On December 12 2013 03:06 Juicy Orange wrote: SC2 leading e-sports! Hopefully other progamers follow!
Pro LoL players have been recognized as athletes by the US for some time, just sayin. That precedent might actually be the reasion why he got it.
It is 100% the reason why he got approved for a visa. Riot did a lot of the ground work and explaining competativd gaming to the USCS. Not to take away from his efforts, but I don't think it would have been possible without all the effort Riot put in.
On December 12 2013 03:08 csn_andrew wrote: Hi guys, if the op could add our official press release with violet's comments to the op would be much appreciated.
Lmao viOLet said: "I’m so super exciting about that..."
That's so viOLet, always saying "I'm exciting". Damn I love him.
Thank you Andrew for helping him so much!
You've got to admit that he is very exciting right now ^^ So will we just see him at WCS AM and other american tournaments or can he travel abroad to EU tournaments too?
He was trying to qualify for Dreamhack Winter anyways so it seems that he will be attending EU tournaments too. I don't really see why he wouldn't be allowed to travel to EU.
We're probably going to see viOLet a lot next year
On December 12 2013 02:52 The_Templar wrote: This is awesome news, are other AM players like Polt recognized as athletes too?
Polt is in the US on a student visa as he is studying at Texas A&M or something like that.
Polt is actually studying at the University of Texas at Austin, not A&M. That's actually a pretty big difference among us Texans, so don't go around mixing the two up if you're ever down here
Great news for Violet and for ESPORTS as a whole. Really excited to hopefully see way more of Violet in 2014 than we did in 2013. Great player, and a really admirable personality.
In addition to rounding up support within the industry, CSA had to put in hours of additional work. In letters to immigration officials, the agency had to provide an overview of Kim's four-year-long professional career, including translated Korean interviews and virtually every article ever written about him. The application added up to more than 500 pages in total.
that's pretty crazy o_o.... in a good way.
Seriously. HUGE props to everyone (probably mostly Andrew?) that slogged through all the red tape necessary to get Violet through the system. Really impressive that they made it happen.
One thing I don't get is why did violet drop off the face of the earth and not attend any euro tournaments? It seems he would have no trouble entering europe during this time.
"Not everyone CSA approached assisted in the process. Major League Gaming, the largest independent eSports league in North America, declined, saying they don’t endorse visa work that’s not directly related to their own events. (MLG no longer runs StarCraft 2 and Kim is not attending an MLG event in the near future.)"
This company has really started to let me down. I've been following their amazing work since 2004 and the good old Halo days, but with a lot of their recent moves it's clear they've lost any interest in building a real community or fans of the MLG brand. They didn't choose to assist him because he isn't directly related to their own events? I'm sure you would have said otherwise during the 2012 spring arena 2 which Violet won... and probably gave you many a viewer number for... :/
In any case, this is fantastic news for Violet. He's an amazing guy with an amazing personality. I hope he continues to play for a long time :D
On December 12 2013 02:52 The_Templar wrote: This is awesome news, are other AM players like Polt recognized as athletes too?
Polt is in the US on a student visa as he is studying at Texas A&M or something like that.
Polt is actually studying at the University of Texas at Austin, not A&M. That's actually a pretty big difference among us Texans, so don't go around mixing the two up if you're ever down here
Thank you someone actually knows what they're talking about! Polt would never go to some terrible school like Texas A&M, UT Austin is where it's at! Austin >>>>>>>>>>>>>> College Station like... not even close.
BUT anyways, I'm really happy for Violet and I'm glad SC2 pro's are officially recognized as athletes and can now compete and obtain visa's that they need, as well as esports pro's in general. Hopefully now the NA scene might see some players coming over for good to avoid the military service??
And as far as MLG goes and not helping out, that's really a douche move. I understand it's a business, but it really would've taken minimal effort to help out a little, and I'm glad they reported that they didn't help out and they get the bad press they deserve about this. It's not like sc2 and sc2 players didn't help MLG get to where they are now, the least they could do is help when one of their own is in need. If they're trying to be a reputable company in the esports scene, it might behoove them to step up in times like these instead of selfishly refusing when it's not directly associated with one of their events.
for all the hardwork and fans violet has, he definitely deserves to be recognized as the athlete that he already is.
wp violet, you earned it by not only practicing extensively in the game, but also not being afraid to communicate to an audience in a language you didn't understand and making it a commitment to improve on that.
if there's one success story that the SC2 scene can be proud of, it's the impact it's made on a virtually unknown korean zerg that made him a fan favorite.
On December 12 2013 04:31 RenZ wrote: so he dodged his military service permanently or just temporary?
I don't think he dodged it at all.
I think the comment was meant to say that if he didn't get a visa to go to the US, he would stop playing SC2 and instead do his military service.
He would potentially dodge his military service if he eventually became a US citizen, but I believe you have until age 30 to do your service, so if at the end of his 5 years he goes back to Korea aged 28, he would then do his service.
On December 12 2013 04:31 RenZ wrote: so he dodged his military service permanently or just temporary?
Likely temporarily. He's not becoming a US Citizen with this, just acquiring the rights to earn a living in the USA as an athlete. Who knows what, if any, rules and restrictions the South Korean government has involving something like this.
EPT
