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51574 Posts
NB: This is just speculation from myself. The following is simply my thoughts on the looming situation that may occur.
With the recent announcement of an affiliate of the Woongjin group (owners of Woongjin Stars) declaring bankruptcy, rumours have circulated amongst the Korean community that in order to keep the company afloat, they will have to cut their support of their progaming team, Woongjin Stars.
Woongjin Stars was formed in 2001 as Hanbit Stars, operated by Korean Starcraft publisher Hanbitsoft. Fostering talents such as Reach, HOT-Forever, Sync, Junwi, Control and Kingdom, they won the 1st round of the 2004 SKY Proleague, upsetting the heavily favoured SK Telecom T1 in front of a crowd of 100,000 people at Gwangahli beach in Busan. In September 2008 after the collapse of Hanbitsoft, Woongjin was announced by KeSPA to become the new owners of the team. Woongjin would continue to create talented players such as Free, Soulkey and ZerO, but have not yet since reached a Proleague final since Woongjin took over.
In normal circumstances, KeSPA would normally entertain offers from other companies in a bid for the team to continue operating under a new owner, but with failed efforts in finding new owners for both eSTRO (disbanded 2010) and the current Team 8, the most likely course of action would be a full disbandment of the team.
This would make the upcoming Proleague season - the first full Starcraft II season - look bleak, with Air Force ACE already announcing they would disband once their last member is discharged from the military. Unless new members join the KeSPA committee or a new owner is found for the Stars team, we will most likely see a 6-team Proleague with KT, SKT, STX, CJ, Samsung and the KeSPA-ran Team 8.
You can read more about the impending collapse of the Woongjin group here and here.
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That's horrible. If they did disband would that mean for the next Proleague they would have to let GSTL teams participate (They'd have 7 teams and I'm unaware of a format that could make that work).
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This is not good 
They need to make a deal with GOM to have GSTL and Proleague have all the teams together.
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Wow this is such a huge news...
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Pardon my ignorance, but I thought KeSPA owned the teams, but each team had their sponsors which in this case would be where they got their name?
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Not even Team 8 got a sponsorship, so looks like Team 8 gonna disband soon as well.
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Wow. Didn't even know Woongjin went bankrupt. Surprised Stars even lasted this long with their company in such dire straights. I feel bad for the Stars fans but all the relevant players will be picked up by somebody I'm sure.
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Let this not be true, please : (
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you want more team? invite ESF,
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United States15275 Posts
Oh no, this is terrible.
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Someone save them
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Well now looks like a good time to allow GOM teams play in pro league although the league would be too big then. So id say having a play off or something to get in would do.
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nooooo
MVP quick give all your winnings to your former team
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On September 29 2012 01:48 skyflyfish wrote:
you want more team? invite ESF,
Things don't work that way.
I heard about the bankruptcy and figured they would start cutting things like this.
Here we go.
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WAT no way T.T
well there is still hope... the Stars just have to align first
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Canada13405 Posts
Well, there goes that whole exclusivity contract deal. If they keep the kespa exclusivity contracts it might blow up in their face should a bunch of teams lose sponsorship.
This to me seems to be the one major downfall of Kespa teams. They appear to have one major primary sponsor, and without that sponsor they will fall apart. Great for the telecom teams, their sponsors crashing would mean a LOT more to worry about than the loss of a pro team.
However, the other teams like team8 and woongjin, they can't last without sponsors.
The SC2 revolution is gonna be crazy in Korea. With established SC2 teams not all having huge results or sponsorships, and some of the BW turn SC2 teams seemingly floundering as a continuation of the sponsorship issues for BW, we will see a bunch of teams paring down and consolidating soon.
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That would be shitty news indeed.
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Damn.. hope Team 8 doesn't face a similar fate.
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fate is playing into eSF and GOM's hands, it seems...
KESPA power is eroding quickly and eSF is playing hardball.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/la9Zf.jpg)
