BW: Time Travel #3 - KHAN vs Woongjin SPL, Dec '08

Tic Toc Tic Toc- You killed the damn alarm but the clock won't stop ticking.

Bleak winter morning greets you through the window when you finally open your eyes. If it wasn't for your empty stomach, you would've probably fallen right back into your bed. On the way to the bathroom, you greet your only inmate, a potted fatsi you purchased at a nearby florist's. Living alone would be too cheesy and desolate. You face yourself in the mirror and sigh. Not quite the sight you were hoping to see in your thirties, perhaps you should work on that?

It's wednesday but it's vacation time. You've been living the dream life of a plastic surgeon for some.. six years now? University and practice has taught you a lot, but not what to do with the rare free days. Your busy life robbed you of most of your friends and hobbies. Christmas will be lonely. You turn the TV on for some background noise. The fresh girl group, Kara!

Personally, you like "Pretty Girl" better, but this song always lifts your mood and that's just the pick-me-up you needed today. You go over to the kitchen. This has troubled you for the past few days, but eventually, you decided to prepare smoked salmon, the meal you had the last time you saw your older brother and your sister-in-law. It's been a long time.

The smell... Nothing like those onions. And the drink. Made the right call. Eating in front of your PC as usual, you end up browsing your favorite blogs and go check up on recent Star results... Your heart stops for a second, then suddenly speeds up as if to catch up to reality. You look up the Proleague schedule and YES! 2 PM, MBC HERO CENTER. KHAN playing, too. Your favorites. It's been so long since you wanted to go see a match and you make up your mind immediately. It's a done deal. For some reason, you have a hunch you'll see some cool games, too. Hmm, pretty sure HERO CENTER was in Samseongdong, but looking at MBC's homepage, they moved to Mullaedong? That's actually closer now, awesome!

It's still too early though, so you end up browsing the internets some more. You reserve a ticket for later for Ponyo on the Cliff. There's a cinema in the same building and this Miazaki's piece sure looks like it should help you keep the good mood.

Not sure if there'll be enough parking spots, hmm.. You put on your jeans, look up the location on the internet and drive out into the rainy Seoul streets. You drive past the Samseongdong World Cup stadium and take the north road across the river. You arrive to the Yangpyeongdong intersection. Here, you turn left towards Dangsan.

At the Dangsan intersection, you take a right turn and follow the railway bridge straight until Mullae station.

At the Mullae station, you turn left.

Just a little bit more that way and you can see the building. You find a place in the underground and oddly don't even have to pay anything. The cinema's homepage said they're charging fees... It seems like the place isn't really all set up yet.

You get out of your car and notice a Woongjin Stars' car parked nearby. Hmm there's no way they all arrived in that one?--;

An elevator takes you to the third floor and you enter the MBC HERO CENTER that you've only seen on the TV screen. You arrive at 1:25, but there's already a lot of people. Fortunately, you notice a single empty chair in the front and swiftly grab it! Good that I came alone. You can't help but smirk. You sit down and look around...

The infinite TV screen zoom. For the match, KHAN will be on the left and Stars on the right. You're just sitting and waiting for the broadcast to start when suddenly - Woongjin's (P)

free appears! Turns out it's his 3rd year debut anniversary... Perhaps that explains the swarm of young school girls, his fanclub.

'Well-deserved 3rd year annivesary! All the best, free!' says the poster he poses in front of for some pics. He's pretty tall and handsome, too. Also, in celebration of his anniversary, his fanclub gives away a free snack to each seat in the studio..

In the small bag you find fish jerky and two yoghurts. After the morning brunch, you already feel a bit hungry so you eat it gracefully. You wait just a bit more and the broadcast starts. First, Samsung KHAN members appear to introduce themselves.

Beating Fantasy 3-2 just a month ago to take his first Starleague gold in the Incruit OSL, (P)

Stork is up there. Next to him, there is (T)

firebathero. And on the far right, there's Kim Ga Eul, coach January, nation's fairy. It would not be an exaggeration to say you're here to see Stork and firebathero play. You really like these two the best.

Next, Woongjin Stars come up.

Their uniforms seem a bit childish compared to KHAN's. There's (Z)

ZerO and

GGPlay, who's just bowing his head. Stars are famous for GGPlay and free. You smile behind the camera.

You're so close up you can't even fit all the players into the picture. You take an extra shot of free on the players' bench.

There he is, in the top row on the far left, sitting proudly. But when the camera locks onto him, he can't help but laugh.
You can't see KHAN's bench on the left because of a collumn blocking the view. Would've loved to see fbh's ceremony..

It begins..

You take a look at your watch and sigh. It's time for the movie. Since you went to see Stork and Firebathero, your goal was achieved and you decide to leave early...

The movie is cute and fun but you can't help but wonder if JangBi played. When you arrive home, you check to see that he indeed did. Still, you're happy you finally got to see Proleague first-hand. You even got to see your favorite players!

Truthfully, you didn't think it would make a lot of difference whether you're watching on the TV or in the studio, but with all of the fans cheering, watching the games was much more exciting. Seeing the player's FPVs in the studio also made things more interesting.

One unfortunate thing was that you couldn't see the commentators. If you could see the commentators like in OGN broadcasts, it would've been even more enjoyable. You decide that you'll have to go to I'Park mall once to see an OGN broadcast as well. You would love to see + Show Spoiler [MC Yong Joon] +

in action. Tomorrow morning, you wake up to catch the re-broadcast of the ace match.

In the broadcast you also notice free receiving a cake from his fan club upon his victory.

You smile and turn the TV off. Still so much vacation time left... -_-;;

The above text is heavily based on a blog post shared by a Korean plastic surgeon named Shin, in his 30s at the time. Pretty much everything starting from the movie ticket reservation is a direct transcript, except the changed POV. All of the pictures and most of the other specific details are taken from his blog.
This episode is quite different from the first two I shared earlier. I still don't have a PC to edit videos with, so I figured I could take advantage of some of the wonderful fan reports for a more intimate experience. Perhaps some time in the future, I would like to add subtitles to the games as well, so that it feels even more real. Any thoughts, ideas?