Slayers to disband - Page 204

TIG: jessica revealed the state of slayers in the past interview. Have you seen it yet?
Mma: yes, however there are a lot of distortions in that article. But this does not mean that the players are right and Jessica is wrong. I just wish that people would look at this objectively and not just from one point of view.

TIG: you have a contract with slayers until November 6th. Can you explain us the contract signing process?
Mma: before signing the contract, Jessica said that she made it similar to a celebrity (actors/actresses) contract. At first, she told us that the only way to get a sponsor was to let the potential sponsors know that ‘we have play x, y and z’. So kimdongju (ganzi), kimsangjun (puzzle), kimdongwon (ryung), yangjunshik (Alicia) along with myself signed the contract. As mentioned before from Jessica, it was purely for the purpose of securing a sponsor and she made us at ease with that statement, and the contract was signed. Some players that signed did not even bother to read the contract and trusted Jessica’s words.

TIG: what was the incident involving manager J?
Mma: I think there needs to be an explanation about manager J. manager J was an employee of corporation R, who were sponsors of Slayers. At first, he dropped by the team house to say hello now and then, but his visits increased in frequency and the guys at the team house got friendly with him. He was similar to us in age and was pretty easy to talk to, so he was popular with the younger guys as well. Boxer liked soccer so we played it a lot within the team. Manager J started playing with us after a while and he was pretty good, so he was our team’s ace (for soccer). When we bought soccer jerseys as a team, we even bought one for him as well.

But a few months later, manager J left his company. Since he was jobless, he came to our team house more often and Jessica saw fit to give him access to the team’s facebook and twitter account since he was fluent in English and german. He had a charming personality, so after time he eventually became in charge of the foreign business, which was previously Cella’s work.

At the same time, Jessica said not to worry or even to ask about the sponsors. We were contracted with corporation R at the time when we got to know manager J, so jessica’s statement of the 2 month thing is wrong (not sure what he’s referring to here). The incident started at this time.

TIG: could you explain more about this incident
Mma: it was right before my code s match versus alive (feb, 15th, 2012). I heard something shocking from manager J that Jessica was forwarding my potential personal sponsor to boxer. I couldn’t believe it. I got confused but I had no one talk to. My mind was heavily burdened for the weeks afterwards

After much turmoil, I confessed to crank about my feelings. We talked a lot. Crank was also sad because he couldn’t do anything for me, so it was hard on him as well. As this went on, I got more stressed and even thought of quitting the game. If I said this to Jessica, I thought manager J would get the blame too so I did not talk.

After, my performance fell and I just focused on the game more since there was nothing I could do about it. Crank suggested that I go talk to boxer as he would know more from a player’s viewpoint. So I talked to boxer. Boxer knew this was dangerous waters so he checked around for a few days and told me that there was nothing of that nature (potential personal sponsor) going on.

Jessica did not release any details about our sponsors so I had no choice but to trust manager J regarding this matter because he was a former employee of corporation R. at the same time, I lost faith in Jessica because of how she treated the players and the arguments she picked with other players (on other teams).

As the manager J incident was wrapping up, boxer and Jessica gathered all the players and said ‘if there is anything we did wrong, it was letting manager J come into the team house, so let’s try harder and get the team house atmosphere up again’. However, it was already too late. There was no way to turn back the situation because the players were already too deeply wounded.

In this environment, I lived at the team house for a few months. Crank saw the seriousness of this situation and appealed individually to boxer and Jessica, but nothing changed. In contrast, Jessica was saying things like ‘the team is like this because of mma’ and pointing the blame towards me. Then the contract annulment thing blew up.

TIG: by contract annulment, you mean the contract between the team and players?
Mma: yes, Jessica said in her interview that there was no splitting of the prizes from individual events but told us to split the money because of ‘coach ryu’s wages and player maintenance funds’ at the time, cella received some portion of player’s foreign prize winnings (less than ~$1000 USD). Jessica said to give a portion of the winnings from foreign events. So as agreed on the contract, we sent a portion of the winnings to an account Jessica provided. After this, nothing changed still.

Boxer and Jessica almost never came to the practice room and we were managed by the coaches only. We still had to take public transportation to get to and from the venues and the team house. Even in the winter, we had to commute between gimpo and mokdong (about 50~85min by bus/subway) and we realized that this affected our conditions for the matches that we had to play that day. After discussing this with the players, we also noticed that there were no differences between the contracted players and the non-contract players and came to a conclusion that this would not be good for the team, so we decided to bring up the issue to boxer and Jessica.

The reply that came back was ‘we cant give the car to cella’ and ‘coach ryu has no license, so he can’t drive at all’. Crank couldn’t stand this, so he volunteered to drive and drove the players to the gomtv studios. Crank was part of the motorized military before, so he had plenty of driving experience.

There was no change and the players’ discontent grew. I asked coach ryu if he had received any wages and he told me that he did not receive anything until February of 2012. Furthermore, when cella accompanied me to mlg in the states, he had to pay for the roaming charges on his cell phone even though Jessica promised to pay for it. Coach ryu asked Jessica about the promised wages and was told that ‘we don’t collect money from the players, you go collect it for yourself’.

About an hour after Jessica told ryu the aforementioned statement, she called me and crank to her house. Boxer and Jessica told me everything and me and crank talked of the discontent that we had. At the end, Jessica said that ‘lets nullify the contract right now’ and asked if we wanted to rip our contracts, but I didn’t want to. We were returned the money that we paid after a week.

TIG: this contrasts with jessica’s statement that a contract was remaining. When did you verify this?
Mma: we trusted Jessica. But this was our mistake. After Jessica said ‘lets rip the contracts’, she gathered all the players and said ‘I wont hold you back if you want to leave the team’.

At this time, the players that wanted to go to a foreign team (ganzi, taeja) had their contracts nullified. After a few days, we asked if the contract was really nullified. However, Jessica said that the contract was only nullified for those that wanted to leave the team on that day only. After hearing this, the players were very disappointed at Jessica and I was hurt by jessica’s duplicity.
*note by editor here says taeja was not in a contract with slayers.

TIG: do you have anything to say about your relegation to B-team in july?
Mma: it was right before the GSTL match. After the aforementioned events, I needed to clear my mind so I went out on Saturday. I cleared my mind and returned. the game was coming up, so the only thing I was thinking was about winning. Jessica stated that I did not return to the team house, but this is false. I did all my tasks, then left on Saturday night and returned on Sunday morning.

After returning, ryung told me what boxer said: ‘mma is like a cancer cell, so I have to quarantine you from him’. After hearing this, I lost all passion for preparing for the GSTL and the team. The thought that ran through my mind was ‘im trying so hard for my team, but this is what they think of me’ and I despaired.

TIG: what kind of communication went between you and boxer?
Mma: boxer told me that I was relegated to the b-team so I should go home. I wondered why I got relegated and did not understand. I wish boxer and Jessica would have told me what I did wrong, but there was no communication between us and I was relegated.

After hearing this from ryung, I packed my bags and told boxer ‘im leaving so you don’t need to relegate me’. Boxer said that I was under a contract so I couldn’t leave on my free will. This made my emotions run high and I told him that this is a slavery contract.

About this statement, I am very sorry. The slavery contract was the contract between the individuals of the management and me, not between the team and me, so even if I transferred, I had to give a portion of the tournament winnings to Jessica. There was silence for 10 minutes and boxer said ‘we do things our way’ and the conversation ended. The next day, the article regarding relegation came out.

TIG: after the article came out, Jessica came to the interview for code a (july 25th)
Mma: I met with Jessica and asked ‘how could you write an article like this’. i asked ‘did I even ask for a transfer to a foreign team?’ and the reply that came back was ‘I’ll rewrite the article if you want’. I was flabbergasted. She then explained me the terms of the ‘slavery contract’. ‘this is nothing. In the entertainment industry, the standard for a contract is 5 or 10 years’

I wondered the relevance of bringing up terms of contracts in the entertainment industry. After, Jessica said that she will not receive any statements about the relegation and cut off questions from reporters. So the interview went out, but it was only about the game itself. I had a little bit to say at the end about my current situation and feelings to the fans.

TIG: you told Jessica you wanted to leave twice
Mma: yes, that’s right. The first time was when everyone at the team house was having a hard time because of the incident with manager J and I could not stand the management badmouthing me so I did not want to be a part of the team anymore. However there were those that helped me out a lot before and I was thankful, so I did not tell them of the current events (I think he’s referring to manager/coaches of other teams). instead, I said I wanted a transfer to a foreign team. Shortly afterwards, talks began with slayers and a foreign team (TL). During this, a lot of facts were hidden from me (by Jessica) so my mistrust grew even more. So I said I wanted to leave the team for a second time

TIG: Jessica said that when you went to foreign events, no one (other Koreans) said hello to you and ostracized you while badmouthing Jessica. Is this true?
Mma: I went to more foreign events than any other members of my team. So I was able to hear bad rumors of Jessica from other people. Although I heard these, I respected her so I was very objective about them. I told Jessica of these, and Jessica said wistfully that she would like to become friendly with other teams as well.

Even after this, there was no change and Jessica even said ‘this is how we don’t get ignored by other teams’. I said that there were other methods of going about this and she said that ‘you have to be vocal to be heard’. Afterwards, I did not tell Jessica what other people thought of her.

TIG: can you tell us of hidden facts regarding the transfer
Mma: afterwards, I was able to find out about the trade negotiations. An incredibly large sum of money was demanded for me even though I had 3 months left on my contract. The talks broke down. This was because of the absurd transfer fee and other inquiries were made to teams that I didn’t even want to go to.

After a month, I was able to verify that in some negotiations, my transfer fee was zero. This change in behavior in Jessica is what ultimately made boxer move to SKT1.

TIG: in april, boxer stated that he stopped playing because of the players. What do you think of this statement
Mma: I think the biggest reason why boxer stopped playing is because of jessica’s constant interference in and out of the game. Boxer likes to focus and practice. Although he gets angry after a loss, he endures it and continues playing. In situations like this, calls kept coming about unimportant stuff and he sometimes complained that he couldn’t practice because of Jessica.

Because of this, the atmosphere in the team house fell. Jessica likes to read various community sites and berated boxer by saying things like ‘why did you do this’, ‘why didn’t you use this strategy’. Overall, the meddling was pretty severe.
Boxer sometimes said that he wanted to quit gaming because of all the meddling. Because of this, boxer and Jessica argued a lot. During this time period, an article was published saying that boxer’s shoulder conditions were not good. Although his shoulders were not very good from previous times, I think the main reason for boxer’s quitting as a player is because of Jessica.

From a player’s perspective, the interview with Jessica about the team’s disbanding seems to be directed wholly at the players. She fails to acknowledge that she had faults with her managerial skills and tries to blame all of it on us. Therefore, boxer did not lose his will to play because of us.

TIG: Jessica said that mma has no desire to move to a kespa team or play in proleague
Mma: when I was doing well, Jessica said that when slayers could negotiate with kespa teams in the future, she would sell me to SKT1 for a large amount of money. She said that skt1 is the best terran team and wished that I would do better than fantasy (when he transfers).

Before I started playing sc2, I was a practice student in skt1. I was in poor health there. When I played more than 25 games a day, my index finger would start to get paralyzed and my whole hand would hurt. So I only played about 20 games and I spent the rest of the time watching replays and VODS, as well as researching. Back then, the proleague system was a place where I couldn’t do well physically. Somehow, this statement got blown out of proportion and I do not understand this.

TIG: anything else you want to say?
Mma: I want to thank boxer and Jessica for making me a famous player as well as giving me an opportunity in slayers. However, the events that occurred up until now have affected the team in a very bad way and I have also gotten hurt. I want to apologize to boxer and Jessica about these events.

However, I want to state that jessica’s interview in many ways were distorted and a lot of players received unnecessary blame for it. That’s why they agreed to interviews. I apologize for making the fans worry so much. I would also like to apologize for any wrongdoings done by the plays, on behalf of the players. Again, I am very sorry.

original article: http://www.thisisgame.com/board/view.php?category=13439&id=1319677

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