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Returning to Korea for WCG. New faces and clubing !
As my good mother drove me down to the airport a very strong stomach ache suddenly tore me apart. Somehow the anguish of flying back to Korea had gotten to me. I was happy to fly back, but I was leaving behind my new dog, my weed, sea side, French libraries etc.
Korea was something just so different, in fact it felt like my existence had been divided in two distinct and antagonist experiences.
It was like using a different part of myself to fit in Korea, I like to hide in France, over Korea, I had to expose myself, interact, face things, dig an impossible to dig hole. These things were shoveling my guts deep.
It kind of kept going until after a few days in Seoul. Alas, my first evening of drinking cleaned everything up. I got drunk heavy and somehow doing such summoned my Korean self back into me.
This year’s WCG was to be held in the event building center next to COEX. It was to be the main event of the game show KAMEX.
As I explored the place I ran into Richard, the one who had taken me into Triple Dice, got me sponsored, watched after me.. I was so happy ! He had moved to Gravity and was presenting Ragnarok Online beta there.
He asked if I was coming back to be a pro gamer again. I couldn’t exactly laugh and say thing like “oh man, you know how much I suck !” because he was the one who actually made his ex boss spend his cash on me for playing SC >.>.
Anyway, I went right to the point saying I would be watching over two foreign players that qualified for WCG finals and were planning to stay in Korea, and that I of course, was looking for a sponsorship for them.
He seemed very happy with the idea and went up to gravity CEO who was there and introduced me. We then proceeded to go for a lunch at TGI and I spoke about pro gaming the whole time.
I left them after the meal and went straight to the WCG venue to meet up with many faces I hadn’t seen for months.
Grrrr…, Maynard, Elky, Smuft, Kenka, Dudey, Supercondomuser and many others had just gotten there.
In an awkward demonstration of man to man love, Maynard (whos smaller than I am but way thicker !) just caught me and threw me up in the air like his new bride.
As I was talking with Smuft, MightyAtom showed up and Steven introduced him as the coolest guy ever to walk Canadian grounds, and I soon thought he was damn right.
It felt exalting to see that many SC players, I don’t know why. It seemed everything that I had left was about to grow even bigger !
The fact Kevin, Daniel, Kenka and others told me they were planning to stay a couple months, made things even cooler.
A Starcraft foreign gang in Korea… It wouldn’t only be me and Guillaume and possibly Everlast… I was pumped.
Speaking with Elky gave me confidence he could rank high up in the tournament and even why not win it. Elky always had that “tourney beast within” kind of thing, which was mainly a strong confidence in himself, but he was the first I had met that had both confidence and skill. More often, most good foreign players would have great confidence but would lack in skill. Elky seemed like another case and as the story told, I was pretty right on my hunch. (Not that it was not some mysterious intuition, Elky at that time, was arguably along with Fredrik the best foreign player. NTT would of course disagree on this (just like about everything that I can say or think).
Somehow I got my hands on a V.I.P. pass form a very charming and naïve WCG lady and was able to freely circulate through the whole thing.
As the national teams were taken care of by their own team manager, I didn’t have anything really to do to help Elky or Smuft, I was however, running around trying to get them interviewed etc… and I was able to sit down a few moments with Elky to scheme up what would come after WCG if he made it to the top.
Smuft was in the good hands of mightyatom and I was hoping he would make it far as well.
By the way people, the “manner pylon” is something that was invented at this WCG, the name came from smuft who was the very first to actually do it, he wrote it down on his WCG info quiz when it would ask “what is your favorite strategy?”.
Smuft wrote down with haste “THE MANNER PYLON”.
Sadly Smuft didn’t make it out of his group, while Elky went on crushing faces right and left.
Over the WCG’s course, I had met yet again with a Journalist, that flew year before to Korea for a week, to interview Grrrr…. He was back to cover WCG (more like a paid holiday), and introduced me to a quite hot lady working for Wired and also here to cover WCG and Kamex.
The day before the WCG finals where Elky would face his nemesis, Boxer, me, Guillaume and the two reporters went to Juliana with a bunch of Korean friends.
Somehow, the reporter girl was turning me on huge time. I don’t know, there’s something extremely sensual about the way some American girls behave that I never could quite explain to myself… anyway, as I was getting closer to her and making a good conversation out of this noisy place, the (old) male reporter stood up and told me he was going back to the hotel, leaving a nice stack of cash on the table to take care of half of the bill.
Then Jee Hae somehow showed up and the female reporter actually got pissed. My gf took me apart telling me shit about the reporter (she was hitting one me blah blah), which I had no way to argue against without looking suspicious >.<.
The reporter girl promptly left and I think I got both the reporters pissed on the same evening.
Next day I was spending it with reporter girl trying to explain her how TvT worked but it turned out Elky played Protoss.
We watched in pain Elky getting demolished by Boxer while she kept on saying how Boxer looked cute for a Korean and me thinking “fuck it, Elky lost And all she finds telling me is how good boxer looks” .
Anyway, taking the loss in the finals wasn’t such a huge blow and I prolly was just as extatic as Elky was of getting 2nd, because we both knew what it really meant : for a week, Elky would be in many news papers, and getting 2nd was enough to stay in Korea and try and find a sponsorship.
Smuft would tag along and live in the same place as Elky, while we would rent me and Jee Hae and appartement in the same building to monitor their fucking behavior (I’m not joking, you guys have no idea of what were Elky and Smuft paired together at that time. For instance, the first month, they would say “shibal seki” to every single person they were introduced to. People living in Korea, imagine what I had to deal with!)
Elky had won 10K usd. Now that’s great and it would allow him to live for a while in Korea, but, winning a tournament isn’t the most difficult, the hardest comes after when trying to get the money from Samsung.
After the WCG ended, as I said, a bunch of foreign players stayed a few months in Korea and we would basically all meet up and spend our free time together in pc rooms, restaurants, bars etc…
The first night of drinking with mighty atom was something special. I had a huge Canadian raised Korean, about twice the size of any Korean man in the street, yelling around to anyone willing to listen, that he was a :"fucking true Korean man, with big balls, a big macho heart and the thoughest drinking acolyte you could find".
Thing is, he couldn’t exactly word anything in Korean, so he was basically yelling in English and people would of course stare at him in a weird way, now that was not to stop this man, actually quite the opposite, and if a girl would dare making a comment or stare back at him, he would run to her yelling to her face she was the prettiest women he had seen in his entire life and that he came to Korea to find a bride.
I might speak more of mighty atom in the future. He’s one of his own kind…
NTT who was staying as well, wanted to try out pro gaming. Prior to our real life meeting, we had insulted and hated each other for a good year over the internet, him mostly spending his time on battle net making new ids to whisper me shit and getting ignored.
At first in Korea, it felt like we could get along better, but it didn’t work out, namely him saying I looked and behaved like a fag, which I can’t really blame him for, as I was acting the way some Korean chicks see and love European men. But meh, we just didn’t get along and he isn’t exactly of the merry type.
Back then, dragging NTT into a Korean club or bar would basically mean having a dead weight sitting in a random corner staring at his shoes for hours without a word, and that’s not a fucking joke.
Now truth is, he asked me to provide him the kind of help I was giving Elky and Smuft and I said yes, but didn’t have any time for and NTT wasn’t helping either by not wanting to DO A SINGLE THING and playing elastomania 10 hours a day instead of raping faces on gamei and trying out the gamei weekly’s.
That was about the time smuft introduced me to spunky, that he knew online prior to coming to Korea. Spunky was the kindest and one of the most sympathetic English speaker I met in the Starcraft Korean community.
As I had access to many people at MBC game, I could get good practice partners sometimes for Elky through Ophium.
But Spunky had much better connections with players and clans on battle net and soon enough, he showed up with Cho jja in our practice pc room to pit him against Elky.
Now, Elky, smuft and I, upon seeing Cho Jja playing irl agreed right away he couldn’t be anything else but the best player in the world, but Cho Jja always kind of lacked confidence, and for their first games, Elky demolished him so hard Cho Jja seemed depressed.
Well, to his discharge, at that time, Elky prolly had the best TVZ in the world, much more efficient than Boxer actually. But Boxer was just a tournament god, you know, that guy you see in lans and you just know he can’t be beaten.
We rapidly set a couple of goals, like getting Elky / Smuft into gamei weekly tournaments, where money was to be made.
Also getting top ladder of gamei to get noticed, thing that smuft did within two days, losing only a couple of games out of one hundred. I still remember Smuft raping top gamei zergs in the most humiliating fashions (like 22 dts rush on lost temple against).
With the good help of Jee Hae, I was able to use the many business cards I had gathered for a year and a half, and basically call everyone to get appointements, either it to be with OGN and MBC pds, potential sponsors or even to bargain a month rent in a good pc bang for them to practice.
We were making calls all day long and soon enough, meetings began to schedule and to pile up.
Then, OGN pd called and asked us to come over their headquarters outside Seoul, they wanted to get a closer look on these fresh new foreign gamers.
MBC also called saying they were sending a reporter squad to follow us for a day long and make a documentary on our lifestyle in Seoul.
Done for now. Next entry will follow events from there. Elky / Smuft duking it out in front of all OGN employees in their main Office, with all of them (about 50!) standing up watching the whole game and actually making a huge applaud when they finished. Was crazy !
Also, Elky’s first broadcasted game on MBC against gorush and Grrrr… and their first Korean 1024 players starcraft lan held by KTF!
Hope you enjoyed !
 
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Canada9720 Posts
haha awesome mightatom stories, definitely share more! always enjoy your blogs man
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Belgium9945 Posts
I don't think I've heard any good things about NTT lol.
5/5
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Ahhh....if only I was in the right place at the right time....pro gaming sounds awesome.
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On January 08 2011 01:45 RaGe wrote:
I don't think I've heard any good things about NTT lol.
5/5
now that's very mean
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On January 08 2011 01:45 RaGe wrote:
I don't think I've heard any good things about NTT lol.
5/5
One nice thing to say about NTT was that some of his trolling on the battle.net forum earlier this year was hillarious.
excellent blog anyway 
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Katowice25012 Posts
Very cool
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Blog has less views than the dude who got into gold yday.
T_T
but quality views > all
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On January 08 2011 03:52 Boonbag wrote:
Blog has less views than the dude who got into gold yday.
T_T
but quality views > all
I logged on this account for the first time in over a year just to say this:
I lurked TL for years, years.I've been keeping up with this blog since the third blog post or so, and stopped checking to see if you posted a new one around the end of '09. At 3am today, I decided to check your blog for the hell of due to sheer boredom and to my pleasant surprise I found more blog posts, and the latest one being made only an hour earlier. Fuck all the SC2 related blog posts, reading your posts are so much more awesome, reflecting on days we can only now reminisce :D
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Yeah I remember reading like part 5 in 2008. Fuck there is 13 of them now? Wow man and you are still going to write more :D
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I kind of drunk waiting for the weed man to show up so I might write another one meanwhile
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United States10328 Posts
your blog delivers as always 5/5
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CA10824 Posts
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Croatia9487 Posts
Awesome, keep them coming!
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I rmb boonbag. I also rmbed his disappearance and the halt of his series. My advice: This is not an isolated blog. Read the entire series guys.
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Austin10831 Posts
Glad to see this; I've always liked this series of blogs.
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Probably one of, if not, the best blogs TL has to offer.
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best blog on TL, keep going! %)
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I love stories like these.
How do you remember everything so clearly? Especially when you apparently like to write them when drunk?
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United States11637 Posts
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It's things like this that make me miss more foreigners were still in Korea playing professionally.
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United States1967 Posts
great blog, it's so nostalgic to hear some of those names again.
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On January 08 2011 01:24 Boonbag wrote:
Hope you enjoyed !
Sure did. Thanks a bundle for writing this all up this is awesome
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I always loved reading these. Great stories.
Let's get boonbag back on top as the #1 rated blog.
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On January 08 2011 12:05 Zona wrote:
I love stories like these.
How do you remember everything so clearly? Especially when you apparently like to write them when drunk?
Maybe because I was drunk the whole time I was in Korea. So when I get drunk I can connect back to these :D
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Awesome read =)
The next entry sounds like good fun... the agony of waiting.
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Very nice blog.
I just stumbled upon this latest installment today, but have gone back and read all 13 episodes now. Nice way to relive some of the memories from the early days of competitive Starcraft through the eyes of somebody who was at the epicenter of it all.
And brings back fond memories about my own humble adventures during those years as well. Thanks a lot for posting these blogs, and please write more!
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i loved this blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! good old bw!
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Your blogs are the best Boonbag.
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one of the first times i got on tl this blog was the first thing i read. i forgot about it and seeing it spotlighted now is awesome. quality blog for sure, thanks!
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^_^ <3
Cheers
looking forward to the next~
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Amazing. And so the tale, ever so slowly, continues 
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Ooooh I can't believe I missed it when you started to write again!
Great read as usual!
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Awesome... It seems strange though how many of the foreigners you write about, and many of the foreigners I know about from other sources, could rape even top korean pros so hard on things like game-i and later wgtour and so on and yet still not get much results irl. Only Elky and Grrrr... ever really performed at the top level in real tournies and yet it seems as though lots of players, like for example Smuft that you've written about here, but even besides him there are many like Mondragon, Blackman, Draco, Testie, etc, who could make a fool of top Koreans online but never did that much in real televised games. Do you think that the foreigners just weren't as good at dealing with the pressure, or is it more that as foreigners they had too much added pressure and too many added distractions compared to most korean pros that made it that much harder for them to perform in Korea?
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Very cool blog, just strange it gets posted now :D This is what, 8 years old ? Also I don't remember your name at all in the french community Boonbag which is kinda weird. I'll try to find your older blogs to get a clue ;-).
edit: ok you're oTTer i get it
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This was a fun read. I loved the part with the Canadian-raised Korean; that was just so random. XD
I was acting the way some Korean chicks see and love European men
mind telling me how to act like that? o_O
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On January 09 2011 00:52 blahman3344 wrote:This was a fun read. I loved the part with the Canadian-raised Korean; that was just so random. XD mind telling me how to act like that? o_O
Can't unleash such secrets to the public.
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Sorry for asking such a seemingly obvious question but was your ID for SC Boonbag or something else?
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On January 08 2011 22:58 RouaF wrote:Very cool blog, just strange it gets posted now :D This is what, 8 years old ? Also I don't remember your name at all in the french community Boonbag which is kinda weird. I'll try to find your older blogs to get a clue ;-). edit: ok you're oTTer i get it
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Great read! Keep em coming. :D
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Wow, very nice read! Just wondering, what exactly did MightyAtom do? All I really know is he makes bad-ass blogs on TL.
Please write another soon
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mightyatom rofl
good as usual.. thanks man :D
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A very interesting piece of Broodwar story.... i would love to understand why foreigners stopped being competitive in 2001/2002.
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Great blog entry as usual ! It's a perfect complement to Guybrush posts "History of BW". He provides all the results and cash prizes, you make it an enjoyable to read story.
On January 10 2011 15:44 legaton wrote:
A very interesting piece of Broodwar story.... i would love to understand why foreigners stopped being competitive in 2001/2002.
Imo, it's because none of them had the dedication to succeed. Idra probably had, but even though he was the best foreigner he wasn't talented enough to be successful. Read Rekrul's "biography", it's an amazing article, and explains very well how hard it is to be in a progamers training house.
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Such an amazing read. When I saw the names of all these old heroes I got the chills. Thanks for sharing! <3
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I read all the blogs. Awesome story. It's the best piece of Broodwar history i have ever read. Thanks a lot.
And yeah, i actually found the answer to my question on one of your previous blogs. When you explain how Slayer won the WCG but how that entire generation of foreign gamers didn't went to Korea. It seems they missed what you describe as the birth of the new generation of korean players, the guys with superior mechanics and training ethos. Instead of the learning the new korean way, the foreign scene took a different path. In fact, i don't know if you ever followed rugby here in France, but your story remembers me how amateur rugby was deeply transformed when it went pro (this just happened in 1995).
Thanks again.
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On January 11 2011 09:32 legaton wrote:
I read all the blogs. Awesome story. It's the best piece of Broodwar history i have ever read. Thanks a lot.
And yeah, i actually found the answer to my question on one of your previous blogs. When you explain how Slayer won the WCG but how that entire generation of foreign gamers didn't went to Korea. It seems they missed what you describe as the birth of the new generation of korean players, the guys with superior mechanics and training ethos. Instead of the learning the new korean way, the foreign scene took a different path. In fact, i don't know if you ever followed rugby here in France, but your story remembers me how amateur rugby was deeply transformed when it went pro (this just happened in 1995).
Thanks again.
Yeah it was KBK not WCG Slayer won.
You know, the main issue was sponsorship. I mean having no money as a Korean player in Korea and living off your parents makes it easier to dedicate yourself to homegrown pro sc scene.
It's just it was almost impossible for any foreigner to just move over Korean and compete, because nobody had the money for.
Also, eventho the level started to really take off in pro gaming, it wasn't before 2004 and even 2005 that the level REALLY started to be crazy and stuff.
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Korea (South)17174 Posts
mightyatom is coming over tonight
progaming tales that mother fer
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Thank you so much Boonbag, this is all super interesting!
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Love these blog posts, well done.
Elky was such a beast that WCG, outclassed everyone bar Boxer and was in a VERY strong position against him TvT on Temple. Not sure what inspired him to try and PvT him on Valhalla. Oh well.
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On January 12 2011 10:42 FeeLdAfuRy wrote:
Love these blog posts, well done.
Elky was such a beast that WCG, outclassed everyone bar Boxer and was in a VERY strong position against him TvT on Temple. Not sure what inspired him to try and PvT him on Valhalla. Oh well.
At that time valhalla was thought to be p favored. (just like any island map actually). And it was badluck, like I remember elky's shuttle with 1 goon and 2 lots missing the 4 goliaths dropship.
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Man, you are so cool! These are AMAZING! Hope you're doing well
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It's 4am and I have just finished reading these, so damn interesting and cool to read about this stuff.
Thanks for writing this Boonbag :D
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Wow these are amazing. Read all these in one sitting and now i wonder what I am doing with my life. Defiantly an awesome life you've had so far!! Looking forward to the rest!
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Thanks very much for these. Very interesting, especially for someone like me, who didn't even know what Starcraft was back then.
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
LOL,
omg, such a long time ago;
I was screaming in English all night long at Kenka because we we both screaming at each other,
cause he kept on saying the entire night 'I'm a Viking' 'or we were shouting like men' lol.
and so I kept on egging him on;
and that night, we played that 'knock out punch game' (where you pull a punch bag down and wack it for a score) and of course won kekeke.
but normally I don't speak very much going out, with Koreans,
but I really enjoyed having fun with Kenka and everyone.
hehe,
such a long time ago,
in that one trip,
got into 2 fights on the street,
destroyed a table at a booking club;
arm wrestled in a bar and crushed all the top foreign pro gamers of that time (and I mean all ^^),
wrestled and crushed random foreign pro gamers at the samsung residence,
and
yes I did go up to random Korean women and purposely in English say how pretty they were,
as a point to all the foreign nerds, not be scared of the women, that Korean women love men with some balls. ^^
And, at that time, wow, was it sooooo tough for gamers, everyone was on poverty and that really was a lifetime ago. 2000, like nearly 11 years ago. wow.
I've always been very traditional/conservative, but with foreigners, they don't notice much as I speak english and have fun, plus at that time, my Korean wasn't great (still isn't lol), but I spoke in a satori (country Daegu accent) at that time because my mom is from there, so when I was really drunk, then I'd speak a bit or when I was physically crushing the very young gamers at that time. keke.
Nice...
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
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EPT
