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“Lee Young-ho” redirects here. For other people with similar names, see Ri Yong-ho.
In this Korean name, the family name is Lee.

Lee Young-ho (Korean: 이영호; Hanja: 李泳浩; born July 5, 1992)[3] is a South Korean StarCraft: Brood War and StarCraft II player who played Terran for the Korean pro-gaming team KT Rolster under the alias By.FlaSh or simply Flash. He made his debut as a StarCraft: Brood War player in 2007 and retired on December 19, 2015. Lee began playing StarCraft II competitively in 2011, until his retirement in December 2015. He subsequently returned to playing Starcraft: Brood War, and started his personal broadcast in February 2016 on the AfreecaTV personal broadcasting platform.[4] Since returning to Brood War, Lee has won first place in Seasons 2, 3, 4, and 8 of the Afreeca Starleague. As of 2020, he is still broadcasting personal broadcasts. Alongside BoxeR, NaDa, Iloveoov, and SAviOr, Lee is regarded as the fifth—and greatest—Bonjwa, a title for players who dominated the Korean Brood War scene over long periods of time.[5] He is considered to be the greatest StarCraft: Brood War player of all-time.[6][1][7]

Career

Flash with the Bacchus OSL Trophy

Lee joined KT Rolster in 2007 at the age of 14 as a StarCraft: Brood War player.[8] In his rookie debut at the Daum OnGameNet Starleague (OSL) of 2007, he defeated the MSL champion Kim “Bisu” Taek-yong to reach the final four, before losing to the eventual champion Kim “GGPlay” Joon Yung.[9] He won the KeSPA Rookie of the Year award that year.[10] In March 2008, he won both the GOMTV Star Invitational and the Bacchus OSL, defeating Song “Stork” Byung-goo in both finals.[3] His Bacchus OSL title made him the youngest OSL champion of all time.[11] In 2010, Lee reached the finals of eight major events, winning five of them.[7] In 2011, Lee underwent surgery on his right arm due to repetitive strain on his muscles.[12] By September 2012, Lee had won 17 major tournaments and broke StarCraft's elo record six times, with all previous elo records being held by Lee himself.[13]

Flash after winning IEM Toronto 2014

In 2012, Lee switched to playing StarCraft II competitively. He won his first StarCraft II major event in 2014, after winning Intel Extreme Masters Toronto. The same year, he led KT Rolster to a proleague title. Lee announced his retirement on December 1, 2015.[7] At that point in is career, he had a nearly 80% win rate in Brood War and had spent multiple years at the top of KeSPA’s official rankings.[14]

He subsequently returned to playing Starcraft: Brood War, and started his personal broadcast in February 2016 in Afreeca (personal broadcasting platform).[4] 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.[15] 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 3:1 in the final match-up of the 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.[16] 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.[17] In 2019, Lee skipped the 7th season of ASL due to his arm injury. He took a long break skipping all major tournaments (ASL season7 and all KSL seasons). Fortunately, his arm got better and he competed in the following ASL, Season 8, where he won his 4th ASL against Jang Yoon-chul (Snow) (4-0).

In April 2020, Lee announced that he would switch his race and play future seasons of ASL as Random, rather than as Terran. By selecting Random as his race, Lee will have a one in three chance of playing either Protoss, Zerg, or Terran in any match.[2] 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 at the “[T.E.N.] FlaSh Random Match” event.[18] There, he lost to BeSt 2–1,[19] and ZerO 2–1,[20] while defeating Bisu 2–0.[21]

Player profile

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 “iloveoov” Yeon-sung had 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.”[22] Lee is known for his well-optimized gameplay, defined by strict resource management and precise timings.[23][24]

Cryptocurrency scandal

Lee and other prominent gamers and streamers, including fellow Starcraft player Bisu, were caught up in a cryptocurrency scandal in 2021. Lee was paid by the creator of a new cryptocurrency T.ocoin, and Lee subsequently publicly talked up investing in that cryptocurrency, without disclosing the payment. Lee has published a public apology.[25][26]

Return to Brood War

On the 20th of October, 2024, Lee announced he would be returning to regular StarCraft streaming in a prerecorded video which was livestreamed on SOOP.[b] In the video, Lee addressed his involvement in the 2021 cryptocurrency scandal, claiming that he himself had been conned out of ₩1 billion (equivalent to ₩1.14 billion or US$800,144.23 in 2025)[29] when the creators of T.ocoin used his money to pay back the investments of other gamers and streamers.[30] Since then, Lee has expressed that his fans wanted him to return to competition.[31]

In 2026, Lee is playing in the 21st season of SOOP’s ASL tournament series.[32] This marks Lee’s first professional stage appearance since his return to Brood War, with previous appearances postponed due to repetitive strain injuries.[33] Lee believes he is a contender to win the tournament.[31]

Injuries

Lee experiences chronic pain from repetitive strain injuries affecting his wrist and arm,[34] which has led him to undergo multiple corrective nerve decompression surgeries[34][35][36] and repeated painkiller injections.[31] Lee has said that he believes most Korean StarCraft professionals experience wrist pain,[34][37] and has described being pressured by fans to keep playing even when his arm was hurting.[38]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Formerly Random[2]
  2. ^ Original broadcast (in Korean)[27], unofficial English translation[28]

References

  1. ^ a b c Breslau, Rod (June 27, 2013). “StarCraft legend Flash comes to Twitch and Razer”. GameSpot. Retrieved March 23, 2023.
  2. ^ a b Geracie, Nick. “[OFFICIAL] After 13 years, Flash changes race to random for StarCraft: Brood War”. Inven Global. Archived from the original on January 18, 2026. April 20, 2020. Retrieved August 8, 2020
  3. ^ a b Shields, Duncan (April 4, 2014). “Thorin’s crucible: Age restriction – Riot’s magic wand”. GameSpot. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
  4. ^ a b Kim, Hong-je (February 14, 2016). “Lee young ho will start his personal broadcasting by Afreeca Platform”.
  5. ^ 이소라 (September 11, 2010). “[이영호 우승] ‘본좌 논란’ 종지부” [[Lee Young-ho Wins] Puts an End to the ‘Top Player Controversy’] (in Korean). 데일리e스포츠. Archived from the original on March 29, 2026. Retrieved March 29, 2026.
  6. ^ Kelly, Christina (January 12, 2017). “Full circle: The whirlwind journey of Jaedong”. ESPN. Retrieved March 23, 2023.
  7. ^ a b c Lingle, Samuel (December 1, 2015). “The greatest StarCraft player of all-time has retired”. Dot Esports. Retrieved March 23, 2023.
  8. ^ Copeland, Wesley (December 1, 2015). “Starcraft Esports Legend ‘Flash’ Retires at 23”. IGN. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
  9. ^ Shields, Duncan (March 22, 2014). “Brood War for the soul – Episode 1”. GameSpot. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
  10. ^ Episode 1 – StarCraft – Team Razer: Great Games. Razer. November 29, 2014. Event occurs at 7:24. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
  11. ^ Mitchell, Ferguson (December 3, 2015). “Flash: The End of a Legend”. The Esports Observer. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
  12. ^ Bräutigam, Thiemo (April 4, 2016). “Esports needs to face its injury problem”. The Esports Observer. Retrieved March 23, 2023.
  13. ^ McCormick, Rich (September 9, 2012). “Flash of greatness: StarCraft pro-gaming explored”. PC Gamer. Retrieved March 23, 2023.
  14. ^ Barrett, Ben (December 1, 2015). “Lee “Flash” Young Ho, StarCraft’s Lebron James, retires from pro gaming at 23″. PCGamesN. Retrieved March 23, 2023.
  15. ^ “[ASL3] Finals Recap- God Above All”. June 14, 2017. Retrieved July 19, 2017.
  16. ^ “This is game, Afreecatv. game information”. Lee Young-ho, Africa TV’s ASL third straight champion.
  17. ^ 형, 지수. “이영호 탈락’ ASL 시즌5 4강전 예고”. 경향게임스.
  18. ^ “[T.E.N.] FlaSh Random Match”.
  19. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: “FlaSh Random Match 1 l StarCraft Remasters l [T.E.N]”. YouTube.
  20. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: “FlaSh Random Match 2 l StarCraft Remasters l [T.E.N]”. YouTube.
  21. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: “FlaSh Random Match 3 l StarCraft Remasters l [T.E.N]”. YouTube.
  22. ^ 강영훈 (August 6, 2010). “[프로리그 결승]임요환-최연성, “KT가 쉽게 무너질 팀이 아니길 바란다”“. 다음뉴스 (in Korean). ko:포모스. Archived from the original on March 29, 2026. Retrieved March 29, 2026.
  23. ^ 고용준 (September 1, 2019). “‘최종병기’ 이영호, 흔들림 없는 최적화로 2-0 리드 [ASL]”. 다음뉴스 (in Korean). ko:포모스. Archived from the original on March 29, 2026. Retrieved March 29, 2026.
  24. ^ 장민영 (November 27, 2017). “우연을 넘어선 실력, 꾸준함이 만든 ‘스타크래프트의 신’ 이영호”. ko:인벤. Archived from the original on December 15, 2017. Retrieved March 29, 2026.
  25. ^ FlaSh.이영호. “브로커 관련”.
  26. ^ “FlaSh’s Crypto Scandal”.
  27. ^ 이영호 (October 20, 2024). 죄송합니다 [I’m sorry] (in Korean). Retrieved April 10, 2026 – via SOOP.
  28. ^ jinjinBW (October 20, 2024). FlaSh’s Apology Video & Announcement to Return. Retrieved April 10, 2026 – via YouTube.
  29. ^ 1906 to 1911: Williamson J. (1999), Nominal Wage, Cost of Living, Real Wage and Land Rent Data for Korea 1906–1939 1912 to 1939: Mizoguchi, T. (1972). “Consumer Prices and Real Wages in Taiwan and Korea Under Japanese Rule“. Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, 13(1), 40-56. Retrieved May 21, 2021. Afterwards, consumer price index from Statistics Korea. Consumer Price Index by year. Retrieved 3 April 2018, 1965 to 2025: Bank for International Settlements, Consumer prices
  30. ^ 문원빈 (October 21, 2024). “스타 이영호, 4년 만에 SOOP 스트리머로 복귀”. 게임톡 (in Korean). Archived from the original on April 10, 2026. Retrieved April 10, 2026.
  31. ^ a b c 김홍제 (March 31, 2026). “[ASL] 6년 만의 대회 출전 이영호 “팬들이 성원에 보답하고파”“ (in Korean). ko:인벤. Archived from the original on April 10, 2026. Retrieved April 10, 2026.
  32. ^ 김홍제 (March 5, 2026). “SOOP, ASL 시즌21 예선 돌입” (in Korean). ko:인벤. Archived from the original on March 8, 2026. Retrieved March 17, 2026.
  33. ^ Guaraldo, André (March 6, 2026). “ASL Season 21 StarCraft: Remastered Qualifiers Start March 7–8”. www.strafe.com. Sidledes AB. Archived from the original on March 17, 2026. Retrieved March 17, 2026.
  34. ^ a b c “Flash: “Помню ничью против JangBi, это была действительно забавная игра”. Эксклюзивное интервью с сушим макро-терраном” (in Russian). GoodGame.ru. November 17, 2021. Archived from the original on March 26, 2026. Retrieved March 26, 2026.
  35. ^ “이영호, 집중 재활 마치고 7일 복귀”. 데일리e스포츠 (in Korean). Archived from the original on March 26, 2026. Retrieved March 26, 2026.
  36. ^ Lee, Dave (June 5, 2015). “The real scars of Korean gaming”. BBC News. Archived from the original on July 15, 2025. Retrieved March 26, 2026.
  37. ^ 이영호 (January 13, 2021). 상상만 해도 아픈 그 날의 기억, 프로게이머의 팔 수술 (in Korean). Retrieved March 26, 2026 – via YouTube.
  38. ^ 박상진 (February 23, 2016). “[박상진의 e스토리] 이영호, ‘개인’으로 돌아와 전한 추억들” (in Korean). 엑스포츠뉴스. Archived from the original on March 26, 2026. Retrieved March 26, 2026.