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In case there are people not knowing who I am and how I got into the scene, my name is James Song otherwise known as James the Translator or Mal. I became active in the scene last summer thanks to Red Bull and ESL for hiring me as their translator/B-stream host/interviewer at 2014 RBBG circuits and at other events, and good old time pro-gamer friends recommending me to the organizers. With last season’s translating-based works coming to an end after BlizzCon, I have been trying to pursue an old dream of mine, to become a part of creative team in StarCraft eSports scene, through starting Twitch stream and doing what I can online as a start. Some of you may know me from coming up with new contents such as “Ace of Dice”, “MAxeLtoss”, and “MAL presents” series. Some may not have ever heard of me, but have gotten to hear about me through the earlier week’s ‘bet-fix scandal’. I have been advised to ignore the scandal and lay low “until it blows over like all bad things do in eSports”. While this may be the stupidest post ever out of me as “there may be possibilities of consequences of backfires from twisted people on internet calling me I am making this post because I must have something to hide”, the truth is that the players part of “MAL presents” series and I have nothing to hide; and therefore, no reason to do so and you have rights to know. What I can tell you is my story.
Let’s begin with some questions and answers.
1) What is this ‘bet-fix scandal’? – To my knowledge, there are one or two legal sports betting methods in Korea, and eSports is not part of it, or at least not yet. There are people that run and operate illegal websites to make it possible to bet in eSports in Korea. They have been reaching out to streamers to run more “events” on their websites, without telling the streamer, or I at the very least, so that more betting can occur. Once “an event” is live, they fix and rig bets using delays to lure some betters to lose and some betters to win purposely to make money for their “investors”.
2) Should I have known about the existence of shady businesses? – Yes. I was educated on the existence of such acts before I began my streaming ventures. I was told specifically what they are like so I can watch out for scums.
3) Why did I say 3hr 24min into day 2 of “MAL presents: The Beginning” where ToD asks who is this other guy and I responded with “it’s the sponsor, and he wished to watch game live” and so on? – When I was being educated on the subject, I was told to be suspicious over anybody approaching me with their wishes to sponsor a tournament while requesting for broadcast methods out of the norm, such as stream delay to be set over the standard 3-5 minute delay, and intervening with format including player invites with observing. To make myself clear, I came up with the format, I was fully in charge of inviting the players. When my “Sponsor (PHS Company, or PHS)” approached, all he asked was to set 5 minute delay to abide by the standards and that he gets to observe as he is a big StarCraft II fan and it would be cool for him to do so. I did question myself, and after evaluating with someone who is more experienced in streaming, at first. But I came to a conclusion that since I am following all standards it should be okay and be free from such act. The reason why I said what I said when ToD asked was because a) nowhere during being educated on online tournament standards, have I been told absolute 0 tolerance over observing privileges even if the person is a sponsor; b) I want to emphasize that I was abiding by all rules and standards that I know of; and c) the first sponsor asking for it and I thought it would be a cool perk for the sponsor. If I were one, I would love to watch players who I secretly cheered for live, and have the honors to congratulate/cheer him up through PMs.
4) Who are my sponsors? – If you look at “MAL presents: Smallest Map Possible” under Liquipedia, you will find three sponsors: Psistorm Gaming, 2LD, and PHS Company. Psistorm Gaming have been checking my work out constantly, thanking me for such fun and interesting streams, and helping me promote my twitch page. As a token of appreciation, I have included their name in the list of sponsors. 2LD is a lighting design consultant firm owned by me. The stream is very and extremely far from generating any income. To repay myself for the effort and time put into making contents and running the stream, I wanted to utilize the opportunity to promote my 2LD and therefore added as one of the sponsors. The third is PHS Company, a cellular device retailer is what I am told. PHS is the sole monetary sponsor of the tournament.
5) Are the sponsors involved? – Psistorm Gaming, although I have no proof, I 100% doubt they are. 2LD, I can bet you everything I have including my organs that I am not. PHS? I am not going to say if he is or is not, simply because, I do not know fully yet. Have I done background checks before accepting him? Yes. And to my best of abilities. PHS does not physically exist yet as it is a startup company. The sponsor originally approached with DSP-Design, an actual existing architectural firm in India, which he stated that he is a member of investors. I cross referenced what he said about the company with what I could find online. Did I ever think it is weird that a Korean investor is investing in real estate market in East Asia? No. I am quite sure it is common worldwide, if not, it is at least to the Koreans to invest in real estate markets in East Asia. I know many businessmen that invest in such market in that part of the world. While cross-referencing what he said about the company to information available online…well… I am aware about the possibilities that anyone can study a website and just parrot out the notes. But if you were in my shoes, how else would you have verified the legitimacy of the company and his involvement with it? I have done what I could and concluded that he must be a genuine eSports fanatic with an admirable heart. I will reveal and cover PHS in the next point. This one is getting too long already.
6) PHS? – From the people that have raised the issue, nothing additional has come out yet since it was first brought to our attention. And since the toss from Olivia, I went on to begin my own investigation as the several attempts to reach out to the people that are supposedly investigating went without much success. I confronted PHS as soon as I heard about Olivia’s tweets to know the truth. The guy claimed he has never done anything he would be ashamed of and that the “snipe” was a nonsense. (Not saying he is lying or anything, but the response was a very expected one.) A day later, he returns telling me that he had seized all company operation to investigate as his kind deeds for the community and his company’s reputation have been greatly damaged. Another day later, I was notified that his staff found two names, Oh and Lee. Apparently, the two have been sponsoring various tournaments to rig bet rates while impersonating him and that he swears if anybody said that he was involved with such act, it is not him.
7) My response? – My follow up was to try and see if there is any truth behind what he is telling me. So I approached people with the information at hand. It was finally then when people started to disclose name of their sponsor I have been speaking to. The responses I received were very mixed and I do not hold liberty to disclose who said what. Anyhow, I went back to the sponsor and said “you know as well as I do that I am not involved, and if you are clean as you say you are, you should step forward in stating your stance.” What I suggested were a) he release PHS business permit to prove his legitimacy and exactly where money comes from; b) withdrawal of observer privileges and any stream delays and air lobby screen all throughout rest of the tournament; c) opportunity for him to step forward on stream live with cam and mic and say those for himself; and d) that the show continues as planned. a) he agreed with. b) he did as well but said that he needed a day to explain the situation to the investors and evaluate further sponsorships while day 3 in on-going, and that from day 4 and in future he would be totally fine with no delays and revealing lobbies. c) he was very opposed of coming on to the stream due to various reason, but, in a summary, it is not ideal for a businessman to do so? And that if he had ever considered being known for himself, he would have launched tournaments to promote his company on his own and not through someone else. d) he actually added that he does not wish to carry on as scheduled at the moment and requested me to postpone the tournament until investigation is complete.
8) My thoughts and actions? –
a) Do I think my sponsor was involved with such business? I do not know. I have no evidences to say that he did nor do I have any evidences that he did not. I hope he is not involved sincerely, but time will tell once investigation closes. When will that be is also unclear, but I will proceed doing my best to crack down on the case and release any information I obtain once each becomes safe to do so.
b) Even though the monetary sponsor has pulled plug from the tournament mid-way through, I do not wish to postpone tournament as the sponsor requested. I would rather cancel it then to postpone, because you do not deserve unexplained indefinite postpones. I have done no wrong, hence, I believe no reason to “lay low” as advised. I do not have any rights to break promises to people that have wanted to watch the event unless it is absolutely necessary. All players agree with me on this.
c) There will be no available prize pool currently as such money is not something I can just pull out of my pocket. The show will continue as scheduled but with minor changes. Day 3 will be omitted, and instead, be pushed and squeezed all into Day 4.
d) I will be streaming day 3 during scheduled time and as long as I can to answer any questions that may have sprung and I may have missed. (Not the best writer as you may have already told.)
e) All players will be participating except for Journey. With KeSPA’s statement on this subject matter, Journey believes that it will be best if he stayed out until further instruction from the organization. I totally agree and can respect the decision.
f) Day 4 will feature revealing game lobbies to all of the scheduled games minus 3/4th place decider match. The decider match will not be played. All players wish to carry on as scheduled, but this weekend is Lunar New Year, a holiday that reunites families in Korea. Everyone is willing to take few hours away from family reunions to play even if there is no prize pool. But I think it would be selfish to ask them to play all matches.
g) If I ever do hold another MAL presents series, I will do better on background checking the sponsors. Also, there will never be any observing privileges for sponsors including sub-surprise observing opportunities. Lastly, I will try to show lobby screens at every chance possible.
h) I really hope for speedier investigation to catch the bad guys that shit on people’s kind hearts. I have noticed the sudden sparks of reactions and quick death of them when Olivia made a post. I understand that such intolerable businesses will never die. But I hope everyone in the eSports scene including the communities to not forget nor ignore the situation and do every bit possible to drive such misbehaviors away.
i) To those that have knowingly been involved, shame on you. And to those that may have been involved unknowingly, including myself, be in charge. And to those that was not named but know of any details on this subject matter, please step up for the better good.
j) Whether I may have been involved or not, the tournament’s integrity has been damaged and really the ones suffering are the kind players that wished to just help me and win some money at the end. I would like to take this opportunity to say my apologies to my brothers that played for me, to fans and to communities of StarCraft. I acknowledge my fault for not being able to proceed and conclude “MAL presents: Smallest Map Possible” as I had promised. I take full responsibilities over this being listed in the list of “where do the money come from” tweet.
I am disgusted by this event as much if not more than those reading this long post and disappointed with more and diverse reasons from the others that are supposed to be on the “good side” and are the idols of this scene. “MAL presents: Smallest Map Possible” was such an exhaust from the experienced technical difficulties to my integrity being questioned. After Day 4, I will be taking a break from twitch.tv/iamMal to look after my damaged pride of being a long-time StarCraft fan and being involved in eSports from the accusations. I will return when it all heals and when I have found answers to do so. Thank you all for your supports, and I send my sincerest apologies to anybody that I may have let down. I am also sorry for taking so much time out of your day with this stupidly long post. I have so much more to say, but I have reached page 4 single spaced.
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Its nice to hear a statement from you. There is nothing much to do, but to bear these things in mind and be more careful going forward.
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Thanks for the explanation Mal, I don't blame you and I doubt many others do too.
Hope things work out and I for one greatly enjoyed your tournaments and the interviews you had with players. Good luck!
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MAL: You are not to blame in this. We love the fact that you are casting SC2 and using your multilingual skills to further the scene and keep SC2 alive. You were deceived but not your fault, as you did your 'due diligence'. Don't give up and keep casting SC2.
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Good on you to step up and make a public explanation. While it is a sad and unfortunate to cancel the tournaments, as players involved are not getting paid, I say don't delve into this for too long. A number of tournaments were involved as well without knowing the legitimacy of the sponsor. IMO PHS is involved, whether its him or his staff, it doesn't matter.
Take a break and keep doing more tournaments, possibly with other sponsors or crowdfunding?
Personally I really appreciate getting personal interviews with the Korean players as you are able to translate them on the go after matches. I'm sure Tod enjoyed it as well, as I remember he asked quite a number of questions for Parting after the match. LOL
I think this is unique from other online tournaments around.
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Great post, thanks for clarifying. You are doing the right thing, and you come across as very sincere in your post.
I hope you continue to put on events, and I think the community as a whole will come around if you take the steps you have stated you would to ensure shady characters are not able to observe the games. It means you are truly dedicated to SC2 and to putting on tourneys, far beyond any ulterior motives. Best of luck.
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10/10 post Mal. I think I speak for everybody in saying you are a great asset to the community and appreciate your diligence on clarifying this matter. Keep up the good work.
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I think anyone who isn't throwing blind statements around isn't blaming you, Thanks a bunch for showing some awesome games from some of my favorite players, I think you did a really good job on the tournaments 
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Great post, it's good to know that people are investigating the allegations, and I'm sorry for you, it sounds like you put a lot of effort into this tournament so it sucks that you suddenly had such a serious and stressful situation to deal with
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not going to assume the worst here, but the timing of this post is very odd. i realize u were mentioned in olivias posts, but this is almost as if u are throwing all of your sponsors under the bus, and while u admit u knew about "match fixing" allegations before u hosted these tournaments, u make it sound u had no clue that it was possible any of your sponsors would be involved.
i dont know if you are pre-defending yourself because u know you will be mentioned again when the newest article comes out, or are innocent and just trying to clear yourself from this mess, but that is impossible because u are part of it. again the timing of this post is odd. the investigation is already underway and i feel helping the main one out instead of coming to a public forum to claim ur innocence would have been better.
what ever the case we will know the truth soon enough. i dont think anyone here should decide until then
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Yes, the only one suffering are the players. They could have been paid for their play and who exactly would have been hurt? This is NOT match-fixing and I still don't understand why some people have the need to come to every such discussion and even use this term. This does in no way change the outcome of the games and doesn't need to have any connection to the players at all. It's just some people scamming idiots for money.
Is it illegal? yes. Is unethical from them? yes. Should everyone act like it's the worst thing in the world? I don't think so. The people who bet do an illegal thing as well, I just don't feel bad for them that they are being scammed.
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On February 14 2015 17:34 sc2chronic wrote:
not going to assume the worst here, but the timing of this post is very odd. i realize u were mentioned in olivias posts, but this is almost as if u are throwing all of your sponsors under the bus, and while u admit u knew about "match fixing" allegations before u hosted these tournaments, u make it sound u had no clue that it was possible any of your sponsors would be involved.
i dont know if you are pre-defending yourself because u know you will be mentioned again when the newest article comes out, or are innocent and just trying to clear yourself from this mess, but that is impossible because u are part of it. again the timing of this post is odd. the investigation is already underway and i feel helping the main one out instead of coming to a public forum to claim ur innocence would have been better.
what ever the case we will know the truth soon enough. i dont think anyone here should decide until then
Im really sorry but did you read the post? I feel like you missed few sentences here and there. Apologies for making it so long. Points you brought up are mentioned in the text like a) not match fixing. B) I did background checks of the sponsor to best of my abilities c) following rules and standards I would be shutting down if not minimizing the possibilties of such act. D) this isnt my defensive post, I said in which case I ended up not delivering what I promised so the fault is of my own. E) to those investigators ive reached out but didnt have much success. F) I made it clear that im not accusing the sponsor to be on that boat and that I am not stating whether he was or not yet.
Again, this became lengthy. Apologies. But in order to answer points uve mentioned, it was necessary.
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On February 14 2015 18:08 iamMal wrote:Show nested quote +On February 14 2015 17:34 sc2chronic wrote:
not going to assume the worst here, but the timing of this post is very odd. i realize u were mentioned in olivias posts, but this is almost as if u are throwing all of your sponsors under the bus, and while u admit u knew about "match fixing" allegations before u hosted these tournaments, u make it sound u had no clue that it was possible any of your sponsors would be involved.
i dont know if you are pre-defending yourself because u know you will be mentioned again when the newest article comes out, or are innocent and just trying to clear yourself from this mess, but that is impossible because u are part of it. again the timing of this post is odd. the investigation is already underway and i feel helping the main one out instead of coming to a public forum to claim ur innocence would have been better.
what ever the case we will know the truth soon enough. i dont think anyone here should decide until then Im really sorry but did you read the post? I feel like you missed few sentences here and there. Apologies for making it so long. Points you brought up are mentioned in the text like a) not match fixing. B) I did background checks of the sponsor to best of my abilities c) following rules and standards I would be shutting down if not minimizing the possibilties of such act. D) this isnt my defensive post, I said in which case I ended up not delivering what I promised so the fault is of my own. E) to those investigators ive reached out but didnt have much success. F) I made it clear that im not accusing the sponsor to be on that boat and that I am not stating whether he was or not yet. Again, this became lengthy. Apologies. But in order to answer points uve mentioned, it was necessary.
sorry, matchfixing and bet scandal terms have been thrown around like hotcakes i just typed that out on autopilot. yes i meant to say betting scandal.
your wall of text couldve been summarized a lot without it being so lengthy and while you answered questions the situation is still very unclear because even you are saying you do not know the full details yet. so essentially you are adding to the what-ifs and confusion. why not just wait until the report is out? i feel this is unfair to Dragon and the pugh tourney hosts, as well as others. you are excluding yourself from the rest of the list to defend solely for you. if every tourney host came out and said "hey guys, i didnt know 100% my sponsors were "maybe" gamblers, im sorry that i didnt check thoroughly", we would get no where. if that was the point of this post then okay, i accept your apology for being duped as anyone would have. but again, this does not add or help the situation as a whole and it is very random. someone as organized as yourself should know this
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On February 14 2015 18:15 sc2chronic wrote:Show nested quote +On February 14 2015 18:08 iamMal wrote:On February 14 2015 17:34 sc2chronic wrote:
not going to assume the worst here, but the timing of this post is very odd. i realize u were mentioned in olivias posts, but this is almost as if u are throwing all of your sponsors under the bus, and while u admit u knew about "match fixing" allegations before u hosted these tournaments, u make it sound u had no clue that it was possible any of your sponsors would be involved.
i dont know if you are pre-defending yourself because u know you will be mentioned again when the newest article comes out, or are innocent and just trying to clear yourself from this mess, but that is impossible because u are part of it. again the timing of this post is odd. the investigation is already underway and i feel helping the main one out instead of coming to a public forum to claim ur innocence would have been better.
what ever the case we will know the truth soon enough. i dont think anyone here should decide until then Im really sorry but did you read the post? I feel like you missed few sentences here and there. Apologies for making it so long. Points you brought up are mentioned in the text like a) not match fixing. B) I did background checks of the sponsor to best of my abilities c) following rules and standards I would be shutting down if not minimizing the possibilties of such act. D) this isnt my defensive post, I said in which case I ended up not delivering what I promised so the fault is of my own. E) to those investigators ive reached out but didnt have much success. F) I made it clear that im not accusing the sponsor to be on that boat and that I am not stating whether he was or not yet. Again, this became lengthy. Apologies. But in order to answer points uve mentioned, it was necessary. sorry, matchfixing and bet scandal terms have been thrown around like hotcakes i just typed that out on autopilot. yes i meant to say betting scandal. your wall of text couldve been summarized a lot without it being so lengthy and while you answered questions the situation is still very unclear because even you are saying you do not know the full details yet. so essentially you are adding to the what-ifs and confusion. why not just wait until the report is out? i feel this is unfair to Dragon and the pugh tourney hosts, as well as others. you are excluding yourself from the rest of the list to defend solely for you. if every tourney host came out and said "hey guys, i didnt know 100% my sponsors were "maybe" gamblers, im sorry that i didnt check thoroughly", we would get no where. if that was the point of this post then okay, i accept your apology for being duped as anyone would have. but again, this does not add or help the situation as a whole and it is very random. someone as organized as yourself should know this
What do you gain by giving this guy shit? He organises tourneys, provides content, does all sorts of stuff for us. He gets into some trouble (that is mainly made up by others to be a trouble, while in fact it does not even mean much) and explains it publicly and you sound like he has to explain himself particularly to you. Who are you, anyway?
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Everything you say sounds more or less like I (and I guess most other) imagined it went in most of the illegal betting cases. A failry quiet sponsor that may seem suspicious, but not sufficiently so for the organiser to withdraw the tournament (that will hinge on the sponsor in most cases). Hard to say exactly how suspicious the different tournaments organisers were, and it'll be close to impossible to tell an organiser that simple didn't remotely suspect the dodgy sponsor from an organiser that had strong suspicions but chose to go ahead anyway for the tournament. It'll look clear in retrospect, after the scandal being out, but with all the fresh organisers, and I assume epsorts not having things really standardised anyway, there will probably be people on both sides for most tournaments.
That aside, what surprised me most was the several attempts to reach out to the people that are supposedly investigating went without much success. Which makes me wonder who is investigating this, and how. I mean, this Company should definitely be followed up, and it seems like you have names that most likely will be very useful for the investigation. So even if you, OP, don't want to say who is investigating, maybe you can say a bit more about how and when you contacted them, and what, if any, replies you got? I think it is important to be critical of the investigations as well, and hopefully that'll help them to do the right things.
Makes sense?
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Yeah nice one Mal...Alll good my friend...
just continue to be careful and tis all good,,,,thank you for all the content you have put out...much love!
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China6327 Posts
Thanks for the post Mal, there arent many people who believe you are part of the shady shit, it sucks but it is not your fault, hope things end up in your favor.
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On February 14 2015 17:34 sc2chronic wrote:
not going to assume the worst here, but the timing of this post is very odd. i realize u were mentioned in olivias posts, but this is almost as if u are throwing all of your sponsors under the bus, and while u admit u knew about "match fixing" allegations before u hosted these tournaments, u make it sound u had no clue that it was possible any of your sponsors would be involved.
i dont know if you are pre-defending yourself because u know you will be mentioned again when the newest article comes out, or are innocent and just trying to clear yourself from this mess, but that is impossible because u are part of it. again the timing of this post is odd. the investigation is already underway and i feel helping the main one out instead of coming to a public forum to claim ur innocence would have been better.
what ever the case we will know the truth soon enough. i dont think anyone here should decide until then
There's no legal investigation being done so far, as the accused or the victims most likely not even in the US.
Blizzard can only do so much, same with others like R lewis, Huk, etc
Korean police would have a hard time to do any investigation if any, as the organizers are not from Korea.
That's why Kespa can only mentioned a warning for online tourneys.
What article coming out are you talking about?
Bottom line is it's his right to give explanation and defend himself if he chose to.
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Olivia certainly could have handled the release better considering how it would hurt small time streamers and content creators and reputations those who were unknowingly involved.
And especially when accuser is one of the known figures and the "leader" of the community, she certainly should have done her all beforehand and reached out to the accusations privately before accessing the situation instead of pointing her finger at public first hand and smearing on reputation without any concrete conclusion has been resolved.
The victim of this whole thing are those whose names were tarnished by being associated and the players who participated whose reputation were under question equally.
It reminds me of people who were accused of rape but by time they cleared their name, the damage was already by far done.
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Very impressive you made this post. This is the kind of transparency I like to see in E-sports.
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EPT
