EPTSo, here was the deal before I got to Korea in 1999 (or was it 2000 ? Can’t remember really). I had met Grrrr...’s manager at that time, online, on battle net. After much talking and a few months, there was the idea he could pay me the trip and accomodation to Korea, and make me play into several events and leagues, and if things had gone well, eventually get a sponsorship. The only prerequisite, was me to get a spot through the online prelims for the KBK (knight bridge to korea, yea what a fucked up name I thought ; there’ll be tons more on fucked up korean english stuff later on here). KBK was an open tournament, with live finals in Seoul. Basically the top 128 of the online ladder would qualify, and the top 32 would get their plane ticket paid by the organisers. Now, at that time, Stracraft was kind of big online. And such an online ladder would draw shit tons of players from everywhere. The regular ladder was still somewhat of a fancy thing to play, and would get you some recognition among community. Needless to say, that despite it’s shitty organisation, KBK was always a success. So you had all the top foreigners and top koreans competiting there, playing all day long, trying to get into the golden top 128. That was cool, only problem was that, online KBK was a fucking hackfest. Now there might still be that secret taboo about it, but more or less, every single person aside a very very very few, was cheating his way on top. The very few non cheaters that would make it, would be players such as Elky, playing about 60 games a day, so that at the end of the thing, with an average win ratio, he’d get the top 32 rating.
Stupidly, neither was I patient enough, or smart enough to mass game or cheat. So I ended up stucked with mutiple ID’s right in front of the top 128. Time was running out, and I needed that top 128 ID. I found a french player that wasn’t going to go to Korea, with half free won games top 128 ID that didn’t get spotted by the ladder mods, bought it for 50 bucks and got my ride paid by Grrrr...’s manager to Korea.
These days, were truely the golden age of Starcraft. Battle net was a fun place where to hang out, people were just as hardcore as today’s mmorpgs players can be, and it was constantly filled up with quality trash talk, nerd elitism and good games. The foreign online community was somewhat bigger and more active than the Korean one, and you had tons of clans and channels to be in . You weren’t chasing after non english speaking koreans at midnight in lost Uswest channels to get to obs a game. The link with Korea was actually just begening to establish really, as Grrrr..., Thor, Pillars and Maynard, were staying in Korea, and playing showmatches in the first televised shows of Starcraft. At that time, you would go on Tooniverse website, (korean kid channel), and stream up weird videos of a bunch of white kids playing other Asian players all dressed in Cosmocats like suits. You think 4 years ago space pro gaming suits were fucked up ? Go back in time and watch the games then. It was truely COSMIC.
And this is what could grasp of the dream, a very handful of foreign players, that wanted to give a shot at it.
Back to KBK, Sc phenomenum and my arrival in Seoul.
I was 17 or so. Neither my mom nor my step father wanted to prevent me from going. They were somewhat happy. I never had any trouble with school really, grades had been good, they thought Korea wouldn’t last long and I’d go back to France a few months later and get back on with studies. I arrived at the time Grrrr... was on top of his fame. Aside him, you only had Samjjang as gaming Superstar. And it truely was something. Their fame was different than today’s progamers I guess. Because it was something new, and kind of amazing for many ppl. Pro gaming started at first on Kid’s cable channel and was aimed at a very young audience. But parent’s started watching it with their kids, and teenagers got hooked up as well. It got real big real fast, in the way it wasn’t expected at all by TV producers. So, when you’d walk with Grrrr... in the streets, you’d get A CRAPLOAD of attention from everyone. Going to restaurants with him would mean free bottles of wine, free deserts, free shit every where, traded for an autograph or a picture. I have to add, that the PC room number was going crazy in Seoul. They had opened everywhere – when I got to the city, their number was about 50 thousand. And people there weren’t playing any other game THAN STARCRAFT. It was the most popular shit around, Diablo 2 wasn’t there yet. As ppl would tell me back then, Korea was experiencing a very new social trend : PC bangs and games. It was also part of all the “consumers getting out of depression” state of mind, following the Asian stocks crisis and social disaster that happened in 1998. PC rooms, computers, network, games, were socialy tagged with that very bright color of hope. Modern technologies : something Korean industry could and would be good at.
This climate was the only thing ever, in what pro gaming could be born. But don’t get me wrong, people were crazy about games and Stracraft happened to be the most popular. This doesn’t necessary imply the same thing for pro gaming. Pro gaming itself wasn’t famous. A few individuals like Samjjang and Grrrr... were. And Pro gaming always kept that trend. Even today. A few shine, but pro gaming as Esports isn’t a fact yet socially recognized. Even there, in Korea.
Hong suh and John ( Hong suh being Grrrr...’s ex manager) picked me up at the airport. I had travelled on another flight than the two other french players going for KBK – Storm and Elky. We got to Kang Nam, and all the way from the airport to the Hotel room, I was feeling just like a fucking powered Ecxstasy, on a very high trip. Back in France I used to be a pretty heavy pothead, and since I knew in Korea I wouldn’t find any weed, I took over a nice stash in my bags with me. The Hotel I was in was just across the street of the biggest PC BANG of seoul at that time. It was even bigger than Megawebstation. It’s closed now. Name was NET and was owned by SK telecom itself. Now to be honest, megawebsation was the total opposite of this place, that I have to describe religiously as I spent my first four months in this place, with some of the most awesome individuals I met through my Korean adventure. There were 3 different floors, with about 40 to 50 computers each. The first floor was wide open to the street you could see from a glass wall going all over the front side of the building. You had about 15 workers there, third of the staff beeing VERY HOT females. You could order food from the sandwich restaurant next to the building, and get these very fine ladies to bring it right at your desk, while playing Starcraft. The manager had given me about 600 bucks in cash, more money that I ever had, telling me he would give me 100 bucks every 3 days or so.
First thing I did was to install ICQ and contact my two other French mates, lost somewhere else in a random PC Room of Seoul. They got there in the hour, and rented a room in the same hotel. From there on until they left back to France, we spent time together. KBK was 3 days ahead, and we had loads of time to enjoy the city. Elky was 2 years older than me, Storm was about 27, and we all knew each other prior coming to Korea. As true gaming nerds, our main concern was to get to meet Grrrr... and other top players staying in the city, and of course, play as much we could.
I’ll pause there. Next entry will be about KBK, meeting Maynard in it’s lair, bumping randomly into Grrrr... that we were trying to catch. The night after KBK was over. Friends leaving, me staying. First clubbing night alone with Grrrr.
From then it will be much more fun to read, I had here to set the scene of these stories. Pardon me if it got a little boring.
