EPTI added 12 more photos + infos!
Hi TL!
Because of the support I received over the last few weeks ( THX Stoids for your thread ), I decided that I should write about my time in Korea and I hope that y'all are interested in it. I just want to take the chance again and thank you all for your huge support & your nice comments, I never thought that something like this would happen so a big THANK YOU! this report is for all my friends here on TL and I hope you enjoy it!
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/wqGrf.jpg)
the last few minutes @ incheon airport - evening replay of the samsung game/me on MBC Game
About my person/the journey/how I became a fan/a Notice:
+ Show Spoiler +
I'm a student (hopefully) majoring in economics sometime in the future although I'm not 100% satisfied with the subject or being sure about my future perspective. I guess I'm still looking for my right spot 
Born & raised in Vienna/Austria, my superficial personality had the chance to join my korean friend and student partner on his trip to Seoul - he had to clear up some files with the local authorities & we stayed at his aunt's house.
Let me just say that I might be strange and crazy for some people sometimes but even when I acted crazy in Seoul, I just felt that I had to do something to show that even foreigners understand the e sports culture & we all know what fantastic stuff is going in Korea- please keep that in mind. I never intended to be rude, sometimes I felt that koreans even want u to act crazy because u r a foreigner. thats the situation they are used to be in, a western rocking a korean behavior wouldn't go so well that often...please keep that in mind, I respect u all and I hope u still had fun with the games even with me in it acting crazy and weird. Propz to u guys!
I started watching starcraft around 2008 when xsreality (now esreality), a quake 3 /quakelive fps coverage site started to announce a tournament with
Tasteless casting the GOMTV star invitational in english. I was a former q3ctf player and nearly made it in our nationscup team but I won't go into (boring) details. I was at one point part of the Q3 Squad of Infernum, to most a well known & top notch EU CS Team many many years ago from europe - long time CS players might still know it.
Watching my first bw match was unbelieveable andTasteless (propz to u,sir!) had such a good casting , he taught me everything about this game. I never really played BW or RTS games, I just enjoy watching the games like soccer on my TV and home theatre PC and I noticed this protoss with unbelieveable skills. He changed his tactics and faces so often, sometimes I thought that I would ve controlled the units like he did so I instantly became a fan of 
Stork. It's not about the looks, it's about his mind and his force to win which is being transferred into the game, this is what made me such a huge fan of him. I think fans see their favorite progamer's personality during the game and thats when you feel connected in some way sometimes...
Born & raised in Vienna/Austria, my superficial personality had the chance to join my korean friend and student partner on his trip to Seoul - he had to clear up some files with the local authorities & we stayed at his aunt's house. Let me just say that I might be strange and crazy for some people sometimes but even when I acted crazy in Seoul, I just felt that I had to do something to show that even foreigners understand the e sports culture & we all know what fantastic stuff is going in Korea- please keep that in mind. I never intended to be rude, sometimes I felt that koreans even want u to act crazy because u r a foreigner. thats the situation they are used to be in, a western rocking a korean behavior wouldn't go so well that often...please keep that in mind, I respect u all and I hope u still had fun with the games even with me in it acting crazy and weird. Propz to u guys!
I started watching starcraft around 2008 when xsreality (now esreality), a quake 3 /quakelive fps coverage site started to announce a tournament with
Tasteless casting the GOMTV star invitational in english. I was a former q3ctf player and nearly made it in our nationscup team but I won't go into (boring) details. I was at one point part of the Q3 Squad of Infernum, to most a well known & top notch EU CS Team many many years ago from europe - long time CS players might still know it.Watching my first bw match was unbelieveable and
Tasteless (propz to u,sir!) had such a good casting , he taught me everything about this game. I never really played BW or RTS games, I just enjoy watching the games like soccer on my TV and home theatre PC and I noticed this protoss with unbelieveable skills. He changed his tactics and faces so often, sometimes I thought that I would ve controlled the units like he did so I instantly became a fan of Stork. It's not about the looks, it's about his mind and his force to win which is being transferred into the game, this is what made me such a huge fan of him. I think fans see their favorite progamer's personality during the game and thats when you feel connected in some way sometimes...![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/jTaG0.jpg)
A picture of my famous fridge: (Storks photos all over it - I removed the NSFW Agyness Deyn nude photo for this shot!
)6th of December 2010
Samsung KHAN vs STX Seoul
New picture:
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LOOX mall, MBC Game Hero Center
Getting to Mullae and to the LOOX wasn't difficult at all because its so close to the metro station, thanks to the guide here on TL, I could instantly find it. There was a sign and a map to the right area/floor in the building and it was really sad to see that the LOOX mall was more like an empty mall/construction place than a top modern esport arena. There seem to be a lot of offices in the next building and thats were I saw a map with proper instructions to find the gaming centers. While walking down the corridors, I noticed the MBC Game hero glass doors and I thought "oh cool, I can buy some merchandise here" - wrong idea
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The MBCGame HERO entrance
I was walking in, doors were not locked and I see all those MBC Heroes playing SC, I was off the hook! No coach present, and no one was noticing me, they were all in a real serious training mode... I just gave
Light & Sea a quick look and then, the alien DT left unseen, lol! ( U see the place on Hyungjun becomes a progamer!)New picture:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/aGhfQ.jpg)
On the floor waiting in front of the entrance! The black table is were ppl can take cheering cards and writing equipment! - There's also the list hanging
Still more than 1 hour until the games so I saw those young school girls sitting on the floor and waiting for the games. I was on the floor as well and just waited and spectated everything that was happening around me. I noticed that new visitors started to write their names on a list so I did the same. All 3 girls started to bring up english words, formed a sentence and tried to confront me with their final terms - lol. No to be honest they weren't that bad in english and we started to talk. They told me that they are totally into STX and especially into
Calm / hero and Shuttle (lol 1 girl was totally in love). They were really suprised that I knew a lot of facts about them (Calm without glasses anymore / Shuttle crying at the prelims) so they were totally amazed about me and it was cool that they even knew the nicknames of the gamers - a rare thing! And they gave me alot of infos there so I was really thankful to them...tbh, I also really like Shuttle, you could see that this kid loves the game like hell, his loss made him totally fustrated and I felt sorry for him that he had to face Stork.New picture:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/4X1Xw.jpg)
Observer/Kespa refs at the side? 3 dudes watching the games all the time....
When the games started, I joined and was next to the girls located to the STX fans/area. There were only like 3 Samsung fans and I was actually a bit sad because we were only like maybe 15 people. I took some cheering cards and started to write a few when the actual broadcast began with the commercials on the big screen. I also saw the commentators briefly passing by to a room next to it after they grabbed some coffee. I still wanted to take some photos when everything suddenly started...
Stork standing there with the other KHAN progamers in front of me - I was so happy i just watched what was going on in front of me! I was going 11.000 kilometers to Seoul and it was totally worth it! I also clapped for STX of course and I was so happy to sit in the front row with the girls. When the games started, it was great to watch everything from a closer perspective and I could see more of the progamers expressions while they were playing. There are about 6 screens on each side were ppl can try to follow the fpvod + observer view of the games going on - you guys would die to see it!
New picture:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/pPtn6.jpg)
FPVOD screens @ the side - no comment on the huge guy in front of me
While watching the games, I remembered that Samsung had to win in order to give
Stork my presents from Austria (an Artbook with 360° views of vienna + some austrian sweets - "Manner Schnitten" in a nice retro steel box with the name/logo on it.)I told my mom that I would do a greeting card for her and that she will see me sometime but I was sad because the camera crew/director noticed it but showed no effort in broadcasting it at all
I have to thank the STX fangirls for telling me to sit near the row in the middle, thats were like the camera can't deny u to place a cheer for ur loved ones. I also did a Austria <3 Stork/Korea and there were these 2 young korean male teens behind totally hating on me but tbh, haters gonna hate i didn't care at all and smiled anyway! (even my austria <3 korea couldn't stop that)![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/3iz2P.jpg)
the cheering card for my mom - I <3 you,mom! thank you for the journey!
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/lZXsA.jpg)
We Love Korea & Stork
There, I saw this dude with glasses and the golden carrier badge and a
Stork wallpaper on his cellphone, thats when I met harry and we are still really close. He spoke a very good english compared to other koreans and understood me 100% he's speaking the language even better than many austrians,lol.Stork's play and win was fantastic but I felt like Samsung was going to lose tonight and I was right. You can see me praying in the ACE match of I think Kal vs great and it was 100% real (i didnt know the camera was on me) but it didn't work out and the staff wouldn't help me with giving Stork my presents, I was just sad..also TurN seemed to have lost his ability and I was really sad seeing him lose, you could see that he took a defeat really serious and his apm was crazy on the last 2 minutes on the fpvod screens. I noticed the STX doors on the floor too...I was like
New Picture:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/LhSd4.jpg)
STX Soul Doors.....I guess like they train here...
After the loss in the last game, everybody left really quickly but I couldn't find the Samsung players anymore. I asked a girl for the correct metro direction and later found out she's a kespa referee - lol - she even asked another passanger (it was harry,Haha!) to help me because she didn't know where like the biggest mall in korea was
kespa refs really need to step up!!7th of December 2010
MBCGame HERO vs KT Rolster
Tbh, my friend I came with from austria kinda left me on my own so without knowing what to do, I came the next day to watch some games again. I have to admit that I'm neither a hardcore fan of any of those teams but hey, I'm in korea , I wanted to watch more games and thats what I did. I remember the game of
Light vs Flash and tbh, it was one of the best games I saw in korea. I was screaming, clapping - kinda like an average european soccer fan. This game made my day and I adore Light for his accomplishment, after he left the booth he still looked totally fine, I think he knew he had won the game for a long period of time while playing. The kespa referees had to pause the game at one point - nothing against Flash on this one but he seemed to have lost his aggressive play in the face of a loss. I took a closer look and u could see that he just is not able to lose a game, it's totally against his mind.![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/MGFAz.jpg)
Flash vs Light
Additional content:
I noticed this girl you can see on the lower picture! This girl was so crazy about
Flash , she made at least a 1000 pictures while he was playing, I promise! Her cheering cards we're shown a lot more ( ), the camera guy brought coffee just for her and they we're talkin all the time! New Picture:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/xWlt8.jpg)
flash hardc0re fan - white hoody girl!
I placed a cheering card so the koreans could please bring MBC Game to austria and I also wanted to greet my best friends in austria so badly, mission accomplished i guess
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/TaKn3.jpg)
We want MBCGame in Austria / Greetings for my closest friends
After the games and MBC's win, I noticed that KT actually made a short fan meeting with the progamers even though their team lost. The players looked really awkward and you could actually feel that they felt shame and just wanted to leave. I was at the elevators, wanted to walk into the cabin when I heard the whole KT players coming for the same elevator. Looking into
Flash's face after a loss, it instantly made me leave the elevator so the players could get down on their own. You could feel that they have a bullet proof psychological mindset, U just cant f*ck with these guys & especially Flash - being a progamer is a very difficult job and you need to have a strong character & personality - these guys have it! I also noticed Action who was really depressed, I guess he doesn't do so well in the team in terms of winning. I also had the feeling that HoeJJa has a really nice personality and I think esport fans noticed this also on the Nal ra oldboy reality series. I wanted to talk to them/do photos but I felt that it wasn't a good idea at all...8th of December 2010 - the best day of my life!
OSL R16 Day 1
Before I write more details about it, let me just make it clear that this was one of the best days of my entire life and I will never forget what happened that day - It had a huge impact on me & my personality! - that's how fantastic it was...the day I left the family I was crying because they were so good to me, that day was also one reason why I actually was so sad...
First of all, I spend a fantastic day with the family's daughter So Yeun, she showed me interesting places of seoul (like Insadong) every foreigner had to see because my student friend still had no time for me and she even said that she will go to the ipark mall when the games start! I was so blown away because this girl doesn't like high tech at all nor does she know what's happening about SC at all in korea...this was beyond being friendly and u just gotta love an attractive girl thats going to watch SC with you... of course I had to pay for everything during our trips - I spend a fortune because we were eating in the finest restaurants and I bought her a ring - lol, she was worth it i can tell ya
New Picture:
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The holy place - we took a walk up to the roof, so cold!!!
Iparkmall was huge and even getting to the right place took us more than 15 minutes in it, it's on the highest floor in the building and we went in the wrong direction. The mall is huge and even stars like Nicolas Cage and other hollywood stars paid a visit to the local cinema for the inhouse movie premieres.
When we came to the last floor I was in shock. Still 40 minutes to go and there were SO MANY people, I never would've been able to get front seats. Thats when harry from the proleague samsung game approached me and I begged him to give us 2 of his seats. His friends didn't come so it was no problem and I was so thankful to him. This guy waited for HOURS so he deserves all the credits.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/pE9UC.jpg)
Harry & me aka find the alien! The kespa proleague informations were all wrong! We were furious - the dates we're messed up!
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so many people!!!!! OMG
When the entrance opened, we were like one of the first people to enter so we could reach a few seats in the 2nd row. We received cheering cards and bacchus energy drinks for free, i liked it altough i missed my beloved Red Bull from Austria. There were huge wallscrolls everywhere, everythings so much bigger than it looks like from the streams.
New picture:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/zn4j5.jpg)
HUGE WALLSCROLLS!!!
The osl staff girl told us to cheer loudly in every (!) game,otherwise we had to leave,guess they don't want people coming just for a single game and then showing no emotions at all for the other gamers.
Kal vs Flash was a strong entry into the evening, I guess Flash doesn't want me in the crowd, he's losing every game with me in it. (do you guys want him to lose a final?!? pay me a trip to korea ) Kal is such a huge person, I think he is even bigger than me and I'm considered to be a rather tall european guy. Sitting next to him and looking at his face and the body language while playing, somehow I felt like Flash is pushing it too hard sometimes and thats when he loses control over a game. I have a lot of respect for Flash but he still has a lot to learn and he has the time to do so. and
Kal? well propz, I just love carriers altough there's another player rocking 'em better ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/a4URg.jpg)
Calm vs Hogil
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/nsUhh.jpg)
Kal - you don't get tired vs Flash!!!!
After the first game I totally forgot about the next ZvZ, (sry
Calm fans) but I totally was moving to the cool intro, I just loved that I came to korea with this intro running and I was patiently waiting for the Stork vs Mind Game, I had also prepared a my cheering card. New picture:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/WRC7T.jpg)
me looking @ those 2 badass players!
Well you guys saw my crazy appearance I guess, after that I was told to stand up while the game was running so that the korean fans could also see me off the screen and where I was sitting. They gave me a warm applause and it was nice but I only wanted to follow
Stork's game. The next 30 mins - you could see me praying, u could see me in shock - but it paid off, he won, although I have to say that mind still put up a good fight! What followed after the game was just pure awesomeness. When
Stork signed the poster and came forward,we 3 (so yeun,harry and me) were standing and shouting "SBG,SBG!", next I get shown by the cameras holding my Galaxy S for Stork and then, the korean officals gave me the signed poster (!) and 2 female embloyees came for me. The first one was from KHAN, she told me that Stork will come out just for me so I should please wait outside until his interview & photoshoot were finished, the 2nd one was an OSL one that told me I had won a ceremony price, 50.000 Won of happy money (it is used as a coupon in various shops, it is forbidden to give real money away in Seoul I was told without knowing my age,lol).What should I say? My dream came true! The koreans showed so much love for the alien and a few minutes later during fantasy's game,
Stork came just for me through the audience hall while the last game was going on (!). Koreans only had eyes for stork and he was the only progamer not to take the vip exit, he choose to get out next to the crowd sitting there and you could tell that it was really special.The meeting itself? Well he's just a total awesome guy like u might know him from the screen, funny, a bit shy but a very interesting person with a lot of stories and stuff to tell. Even So Yeun mentioned that he is really funny and she enjoyed talking to him, she begged me also to make a photo with him. I talked to
Stork a bit in simple english and I could tell that he understood everything altough it took a bit longer for him A lot was translated so thanks to the koreans around me, Stork gave an insight about his life and was telling me alot of infos western fans are not aware that much I guess. He told me that his 3-proxy-gate build vs Jaedong was trained by him a lot for over 2 years with khan teammates just to use it on that day! also insights about the military recruiment process, he was standing there and talkin with me for over 20 minutes, wow! I guess this progamer really likes his fans. I noticed the male samsung khan coach with him in the background, he was paying alot of attention to the people who were passing by, I guess he doesn't want to get his star player hurt or flamed and I wouldn't want that either. "SBG fighting", a smile of stork, and thats how everything ended...just awesome!![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/c2Vfk.jpg)
2 of the most awesome people ever!
Later that evening I was partying with So Yeun, we were eating, drinking a lot, having fun - what more should I declare?!
12th of december 2010 - my last day in korea!
Samsung khan vs Woongjin Stars
My last day in korea, I had to take a flight at midnight so I could finally get to another
Stork game and hand over my presents (i didn't expect to meet him at the OSL). I arrived about 20 minutes late but but was glad that everything seemed to work for khan on that day. I cheered for Stork, I was really into the JangBi game and I declared January my love - lol. No to be honest I'm not that deep into her altough I think she's looking good and girls like to receive love for their looks and thats what I did I was sad for Harry because his card was interesting too, his message was something like "Please January don't mess around, Daniel is in a hurry today, he needs to get his plane!"
I guess you guys we're having fun anyway...![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/t8xiJ.jpg)
I <3 Kim Ga Eul !!!
Everything worked,
JangBi's storms we re the best I have ever seen maybe and the moment were he didn't even look at the screen was unbelieveable, ppl were going crazy.New picture:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/xB2Ac.jpg)
ZerO has no idea the storm is coming these kids in front of me really tested my nerves TurN lost again and I was angry as hell, at least the fanmeeting went well. I did a lot of photos with all the players, january didn't show up , jangbi was moving around all the time, he seemed to be full of energy I also talked to Stork for about 15 minutes but I also gave him some room because I guess he enjoyed it maybe more to talk to some beautiful girls who attended the fan meeting as well. I gave him my artbook and he really seemed to like it, I am so thankful that he mentioned me in an interview. He was curious about Austria and my Samsung phone so we exchange some infos, I told him about my day when he won the starleague and he was really suprised by my knowledge. I guess he had no idea that he also has impact on some austrian random guy,I guess thats what impressed him the most and I hope that this will drive him to another starleague!![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/qVll5.jpg)
Stork holding my present
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/cezYT.jpg)
I still don't know were to put them!
New picture:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/RTMw2.jpg)
Framed OSL Promo
This is my first version report! When I left Korea, I was really sad and I guess y'all can imagine why after reading my diary! there's so much more I could tell, thank you so much for your support TL, I hope u enjoy my effort as well!
Cheers & Thank you all, TL I love you, I will never forget! I might add more conent & corrections here soon! I got so much more to tell!
Daniel
