• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 03:29
CEST 09:29
KST 16:29
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
WTL 2023 Summer - Week 6 Recap/Week 7 Preview2Team Liquid Map Contest #18: Voting4[Interview] iRk-AgGe7WTL 2023 Summer - Week 5 Recap/Week 6 Preview6Maru wins Code S Season 1, achieves "6SL"49
Community News
ESL Open Week #177: herO, Clem, Astrea win1Matcherino starts SC2 team with Astrea, Future16ESL Open Week #176: Creator, Clem, Solar win7Alpha X disbands15ESL Open Week #175: ByuN, MaxPax, Solar win1
StarCraft 2
General
WTL 2023 Summer - Prediction Game Matcherino starts SC2 team with Astrea, Future ESL Open Week #177: herO, Clem, Astrea win WTL 2023 Summer - Week 6 Recap/Week 7 Preview trigger Talks: SC2 Balance, Basilisk, Serral...
Tourneys
[WTL 2023] Summer - Week 7 Grand Platypus Open (EPT Asia Region) WardiTV TL Map Contest Tournament #10! [WTL 2023] Summer - Week 6 WardiTV 2023 Opens (Monthly)
Strategy
Custom Maps
TLMC#18 Judging Comments and Feedback Thread [M] (2) Magannatha [M] (2) Ultralove [M] (2) Vertigo
External Content
Mutation # 371 Never Say Die Mutation # 370 Astigmatism Mutation # 369 Undermined Mutation # 368 Secret Storm
Brood War
General
Stork's Protoss Quotes Compendium vol. 1 BGH auto balance -> http://bghmmr.com/ Golden Girl Tournament (Off-Line in Peru) Insane Snow PvT (FPVOD) Recent recommended BW games
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues Small VOD Thread 2.0 Artosis vs the World BSL 2v2 ProLeague S2 - Day 4 - Sunday 20:00 CEST
Strategy
[H] Yet even more questions about DT builds Carriers or arbiters Abusive drop locations on Vermeer
Other Games
General Games
Diablo IV FF7 remake for PS4 announced Nintendo Switch Thread Frost Giant announce Stormgate Diablo 4 lvl 100 HC challenge!
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion Berlin Major 2023
League of Legends
MSI is happening, the thread TSM pausing esports and CLG Dead Building the Future of Sport at Riot Games
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes International Nations Cup - Berlin 2023
Hearthstone
TL Mafia
TL Endures Mafia TL Endures Voting Thread TL Mafia Plays: Diplomacy TL Mafia Community Thread [410]TL.net/forum/mafia Appeal Disambiguation 1.02
Community
General
Russo-Ukrainian War Thread NASA and the Private Sector US Politics Mega-thread The Games Industry And ATVI Summer Games Done Quick 2023!
Fan Clubs
The Guru Fan Club INnoVation Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece Korean Music Discussion Movie Discussion! Rome (TV Series) [TV] HBO The Last Of Us series
Sports
NBA General Discussion 2022 - 2023 Football Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Formula 1 Discussion McBoner: A hockey love story
World Cup 2022
FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Thread
Tech Support
StarCraft 2 Is Crashing on My PC
TL Community
Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
Atom-Mech (Chapter 4)
Terryberri
Berlin and Balloons!
FuDDx
Unexpected Wholesome SC Mome…
JieXian
Job interview
mantequilla
15 years
Shady Sands
The truth about Final Fan…
jameswatts
TL Currency Converter Mafia…
Minely
Teaching Students StarCr…
Lovethelord
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1003 users

DES Sonic Interview 5/18/2013 English Translation

Forum Index > BW General
57 CommentsPost a Reply
1 2 3 Next All
juki
Profile Joined April 2012
68 Posts
May 21 2013 05:04 GMT
#1
This is an English translation of a recent DES interview with Sonic, going into his background and events leading up to the 8th SSL finals.

If you find any errors, please notify me so I can make corrections. Thanks.

Original Article (Daily eSports)




[People] BJ Sonic "My league will run until Brood War ends"

[image loading]


Sonic Starleague Organizer Hwang Hyo-Jin (Sonic)
"The love I receieved as a Broadcast Jockey (BJ)...running the league I wish to return it"


With the end of the tving OSL final at Jamsil Student Gymnasium in August 2012, the last StarCraft: Brood War (henceforth referred to as BW) exclusive league final concluded. One month later, the Proleague final featured both BW and StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty (hereafter SC2), but for BW fans, their last individual league final had already ended.

Although not officially recognized by KESPA, throughout various internet channels BW leagues are happening. At the center is the most popular BW league, the Sonic Starleague on AfreecaTV. Starting with the first league in 2010, currently on the eight league, they have brought on official sponsors and continue to grow in scale.

Consistently pulling over ten thousand concurrent viewers, the Sonic Starleague continues to spur the excitement of BW fans. On June 1st they will be holding their finals at Kwangwoon University Auditorium. I met with the organizer, Hwang Hyo-Jin. Among the fans, he is better known as the BJ Sonic.

The individual league which happened by chance
Sonic did not always plan on running a BW league. He was one of many gamers enjoying BW. Recognized as a BW gosu among his friends, with their recommendation he started an internet broadcast channel.

"BW has many different strategies. Learning to play the three races, Zerg, Terran, and Protoss, I also researched strategies. After using a creative build on my friends a few times, they recommended I show it off on Afreeca saying that it would be popular."

The beginning was playful. Grabbing an opponent from the lobby he started showing off various strategies and tactics, commenting on and explaining his strategy while he played. Instead of speaking like a teacher giving a lecture, he gained gamers' empathy by just acting like a teenage fan.

"I was one of many new successful internet channels. I would get around 1-2000 live viewers. Through that I slowly gained fame."

[image loading]


To the capitol, PlayPle, and military service
Sonic received a call from a viewer affiliated with the media. The now-defunct media player GameKorea was preparing a channel and wanted to work with him. In 2006, in his third year of high school, Sonic hastily moved to Seoul.

The beginning was a success. E-sports affiliates watching Sonic's play on the internet came to like him. OnGameNet even gave him a small program to promote himself. Some media outlets requested interviews from him. That was the moment Sonic's name became known to the world.

Along with NiceGameTV, which made various shows for the new game League of Legends, SonicTV was one of Playple's mainstays. NiceGameTV's main focus was WarCraft 3 while Sonic brought in BW viewers. However, even though they pulled in viewers, Playple failed and after undergoing maintenance for two years was terminated. Sonic entered the military in September of 2008. It seemed he had achieved some things and gained some awareness along the way.

"I though there wasn't any hope in just running a personal internet channel. Although there were viewers, I didn't see a way to directly convert that into revenue. Then the I was summoned and went to the military. While I was in the military, Playple disappeared."

I will make a league with my own money
During his two years in the military, Sonic planned to start his own business. This was due to his experience with the difficulty of making a living as an internet BJ. Organizing his thoughts during his service, Sonic opened an internet shopping mall "SinbalFarm" with the money he had saved before going to the military.

"I kept having thoughts about BW leagues. I wanted to make a platform where online amateur gosus could gather and gain recognition in order to become progamers. In order to do so they would need money for entry and transportation, as well as a stage to play on. More than anything, I needed money. I decided to sponsor a league by myself."

Thus, the 2010 online Sonic Starleague began. Without receiving any outside help, and with the hardheaded determination to make a league on his own, Sonic ran his league continuously for two years, which grew to the point where the 2012 finals were held in the Kongkuk University Millenial Auditorium.

"During those times, all costs came out of my pocket. Of the profits from the online shopping mall, I would deposit a portion for the tournament expenses. Sometimes I did feel unhappy that the profits from the store went to fund the league, when they could have been invested in the success of the business instead."

When people asked why he kept running the league, he would answer, "In order to repay a favor" (T/N: 결초보은 means to repay kindness even after death). He ran his business under the name Huang Hyo-Jin, but the blood of Sonic still flowed within him.

[image loading]


The Ever Successful Sonic Starleague
The stage was set for the seventh Sonic Starleague final. In late 2012 when Sonic announced the offline finals, he received a call from Blizzard Entertainment. He was told that since he had not obtained the proper permissions, the league was not allowed to open.

"It was completely out of the blue. In the 6 tournaments run since 2010 I never came across this issue. Since those all took place online, I don't think Blizzard paid much attention to them either. Since the seventh finals was offline they said they had to sanction it."

Although Sonic sent e-mails back and forth with Blizzard to receive the necessary permissions, things were not resolved easily. With various announcements published and arguments happening, Mike Morhaime tweeted that they would allow the finals to happen, resolving the situation.

"I was very thankful, and it was a good learning experience. Those of us sponsoring the tournment did not realize that there would be IP issues. Although we knew there were agreements between KESPA and Blizzard, we did not think they applied to us as well. Through the experience of the seventh finals, we learned a lot."

Perhaps through the great success of the seventh finals, the eighth Sonic Starleague found a sponsor. ItemBay offered to invest in the league. Although not the hundreds of millions of Won (T/N: 100M Won ~ 100K USD) which backed the OSL or MSL, it was still evidence of the Sonic Starleague's success.

"ItemBay gave us strength. The fact that an online league can find a sponsor has great value."

Itembay's sponsorship was not the only accomplishment. BW commentators Kim Tae-Hyung (Kim Carrier) and Lee Seung-Won also joined the project, as did the popular Stargirls Seo Yeon-Ji and Choe Eun-Eh. In order to hold the matches offline, the stage and booths were constructed. The success is far beyond that of even the seventh final.

On June 1st, come visit Kwangwoon University
The eighth Itembay Sonic Starleague shocked e-sports fans, planning to hold their finals May 18th in the Songpa-gu Jamsil Student Gymnasium. The possibility that an online league could happen in the same place as the last Starleague made some fans doubtful. There was support both for and against it.

"Truthfully we had already made the arrangements, but there were more who advised us not to be too ambitious. If we did not fill the gymnasium it would be a big loss, and if we did, it would raise expectations for the next time even higher."

Sonic took the advice to heart. He moved the final to Kwangwoon University Auditorium, and rescheduled the date to June 1st. Changing the already-announced time and date for the final was not easy. He was very sorry to the fans.

"The Sonic Starleague will not end with the eighth. With the experiences up until now we will move forward with the poise our fans expect. We and the players will devote ourselves until the day all of the servers close. With the support of the people who love BJ Sonic, I will trust in myself and the players and together we will do our best to bring an even better league to the fans.

[Original article by DailyeSports Nam Yoon-Sung thenam@dailyesports.com]
Facebook Twitter Reddit
PM me if you want a BW-related item translated (stuff on former players is okay as well)
amazingxkcd
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
GRAND OLD AMERICA16375 Posts
May 21 2013 05:28 GMT
#2
thanks for the translations!
The world is burning and you rather be on this terrible website discussing video games and your shallow feelings
L3gendary
Profile Joined October 2010
Canada1469 Posts
May 21 2013 05:31 GMT
#3
This man is literally killing saving eSports.

I can only hope that the final is a success and that the SSL keeps growing.
Watching Jaedong play purifies my eyes. -Coach Ju Hoon
purakushi
Profile Joined August 2012
United States3300 Posts
May 21 2013 06:31 GMT
#4
BW shall never end!
Sonic is so awesome >_<

I wish I could go to the finals~
T P Z sagi
Grobyc
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
Canada18410 Posts
May 21 2013 06:40 GMT
#5
Nice interview with the man himself, thanks ^^
If you watch Godzilla backwards it's about a benevolent lizard who helps rebuild a city and then moonwalks into the ocean.
Plexa
Profile Blog Joined October 2005
Aotearoa39261 Posts
May 21 2013 06:54 GMT
#6
Great interview thanks for translating.
Administrator~ Spirit will set you free ~
kjwcj
Profile Joined November 2011
Australia1064 Posts
May 21 2013 07:02 GMT
#7
Thanks for the translation.
Writer
Boonbag
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
France3318 Posts
May 21 2013 07:28 GMT
#8
I thought they had much more than 10k viewers =(
endy
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
Switzerland8963 Posts
May 21 2013 07:38 GMT
#9
Thank you for the translation.
Sonic hwaiting !
ॐ
Jragon
Profile Joined October 2010
Australia1470 Posts
May 21 2013 07:47 GMT
#10
<3 Sonic. Thanks for the translation.
"Bisu is just too good." - Jaedong (http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=218995) "Bisu hyung's play is just too good" - Flash (http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=225861)
Glioburd
Profile Joined April 2008
France1878 Posts
May 21 2013 08:13 GMT
#11
Thanks for the translation. Sonic has all my respect for keeping alive and develop competition on a game which is supposed to be dead. Thank you Sonic !
"You should hate loosing, but you should never fear defeat." NaDa.
kerpal
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
United Kingdom2695 Posts
May 21 2013 08:28 GMT
#12
Sonic fighting!
What a guy.
art_of_turtle
Profile Blog Joined September 2012
United States1091 Posts
May 21 2013 08:35 GMT
#13
Sonic is our modern day hero!
Flash should fear Sacsri
GTPGlitch
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
5061 Posts
May 21 2013 08:53 GMT
#14
Sonic so dedicated~
Jo Byung Se #1 fan | CJ_Rush(reborn) fan | Liquid'Jinro(ret) fan | Liquid'Taeja fan | oGsTheSuperNada fan | Iris[gm](ret) fan |
Lorch
Profile Joined June 2011
Germany3632 Posts
May 21 2013 09:00 GMT
#15
On May 21 2013 16:28 Boonbag wrote:
I thought they had much more than 10k viewers =(


I think thats what they reach at least, not their peak.
Great interview, sonic fighting!!! Can't wait for june 1st, which I could be there in person.
Gamegene
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United States8308 Posts
May 21 2013 09:14 GMT
#16
He's a man's man, just like all the other people who built BW with their hands and liver eating ramen.

We are very lucky we have him and all the other volunteers at the SSL studio.
Throw on your favorite jacket and you're good to roll. Stroll through the trees and let your miseries go.
soujiro_
Profile Joined June 2010
Uruguay5195 Posts
May 21 2013 10:11 GMT
#17
a true hero, thanks for the translation
ace hwaiting!!
2Pacalypse-
Profile Joined October 2006
Croatia9071 Posts
May 21 2013 10:18 GMT
#18
Awesome read, thx for translating!
Moderator"We're a community of geniuses because we've found how to extract 95% of the feeling of doing something amazing without actually doing anything." - Chill
PineappleLumpsToss
Profile Joined July 2010
New Zealand2434 Posts
May 21 2013 10:36 GMT
#19
Thanks heaps for the translation.

Sonic ftw!
Fox116
Profile Joined April 2011
United States409 Posts
May 21 2013 11:02 GMT
#20
Thanks for the translation. I can't wait for the matches.
Sonic/BW fighting~
Scarabs always going off in my head!
1 2 3 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 31m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Forgg! 90
SpeCial 83
StarCraft: Brood War
Bisu 1440
Larva 913
Snow 296
LaStScan 106
EffOrt 45
Barracks 21
Sacsri 18
Sacsri 13
Hm[arnc] 6
Jumperer 3
[ Show more ]
Horang2 0
Dota 2
XaKoH 502
XcaliburYe295
XBOCT170
League of Legends
JimRising 691
Other Games
summit1g12937
Stewie2K2846
singsing1932
WinterStarcraft1013
HitmanStarcraft2241
ViBE141
Livibee135
Mew2King91
Trikslyr75
Hui .56
Fuzer 55
febbydoto47
nookyyy 3
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick45938
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Main Stream9952
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
ESL CS:GO1214
Other Games
BasetradeTV273
StarCraft 2
Esl_sc2190
ESL.tv190
StarCraft: Brood War
lovetv 26
StarcraftVOD4
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 22 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Maddox 29
• Adnapsc2 5
• LUISG 1
• Gussbus
• LaughNgamez Trovo
• Poblha
• Migwel
• Alpha X_
• aXEnki
• intothetv
• Laughngamez YouTube
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
StarCraft: Brood War
• sscaitournament1
• STPLYoutube
• BSLYoutube
• AfreecaTV YouTube
League of Legends
• Scarra3029
• Ambition1894
• Lourlo1152
• Shiphtur1000
• Stunt593
Upcoming Events
Grand Platypus Open
31m
World Team League
4h 31m
Team Liquid vs Berserker eSports
Onsyde Gaming vs SSLT
PSISTORM Gaming Misc
10h 31m
Matcherino INu Series
21h 31m
Classic vs Astrea
ByuN vs Solar
Sparkling Tuna Cup
1d
World Team League
1d 4h
Starlight Twinkle vs DKZ Gaming
Shopify Rebellion vs PSISTORM Gaming
BeAsT Cup
1d 8h
ESL Open Cup
2 days
ESL Open Cup
2 days
ESL Open Cup
2 days
[ Show More ]
PassionCraft
5 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Wisdom Invitational
WardiTV TLMC #10
NC 2023 - EU Quals. - 2nd Stage
CCT Online Finals #1

Ongoing

FS Mania
KCM Ladies Race Survival 2023 Season 2
KCM Race Survival 2023 Season 2
GRS Season 6
Super Anchor Qualifying S1
Platinum StarCraft League S1
CSL 9: 2023 Summer
BSL 2v2 ProLeague #2
TT Offline Party
WTL 2023 Summer
Nexus Never Dies #3
HOTS Unchained
ESL Impact League S3 Finals
IEM Dallas 2023

Upcoming

Copa Latinoamericana Season 2
ESL Winter
2023 GSL S3: Code S
2023 GSL S2: Code S
HSC XXIII
ESL Summer
LTK Thunderball
Nations Cup 2023
ESL Pro League Season 18
IEM Cologne 2023
BLAST Premier Fall Groups
ESL Challenger Katowice 2023
BLAST Premier Spring Final
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2023 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.