EPTChoi Jin Woo wasn't a special case. Sleeping in a PC room and surviving off of the barest of essentials, his love for StarCraft was sometimes painfully evident. He stared at a computer screen until his eyes were about to rot, just like thousands of other teenagers.
But he was different in that he was being watched by someone. Someone who dreamed of becoming a coach for a professional baseball team.
Although for now, he had to settle with coaching a professional game team. Jung Soo Young started a StarCraft team with Jin Woo (FreeMura) in 1998 called the Raptors. His wife's salary from her job at a Korean airline was put towards supporting his players which included names like [z-zone]Khan, [Oops]January, [DaK]JoyO, and Autumn.
After three KPGL individual league wins and one team league win, he was offered a position to coach Samsung's new progame team called Khan.
He refused.
Holding out until he could find a sponsor for his own team seemed impractical and entirely irresponsible. To him, it seemed like a choice which may as well have not even existed to begin with.
He had a dream.
To see game leagues for disabled and women gamers, to see games enjoyed by all people, young and old, to see games build a new culture for the enjoyment of everyone around the world. He was going to lead his poor team into a revolution, even if he had to take care of them himself. He was a caring and concerned man.
But he wasn't gentle.
He couldn't be soft with his players or praise them. It was part of his intensely strict training routine he developed in the KTF house. To this day, the early MagicNs were the ones who endured the hardest practice schedule in the history of progaming. But it was all apart of his plan.
He was dreaming.
Kim Jung Min (TheMarine) and Choi In Kyu (ChRh) were living together in an apartment in Seoul with fellow progamer Yoo Byung Jun. Continually qualifying, performing strongly, and then eventually having to knock each other out of the precious, prize-ridden game leagues, they needed a change to survive.
During their next tournament, the NATE 2002 OSL, they would meet the King of Terran vs Terran, Han Woong Ryul (ArtOfHan). After this tournament, these three people will go on their separate ways and will each build a proud history and reputation.
Though they took different paths, their dreams will cross each other again one day.
KTF MagicNs (formerly Raptors) head coach Jung Soo Young had formed his dream team, the Real Madrid of e-Sports. Hero Toss Park Jung Seok, Fireworks Terran Byun Kil Sup, and Cowboy Zerg Jo Yong Ho were on their way to his team. Though Lee Yoon Yeol declined to sign another contract, Hong Jin Ho didn't. And soon, he would be back in the KTF uniform as well.
Two other boys are also in the KTF uniform now. Noble Terran Kim Jung Min and Classic Terran Han Woong Ryul. Han had lied to Coach Jung to skip practice so that he could go see his girlfriend. He was subsequently banned from the team. Coach Jung also put in a bad word for him to every other progame team, effectively ending his ability to call himself a “progamer”.
Eventually, the two hard-heads reconciled. ArtOfHan was now in his second month of playing for KTF once again. But the atmosphere was different. It wasn't the same, and neither was he. His skills which identified him as a unique existence in this world had left him completely.
After Jung Min and In Kyu switched to KTF and Samsung Khan from G.O, they had become ghosts of their former selves.
Kim Jung Min and Han Woong Ryul vowed to let go of their pride and their pasts and began to practice harder than the usual KTF schedule required. They congratulated their juniors when they defeated them during practice instead of becoming upset with them.
They had a dream.
Coach Jung had declared 2004 to be the year of good manners. He constantly groomed the MagicNs to shake hands after their matches. If Coach Jung couldn't lead by having the best proteam in terms of sheer results (due to the rivalry with 4U), then he could surely lead by example.
Spreading sportsmanship and good manners to all corners of e-Sports, he was still dreaming away.
January 27, 2004.
This would become a day which all three of these old boys would remember for the rest of their lives.
OnGameNet Challenge League, Choi In Kyu vs Cha Jae Wook.
LG IBM Team League Winner's Final, KTF vs 4U.
Barely qualifying and needing to win this series to advance to the Dual Tournament, In Kyu promptly lost the first match to Super Rookie Terran Cha Jae Wook (ClouD). In the next game on Paradoxxx, he switched races from Terran to Protoss.
This was something nobody had seen from him since the earliest days of progaming.
He was originally a Protoss-based Random progamer.
And he was also originally a champion.
Jae Wook surrendered a GG as In Kyu's Arbiter flew towards his base.
With a dry smile, In Kyu switches back to Terran and, as if in a trance, played one of the most beautiful TvT matches ever witnessed.
During this time at the MBCGame studio, something very strange is happening.
TheMarine is ahead in his match of KTF vs 4U against Kingdom. Through a thick screen of blue vapor, TheMarine receives the GG.
Terran Emperor Lim Yo Hwan will be sitting on the other side of the screen next. Both SK Telecom and Yahoo! Korea were fighting to sponsor him and his team.
TheMarine was fighting just to be able to keep his name on the 1:1 roster.
After their meeting in the SKY Starleague semi-finals, the Emperor held his throne. However, it was the last time TheMarine would ever see himself advance that far into the OSL. The Noble had become a peasant.
But he certainly didn't play like one on that day.
With his tanks popping into pieces, Yo Hwan sends the GG.
Choi Yun Sung ended Kim Jung Min's journey, but it was too late. The Cheater Terran would face the original King of Terran vs Terran next, Han Woong Ryul.
This old king was about to face a new monster.
And after having his resources hastily shut down, his army looked pitiful. His secret expansions were continually cut-off and he surrendered. Even Cinderella Terran Kim Hyun Jin (kOs), with his famous mechanic control, couldn't stop the TvT King.
The matches were over.
Choi In Kyu 2-1 Cha Jae Wook
KTF 4-2 4U.
Coach Jung Soo Young couldn't believe it. His team had made it into the Team League finals because of these two players. He must have been dreaming.
We must have been dreaming.
A Terran revived his Protoss spirit.
A peasant reclaimed his nobility.
And an old king had slain a new monster.
The KTF team would go on to lose to 4U in the finals of the LG IBM Team League and ChRh would be eliminated from the Dual Tournament by Prince of Zerg Sung Hak Seung (MuMyung) and Straight Zerg Byun Eun Jong (JJu). The games he won against ClouD would be the last series he'd ever win.
But as Coach Jung proudly watched his kids shake hands with the losing team, he saw that his dreams for e-Sports were finally being realized.
He then looked over at Jung Min and Woong Ryul and saw tears in their eyes.
He then realized that, at least for that day, their dreams were being realized as well.
