Proleague match came 4 days into my trip. I was mostly adjusted to my new time zone at this point. I woke up early because I was unsure how long it would take me to get to Yongsan Station. Proleague starts at noon on Saturday and Sunday on the 9th floor of the I'Park Mall, located directly above Yongsan station on the blue #1 line. I wound up getting there about an hour early. Tickets are free, but the good seats can go quick depending on which teams are playing. They are laid out on a table by row for the home or away team and will have a diagram up on tv or on paper to show you which seats are still available. I was pretty excited that the first match I would be seeing was (Wiki)

KT Rolster vs (Wiki)

SK Telecom T1. By the time I figured out the ticket situation there weren't many good seats left. I chose one towards the back on the KT side so I could shoot the players from there. I would later come to find out that some teams have tickets reserved for the fan club members, so you might show up one day and be first in line, but the best seats are already gone.

There are two matches a day. The first at noon and the second around 2:30pm. If the first match ends early you will have some time to walk around and get a snack, otherwise the next match will start almost right away. The ticket from the first match doesn't work on the second. If you plan on going to the second match you will have to go out and choose a new ticket for that one. The tickets for the second match get put out around 2pm so you can actually run out real quick during a game to grab one. By the time KT and SKT took the stage it was standing room only. This attendance wouldn't hold up for every match, but it was nice to see after observing the low attendance some nights on stream. It was hard to believe I was actually there. Within a few hours I was witnessing (Wiki)

Flash vs

Fantasy on the Proleague stage. Flash took the win and tied up their record against each other.

There are plenty of places to eat at I'Park. There is a small food court, a Dunkin Donuts, Pizza Hut and TGI Fridays. The TGI Fridays is super expensive though, I heard that in Korea places like TGI Fridays and Outback are like fancy restaurants you take people to impress them. It sounded like a troll, but at the prices on the menu I might believe it. There is a store/market in the basement that reminded me of a Target, and they have a separate food court there. There is a wedding floor so if you ever decide to have an esports wedding, this would be the perfect place to do it. The games generally are over between 5-6pm. If you're like me and want comfort food while you're there, I can recommend a really good pizza place a few subway stops away near Itaewon called The Pizza Peel. It's a little hard to find but its worth it, reasonable prices and they have English speaking staff.

The biggest tip I would give to any foreigners is that if you go, you will be on camera so be prepared. The OGN crew is very good at finding every white person in the building and making sure they get on stream at least once. This camera time usually comes at the beginning of each game, but unlike GSL they will cut to the crowd during games also. There are two other sure fire ways to get on camera at Proleague. Eating, and falling asleep. I was hoping that someone would fall asleep during the SK Telecom match so I could see (Wiki)

Bunkie in action but wasn't so lucky.

The Korean fans love it when you do the fighting chant with them so make sure you pick your favorite teams side and try to learn the player's Korean names ahead of time. My second day at Proleague, (Wiki)

CJ Entus played and it was almost (Wiki)

effOrts birthday so their bench had a cake and gifts like rice cakes and banana milk lined up across the front. After each match, the winner will hang out for a little bit to take press photos and then have fan meetings. Their fans bring them gifts and get to ask them questions and get autographs. The losing team usually won't hang around but sometimes they do.

Monday and Tuesday, Proleague is broadcast by SPOTV and held at a different venue, inside the Intel eStadium in Sindorim. The first match is at 3pm and the second at 5:30pm. Sindorim doesn't use a ticket system as the attendance is usually lower. You sit on red benches right in front of the team and there are partially enclosed booths on the floor in front of you. There are good and bad things about Sindorim. The benches are pretty uncomfortable to sit on for 5 hours because there is no back to them, and the room can get kind of hot. I heard this is only a temporary location until they can find a better place, but I'm not sure if that is planned for this season or not. Sindorim is great for photos because there is tons of light and the players are very accessible. I won't go into too much detail on Sindorim here as I covered it already in my Code A blog. On Sindorim days I would meet up with some of my new friends to lunch before the games. There is a nice place on the other side of the station in the basement of the Sheraton D-Cube plaza. There are 5 stations offering all kinds of Korean food but its all really good. I recommend the fried chicken in pepper sauce. The small bucket should be plenty for one person. At the D-Cube there is also a McDonalds, Starbucks, Taco Bell and some bakeries and sushi places. Depending on your schedule and who is playing, you can go to watch the first match of Proleague on Tuesday, and then go catch the start of GSL, it's only about 20 minutes away by subway.

If you made it through all of this I hope that I was able to give you an idea of what it's like going to see these leagues in person. I could ramble on more but in the end this is more about the photos. For Proleague, while I got plenty of shots of the players in the booth, I wanted to focus on showing the teams together and the players interacting. It's really great to see them both watching and analyzing the games, but also having fun and joking around. Those are the things that make team leagues so exciting. Overall I had an amazing time in Korea and I hope to go back soon. I got to see old friends and made some new ones. I shot close to 10,000 images in total. I wanted to go more in depth for the overall scope of this project but with the time I had I was limited. I went to an esports event every day I was there, including catching a match hours before I flew home. Thanks for reading.

Previous entries:
Korea Part 1 - GSL Code S
Korea Part 2 - GSL Code A Qualifiers

Additional Proleague photos can be found on my Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/globexcorp/sets/72157632768254899/

JOJOsc2news

3000 Posts

February 20 2013 20:12 GMT

Great pictures! Thanks for sharing!

That Thorzain stare:
Picture

ZeromuS

Canada13405 Posts

February 20 2013 20:14 GMT

Very cool thanks for this post ! :D

Nazeron

Canada1046 Posts

February 20 2013 20:21 GMT

Awesome pictures, thnx for the upload!

prabhbhambra13

United Kingdom424 Posts

February 20 2013 20:26 GMT

i love how the crowd shots are almost exclusively full of fangirls.

great pics

OmniEulogy

Canada6600 Posts

February 20 2013 20:28 GMT

I loved these pictures

thanks for uploading them ^^

Vysage

United States117 Posts

February 20 2013 20:46 GMT

Wow, a 1D X I am very jealous. Cool pictures btw, thanks for sharing.

FrodaN

754 Posts

February 20 2013 21:01 GMT

Nice job Carlton!

Kiett

United States7639 Posts

February 20 2013 21:24 GMT

bisu bisu bisu bisu bisu jaedong bisu bisu bisu bisu bisu bisu ♥

itsjustatank

Hong Kong9169 Posts

February 20 2013 21:57 GMT

#10

god BoxeR looks so impeccable in a suit and tie

GHOSTCLAW

United States17042 Posts

February 20 2013 22:55 GMT

#11

nice shots as always ^_^

bLecK

Australia625 Posts

February 20 2013 23:19 GMT

#12

Great set of photos dude. The one of Bisu sitting at the the PC really made my day. Top stuff!

Superiorwolf

United States5509 Posts

February 21 2013 01:18 GMT

#13

Carlton takes some of the sickest shots :D

E.H Eager

United States227 Posts

February 21 2013 01:33 GMT

#14

This is awesome, and now I'm insanely jealous of you.

Chairman Ray

United States11903 Posts

February 21 2013 01:52 GMT

#15

Awesome pictures!

LaLuSh

Sweden2358 Posts

February 21 2013 02:14 GMT

#16

1D Mark IV and 1D-X, you a photographer by profession? Great captures.

RusHXceL

United States1004 Posts

February 21 2013 03:35 GMT

#17

Korean girls sure do love sc2

BigFan

TLADT24920 Posts

February 21 2013 03:55 GMT

#18

Amazing shots, really professional looking! Bisu sighting! XD

inn5013orecl

United States227 Posts

February 21 2013 04:29 GMT

#19

On February 21 2013 06:24 Kiett wrote:
bisu bisu bisu bisu bisu jaedong bisu bisu bisu bisu bisu bisu ♥

stork stork stork stork stork stork stork stork stork SONG BYUNG GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

mjuuy

Norway506 Posts

February 21 2013 06:35 GMT

#20

Nice read CarltonBeener!
Hate the orange light in OGN studio, my hair goes UBER GINGERish on camera when my hair is like Snute's hair color (dark blond?!). Got an experience sitting next to Flash's dad, he was throwing aigoo's left and right when Crazy-Hydra was sacrificing lots of mutas, lol. :D

CarltonBeener

United States84 Posts

February 21 2013 07:20 GMT

#21

Thanks for looking everyone!

On February 21 2013 08:19 bLecK wrote:
Great set of photos dude. The one of Bisu sitting at the the PC really made my day. Top stuff!

Thats one of my favorites also, I was shooting and he just looked up at me with that smile and I was just like, ok I got the shot, I can go home now.

On February 21 2013 05:26 prabhbhambra13 wrote:
i love how the crowd shots are almost exclusively full of fangirls.

I think the ratio of girls is a lot higher at the Sindorim matches, probably because of the match times only the more dedicated fans show up. The crowd at Yongsan on weekends is probably closer to 60/40 girls to guys.

On February 21 2013 05:12 JOJOsc2news wrote:
That Thorzain stare:
Picture

Marcus always seemed to know when I was shooting them and I have a few different shots when he would just turn and stare at me. It was pretty funny. Marcus is a good dude, I hope he does well over there.

mjuuy:
The lighting at OGN is kind of annoying for photographs because you get two different color casts, the bright whites on stage and the gold over the ground. I can see how it would make blonde hair orange. I wish I could've met Flash's dad, that's pretty funny.

twistedalpha

Philippines139 Posts

February 21 2013 16:34 GMT

#22

On February 21 2013 05:12 JOJOsc2news wrote:
Great pictures! Thanks for sharing!

That Thorzain stare:
Picture

Soon