone talking. The performance shown in the Pringles MSL Season 1 was flawless. Apart from a tough encounter with Midas he breezed through for his second MSL title. Similarly later on in the year he had no problems claiming the Pringles MSL Season 2 crown, adding a third MSL title to his growing amount of trophies.

2007 started amazingly well for sAviOr. His macro management games still seemingly had no flaws, but anti-Zerg maps started to become an obstacle for all Zerg players. Nevertheless he continued his way into two simultaneous league finals, the 2007 Shinhan Bank Starleague and the 2007 GomTV MSL. The road to these finals was tough, with dramatic come-from-behind wins against Iris and Hwasin in the respective leagues. Although Zergs were struggling during these times, sAviOr remained the one Zerg that could still win on difficult ZvT maps. After sAviOr’s emphatic victory against NaDa in the Starleague finals, he boosted himself into legend status and was arguably the greatest Zerg player of all-time. Backing up from his Starleague title, sAviOr headed into the 2007 GomTV MSL finals as one of the biggest favorites ever against a relatively unknown Bisu. sAviOr’s aura of invincibility was at an all time high.

The Slump

sAviOr’s disastrous yet spectacular 0–3 defeat at the hands of Bisu in the GomTV MSL finals was reminiscent of sAviOr’s own rise to power through an unexpected demolishing of iloveoov. Following this crushing loss, sAviOr slowly descended into a slump. After having been in the MSL finals five times in a row, sAviOr dropped out of the GomTV Season 2 MSL in the quarterfinals, going 2–3 against the Terran player firebathero. In the same season, sAviOr, then the reigning OSL champion, was eliminated from the Daum Starleague by his teammate, the Terran player Iris, losing 1–2 in the quarterfinals. In the following season sAviOr was again eliminated from both leagues before reaching the finals: losing in the MSL semifinals to eventual champion Mind, and losing his Starleague quarterfinal match to Bisu, the same player who induced his slump two seasons earlier. sAviOr continued downhill, reaching his lowest ever when he was demoted to the CJ B-team during the summer of 2008. However, after just a very short period, sAviOr was again promoted back to the A-team. Though nowhere near his prime form, sAviOr has since then managed to halt his downward spiral and has even achieved some success in event matches, winning the Blizzcon 2008 and 2009 e-Stars Soul Heritage League tournaments and finally defeating Bisu in the 2009 All-Star Race Battle special event matches.

Career End

After Kwanro’s departure for Woongjin Stars, space in the CJ Entus was made and sAviOr was played more frequently alongside fellow CJ Zergs Effort and Hydra in Round 1 of the Shinhan Bank Proleague 2009–10. He finished the round with a solid 4 wins, 4 loss record, including a win over Jaedong, with one Ace match defeat to Hyvaa. He qualified for the 2009 Nate MSL and was placed in a group with Bisu in what many saw as an exciting group in which the two were expected to play in the Winner’s match. However, sAviOr lost his game to Bogus and had to wait until the loser’s match before he could play Bisu. sAviOr lost to Bisu again, and was knocked out 0–2 in what many saw as an upset.

In 2010, it was discovered that he was involved in the Match Fixing Scandal, and was permanently banned from progaming by KeSPA.

Facts

• He along with Boxer, NaDa, iloveoov and Flash are considered the five legendary Bonjwa's of StarCraft history.
• He is known for his Defiler control, which made the unit closely related with his name.
• He popularized the 3 Hatch Muta (vs. Terran).
• He holds the third highest vP ELO peak at 2274.
• He holds 3 MSL titles (and thus the Golden Badge) and 1 Starleague title.
• He is known for his risky, fast tech play, which involves crucial timings in order to successfully defend against attacks and counter properly.
• He is known to have relatively low APM by progamer standards.

Accomplishments

Place	Year	Event/League
1st	2009	e-Stars Heritage League
1st	2008	Blizzcon 2008
3rd	2007	WCG Korea Finals
2nd	2007	Shinhan Bank OnGameNet Masters
1st	2006–07	ShinHan Bank Starleague Season 3
2nd	2006–07	GOMTV MBCGame StarCraft League Season 1
1st	2006	Pringles MBCGame StarCraft League Season 2
1st	2006	Pringles MBCGame StarCraft League Season 1
2nd	2005–06	CYON MBCGame StarCraft League
1st	2005	UZOO MBCGame StarCraft League

OSL Champion
ShinHan2006-2 OSL Preceeded By:   NaDa	ShinHan2006-3 OSL 24th February 2007-21st July 2007   sAviOr	Daum OSL Succeeded By:   GGPlay

MSL Champion
You are the Golf King MSL Preceeded By:   Gorush	UZOO MSL 6th August 2005-14th January 2006   sAviOr	LG CYON MSL Succeeded By:   Chojja

LG CYON MSL Preceeded By:   Chojja

Pringles MSL Season 1 16th July 2006-Continued   sAviOr

Pringles MSL Season 2 Succeeded By:   sAviOr

Pringles MSL Season 1 Preceeded By:   sAviOr

Pringles MSL Season 2 Continued-3rd March 2007   sAviOr

GOMTV MSL Season 1 Succeeded By:   Bisu

BlizzCon Starcraft: Brood Wars Champion
BlizzCon 2005 Preceeded By:   YellOw	BlizzCon 2007 StarCraft: Brood Wars Invitational 23rd August 2009 - continued   sAviOr	BlizzCon 2008 Succeeded By:   sAviOr

BlizzCon 2007 Preceeded By:   sAviOr

BlizzCon 2008 StarCraft: Brood Wars Invitational continued - 23rd October 2010   sAviOr

BlizzCon 2009 Succeeded By:   EffOrt

Rivalries

During sAviOr’s reign as Bonjwa he had several rivalries which helped cement his fame.

Nal_rA

The earliest of sAviOr’s rivals was Nal_rA. The games to them were referred to as the “Holy Wars”: a war between the best PvZ player and the best player at the time. Most of the games in their multiple series together are considered classic examples of high level PvZ play. It was a sight everyone enjoyed seeing, with the exception of Protoss players, for this was the pre-Bisu era when PvZ was widely seen as an imbalanced matchup.

Midas

After the Holy Wars ended, sAviOr’s next rival was Midas. Midas was the only player at the time who was deemed able to give sAviOr a run for his money; people’s ideas in this were cemented when everyone believed Midas was foolish for picking sAviOr for round one in the Starleague until Midas 1–0’d sAviOr on Hitchhiker in an intense game .

During the subsequent two games, sAviOr asserted his inner Bonjwa and will to win and managed to 2–0 Midas after the first game, the closer which was on Hitchhiker again. sAviOr went on to win the Shinhan Bank Starleague Season 3 over NaDa 3–1.

Bisu

After defeating NaDa 3-1 in the Shinhan Bank Starleague Season 3 finals, sAviOr was an enormous favorite in the MSL finals versus Bisu. At the time sAviOr was untouchable in ZvP and everyone’s lovable Bonjwa. The following series is the infamous set where Bisu 3-0’d sAviOr in the most incredible one-sided games of PvZ seen for a long time. The sheer dominance of Bisu spawned tons of controversy which led to them clashing on multiple occasions. These conflicts with Bisu among some losses to firebathero over the next few months marked sAviOr’s subsequent fall from grace.

firebathero

In the GOMTV MSL Season 2 Quarter-Final, Ma Jae Yoon and Lee Sung Eun played a fantastic Bo5 that came down to the final map Python. After winning that map, firebathero danced around sAviOr’s booth as a ceremony which was considered offensive by many. This mockery of the former Bonjwa was theorized to be the final slap in the face that brought down ‘The Maestro’, although Ma Jae Yoon claimed he was unaware of Lee Sung Eun dancing around his booth and was only told later. Ever since that series, encounters between sAviOr and firebathero have been highly anticipated. The total record stands at 8–3 in favor of Lee Sung Eun; Ma Jae Yoon won the most recent game on Battle Royal .

Statistics

Year	Team	Wins	Losses	Ratio	vs.	vs.	vs.	Best Finish
2003	GO	0	1	0%	0-1	0-0	0-0	---
2004	GO	22	14	61.1%	10-6	8-7	4-1	---
2005	GO	30	18	62.5%	8-4	10-7	12-7	UZOO MSL
2006	CJ	47	19	71.2%	14-6	16-9	17-4	Pringles MSL S1, Pringles MSL S2
2007	CJ	59	41	59.0%	32-28	5-5	22-8	Shinhan Bank S3 OSL
2008	CJ	25	29	46.3%	8-15	8-4	9-10	---
2009	CJ	22	27	44.9%	7-7	9-14	6-6	Ro8 2009 Lost Saga MSL

Notable Games

ZvT

• vs.  Iris on Arkanoid, 2006 Shinhan Bank Starleague Season 3 5set 
• vs.  NaDa on Arkanoid, 2006 CJ 3rd SuperFight 

ZvP

• vs.  TT on Requiem, 2008–09 Shinhan Bank Proleague Ro1 Week 5 
• vs.  Nal_rA on The Eye, 2006 Pringles MSL Season 1 Final 3set 

ZvZ

• vs. YellOw[ArnC] on Un’Goro Crater, 2007 Shinhan Bank Proleague Play-Off Semi-Final 7set  — despite losing in depressing fashion to  Chalrenge in the same match, sAviOr is sent out as the Ace in the 3rd vs. 4th play-off match. Not a pretty game, but all the more important.