The Finals overall game quality was disappointingly low considering its high-powered matchup — an embarrassment for me and my (now-obviously-) over-optimistic preview article. The match's second set was its most entertaining and most competitive. Jaedong and Yellow[arnc] chose similar openings and had almost even supply counts (30 for JD, 31 for Yarnc) by the time of the game's decisive air battle. Unsurprisingly, what makes this game worth watching is Jaedong's unparalleled micromanagement — he cleverly harasses the lings atop Yarnc's ramp and displays characteristically sublime muta control. It's JvZ at his best!
Match Notes
Despite having his serious practice time for this match limited to one day by "troubles regarding the FA" (more on that below), Jaedong thoroughly outplayed Yarnc to claim his second consecutive OSL and, of course, StarCraft's third Golden Mouse.
BW's youngest Golden Mouse winner tastes victory
Hite fans expecting Fake Yellow to bring the game that propelled him past JD in the Ro16 and produced twoexhilarating meetings with Effort in Proleague playoffs should be sorely disappointed; as Jaedong affirmed in his post-match interview, this Finals was over after just one game. In the 1set Jaedong opened 10-hatch (after extractor trick) 9-pool 8-gas, while Yarnc went 9-pool 8-gas. Cross positions allowed Jaedong to defend his early hatchery quite comfortably, guaranteeing him a slight advantage in a standard game. However Jaedong came off gas immediately after beginning zergling speed, committing to an all-in ling attack just before Yarnc's mutas popped. Yarnc scouted JD's build with plenty of time to react — he simply didn't. Yarnc's attempt to defend pure speedling from two hatcheries with eight slow zerglings and one sunken was beyond foolish, and it cost him this game, his composure, and ultimately the series. (Even if he had completed the block at his ramp, Fake Yellow wouldn't have stood a chance against Jaedong's ling numbers.)
Jaedong was "certain" he would take the series 3-0 if he won the first set, and it's no secret why: ZvZ is StarCraft's most ruthless matchup, in that it affords the least time to warm up or recover from a tough loss. Yarnc's loss in the 1set made him victim to this ruthlessness; after the match his former teammate Cloud observed "[Yarnc] lost his confidence after losing the first game, and couldn't play properly after that". Jaedong took sets 2 and 3 with ease, exiting his booth without a bead of sweat on his brow, and nonetheless the Bacchus OSL 2009 champion.
One More Thing: Free Agency and Golden Boy's Murky Future
Momentous as it was, Jaedong's third OSL victory has been overshadowed by news surrounding his relationship with Hwaseung Oz during KeSPA's first-ever Free Agency period. In case you (like I was) are a bit confused about what FA is and what it has to do with Jaedong's future as a progamer, here's the skinny. (Much thanks to Waxangel, konadora, and the KNF team, who have been keeping TL in the loop by translating Korean articles on this topic.)
KeSPA first announced Free Agency on March 22, 2006, but it wasn't until last November, when Fomos ran a series of painfully ambiguous articles on the subject (translated in the November 19 Korean News Flash), that the policy's nuances began to emerge. It soon became obvious that "Free Agency" is somewhat of a misnomer, because under KeSPA's rules FA has little resemblance to free agency as we know it. In American professional sports leagues, a free agent has the right to simultaneously engage in contract negotiations with any number of teams. This sort of free agency ("conventional" free agency) is advantageous for the player because he can pit interested teams against each other to create a bidding war and thereby score a lucrative contract.
KeSPA's Free Agency, though initially met with enthusiasm from Fomos ("an institution designed to protect players' rights") and foreign fans, deprives StarCraft players the advantages of conventional free agency by over-regulating their FA-period contract negotiations. According to several articles translated by Waxangel, a qualifying Free Agent has eight days to negotiate a new contract with his current team (August 12-20, for the current FA period). If he does not settle on a new contract with his original teams during this eight-day period, the Free Agent becomes publicly uncontracted and may pursue bids from other teams over the next five days (August 21-25). In the two days following the bidding period (August 26-27) the Free Agent must either sign with his highest bidder — he cannot select a team for any reason other than salary — or enter a four-day renegotiation period with his original team (August 28-31). Players who remain uncontracted at the end of this final renegotiation period will have semi-professional status until the next Free Agency period — and thus be unable to compete in any KeSPA-sanctioned tournament for a full year.
Ignoring KeSPA's absurdly strict FA eligibility rules and assuming Free Agents are allowed to interact with teams during the five-day bidding period (a big assumption, given the language in Fomos's articles), the system outlined above isn't a complete disaster. What dooms Free Agency is that, to acquire any Free Agent with annual salary over 50 million won (any big-name player), in addition to paying that player the highest-bidding team must compensate his original team with either a) 200% of his original annual salary or b) 100% of his original annual salary and one nonessential player from its roster.
FA's crippling trading restrictions, as illustrated by Fomos
In the case of a one-year contract, these restrictions make a big-name Free Agent two to three times more expensive for a bidding team than his original team — almost guaranteeing he will receive no bids and be forced to re-sign with his original team or take a one-year hiatus from progaming as a semi-pro. Thus, for any player with a salary over 50M ₩, Free Agency is a dangerous trap that places him at the mercy of his original team: given that bids are highly unlikely, the original team can refuse a big-name Free Agent's contract demands during the first negotiation period, comfortably wait out the bidding period, and then enter the final renegotiation period with massive leverage (if the Free Agent does not sign, he will become a semi-pro).
On August 20, Jaedong walked right into this dangerous trap by declaring Free Agency from Hwaseung Oz. According to a representative from Oz Jaedong's failure to re-sign was entirely due to disagreement between Hwaseung and Jaedong's parents — who, under yet another ridiculous KeSPA regulation, must approve any contract their son signs. Jaedong's mother corroborated this story, explaining that she was "unable to come to terms on pay" and "just couldn't bear to see him taking on the load (of the team) alone".
Jaedong and Oz: now and forever?
Coach Cho's comment to Jaedong upon his OSL victory, "You're my best player at present and will be forever", betrayed his confidence in Jaedong's devotion to Oz — or, in Free Agency's uselessness as a means for JD to contract with any other team. Sure enough, by the conclusion of the FA bidding period on August 25, Jaedong had received no bids. Fomos asked two teams why they did not bid on Jaedong. One (predictably) cited cost, but the other said "Jaedong consistently expressed his strong desire to remain in Hwaseung". Indeed Jaedong, Jaedong's parents, and Hwaseung are all emphatic that Jaedong is on good terms with Oz's coaching and management, and on August 23 JD reaffirmed his loyalty to the team ("Until my last day as a progamer, I want to be with my OZ teammates, Coach Cho Jeong Woon, and Coach Han Sangyong"). However if Jaedong is truly committed to staying with Hwaseung, it seems unlikely that he would be unable to woo his parents and settle upon a satisfactory new contract after eight days of negotiation. Perhaps JD and his parents simply thought they could use FA to achieve a better salary with Oz.
If so, they were sorely mistaken. Now in the final renegotiation period, Jaedong has until August 31 to either re-sign with Hwaseung or accept semi-pro status. His father insists not re-signing and heading to the States for college is a legitimate option, but if Jaedong has any say in his future it's hard to see this as anything other than a pathetic attempt to gain some leverage in the final negotiations with Hwaseung. For Jaedong to lose his professional license and enter retirement would be for him to abandon his lifelong passion at the height of his career — an awful choice, and an impossibly difficult one considering JD's unrivaled competitiveness. Jaedong cannot simply walk away from professional gaming, and, because it's his drive that has carried their team for a year, Hwaseung's management is acutely aware of this. Though on August 20 an Oz representative told Fomos that Hwaseung would offer Jaedong his current salary in the re-negotiations, they have no obligation, and little incentive, to do even this. Thanks to Free Agency, Hwaseung holds all the cards.
Thus Free Agency has guaranteed an unsatisfying outcome for Jaedong and his fans: either JD will succumb to his insatiable desire for StarCraft greatness and his commitment to Hwaseung and accept inadequate pay and/or an inferior environment by re-signing, or he or his parents will refuse to sign, and professional BW will lose the most talented Zerg player of all time. Jaedong's experience with Free Agency has exposed it as a travesty, and yet more evidence that professional StarCraft players are in desperate need of a means to collectively challenge KeSPA's increasingly oppressive regulations.
It's been a pleasure covering the Bacchus 2009 OSL! Thanks, readers and commenters. I will be writing one more news post devoted to this league: a tournament recap, complete with TL's prestigious OSL awards.
Thanks for the write up. Too bad the whole FA situation overshadows the BO5 to an extent, though ZvZ does have the inherent potential to be less than epic on its own.
As bad as it would be for the game (and my wish to see a platinum mouse) he could eat a year (play WCG and GOM if possible) to study, and then decide what to do from there. It really would be too bad, but something drastic needs to happen for KESPA to learn anything
Nice article. I enjoyed the games because of the subtle build differences and just watching Jae do his thing (being at the OSL blizzcon party didn't hurt). I still fully agree with the ZvZ article you wrote earlier even though it wasn't displayed very well in the OSL. I sincerely hope the Jaedong FA fiasco comes to a decent conclusion soon ;(
Congratulations again to Jaedong on the golden mouse, such a beast.
On August 27 2009 09:51 Boundz(DarKo) wrote: OMG you played music from Mews new album in the video <3 :D
haha, I was hoping someone might catch that! Just love this album, definitely their best to date and one of my favorites of the year so far. Great band!
IMO jaedong should just stick it too them, even if that means losing his license. like it says at the bottom
"Jaedong's experience with Free Agency has exposed it as a travesty, and yet more evidence that professional StarCraft players are in desperate need of a means to collectively challenge KeSPA's increasingly oppressive regulations."
Unless someone exposes this and challenges this, players will remain powerless. Call their bluff Jaedong, they as an organization DONT want to loose you. these rules are fuckig dumb.
On August 27 2009 10:00 Disarray wrote: IMO jaedong should just stick it too them, even if that means losing his license. like it says at the bottom
"Jaedong's experience with Free Agency has exposed it as a travesty, and yet more evidence that professional StarCraft players are in desperate need of a means to collectively challenge KeSPA's increasingly oppressive regulations."
Unless someone exposes this and challenges this, players will remain powerless. Call their bluff Jaedong, they as an organization DONT want to loose you. these rules are fuckig dumb.
The sad thing is that Jaedong is the progamer I'd want the most to stay out of anyone, if someone does unfortunately have to martyr themselves to set things right. D: But he may have to be the one to do it.
Good write up, it was very, very professional. Yeah, this system is unfortunately geared towards team management as opposed to the players. As you put it, this is a no win situation for Jaedong as well as E-Sports.
When I heard about Free Agent being implemented I was happy, then when I saw what Kespa was doing with under a fake banner of FA I saw how corrupt it is. Basically Kespa doesn't work for the welfare of players and only for the profit of themselves and teams and to extract as much from players as if they are worthless.
All I can say is I can't wait until Starcraft 2 comes out and kespa loses its hold on starcraft and these talented individuals can be free to do as they wish in a proper environment. I just hope Blizzard muscles itself over competitive starcraft 2 and brings about decent rules, if anything it can't be any worse then Kespa thats for sure.
Edit: If I was Jaedong I would take a year off and be truely free after that, hopefully by then SC2 is out. Maybe he could do his military service and get that out of the way.
So what about the option of Jaedong going to the army and joining ACE? Is that not possible? Since everyone has to go to ACE at some point, why not do it now?
Entertainment industry my ass Jaedong is by far my favorite player (first player i watched and was like O M G), and this shit is ridiculous. This is the definition of greed. Even though jaedong wants to play with Oz, he deserves money for his work. I say he should just throw all his proleague matches. *again
at this point in his career, i dont think he wants to go to the military. ACE seems like a place for progamers to go when they feel like they aren't contributing/doing anything/going anywhere with their team and want to get some play time while getting military service out of the way.
JD would want all the practice time he can get, especially while he's still young and on top of the sc world. ACE would not help him in that manner, but it's better than JD retiring.
why cant jd just throw all the proleague games, just dont practice for them? just concentrate on the osl and msl. thatll force his teammates to practice more and depend less on jd.
On August 27 2009 10:16 AzureEye wrote: So what about the option of Jaedong going to the army and joining ACE? Is that not possible? Since everyone has to go to ACE at some point, why not do it now?
Makes no sense - if JD is going to keep playing, why not at least max out his money? If JD's going to not get paid, he should be going to college. If he goes to ACE he both doesn't get paid (who knows if he's still this dominant in a year) and doesn't get to go to college ... lose lose if you ask me.
This is by far the saddest I've felt since Savior fell from grace. I can't believe we're even entertaining the notion of Jaedong retiring. He was playing in the FINALS of the OSL not a week ago. This is surreal!
"One More Thing" is a bit of a misnomer as the section is longer than your finals writeup, but your coverage is proportional to how big the story is. What a lame OSL finals hahahaha
On August 27 2009 10:16 AzureEye wrote: So what about the option of Jaedong going to the army and joining ACE? Is that not possible? Since everyone has to go to ACE at some point, why not do it now?
Makes no sense - if JD is going to keep playing, why not at least max out his money? If JD's going to not get paid, he should be going to college. If he goes to ACE he both doesn't get paid (who knows if he's still this dominant in a year) and doesn't get to go to college ... lose lose if you ask me.
Hello? JD needs to go ACE sooner or later. Why not sooner when he is in a bad situation than go later when he gets a better contract? Yes he needs to max out his money but I'm just saying if he gets ACE over with now, he'll open himself up for better opportunities for the future when this FA thing ceases to exist
I don't know if I'm getting through to you or not
EDIT: Let me simplify things for you.
He's in a shitty situation right now. So if he goes to ACE now, and he loses that $60 mil contract with Oz but going to ACE is a requirement for every progamer so its okay
Lets say that we took things from your point of view and delayed Jaedong going to ACE as long as possible. In that time, FA will probably cease to exist, and even if it still did exist, things wouldn't be in a bigger shithole than now. We might see him on the brink of signing with a bigger name team with a fat check for a contract. Now, if he went to ACE at this point, he's going to miss out on the fat lump sum of money compared to if he just went to ACE earlier.
On August 27 2009 10:16 AzureEye wrote: So what about the option of Jaedong going to the army and joining ACE? Is that not possible? Since everyone has to go to ACE at some point, why not do it now?
Makes no sense - if JD is going to keep playing, why not at least max out his money? If JD's going to not get paid, he should be going to college. If he goes to ACE he both doesn't get paid (who knows if he's still this dominant in a year) and doesn't get to go to college ... lose lose if you ask me.
Hello? JD needs to go ACE sooner or later. Why not sooner when he is in a bad situation than go later when he gets a better contract? Yes he needs to max out his money but I'm just saying if he gets ACE over with now, he'll open himself up for better opportunities for the future when this FA thing ceases to exist
I don't know if I'm getting through to you or not
EDIT: Let me simplify things for you.
He's in a shitty situation right now. So if he goes to ACE now, and he loses that $60 mil contract with Oz but going to ACE is a requirement for every progamer so its okay
Lets say that we took things from your point of view and delayed Jaedong going to ACE as long as possible. In that time, FA will probably cease to exist, and even if it still did exist, things wouldn't be in a bigger shithole than now. We might see him on the brink of signing with a bigger name team with a fat check for a contract. Now, if he went to ACE at this point, he's going to miss out on the fat lump sum of money compared to if he just went to ACE earlier.
because he'll probably get worse as time passes? if he joins ACE now then he will probably spend less time at the top, esp. since practice time is probably extremely limited while he's in the military
On August 27 2009 10:16 AzureEye wrote: So what about the option of Jaedong going to the army and joining ACE? Is that not possible? Since everyone has to go to ACE at some point, why not do it now?
Makes no sense - if JD is going to keep playing, why not at least max out his money? If JD's going to not get paid, he should be going to college. If he goes to ACE he both doesn't get paid (who knows if he's still this dominant in a year) and doesn't get to go to college ... lose lose if you ask me.
Hello? JD needs to go ACE sooner or later. Why not sooner when he is in a bad situation than go later when he gets a better contract? Yes he needs to max out his money but I'm just saying if he gets ACE over with now, he'll open himself up for better opportunities for the future when this FA thing ceases to exist
I don't know if I'm getting through to you or not
EDIT: Let me simplify things for you.
He's in a shitty situation right now. So if he goes to ACE now, and he loses that $60 mil contract with Oz but going to ACE is a requirement for every progamer so its okay
Lets say that we took things from your point of view and delayed Jaedong going to ACE as long as possible. In that time, FA will probably cease to exist, and even if it still did exist, things wouldn't be in a bigger shithole than now. We might see him on the brink of signing with a bigger name team with a fat check for a contract. Now, if he went to ACE at this point, he's going to miss out on the fat lump sum of money compared to if he just went to ACE earlier.
because he'll probably get worse as time passes? if he joins ACE now then he will probably spend less time at the top, esp. since practice time is probably extremely limited while he's in the military
That is a popular myth, but that is nevertheless still wrong. Boxer, in an interview soon after he was discharged from the military, stated that it was not the lack of practice time that ACE suffered from, but from the lack of practice partners.
In any case, this FA controversy has proven one thing clearly. The players themselves must step up and form a union, so they can defend their rights. Considering KeSPA`s attitude, it is obvious they have no intention of doing so.
The Finals overall game quality was disappointingly low considering its high-powered matchup — an embarrassment for me and my (now-obviously-) over-optimistic preview article.
No worries, many people (myself included) agreed with your initial article: zvz can be a pretty exciting match up. Yellow just didn't really show up it seemed, while JD was solid.
We'll see how the FA stuff works out. A one year contract with Oz would perhaps not be the end of the world, hopefully by its end new rules will be in place so he can get something remotely close to the recognition he deserves. In the meantime, congrats for the golden mouse, we'll be waiting on the platinum!
On August 27 2009 11:18 iamho wrote: because he'll probably get worse as time passes? if he joins ACE now then he will probably spend less time at the top, esp. since practice time is probably extremely limited while he's in the military
As the other guy said:
On August 27 2009 11:38 Tom Phoenix wrote: That is a popular myth, but that is nevertheless still wrong. Boxer, in an interview soon after he was discharged from the military, stated that it was not the lack of practice time that ACE suffered from, but from the lack of practice partners.
In any case, this FA controversy has proven one thing clearly. The players themselves must step up and form a union, so they can defend their rights. Considering KeSPA`s attitude, it is obvious they have no intention of doing so.
The ACE lineup has changed dramatically since Boxer first got there. If you look at ACE today, they have a decent lineup made up of GoRush, Reach, Casy, Xellos, Anytime, Oversky
I'd say those players are better than Oz's current lineup without Jaedong and make better practice partners.
Therefore, if Jaedong goes to ACE, he can save himself from this lose-lose situation
The Finals overall game quality was disappointingly low considering its high-powered matchup — an embarrassment for me and my (now-obviously-) over-optimistic preview article.
No worries, many people (myself included) agreed with your initial article: zvz can be a pretty exciting match up. Yellow just didn't really show up it seemed, while JD was solid.
I still stand by my main claim that modern ZvZ is an exciting matchup. The over-optimism I was referring to was on Yarnc's skill...as you said, he just didn't show us S-class ZvZ in this match
While it's ultimately out of our hands, there's got to be something that we as fans can do to facilitate such a union--send letters to KESPA, bring the topic up to progamers, send letters to team-houses, etc. Anything better than sitting on an internet forum complaining about it...
(Oh, and Jaedong is awesome, of course. Who seriously though he was going to lose a Best of 5 Z v Z against Yarnc?)
On August 27 2009 10:16 AzureEye wrote: So what about the option of Jaedong going to the army and joining ACE? Is that not possible? Since everyone has to go to ACE at some point, why not do it now?
Makes no sense - if JD is going to keep playing, why not at least max out his money? If JD's going to not get paid, he should be going to college. If he goes to ACE he both doesn't get paid (who knows if he's still this dominant in a year) and doesn't get to go to college ... lose lose if you ask me.
Hello? JD needs to go ACE sooner or later. Why not sooner when he is in a bad situation than go later when he gets a better contract? Yes he needs to max out his money but I'm just saying if he gets ACE over with now, he'll open himself up for better opportunities for the future when this FA thing ceases to exist
I don't know if I'm getting through to you or not
EDIT: Let me simplify things for you.
He's in a shitty situation right now. So if he goes to ACE now, and he loses that $60 mil contract with Oz but going to ACE is a requirement for every progamer so its okay
Lets say that we took things from your point of view and delayed Jaedong going to ACE as long as possible. In that time, FA will probably cease to exist, and even if it still did exist, things wouldn't be in a bigger shithole than now. We might see him on the brink of signing with a bigger name team with a fat check for a contract. Now, if he went to ACE at this point, he's going to miss out on the fat lump sum of money compared to if he just went to ACE earlier.
This is the worst idea ever, Jaedong going to ACE would accomplish nothing, he would just be an out of touch progamer and an out of touch student after he gets out.
His only real choices are to stay in progaming or to study. He is of age right now to go and study so studying after he's done with ACE would be stupid.
On August 27 2009 10:16 AzureEye wrote: So what about the option of Jaedong going to the army and joining ACE? Is that not possible? Since everyone has to go to ACE at some point, why not do it now?
Makes no sense - if JD is going to keep playing, why not at least max out his money? If JD's going to not get paid, he should be going to college. If he goes to ACE he both doesn't get paid (who knows if he's still this dominant in a year) and doesn't get to go to college ... lose lose if you ask me.
Hello? JD needs to go ACE sooner or later. Why not sooner when he is in a bad situation than go later when he gets a better contract? Yes he needs to max out his money but I'm just saying if he gets ACE over with now, he'll open himself up for better opportunities for the future when this FA thing ceases to exist
I don't know if I'm getting through to you or not
EDIT: Let me simplify things for you.
He's in a shitty situation right now. So if he goes to ACE now, and he loses that $60 mil contract with Oz but going to ACE is a requirement for every progamer so its okay
Lets say that we took things from your point of view and delayed Jaedong going to ACE as long as possible. In that time, FA will probably cease to exist, and even if it still did exist, things wouldn't be in a bigger shithole than now. We might see him on the brink of signing with a bigger name team with a fat check for a contract. Now, if he went to ACE at this point, he's going to miss out on the fat lump sum of money compared to if he just went to ACE earlier.
This is the worst idea ever, Jaedong going to ACE would accomplish nothing, he would just be an out of touch progamer and an out of touch student after he gets out.
His only real choices are to stay in progaming or to study. He is of age right now to go and study so studying after he's done with ACE would be stupid.
While I agree to an extent that going to ACE will make a progamer somewhat worse, he needs to go to ACE in the future if he doesn't do it now. Screwing himself over later when he probably will have a much better contract/situation is worse than screwing himself over now when his contract/situation sucks already.Going to ace is still being a progamer, just not fully devoted. If he becomes a student, there's a big chance we might never see him again; while I may speak out of my selfish desires to see his games more, I also strongly believe that he can still be dominant for at least a little bit longer. No progamer should quit progaming in general when they are at the peak of their success. When they reach a slump, I think thats when you need to pick up studies and quit progaming.
So he has two choices available:
1) Go to ACE/army later like you said, and either retire (bad option since he didn't hit slump yet) OR re-sign with Oz with shitty pay and slave hours
2) Go to ACE now, get it over with, (it will also help him retain his skills compared to as if he completely quit progaming), and come back to progaming scene with potential for much better contract/conditions.
On August 27 2009 09:51 Boundz(DarKo) wrote: OMG you played music from Mews new album in the video <3 :D
haha, I was hoping someone might catch that! Just love this album, definitely their best to date and one of my favorites of the year so far. Great band!
fuuuuu- ty for the reminder, have to go get their new album now. I need to see them in Southern California.
how old does JD need to be to negotiate his own contracts? It seems like along with the FA and kespa crap, his parent's claim for triple salary is also some of the problem?
I dont really know JD's current salary, but lets say 70M won? triple that, and it'll be insane. I'm not saying his parents arent doing everything for Jaedong, nor am I trying to defend kespa, (god think of the flame war...) but tripling the salary seems slightly unreasonable, even for jaedong.
the FA breakdown was informative.. ty for explaining that.
Sad but perhaps it takes a big player like Jaedong getting chewed up in the gears of a faulty machine for everyone to finally realize how broken said machine is.
Why would you want to enter pro-gaming under these conditions (in reference to the FA status).
That is not FA. In fact, KeSPA is setting policies that are conter-intuitive
Whereas most flegling sports enforce salary caps (maximum budget) for teams to ensure a rich team doesn't just buy all the players, this policy does the opposite. If you have a sh*t team and you want to buy good players YOU CANT BUY ANY COZ THEY'RE TOO EXPENSIVE.
What a stupid stupid stupid policy. This is why I hate managers, management and management organisations. It's just a bunch of desk jockeys making "off the top of their head" decisions.
What a STUPID STUPID thing to do...
GREAT ARTICLE BTW... !!! Sorry bout the whiney stuff.
On July 11 2009 12:33 MoRe_mInErAls wrote: What a great Power Rank... Though to make it better, you should have said something about his sublime mutalisk control.
On August 27 2009 08:56 JWD wrote: Jaedong's unparalleled micromanagement... displays characteristically sublime muta control. It's JvZ at his best!
On August 27 2009 10:16 AzureEye wrote: So what about the option of Jaedong going to the army and joining ACE? Is that not possible? Since everyone has to go to ACE at some point, why not do it now?
Makes no sense - if JD is going to keep playing, why not at least max out his money? If JD's going to not get paid, he should be going to college. If he goes to ACE he both doesn't get paid (who knows if he's still this dominant in a year) and doesn't get to go to college ... lose lose if you ask me.
Hello? JD needs to go ACE sooner or later. Why not sooner when he is in a bad situation than go later when he gets a better contract? Yes he needs to max out his money but I'm just saying if he gets ACE over with now, he'll open himself up for better opportunities for the future when this FA thing ceases to exist
I don't know if I'm getting through to you or not
EDIT: Let me simplify things for you.
He's in a shitty situation right now. So if he goes to ACE now, and he loses that $60 mil contract with Oz but going to ACE is a requirement for every progamer so its okay
Lets say that we took things from your point of view and delayed Jaedong going to ACE as long as possible. In that time, FA will probably cease to exist, and even if it still did exist, things wouldn't be in a bigger shithole than now. We might see him on the brink of signing with a bigger name team with a fat check for a contract. Now, if he went to ACE at this point, he's going to miss out on the fat lump sum of money compared to if he just went to ACE earlier.
This is the worst idea ever, Jaedong going to ACE would accomplish nothing, he would just be an out of touch progamer and an out of touch student after he gets out.
His only real choices are to stay in progaming or to study. He is of age right now to go and study so studying after he's done with ACE would be stupid.
While I agree to an extent that going to ACE will make a progamer somewhat worse, he needs to go to ACE in the future if he doesn't do it now. Screwing himself over later when he probably will have a much better contract/situation is worse than screwing himself over now when his contract/situation sucks already.Going to ace is still being a progamer, just not fully devoted. If he becomes a student, there's a big chance we might never see him again; while I may speak out of my selfish desires to see his games more, I also strongly believe that he can still be dominant for at least a little bit longer. No progamer should quit progaming in general when they are at the peak of their success. When they reach a slump, I think thats when you need to pick up studies and quit progaming.
So he has two choices available:
1) Go to ACE/army later like you said, and either retire (bad option since he didn't hit slump yet) OR re-sign with Oz with shitty pay and slave hours
2) Go to ACE now, get it over with, (it will also help him retain his skills compared to as if he completely quit progaming), and come back to progaming scene with potential for much better contract/conditions.
How is #2 the worst idea ever? Please explain.
Your option #2 seems far too optimistic to me. It's fairly inevitable that his skill will decrease when he's in the army. Most of the names on that team are has-beens, that probably won't suffice to keep him sharp. Also, I'm assuming the coaching won't be up to par either. Also, the progaming scene will have certainly changed, but in what way is completely unknown. Especially with SC2 on the horizon, you can't very safely say anything about whether the situation will change for the better or not.
His alternative option of going to college isn't a bad way to go. It isn't optimal, but better than waiting around on a second-rate team and hoping for the best in a couple years. It's just way too much of a gamble with his future.
On August 27 2009 13:29 Puremiss wrote: how old does JD need to be to negotiate his own contracts? It seems like along with the FA and kespa crap, his parent's claim for triple salary is also some of the problem?
I dont really know JD's current salary, but lets say 70M won? triple that, and it'll be insane. I'm not saying his parents arent doing everything for Jaedong, nor am I trying to defend kespa, (god think of the flame war...) but tripling the salary seems slightly unreasonable, even for jaedong.
Current salary is 60M and triple 60M = 180M. 180M for top-player isn’t insane in anyway. It’s humble. (And 210M salary for top-player isn’t insane too because the salaries are varied from 200M to 300M.)
all the talk about the FA period has been mostly on JD. one thing that was mentioned and something that doesnt come up often is the extra "fees" (additional money and possibly another player to trade) associated with grabbing another player.
has any other team considered picking up a free agent from another team yet?
Thanks you so much for clarifying all of this JWD! Great job. This is indeed quite a pathetic system. I was one of those looking forward to seeing JD in a different team by sheer curiosity of the outcome (especially if he were paired up with Flash and they could practice 24/7 together :p)
gosh I didnt like how this turned out at all. zvz finals? jeez. cheers to you JWD for doing the an awesome coverage of this event hope you will be back for another league
On August 27 2009 17:59 Simple wrote: has any other team considered picking up a free agent from another team yet?
Five players were uncontracted Free Agents as of the beginning of the bidding period on August 20 (five FA-eligible players did not re-sign with their teams): Jaedong, go.go, HyuN, Shine, and Midas. Of these five, only Go.go received any bids—he ended up at FOX. But note that his original salary with Hite was almost surely below 50M won, so FOX didn't have to pay any penalties to acquire him.
I'm not sure if it's quite right that Oz has no incentive to honor their agreement to pay the original salary to JD. Clearly JD has very high dedication to his team, which we could reasonably suppose contributes to his performing well. If they give a hearty "fuck you" to him by cutting his salary, he may not retain the same attitudes towards his team which of course might affect performance. It would be a classic case of cutting the nose to spite the face.
Great stuff JWD! I enjoyed your summary of the whole Jaedong FA situation, even after I've read the smaller pieces around.
I was also disappointed with Yellow[ArnC]'s performance in the finals. Though I predicted a win from him, it wasn't the fact that Jaedong beat him that bothered me (Jaedong is still my fav Zerg player). It really was just that Yellow[ArnC] didn't put up a good fight.
On August 28 2009 00:45 Axidboy wrote: Surely this is fubar, he is 19 if i'm not mistake, who does he need premision of his parents? would Much need one too ? o.O
Even if I am a Bisu-fan, I believe its only through competition that players can attain their peak potential, and losing a player of JD's caliber is an absolute travesty to Professional Starcraft, both players and fans. I for one am hoping Blizzard's plan with battlenet 2.0 ousts Kespa's reign of terror.
The main thing that I keep asking myself: Ok if Oz doesn't have enough money, but why there isn't *ANY* team out there willing to pay what Lee Jae Dong is worth? He went to FA, anyone could start a negotiation. He's the absolute best in the sport. What the hell is going on?
The outcome is predictable: He'll rejoin Oz. Ok. Now there's a catch: After all this drama, will he continue to rise, to the might clouds where Bonjwas reign, despite payment, despite the problems - or - will the exhausted champion finally give up to the pressure and allow some other rising star to reign?
This will be an interesting piece of BW storyline, that's for sure.
On August 27 2009 09:51 Boundz(DarKo) wrote: OMG you played music from Mews new album in the video <3 :D
haha, I was hoping someone might catch that! Just love this album, definitely their best to date and one of my favorites of the year so far. Great band!
Couldn't agree more. Their old albums still kick ass but this new refreshing one with new lyrics and tunes was an excellent addition. Always loved Mew.
On August 28 2009 00:45 Axidboy wrote: Surely this is fubar, he is 19 if i'm not mistake, who does he need premision of his parents? would Much need one too ? o.O
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I've asked a couple of IRL Korean friends.
You people arguing about JD's ACE military time are forgetting that JD's parents plan to send him to America for schooling, thereby dodging the mandatory military service.
On August 28 2009 04:34 zazen wrote: The main thing that I keep asking myself: Ok if Oz doesn't have enough money, but why there isn't *ANY* team out there willing to pay what Lee Jae Dong is worth? He went to FA, anyone could start a negotiation. He's the absolute best in the sport. What the hell is going on?
I think you need to (re?)read the article...I devote a good part of it to answering this question!
Why doesn't JD talk to the other progamers and they can arrange a boycott and all of them can play in our foreign leagues and teach us their knowledge.
On August 28 2009 04:34 zazen wrote: The main thing that I keep asking myself: Ok if Oz doesn't have enough money, but why there isn't *ANY* team out there willing to pay what Lee Jae Dong is worth? He went to FA, anyone could start a negotiation. He's the absolute best in the sport. What the hell is going on?
If he were to sign with any other time they would have to pay a minimum of 3x his current salary. Which would be >450,000,000 Won. IIRC
On August 28 2009 04:34 zazen wrote: The main thing that I keep asking myself: Ok if Oz doesn't have enough money, but why there isn't *ANY* team out there willing to pay what Lee Jae Dong is worth? He went to FA, anyone could start a negotiation. He's the absolute best in the sport. What the hell is going on?
If he were to sign with any other time they would have to pay a minimum of 3x his current salary. Which would be >450,000,000 Won. IIRC
You’re not correct at all! Current salary is 60M Won. Yes, yes, just 60M. And other team has to pay 60M x 2 + 180M = 300M Won. Current Bisu’s salary ≈ 250M Won. Just compare it.
On August 28 2009 04:34 zazen wrote: The main thing that I keep asking myself: Ok if Oz doesn't have enough money, but why there isn't *ANY* team out there willing to pay what Lee Jae Dong is worth? He went to FA, anyone could start a negotiation. He's the absolute best in the sport. What the hell is going on?
If he were to sign with any other time they would have to pay a minimum of 3x his current salary. Which would be >450,000,000 Won. IIRC
You’re not correct at all! Current salary is 60M Won. Yes, yes, just 60M. And other team has to pay 60M x 2 + 180M = 300M Won. Current Bisu’s salary ≈ 250M Won. Just compare it.
On August 20 2009 17:27 Waxangel wrote:
OZ is said to have offered Jaedong 140,000,000 won in base salary, with bonuses up to 60,000,000 won. Jaedong's mother is said to have requested a base salary in the region of of 180,000,000 won and/or triple his previous salary.
I didn't catch the finals so thanks a lot for the write-up. The highlight video was very well done coming from someone who hasn't seen the games perspective at least.
I know, it would be a large sum of money to switch teams... Kespa rules are ridiculous... but even so, isn't JD worth that insane amount of money? I was just thinking it's odd no teams had the money to interfere, but yes, it makes sense in the end.
On August 28 2009 03:35 Loldts wrote: I for one am hoping Blizzard's plan with battlenet 2.0 ousts Kespa's reign of terror.
How would battle.net 2.0 affect KeSPA?
The way i'm guessing Bnet 2.0 will overpower Kespa is that there are ToC's to agree to to play on Bnet2.0 and that will involve broadcasting the game in any way shape or form and anything related to the game. Simply by using SC2 Kespa will have to agree to w/e rules Blizzard wants to inact. This can only be for the good of the game & players as Blizzard actually care about players and fairness as it improves there profits/status in the industry which is worth a lot to them to maintain.
I think the only thing that will cause a kespa power play is when blizzard take a share of any profits/deals made SC related. This may only be broadcasting revenue deals and such which they deserve as its there game but it may move on to other things like player transfers or something I don't know.
What would be best would be Blizzard making there own players association in korea and totally overriding Kespa leaving Kespa with only Brood War to milk. But I think if such a situation occurs and Kespa threatens or forces players to only play Brood War if they want to play in Kespa controlled things is that the players will forget Kespa and go to where ever SC 2 is being played and any non-kespa controlled Brood War will get instantly bigger and make kespa tournaments irrelevent.
Jaedong should get on another team if he has the opportunity. Having higher skilled practice partners while he's at the top can only make him better. He'll also make other players better, further evolving starcraft. It would be better for starcraft and better for him in the long run. Team loyalty is one thing, but it's all about money in the end, and if his career is in jeopardy then by all means go with another team.
I think if he goes to ACE that will be the end of his dominance. By the time he's out, there will be newer players that will usurp him. As for college, I'm contemplating going back to college at the age of 30. He's what 19? Damn, there is no rush for that. I would say go to college in the states after his starcraft career is over.
Jaedong gets 60 million while Bisu gets 200 - 250 million? Something's not right in this picture. How can another team not be willing to pay Jaedong 200% of his current salary which is only 120 million, still about half of Bisu's salary. How is that not a worthwhile investment? There's got to be some offers out there, but maybe Jaedong is really devoted to OZ. He'll make new friends, he should switch teams.
He's got the starcraft professional scene by the balls at this moment, why let go at the peak of his career? He's a starcraft legend, he's got to use that to his advantage and negotiate a better deal for himself. Hire a lawyer or something... contest and bring about a change in the regulations. Take the lead.
On August 30 2009 04:46 zxc wrote: Jaedong should get on another team if he has the opportunity. Having higher skilled practice partners while he's at the top can only make him better. He'll also make other players better, further evolving starcraft. It would be better for starcraft and better for him in the long run. Team loyalty is one thing, but it's all about money in the end, and if his career is in jeopardy then by all means go with another team.
I think if he goes to ACE that will be the end of his dominance. By the time he's out, there will be newer players that will usurp him. As for college, I'm contemplating going back to college at the age of 30. He's what 19? Damn, there is no rush for that. I would say go to college in the states after his starcraft career is over.
Jaedong gets 60 million while Bisu gets 200 - 250 million? Something's not right in this picture. How can another team not be willing to pay Jaedong 200% of his current salary which is only 120 million, still about half of Bisu's salary. How is that not a worthwhile investment? There's got to be some offers out there, but maybe Jaedong is really devoted to OZ. He'll make new friends, he should switch teams.
He's got the starcraft professional scene by the balls at this moment, why let go at the peak of his career? He's a starcraft legend, he's got to use that to his advantage and negotiate a better deal for himself. Hire a lawyer or something... contest and bring about a change in the regulations. Take the lead.
Wow, what bullshit is this?!?! The most talented player of this era and he has to either not get paid enough or just retire at the height of his glory. His parents need to stfu and OZ has to realize that they are being complete assholes about this situation and pretty much blackmailing (in a way) a great player and person. There needs to be a middle ground to this crap, more money but not what the parents are asking for. If this were American FA then I would understand since everyone tries to run up the salary as much as possible, but it is not.
On August 27 2009 09:51 Boundz(DarKo) wrote: OMG you played music from Mews new album in the video <3 :D
haha, I was hoping someone might catch that! Just love this album, definitely their best to date and one of my favorites of the year so far. Great band!
Couldn't agree more. Their old albums still kick ass but this new refreshing one with new lyrics and tunes was an excellent addition. Always loved Mew.
I'm seeing Mew this Tuesday at the Troubadour in Santa Monica.
I was wrong on the money, it is 200% to the original team plus the salary. 120Million + salary = 180 to 250 Million most likely. That's still less than Bisu. How is that not worth it still? How long do they have to pay this 200% is another question. Not enough details given really.
KESPA should just stay out of it. They are acting like "Big Brother" interfering in private business; Like big government ruining what would otherwise be a thriving economy. Who needs them anyway?
Thus Free Agency has guaranteed an unsatisfying outcome for Jaedong and his fans: either JD will succumb to his insatiable desire for StarCraft greatness and his commitment to Hwaseung and accept inadequate pay and/or an inferior environment by re-signing, or he or his parents will refuse to sign, and professional BW will lose the most talented Zerg player of all time. JWD
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umm are his working conditions that bad in Hwaseung?
On August 27 2009 20:42 Navane wrote: I think going to the states to college might even be the best thing for him. He has a golden mouse, what does he want more?
On August 27 2009 20:42 Navane wrote: I think going to the states to college might even be the best thing for him. He has a golden mouse, what does he want more?
he wants 7 OSLs
He'll only need another two years to rack them up anyway. Not much of a loss. Then can get an edumacation.
EPT![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/SilverskY/BacchusFinalsSplash.jpg)
![[image loading]](/staff/JWD/bacchus_osl_s2/8_2.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/LosingID8/KNF_2008_11_18/FA_4.jpg)
![[image loading]](/staff/JWD/bacchus_osl_s2/8_1.jpg)
cheers to you JWD for doing the an awesome coverage of this event hope you will be back for another league
