MBCGame HERO Update 2 (10th April '11)

Ryo

8787 Posts

April 10 2011 09:19 GMT

Last Week’s Birthdays

According to his identification card, Shark turned 24 (international age) on 7th April. However, this actually isn’t his real birthdate. Whether it was intentional or by mistake, Shark’s birth was registered 1 month after his real birthdate. But he usually celebrates his birthday on 7th March. Coincidentally, Tiny’s birthday is also on 7th March.

Sea’s Birthday Party with Fans

For the first time in a few years, fans from Sea’s daum fan café threw a birthday party for him. I managed to find a couple of pictures and a review of his birthday party on his fan café website. A small gathering of fans (less than 10, IMO there would have been more had they given more than 10 days notice or advertised on dcinside instead) celebrated his birthday early on the 27th of March at a crispy chicken restaurant at Mullaedong (where MBC house is located). According to the organizer (Sea’s fan café owner), this location was chosen because Sea likes the food from this restaurant. The fee for attending the party was 10,000Won.

Fans were asked to arrive at 1.30pm but according to one fan who arrived a few minutes early, Sea was already there when she arrived. Fans bought a big cake for him and sang him a Happy Birthday song. Everyone ate as much as they could and they chatted with Sea for the next 1.5hrs over food. The fangirl describes their conversation as “very amusing” but she gave no details about what they talked about. Another fangirl commented that the party was more like a fan meeting.

Both pictures and review are from smilegirl at http://cafe.daum.net/SeaShield

Sea looking shy but happy as fans sing him a birthday song.

HERO Gallery Happenings

Fans and their DSLRs

Many fans bring DSLRs to these group selection ceremonies, hoping to capture great moments of their favorite progamers. Usually the attendance at the group selection is about 90% female, even more than Proleague matches. Here are a few of the pictures uploaded by MBC fans on dcinside. Glad to see the players getting along well...

Picture credit as tagged.

Above 3 pictures by 생ㅅ선 at HERO gallery.

Horang2 Gallery?

HERO gallery is also sometimes jokingly called “Horang2 gallery” by MBC fans. Why? Because some MBC fans there are big fans of Horang2. A couple are even going to attend the upcoming Hite fan meeting although they have no interest in Hite as a team, they really like Horang2. Some of these are fanboys too.

비녀 from HERO Gallery made this. Cute.

Mumyung Gallery?

The other figure who is really loved on HERO Gallery, besides the MBC players themselves, is Mumyung. MBC fans for the most part didn’t show any interest at all in Mumyung during his playing days or when he was a coach on SKT but they simply love him now. He is as popular among MBC fans as the MBC players are. One reason is because, besides posting regular messages on HERO gallery, Mumyung also participates in live chats with fans there. He even replies to some of their emails. Fans often post pictures of Mumyung in "tribute threads".

Twitter Updates

Tyson

It seems Tyson wants to lose weight? Or at least he declared so on twitter. Tyson used to be chubby back in 2007 when he first joined MBC but he’s lost a lot of weight over the years.

There’s really no need to lose any more weight, especially since he’s fallen ill a couple times this year already. -_- Health is more important yo!

Hyun

A month ago, Hyun quit twitter after a series of disappointing results and personal problems. But it seems things are looking up and in a good mood, he decided to create a new account on the morning of the workshop. He's been tweeting like crazy since.

Hyun just before the MSL ceremony in the MBC practice house.
Picture is from Tyson's twitter.

HERO Off-Race Starleague

The HERO Off-Race Starleague (direct translation from Hyun's tweet), henceforth to be abbreviated by me as HORSe, took place on Friday. Here are some details of HORSe.

Participation Prerequisite:
Must be a member of the MBCGame HERO Starcraft team or coaching staff

Participation Fee: 5,000Won

Venue/Date: MBCGame HERO Practice House, Loox Center, Mullaedong/8th April 2011

Total Prize Money: 80,000Won

Total Number of Participants: 16

Winner: Go Seok Hyun

I’m guessing that since MBC doesn’t have 16 progamers (3 of latest draft picks have not joined the practice house yet) on its roster at the moment, both Pusan and Mumyung took part as well. So Hyun won the HORSe on Friday, off-racing as protoss and according to him he played really well and "discovered the essence of his off-race". Tyson once mentioned before in an interview, that while off-racing as terran, he lost to Hyun’s protoss on the morning of Tyson’s MST match. That disturbed him so much he was distracted during the MST (no more off-racing before MSL games please!!).

MBC players are always thinking of different ways to have fun together. LOL

Saving the best for last… here’s the lowdown on what went on during the "workshop"…

MBCGame HERO Workshop at Deoksan Spa Castle

From 4th to 6th April, the MBCGame HERO team, together with their Special Forces counterparts (MBCGame HERO plus), spent 2 nights and 3 days at Deoksan Spa Castle, otherwise known as Resom Spa Castle.

The media didn't follow MBC to their workshop. Lynn from Fomos announced this on their website the morning of the workshop. It is not clear whether this was MBC’s or the media's choice. Instead the MBC management took pictures themselves and provided a selection to DES and Fomos. Let me make this clear that these pictures belong to MBC, NOT Fomos or DES. That’s why none of the pictures below are watermarked. I've included most of these as well as all the pictures tweeted by Tyson, Hyun and the SF coach Im Sura.

What and Where is Deoksan Spa Castle?

“Resom Spa Castle is Korea’s first membership spa resort. It is under the same ownership as the exclusive Anmyundo Ocean Castle Resort. Spa Castle is located in Yesan Chungnam, which is only an hour and a half away from Seoul. It is within 30 minutes of beautiful mountains, the western seas, and close by to plenty of cultural tourist attractions. The Spa Castle uses waters from the Duksan Hot Springs, whose waters have been enjoyed by Koreans for six hundred years. There are over 400 guestrooms, a large banquet hall, seminar room, and a relaxation complex that includes everything from a cultural arts plaza, to a garden, and walking trails.” (www.visitkorea.or.kr)

My first thought on this workshop was that this is relatively generous of MBC. The last time the team had a workshop as nice as this was when MBC sent them to Thailand in ’07, as a reward for winning the Proleague. Coincidentally, Spa Castle is the same resort where scenes from the famous Hyun Bin show, Secret Garden, were filmed.

More pictures of the resort HERE

Workshop Day 1

Pictures from Tyson's twitter.
Sea and Shark sleeping in the team car on the way to the resort.

So the team were booked into a few 5-person suites (nice accommodations). It is unclear what the progamers did in the afternoon upon arrival at the resort. After dinner Hyun tweeted that the team went to the noraebang (karaoke) in the resort. Interestingly, MBC did not release any pictures of their day 1 activities but MBC players are known to really enjoy their karaoke. One of Saint’s nickname among fans is in fact Superstar Donghyun (Superstar K is a popular Korean show, similar to American Idol). That nickname was given to him after Light released a short audio clip to HERO Gallery, of Saint attempting to sing an IU song.

From Tyson's twitter.
The MBC protoss line upon arrival at the resort.
From left: Jaehoon, Lazy Tyson, Sang and Pusan.

Workshop Day 2

The morning of day 2 began with fun at the resort’s outdoor spa and water slide/wave pool facilities...

Honestly, this is the first time I've ever seen Check (first picture, far left standing) smile:

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MORE... + Show Spoiler +

Special Forces team.

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What is Sea doing?

In the afternoon, still sleepy from lunch, the team headed for a function room to attend a Yoga session.

WARNING: Many really awkward pictures from the Yoga session. Jaehoon and Hyun seemed good at Yoga and overall it looked like most had some fun...

+ Show Spoiler +

After Yoga, it was time for more team bonding through dominoes. The players and coaches were split into 3 groups, each tasked with spelling out an encouraging message for the team that would be linked together. Group 1 spelled out “MBCGame HERO Fighting!”, group 2 spelled out "PDnim Congratulations on Your Marriage!" (this is a reference to the upcoming nuptials of an MBCGame producer) and group 3 spelled out "NO. 1 HERO Fighting!"

+ Show Spoiler +

From SF coach Im Sura's twitter.

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From Hyun's twitter.

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Group 1 finished first. Sea is missing from this picture.

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This one is very nice.

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The most complicated one but very nice too.

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View Hyun's video of all the dominoes toppling HERE

After dinner, the progamers had free time of their own. Tyson and his roommates munched on snacks as they watched TV in their suite. Tyson suggested some late night exercise at the gym but it seems from Tiny’s tweet that he wasn’t very successful in convincing his roommates...

Pusan drinking some Max Beer with what looks like a piece of beef jerky.
From Tyson's twitter.

MORE...
+ Show Spoiler +

All pictures from Tyson's twitter except the last one which is from Tiny's twitter.

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Jaehoon

Tiny

Lazy

Tyson

Workshop Day 3

The last morning at the resort an was spent hiking up the nearby mountains and taking group photos. Of the 6 new recruits from the Draft, the 3 who were originally MBC trainees went to the workshop as well.

From Hyun's twitter.

More happy hiking pictures...

+ Show Spoiler +

The first 2 pictures are from Hyun's twitter. Unless otherwise specified, the rest are all from Tyson's twitter.

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The new MBC zerg line.

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One of the pictures MBC provided to the media.

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MBC toss line

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Aww... everyone loves Lazy.

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Far left: Check. Far right: Crise

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ㅋㅋㅋ

Tyson says they get along really well.

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Lazy and Zerg[Kal]. These two have a history of joking around with one another.

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Tyson and Tiny <3

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Sang the protoss.

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I wonder who Sea is messaging...

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Tiny and Jaehoon

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Usually when teams hold workshops, players have to attend a seminar where coaches dish out motivation speeches and all the players have to give presentations on what their weaknesses and mistakes were in the past rounds. It doesn’t seem like MBC players attended that kind of seminar, judging from the content of their tweets. So perhaps it was a good idea the media didn’t follow them around and they could really relax. It seems they enjoyed the short vacation.

MBCGame HERO Fighting!

Thanks for reading!

Update 1: http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=208480
Update 3: http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=213536

alffla

Hong Kong20321 Posts

April 10 2011 09:30 GMT

wowowow so cool haha where u find the time to compile all these photos haha

pretting funny and interesting look into the teams more personal life

oh that yoga instructor .......... :D

Ryo

8787 Posts

April 10 2011 09:39 GMT

On April 10 2011 18:30 alffla wrote:
wowowow so cool haha where u find the time to compile all these photos haha

pretting funny and interesting look into the teams more personal life

oh that yoga instructor .......... :D

Compiling photos was very fast but writing this blog post took up way too much time. Wanted to abandon it halfway but decided to finish it anyways...

ArvickHero

10387 Posts

April 10 2011 09:41 GMT

This deserves to be in the BW General or community news lol. Too awesome for Blogs

Nyovne

Netherlands19135 Posts

April 10 2011 09:55 GMT

BW general to start it off.

Emon_

3925 Posts

April 10 2011 10:02 GMT

Great photos! Hyun has a sick upper-body!! ^^

Spazer

Canada8031 Posts

April 10 2011 10:07 GMT

This is great stuff. Thanks for putting it all together!

Legatus Lanius

2135 Posts

April 10 2011 10:16 GMT

lol yoga chick copping a feel

thanks ryo, really enjoy these mbc insight blogs :D they seem to have a great in-house chemistry, i wonder if all the teams are like this?

trexbqs

Malaysia1731 Posts

April 10 2011 10:19 GMT

Ryo, thank you so much. I'm really appreciate it.

and I laugh so much for the pictures.
and the video = awesome :D

Is that me or Check really look alike Perfective ?

Ryo

8787 Posts

April 10 2011 10:23 GMT

#10

On April 10 2011 19:16 Legatus Lanius wrote:
lol yoga chick copping a feel

thanks ryo, really enjoy these mbc insight blogs :D they seem to have a great in-house chemistry, i wonder if all the teams are like this?

I dunno much about other teams but MBC are indeed a funny bunch

On April 10 2011 19:19 trexbqs wrote:
Ryo, thank you so much. I'm really appreciate it.

and I laugh so much for the pictures.
and the video = awesome :D

Is that me or Check really look alike Perfective ?

I think it is just you.

Caos2

United States1728 Posts

April 10 2011 10:44 GMT

#11

It's nice that MBC players got some time off, thanks for the article!

Milkis

5003 Posts

April 10 2011 10:49 GMT

#12

amazing post. Kind of makes me want to see if I can push this idea where we just make a general team discussion (fanclub)? thread so we can always just see what all the teams are up to (and have more motivation to update and such).

Also makes me wish I had more time to keep myself updated on progamer news D|

scrubtastic

1166 Posts

April 10 2011 10:57 GMT

#13

I generally don't check blogs but this time I'm glad I did, nice post

Hyde

Australia14568 Posts

April 10 2011 11:03 GMT

#14

this is awesome, thanks for this Ryo (and thanks for not abandoning it)! Always nice to see MBC enjoying themselves. Some of the pictures are great haha :D

boesthius

United States11637 Posts

April 10 2011 12:44 GMT

#15

--- Nuked ---

BLinD-RawR

ALLEYCAT BLUES50114 Posts

April 10 2011 12:57 GMT

#16

too much EM BEE SEA TO HANDLE!!!

yoonyoon

Korea (South)1065 Posts

April 10 2011 13:09 GMT

#17

People used to register their kids' birthdays early because kids born in Jan, Feb, and March could enter school early. They got rid of that system now, but that's why "빠른 생일" is important when asking people their age.

XsebT

Denmark2980 Posts

April 10 2011 13:10 GMT

#18

Flippin' awesome post!
Those joga pics are pure porn. Love it. :D

Ryo

8787 Posts

April 10 2011 13:22 GMT

#19

On April 10 2011 22:09 yoonyoon wrote:
People used to register their kids' birthdays early because kids born in Jan, Feb, and March could enter school early. They got rid of that system now, but that's why "빠른 생일" is important when asking people their age.

His birthdate is registered 1 month late, not early.

ondik

Czech Republic2908 Posts

April 10 2011 13:31 GMT

#20

awesome domino!

also - i never understood why some people are swimming in shirts lol.

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