This is the story of Park Ji Ho, known to us all as Pusan the beloved attack ground Protoss.
A Special Gamer
His macro makes jaws drop. His strategies set him far apart from others. Right now when we look at Park Ji Ho (Pusan) in top form, we see that the next generation Protoss players are doing more than their part.
When asked about their goals, all progamers state in unison “to win.” However, Park Ji Ho is different. It seems he has even bigger, more important priorities.
To understand the guy, one does not have to travel too far into the past. Renowned for his great appetite, I managed to lure him into a buffet to converse for a couple of hours.
He would even choose Starcraft over religion. One summer holiday during his school years, a young Ji Ho followed his friends to a PC-Bang. It was as if he had been introduced to a new world. As someone who had been playing out on the playgrounds all his life, grasping a keyboard and a mouse and studying the screens on a monitor became his newfound passion.
Everyday he desperately wanted to play Starcraft. However at home he wouldn't dare to even hint at the idea of playing games. His parents naturally wanted him to work hard and find a fulfilling vocation. He was freely allowed to go out for study, whereas even a mention of going out to play got him a lot of beatings. Park Ji Ho eventually thought up a cunning plan. 'Mother I’m going out to study at the local temple.'
The possessor of a very special brand of macro was special from the start. Had there ever been someone who chose a computer game over religion?
A regional representative Park Ji Ho
Still a school kid, Park Ji Ho earned the reputation as the best in the Junpo district of Pusan after a year of playing. He had come a long way since the times he managed to beat his very friends who introduced him to the world of Starcraft.
He decided there was no one who posed a worthy opponent and traveled to every PC Bang to face the best of each district within his region of Jingu. Fortunately at the time Starcraft competitions were incredibly popular in his local area, and Ji Ho even won a Money Map competition in an anonymous PC Bang. This $50 he earned was his very first taste of success, as a gamer.
The Bewildering Broadcasted Debut
Even after entering the later stages of his school education, his passion for the game were far from subsiding. He played consistently and searched for the paths to becoming a progamer. However he was yet to find any.
Seeing his struggle, one kind friend scoured through the e-sports association homepage and collected the email contacts of all progaming managers. Here, he was accepted for a trial from the Plus manager, who was in a desperate need for players, having seen eye to eye with the desires of Park Ji Ho.
During the trial games, he beat all Plus members and impressed his manager to no end. In only 3 days he was able to participate in the MBC Team League for his team. His first game was a monumental win against a certain Bertand (Elky) of Hexatron, displaying an unusual play style in doing so.
Events after Plus
Having moved to POS after a turbulent time with Plus, he was fascinated by the newcomer called Oh Yung Jong (Anytime) Watching him, he felt many things.
Recalling the times he used to be like a younger brother, trying very hard alongside him, though now they had become an oppositions, he was very happy every time he watched Oh Yung Jong's strong performances. He was especially moved during the Dual Tournament final when he found that many of Yung Jong’s strategies and build-orders were his very own.
He now claims that, when watching Oh Yung Jong, instead of thinking “My, he has improved a lot!” he is rather surprised at his talent. One of his brother-like teammates had now become a personal rival. He did not feel insulted when Yung Jong was teasing him that he would beat him. Instead it felt good.
Park Sung Suk(Reach) and Park Yong Wook(Kingdom), Lim Yo Hwan (Boxer) and Choi Yun Sung (iloveoov), Hong Jin Ho (Yellow) and Jo Yong Ho(Chojja)... All great players had rivals. Park Ji Ho himself now considered Oh Yung Jong a rival and became determined to compete.
Thoughts of his parents and looking back
In truth, the situation at home was always difficult. His parents who wished him to study than play games worked very hard to support his studies. His father worked as a street cleaner and his mother sold snacks at the local market to scratch together a living to raise their son. When Ji Ho asked for a computer so that he could “study” they worked determined to get him one.
On the topic of his parents, the mighty Pusan was lost in solemn silence. He lied so that he could play the game he loved and persistently hassled them for a computer. True, he was young and naive back then, however right now he is full of regretful thoughts and finding it difficult to compose himself in midst his thoughts.
That is why he will send his first month’s pay immediately to his parents, every last penny of it.
This is his only goal.
Every step a progamer takes is yet another step further into the fog. Fighting!
The line "Has someone ever choose games over religion" in the first paragraph made me hate this whole article because it was so stupid...YES THOUSANDS YOU STUPID ARTICLE WRITER. Every non religious gamer clearly chooses this. Its just such a stupid line simply to try to make this article more "touching" and guess what. ITS NOT THAT TOUCHING. Its just a freakin story of a guy becomming successful at progaming that the author of article tried to make in to a sappy story. But thanks fireblast! for the info, im sorry that the article you provided was so poorly written(but then again it was translated so it was probably much better in korean).
Im glad he is doing well and has some expectations on succeding on progaming. It would have sucked if he had his parents working hard to get him a comp and after that he would realize he cant match progamers -__- For what i read he isnt the wealthiest guy in town, so its kinda a long shot to throw it that way into progaming. Hope he makes it big
On September 21 2005 16:51 Echo wrote: The line "Has someone ever choose games over religion" in the first paragraph made me hate this whole article because it was so stupid...YES THOUSANDS YOU STUPID ARTICLE WRITER. Every non religious gamer clearly chooses this. Its just such a stupid line simply to try to make this article more "touching" and guess what. ITS NOT THAT TOUCHING. Its just a freakin story of a guy becomming successful at progaming that the author of article tried to make in to a sappy story. But thanks fireblast! for the info, im sorry that the article you provided was so poorly written(but then again it was translated so it was probably much better in korean).
are you a journalism major? i am so i can safely assume i have more knowledge than you in this area. this article was actually one of the best sc pieces i have ever read. it went beyond the normal gaming articles and found an interesting angle to Pusan. this is what journalism is about in its essence, finding a new angle and going with it. naturally a story cant be liked by everyone, and if you disliked the angle/content thats fine. but dont knock the article besides purely personal preferences.
On September 21 2005 16:51 Echo wrote: The line "Has someone ever choose games over religion" in the first paragraph made me hate this whole article because it was so stupid...YES THOUSANDS YOU STUPID ARTICLE WRITER. Every non religious gamer clearly chooses this. Its just such a stupid line simply to try to make this article more "touching" and guess what. ITS NOT THAT TOUCHING. Its just a freakin story of a guy becomming successful at progaming that the author of article tried to make in to a sappy story. But thanks fireblast! for the info, im sorry that the article you provided was so poorly written(but then again it was translated so it was probably much better in korean).
are you a journalism major? i am so i can safely assume i have more knowledge than you in this area. this article was actually one of the best sc pieces i have ever read. it went beyond the normal gaming articles and found an interesting angle to Pusan. this is what journalism is about in its essence, finding a new angle and going with it. naturally a story cant be liked by everyone, and if you disliked the angle/content thats fine. but dont knock the article besides purely personal preferences.
Don't knock my knocking of the article purely based on your personal preferences ok hipocrite? (actually go ahead i dont care) Yes I agree journalism is about finding a new angle and going with it, the only problem is that a lot of those angles sound like bullshit and what happens when you run out of angles? Am I an expert: no, and i never claimed to be but i am certainly allowed to knock whatever I wish if I have reasons to why i dislike it. I also like how journalism majors believe they are the experts on anything when in fact they are the experts on nothing...journalism is a "general knowledge" subject. If you were an english major I would be much more likely to value your opinion to be honest.
I also like how journalism majors believe they are the experts on anything when in fact they are the experts on nothing...journalism is a "general knowledge" subject. If you were an english major I would be much more likely to value your opinion to be honest.
..Wow. I can't believe you just made such a stupid statement.
I also like how journalism majors believe they are the experts on anything when in fact they are the experts on nothing...journalism is a "general knowledge" subject. If you were an english major I would be much more likely to value your opinion to be honest.
..Wow. I can't believe you just made such a stupid statement.
I like Pusan even more now. He went to great lengths to play the game he loved, and is now paying back his parents for (unknowingly) helping him. I also love his play style. Pusan Fighting!
Damn... what a jackass. That guy has no conscience, having parents with such conditions and actually lying to them, not just about personal time, but actually having them buy him a computer for "studying". The ends may have ended justifying the means, but what if they didn't? He really is a "special" gamer, particularily in the area of foresight.
I kind of agree with Hippopotamus... That's pretty low, lying to your parents so that they'll buy you a comp =/. But, I still hope he does well. He seems to have a lot thrown into this dealy.
I wonder how his parents feel about his gaming now.
If he was good, he knew he had a chance to make money from playing. I don't think (and his attitude backs this up) that he would ever lie to his parents purely just to play around.
Im kinda dumb when it comes to following the whole pro gaming scene, but I thought Pusan has been a pro for a while? Like 2-3 years...no?
Fascinating article though. Also, what's so unique about his macro? I do remember reading that he used to not even hotkey units. It's that what makes his macro so unique? Does he hotkey gates from like 1-0? :O
On September 21 2005 20:06 GuYuTe- wrote: Im kinda dumb when it comes to following the whole pro gaming scene, but I thought Pusan has been a pro for a while? Like 2-3 years...no?
Fascinating article though. Also, what's so unique about his macro? I do remember reading that he used to not even hotkey units. It's that what makes his macro so unique? Does he hotkey gates from like 1-0? :O
I know I used to have a replay of Pusan on Mercury winning PvT adjacent positions doing just that.
The terran seemed quite decent as well, but pusan just had so many units.
Nice to see someone who has spent his youth playing a game to start making a living, but a progamer career is very short and after that you are left empty handed considering your education. If you still think you have the juice to start studying when your around 30~ it is a different thing.
On September 21 2005 17:43 {ToT}Strafe wrote: Religion>all for me
Anyway i think pusan is a rather sad kid?
he isn't a sad kid, he just made everything he was able to do, to get a dream to become reality..
fuck that lie about religion to play a fcked up computer game from 1998. if thats your dream commit suicide
damn is this the same kid who said he owned me everytime he lost? i mean look at yourself before commenting on others... at least his passion brought him anything... And religion who gives a fuck about a bunch of lies causing wars, because ppl that r desperate r willing to believe most things...
On September 21 2005 17:43 {ToT}Strafe wrote: Religion>all for me
Anyway i think pusan is a rather sad kid?
he isn't a sad kid, he just made everything he was able to do, to get a dream to become reality..
fuck that lie about religion to play a fcked up computer game from 1998. if thats your dream commit suicide
seems like you are quite religious person... do you follow it proporly? like no sex before marage etc? cuz my friend who were strict religious kept telling me that I would get in hell just because I didnt belive what he said about god etc. and not following the religion is the same as not beliving in it.
u made me respond he didnt, and like i said that works once but when someone keeps crossing his own story lines no one will pay attention to him/her anymore... anyone can get 1 response from someone...
Pfff I do own you kaolla what does that have to do with it? You are no talented gamer and ive always been better than you even when i just started. sure show them a replay where you won, im sure you saved it. Every beating you took wasnt worth to save or count. Im not trolling, god probably doesnt exist and if I go to hell for that well then i think thats unfair. He should have convinced me that he exists or let me be born as a retard. Sending me to hell because i go by logics isnt really fair now is it! But I cant stop him if all the christians or muslims are right, so why bother. But if you are fortunate enough to believe his existence and willing to lie about him to your parents for the sake of playing a computer game, then you are quite sad.
I also like how journalism majors believe they are the experts on anything when in fact they are the experts on nothing...journalism is a "general knowledge" subject. If you were an english major I would be much more likely to value your opinion to be honest.
..Wow. I can't believe you just made such a stupid statement.
Same to you sir. Doesn't take much to to call someone stupid with absoulutely no reason why. Journalism majors are a dime a dozen. Any idiot can get a communications degree...
I think it was a good article, and really, no one was trying to turn gaming over religion into a sob story, but rather gaming over studying and having to sneak around with it..
..Which is actually kind of sad and made me feel happy that he didn't fail as that would surely have been disasterous for his relationship with his parents..
I also like how journalism majors believe they are the experts on anything when in fact they are the experts on nothing...journalism is a "general knowledge" subject. If you were an english major I would be much more likely to value your opinion to be honest.
..Wow. I can't believe you just made such a stupid statement.
Same to you sir. Doesn't take much to to call someone stupid with absoulutely no reason why. Journalism majors are a dime a dozen. Any idiot can get a communications degree...
Are you using your brain? Can you explain to me why the ease of which you can obtain a journalism major is relevant to a journalism major not knowing about journalism? Karen wasn't trying to impress you or anyone else by saying that he has a journalism major, he was simply pointing out that he has the education to back up his opinion.
He quite logically pointed out, that from a journalism perspective, this article is actually quite good. Your opinion was just that, an opinion. His opinion was a journalism critique. The reason your opinions differ, is because he has the education to back his opinion up. You have shit. Who the fuck cares how easy journalism is. If you don't take journalism and therefore know nothing about it it doesn't fucking matter.
I, quite frankly, didn't like the content of the article either. But to say it was poorly written is just pulling words out of your ass to flame an article. And then you flame the person who pointed it out (who had an education to back it up). Grow up.
I also like how journalism majors believe they are the experts on anything when in fact they are the experts on nothing...journalism is a "general knowledge" subject. If you were an english major I would be much more likely to value your opinion to be honest.
..Wow. I can't believe you just made such a stupid statement.
Same to you sir. Doesn't take much to to call someone stupid with absoulutely no reason why.
Hence the reason I quoted you. I thought you'd be smart enough to reread what you wrote and come to the realization that you made quite a stupid remark/assumption. I guess I was wrong. Oh well.
I also like how journalism majors believe they are the experts on anything when in fact they are the experts on nothing...journalism is a "general knowledge" subject. If you were an english major I would be much more likely to value your opinion to be honest.
..Wow. I can't believe you just made such a stupid statement.
Same to you sir. Doesn't take much to to call someone stupid with absoulutely no reason why. Journalism majors are a dime a dozen. Any idiot can get a communications degree...
Are you using your brain? Can you explain to me why the ease of which you can obtain a journalism major is relevant to a journalism major not knowing about journalism? Karen wasn't trying to impress you or anyone else by saying that he has a journalism major, he was simply pointing out that he has the education to back up his opinion.
He quite logically pointed out, that from a journalism perspective, this article is actually quite good. Your opinion was just that, an opinion. His opinion was a journalism critique. The reason your opinions differ, is because he has the education to back his opinion up. You have shit. Who the fuck cares how easy journalism is. If you don't take journalism and therefore know nothing about it it doesn't fucking matter.
I, quite frankly, didn't like the content of the article either. But to say it was poorly written is just pulling words out of your ass to flame an article. And then you flame the person who pointed it out (who had an education to back it up). Grow up.
Well you see it's like this. Even if it's "good from a journalism prespective" if its not written well and the content isn't good then its still a shitty article. Ok? So sure he did the things a journalist is SUPPOSED to do but he didn't do them well because it came out sounding contrieved and without much substance. People with Music majors still write shitty songs, people with engineering majors still design poor buildings sometimes. I'm sure I could find another journalism major would say the complete opposite of him, that it was indeed a poor article - even from a journalistic stand point. When it comes down to it journalism is still about writing well and putting good content in your article which he did not..."grow up" yourself. Even if you find a "new angle" on a topic that has no substance the article is still going to suck. Btw: I did take journalism.
Had there ever been someone who chose a computer game over religion?
are pretty lame lines. I sure as hell would choose anything over religion. Most of my friends would choose a game over religion. There are tons of people who would choose a computer game over religion. Anyone who is not religous would choose a game, or pretty much almost anything for that matter, over religion. I reread Echo's original post and he does make a valid point. Good job by Fireblast to translate this article, although he's pointing out a flaw which is definitely valid.
On September 21 2005 16:51 Echo wrote: The line "Has someone ever choose games over religion" in the first paragraph made me hate this whole article because it was so stupid...YES THOUSANDS YOU STUPID ARTICLE WRITER. Every non religious gamer clearly chooses this. Its just such a stupid line simply to try to make this article more "touching" and guess what. ITS NOT THAT TOUCHING. Its just a freakin story of a guy becomming successful at progaming that the author of article tried to make in to a sappy story. But thanks fireblast! for the info, im sorry that the article you provided was so poorly written(but then again it was translated so it was probably much better in korean).
since the person who wrotethis article is probably korean and since i guess u dont live in korea i guess religion is quite big there? or was at his time and since the position was as it was i guess the question get quite relevant -_-;
About half of Koreans follow no particular religion, the other half are split between Bhuddist and Christian, mostly
But I agree its stupid to pick at 2 lines that have nothing to do with the point of the article, that Pusan feels regret for what he did to his parents and that is now his motivation to succeed
I really don't see why you people can't just read something and leave it alone If you don't like what you read, just ignore it. Life will go on
maybe it seems contrived because of the translation, things tend to sound way better in their orginal langauge (unless you have like an expert translator like they have for english versioins of Kafka and Camus, and even then those languages have more in common with english than korean)
he saw the game for first time in a local bang, look at the playing people there and said "wtf, i can do better then that". Then play for two months and became a monster..
On September 22 2005 12:56 {ToT}Strafe wrote: Sending me to hell because i go by logics isnt really fair now is it!
Logic? And then fair? Wtf has logic with fair?
If god is not fair, he is not good, according to his own rules. Therefore he is not perfect, he is not a god. He is shit. And that's what god is about, denial of logic. But logic is all humans have to survive.People prefer not to have their eyes open, however, when reality becomes too harsch.
On September 23 2005 05:18 lebowskiguy wrote: If god is not fair, he is not good, according to his own rules. Therefore he is not perfect, he is not a god. He is shit. And that's what god is about, denial of logic. But logic is all humans have to survive.People prefer not to have their eyes open, however, when reality becomes too harsch.
The Vatican itself will fall apart in the face of your mighty, six-years old sexiness.
Well I guess the Catholic church is ok, since they allowed masturbation not to be a sin. I was really having a lot of trouble with guilt... I wouldn't want the Vatican to fall apart, having offered this great service to humanity and all.
On September 23 2005 06:36 lebowskiguy wrote: Well I guess the Catholic church is ok, since they allowed masturbation not to be a sin. I was really having a lot of trouble with guilt... I wouldn't want the Vatican to fall apart, having offered this great service to humanity and all.
There is no measuring stick to success. It is all relative after all. It is also hard to classify what 'success' involves when dealing with progaming because it is such a foriegn concept, whch is still being established today. However, when one looks at this article, Pusan IS successful. Not in terms of money and fame, but in terms of how he now is doing something he always wanted to do. Yes Starcraft is only a game, but he loved it so much to the extent of lying to his pauper parents to play it and recieve a computer. He followed his passion for the game (as cheesy as that sounds) and now he's made it as a progamer. It's a courageous and dangerous decision- no one knows where progaming will finally end up. However he's made it. In this way he is successful.
And the whole religion thing- if I wanted to translate it literally it wouldve come out like "who in the world would have sold his temple for starcraft?"- its waaay too nonsensical and wouldve ruined the sincerity of the article. Anyway, just because you're an atheist and dont give a shit about relgion doesnt mean the rest of Korea are the same, it's just a petty comment.
The real focus of the article is how Pusan is now successful, and he knows it's all thanks to his parents, to whom he will now put all his effort into to start repaying that debt.
All these articles, though sometimes interesting, are a bit geeky... like talking to a bunch of dungeon and dragons nerds or people who play magic the gathering...
it's a computer game, and people talk about Boxer or Reach like they can move mountains or something... I think it's cool that they can make in something that they love, but these articles seem to always a little over dramatic.
On September 24 2005 15:33 StorM_Liquid wrote: All these articles, though sometimes interesting, are a bit geeky... like talking to a bunch of dungeon and dragons nerds or people who play magic the gathering...
it's a computer game, and people talk about Boxer or Reach like they can move mountains or something... I think it's cool that they can make in something that they love, but these articles seem to always a little over dramatic.
But the D&D people act like what they are doing is real. I really don't see any similarity here. -_-
On September 24 2005 15:33 StorM_Liquid wrote: All these articles, though sometimes interesting, are a bit geeky... like talking to a bunch of dungeon and dragons nerds or people who play magic the gathering...
it's a computer game, and people talk about Boxer or Reach like they can move mountains or something... I think it's cool that they can make in something that they love, but these articles seem to always a little over dramatic.
They might not be able to move mountains but they can get 13,0000 people to go and watch them.
Ya I agree with 1tym, thatt's another thing I found so irritating about the article. By all accounts Pusan is anything but "special" (a word thrown around a lot by the author) as far as progamers go. He has yet to accomplish anything major in pro gaming (as in - anything that sets him above or seperate from the rest). It's just a lot of hype without much substance to it. Not saying he isn't good, simply that this article is NOT very inspirational because im sure his parents still see him pretty much as a failure (in the sense he isn't making enough money to truly support himself, much less a family). The author writes about him as if he were Boxer or something which is just not the case;) Whether or not religion is important in korea is not relevant. It is ridiculous to make the connection the author did as if choosing a video game over religion is unheard of because it is quite common. It can be compared to me saying something like "He had a hot date the day before a big test and he stayed out all night with her! OMG can you believe it!". Sure it demonstrates not the highest level of responsibility but at the same time is COMPLETELY understandable.
I'd say it's well written (from a journalist perspective): catchy headline to draw people in, and emotional links to make the story more interesting. Virtually every single story in a newspaper tries to follow a similar format.
As for the actual story I think Pusan is scum. His parents make massive sacrifices to get him educated, and not only does he let them down by sneaking off to his 'temple', he then actually plays on their desire to educate him by telling them he needs a computer for education purposes.
EPT![[image loading]](http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/294/pusanq9at.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/4161/pusan4wv.jpg)
Yes I agree journalism is about finding a new angle and going with it, the only problem is that a lot of those angles sound like bullshit and what happens when you run out of angles? Am I an expert: no, and i never claimed to be but i am certainly allowed to knock whatever I wish if I have reasons to why i dislike it. I also like how journalism majors believe they are the experts on anything when in fact they are the experts on nothing...journalism is a "general knowledge" subject. If you were an english major I would be much more likely to value your opinion to be honest.
![[image loading]](http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/97/asa4eh.jpg)
