Choi Yeon-sung, also known as iloveoov, is a retired professional Korean StarCraft player, and formerly a coach for the Afreeca Freecs' League of Legends team.[2] As a Terran player he was known for his excellent macromanagement, leading to his nickname "Cheater Terran". However he is better known as "Monster Terran" (Gweh_Mool Terran) because of his ability to produce a massive number of units. The 'oov' in his nickname is believed to be the ASCII emotion icon of a face and two fingers forming letter 'V' which stands for victory.[3]
He sees Lim Yo-Hwan, who was on the same team as him, as an older brother or mentor. Lim scouted Choi through a match in battlenet after losing to Choi's Terran, Zerg and Protoss. Choi beat Lim 3:2 in 2004 during the Ongamenet Ever Starleague finals.
He announced his retirement as a pro-gamer as a result of a wrist injury, to become a coach for his team.[4] Since then, Choi returned to the active roster as a "player coach".[5]
In 2016 SK Telecom T1 disbanded their Starcraft 2 roster and Choi became head coach for the Afreeca Freecs League of Legends team.[6] He led the team to a quarterfinals berth at the 2018 League of Legends World Championship but was ultimately defeated 3-0 by Cloud9 and eliminated.
In subsequent seasons he failed to replicate his success, failing to qualify for the World Championship in 2019 and also failing to make playoffs in the 2020 Spring Split. In November 2020, Choi parted ways with Afreeca Freecs.[1]
In April 2008, Choi announced his engagement to his girlfriend. Choi and his fiancée had been together for six years, even when he was training to become a professional gamer.
His streaks versus Zerg are particularly notable.
Record: 79 wins – 37 losses (68.10%)
Best Streak: 27 wins Worst Streak: 4 losses Current Streak: 1 win
Media related to Iloveoov at Wikimedia Commons