said in an interview with south korean news site naver when he announced his retirement for both brood war was the glorious past when they had been worshipped for being the best of the best starcraft ii had not turned out the way they had hoped when flash started competing professionally in brood war again in mid2016 alongside other old brood war elites who had tried starcraft ii and then retired it was no wonder that jaedong started to lose his taste for starcraft ii he saw that it was possible to return to an esport he had dominated alongside the pro gamers he knew and respected the most on nov 19 two and a half weeks after jaedongs starcraft ii retirement announcement all pretenses crumbled the 2016 kt giga legends match iii brood war exhibition tournament in busan south korea didnt have an enormous prize pool or any prizes at all but it didnt need to the draw of the event for its players and fans alike was the reuniting of brood wars alltime best pros including flash and jaedong the two rivals did not end up facing each other in the singleelimination tournament but their presence and participation were enough to make waves in the global esports community after four long years the glory days were back on nov 26 a new televised brood war league in south korea called the afreecatv starcraft league started its second season the production quality is crisp the broadcasts hit 100000 online concurrent viewers and the level of play is just as high as it was in 2010 artosis is an official commentator and the english vods on youtube regularly pick up over 20000 views apiece jaedong flash and other legends like byunggoo stork song have already advanced from the 24person group stage to the semifinals on january 17 we will see flash and jaedong in their first official brood war match since 20102011 there is no disguising the anticipation we havent played an official or unofficial match yet we are building up the fans excitement it will be great for the fans when we play flash he said i think the rivalry will be the same as it used to be the ghosts of brood war past have emerged from the corn to play the field once more however this is no movie to be clear this is a completely unprecedented development in sports or esports there has never been a case where a game had a thriving professional scene on this scale that was thoroughly extinguished only to spring up again with the same star players and fan excitement four years later we do not know how long the brood war renaissance will last it could continue for decades or fizzle out with the next new esport and yet there is something dazzling about this phenomenon even if this particular revival might be unique to south korea it proves that esports is only starting to awaken to