[News] Free Agency period signings (Jaedong up for grabs)…

On August 21 2009 13:06 fusionsdf wrote:
People need to start being more realistic about jaedong. SKT/KT are the obvious ones with funds. CJ (maybe samsung) aren't obvious, but the parent company has the funds if available. Teams like hite, woongjin, wemade etc are highly unlikely to be able to cough up enough money to not only pay Jaedong's salary (or possibly double it) and even more unlikely to finish first in a bidding war.

IMO the only likely teams are:

1. SKT (Has the money and a mercenary past and a generally shitty zerg lineup. Also lets not forget the kespa/SKT links lol. The thing that makes this less likely is the current strength of their lineup. But if you think SKT cares enough about the balance/viability of Proleague to not pick up Jaedong....Well that doesnt exactly fit their history does it.)
2. KT (Same money, same past, but probably doesnt have quite as deep pockets. This is offset by its greater need. For a team always trying to rival SKT (and honestly, usually failing) Flash/Jaedong is an exciting counter to Bisu/Fantasy and would result in pretty much a guaranteed team presence in the proleague playoffs of the future.)
3. CJ (normally would be about as likely as samsung (ie not even worth mentioning), However, not only does CJ as a company have deep pockets, there were substantial rumors of an attempt to acquire bisu. With bisu now locked up, CJ is (if the rumors are true) left with a huge amount of cash to spend and a desire to throw it at a big name player. Unfortunately CJ already has the strongest zerg lineup and bisu would have been a much better fit for the team.
4. Other teams. Your team isnt likely, stop pretending it is, go away.

edit: read and lol
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/18/biz_07forbes2000_The-Global-2000-South-Korea_10Rank.html

On August 21 2009 13:06 fusionsdf wrote:
People need to start being more realistic about jaedong. SKT/KT are the obvious ones with funds. CJ (maybe samsung) aren't obvious, but the parent company has the funds if available. Teams like hite, woongjin, wemade etc are highly unlikely to be able to cough up enough money to not only pay Jaedong's salary (or possibly double it) and even more unlikely to finish first in a bidding war.

IMO the only likely teams are:

1. SKT (Has the money and a mercenary past and a generally shitty zerg lineup. Also lets not forget the kespa/SKT links lol. The thing that makes this less likely is the current strength of their lineup. But if you think SKT cares enough about the balance/viability of Proleague to not pick up Jaedong....Well that doesnt exactly fit their history does it.)
2. KT (Same money, same past, but probably doesnt have quite as deep pockets. This is offset by its greater need. For a team always trying to rival SKT (and honestly, usually failing) Flash/Jaedong is an exciting counter to Bisu/Fantasy and would result in pretty much a guaranteed team presence in the proleague playoffs of the future.)
3. CJ (normally would be about as likely as samsung (ie not even worth mentioning), However, not only does CJ as a company have deep pockets, there were substantial rumors of an attempt to acquire bisu. With bisu now locked up, CJ is (if the rumors are true) left with a huge amount of cash to spend and a desire to throw it at a big name player. Unfortunately CJ already has the strongest zerg lineup and bisu would have been a much better fit for the team.
4. Other teams. Your team isnt likely, stop pretending it is, go away.

edit: read and lol
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/18/biz_07forbes2000_The-Global-2000-South-Korea_10Rank.html

On August 21 2009 12:33 Delerium wrote:
re: "JD can't move to SKT1 because that would ruin proleague/e-sports!" - it's become pretty obvious that SKT1 only care about themselves/winning, and I don't trust them to make decisions purely for the good of e-sports. To all the T1 fans who thought "Week of Jaedong" was egomaniacal.... Oov's "If Oz wins [over T1] it will be bad for e-sports" was a lot worse.

as for "Oz icons will start disappearing!" - speak for yourself. Even if I am a Jaedong fan, I am also an Oz fan. Oz has lots of other players I like to watch, like Backho, Lomo, and Killer. I'll root for Jaedong wherever he goes, but I will also root for Oz. To me, Oz is the team that Boxer left for dead.

All this BS about how Jaedong is underpaid... I've said it before, we don't all root for teams sponsored by corporations with pockets deep enough to poach all of their players (I'm looking at you, KT and SKT1). Jaedong is 19... 19! and he's making in excess of $110,000 USD/yr. It may not be as much as other star pro-gamers, but still. That's ridiculous. How many people on TeamLiquid make that much? I've only ever made a fraction of that, and I'm a college graduate.

Think about it for a second... there's not very much of a business model here. All the money paid by the companies to fund the teams are supposed to be returned purely in the value of brand promotion. They are shelling out money to entertain us. How many of you have ever bought a ticket to an e-sport event? In other words, not all the companies can equally afford to fund this neo-sports television.

Jaedong leaving Oz would subject him to a lot of uncomfortable changes. He'd leave behind his practice partners and his proximity-based relationships with his Oz teammates would suffer. He might not fit in well at a new team, and he might not get the same kind of attention. It's not worth the risk. It could spell the end of his career. Not that he's exactly hurting for money after making so much all this time... but he is clearly a very driven person, and I know he doesn't want it to end in such a lousy way. I pretty much hope no teams bid on him, but I suspect that will not happen.

On August 21 2009 13:36 baubo wrote:


To be quite honest, these players don't make much money at all from a corporate standpoint. Top players like Jaedong and Bisu are making basically higher level manger/director level salary. Hardly bank-breaking amount by any means... even for ESTRO. Any sponsor should they choose can easily afford Jaedong lineup if they choose. So ranking company power is pretty pointless. As a Khan fan, this is painfully obvious given that Khan doesn't have the resources befitting of its sponsor.

On August 21 2009 13:22 fusionsdf wrote:
I would believe IEG doing it just to make a splash, but I haven't heard any hype/talk about buying a big player etc from them. And again, their current lineup isnt any stronger than hwaseung's so Jaedong would again be carrying the team.

On August 21 2009 13:46 Count9 wrote:
They should have plenty of money, who else are they paying.