Based on the comments from my previous “statement” and those from other streamers’, I understand a lot of you are thinking “it is god damn obvious that he is involved, James, and why can’t you see it?” I am on the same boat—meaning I do find few things suspicious. Nonetheless, I refuse to point my fingers at someone without a proof. That is how I was raised and will not change for this incident because I was ‘victimized’. Please keep that in mind as you read this post. I am not writing this to back the sponsor, but rather writing this as I feel it is right to share what I have collected so far.
As I brought up in the earlier thread, there are two people that the sponsor have named to be his impersonators in doing such act as some tournaments that were mentioned and that said he sponsored was not sponsored by him. Some of you in the previous thread was a bit confused about this, so I am going to explain it again. Olimoley raised the issue by naming various tournaments and streamers to be suspected of their involvements. She is in understanding that all tournaments that she mentioned were sponsored by him. What he gave me is the list of eSports personnel he has in his Skype contact, and the three streamers he has invested (sponsored) in are Pughy, ConnSi, and me. And the rest that says he sponsored are not sponsored by him. Again, such provided information can be easily tweaked, but like I said above, I am not going to distrust someone without a clear reason to do so. I hope this paragraph cleared out some confusions about him claiming there are people running around pretending to be him.
Last post was extremely long, so this time, I am going to shorten it up. So let’s get into it.
1) Shin’s Reactions
The following is translated quotes from Skype conversation with him:
“I will prepare documents to prove PHS Company’s legitimacy and also where those money came from. Once they are all ready, I will give it to you, Mal. Would you do me a favour and expose it to the Starcraft fans?” – which I said sure to.
“PHS Company is a cellular device marketing company, which will have most of its consumer market in the younger demographics. For this reason, we chose to sponsor Starcraft II scene as, not only do I find it the pinnacle of eSports, Starcraft brand is what my childhood was filled with and I still love Starcraft to the point where if I can make any contributions, I will.”
“Once I can track down the impersonators’ whereabouts, I am going to be filing lawsuits against them for defamation.”
“I believe Olimoley is at fault for accusing me and the company of such act without any proper procedures. After the investigations on the two is finished and I can prove that I was not involved, Olimoley will have to face consequences for her act. I will be following the same actions against Olimoley for her actions and Team Axiom for adding to and standing by the preposterous statements.”
“Still to this date, I have no idea where she got the idea that I was the man and why she did what she did. I also wonder what she had to gain from this. In releasing such news and before pointing fingers at the wrong people, she should have done some investigations. She may have done so, but I wonder what kind of information she had to begin with.”
“The reason why I requested for observing is because we were using the methods to acquire more investors for promotions and also to strategize. Observing is done by our PR Department, and using standard delays, the team is able to analyze viewership count plus what works and what does not in real-time. From those analysis, the team puts together proposals, which we collect to strategize future involvements in eSports scene for the company promotion.”
2) My Thoughts from Comments (going keep things anonymous)
a) Timing of [first] post is odd. Are you simply trying to clear your name off of the list? – Timing was not odd at all. I waited. I waited a week before saying anything and before having to proceed with the remainder of MAL presents series. Nothing seemed to be being done, so I took the liberty of explaining things from my side. And my name was already mentioned, hence, no point in trying to just delete me off of the list. I believe explanation was in order before continuing, so I simply voiced on where I was.
b) Are you pre-defending yourself from future articles? – Nope. If I was, I would have kept my mouth shut “as advised”, because all I had to do was sit tight and wait for all this to blow over.
c) Why should Mal even care? – I care as a fan. As a fan, I cannot just watch Starcraft II scene plummet down the drain without doing anything. Luckily(?) this event does not seem like it is going anywhere on that path. When the first ‘match-fix’ scandal happened, all I did was to look out for my friends, the pro-gamers. As we all know, the event was big enough to kill off Broodwar Era. I do not know what else I could have done then, but at least now, I have become somewhat of an insider. I feel responsible and that it is my duty to act upon any situations and clear as many “pitchforks” as possible for the health of the scene. I would do so even if I was not named in an event. People at fault should be punished, not the others who happened to be around them.
d) Olivia brought it up because one of her players was harassed in MAL’s tournament. – Where did you get this idea? Because, to me, you seem like you just want to draw out some aggros. Heart was one of her players in my tournament, MAL presents: Smallest Map Possible, and to some extent, True is of hers as well. Neither have said they have been “harassed”, let alone did the sponsor even messaged them. I would really appreciate if you do not make such “guessed” statements in a sensitive thread.
e) As the event organizer, isn’t it your job to know who is involved and who isn’t? – I believe it is my job to try to know. I see myself in the same groups as you are, a simple fan. Last time I checked, and some half a year ago, I was no different than most of you readers minus the fact that I had some pro-gamer IRL friends. I cannot know exactly who is shady and who isn’t. I am getting to know of it though.
f) So, is the article coming? – I am wondering the same. Three weeks have passed, and only one still talking about this seems to be me and some handful out of hundreds of thousands of people in Starcraft II.
g) Olimoley’s goal was to push Blizzard to actually take things seriously. – Let’s be honest here. Is this really a matter that everybody has to take seriously? Not quite. This is just my thought and not from any conversations with Blizzard employee. Does existence of this act hurt Blizzard in any way? People that are being hurt are the Korean fools that take part in such illegal acts. If anything, for Blizzard, wouldn’t existence of this increase viewership? Maybe. Is it morally wrong for the company to not act on this? No, not at all. In my opinion, if Blizzard does anything, it is a bonus. From the American-based company’s perspective, if I were Mr. Morhaime, I would not think that I am the world’s police, and I would not spend my resources in cracking down on this matter. It may not do the company any benefits, but it does not do the company any harm. I think it would make more sense if I spent that resources at things that are meaningful.
h) All this was brought up and dropped during MAL’s tournament. – Yes. But I strongly believe Olimoley had no intentions to “screw me over”. Bad timing I suppose. I think the fact that the issues seemingly been dropped reflects how lightly we see of this matter. If we do not even think of this seriously enough, why should we demand anybody else to do something about it?
3) KeSPA Jail?
So far, from what I have seen, KeSPAs doing everything but opening up more cells. After their official statement of “from now on, we will be looking very closely into the players participating in online tournaments”, the immediate interpretation was that no one will ever be able to participate in online tournaments. While, at one hand, I think that has to be the only way to make sure and save players from being part of such act, there simply is nothing to gain from in executing that. While I do not hold any evidences of exactly what KeSPA is doing to protect the players, the fact is they still allow players to participate. Players use online tournaments to promote themselves, make few dollars, try new builds, and keep up to the tournament forms during off-seasons. The statement grew awareness and opportunities for players taking part in online tournaments may have been decreased, but I am glad that the players are able to utilize the system without much loss.
4) Conclusion
I still am a believer that whats done by Olimoley is right. But I do have to raise a point that maybe the method could have been refined with some “understandable” procedures. Her release of the information could have damaged the scene a lot more. Luckily it didn’t. And luckily, it only ended at MALp: SMP being a disastrous finish with players losing out. I think it is incredibly fortunate to players for not getting too much heat from this.
As for people demanding Blizzard to act on this matter, all I have to say is… would you, if you were Mr. Morhaime? I do not think this is something Blizzard must attend. They have far greater matters to attend to, like Overwatch, maphackers, LotV, and etc. And knowing that they are attending those relieves me far greater than them being on this case. And of course, they said they are looking into this matter as well, which I can be greatly appreciative of.
Since many streamers have come to an agreement that no more observing privileges whatsoever, I think, in future, the possibility of such act will be decreased at the minimum and that we can all look forward to seeing great things to come for the scene and for the community.
I have hit a wall with my investigation, and I will decrease amount of time spent attending this. This does not mean I am giving up. I am not giving up and will supply you with details when I have more information to be shared. I hope others do the same as well and take responsibilities as the leaders.
Lately, thanks to ESL, I have been given requests/opportunities to cast IEM qualifiers and WCS premiere league. After those few unscheduled streams, it has been bothering me that I just seem like I came back to streaming without any further news. That having said, this is my official mark of end of the break, and that I am returning to streaming services. I hope what I supplied meant something to you.
Alex ‘Axeltoss’ Rodriguez has been busy with personal life, and therefore, MAxeLtoss will continue to be postponed. MAL presents series will commence when it can, and so will some other contents in my idea bank. Until such times when they are ready, I will be streaming regular ladders, team games, and arcades while balancing (or attempting to at least) Korean streams and English streams. I do not know exactly what I am apologizing for, and it probably is my Korean + Canadian cultural background, but I am sorry for any troubles I may have caused with being named in this scandal. Thank you so much for your patience.
PS: I did not proofread this as I just wanted to get them out of my system for now so I can breathe. To grammar and spelling police, I am sorry if this post annoys you in any way. Over the past couple weeks, I have been feeling sorry for the eight participants of MALp: SMP that had to take the shots, and I felt like something was strangling me. I just wanted to get this out. So please ignore my inability to write. Thanks.