The first official StarCraft: Brood War World Champion (1999, Random). #1 Case’s Ladder in Command & Conquer (1996) and Warcraft II (1997). First StarCraft caster. Cube Draft co-originator. Now the WSOP Talent Manager and inventor of five patented casino games.
The ultimate macro-manager traded his hotkeys for higher stakes—proving that whether you’re building a digital empire or a real-world legacy, the meta never really changes. You just have to be willing to bet on yourself.
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Dawn of Esports
Before the sold-out stadiums in Seoul, before multi-million dollar Twitch exclusivity contracts, and long before you could Google “Zerg Rush,” the digital frontier was a wild, uncharted landscape. In 1996, Wayne Chiang as “SoSOWAC” dominated 1v1 and teams on Case’s Ladder, ranking #1 at Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn. In 1997, he did the same for Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness.
March 31, 1998 changed everything. StarCraft was released—and esports would never be the same. Once again, Chiang hit #1 on Case’s Ladder in 1v1 and teams. Then he won the first StarCraft tournament against friend and eventual Chess.com co-founder Jay “Gadianton” Severson for $250, held at the legendary Magic: The Gathering hotspot Neutral Ground Mountain View—close to Google and Apple headquarters. Two $10 grudge-match victories over Severson followed. With nothing more to prove, Chiang was ready to move on.
Then, in September 1998, Severson let Chiang know the Professional Gamers’ League Season 3 was running the first international StarCraft tournament. Chiang missed sign-ups by one day. For a lesser player, that could have been a career-ending setback. Instead, he stated: “I want it all.” He set out to become the top media personality and content creator for StarCraft—taking to the microphone as StarCraft’s first-ever caster, and watching his rival and friend Gadianton take first place.
That early eye for talent and narrative caught the attention of esports heavyweights 5× FPS World Champion and Esports Hall of Famer Dennis “Thresh” Fong and Bob “Calbear” Colayco, who handed Chiang the keys to GX StarCraft on Gamers.com. D11-Thresh inducted “SoSOWAC” to “D22-soso” and “Gadianton” to “D23-Gadianton.”
D22-soso became the central nervous system of the community. He wasn’t just beating the best players in the world—he was translating their brilliance for the masses. He wrote battle reports of high-ranked ladder games, most notably battling rival Guillaume Patry. He set up Pimpest Plays: the original SportsCenter Top 10 for esports, creating the foundation for every highlight reel you see on YouTube today.
While most early pros relied on blistering early-game APM, when Chiang and Patry clashed they dragged each other into the depths of the late game—utilizing rarely-seen units like Ultralisks, Battlecruisers, and Carriers.
The Ultimate Flex: World Champion
At the 1999 Brood War Season 1 Ladder Tournament—Blizzard’s first official World Championship— D22-soso did the unthinkable. In a game defined by extreme, singular racial specialization, he played Random. It was the equivalent of winning a scoring title while shooting ambidextrously.
In a legendary ~38-minute semi-final against Patry’s Zerg on Lost Temple, Chiang rolled Protoss. Facing a map that was 75% controlled by the swarm, he orchestrated a masterclass three-pronged attack: Reavers and Archons on the right, Dark Templars and Corsairs on the left, and a devastating push down the middle. He broke Patry, advanced to the finals, and defeated Chris_Low in a five-game final (Game 5 on Showdown, 35:37) to become the first StarCraft: Brood War World Champion—taking home $2,500.
The Walk-Off and The Long Game
Like a champion vacating the throne at the absolute peak of his powers, D22-soso eventually walked away. With the esports scene shifting entirely to South Korea and the dot-com bubble looming, Patry—four years his junior—was rapidly evolving. Choosing family, academics, and a grander vision for his future, Chiang stepped away from the keyboard to pursue a Computer Science degree at UC San Diego.
He didn’t stick around to watch his mechanics fade. He handed the torch to a new generation—then, as WSOP Talent Manager, brought StarCraft legend SlayerS_BoxeR into the Vlogger Program he runs, after interviewing him at the 2025 World Series of Poker.
Ultimately, StarCraft was never just a video game for Wayne Chiang. It was Chapter One. The ability to read opponents, calculate odds, evaluate raw talent, and design winning strategies didn’t retire in 1999. It evolved. The battlefield simply shifted from the pixelated maps of Brood War to the green felt of Las Vegas and the boardrooms of modern business.
Today
Wayne “D22-soso” Chiang operates on a different battlefield. He is the Talent Manager for the World Series of Poker (WSOP), an inventor of patented casino games like 2 Hand Hold’em™ and Badugi Chase™, and co-author of the self-investment guide Betting on Yourself (Kendall Hunt, 2025). But long before he was shaping the modern poker landscape, he was pouring the concrete foundation for modern competitive gaming and content creation.
