First and foremost, I want to say that I am so proud of my 'little brother' Bo Sung, better known to you guys as Liquid'Sea. He is a great person and a great talent and I hope that he achieves great success as a member of Liquid
I first met Sea in early 2008 at a random Proleague match at the COEX studio.
First time we met, January 4, 2008. What a terrible picture of both of us.
MBC Heroes team picture! Circa 2007/2008 Proleague Season
At that time I was nothing more than just a fan girl, taking a picture with a well respected player. He and I got talking because he shared that he had always had been keen on speaking with fluent English speakers and through our conversations, I found that he was a really nice kid with an incredible interest in foreigners and the foreign fan community.
Through battle.net and MSN, we kept in touch. Most of our conversations were short due to his practicing schedule, but whenever he logged on MSN messengers, he usually would ask me how to say certain phrases or responses in English so that he could type them out in b.net chats to his growing foreign fans.
You see, in June of 2008, Sea had the chance to leave Korea and fly to Paris for BWWI where he finally got to meet a slew of excited TLers. I recall him telling me that it was one of the first times he had ever met so many foreigners at one time when he returned from that event, he often expressed his desire to go abroad again and to interact with more foreigners.
Then, in July of that year, I was asked to help out with an episode of TL Attack, featuring Sea[Shield].
UGH my voice in this is TERRIBLE. I think I was purposely trying to be quiet because people were sleeping. It was past midnight! I apologize in advance. Note: Sea wearing Winged-Horse TL Shirt
He and I became better friends, or rather, established a stronger younger brother/older sister relationship through this event and continued to keep in touch, meeting up for dinner or a movie with other TLers from time to time. (Side note; we once went to see Transformers 3. It was unanimously voted by everyone who attended that it was absolutely horrendous.)
In August 2008, Sea agreed to do an online interview for Team Liquid as well.
HonestTea and I held up signs for our buddy, Sea, at a September Starleague game in Yong-san!
Winter came and went and then in June 2009, MBC Heroes announced that they were selling hoodies. I quickly contacted Sea to see if he could give me the number of the guy in charge of sales and I was able to provide these hoodies especially for TL. (I had to custom order and make them! Thanks to Sea I was able to get in touch with the right people!)
These hoodies were awesome. I am SOOOO regretful that I didn't order one myself (((
That summer, Sea became more social and came out to various TL meetups that I conducted in Seoul.
Nerds at an All-You-Can-Eat Steak place in Gangnam. From left to right, HonestTea, ilikestarcraft, Manifesto7, MrHoon, Sea, me (lilsusie), Midian, d.Apollo and Artosis.
This picture is a lot less awkward than the first one we took only 2 years prior to this.
Random dinner and drinks
Sea and d.Apollo
Sea, Mani and HonestTea. (PS. I miss you guys)
Some nerds in Seoul (everyone was there for the IEF event in Suwon that November)
White-Ra, DIMAGA and Sea <3
Real life kept me away from Starcraft in 2010 (as did the debut of SC2) but Sea and I had established enough of a friendship that it didn't even matter. We still met up from time to time. That April, he was unable to come out for my birthday but later that evening I was told that I got a shout out from him in an interview after a game. ^_^ Knowing that BW was going to slowly go extinct, I mentioned to him in passing, that it would be awesome if he joined Liquid - after all, he loves the community as much as we love him. But at the time, it was just a passing thought although in the back of my mind, I always wanted it to happen.
My 30th Birthday in 2011 with BW and SC2 nerds. It was a bit strange being with people who didn't know a thing about BW... I think I spent the whole night explaining to those noobs why BW>SC2 ^_^
So here I sit at my computer in October 2012, watching Sea play on his live stream while wearing his blue Liquid shirt proudly. It's almost a dream come true. I am thankful to Nazgul for making this happen and of all the Korean players, I feel that he deserves to be on this team the most. He's loved TL since the day he heard of us, and I know that he will make us proud by working hard and doing what he does best. I am so proud of him; his efforts to learn SC2 and to learn English and his drive to become an amazing player.
Thanks Susie. I still remember the TL Attack! with you and Sea quite clearly. It was such an awesome moment for TL I can't believe that Sea is joining us now after all these years. Too cool!
On October 05 2012 00:54 amazingxkcd wrote: d.Apollo looking crazy there!
He and Artosis both look so silly, I don't think anyone imagined back then they would wear suits someday. Nice write-up, thanks for letting us non BW-guys know something about him.
Somehow when I saw the TL frontpage, I thought of you right away <3
On October 05 2012 00:57 Daigomi wrote: Thanks Susie. I still remember the TL Attack! with you and Sea quite clearly. It was such an awesome moment for TL I can't believe that Sea is joining us now after all these years. Too cool!
I know, right? For a minute I though it was a troll from Hot_Bid, but the awesomeness of having Sea on TL is 100% genuine!
Excellent writeup as always. Really happy to see Sea as part of TL given the history they have. It just fits. Sea was one of the first if not the first Korean to really embrace the foreign community and it makes sense for him to be in TL for just that reason.
So many known faces on this old pictures. Awesome blog Susie.
I allways say that but i don't mind saying again. Will never forget the hard work from you to send us the hoodies from the teams. Mine is also in my profile :D
After BWWI, Sea added a bunch of us on BNet and was always in op TL. We played him 4v1 team melee and I think we barely lived to 15 minutes. It was absurd.
Love the pickup a lot more for the community and story than his play. Loved him on MBC and hope he can finally win a big league now that hes on Liquid or at least make a semifinals finally lol.
On October 05 2012 01:28 Chill wrote: After BWWI, Sea added a bunch of us on BNet and was always in op TL. We played him 4v1 team melee and I think we barely lived to 15 minutes. It was absurd.
Sea is so awesome :D Loved him since the moment I saw him. So glad he gets to expand his horizons. Also I plugged this blog on his fanclub thread because like Yum Bo Sung, this blog is awesome. :D
Thanks for the blog! I don't know Sea as well as most seem on TL but he seems like a nice guy and I hope that he becomes a top player for TL. Sea fighting!
While I was watching the EVER 2008 OSL finals I logged onto Bnet to see if anyone was in op tl. Sure enough, sea[shield] was there and we were both watching in awe as July won his third OSL with style. I still remember that moment when July pulled out the game winning 12 ultras in game 3 and Sea going "oooooooooo. july cho gosuuuuuu 0000" in Bnet chat.
On October 05 2012 01:28 Chill wrote: After BWWI, Sea added a bunch of us on BNet and was always in op TL. We played him 4v1 team melee and I think we barely lived to 15 minutes. It was absurd.
I think i remember this game. You guys wnet for a nice ling/lurker surround but somehow did not have ling speed upgraded. Do anyone know if there is a VOD anywhere ? I couldnt find it on nevake youtube account :s
On October 05 2012 01:28 Chill wrote: After BWWI, Sea added a bunch of us on BNet and was always in op TL. We played him 4v1 team melee and I think we barely lived to 15 minutes. It was absurd.
I think i remember this game. You guys wnet for a nice ling/lurker surround but somehow did not have ling speed upgraded. Do anyone know if there is a VOD anywhere ? I couldnt find it on nevake youtube account :s
There's a thread that has the VOD but Hot_Bid set it to private to hide our shame forever.
Reading all this really made me understand why Sea was the correct player for Liquid. He really dedicated his time to the foreigner fans, I'm already a fanboy and as always wishing I already knew about BW before SC2.
Thanks for the backstory, it really does seem like destiny that Liquid and Sea would eventually come together like this. Looking forward to seeing him represent Liquid in the future, Terrans fighting~!
This makes me so sad that the 2008 MBC documentary about Sea[shield] in Paris where he met me (in my custom MBC game shirt) got lost when Baezzi went down
On October 05 2012 01:28 Chill wrote: After BWWI, Sea added a bunch of us on BNet and was always in op TL. We played him 4v1 team melee and I think we barely lived to 15 minutes. It was absurd.
I'm pretty sure I had seen all of these pictures before reading this blog post. I'm not sure if I've been creeping susie all these years of if her coverage has been so fantastic. Great blog post which should be linked in the news.
I remember the first time I saw him hanging around op TL. Just sitting there chatting with everyone played a few games watched some replays. Dude was just having a good time hanging out and you could tell he genuinely enjoyed being around us and talking. Proudest BW moment was getting the F A, easy.
Mani is such a great guy... I am pretty sure he wont remember, but once I asked him at the IRC channel if he would play me (BW). He said yes and told me he was quite bad, so I couldnt expect much. I told him the same and we went on to play. I almost won, but I lost because I was soooo nervous! Mani for me was like an idol or role model because I've learned so much with those RWAs (replays with audio) that he made. Does anyone remember of RWAs? It was just an mp3 file that you started playing as soon as the replay started so you could have a narration of what was happening - AND IT WAS AWESOME! :D
Oh my gosh... how many years am I a member of TL? I don't even know...
So... A few years later I also became a huge fan of MBC, just on it's very creation, hence becomming a fan of Sea and Bisu. All MBC members seemed so friendly and gosu :D Some years later there was a television show about them (http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=hyungjoon+becomes+a+progamer&oq=hyungjoon+becomes+a+progamer&gs_l=youtube.3..0.5165.10421.0.10829.28.12.0.16.16.2.340.2017.5j3j2j2.12.0...0.0...1ac.1.JwChdnqHE7U), that's when I became a fan of Shark and Light.
And now... Sea is in TL! This is ridiculously awesome!
EDIT: And now, watching his stream, he's shouting BRAZIL and SAMBA... so, yeah... more a fan now than ever :D
On October 05 2012 01:28 Chill wrote: After BWWI, Sea added a bunch of us on BNet and was always in op TL. We played him 4v1 team melee and I think we barely lived to 15 minutes. It was absurd.
I think i remember this game. You guys wnet for a nice ling/lurker surround but somehow did not have ling speed upgraded. Do anyone know if there is a VOD anywhere ? I couldnt find it on nevake youtube account :s
There's a thread that has the VOD but Hot_Bid set it to private to hide our shame forever.
Sea said that he read this blog and said he was really touched. He's happy to be on TL, and I hope you guys keep supporting him! (He texted me at 7am saying this - he had just woken up to stream again for you guys!)
I knew this blog was coming as soon as I saw that Sea was on TL. I helped out a little in that TL attack thingy and woulda helped translate had I stayed in Korea longer but I think my vacation was ending.
On October 05 2012 10:33 lilsusie wrote: Sea said that he read this blog and said he was really touched. He's happy to be on TL, and I hope you guys keep supporting him! (He texted me at 7am saying this - he had just woken up to stream again for you guys!)
I was pretty excited to see the video on the front page! I'm glad Sea is with you guys.. that guy is just lovable as hell. I'm gonna support the shit out of you Sea :D:D welcome to Team Liquid :DDDDDD
Thanks for the excellent background, and wonderful pictures. Apollo looks crazy with those big shades on.
And also thanks to Sea... watching him stream his NA server matches, his interaction in chat and on stream... wow. He's a great pickup for Liquid and an all around wonderful guy.
I didn't speak to him much, but that 6 month long dirty-looks feud between us was hilarious. Especially when you asked him and we'd spent the entire time thinking the other disliked them for no reason. GL to him in the future.
Thank you for the nice writeup and pictures Susie! Sea coming on board with Liquid is one of the coolest e-sports news I've heard in pretty much forever! I'm soo excited to see him play at global tournaments. Having such a legendary Kespa player join a, community driven, foreign team...I mean who could've ever dreamed about that happening a couple of years ago? This is crazy!
And how it was possible that such a great player Sea was never managed to conquer any individual league, is incomprehensible. His bio TvZ was scary and he always crushed the Proleague, but OSL and MSL were his grudges.
Awesome read, I knew that Sea was a cornerstone part of the growth of Korean presence on TL, but I never knew how involved he was with foreign players and personalities. I love this guy's play and personality, and he seems to be a no-brainer in terms of being a member of TL for real! GOGO SEA HWAITING!
During Korean Air OSL 2, I remember a korean OSL commentator saying something in the line of "Before Flash came around, Sea was supposed to be the next great Terran" But he had a curse put on him in individual leagues, even worse than Bisu's OSL curse. Didn't know Sea was this close with TL, but I guess I'm happy for him.