EPT
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Pholon/odds.png)
In this issue:
FINALLY an update on KeSPA - Blizzard lockdown
Blizzard Shenanigans
Savior's apology
Other Odds and Ends.
Note: These are write ups based on the news sources linked. They may not be literal translations.
Department of Culture to KeSPA: Go into negotiations recognizing Blizzard's Intellectual Property Rights
The Korean Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism and Korean Creative Contents Agency and entered as arbitrators of the Starcraft Intellectual Rights discussion. The negotiation committee will be recreated through the Department of Culture's arbitration, and through recognizing the Intellectual Property rights of Starcraft, the negotiation is expected to speed up quite considerably.
Negotiations between KeSPA/OGN/MBC and Blizzard/Gretech has been rather silent, with no news coming out since the supposed parties opening negotiations with Gretech. According to firms related to the Department of Culture on the 28th, KeSPA will be represented by a member from the board of directors who represents the progame teams, and enter the negotiations as an observer and make up the negotiations committee with the creative contents agency. According to etnews, the KeSPA executive office will not be a part of the negotiations, but rather take a more secretarial role. The committee members will be made out of representatives from SKT, KT, and Woongjin, one representative from the KeSPA executive office, and one representative from the Creative Contents Agency.
A personnel related to the Department of Culture said that "We have told KeSPA to recognize the intellectual property rights and go into negotiations", and that "the executive office needs to step back and enter negotiations centered on the board of directors". This reflects Blizzards' wishes that they no longer wish to negotiate with KeSPA's executive office. The negotiations are expected to now involve representative of the progaming teams and the Creative Contents Agency.
A personnel from the Creative Contents Agency stated that they are "entering as arbitrators", and that "Because there needs to be a sponsor for the Proleague, we hope to end the negotiations before August". On the other hand, KeSPA's general manager Kim Cheol Hak stated that "Creative Contents Agency is entering the negotiations, and the KeSPA executive office will of course be in the negotiations"
NOTE: This news is pretty much 2 hours old as of this post, and details WILL change over time.
Sources:
http://www.gamemeca.com/news/news_view.html?seq=12&ymd=20100729
http://www.etnews.co.kr/news/detail.html?id=201007280091
http://game.inews24.com/php/news_view.php?g_serial=507057&g_menu=020521
Blizzard Shenanigans
Despite Blizzard's promises to respect Korean Law after their run-in with the law during the Beta, it seems as if Blizzard had participated in more illegal activities. Korean Law states that companies can only have wrap advertisements on certain types of buildings, and the it is often punished by a small fee (5 million won). Blizzard decided that, the fine was worth it, and advertised Starcraft 2 anyway. Considering Blizzard Korea has a budget of 30 million dollars on advertising, this doesn't come at a surprise, although quite a bit of the money seems to have been spent "promoting" news agencies to only report positive things about Starcraft 2, which explains why Fomos has only written about how Blizzard went through a tremendous effort to make SC2 perfect for Koreans, hiring Korean VAs to dub the entire game, and synchronizing lips to match Korean.
Back to the building advertisement issue: Blizzard could not have been ignorant on this issue, since this was a huge deal during this past World Cup, as many Korean companies got in trouble for it. Now, people seem to be rather unhappy that Blizzard knowingly broke the law, despite their statement saying that they would not do it again.
Of course, their advertisements would be more effective if they didn't anger the Cooperation of PCbang in Korea, which seems to be a union of PC Bang owners of sorts. The chairman stood outside Blizzard Korea's HQ on a one-man relay protest. The main source of the issue seems to be related to Blizzard's policy regarding PC Bangs. Unlike SC1, where once the game was purchased, the game could be used to connect as many users as they wished, Blizzard went with a WoW approach towards SC2. PCBang owners now must pay a subscription fee to Blizzard, which is about 192,800 won for 800 hours, translating to about 220 won per hour, which is about nearly 20% of an hourly PCBang fee, which is nearly 16 times as much as what an individual would pay for a 30 day subscription.
To add insults to injury, it seems as if Blizzard snuck into PC Bangs and put up posters without permission.
Part of this may reflect on why Starcraft 2 is completely and utterly under performing in the Korean Market. According to gametrics.com, (super cool name btw), Starcraft 2's opening day performance in PC Bangs was only 0.8%, giving it 20th place in popularity. The original had 6.64%, giving it 5th place for that day. At homes, according to gamenote.com, Starcraft 2 took a glorious 67th place,compared to the original taking 19th place that day.
Savior's Apology
Savior has posted a public apology of sorts on his Cyworld. It reads as follows
Hello. It's me, Savior.
First of, I am bowing my head and apologize to the fans, to everyone who loved eSports, and people related to eSports, for disappointing them with my ignorant actions. As someone who has felt a lot of responsibility related to eSports, I would like to admit to my mistakes, and while it's late, confess my mistakes to everyone who has trusted me.
In order to achieve my goal as a progamer, I dropped out of school in my second to last year of Highschool and came up to Seoul by myself. And I had become a progamer and even up to a few months ago, was active under my previous team. Whether or not my records were good or bad, I only thought about the game. Even when my records were so bad that everyone suspected me, in order to reclaim my glory, I concentrated solely on gaming other than the 5 hours a day where I slept. The game was my entire life. But now, due to making a wrong choice at one moment, I have to accept that I have to give up my life as a gamer.
Around last September, there were rumors between the gamers that there were betting sites with match fixing. It is true that I have received several offers through my mini homepage. The offers were really sweet, but because they do not help my career, I have clearly delivered the message that I would not participate in such an act. But the problem is that I told my friends without reserve, and in the end had a bad influence on them. For this, I will acknowledge my mistake and I apologize from the bottom of my heart.
In addition, I would like to explain my position and why I waited so long to clear up my position.
Last May, I was in the hospital for a month due to surgery on my knees. But because the situation started getting serious, I contacted a certain reporter and the reporter visited me and there was an interview. In contrast of the articles that were published, I told him everything I knew about match fixing and that I wasn't away without leave from the dormatories.
After the interview, I felt as if I had gotten a load off my mind, and I waited for the article to appear. However, even though I waited for a week, the article that expressed my position didn't come out, and time kept passing.
After that, I became a coward who couldn't even read the comments on the internet, and thought that if time will pass, I will be forgotten. However, because of me, my old school's homepage was terrorized with malicious content and many people who has helped me has gotten hurt. And most of all, because I have hurt my parents and my fans, I thought that I could no longer run away from reality.
If my thoughts were proper back then, some of my friends wouldn't have gotten stuck in that bad road, and those friends, whose lives were about the game, would still be active in the scene. Because of this, I am regretting this even more and I am posting this message of apology.
I'm sorry. I'm really sorry.
Once again, I want to apologize to everyone who has been disappointed about me, and I will atone on the fact that I have caused a lot of criticism in society. I bow my head and apologize from the bottom of my heart
- Savior.
+ Show Spoiler +
안녕하세요, 마○○입니다.
먼저, 제 부족한 행동으로 팬 여러분들과 e스포츠를 사랑해주신 모든 분들, e 스포츠 관계자 여러분들께 실망을 안겨 드리게 된 점 깊이 머리 숙여 사죄드립니다. 다른 누구보다도 e 스포츠에 책임감을 가지고 있던 한 사람으로서 잘못을 인정하기에 저를 믿어주셨던 분들께 늦었지만 늦게나마 사죄를 드리며, 제 잘못을 고백하고자 합니다.
저는 프로게이머의 꿈을 이루기 위해 고2때 학교를 자퇴하고 홀로 서울에 왔습니다. 그리고 그토록 원하던 프로게이머가 되어 불과 몇 개월 전까지만 해도 소속팀에서 활동했습니다. 성적이 뛰어날 때나 성적이 저조할 때도 오로지 게임만 생각했습니다. 여러분이 의심할 만큼 저조한 성적이 나왔을 때도 예전의 명성을 되찾기 위해 하루 5시간의 수면을 제외하고는 오직 게임에만 전념하며 지냈습니다. 게임은 제 인생의 전부였습니다. 그러나 이제 저는 한순간의 잘못된 행동으로 게이머로서의 삶을 접어야 한다는 현실을 받아들일 수밖에 없습니다.
작년 9월 무렵, 게이머들 사이에 승부조작 베팅 사이트가 있다는 소문이 있었습니다. 제게도 미니홈피를 통해 여러 번 제안이 들어온 것은 사실입니다. 저에게 그 제안은 달콤했지만 제 이력에 전혀 도움이 되지 않는 일이므로 저는 받아들이지 않겠다는 의사를 명확하게 전달했습니다. 그런데 문제는 이러한 사실을 동료들에게 거리낌 없이 말했고, 그들에게 결과적으로 좋지 않은 영향을 끼쳤다는 것입니다. 이 부분에 대해서 잘못을 인정하고 정말 진심으로 사과드립니다.
덧붙여 입장 표명이나 해명이 미루어졌던 점에 대해서도 말씀드리고 싶습니다.
지난 5월, 저는 무릎 수술로 한 달간 병원에 입원하여 치료를 받고 있었습니다. 그런데 사태가 심각해지자 개인적으로 한 기자님께 연락을 드렸고 기자님께서 병실로 방문하셔서 인터뷰가 이루어졌습니다.
언론의 기사와는 달리 제가 숙소를 무단이탈 하지 않았다는 점과 이번 승부조작사건에 관해 제가 알고 있는 모든 사실 있는 그대로를 말씀드렸습니다.
인터뷰를 마친 후, 한시름 덜었다는 생각과 기사가 나오기만을 기다렸습니다. 그러나 일주일이 지나도 제 의견이 반영된 기사는 나오지 않았고, 점점 시간만 흐르게 되었습니다.
저는 그동안 인터넷 댓글도 읽을 수 없는 겁쟁이가 되어 세월이 지나면 나라는 존재는 잊혀지겠지, 하는 마음으로 틀어박혀 지냈습니다. 그런데 저로 인해 제가 다녔던 학교 홈페이지가 악플로 중단되고, 저를 도와준 지인들이 상처를 받는 일이 발생하게 되었습니다. 무엇보다도 저를 믿어주셨던 부모님과 팬 여러분들께 큰 상처를 안겨드렸다는 사실에 더 이상 현실에서 도망을 치면 안 되겠다는 생각이 들었습니다.
제가 그 당시 생각이 바로 잡혀 있었다면 몇몇 동료들이 저로 인해 나쁜 길로 빠지지 않았을 것이고, 게임이 인생의 전부였던 제 친구들은 지금도 활발하게 활동을 하고 있을 것입니다. 그래서 더욱 뼈저린 후회를 하며 사죄의 말씀을 올리는 것입니다.
죄송합니다.. 정말 죄송합니다
다시 한 번, 저로 인해 실망하신 분들께 죄송하며, 사회에 물의를 일으킨 점 깊이 반성하며 지내겠습니다.. 진심으로 고개 숙여 사과드립니다.
마○○ 올림.
Other Odds and Ends
- Nal_Ra has completed his military training, and now will be working at a middle school for his public interest duty. When asked if anyone recognized him, he said that he has joined during vacation time.
- Sangho now has a column on dailyesports, called "Sangho's Viewpoint"
