Slayers to disband - Page 124

Translated from http://s.163.com/12/1018/19/8E4DAQ2L00314D0E.html
Original article at http://www.thisisgame.com/board/view.php?category=13438&id=1315548

This is the first response of Coach Won, and it comes before the response of Kim Ga Yeon with the emails.

Bolding this because few people ever reads what's above the translations lol. I hope this is properly translated, but I've [bracketed] the parts which I am especially unsure of. I apologise if any parts are not properly translated, and please feel free to correct me on any part. Thank you.

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Hello everyone. I am Won Jong Wook from ESports Federation. Firstly, I want to apologise for all the bad news.

1. NASL Related Matters

During NASL Season 2, it was the NASL side which requested a deposit, and a boycott arose as a result. They expressed that they couldn't trust the teams and players from Season 2 onwards, which is why the deposit for Season 2 was much higher than the deposit for Season 1. But at that time, when our players took part in tournaments like MLG and IPL, they were supported in terms of their expenses. Hence, if we allowed this action from NASL to just proceed, other tournaments might end up also using this system from NASL.

To protect the rights and interest of our players, we gathered all the head coaches for a meeting, and decided not to take part in NASL, which required all the players to submit a 500 USD deposit. To be more detailed, if NASL did not remove this requirement of a deposit, and treat players better, we will not take part. This decision was approved by all the teams, including Slayers, and after that, we've been working hard to work and negotiate with NASL.

During this negotiation process, we couldn't reach an agreement, and there were a lot of delays. In terms of the translation issue, we got the help of GomTV, and we even got an agent to help in the negotiations. But even after a long time, the negotiations couldn't come to a close.

But we still persevered in the negotiations, and while we were waiting for the response, Slayers and TSL went and took part in NASL Season 3. This produced some problems.

We were certainly putting in a lot of effort to get the best results from the negotiations with NASL, and of course, we weren't able to achieve a satisfactory result in the end, but I don't think it's right to deny that effort.

2. Taking part in NASL Season 3

After several failed negotiations with NASL, the qualifiers of NASL Season 3 begun. Most of the teams were still expressing that they'd wait for the other party to guarantee the rights of the players before they would take part. But in spite of this effort from many of the teams, Slayers and TSL suddenly decided to take part in the tournament without discussing it with us. Afterwards, I got to know about it, and I expressed my disappointment at the actions of the two teams.

3. Restrictions on practising

Regarding the issue of taking part in NASL Season 3, the teams came up with the idea of everyone not helping them practise because Slayers and TSL ignored all the efforts the teams put in to try to protect the rights of the players. There is one thing I need to make clear, and that there wasn't any federation or ideas of an association at this point in time. We just occasionally have meetings of the head coaches where we'd raise our opinions and suggestions. Also, regarding the practise issue, we did communicate the decision to Slayers and TSL.

TSL immediately tried their best to dispel the misunderstandings of this incident, and explained their situation to all the teams, and decided after that to work together with everyone. [But with Slayers there wasn't a proper response, and there wasn't any requests for any discussions. The head coaches of all the teams were also hoping that they would give an explanation so they could have an explanation for their players.] As a result, we started putting in place the practice restrictions from 10 March to 27 March after NASL Season 3 ended.

Putting all the reasons aside, to put a restriction on the practising of the players was indeed a thoughtless act, and so on behalf of all the head coaches, I want to to sincerely apologise to everyone in Slayers

4. Practice issues afterwards

After the period of time mentioned above ended, the federation players were allowed practise freely with the Slayers players. The statement that we had restrictions on practising for 10 months is not true. From last year to this year, you can see the Slayers players saying that there were other players who were practising with them.

We think that practising with one another and training is a right that all teams have. Whether it's in the past or in the present, most of the teams mainly practise amongst themselves. Currently, the players would find other players to practise with them as an extension of the basic internal practice that they have within the team. This is the same for the Slayers players.

To take our team as an example, Parting, Life, and Hack etc. all frequently practise with the Slayers players. This part can be proven by the interviews, replays, match records of the players from the various teams.

5. Regarding the issue of ostracising

All our teams never once mentioned or agreed to ostracise Slayers. We certainly did not forbid our players from being friends with their players. Even though it's impossible for relationships to be good amongst all the teams, players would form good relationships because of taking part in foreign tournaments or practising on battlenet.

Regarding this, the fans of foreign tournaments and fans of eSports can get proof from the Starcraft 2 players. The federation, up till now, doesn't understand why they'd say we isolated them. From the start of the discussions, even though they didn't want to join us, we would often convey all sorts of important information to Slayers, and also frequently invite them to take part in the discussions amongst the head coaches. But it's Slayers which didn't accept these suggestions, and them which hold a lukewarm attitude towards us.

[Kim Ga Yeon once told me when we met at the coffee shop outside the KBS building at Yeouido that she still wanted to carry on her career as a celebrity, and that she'd be taking care of the team when Boxer was a playing coach. Furthermore, Coach Boxer (Still a player then) already mentioned getting rid of the team when he decided to give up being a player.] At the time when they said they wouldn't join the federation, they also said they wouldn't join any associations, but would continue standing on a neutral position.

Also, Kim Ga Yeon said that they never collected any transfer fees from the players. But I came to know from a few teams in the country, that when they were in discussions for the transfers, high prices were always demanded, and as a result it was always difficult to carry on with the discussions. The people in the industry all know this.

But Kim Ga Yeon insisted that she never did such a thing, and that they released their players without conditions and that it's for their players. The transfer fee is something which is transacted after proper negotiations by both parties, but Kim Ga Yeon always asks for really high prices. Doesn't that arise from one's own greed?

Furthermore, she said that she still keeps the negotiation details from 2 years ago, and is able to produce evidence at any time. This just makes people feel that she'd been intentionally preparing for such a day, and it just gives a bitter feeling.

[Because of this incident, what people are seeing is not just which head coach has problems with Slayers, but that everyone has a feud, and this is really disappointing.] The head coaches and the players for all the teams are all free regarding who they wish to be acquainted with, and this isn't something we can change. How can one command the hearts and minds of other people? I need to emphasize once again, that the federation never once instructed or encouraged the ostracising of Slayers.

We have feelings too. This string of events, especially regarding the restrictions towards practice, makes us feel really disappointed. To prevent something similar from happening again in the future, we will definitely be really careful.

For all these bad stuff, I apologise again. As the person involved in this incident, I want to present my deepest apologies to the fan on behalf of the teams.

[I hope that everyone can soothe their anger with an open mind], and continue supporting the players and teams of Starcraft 2.

Thank you.

"If we really wanted to ostracize SlayerS, we could have excluded them very thoroughly, but that's not the case at all. Instead, we did a lot together, and worked to treat them the same as other teams even though they were not part of the federation... ...there was a time where [players were] ordered not to practice [with SlayerS players], but it was only for a short period. There is no ban now. At the time, SlayerS kept acting selfishly, so the teams had no choice but to cooperate and penalize them."

Understanding how Asian culture works, it is very probable that the majority of people dissuade others into believing a singularity is a problem rather than themselves. As a simple example of this, just think of Naniwa when he went to his first pro gamer house. He went and only practiced. He wanted to get as good as he possibly could. This pushed him further away from the very important socially dependent culture Korea has. Thus, when certain times were assigned to go out, Naniwa wasn't even told about them. He literally would be at the house all alone because of no communication, yet to everyone else, it seems as if it was Naniwa's fault for being bad mannered. His intentions were spot on, but culturally he just got shafted hard. (Note: I'm not saying this is "good" or "bad", just that it's how the majority of socially acceptable normalities are dictated in Asian areas.)

Because of this, I could very easily see Jessica being completely truthful yet still being unaccounted. The only basis they seem to have against her is that she simply would not cooperate with others outside of slayers because she thought it would be detrimental. Saying others are a detriment to your team could in turn cause issues.

With that said, it could be very possible that not everything is "exactly" as it happened as there is obviously underlying bias written in here that will be weeded out. But in contrast to what some may be saying, I think I'll side with Jessica for the majority of the points. For her to be able to professionally withhold this much of the information that came out in this post instead of slandering players, as the community makes her out to do, I can only have respect for her holding it in until now. Will there be some mucky things that may be released as rebuttals against her that have some weight? I assume so, but in the end I think she seems to have done the best she possibly could have with what she was given and yet it all still fell apart. Quite sad for me as I always held SlayerS up to being the ideal team. A top competitor, a legend creator, yet, a family.