allKO(P) and idontca1, two undefeated 9ds so strong they reach front-page article on Tygem! Discussion and the most recent game by allKO(P).
Lately there has been a lot of hype on Tygem with not 1 but 2 undefeated 9ds who have recently emerged, allKO(P) and 와톨이 (English handle: idontca1). So much hype, in fact, that Tygem just published a front-page article on it, which is probably a first in a very long time as the space is usually reserved for international tournament news:
http://www.tygem.com/news/news/viewpage.asp?pagec=&seq=10974&gubun=&find=&findword=
To spare you the trouble of dumping that link into Google translate, I will briefly summarize the jist of what the article says. First off, no one knows for sure who either of these players are. However, many many 'netizens' feel that 와톨이 is Lee Sedol 9p and allKO(P) Gu Li 9p for several reasons, below what are mentioned in the article specifically:
1) His handle means something like "loner". Considering his recent feud with the KBA and his response by deciding to only play in the Chinese league for a few years, it fits his image a little too perfectly.
2) If you look at his games, almost all of them are wins against Chinese players. Statistically, it is unreasonable to assume his accepted game challenges were random unless he decided to stay in the Chinese servers. Regardless, for such a strange pattern in his game wins, the article calls him the 'Robin Hood' of Korea. "Coincidentally", almost all of allKO(P)'s games are against Korean players. Very unusual...
3) The article also discusses briefly about his style. They praise it for being very 'powerful' and 'brave' and leads to far more resignations than close-margin games and is certainly comparable to Lee Sedol's style. Similar words are said of allKO(P)'s style and its consistency with Gu Li's play.
Anyways, the article also hints at a challenge from allKO(P) to 와톨이. This matchup would be huge, considering that their separate games consistently garner over 2000 kibitzers. Everyone looks forward to this matchup, and if you're on Tygem, be sure to buddylist their handles so you may hopefully catch it! I will also be constantly checking their records and see if a match between them was played and post it here :).
Finally, here is the last game played by allKO(P), which was yesterday against a Korean player, a 'normal' 9d. The game was a quick victory for allKO(P), and garnered roughly 2500 observers after a quick run through the servers. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
allKO(P) [9d]: 14-0*
멎진제자 [9d]: 143-90
Bets favored allKO(P) 83% - 17%
*People may wonder what's so significant about 14-0 when there are players with stats like 45-0 and may ask why it's of the same caliber as 와톨이's 55-0. The reason is that all of allKO(P)'s games were not only against 9ds, but most of them were in ranked top 30 among the 9ds (there are over 500 9ds on Tygem). Players with 45-0 or such stats and have the 9d badge only reached where they are by starting their rank at 5d and sandbagging it up to 9d. Similarly, it isn't the 55-0 that's significant for 와톨이, but for his last 15 consecutive wins against 9ds. And not just typical 9ds, but as the article says, "강9단" (strong 9d).
And if you're wondering how allKO(P) managed to start as a 9d while 와톨이 started as a 5d, it's because allKO(P)'s account was verified to be under a professional (hence the (P) at the end), so technically if 와톨이 is not Lee Sedol, he could possibly be a (super) amateur.
And finally, it is also very possible that both of these players have played under other accounts in the past (it's very common), as there have been hype (but not of this scale) on other accounts like swing(P), Marriag(P), 블링블링(P), etc.