Pro gaming tales

As we will soon reach the magnificient number of 10 entries, I wanted to know how you guys wanted the stories to be told :

Poll: How you want it ?
(Vote): Linear time line ?
(Vote): Broken Timeline, Pulp fiction style ?
(Vote): Doggy style ?

Cezanne + IloveU = double dragon ? Good morning Junju. KGL summons.



Guess the deal was always the same with me. I would always do things in the wrong order.
See, I had a girl friend now, I had new friends and so much more... the subsequences of my life here were all gathering, however, the core was missing.

Pro gaming core could be in many progamer’s eyes the sponsor itself. I tend to disagree. The real core is winning. Plain winning. Not even talent nor skill nor determination. Winning.

I didn’t have it and never did. Mostly because you need that good share of personality, that agressiveness toward yourself for this matter, that I never got.

I’m not a concerned person.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I can and I fight for things I need everyday or what I want to do. I also do succeed.
However, winning, especially in Starcraft is something totally different. Winning at sports is the closest you could picture I guess.

There is this very special and decisive kind of will you need to build up or have already, to acess that state of mind where you’re somewhat blinded by the goal, making you unable to actually feel the overall absurdity of beeing a “champion” at something.
I’m not claiming sports or any kind of competition to be foolish. Not at all. I’m saying that in a champion’s thoughts, there is little to no room for that very small scent that absurdity leaves in every man’s concepts and recognition of his passed and future acts. That very thin feeling that would just make us laugh about ourselves, even at the most serious times.

The truth might be that deep within, I’m not much of a gamer. I really enjoy it, beeing hardcore and such, but I’m not like Elky for instance, I’m not a person that would break anything after losing a game (not that elky breaks anything when he loses, he just is, let’s say, very very very pissed).

Problem was, if I wanted to pursue my little Asian adventure, I needed to get on the job and quick. Win and get a sponsor. What’s fun when I now think about it, is that, I actually almost got to beileve I could win back then. Moreover the support of my friends was truely great each time I would score a win online against some good Korean player, that was our friend. I would get cheered to death by Su yeon and Jae yong, while right after Jaeyong would rampage the same guy 8-0 or so.

That’s enough about meh !

Let’s move on to what this entry is all about : The infamous and most feared Terran duo of that time, Cezanne and Jaeyong.

See.. speaking about winning “core”, these two guys, were winning cores thereselves. Walking winning cores.

Cezanne was one year older than me, one year younger than Jaeyong. His father was working on the market and just like many other pro gamers, he was from very poor social grounds. That guy got offered to be sponsored many times, but always denied these offers. He basically had two ways to make his cash : Either win tournaments or just work at a fishery.

I sometimes had the feeling his unique purpose to play Starcraft was to rape. He never did really plan ahead. As in any discussion we would have with him, me and jaeyong, late night about our future, sponsors, etc... he would just mumble and wipe it pooring our glasses. He really didn’t give a shit. He just wanted to win and dominate. Prove his superiority at the game I guess.

That’s another thing about Starcraft. The ultimate reason this game kind of makes you feel like a man when you play it :
Starcraft is about guts and showing in a very short time, that you’re right and the other is wrong.

It’s as stupid as that.

You willingly drag someone else onto virtual grounds where moving pixels with a mouse and keyboard is all that matters... and just as an abstracted thing a video game can be, so merely is your own existence at one and single given point of your life.
Because Starcraft is such an abstract thing in so many ways for the brain, it easily and unconscienly structures and compares within ourselves at the time we are playing it, to the other very abstracted objects that our mind commonly deals with, such as one’s existence view or perspective.
Playing starcraft is like gambling a share of your own existence. Losing, meaning that small share you dragged there was annihilated and winning meaning that you transcended it.


Cezanne and Jaeyong, but a very few tedious variations in their gameplay, were basically terran clones. Cezanne had more of a mechanical approach one would say. He loved to lock you in. Jaeyong was more of the prodigy style, very fluent and just toying with you until the point he got bored and decided to kill you, or that you just had passed out.

As for practice, they were machines. I said before we didn’t have any tight practice schedule like nowadays team have, but these guys were playing at the very least 50 to 60 games a day.
That’s something you might not know and that might have changed now because pro gamers mostly practice offline in their team HQs, but before, what made pro gamers so close as a community was that almost everyone was practicing with each other online.

They were of this kind of very resilient Terrans, that just wouldn’t die. I remember walking out to get some food as Grrrr... and Cezanne started a game, and come back about 10 to 15 mins later asking Guillaume how went the game, while he’d answer me this game was still the same and explain how he had wiped him out of the map once already, but that Cezanne had turtled and slowly took back the other half of the map and fought his way back. Ten minutes later Guillaume would Alt-Q-Q.

Jaeyong was more of an expert at fending things off. It was always quite something to watch him hold his ramp against waves of lurkers, zerglings and mutalisks, and, right after repelling the zerg horde, while his oppoenent had 5 bases and he had his main only, he would somehow run accross the map his 3 – 4 m&m packs, his 5 tanks and vessels and just control them so perfectly, that it seemed there was no way for the Zerg, even with all the money in the world, to overcome such a force.

Something amazing with those two, is that a game never ever was truely over. I could give countless exemples of games, that from the begening to the end, no matter the time of the day, had to be filled up with epic moves.
Getting 5 pooled when opening with a 11 barrack / 12 gas, barely making it out alive, while the zerg had powered to lurker slow drop, and then watching my terran fellow manhandling these drops (at mutiple droppoints at the same time) with 3 marines, 1 flame bat, 1 medic.

Sometimes you’d even laugh at the player they were beating up online, asking who was that noob, and upon asking seeing H.O.T. or Themarine or whoever else, typing GG and leaving. They could make some of the top players look like newbies. And that would turn us on.

Cezanne wasn’t much of an enlglish speaker, but a very nice guy. He would not talk often to me or Guillaume – actually even in Korean, he barely spoke at all. He would however hang out with us alot. Coming to the PC room as much as he could, he was always part of the group, when me and jaeyong were going to lans. I also recall Guillaume liking him alot.

I think at first Cezanne was very lonely and didn’t want to mix up. But he was friend with Jaeyong online. Prolly Jaeyong told him to come over and share the fun and he actually liked it. As I said he didn’t speak much at first, however, like many other times in Korea, as we started to travel together and spend alot of time, he slowly started to open and actually on the end, happened to be a very fun fellow and one hell of a joker. What I always noticed over there, is that smart Koreans are always very very good jokers.



Just like almost every single Starcraft tournament that wasn’t mainstream at that time, unless you actually were a “pro gamer” or a “semi”, you wouldn’t know about it. Eventhen, it was hard to find the site where to register, or even, as most of the time there weren’t any pre registering, the actual date and place of the event.

Week before I had fail to qualify for the Gamei weekly lan. Jaeyong and Cezanne didn’t make it to the top eventho they went to the live part. I was kind of down, it was about 10 Pm. Jaeyong shows up to me, telling me him and Cezanne are taking the night bus 3 hours from now, to Junju, where a Starcraft festival is to be held tomorrow, meaning a country side qualifer for the national latter tournament that will take place next month.

I, of course accepted the offer to come with them. I was somewhat worried however, because I knew neither me, cezanne or Jaeyong had any money left. We had about 20 000 won total and I wasn’t actually sure it would pay the trip back and forth. But hey, they were beasts, at least one of us would win the qualifers and get enough money to pay us the trip back. I don’t remember exactl if I asked Guillaume or Jong min for some cash, however I recall that we left the PC bang with about 40 000 total, wich would be sufficient to cover our travel expense.

Junju is a city not so far from Seoul. I recall it being a few hours bus trip. Now we took the night bus because it was cheaper. As the travel was kind of long we decided to sleep in the bus. It was kind of easy for us these days, to actually decide when to sleep, as we didn’t have any sleeping schedule anymore, since a long time.
Jaeyong always was a little weaker than me and Cezanne on the sleeping part. He needed much more sleep. Me and Cezanne were just walking batteries. As Cezanne unlike many other Koreans, never liked to care for others, I was on duty to wake Jaeyong up and such. Cezanne was always the one walking alone in front, joining the party only when he felt like sharing some fun.

Autumn was almost at its end and that very young morning we got in Junju, will always be carved in my memories. It was about 4 or 5 AM, dawn wasn’t there yet as a light, only as a scent or a mere presence. You could just feel night was over, but there were no visible signs of it yet. Maybe the skies were a little clearer, maybe the air, eventho cold, was a little warmer, but it was fresh and full of that youth you can feel in the very begening of a new day. Countryside felt right away so different than Seoul.

We got off the bus into some frozen mud. It wasn’t a real street, just a road I guess. I, for a moment, thought we got on the wrong bus, but Jaeyong told me this was Junju. As it was kind of dark still and I couldn’t see clearly all the town surronding us, I really wondered for a while where the hell would there be a Starcraft lan.

I needed cigarets. As Jaeyong was still sleepy I left him there and rushed to street corner where I just had spoted one of these common Korean small groceries about to open. Jaeyong however realised I was running alone in the dark and went after me.

What happened there is pretty comical. As I stepped into the shop and started to wander around, to check what I could buy for me and Jaeyong, as we were both hungry, I didn’t realise that the woman running this small and tiny and messy place, was silently staring at me, closing and opening her eyes, while mumbling something to herself in Korean.

As I asked her for cigarets and started to count my money to pay – she didn’t react. She was just standing still without moving in front of me. I asked again twice and it took one last time and Jaeyong asking her in Korean (while laughing) what’s up, for her to come back to herself and promptly give me the things I asked. She then moved to touch and feel my hand skin while saying stuff in Korean, but Jaeyong had to tell her this was enough and to politely thank her while dragging me outside the place.

What happened there is that the women prolly never ever had seen a white foreign boy in real life before, maybe she did only on TV, and, figure the shock (Korean folks for some are pretty sensitive and easily shocked), of that woman opening her small shop, in a country side town, just like every 5 am morning, barely awaken, upon seeing a 190 cm Frenchman with blue hairs roaming into her shop and asking in an alien dialect his favorite cigaret brand. Got a little surreal for the lady I guess.

As we got out of the shop, Cezanne showed up successful in his mission to find a PC bang were to practice until the tournament that was scheduled to start at 11 am. When we got there, to my surprise, the place was kind of big and very full of youngsters. Now what happened few minutes ago in that lady’s shop, had yet to happen again.

We sat in a corner quietly, but as soon as one of teenagers there, spoted me, he ran to his friends that were about a dozen to tell the news. I was really surprised actually at the age of the boys staying that early (or that late rather) in the Pc room. Most of them were barely 16 or 17.

In less than a minute, I had a gang of young Korean teenagers staring at me and surronding us. Jaeyong was nicely answering their questions about me, while Cezanne was acting pissed off and basically telling to get the fuck away of him any of the kids that wanted to play a game with him. A few of them kept making commentaries about my face, my eyes and my skin, to the point, I actually had to let one of them touch my face with his hands. After that, we were left in peace and Jaeyong made fun of me because of this for an entire week.

I know this sounds crazy and it really was. You have to remember however, that at this time foreigners were much fewer than they are now in Korea. It really changed in the matter of a few years. My friends there, tell me now that everything’s different and that you have so much more foreigners in Korea.

Anyway, Jaeyong played a few games with me, and decided to sleep when he actually lost one, saying things were getting wrong. I couldn’t agree more.

Until the tournament time I just watched Cezanne play on Gamei. Now he was a true hardcore at practice. He was the type that wouldn’t stop playing just because he had to eat. He’d ask me to get him a bowl of ramen, and while eating it, would play with one hand only, and because he couldn’t play terran with one hand, would just pick zerg and 4 pool every game until he was done eating. That way, he wouldn’t actually STOP to PLAY while eating, eventho I never really saw the point in practicing 4 pooling.

The tournament time came up and neither me or Cezanne had slept, we didn’t need it, coffee was sufficient. However, I was worried for Jaeyong because it always took him a shitwhile to get himself together upon waking up, and the tournament was really close to start.

Junju university turned out to be actually a big place, with several buildings facing each other in a long street (now my memory can be a little wrong about that kind of stuff, maybe the university itself was only the building where the tournament was held, but to me, as there was a very tall gate at the entrance of the street, it seemed the whole area was the university).

As this was in the country side, you had trees about everywhere and it really looked nice. There was that weird feeling, just like actually in many other places over Korea, that comes from this way new and old, modern and poor are mixed, even jammed sometimes, together. Like outside the university you had small and cheap houses with really gray and crappy building, around a mud street, while the university place istelf was brand new and shiny.

So we got there on time and I got to meet Jinam and Jinsu and their manager who I had a chat later with, as he was quite nice. A dozen other pros and semis had made the trip over there, but for the most part the players, as several other qualifers were to take place later on in many other cities, were local and close town or seoul far suburbs gamers.

Actually that kind of tournament is tricky and the more dangerous than other ones filled with players you know and practice with. Because you’ll go winning easily your games and then yet another random person will show up, that will actually turn out to be extremly good, eventho you didn’t know his name, and there is the risk of you getting owned.

I didn’t get to face that risk as I was considering pretty much every single of the players there a strong opponent for me. While Jaeyong and Cezanne were trying to gather infos from other pros or semis they knew there, on who was good and had to be feared, I was randomly shaking hands of people coming up to me, a few of them even asked for a an autograph, that I first tried to decline as I was telling them I was a nobody ( I had given autographs before however), but they wouldn’t understand it so I had to. Like, eventho I had lost all my games on GAMEQ I still had made an appereance, and these kids knew me from there, so I didn’t really have a choice.

I got through the first round easily, killing a terran with my first reaver. I lost the second round to mutalisks micro, game wasn’t very interesting, I could’ve actually win it, had I been little less agressive. However I was avenged later on by Jaeyong who killed that zerg 1 round before the finals.

The qualifer format was rather simple. It was Bo1 until the finals. Now two players would qualifiy for the latter main event here, so you’d basically have two finals held at the same time, but the two winners of these games wouldn’t face each other.

About 150 players had showed up I think. Maybe more, maybe less. Can’t remember really. You didn’t have the right to sit behind the players while they were playing, so you had to stand far behind and couldn’t see well. I remember however a protoss player that I liked alot that day.

This guy played the exact same way, each game, no matter what race he was facing. He’d go 1 gate to reaver rush into 3-4 gate dragoons from his main. He didn’t expand a single time through the tournament and reached quarter finals. It was really fun to watch him, trying as hard and pushing it as hard as he could and hanging no matter what to his strategy eventho the situation would’ve required some kind of adaptation. But his mighty reavers and dragoon would always prevail in the end. That’s the kind of stuff that tends to make me beileve that if you’re good at pressuring and constant fighting, you can pretty much win only relying on unit count and time, without worrying about unit combination and change. This was long ago however.

What happened that day, is that, Cezanne and Jaeyong pretty much decimated every single person on their way. They both took the two qualifying spots available and from the few games I saw of them that day, it wasn’t really hard at all. At that time most of players were Zergs still and the kind of Terrans Jaeyong and Cezanne were, was basically a race designed by a higher will for the only purpose of erradicating Zergs. The only protoss they would find on their way would lose, as he would get confused facing openings he never saw before. Their TvP was very strong in the way Terrans weren’t main stream yet and you couldn’t really expect the strats they would use on you. You’d pretty much as protoss, fall into there traps, get tricked and owned. It was very enjoyable to watch, as that day, they just looked like two secret Kung fu students dropping off their mountain training to amaze the mortal crowds with their magic arts.


As the tournament ended and we were invited by Jinam’s manager to eat and drink nearby as to celebrate, I realised there was no actual prize for the winners. No money ! and we were short on cash. However I didn’t really care and we went on drinking and eating.

I hardly remember the diner. I think the talks pretty much revolved around Cezanne beeing asked if he wanted to join their team, but him declining stating that he wasn’t looking for a sponsorship. Now Cezanne was a target, as he was pretty famous offline and online. But he constantly declined all offers.


As we got to the bus we realised we didn’t have any money left. We were drunk and I was the one who went up the bus driver begging him to let us on, thing that he kindly did.

When we got back to Seoul, Cezanne went to sleep at his home and I went with Jaeyong to his team building office, where his loosy managers, busy at smoking and watching Tv, didn’t even told him “good job” upon hearning about his victory. They gave him 10 bucks as a “bonus” for his win. I think I remember him that day telling me on the way out the building, how much he hated his managers.


That’s around this time I got summoned by the holy Ophium in a mail, asking me to bring up Jaeyong and Su yeon to GameQ office within the week. Ophium would usually mail me to go and have a drink, he loved hanging out with me and Guillaume. But this time it was for official stuff – I however didn’t know what.

Our trio took the taxi on a sunny day to the GameQ office, where we were greeted with drinks and snacks. Ophium was there with an official of the national motorbike company (cant remember the damn name). He explained about a league they were setting up, and they were missing a few teams to make it to the format they wanted it to be.

So they asked me, su yeon and Jaeyong if we wanted to form a team. We’d have to play every week, and get paid 250 bucks each one of us every time we played. Ophium also said that if we did good in the league, the Motorbike company we were “representing” in the league, would maybe consider sponsoring a pro gaming team. All this was shiny and very welcomed, as our dire need of money was starting to feel real hard.

That’s how our KGL team was borned.

KGL was an awesome opportunity for players. Previous KGL was a 1v1 classic format league, that Guillaume had won twice in a row before.
But this year GAMEQ wanted to bring something new, and changed it. That’s how they ran the first Pro team league ever.

You had everything in there and everybody.
Sponsored pro teams, clans, or even random friend teams like us.
Format would go this way : 2 Male 1v1s, 1 female 1v1, 1 male 2v2 and one male/ female 2v2.

Thing is that the atmosphere with the gameq events was always great and friendly. Sometimes the games wouldn’t be broacasted in the Office, but rather in a cosy Apkunjong Pc bang that had a recording studio. Basically the day would be about playing games, having fun, chilling out. Wasn’t every time like this, but any given time, where the team we were facing was just as cool about it as we were, then the afternoon would drag a long way until evening, where everyone would eat and get drunk together.
Days of KGL were times we would rejoice, as they would mean fresh money for the week. Not to mention that motorbike sponsor hope had given us strength to keep on going. That’s the first time however, Ophium frankly spoke to me, saying he was able to get us the deal not because of Jaeyong massive skills, not because I was remotly close to beeing good at starcraft, but only because I was foreigner and was good looking.

He didn’t say it in a mean way at all, but rather to tell me that was the way I should try to make things happen and not count on winning ^^.



Next will be about my young relationship, how I was traveling 2 hours across the whole city to see my girl and how I got finally sponsored and turned into a real Pro Gamer !.
And maybe some more depending...

Hope you enjoyed it !

PS : We need to make this blog grow ! More views and more comments !

Three poor gaming fucks. Blue haired me. What late night ICQ brings.




Money wasn’t an issue. It wasn’t an issue in the way we didn’t have any. “We” could have beeen somewhat of a global “we”, spreading all over the low standard pro gaming grounds. That would pretty much mean 97% of the progaming community back then.

However, most were not dedicating their entire life to their passion.

Some were still at school, studying, others working part time. As the only real TV league was the one held on the young OGN channel, the basic goal of any gifted starcraft player giving a try at this, would mean winning lan tournaments and pray the holy protoss shrine OGN might hear about you and send the invite for the offline qualifers.
See the thing was that the TV stage, like any other main stream that focused on Starcraft at some point, in the mind of most semi pros, amateurs, was some kind of inacessible place that you shouldn’t count on for your career, if there WAS a career ever.
Career was, and still is, a very big word to describe what can one expect when dedicating his days to pro gaming. As for now, the only player I might consider that ever had a “career” would be Nada. But that’s for another chapter.

A few teams were rising, trying to form, then would collapse. Some would find a sponsor, company would go bankrupt, they would disband. Some others, very few again, would try to stick together, as a team, a clan, whatsoever, share the same pc bang, or expectionnaly the same house. This wasn’t common at all, this was unique and rare.
As I remember it, the big thing that time, was Garimto getting sponsored by Hanbit. I recall him beeing their only player then, and this was how things would usually turn : A big company would sponsor one very famous player and that was about it. The team spirit as you guys know it today wasn’t born yet, and neither would it be from OGN or sponsors. Nah. Most of the teams were pretty much borned from KGL. As the KGL unofficial goal, was to actually promote team of players and find them a sponsor.
I’ll talk about KGL a little later.

I’m more in the gaming for survival tale mood. As I stated, nobody would really expect to get in OGN quick as a regular player. You’d pretty much basically need a very good manager that knew the producers well, or be already famous. Boths of these prerequesites turn out to be the same thing : to get in OGN you needed to have a name.
And that name, wasn’t a thing you could make online. No. No way. Korean pro gaming community was a littlebig world. The road was long and tedious. You litteraly had to be on the verge of anything happening. You had to go real. You had to go lan. You had to prove yourself. You had to go live.

There weren’t many straight cash prized lans. Most of the lans that were held, were qualifers, for other qualifers for final phases of nationwide tournaments. Those would go under the name of “game festivals” and you would have many throughout the year. These could also lead, after an endless nightmare of consequent winning streak, over weeks people... over weeks... to a live event in Busan, Seoul or some other city, where you’d get the chance to play one big starcraft star and hopefully beat him, because he wouldn’t care.

You had university tournaments, you had famous websites tournaments, and you had gamei.. and lans, unknown random lans, wich’s only advertisement, would be mouth to mouth, online, gamer to gamer saying “ yeah that day, over there, there is lan, there is money.”

Pro gaming, was a gigantic, mystical mess.

I’ll briefly describe the way Grrrr...’s team would work back then. As this team was a “rich” one, and as you’ll see how players were managed and the team was run, you’ll get a sweet idea of what it really meant to be pro gamer.

So in this team, to actually get a salary or some kind of investement, you had to get a contract with them, after long and painful hours of practicing for free and hanging out just like a homeless person, waiting for the managers to pay you a meal with the rest of the team, now and then.
After making sure you weren’t the kind that would die eating one ramen meal only a day and sleeping in front of a computer 6 hours every night for a decent period, and making sure you were tournament material, by randomly sending you to far away lans, they would offer you a deal that would basically go like this :
80 % of your winnings would go for the team, while the team supports you, giving you from 200 to 400$ a month, depending if you were full time or half time contract, and of course, actively trying to find you a sponsor. Aside this awesome and shiny deal, you’d get a crappy room with no heat and no shower, in a random building where the managing company would have it’s office at that time.

That’s why so many players back then, didn’t want any manager, or even sponsor. Even the sponsors would usually ask you to hand them your hard won cash prizes.

So as a progamer you’d fall in one of these 3 categories :

In some sort of a team, with very nice dedicated manager, that would work things out well trying to make the whole team hold together (jinsu, jinam first manager is a good exemple of that kind of place)

In contract with a “pro gaming” team, asking you alot and giving you very little, but providing some kind of “official deal and support” to their players.

Be a lone wolf, roaming from lan to lan, tournaments to tournaments, a bounty hunter, that would basically piss on all managers and teams.

If pro gaming ever risked death, as many people were fortelling it, I think it’s very first and natural predators, were all these losers and parasites, that would stick to players and try to get money without doing much in return – managers.

Nice coaches, nice managers, as you all picture them nowadays on tv is : a) wrong b) very small minority.

Most of them were uneducated, school dropped out students, PC bang bums, that weren’t good at starcraft, but that would stick to the good players around. Even some of them you see today on TV, in nice shiny black suits and ties, were a few years ago, just as dirty and ingnorant you can get.

As you can see, I don’t really have a good experience with managers. I myself didn’t have many, nor for any long period. Grrrr... always made sure he had control over his manager and made things clear the guy was working for him and not the other way around.

Others players.. well... they were pretty much gaming slaves.

Oh well, this might look like a dark and gloomy vision of the managing thing, but I can give you my word on that : at first, things were very ugly and miserable.




Back to me ! So my situation sucked. It hadn’t yet reached the very deep bottom of the Indian Ocean, nevertheless, let’s say I was sort of on a curve, and the part of the curve where it would start to fall. I had very little money, just like my two friends, Jaeyong and Su yeon. We were sharing alot. Su yeon was somewhat from a wealthy family, and she often was the one treating everyone to diner.
Now, unlike today’s Team houses, and tight pro team practicing schedules, it was different. We were basically completly free to do whatever it pleased us. So we usually would spend the afternoon playing, then leave at night for diner, then cheap soju bang, then back to PC room, and from midnight to dawn, hardcore gaming. Morning was night, and time to sleep.
As for the rooms, Jaeyong would go back to sleep to the team building now and then, and I would go sleep at Grrrr...’s hotel room whenever he wasn’t in. When I had some spare cash I would give him. But most of the time, as it was a hotel room and the maid would daily clean, he wouldn’t care as much than if it was his own place. Su Yeon was randomly going back to sleep at her home to take breaks from gaming.

BUT MOST OF TIME : We would just be hardcore, and sleep in the PC room sofas and chairs, or just not sleep.

I recall me and Jaeyong taking turns to the luxuous bathrooms of N.E.T, basically washing ouselves around 5 am when no customer was still there. We’d lock the main door of the bathrooms, wash ourselves entirely with cold water and get out of it barely dried with our wet hairs.
Nobody would say a thing. It was just fun.

Then we’d grab some coffee drinks, go for a moonlight walk around Kang nam, come back an hour later, and resume gaming.

My poor existence was one of my sweetest time in Seoul city. We really didn’t need much money. About 20 bucks were enough to sustain ourselves for a day. Automn was perfect. We didn’t need any warm clothes, days were still long, evenings slow in Kang nam streets, eating on street side tables with my two friends, some good calbi, a few bottles of soju, and that was it. Happiness. Times where future had no true meaning. Hope wasn’t rare or to be seen – it was an endless stream shaping everything.

My infamous duo would not hang out with the rest of Grrrr...’s team, they didn’t like them.. errm.. they hated their own team. Su yeon had joined because this team was the only deal Jaeyong had found to get a financial support to move over Seoul and try pro gaming.

Now that I come to think about it and that all these forgotten pictures, memories of situation surface, I clearly remember one extra pro gaming chick on the roster, the hip hop kind, very small and very cute, just like so many of them. I didn’t get to see her really often however.

I said a little earlier we were miserable. We were miserable as youth can be, upon reaching that sort of superb climax of pure freedom ; that peak felt upon moving over the slow transition to adulthood. Everything felt like in a dream.

That’s about that time that Jong min, Grrrr...’s personal manager and slave, decided he had to help me, and try something with me.

His first idea was to take me out drinking after one night’s diner, then, while we got wasted real fast, he proposed to dye my hairs. We hopped by a shop in the subway and bought the needed products to do so. All the way long Jong Min was explaining how his ex GF was a hairdresser and that he knew all about doing it.

We went to Guillaume’s room, and after a few hours, work was done. I was drunk and it looked truely awesome. All the time it took doing it, I and Jong min were drinking soju and beers in Guillaume’s room. We got back to N.E.T. and went to every single person we knew in there, to show my hairs. People were staring at us, like freaks.

And so, as Jong Min’s first act toward managing me, that was to dye my hairs, was over, some kind of secret contract was silently signed, and from there on he helped me giving me 10 or 20 bucks a day, and paying me food as often as possible.

I somewhat liked him. He was acting real dumb and really was nothing close to a guarantee of help or sucess out there, but we had fun together.

That night he took me Jaeyong and Su yeon on to drink to the nearest Soju bang again.


I came back alone, Su yeon had left in a cab for her home, Jong Min basically felt asleep in the Soju bang, and Jaeyong had to bring fat Jong min back the team’s building.

I remember showing up to Guillaume upon entering N.E.T.
He was PvZing on - ashrigo ? or was it char magma -, Ilovestar, the Zerg runner up of the last KbK that lost to Slayer. Ridiculous hydralisks waves were raping him as I stood behind him, while Guillaume would type “GG yo, Hydra mana ^^”.

I was making fun of him because I was drunk. Guillaume then forced me to play against IloveStar and join the fun. I didn’t want to. It was just a B.net game but I knew I would get raped. Anyway, we made on LT, I spawned P at 9, IloveStar Zerg at 6.

I didn’t really care about the game, and used a very old build of Grrrr... to mock him. While building my shit up, I was telling him how his build sucked blah blah..

You’d basically pump zealots out from one gate until 27 Supply with constant probes, then expand with about 3 zealots, halt probe production and drop 4 gates at once and go on 5 gate zealots.

What happened just suprised me as much as Guillaume, whom I could hear the excitement behind me.

I handled Ilovestar’s speedling easily, then went out with about 16 zealots, marched over his natural, that I raped. However I was stopped on top of his ramp by newly morphed sunkens and shitloads of drones and zerglings.

I thought I had the game, retreated and teched up.

When zealot speed finished I went back to poke at him, but no sign of expansion. As my first photons finish warping in my main, about 12 overlords drop by to say hello, hordes of zerglings and a full pack of lurkers.


My squads of zealots and my few templars couldn’t save my main, nor the game, that soon moved over islands he had expanded to.


I played a few more games that night with Bluek, prolly the worst pro gamer ever, but the only one I could beat with consitency, and enjoyed the way he would curse each time I would beat him within 7 mins.


Guess it was about 4 am or so. Guillaume was leveling his D2 char somewhere in the Pc room. Han and Bbark were taking turns playing me. Everything was calm. That very unique Pc room peace you find around these hours, when everyone is feigning to sleep, not making any move or any noise, other than what comes from moving a mouse, typing on a keyboard, slowly driven by the friendly lights and sounds of the games.
Every game or two, you’d slowly move out of the chair, meet up your friends at the drink machine, smoke a cigaret and then proceed to sit back and play more.

Night should’ve gone this way until dawn. But something happened.
As I was having a break from Starcraft and aimlessly browsing internet, some random person requested me on for an add on his ICQ list, to chat and stuff.

Now I was never big of a chater, I have my times, you know, but I don’t really enjoy it.
That unknown person that was spaming me and that I greeted upon saying “Fuck off”, promptly stated she was a girl in Seoul. Just one more reason for me to bielive it was a scam – little did I knew at that time, it was actually really common in Korea, to randomly talk with people you didn’t know.. However, as I didn’t block right away the message box, while browsing I was replying, making fun and such, saying he wasn’t a girl at all but a fucking perv pretending to be a chick.

That’s about when I got this message : “You don’t bielive me ? Give me your phone number and I’ll call to prove you I’m a girl.”

Now I was starting to wonder what the hell was wrong.
She didn’t have a webcam and sended me pics. I had sent some of mine back. Then she actually called on the phone, she was a girl, with a young voice. Could’ve perfectly matched the pictures she sent...

Then she asked me to get on the webcam if I had one. Each computer of the pc room had one. So there I was, showing myself up at 5 am to a chick I didn’t know, with my brand new flashy blue hairs.

I somewhat asked, if she wanted to come and and meet me. She said she was on holidays and she’d be happy to do so, because she was damn curious about what a french boy of 18 years old was doing in Seoul, playing computer games.

I told her to come to N.E.T. in the afternoon and that we’d go for a walk and some coffeeshop.

Next thing I know and see, is a tiny and cute face with a huge smile, waking me up in my chair in front of the computer.

I cursed at myself in French for about 5 minutes upon waking up. I didn’t expect the girl to be pretty. But she was. I was feeling unconfortable, I rushed to the hotel, washed and came back.

So jee was a highschool girl and it was her last year. She had lived abroad for a longwhile and had a perfect english. She was soft, hot and smart. It kind of felt at first like a dream. We went walking the first day. The next she came again and we walked some more. We went to a park couple of days later, spent the entire evening there and kissed.

That’s how I met So jee. We dated for the next 6 months.


Next will be about me, Jaeyong, cezanne. Junju starcraft festival. KGL.


Sorry about the way it was written. Might sound different. That’s because I quit smoking 6 days ago now ! Life feels kind of weird as I’ve been smoking one box of cigaret a day for the past 10 years !

Anyway, the next entry will come shortly and will be much better !!

This week is the 3 years anniversary of me and my gf moving in together.

I'll be off most of the week.


No new tale for you until I come back ! ^^

Dreams. Jaeyong – friend and part time Starcraft God. I won’t be a champion – at least not in this life.



Writting all what happened 8 years ago straight up, has to sooner or later, start showing it’s limits and difficulties. As a matter of fact, the more I will have to dig within myself what at first could abruptly surface, the more my pick of events, stories, in other words, following the trail of these old experiences, will begin to shape and color through my present thoughts. It’s the finest ability of memory, to transform, as we more and more evoke it, a very old past that had until now remained at rest – its reminescence – to something suddenly perfectly familiar. As just a few moments ago, this record, that was almost not me, is now that close, and alive and clear, that my reasoning uses it just as a guinea pig.

I guess that’s the time where you have to be more picky and somewhat careful in the things you decide to expose. It’s not about make up, it’s not about faking. Just maybe refining, that sometimes weird and sometimes sharp intuition, of telling what is really worth of beeing told.


You know, I don’t carry any belief. I’m not even certain of what I can doubt, and Philosophy would be all I can explain about words with other words. However, from my stay in Korea, the way I lived there, and later the return in my own country, I noticed something. I can’t really explain it in a very structured fashion. It’s a really simple idea however.
It’s the feeling the human body has some kind of hidden battery. Not the biological common clock battery type. More of a life term one. A battery that you cannot replenish, and that, depending on how you use it, can deplete and feel so real fast. Maybe one would call it youth. Another, the simple fact that we age, or even the impact that events can have on oneself.

As I remember my life back then, never getting any proper kind of sleep, never eating something close a healthy meal, my horizon never beeing more than a day ahead, all this, washed away by human’s primal and best ability, wich is survival, I today know, my body wouldn’t be able to do it again. As I acknowledge this as sort of a fact, a huge feeling of tireness, just like a wave submerges me. I’m almost convinced that back then, I used a great deal of this “hidden battery” that every one carries, and that it was part of why things were so awesome and seemed shaped as a life’s time of true greatness.

Everything was so different that I’m stucked just telling you how cool it was.


I was having this nightmare quite often, the times I would actually sleep in a real bed. I would see myself going back to France, telling everyone there how great Korea was. But the more the dream was lasting, the more I was staying stucked in France, and at last, I would miss the plane I had to take to fly back.
As I would wake from these, the Korean morning sun dying through the window right on me, would animate my whole body with an impossible to describe feeling of joy. All my concerns as to answer my current’s situation difficulties, would not only vanish, they wouldn’t even dare to merely exist.

What’s more, this state of mind wasn’t of my exclusive property. It would actually reflect and enhance from a very exact copy of itself, that I could spot in the eyes of my great companions in this gaming happiness and misery. I even thought for some time, it was something unique to this country.


Grrrr...’s team had moved at last to N.E.T., and that’s when I met Jaeyong, who used to roam as the most feared terran entity for a long while, the online and lan grounds of Starcraft battle for skill supremacy. His game ID was IloveU and he was, let me tell you, employing the irony of his ID to it’s very extreme potent.

The atmosphere here, as about 10 pro gamers were now daily practicing, had changed alot. Of course Grrrr... who had moved before the rest, and basically dragged here the whole team, was some sort of phenomum for people coming to N.E.T. Of course word had spread that Grrrr... was playing at N.E.T. Of course a good share of the Pc room’s customers, was coming there to watch him. Grrrr... hated it. I loved it.
Han was soon assigned to a new task by the staff : make sure customers would stay at least 2 meters far from the Canadian champion when he was playing.
However, as N.E.T. wasn’t a cheap place, any given teen could not afford to stay in, and most of the people there were workers in their early 30’s. So they would usually not be such game maniacs and politly let the guy breath in peace. But soon, as his team moved in, this thing started to change.

That’s how one morning, as I had slept in Grrrr...’s hotel room last evening while he had spent the night playing at N.E.T., upon showing up kind of refreshed at the Pc room and hailing everyone I knew there, I headed toward a group of people hiding with their bodies and their cries of excitement, the computer where I was sure to find Guillaume playing. While walking the last meters, I heard Grrrr...’s voice in my back. Now something was wrong I thought. The voice shouldn’t have came from behind me. I then turn and see Guillaume with a drink coming to me and saying “You gotta see this.”

The person sitting at the crowded computer, was a skinny yet normal for this countrie’s standards I guess, Korean boy.
He was wearing a mid arm white shirt, and while playing, saying things in Korean everybody in the audience would laugh at upon hearing. What I could then peek at above everyone’s shoulders, of the game this guy was playing, had to be the most impressive thing I had yet to see of Starcraft.
I witnessed that day a display of skill I had no prior memory of. The main thing that striked me, was this sound, of keyboard and mouse bashing. The mechanical noise of the computer’s external hardware, paced at an inhuman rythmn. I then saw the source of all this :

Small, thin, agile white hands ; jumping, flying, tensed and unaturally curved – some kind of an ultimate gaming tool, designed and shaped by gaming.

It was so different than what I was used from Guillaume. Nothing there was calm, nothing was “flowing”. Nervosity, speed, agressivity, were the primal attributes of a way of playing Starcraft I would’ve never imagined.

Guillaume was laughing, kind of like a madman, and told me right away this dude was the best player he had ever seen. He knew him already, as the guy was on the team. “Jaeyong” he at last told me, is the name. “Heo Jaeyong”.
I had no idea then, how much I would love and cherish the human existence stamped with this name.

I remember one morning, one of “these mornings” where I would find a tired Guillaume and a tired Jaeyong in N.E.T., Guillaume telling me with a smile Jaeyong had beaten him 18 games to 1 last night. Guillaume would sometimes say that this kind of new player, was the reason he didn’t want and couldn’t “keep up” with the new gen of progaming. However, truth was, he actually kept up for a shit fucking while after he stated this.
Guillaume wasn’t getting raped by any mean. Games would always at least last for 20 or 30 mins. As I’d ask Jaeyong sometimes, if he was confident beating Grrrr... had he to play him on TV, he would then answer me laughing : “Are you nut ? It’s Guillaume we’re talking about.”. I will never stress enough, how much back then, a concerned Guillaume in an important game, had to be the closest thing there was to a reckless gaming beast to defeat.

Jaeyong, was a Terran player, 2 years older than me. He was from Busan and had left his hometown to give a shot in Seoul at pro gaming. His mother back in Busan was running a PC room, and one can safely assume that the guy had hardcored Starcraft back there quite a bit.
Now what made Jaeyong special and very unique, just like a thousand of other things, was his intelligence. It was physically radiant.
He never been abroad, graduated highschool in his city, and yet, was incredebly fluent with English. Unless you lived in Korea you wouldn’t understand how strange and rare this can be, especially back then.
He had no asian accent. His grammar was perfect. Not a word he didn’t know, not a way of talking he didn’t understand.

I never ever saw this guy talking without at the same time, providing his interlocutor with that true and natural smile of human brotherhood and contagious friendship. I guess you could call this actual charism. I somehow feel the word a little shy when it comes to picturing him.

Now he was of the gen of the pre 1.08 Terran players. Meaning that his actual aptitude at dominating any given player so easily, would be the trademark of this genuine Starcraft talent, at debuking the game’s possibilites. That would translate as watching Jaeyong, with some misregarded Terran material at that time, violently carving his way to victory in each game, without ever caring who or what race he was facing.
Playing against Jaeyong was nothing else than asking a mamouth for rampage.

This was the era of these endless epic TVZ games, when zerg hadn’t yet went through its last nerf, and gamestyle was revolving for the most part around massive ammounts of hydralisks, zerglings and lurkers, and a take and lose expansion hide and seek game for zerg.
Jaeyong was a fucking vaccum zerg cleaner. This sort of terran wouldn’t expand until the last mineral of the starting patch was mined out, and the only reason that he wouldn’t lift his starting CC and actually build a new one at his natural, was because he needed the scan. He was the kind of Terran who’s marine would be traded for at least 2 lurkers, and who’s tank would be at least worth 20 enemy supply count. Three barracks, on factory, one starport, fast eng bays – that is all he needed and asked to get the job done. Matrixed marines were what the vessels were for. He would force the zerg to virtually “dance” with him around any given tactical spot. If the zerg wasn’t fast enough, he had then to die.

See people, it’s much of a game of pushing the “thing”, more and more, until and to the point, the other succumbs or just breaks. That’s why when these Terrans were winning, you had that feeling you just saw them dismantle someone.

His practice gamestyle was however, very different of how he would play in tournaments. Tournaments were pretty much about executing one sole and perfected to the max strategy, that would just punish the opponent unless had he practiced just as much to counter it, than the Terran had trained to kill with it.

If all this sounds very common and obvious, it only means I failed at describing the unique essence of these terran’s gamestyle back then.

So, Grrrr... introduced me that day to Jaeyong and a girl sitting next to him. A very cute one. If you think Tossgirl is somewhat cute, then you have to know, next to this girl, she’s an ugly and vulgar bitch. Su yeon was somewhat Jaeyong’s girlfriend, on platonic love trip I thought for a while (I wasn’t sure ever, until I got them both drunk a night and forced all four of us (yeah, there was another extra for me), into a hotel and paid for their room.).
She was a protoss pro gaming chick on the team. She never really cared about Starcraft, she just enjoyed the progaming thing alot. She was studying astronomics however at the same time, so she wasn’t just spending as much time in the PC bang than we did.
She wasn’t either coming with me, Jaeyong and Cezanne (him and jaeyong were terran clones, exceptionnal player as well) – that I will tell later about –, on our lan tournaments countryside / smaller cities trips. However she was the feminin ace of our KGL team, coupled with a very tough late night drinker.

I think it took us about 1 hour to understand we would be good friends, and decide to spend most of our time together.


Gamei had launched about two weeks ago then I think, and it was sort of a revolution. This place was a progaming nest. Anyone you’d step across at it’s server’s early age, was potentialy a starcraft powerhouse that you had to give all you got to, if you were planing to stay more than 5 minutes in the game.
So we were all basically spending our entire time on Gamei. I have to admit, most of the time I was staying idle in the channel, as I would just watch Jaeyong playing next to me. As I’m much more of the contemplative kind, than the acting one, you can guess why I wasn’t practicing so much, in such gaming neighbourhood.

As Jaeyong, Su yeon and Cezanne will be increasingly present and mentionned in the later stories, I will stop there on the topic, and continue now, with a brief summary of the foreign slaughterfest the first GameQ world championnship turned into.


The first WCG had ended, and me along 7 other white boys (this included all the Xds crew that stopped by Korea for WCG, Maynard, Everlast and Grrrr....) were matched against the 8 hottest Korean starcraft players of the time. StEagle, Samjjang, H.O.T forever, Intotherain, Slayer’s_Boxer, freemura ? (bah ! my memory lacks again !) were called to join the fun.

Maynard, who had forgotten the day we were all supposed to show up, forced gameq to postpon his game, thing that gave him enough time I guess to perfect the new found and mortal strategy, he would use every single game he played in the tournament : AKA 4 POOLING YOUR ASS NO MATTER WHO OR WHAT RACE YOU ARE.
It actually worked for him quite well, as he passed the two first rounds when all others failed to win a single game.

To end this entry I will give 3 battle reports, of the 3 games I remember well. Me against Samjjang, Everlast against Boxer, and Killa against IntoTheRain (wich was btw the closest thing foreigners got that day, at legitly beating a Korean in the real world).

I’ll go first, as the game I played is the least interesting one, but maybe the funniest because of how bad of a rape it was. All the first round games had to be played on Lost temple btw.

Now, since we knew the draw, all the noisy canadians in the room were bugging me saying how lucky I was to play Samjjang that was for sure the weakest player ever. Now I wasn’t particulary sad or happy to have to play him, I didn’t have any idea what race the guy would play or what he would do.
Somehow, for some very unexplicable reason, I was convinced Samjjang had picked Zerg before the game was started. I spawned Protoss at 3, he spawned terran at 12. My plan was to make a kind of early gate with a very early zealot of course, go and divert the zerg while I would canon expand my natural and go for a macro fest. That’s what I did and sent my scouting probe toward Six as I would have seen his overlord if he was 12. That’s how I had a zealot warping and and a new pylon with lots of probes, but no sign of gas yet, when my scout discovered a supply wallin at 12.

I somehow broke his wallin with my dragoon and 2 zealots, went in the base, killed a few things before getting repelled by very early mines. I went for an expansion before robotic and 2nd gate thinking I had an advantage and that he would expand. Samjjang went for 3 factories vultures and taught me two different things : Why 1 gate dragoon fast expansion would get me dead. And why he had a very good micro.
I lost alot of probes in vulture raids, while expanding at 6 and having to dodge the mines with my low dragoon number, while he was free to roam splitting his vulture squads cuz he had many. Meanwhile he had expanded himself and just killed me with his first push that I couldn’t break. I basically quit after failing to unlock the tight passage between my cliff and the right upper center map wall. That spot is a bitch.

Anyway, as every single of my white friends upon me coming back would tell me how bad I sucked and how Samjjang was the only player in this tournament any of them could’ve owned (thanks guys, as I didn’t know already), the later fact that Samjjang won rather easily the whole tournament, beating H.O.T. in the finals 2-0, cheered me up a little. Only Intotherain came to confort me later that day before leaving the place, saying Samjjang was a very dangerous player.

Everlast had practiced only one match up and one case scenario : Boxer. And that’s what he got. Needless to say, Boxer was the man everybody was afraid of and nobody actually expected Everlast to win. Only Guillaume and me I think, thought he actually had a chance, because he had been practicing against the strat Boxer would use in PvT 100% of the time.

What you guys might not know, is that Boxer at first was famous for his TvP. Not his TvZ. The dropship fan mania would come far later. He was very feared for his monstrous TvP macro strat back then, wich was the 1 tank / cc fast expand you all know today. Back then, this openening was very new, and he’d basically do that while going for 4 factories from wich he’d pump tanks in continuous stream, until he felt he had enough to just run over you. Might sound weird now, but it was incredebly hard to stop. He would usually move with about 18 – 20 tanks and loads of scvs, and beeing the micro beast he is, scratch any last hope you had at delaying the fatal instant of the GG.

However, we briefly thought in the game, Everlast would actually be able to halt the first tank wave.
Boxer was 12, Everlast 9. Boxer trademarked 1 tank exp while everlast went for a reaver rush, closely followed by two nexus upon seeing boxer’s opening and dealing minimum damage with his reaver.
Everlast landed about 7 gates, got zealot speed and a templar archive. When boxer left his base, everlast had about 8-10 dragoons, 8 or so zealots,1 or 2 dark templars and 3 templars and a shuttle. We really thought he would be ok. We really did, espacially as he executed a very nice pincer attack right out the upper left corner center’s map wall. We really did, until we saw boxer microing very well, and all the fight proceeding with the 3 templars, sitting right there, just in the perfect range, but not casting any storm.
Everlast, of course had forgot to upgrade psi storm. Game over.


X’ds~Killa spawned at 6 zerg, Intotherain 12 protoss.
Killa handled the 9/10 gate rush rather easily, even with a 12 / 12 hatch pool. Killa was a good player. He then went for 3 hatch hydralisks wich seemed to work very well as he set his contain, dogded the first storm perfectly, and expanded twice. It was looking all good.

Then Intotherain decided this had to end, and stormed his way out of his base, and marched straight onto Killa with a unit number none had really expected.

It was often like this in the early days. We all knew the main patterns, and didn’t really think that, with a perfect execution from one side, the other in that very case could get away. But pro gamers back then, because there were no replays, all had their own secret tricks, that nobody would expect and suddenly show up doing things that looked like they had the game debunked.

We all left the GameQ office in our loser shoes that day. Grrrr... went drinking with his countrymen and I took a cab back to N.E.T, knowing I wouldn’t be the GameQ world champion, and that I had yet again, missed another important chance.



Next entry will contain a big deal of Jaeyong and Su yeon and how life was. Jong Min trying to help me out. And about a girl named So jee.


PS : It somewhat was a little more difficult than the previous entries to write, so I hope you’ll enjoy it. Again always feel free to leave a msg. Support is all that will keep me going !

Thanks for your time. Mark.

My yet awkward but adorable Korean family. Having fun with Han and Bbark. How to ditch your manager.


Now this entry will contain a little less of pure Starcraft material and will focus a bit more on people I was with at first then, a few fun stories, and somewhat of a tour of what my early life in Seoul was. If you have any specific enquiry, feel free to PM me.


Aside hanging out with Grrrr..., I would spend now that I was alone, most of my time in N.E.T. The staff got very close with me within the first two weeks, and even closer, as I would spend my first 3 entire months in Seoul, basically living there. The staff of N.E.T. was very unique as in the way most of their head staff were graduated people, with quality college degrees, meaning they could somewhat speak english. The younger part of the staff, very shy at first, got used to my presence and, as I’m not of the quiet kind, me going up to them, to discuss, exchange, and ask tons of questions about Korea. I’ll do a quick description of the most important people for me there.

Due to the respect of his age, and his head position in this huge PC room, I’ll start off with Shina (that was his game handle not his name, often I’ll go with game handles, as they were easier than their Korean name to use for me, and they would introduce to me using those most of the time).
Shina meant “having fun” or “enjoyement”. This 55 years old Korean man, used to have a high position in SK telecom before, but, as the opportunity of managing the biggest pc Room of Seoul was offered to him, he promptly accepted, as he was a fucking hardcore gamer. Yes, 55 years old, and he was basically playing Diablo II all day long. He was kind, calm and extremly funny. He had studied in U.S.A. when he was young, and had a decent english. He was small and very skinny, always wearing a cap and sweater, and from far away, you could’ve just thought he was a teenager. All the time I was there, I never saw him arguing even once, or getting into a fight with his subordinates. This man, as you will learn later on, is the person that prolly did the most for me at first in Seoul. He basically arranged meetings for me at N.E.T. with possible sponsors that he knew, and finally got me one. But that’s for another chapter. So, out of pure kindness, this old man devoted some of his time, to give me what I needed the most : someone that actually cared about me, and a honest try at helping me out financialy. He would often, late night, show up with a drink and ask me about France, to tell him about northern sea side, Paris and all kind of things, while telling me about his sons and Korea after. His generosity seemed to know no limits. He was carrying his cellphone (just like many people) around his neck, and combined with the rest of his attitude, he looked like a kid, especially when his wife would call him and yell at him because he wasn’t coming back home. Late night, as we would stay up playing until 4 or 5, he would want to keep up with us, but as he was older and kind of weaker, he would just fall asleep in his chair.


You then had Mr. Lee, who was always piercing tiny holes at the bottom of his cigarets to make them lighter. He just got out of the army and his national duty at that time, and was finishing his thesis in economics. He had a very good english, and was as all others, a very cheerful person, open minded. However he was not much of a gamer. Whenever an important matter had to be discussed with me, he would act as the interpreter. He was always very busy doing all the paper and business work for N.E.T. Shina and the others wouldn’t do because they were playing. He was also sorting out the server and technical issues of the Pc room. This guy was awesome. He was dating one of the girls working there as well, and they got married later on. He was about 28 at that time.

Another great individual, that however, couldn’t speak english that well, was BlueSorce (handle coming from his Sorceress in Diablo II). He basically was the Diablo II gang leader there, as he had the no1 ranked Sorceress of the ladder. He was about 26 or 27, and just as nice as one can get. He was quite a good looking guy, and others were often making jokes as he had a reputation of dating mutiple girls same time. It’s true that very often, hot chicks would stop by and he would take them out on this huge green, sport motorbike. He was gearing my loosy lvl 80 paladin up, with some of the finest stuff one can get from farming 10 hours / day long, last act in Hell mode.

There were three chicks in full time position over there. One was a tall very dark haired woman, Mr.Lee’s girl friend. Had I wished for a hot Korean mother, she would’ve just perfectly fit the role. She was always making sure I was eating enough, or would go get me medecine the times I was sick.

Another tall one, had died hairs, and didn’t communicate that much. She was always at the cash register, or bringing food from the Sandwich place. She was also a kind person and for some time was dating Bbark, that I will tell you about right after.

Last but not least, of these different divine figure of my early asian pagan dream, was the youngest of the three. Some kind of hot doll like Korean girl. She was about 18 like me. Just as cute as it gets. Another time, another place, another me (the future one), I would’ve just hit on her with all I could, but N.E.T. at this time was feeling much like a pure Sanctuary, from where all these kind of thoughts and possibilities were banned.

N.E.T. was a heaven, and the common world had stayed outside.

The two persons left, were Han and Bbark.

Han was a tender and sweet looking asian guy, Bbark was tall, weird and dark. The third day already of my arrival, Han couldn’t contain his excitement of having foreign gamers at his place. This guy loved Starcraft, and just ditched his tasks and responsabilities to play with us, and pay us some meals.
At first, when we had to pay to play at N.E.T., late night he would tell Shina to go to sleep or leave, saying that he could handle the pc room alone. He would then proceed to close the damn place, in order to turn the whole first floor into his gaming paradise. Han has to be, along with IloveU (heo jaeyong), of the purest kind of Korean heart, I’ve met during the whole time of my life in Korea.

He was from a poor family, and didn’t do well at school. He wasn’t dumb by any mean, but thought he would just work in a nice place until national duty calls, and that, once his military time would be complete, he could get a degree along with a work much more easily. During these early times, Han was my close friend. I even discovered later, he had bought books and was studying english at his place, so he would be able to talk freely with me. I loved this guy as a true brother, and the time I agreed to come sleep over his place, because he had been asking me for a whole week, upon waking up, I discovered that he had planned this since a long time with his parents, that basically feeded me with the most excellent cooking for a whole day, and behaved just like I was some kind of very rare and important guest into their home.

Bbark on the opposite side, was, I thought at first, some kind of enemy. He wouldn’t want to talk to me, or would just babble at me in Korean, in a way I thought he wanted to mock or make fun of me. I couldn’t be more wrong. Bbark was the tough bevahing kind. Often at first I would ask others why he was pissed at me, or didn’t like me, but everybody would always answer the same way : he was a very kind person, he just had a big deal of expressing his feelings.
With time, and as he was quite a fine Starcraft player (he would often be able to keep up with pros and take some games), he sooner or later, joined Han and me in the late night Starcraft fun. They would take turns trying to beat me, and while Han would never succeed, Bbark was one hell of a terran player. However, each time he would lose, he would get pissed and go outside to smoke and act back in the PC room as he had something better to do, but after a few games of me tearing up poor Han in every possible fashion, he would sit at the very opposite side of the room and curse and yell in korean, telling me to bring my sore ass in his game, so he could kick it.

Bbark had a very sad story to tell. As we got slowly to know each other better, I remember once that upon telling him my father died when I was 11, his rude eyes behind his fashion glasses starting to tremble and water a bit. He then told me, that he was an orphan since he was 13, and that his brother, his sister and his both parents, had all died in one car accident, while he was waiting for them to pick him up at his grand parents house. Han told me that’s why Bbark was acting rude, and pissed most of the time. But the reality was, he was just a very sensible, generous and concerned beeing.

What you guys have to know, is that for all the time I was staying in N.E.T., I would be living, eating, and sharing my life with these people. At diner time, I would never go out to eat, because Shina would order big assed meals to be delivered at the place. And all of us would eat to our content in front of the huge TV, most of the times watching Starcraft games. In the morning, as I often slept in a sofa, or even on a camp couch they had set up for me in the back office, one of the three girls would order my favourite sandwich and bring it to me. When I couldn’t pay it, they would. Later on, once I got sponsored and started getting nice money, I went there to pay back every single dime, several times. They never accepted. Oh ! man, these were the times...

That’s enough of a description I guess. I’ll resume now with a fun story, of me, Han and Bbark going out and have some fun.

So Bbark and Han showed up to me, full of excitement, asking if I would like to come with them on date they had set up with three girls. Obviously they had to fill the last spot and thought it would make an impression on the girls, if they’d bring along a Frenchman. I of course accepted, and I went to the hotel to get ready for the date. The plan was to meet them near lotte world, not far away of the place two of the girls lived in. They would pick us up there, and we’d go have dinner and drink at their place.


Short disclaimer : I won’t talk very often about girls in my stories. As I could as well only talk about my dates, that were numerous. But there’s absolutely no point of detailing my sentimental life, but for the times of fun stories, or when it actually mattered and influenced alot my stay in Korea. I might just add, that when you’re good looking and not a complete prick, it’s somewhat very easy in Korea to find girls and get along.


So there we were, all three perfumed and dressed as the three finest young men of Seoul. All the way to the meeting point, Bbark and Han would take turns making jokes on me, saying that we’d witness tonight if I was either an accomplished nerd, or taking the girl matter as serious I took the gaming one.
The girls came to pick us up with their car, I have no idea, where my friends knew them from, but the chicks were very good looking so it was very fine with me. They weren’t embarassed by my presence, eventho I was foreigner, more curious than anything else, and prolly because my two friends had told them about me before.
We got to their place, wich was a nice 4 rooms appartement. The girls were University students, and living on their own. Upon entering the living room, I discovered a table filled with all sorts of cold food, and an equal if not superior quantity of beer and soju bottles displayed in a very attractive fashion.
What can I say ? As we sat, an awkward silence showed up the first 3 minutes. But as soon as the first Soju bottle opened, we just started to behave like long lost friends that grew up in the same neighbourhood.
I was furiously possessed with the partying spirit. The three girls could barely speak english, but Bbark and Han, upon seeing what a good fellow I was when it came to aclool, discussion and partying, provided all the language and communication support needed for me to entertain everyone in the most stupid ways possible.

As we got dragged into the deep drinking, because food started to deplete off the table, I started doing what I’m the best at in these types of situation : getting everyone drunk. And to show the proper way of doing, getting myself of course twice as much drunk than the others.

That meant then, proving them my good will at becoming converted to Korean society, by trying to replace my blood with Soju only. The more they’d ask for mercy, the more their cups would be filled. I’m absolutely unstopable on this topic. Stories, jokes, stupid mimics, any mean is good to make one rise his arm with an empty glass waiting to be filled.

Around 2 Am, Bbark and his girl friend left, he had to go to the dentist in the morning, because of a hurting cavity. Han who was dating one of the girls already, after kissing her, turned to tell me the plan was that we would there tonight.
Soju was depleted, and him and his girl went to their bedroom to sleep.

And there I was, in front of that one cute, small and cheeky Korean girl, that, as a fine gentleman, I had absolutely no plan to abuse the drunken state. How naïve and foolish was I ! I prolly was the most drunk between us two, and she, perfectly aware of what was going on. As I stood up and asked while she opened the door of her room, where was a sofa, or a couch, or just a proper location on the ground for me to lie and rest, she went to me and grabbed my hand, and softly in the most natural move, dragged me into her room.

Needless to say I was suprised and I still thought she had an extra bed in her room, that she wanted me to sleep on, until she closed the door, showed me her bed, and getting closer in my arms, sitting there together, started to kiss me.

Now this could’ve been all romantic and shit. But I was terribly drunk. I had drank about 6 bottles of Soju myself, and I wasn’t really a heavy drinker back then. In France I’d always favor any sort of drugs over alcool. So, like, that night, I wanted to act tough, and I got actually owned by the divine power that hides behind the bad taste of the Korean drink.
As we were naked, and were getting into debating more serious matters in a very realistic way, the mere biological fact that I didn’t have any sexual intercourse since I left France, mixed with the help of alcool and the fine talents displayed by the girl, made my body feel he had to empty a part of it’s stomach in order to properly accomplish the required task. That’s how I puked on myself on my first Korean date.

Now you can imagine, how bad I was cursing at myself, highly pissed that just fucked up what was starting as a very good night.

What happened then was surreal. The girl helped me taking off the shirt that was the last thing I was still wearing, and that I had puked on, and then proceeded to go and wash it, with her own hands. Then after setting it up to dry, and me going to the bathroom to make my whole self clean, she came back in the room and resumed the course of actions, where my own weakness had stopped us.
Now that alcool power had lowered, and furiously animated by the good will of thanking her for such a display of patience and kindness, I lived to my trueself and my strenghtfull young age, and spent the 3 next days with her, barely leaving her bedroom.

I then was convinced that some evil power, had hidden me from this country all the other years before, and that this place, was the true land I belonged to.

For the record this relationship didn’t last, and actually never quite existed. We seen each once more after that, but she was too busy with her exams, and me with my shitty yet fun pro gaming life, to really take care of each other.

However, soon after these events, I met my first Korean love, in the name of So jee. This relationship would last for a fair while. I will maybe talk about it later, as the way we met was pretty fun and awkward, and worth telling. But you guys aren’t here to read up on Asian romances, and I’m perfectly aware of that.

So I’ll go on with the pro gaming story, and how I ended up ditching the nice and faithful Hong suh, my manager, sunday church teacher, and internet video game company worker. That event was actually what set myself into motion, like an aimless ball through the huge and bizarre city of Seoul.

Truth was Hong suh didn’t have nor the time or the money to manage me. He was providing me with some cash, but I knew this situation however wouldn’t last. His basic plan was that I would win the KBK upon my arrival, and from there on he would easily get me a sponsor and himself a nice salary. But everything went wrong as you all know now. I wasn’t showing any expectional skill to any extent, and I wasn’t getting either much of a chance to prove myself. He wasn’t registering me for any lan event, tournaments, whatsoever, that were numerous and that I was hearing about through battle net. On the other hand Grrrr... wasn’t playing in those, as he only cared about TV games and leagues. So there I was stucked to Hong suh, without any other way to survive alone by myself.

What I did back then was the most risky and crazy thing I could’ve done, as well as the only option I had. I asked Hong suh to give one whole month money at once, and just end the thing right there, as the contract we had signed together would state he had to sustain me for 2 more months. So we cut the deal half and wished each other farewells, and thats how I ended, at 18 years old, alone with little money and no support, 11 000 kilometers away from my hometown, in a country I didn’t speak the language.

That’s also how my greatest time in Korea began, as I had to make a move deeper into Korea, and use the Korean ways of living, as the short money I had didn’t offer me any alternative.
That’s where started a life of randomness, with my companions of gaming misery, in the persons of Jaeyong (IloveU), Su yon, his protoss girl friend and Cezanne.

That’s how I finally met Korea.



Next chapter will be about Grrr...’s team moving to N.E.T. and how I became friend with the most talented and gifted Starcraft player I ever knew. How I made a brother of that friend. The first GameQ world championship, with a sad battle report of yet another broadcasted rape, given by the quirky Samjjang himself.

From there on, the pro gaming tales, will “really” begin. As you will hear and learn stories of us roaming Korea up and down, from tournaments to tournaments with absolutely no money, our hearts driven by nothing else but the warmth of friendship. And how later, lucky and undeserving me, got sponsored.

Hope you enjoyed !

Portrait of the king as a young man. First meeting with Grrrr...’s new managers. GameQ.co.kr. On how to end up in a broadcasting station room, with three Asian dudes ready to give you a gaming gang bang.




When I got to Korea, the mighty and feared X’ds~Grrrr...’s reign over the Starcraft world, was begining to shake. First symptom was that he didn’t win straight up the KBK. However, no doubt that for the time beeing and until a year, Grrrr... would remain THE Starcraft Superstar every single gamer was looking up to. I’ll start up on Grrrr... through my gaming views on him.


Nowadays, due to the level of accuracy and speed of the professional gameplay, it’s somewhat harder to actually experience first hand, what’s unique in someone’s way of playing the game. I’m not talking here about strategics, talent or ability, nor their subsequent logical results. You can admire someone for beeing very good, dominating, and impressing you. What I’m talking about here, is much more common feeling, although very deep and somewhat complexe. Basically when you get to a Lan, and get to opportunity to watch someone playing while you stand behind him. You’ll then grasp something that is impossible to do online, as you will compare your own way of playing the game, with the one your watching right there. It’s about just like any other manual task, in the way you will learn how another beeing physically accomplish a same given task. That’s basically why and how you can increase your rudementary gaming capability so fast, when you spend time in a hardcore gaming environement. The simple fact of how someone moves his mouse, how he clicks, where and when and why, can tell alot about how his mind interprets the game and base his decisions on how to interact with it. I wont digress too much on this topic, because this can last for a while. I will just state I could stay behind a very good player, such as Grrrr... or some others, and watch him play for hours. It actually often happened, and countless of times at night, Grrrr... would discretly remove the cigaret still smoking from my hand, while I had fallen a sleep in a chair behind him watching him play for hours.


Anyway, watching Grrrr... was always something very special. Grrrr.. was never physically nervous in any circonstance. He’s hands would never shake nor tremble nor sweat. He would always stand very straight, turning his keyboard 45 degrees clockwise, with the escape button part of the keyboard on the upper left, having all the length of his left arm extended as much as he could, and firmly disposed on the table. His face was playing always kept the very same facial expression. Mouth closed, eyes moving real fast, some very close observation could spot his neck slightly rotating sometimes, but thats about it. Eventho Grrrr... wasn’t as fast as the new gen of Korean players, his action patterns were, and that’s prolly what made him so dominant at first for so long, absolutely perfect. Never would he miss a unit when clicking, never would he click at the wrong spot and correct himself by doing another action. Grrrr... always played like he was reading an invisible music score that was right in front of him and that he was the only one to see. Not a single second was wasted. That’s what I call playing flawlessly. Exactly knowing what you’re doing, with that supreme confidence of beeing right when doing it.

He could later in the course time, get outplayed by new and better players, that were more dedicated than he was, but Grrrr... always was strong, sharp, resilient, and dangerous. Grrrr... was truely a bamboo, gamewise. He would handle an in game strategical, tactical, bad case scenario pressure like no one else. Even when he seemed to be losing, things would seem as they were going his plan, and he would at last, after countless of game momentums, come on top.

As Starcraft game variety was in a way much wilder than today, many unexpected scenarios would rise up in games. And that’s where he would excell. While his opponent would basically appear to wander onto new and unknown situational lands, Grrrr...’s play would actually behave like he had played this scenario hundreds of times before.

I can’t tell, even today, what was the source of this. Was it a rock strong confidence, of overall superiority to anyone in this game, that had grown within himself through his countless victories? Or some kind of uncommon brain aptitude and talent for this game ? Maybe alot of boths, combined in the form of what you could call genius.
Watching Grrrr... playing, you could be sure to always get that same thought to yourself : “ Yeah, that’s how this game is meant to be played.”

At last, while 90% of the protoss of his time, were basically playing the same, trying to reproduce and execute the most obvious and efficient pattern, that either was 9/10 gate rush into speed lot / psi storm expanding and pressure, or Corsair / dt fast expansion, Grrrr... would show up every PVZ game, playing a new strategy that he would come up with on the moment.

Grrrr... was a very bad practice partner. He would lose alot, and would hate to practice. He would only consider playing with other champions outside of tournaments, that he hadn’t played yet, or whom he was admiring the skill. Unlike every single other champion that came after him, he didn’t care at all about Starcraft. Just like maybe you wouldn’t care about breathing, walking or talking. At some point, he even claimed (and did it), that practicing before important games was useless, and that playing Tetris online was helping him much more. I recall many nights before important games, or even finals, where we’d just go clubbing or getting drunk, and as Grrrr... always had troubles with hangovers, I would see him going on stage just as green as you can get from a bad hangover. Nevertheless, when Grrrr... at that time was going on stage, when it mattered, when it was for fame and money, he wasn’t only winning, he was live raping people, in such a shameless fashion, that his shocked opponents, would almost come and thank him after the game that he beaten them. That’s what I call true dominance.

As a person now. We were the same age, he was a few days older than me. We had the same height, spoke the same language, both ready to share and have fun partying at any occasion. We both loved pretty Korean girls. Eventho I didn’t hold the required talent to achieve anything big in Pro gaming, he never discouraged me, told me that I suck and that I should give up. He always lended me a friendly hand whenever I needed it. And this happened quite alot. All these things, and the fact I was staying in Kang nam, leaded us to pretty much spend our entire time together when we weren’t with our girl friends. Especially the first few months where he forced the whole team he was in at that time, to move to the PC bang where I was playing, first, because it was slightly better place, and second, cuz I was playing in N.E.T. for free, and he knew I couldn’t afford another PC room. Many times he would treat me to nice places, and furthermore, he showed me around every single of the places he would hang around. He was a great teacher at first. But what Grrrr... couldn’t teach me, and that I had to do alone, was somewhat of another side of Korea, that because of the rather easy life the huge money from the sponsors he was getting was providing him, he didn’t experience, and never did he quite understandd the fun and happiness I was finding in my own situation – Grrrr... hated beeing poor and didn’t wanted to hang out with random other Korean individuals. He was kind of a lone wolf anyway, and but Everlast that was stucked to him, shamelessly advertising himself to try and get a sponsor through Grrrr...’s contact, and me and his girl friend, he wasn’t really close to anyone.



At that time I think Grrrr...’s contract with his “new” team (wich I can’t fucking remember the name. The one before this was U2U4, an internet company sponsor. They sponsored him and Thor before the deal went off, and Thor then went back to Canada. Pillars had left earlier. Maynard was with KPGL), was something like this : basically it was a team without a sponsor, that means a group of managers and somewhat business men, trying to get sponsor for their players. They had to pay Grrrr... of course, as he wouldn’t have joined them otherwise. Deal was that he was getting about 6000 $ / month, with a house, PC BANG expense and travel expenses. The total ammount was about 10 000$ a month or was ot 9000, can’t remember. The basic idea was that they would find a company read to hand over a crapload of money to sponsor them. They failed and ended up giving all their money to Grrrrr... while their other players were basically getting not a dime. Amongst the players their roster had, you had IloveU, a terran player that I will talk alot about in later entries, his Grilfriend, su yon, the cutest pro gaming chick ever, she was playing protoss and microing dragoons just like any other pro. Cezanne also was somewhat on a semi contract with the team. Many pro gamers back then, didn’t want to have any manager, or even a sponsorship to support them. Their plans were to live from the cash prizes they would win. They also had Clone[S.G], a good player, but that wasn’t talking much, nor beeing friendly at all. I never seen him actually play in the PC bang, but his lvl 88 barbarian at Diablo II. But since he had qualified in the Starleague, they would let him basically do what he felt like. Some other players were on this team, but I don’t really remember them, as they would spend more time playing from their home, than the PC BANG.

Grrrr...’s personal coach and slave hired by the team for him, was Jong Min, who was pro gamer at first. That guy, while beeing the funniest and dumbest guy ever, was the biggest naive liar you could find around. Spunky told me that later, he turned to be a cook for the house of the z-zone semi pro team (or was it another name ? thing I know is that most ppl on this team, were in the z-zone clan.).

Many were the ones that hold a grudge against him, for tons of reasons. But I can’t be one of them, as when I was later on managerless, sponsorless, homeless, moneyless, he took care of me for a few weeks, secretly spending a part of the managing money on my food and giving 20 bucks a day for my other expenses. He even tried to arrange games with other team players, and tell them to lose against me in practice when the head staffs of the team were around, so they would contract me, I however declined this offer in respect of the other players that were my friends. Jongmin’s ID was [.....?] I think, and he was in the very old AKUTA clan, where Samjjang was also.

The first time I met him and the rest of the staff was a night Grrrr.. called at N.E.T. (I still didnt have a cellphone), and asked to put me on the phone. He told me to get on a cab and join the fun at B.O.S.S., Grrrr...’s long time favorite night club in Apkujong. When I got there, thrilled and pumped up to the max, as this was the first time ever I was stepping into a Korean nightclub, a waiter went to come and pick me up outside (That waiter btw, was a good friend of Grrrr... and an excellent Stracraft player, that had a 1900ish gamei rating.). As I got to the boot table with the sole idea in mind to get drunk and finally start to hit on all those insanly hot chicks I could see everyday on the street, half of the managing staff was dead drunk. However my arrival reanimated them from the deads, and all their combined efforts got me drunk after 30 minutes or so. Grrrr... did one hell of an effort that night. Grrrr... hates to dance. However, he wanted to show me I guess, and we went together for a minute or two on the dance floor. I never had any problem really to dance, as I enjoy it, but he hasly left me seeing I was perfectly fiting in the picture, and went on to drink some more.
I went back and forth drinking and dancing, until the point where I was standing alone on the high step of the stage, dancing like a madman and getting dragged to some other tables by random chicks, when the music would pause.
I’m tall, thin, have long hairs, very blue eyes and a very white skin. Koreans love that. So that first night, I realised things would be fine for me here on the girl topic.

After a couple of hours, me randomly experiencing communication with local night club folks, at various tables (I’m a very talkative and socially opened character), that got me past the alcool tolerance limit, after wich possibilies of blackout were dangerously rising, I headed back to our table, where everybody but Jongmin, was asleep. Jongmin seeing me, woke up his superior, and told him it was time to go. He then proceeded to tell me we had to take care of Grrrr... because he had gotten really drunk. So what happened next, was that me and Jongmin had first to untie a random somewhat half naked sleepy and drunken chick,from Grrrr... while she was fighting to not be. Then, Jongmin, as lazy as always, told me to duck, and basically throwed Grrrr...’s dead body on my back, after what he started to open me a way through the mob. Gosh Grrrr... was heavy. I weighted about 75 kg, we were the same height, but Grrrr... was more musculated and was prolly around 85kg. But alcool helping, I was feeling stronger than I really was. Once we got outside, waiting for the Van, Grrrr... woke up, and started randomly trying to fight with us. We throwed him in the Van, and after a few seconds, he felt back to sleep.

Van dropped me at N.E.T. and that’s how ended the first of a very, very, very long list of clubbing nights in Seoul.

A couple of days later, as I was feeling kind of down in my not started yet pro gaming career, because I had missed KBK, Hong suh dropped by N.E.T. one night after work, telling me to practice hard tonight, because tomorrow I would play my first broadcasted games against Korean players. Needless today 4 gramms of pure cocaïne in the same hour wouldn’t have excited me more than these news. I called Grrrr... and spammed my ICQ to spread the info, and everybody wished me luck. The target was once again showing at the horizon, and I played all night with my russian Orky team mates.

I’m going now to briefly talk about GAMEQ, wich is a company that should be reverred and remembered much more than it is nowadays, as these people prolly done more for pro gaming and gamers especially, than anyone else in Korea.

GameQ was a website dedicated to professional gaming and games in general. They would broadcast their own leagues, set them up, find the money for it, and greatly value the players that would play in, by always making sure they would pay the ones that needed it the most right away, eventho they not always had the money in bank, had it sometimes even, for the workers to physically get money out their wallets on the spot, to pays the players.
Most of the GameQ staff is now the same people running MBC game leagues that you all watch and know. Well the big and important thing that it is now, started off a very small structure in a far away building, at some of the last floors, with a bunch of truely dedicated people, ready to sacrifice anything for their passion to grow. Every single one of them was a starcraft fan and a gamer. Most of the staff would spend their nights after work over battle net, observing games, chatting, and taking part of that huge and popular fashion online starcraft was then.
They hosted the first online gameq world championship, that I played in myself, a team league, anscestor of the today’s proleague format, where different teams and clans would duke it over the course of one whole year. At this time, female gamers were much more numerous, and the league format was this one : two male 1v1s, 1 female 1v1, one male / male 2v2, and one female / male 2v2. I can’t remember the name of this league, maybe was it IGL ? I’m really not sure now or KPL ? NO FUCKING CLUE T_T.
Anyway, aside that, they would host many show games, events, featuring the top players, from any place, and with any background. There were no prelimns whatsoever, they would just msn, mail, icq, msg you on bnet or call you, contact you by any mean to set up if something they were feeling able to produce good games. I never met such interest for truely what gaming is in any other business structure related to gaming.
Ophium, was the handle of the guy contacting players and setting up games most of the times. He was Korean american, and was basically single because he would spend his entire time on battle net. Everyone loved that guy.
He was a tall handsome asian male, wearing black santiag boots with half of a james bond suit, and bad ass glasses. He had a deep and dark voice, and from his look, he could as well just have been, some kind of movie secret agent, or an anymonouse gouvernement assassin.
He would often set up dinners, with a few players that knew each other, and that he liked on battle net, and we’d meet to have dinner and go on drinking cocktails and beer in a Jazz bar of Sinchon (spelling it wrong, student area or so) after that.

So we got to the GameQ building with Hong suh after somewhat of a long drive (was pretty far from Kang nam, in the business area that is near many official buildings if i remember correct). I’m a nervous person, in many situations, and for many reasons. Even before we got in the elevator, my right arm was already shaking.

The GameQ office wasn’t big, and had a very simple setting. Upon entering the office, you’d basically have on your right a door to a small conferonce room with a screen, where players would stay and watch the game currently playing, waiting for their turn to come. In front you had a corridor leading straight into a landscaped style office, wich’s left wall followed would lead you to the broadcasting studio : a room with two computers next to the broadcasting station studio boxe itself, wich was closed and separted by a glass from the gaming area.
Hong suh pretty much introduced to everyone in the office, as he knew most of them, having worked together on some projects before. He then took me in the director office to sign up some contract papers written in Korean. After that I was presented to Ophium and his Harvard english, who then proceeded to introduce to the three smiling players I was going to play.

Now, I have to say, that when I got back from this to N.E.T. as Grrrr... was waiting for my return, and asked who I played and how it went. His first reaction to my answer was this :
“Ahahaha, what the fuck, these guys you played are fucking gods.”.

So, the actual story is that these three players were nobody else than Slayer’s_Boxer, Saint Eagle and Intotherain, prolly 3 of the 5 hottest gamers at that time in the circuit. I had no idea who they were, but Intotherain that I had played with many times before online, and that I had a good record against. We were actually very happy to meet, and I’ll more stories about Intotherain later on, as he was one of my good friends in Korea.
Now what follows, could’ve turned as stuff of legend. And the first game I ever played in Korea, bielive it or not, with a little more focus, preparation or luck, could’ve make everything turn out different.
I first played Boxer, me Zerg against him Terrran. All games played that day where on Lost temple.

I never had played on a flat screen before, and at that time it was a very new thing, but technology sucked, and the delay was insanly long. Gamers complained alot and for very long about flat screens beeing used in tv leagues, and thats what leaded them to use since now only RTC screens rather than LCD or Plasma.
My mouse, wich was the very first laser microsoft mouse, wouldn’t work on the computer no matter the drivers we used.
These things really weren’t of a big deal, it just raised the tension, anxiety and pressure I was already feeling. But everybody was very friendly, and trying to make me confortable. Especially Boxer and Intotherain.

When I was good to go, Ophium started the game. I was 6, boxer 12. I 13 hatched 13 pooled like a greedy motherfucker, and 2 hatched lair into 3 hatch lurker, while boxer failed his first M&M rush on two sunkens, group of backtrap hidden zerglings and my first hydralisks. Boxer tried a first dropped that didn’t work while setting up his natural. I had about 22 lurkers and 20 or so speedlings and 9 oclock main morphing when his new force of 2 tanks and 24 marines went out to siege me. I pincered him between my sunkens and my army, losing about 10 lurkers and my zerglings. Meanwhile the battle a new drop ship had taken my newly 9 main expand. As his army died, and 8 new lurkers hatched, I sent all I had to him face, and for about 2 minutes I was 100% sure that I had won. I teared off all his army in his base, and burrowed 12 lurkers next to his barracks. His expansion died. His barracks started to float. I was happy.
My smile just weared off as I saw 3 dropships dropping in my almost defensless main, 2 tanks, and a pack and a half of M&M, that for sure, that motherfucking monster microed like a god cuz he had nothing else to do at time. Only, repairing that damn newly builded bunker in his main that was protecting his factory, the sole last producing building he had, from wich a new tank popped out. And with a vessel and yet another tank, he handled easily my already harmed lurkers, while I was typing GG in.

We regamed then, and I picked Terran. The TvT turned out to last about 35 minutes, with me basically fighting him off the whole game, and him slightly ahead. The kind of TVT game you don’t wanna quit, because eventho your slightly behind you’re far from dead, and there is a chance to fight back. But Boxer hold tight and eventually won.

Now these first two games were nice, and the fun part of the day. What followed was just as close as it gets to an anal game rape. I picked Zerg all the remaining games. I had to go up against Saint Eagle now. This smartass seeing I went 13 hatch the first game, opted for a 5 or 6 barrack in midle of the map, and bunker rushed me with all he got. We regamed, him 9 me 6 again, and he did the exact same thing. I thought a 12 pool would be good. I was wrong.

Beeing kind of sick of the joys of bunkering, I went then up against Intotherain. Somehow, the online trend of us trading wins, didn’t persist in real life. First game, him 3, me 6 (I drew 6 every single game, but the TVT where I was 12 and Boxer 9), he dual 9 gated my ass and owned my 12 hatchery rather easily. Next game, because he was 9 and me 6 again, he of course had to proxy gate me. I pooled first that game and held him. He camped my ramp while I was going for a two hatch hydra rush (no real other option heh), I kind of chased him back, for some time... but he promptly came back with speed lots, denying me from kill the two gates. I had to expand and make some more drones. Next thing I see is a pack a speedlots, 2 archons, 2 dragoons, running over my 24 ish hydralisks.

I left GameQ that day like a traumatized nerd, that just faced a bunch of bloodthirsty skinheads. Boxer and Intotherain kind of comforted me however, trying all their best at english. Saint Eagle didn’t give a fuck. He was happy with his bunkering I guess. Well overall I was still happy to have met Intotherain, because we liked each other online. I didn’t knew then, the future that young and smiling terran player was promised to. GameQ paid me about 500 $, and told me that I did good the first games, and that I had to get used to Korean gamestyle, that was very different from online gamestyle (ORLY?), aka playing to win and not for fun. I was also told I was officialy invited to the first GameQ world championship, that would feature the 8 “best” westerners agains the 8 best Koreans.

Hong suh in the car, was somewhat pissed, because he then realised I wasn’t Grrrr..., and things wouldn’t be as easy as they were, back when he was managing him. On a sidenote, the overal level was starting to raise at that time, and I wasn’t ahead of my time at all. So if I wanted to succeed, unlike Grrrr... I would have to hop on the pro gaming skill train that was departing right now.



Next entry will be a little less about players, a little more about Korea, how things really started for me after these first 2 weeks. And a little in depth description of N.E.T, where I was basically living. How I ditched my manager and began my own journey without any help, on the pro gaming road.

Cyclonic storms anyone ? The Texan’s lair. I’m alone now.



This entry and the next one, will be the last two to follow a linear timeline. From there on, since people will now have a taste of the basic atmosphere and spirit of these days, I’ll be able to write freely in various forms, ponctual stories, sketch of situations and people, that took place and I met. However, I’ll always size any opportunity as I did in the previous entries, to digress on different matters, that relate to Pro gaming or Korea. As my trip over Korea was quite lenghty, I’m also somewhat planing to make future entry with a basic summary of the possible entries I could make, and maybe make a poll for people to decide what they want to hear the most. I’m not sure yet.
As a matter of fact, my “korean life”, divides in three distinct eras. The first one I’m telling now, where I was living as a gamer, and later as a pro gamer once I got sponsored. The second, is my return in Seoul, helping out Elky and Smuft for some months, as a manager. And the third and last, is me working in Seoul, and cuting all my ties with gaming, as to dive very deep into Korean society (that part is the most fucked up and funniest one, eventually ^^, and if I didn’t know that people who witnessed this part of my life, were still alive to back me up on this, I wouldn’t t