Han River

MBC progamers sometimes like to go to the Han River at night for a stroll when they have the time. It's not an uncommon thing to do. On 18th May, Tiny uploaded these two pictures onto his cyworld.

The picture is quite blurry but it's Jaehoon, Koala (probably on vacation from the army) and Tiny.

This one is slightly clearer... Jaehoon and Tiny. I don't know who the fourth person was, the one who took the first picture...

Table Drop

I mentioned in update 1 that MBC fans on HERO Gallery raised over 470k Won for a supper drop for the team. Because of logistical reasons, the supper drop was postponed and changed to a table drop, which took place on the day of the MBC-ACE match. The fans really put in a massive effort for this drop, which they also call an SCV.

The arrangement of food around the MBC bench is thus refered to as a 'simcity'. Cute.

The day before the match, the fans who organized the drop went to a supermarket to purchase all the food. They also created sticker labels to paste on the food items, made "thank you" certificates for Mumyung and Pusan, made a captain's armband for Jaehoon and repacked the fruits into containers for the players. The next day, they woke up at 5-6am in order to travel to Yongsan early to arrange the simcity. They even prepared drinks for the commentators. It was a great effort from them! HERO Gallery JJANG!

Here are some photos from the drop. I've not included all the photos because there were just too many...

Buying/preparing the food

MORE HERE
+ Show Spoiler +

Preparing the simcity

MORE HERE
+ Show Spoiler +

Pictures from the match

MORE HERE
+ Show Spoiler +

Let's put things into perspective

This week's update is shorter than usual mainly because Hyun stopped tweeting since the day before the Stars match. He also closed most of his cyworld homepage, which typically happens when he's upset with something. Fans always think of Hyun as a cheerful person but he also gets down on himself easily if things don't go well. In an interview he gave after qualifying for the MSL in late March, he mentioned that his parents were ill and in and out of hospital. So I hope his parents' health has not deteriorated or anything like that. I rather it be game related problems that's behind his current slump. Hyun fighting!

And so it's been a tough season for the players thus far. Besides Hyun's personal problems, the team has seen 3 players depart since October. Light's departure has been well-publicized but 2 rookies, Gwak and Bassen have also left to return to their studies (according to fans on HERO Gallery). Saint is pretty much near the end of his playing career and he knows this too. I've seen his reaction to losing games change from frustration early in the season, to anger in rounds 3-4 and recently, just acceptance. [Edit: Gwak has returned to the team. I will write a follow-up about Gwak and Saint's situation in updates 7 and 8. I've changed my mind about a few things]

That leaves us with just 4 players on the team who have been on the roster for more than 1 season & played more than 5 televised games- Jaehoon, Tyson, Sea and Hyun. These four haven't played poorly this round, Jaehoon is 6-2, Tyson 5-2, Sea 7-4 and Hyun is 5-6. But the team is struggling because the rookies aren't good enough to win games yet (except for the occasional zerg[kal] win). If just 1 of the four senior players loses a game, realistically, the best case scenario is a 7th set. That's the BEST case scenario.

Things are difficult right now for MBC. I don't expect them to reach the play-offs but it would be an incredible achievement if they do. Some things are just out of the players' control. If Jaehoon leaves at the end of the season, it would be bad for the team but it could also be a good decision for him personally. When he lost the game against Roro, I went to the message boards to check for reviews and I found a couple gems like these:

"I really hope you break your wrist"

"You fxxker, what the fxxx are you doing...
You should just retire, don't even bother going to ACE, just retire".

It's a lot of fun being a progamer sometimes. -_- Netizens, just horrible. But MBC fans' response to these netizens who slammed Jaehoon was: "you must have been betting on this match ㄱㄱㄱㄱㄱ".

Anyway, I think Jaehoon is more angry than upset at the moment. I hope I'm right about this, because who knows what's going on in the mind of the astral Kim Jaehoon. But he posted this on his cyworld diary (late night on the 18th) after the Fox match, presumably after going to the Han River with Koala et. al:

"I hate losing....
Yet I lost....
Next time I will get my revenge, see you in round 6"

Strong words from the MBC captain. I much prefer an angry Jaehoon to a depressed Jaehoon. MBC fans all know the rage is inside him, just got to bring it out more often.

MBC Fighting!

GTR

51582 Posts

May 23 2011 14:42 GMT

if only fangirls in western ESPORTS were this dedicated =[

XsebT

Denmark2980 Posts

May 23 2011 14:48 GMT

Amazing! Thanks so much for this! <3

Finally:
[image loading]

Ryo

8787 Posts

May 23 2011 14:50 GMT

On May 23 2011 23:48 XsebT wrote:
Amazing! Thanks so much for this! <3

Finally:
[image loading]

MBC fans call this "Yeom-na-na". ㄱㄱㄱ

TelecoM

United States10705 Posts

May 23 2011 14:55 GMT

nice pics, and I feel kinda bad for Jaehoon...awesome thing for MBC from the fans there...I hope Jaehoon gets better and doesn't listen to all those bm things ppl can say on the net T_T

alypse

2771 Posts

May 23 2011 14:59 GMT

Those fruits look so delicious 0_o

And MBCGame has quite a lot of pretty fangirls 0_0

okum

France5778 Posts

May 23 2011 15:08 GMT

I suddenly got very hungry.

BLinD-RawR

ALLEYCAT BLUES50790 Posts

May 23 2011 15:36 GMT

I'm really angry at Korean netizens,especially those who think Jaehoon is actually fixing his matches.

Thats fucking disgusting.

Ryo

8787 Posts

May 23 2011 15:38 GMT

On May 24 2011 00:36 BLinD-RawR wrote:
I'm really angry at Korean netizens,especially those who think Jaehoon is actually fixing his matches.

Thats fucking disgusting.

No, MBC fans were joking that the guy who slammed Jaehoon was probably betting on matches, that's why he got so pissed off with Jaehoon. I've made that part clearer in the post.

BLinD-RawR

ALLEYCAT BLUES50790 Posts

May 23 2011 15:51 GMT

#10

On May 24 2011 00:38 Ryo wrote:

Show nested quote +

No, MBC fans were joking that the guy who slammed Jaehoon was probably betting on matches, that's why he got so pissed off with Jaehoon. I've made that part clearer in the post.

oh,

I <3 MBC fans!

trexbqs

Malaysia1731 Posts

May 23 2011 17:11 GMT

#11

Ryo, thanks again for the news.
Now I understand why lately Hyun don't tweet anymore. Only Tyson and Sea always tweet lately.Hope Hyun will be ok.

Awesome and nice job from MBC fans. IMO, MBC have great fans who always cheer for them.
Jaehoon...hope he will be stay with MBC. Please Jaehoon, you doing well this season. I saw a new Jaehoon now. and zerg[ka] have great potential in future since he move to MBC.

Lucumo

6850 Posts

May 23 2011 17:22 GMT

#12

On May 23 2011 23:59 alypse wrote:
Those fruits look so delicious 0_o

I take the cookies and the pringles and you take everything else. Deal?

Thanks for the update, Ryo. Let's hope the situation gets better from now on. MBC was, once, my favorite team(together with OZ), so it's sad seeing them like this. But good thing is, the fans are standing behind them and are supporting the players.

Tomken

Norway1144 Posts

May 23 2011 18:21 GMT

#13

lol that's shitlooooooads of stuff >_____>
Jaehoon fightinGG!

[image loading]

lol

ty again Ryo :D Gewd read

Ryo

8787 Posts

May 23 2011 18:40 GMT

#14

On May 24 2011 03:21 Tomken wrote:
lol that's shitlooooooads of stuff >_____>
Jaehoon fightinGG!

[image loading]

lol

ty again Ryo :D Gewd read

Happy Birthday!

Edit:
There's a funny story behind Zerg[kal] and Lazy's friendship. I will include it in the next blog post.

Zona

40426 Posts

May 23 2011 18:46 GMT

#15

Damn, MBCGame bled two more potentials? Things aren't looking good. And the pressure on the remaining players will become greater, too.

Are those cherry tomatoes in the pics? With the blur it's a bit hard to tell. They're pretty f'n expensive nowadays. Maybe the fans should sponsor an extra player instead =P

Thanks for bringing us this news, as bittersweet as it is.

Ryo

8787 Posts

May 23 2011 18:52 GMT

#16

On May 24 2011 03:46 Zona wrote:
Damn, MBCGame bled two more potentials? Things aren't looking good. And the pressure on the remaining players will become greater, too.

Are those cherry tomatoes in the pics? With the blur it's a bit hard to tell. They're pretty f'n expensive nowadays. Maybe the fans should sponsor an extra player instead =P

Yes, cherry tomatoes and grapes. They raised over 400kWon for the drop.

Gwak and Bassen weren't among the top rookies. Nonetheless, it's not nice to see players leave but MBC recruited 5 players during the draft to make up for their departure. The problem is that there's only one round left.

soujiro_

Uruguay5195 Posts

May 23 2011 22:00 GMT

#17

yet another great blog :D
thanks for all the info

maybe pusan will have to play again ^_^

Megaliskuu

United States5123 Posts

May 23 2011 22:08 GMT

#18

I really love this look into the progaming team ,wish I knew kor so I could keep up with cj

On May 23 2011 23:42 GTR wrote:
if only fangirls in western ESPORTS were this dedicated =[

All 20 of them.

Ryo

8787 Posts

May 24 2011 01:46 GMT

#19

On May 24 2011 07:08 Megaliskuu wrote:
I really love this look into the progaming team ,wish I knew kor so I could keep up with cj

There's a lot of stuff that I don't include in the posts too because I can't translate it properly. Mostly I struggle with some of the colloqualisms and slangs that fans use. It's hard to check up those in dictionaries.

On May 24 2011 07:00 soujiro_ wrote:
yet another great blog :D
thanks for all the info

maybe pusan will have to play again ^_^

Yeah, I was wondering about Pusan too. Maybe he thinks he's not ready to make an appearance yet.