Ronald Kim

This article is about the Counter-Strike player. For New York politician, see Ron Kim (politician).
Rambo
Ronald Kim
Status retired
Date of birth December 3, 1983
Nationality American
League Cyberathlete Professional League
Championship Gaming Series
Games Counter-Strike
Career prize money ~$65,859.99
Professional career
?–1997 [rs]/Syndicate
Clan Killers 3
2002–2007 Team3D
2007–2008 Los Angeles Complexity

Ronald "Ron" "Rambo" Kim is a former professional electronic sports player who competed in Counter-Strike for Team 3D and Los Angeles Complexity. Rambo represents a small minority of professional gamers that play with an inverted mouse setting.

Playing career

Kim started playing computer games in the early days of Quake and Quake II. His first team, [rs], riot squad, was composed of a tight knit group of high school friends. Kim quickly became one of the best FPS gamers in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and consistently placed well in many FPS game events.

Kim began competing in Counter-Strike (CS) from the age of 15 onwards when he would attend various LAN parties with his friends that included [rs], PAG (Plano Asian Gang), TRU, and various other Texas gaming teams. Kim quickly became the star of [rs] and was a popular figure in the early days of competitive cs. Kim and [rs] competed in, and won, most of the early and unofficial [cs] competitions put on by Frank Nuccio during QuakeCon events and Quake based CPL events, usually competing against other Texas-based CS teams such as CK3, DoP, and TRU. In the year 2000, [rs] merged with rival team TRU to form syn. (Syndicate) to attend the Babbage's event organized by the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) in 2000. Syn disbanded shortly after the 2000 CPL event and both [rs] and TRU reformed.

Kim's next team would be Clan Killers 3, [CK3], an Austin, Texas based gaming team that was known for dominating the 6v6 era of competitive Counter-Strike. [CK3] was led by older, middle aged gamers Big_V, Valeyard, Hardryv, and Dorn. During his tenure with [CK3], Kim met a number of players who became long-time teammates of his, including Kyle "Ksharp" Miller, Sean "Bullseye" Morgan, and Dave "Moto" Geffon. When [CK3] retired from CS, the tag was retired and those who wished to continue playing renamed themselves Xtreme3 "X3" who established themselves as North America's best team for almost the entirety of their existence.[1][2]

After X3's disbandment Kim briefly played with a restarted riot squad [rs] team, this time led by Bobby "Sickness" Moyini, before forming Team3D (3D) in 2002 with Kyle "Ksharp" Miller. He would remain with 3D until January 2007 when he joined rivals Complexity[3] who would be renamed Los Angeles Complexity after becoming a franchise of the Championship Gaming Series. After the CGS' first season Kim was selected as a protected player by the franchise.[4]

In summer 2010 his team got 5-8th place at Arbalet Cup Dallas.[5] Soon afterwards Rambo retired from professional gaming.

Accomplishments

World championships

Placing Event Year Team Winnings
1st United States Speakeasy CPL 2001 X3 $10,000
1st United States CPL Winter 2002 3D $30,000
1st South Korea WCG 2004 3D $50,000 + Gold medal
1st Singapore WCG 2005 3D $50,000 + Gold medal
1st United States CGS CS:S World finals 2007 coL $5,000

Other

Placing Event Year Team Winnings
5th United States Babbage's CPL 2000 syn $700
1st United States CAL Invite 2001 X3 Prototype Intel processors
1st United States CPL 4-year anniversary 2001 X3 $1,200
2nd United States CPL Winter 2001 X3 $25,000
7th South Korea WCG 2002 3D -
3rd South Korea WCG Continent vs. Continent 2002 America Bronze medal
2nd United States KillerLAN 2003 3D $1,500
3rd United States CPL Summer 2003 3D $28,000
2nd South Korea WCG 2003 3D $20,000 + Silver medal
13th United States CPL Winter 2003 3D $1,000
13th United States CPL Summer 2004 3D $1,000
8th United States CPL Winter 2004 3D $2,000
1st United States WCG qualifier 2005 3D $5,000
2nd United States Acon5 qualifier 2005 3D -
1st United States GGL Americup 2005 3D $4,000
1st United States Digital Life 2005 3D $10,000
9th United States CPL Winter 2005 3D $900
3rd United States Transatlantic showdown 2006 3D $5,250
1st United States EverLAN 2006 3D $10,000
1st United States WSVG LANwar 2006 3D $12,500
4th France ESWC 2006 3D $16,000
2nd United States CGI 2006 3D $15,000
9th United States WSVG ISC 2006 3D $2,250
2nd United States WSVG Finals 2006 3D $25,000
1st United States WCG qualifier 2006 3D $17,500
5th Italy WCG 2006 3D -
2nd United States WCG Pan-Am 2006 3D $2,300 + Silver medal
1st United States PNY Finals 2007 coL $2,000
1st United States Digital Life 2007 coL $10,000
1st United States Newegg LANfest 2007 coL $5,000

Total

Personal life

Kim grew up in Dallas, Texas. He is of Korean American descent.[6] He was born on December 3, 1983.[7]

Business ventures

ESEA

While a member of Team 3D Kim expressed an interest in having an organized system for providing Counter-Strike lessons for the public. 3D's manager Craig Levine formed the ESEA League where Kim has been an instructor since the website's inception.

The Art Of Counter-Strike

Kim is co-author of a competitive guide titled The Art Of Counter-Strike (TAO-CS) along with ex-teammate Ognian "steel" Gueorguiev and journalist Duncan "Thorin" Shields. The guide, which is sold digitally as an ebook, contains over 200 pages and 50 minutes of video footage.[8]

References

  1. Sean "Big_V" Valigura, 30 October 2010
  2. "Rambo - User Profile". ESEA. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
  3. Mark Cheben, "Rambo, zet join compLexity", GotFrag eSports, 13 January 2007.
  4. Marc Turner, "CGS Protected Players Announcement", GotFrag eSports, 8 March 2008.
  5. lurppis (September 26, 2012). "Rambo, mOE & clowN return for CS:GO". HLTV.org. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
  6. Kane, Michael (2008). Game Boys. p. 12.
  7. Shields, Duncan 'Thorin' (December 3, 2011). "28 Rambo moments". SK Gaming. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
  8. "", TAO-CS
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