CJ Entus and and Hite Sparkyz are to merge as the new team "Hite Entus"
CJ has received the operating rights to the Hite Sparkyz team from OnGameNet, a decision made in light of the rapidly approaching 2010~2011 Proleague season.
The OnGameNet Sparkyz's naming sponsorship deal with Hite (a Korean beer company) is still in effect, and thus the joined team will participate this season under the name "Hite Entus." All players on OGN Sparkyz's Brood War and Special Forces teams will continue their contracts under CJ.
Acting head coach Kim Dong Woo of CJ Entus has been appointed as the head coach, while Lee Jaehoon (ForU), Joo Jinchul (Starcraft_Side), and Jeon Taegyu (Zeus) have been named as coaches. Former Hite Sparkyz Coach Lee Myung Geun will work as an advisor to the team, focused on cultivating young talents (his allowance of suspected match-fixing players to play during the proleague season had come under fire).
The team will begin the merging process in earnest on the 13th.
Fomos interview with new head coach Kim Dong Woo Source: FOMOS
Fomos: You've been officially named head coach after the merger. KDW: We've been preparing for this for a while. The important thing is the merger, not the fact that I'm head coach. Sparkyz have a lot of great players, so I'm have big expectations this season. I hope to make the two teams coalesce well and lead them this season.
Fomos: The team has become stronger with the addition of solid starters like Shin Sang Moon (Leta) and Lee Gyung Min (Horang2). KDW: I didn't think we had become particularly weaker because of Kim Jung Woo's (Effort) retirement. It was unfortunate to lose an ace card, but we still had a lot of good mid-tier players so I didn't consider it to be a big problem. But this merger with Sparkyz provides us with a lot of starters which is a big help at strengthening the team.
Fomos: Are the preparations for the merger going well? KDW: It's important that there's good chemistry after the merger. That's what I'm focusing on the most. Right now the two team houses are in Pyeong Chang-dong and Yongsan, but we'll be living in the same place before the start of the season.
Fomos: How did the players react upon hearing the news? KDW: I told the players yesterday night, and they were all quite surprised. They have good relationships with the Sparkyz players though, so their reaction was that there was no problem.
Fomos: The addition of Leta will probably be the biggest help. KDW: Leta is a great player, and he also a nice guy who conducts himself well outside the game, so I'm excited about him joining. He works well coaches as well, so we think he'll do well on Hite Entus as well. Leta has a lot of friends as Entus, so we think he'll have no problem fitting in.
Fomos: This might make you entertain some lofty goals this season? KDW: It's my first season as head coach, so I'm looking forward to it. But I don't want to get greedy this season, I just want to show a more developed Entus team. I want to lead the players to a result that isn't embarrassing.
Fomos: Your zerg line has been pointed out as the team's weakness. KDW: It's not that our zergs are bad, people just say this because Jungwoo is no longer with the team. We have our TvT specialist Skyhigh, and Leta on board to strengthen the team. There's no such thing as a team that's good against all three races. We're a better team now, and I hope to get good results this season.
CJ just announced that their progaming team will merge with Hite's. This includes Starcraft and Special force team.
CJ will be the company running it, but it will be called the Hite Entus, for some contractual reasons apparently.
Personal thoughts: I am sad to see the number of teams decrease, but the new Entus might be a worthy challenger to KT and SK. If the next proleague does start, it should be very interesting.
Good, hite wasn't going anywhere and CJ needed an ace. Weak zerg lineup though, come back Effort!
On October 12 2010 11:17 whitelynx wrote: Hite Entus is such a bad name.
I kind of like CJ Sparkyz myself. It didn't make sense for one company to own 2 teams in the first place.
On October 12 2010 11:14 DragonDefonce wrote: Personal thoughts: I am sad to see the number of teams decrease, but the new Entus might be a worthy challenger to KT and SK. If the next proleague does start, it should be very interesting.
Leta/Effort/Snow/Skyhigh would have been a proleague-winning lineup. Without Effort, they'll make playoffs but not win.
On October 12 2010 11:16 justiceknight wrote: ehhhhh???? so how many proteams left to play in the upcoming proleague?
10
estro and hite disappeared as individual teams.
imho its no bad idea for cj to take over hite. this way they get leta, so they now have a terran that is competent in all 3 matchups and not just in tvt.
On October 12 2010 11:16 justiceknight wrote: ehhhhh???? so how many proteams left to play in the upcoming proleague?
10
estro and hite disappeared as individual teams.
imho its no bad idea for cj to take over hite. this way they get leta, so they now have a terran that is competent in all 3 matchups and not just in tvt.
They probably will end up dropping a lot of the weaker players though.... this trend of teams disappearing isn't looking good from what I can tell.
I would have expected them to merge with eSTRO, but w/e i'll take this. They're still lacking a good zerg.... i Really dont think Hydra can get the work done...
Hite was all but dead. This merge is IMO a very good thing. Although I really don't like the name. Hite-CJ Entus would even be better. Pretty much Leta is the replacement for Effort and Horang is an extra A class that could win.
On October 12 2010 11:21 xxpack09 wrote: woahhhhhhhhhhhhh
woahhhhhhhhhhhhh
CJ Sparkyz >>>>>>>>>>>>> Hite Entus as a name imo
But if the name is CJ Sparkys then neither company gets their name advertised, and that kind of defeats the purpose of owning a team.
Entus -effort +leta -iris +horang2 will be interesting to watch. I think that if Snow continues to improve as he has been, and hydra can assert himself as an A class zerg, Entus could accualy come out in the black from all this.
I wonder if effort is regreting his desision, thinking about how he could have been playing with leta.
edit: in the comments on the fomos page the symbol 헐 appears a lot what does that mean? Google translate says "hull".
even if the 12 teams merge into one team by one company, they can divide it to 12 groups, each group could have it own sponsor. Then ,the company fulfill what the kespa has down, don't worry.
On October 12 2010 11:21 xxpack09 wrote: woahhhhhhhhhhhhh
woahhhhhhhhhhhhh
CJ Sparkyz >>>>>>>>>>>>> Hite Entus as a name imo
But if the name is CJ Sparkys then neither company gets their name advertised, and that kind of defeats the purpose of owning a team.
Entus -effort +leta -iris +horang2 will be interesting to watch. I think that if Snow continues to improve as he has been, and hydra can assert himself as an A class zerg, Entus could accualy come out in the black from all this.
I wonder if effort is regreting his desision, thinking about how he could have been playing with leta.
I'm still QQing over effort's retirement to be honest
I'm definitely looking forward to seeing Leta and Skyhigh perfect TvT together ^_^
On October 12 2010 11:39 dcberkeley wrote: Switching favorite team to KT.
Savior? Gone. Coach Cho? Gone. Effort? Gone. Best name? Gone.
Sigh ... unfortunately I believe this as well, guess I'll swap over to SKT though All those with a CJ Entus shirt now have something that no one in the world will ever have again lol
makes sense, hite was all but ruined after the match fixing scandal. not to mention half of their team left for sc2.
hite didn't even have a proper head coach/director. i guess to save finding new coaches, zeus/side become coaches under kimdongwoo which seems most logical.
On October 12 2010 11:42 kOre wrote: Sigh ... unfortunately I believe this as well, guess I'll swap over to SKT though
best to get on the fantasy bandwagon now before it blows up. I feel like a Flash fan might have felt last summer, like something really good's about to happen finally after constant disappointment.
WAHHH BW world going crazy again! I remember I thought it was a big deal when OGN changed their name to Hite, now we have teams merging and disbanding... On the other hand, I think that fewer teams with more talent will lead to more better games and better entertainment, so dropping from 12 to 10 teams may acutally be good for audiences.
Woah, this is huge. I was originally going to write both teams off since they lost so many key players, but now they might actually have a chance. They'll probably get crushed by stacked SKT and KT though.
starcraft 1 is really going down hilll.... estros gone hite + cj effort gone rigged matches (a lot of players missing since then) KESPA is going to run out of money soon
seems like this new Hite Entus will be the Anti - Flash team... if they train well... they have pretteh good potential
no dawg ok we lost effort but it might get better with entusparkyz because nobody was good in estro anyway, the rigged matches put up slumpers, and we have a BONJWAAA
CJ definitely needed someone to replace effort when he left, I guess this season will tell if leta will be the one who does. Good job by CJ, merging their teams together, because apart, neither team would do well in this upcoming season.
"hite entus" (omg such a lame name) is also going to make this PL very interesting now. SKT has lost the boxer/oov morale boost, woongjin's loss of mvp ( D: ), ace with a fresh batch of players... this is gonna be exciting! (as long as KTFlash doesn't destroy everyone in 2011)
Hite Entus is a terrible, terrible name. However, the thought of Leta on the team makes me very happy... if only we still had Coach Cho, Effort, and Iris.
And of course, the one who will forever be in my heart...
This (the merger) is pretty fucking awesome IMO. The situation with the name really isn't that confusing. Since OGN and CJ are subsidiaries of the same company, CJ. They're just merging their properties into one, which makes sense. Also because they technically sold the naming rights to HITE for OGN Sparkyz they will need to name the team HITE _____, in this case HITE Entus. Look forward to seeing Leta/Snow/sKyHigh/Movie ~! If only EffOrt was still playing, this would be a sexy line-up.
EDIT:
Realistically, Sparkyz was done. People expected them to be worse than ACE next season. Also, one less (I guess technically 2 less) means that they pro league schedule will be less demanding, which will be great for the players, the teams, and potentially the situation between Gretech-KeSPA.
Although less teams sucks, I'm hoping that the cannibalisation of Estro makes a lot of the remaining teams stronger. Hopefully Estro remains though . Teams always have a chance of growing from weak overall line-ups... but once they're gone, that's it.
Edit: This feels like a real slim-down, baptism by fire, tightening of the belt etc etc for SCBW. Even with all the losses, if it comes out alive and kicking, then I'll be happy.
I approve! I think the current pro scene needs to be cleaned up a little. Each team (except ACE) took some serious hits over the past few months, and merging of teams is a good way to solve it.
Leta and sKyHigh on the same team. Wow, that's scary. You now have the best TvT sniper and one of the best Proleague aces on the same team. It's only a matter of time before they start to share information and improve each other's games. I'm reminded of Leta's dropship fail against Flash last season, would he still have made that mistake if he had SkyhigH to practice all day against?
Great news. CJ lost a lot of spirit when Effort, Savior and Cho left the team. Some new blood is welcome, especially Leta and Hogil. Only good things can come out of this, and who knows, maybe Skyhigh gets his vZ and vP improved =)
Thank god, at least SOME SCBW news that doesn't involve someone shouting that SC1 is dead or that some player will switch over to SC2. I really am in the camp saying that this is a favourable turn for both parties. I'm hoping for some exciting proleague matches.
On October 12 2010 14:02 Xxio wrote: This team will be good, but not insane. A Hogil, Leta, Snow, Movie lineup would be pretty tight.
Not insane I suppose, but no team is really heads and shoulders above the others this season. CJ can definitely set winning the PL as a realistic goal for the season.
So I wonder what happens to Jaedong's record against Hite..
Will he AK the Hite portion, or will Oz get reverse AK'ed by the CJ portion of the team??
And what about the "favourite team" tags? (which seem to be missing in this forum, and that begs the question why isn't this thread in the BW general forum??
Not exactly the best merge that compliments each other. All it does is make Leta a new ace and put Horang2 out of a job. Leta/Skyhigh on the same team does intrigue me, though merging two relatively Zerg weak teams is o.O
God this team is going to have an absolutely nasty Terran Line-up: Leta, sKyHigh, PuMa and Iris. Also not to shabby Protoss with Movie and Snow, and Zerg with Hydra and HoGiL. I guess it's good that IdrA left that team, since there is no way he'd break that Terran line.
I'm excited, the fact that CJ even bothered to acquire the operating rights to Hite means proleague will continue. Shorter season is also good for those ace players who have to carry their teams.
I'm not sure what to think about this. I have some great memories of the OGN Sparkyz, but they lost a handful of top players with the matchfixing scandal. Two teams that have suffered a lot of problems would benefit from merging, and I suppose the competition will be better. I guess a better season is worth more than keeping beloved teams around.
Also fewer excuses when STX lays the real shit down on these kiddies.
Hite Entus just doesn't sound right to me lol. This is a pretty big change, but I'd rather they merge though and have a stronger team. Hope they produce some strong results for the PL.
Btw this makes me question the legitimacy of EffOrt's retirement even more. 2 teams joined together so theoretically have more money, and with SaviOr and half of the Hite team gone there's certainly a lot of money left to give players. But they wouldn't pay EffOrt a good salary? Very suspicious in my opinion.
wow wtf this is huge news... mpf.. I dont know though, this is all kind of killing bw for me. My favourite player and my favourite coach leaving my favourite team... Not sure I'll stay an Entusman next season :/
like many others said, if Effort had stayed, this would be suchhhhh a badass team, for the addition of Leta alone.
I'm still going to call them CJ, it's much better than hite entus. Hopefully they'll remember this --> (–_–)
My feelings are little bit confused with this matter. While getting lot of good players is good thing, but CJ entus without Coach Cho, EffOrt, sAviOr and with this merge feels like a completely different team to me.
Fomos: Your zerg line has been pointed out as the team's weakness. KDW: It's not that our zergs are bad, people just say this because Jungwoo is no longer with the team. We have our TvT specialist Skyhigh, and Leta on board to strengthen the team. There's no such thing as a team that's good against all three races. We're a better team now, and I hope to get good results this season. quote]
As long as Snow is playing matches is fine with me, i'm not peased with the new head coach but as long as Kespa don't have a problem with that is fine with me.
The zergs in the new league is expected that they will have problems anyway so isn't a really a big lost, I also can't wait the new league to start.
First Effort, and now the team will be connected to Hite, a team I liked nothing about, except Leta, he's ok. Now I'm switching to Samsung, the team of my man crush Stork.
But I'll still be cheering on Snow and Skyhigh in the starleagues.
Wow. This sucks. I can't believe they got rid of the epicness that is CJ and replaced it with Hite. Terrible. But, still an Entus fanboy, and they'll always be CJ to me. :D
Well this has completely destroyed my upcoming startrek / starcraft crossover fanfic "Wrath of KeSPA" which was to feature the NCC-1701-F CJ Enterprisus.
ugh... for the sake of balance, i hope SKT dominates this season, my most hated player comes back to his prime (bisu).. all for the sake of esports we need the epic rivalry between these two teams. throw in a competent samsung / hwaseung.... it will be an epic season if that will happen
EPT
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