Why they rank here
Lim Yo-hwan, 'The Emperor,' was the first true superstar of esports and the player who made professional gaming a mainstream phenomenon in South Korea. A StarCraft: Brood War Terran celebrated for creative, aggressive micro that rewrote how the race was played, he won back-to-back OSL championships in 2000 and 2001 and took gold at the World Cyber Games in 2001 and 2002. His fame transcended the game: his fan club numbered in the hundreds of thousands, believed the largest for any esports figure of his time, and he drew stadium crowds and mainstream media in an era when the idea of a pro gamer was still novel. Though later players surpassed his raw results, BoxeR's cultural impact is unmatched, he proved a video game could produce a national sporting icon, and the entire professional scene that followed was built in the space he opened.
Career profile
Each bar shows how this athlete compares with the strongest in our all-time list for that metric.