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Canada5062 Posts
Well, sort of...
As many of you already know, Boxer left the IS team back in October after losing the SKY 2002 OGN final to Reach. Since then, he's been wooed by the likes of Samsung and KTF to suit up for their squads, but Boxer's been very careful about which sponsor he commits to. Well, the long wait is apparently finally over.
Just read an article in Sports Today, a popular "sports paper" in Korea, that Lim will be entering into a 1-year sponsorship deal with "TongYang Confectionery," one of the largest makers of chips, snacks and chocolates in Korea. Not exactly the SEXIEST of choices a pro gamer could make, but TY apparently offered the best package to the Terran Emperor: about KRW 160,000,000/yr ( = US $132,000) (incl. expenses tho - see below) and the free use of his own office/practice room/living space (presumably, fully furnished). It definitely makes a lot of $ense from the company's point of view: people need SOMETHING to munch on while watching his games.
In a turnaround from Lim's previous public statements about going to a team "not for the money, but for the playing environment," Boxer has decided to hook up with a corporate sponsor without a pro gaming team of any kind whatsoever. Instead, Lim will be using KRW 60,000,000 of the total contract amount to hire 3 practice partners (one for each race) to join his own small SC team. He is already in contact with 2 players currently in the Challenge League about the positions, but has also stated that he will not consider any player already committed to a team (to avoid conflict of interest issues, etc.).
One more thing worth mentioning: in a separate article, Lim states that he is considering switching to another race after a few more successes. He also does not rule out switching to another game completely in the future. Boxer didn't elaborate further on this point, but don't be surprised if he shows up soon as a kick-ass War3 player. Should be interesting to see what sorts of unique, didn't-know-the-game-could-do-that strats he comes up with there...
[EDIT] The compensation figure quoted above does not include tournament winnings. Presumably, Boxer will be allowed to keep a "cut" of any prize winnings he gets in tournaments, in addition to his regular salary. Not bad at all...
[EDIT] Oh, yeah. Forgot to mention: TongYang Confectionery is the parent company of OnGameNet. Not that it matters or anything...
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I love u mensrea :D
i'll write about this at once on my page --;; u bett
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making him the 2nd pro-gamer to make 100,000 per year (fatal1ty-q3) and the highest paid pro-gamer of all time.
stuff like this is really good for e-sports.
whats funny tho is that he's gonna be paying 3 players 10,000 each to practice with him. that's pretty much slavery though the players themselves will obviously increase in skill dramatically, perhaps enough so to pursue their own careers after 6 months or so. obviously boxer will include a NDA and a fixed duration in their contracts, assuming he isn't retarded.
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fuck i would be he's training partner for 6 buck a year -.-
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I'd pay 6 bucks a month to be his training partner :D
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United States32927 Posts
The article says challenge league, not starleague :O!
So now we can go through the entire challenge league roster :O?
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Fatality was all tournament winnings.. I think both Grrrr and Boxer already were over that amount.
not sure though
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Canada398 Posts
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Canada5062 Posts
On November 26 2002 10:08 Casper... wrote:
making him the 2nd pro-gamer to make 100,000 per year (fatal1ty-q3) and the highest paid pro-gamer of all time.
stuff like this is really good for e-sports.
whats funny tho is that he's gonna be paying 3 players 10,000 each to practice with him. that's pretty much slavery though the players themselves will obviously increase in skill dramatically, perhaps enough so to pursue their own careers after 6 months or so. obviously boxer will include a NDA and a fixed duration in their contracts, assuming he isn't retarded.
Well, Koreans rarely resort to NDAs, and I doubt Boxer will either - and not because he's "retarded." Too much of a hassle, goes against the grain of prevailing business culture, and honestly don't think Yo-hwan or Dad is sophisticated enough to even think of it. Besides, NDAs can cover a lot, but doubt it'll cover "SC moves" once a player's internalized them as part of his own skill set. An NDA to cover Boxer's training regimen? Weeeell, that can be a bit tricky, too, at least in terms of actually getting such an injunction enforced.
Interesting point tho and may see stuff like that when pro gaming gets bigger and more sophisticated. It is business, afterall...
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Canada5062 Posts
hehe, congrats! 
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Great post Mensrea. I especially liked the part of Boxer weighing the idea of switching to a new race. A move to War3 by Boxer would be a distraction to SC right now so I hope he stays focused on producing those awesome games (i.e. vs Garimto) in OGN.
I wonder if he would switch races depending on the map. That is the one move I think pro-gamers haven't taken seriously. All us 'theorycrafters' talk about race imbalances based on maps so if there is any validity to our theories you would think that pro-gamers would change their race to exploit the imbalances. I doubt it since no one has done it successfully yet, but it's an interesting idea.
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Canada5062 Posts
sword_siege,
As always, thx for reading.
Hmmm, an interesting idea, yes. I take it you mean players practicing all races usually then choosing one in particular for a given match depending on the map? The only major (and probably the best) example of something like what you're suggesting is KimWanChul, who is a top-notch Z user (belongs to the Zerg-only "Soul" clan), but who also plays a mean Terran, depending on the map/race situation. A kind of "selective random" user, if you will. I think the main reason why we don't have such users in larger numbers is because of the extreme skill levels to which game play has reached since, say, 1.07 or .08. Any advantages gained by being adaptable are likely small in comparison to the sheer amount of work that needs to be put in to master all three (or even two) races, at least to a level sufficient to best a one-race specialist opponent. I believe a similar logic caused virtually all of the great random users to settle down to a single race - ChRh and Grrr being the two obvious examples. It's also probably no coincidence that Giyom made the change to Protoss when toss were deemed a bit on the over-powered side, while ChRh became Terran-only after 1.08 when the consensus became that Terran were the ones advantaged...
In any case, my impression from the article was that Boxer wants to leave a permanent mark in history as the best SC PLAYER ever and not just the best Terran user and that's what's driving him to consider the race switch. After that, of course, he'll move onto other mountains to conquer. I'm guessing War3, if it gets any more popular...
Cheers.
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naz, that's ur chance! D:
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Any idea who the other members of his team might be?
My mouth is watering at the thought of Boxer playing zerg or protoss. I'd love to see how his unique dropship control translates.
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I bet he would chose zerg over toss. Infact i'm quite certain he would. I'm not sure how many of u saw that zvt game of boxer vs some dude(s@rsoni?), but it was pretty amazing. To have his micro + speed, with zerg is rather deadly. Though, i think he still might TvZ, b/c zvz is just... well you know --;. He doesn't seem like the toss type. With zerg there is alot more room to have a seperation of skill. Not to rule out though, that boxer was orginally a toss player
--;.
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Boxer has shown a few flashes of breathtaking magic use with ghost lockdowns. I'm dreaming what he could do with zerg magic.
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MURICA15980 Posts
You know what this reminds me of? Micheal Jorden trying to switch to baseball. I mean, Boxer might do the switch to toss or zerg, but comeon, he'll never be the BEST at it. If you honestly think boxer can beat Yellow: zvz, pvz or Reach: pvp, zvp.... then... I... pity you ^_^ well you never know, it's Boxer.
Just a note, I think Elky should leave iVenture and join a sunglass company. 
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HnR)hT
United States3468 Posts
wow way to contradict yourself
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Why would Boxer chose to go ZvZ against Yell0w? Boxer owns Yellow TvZ, on the other hand should Boxer face another toss and the map warranted it I could see him going zerg if the opponent had a poor ZvP match up.
Boxer has been mastering Broodwar for about 2 to 3 years now, sufficient time to branch out to another race should the matchup and map warrant it. I'm not saying I think this will happen in the future but based on Mensrea's article I feel there is the possibility that given the right conditions Boxer may chose another race.
If it does happen and it doesn't work no big deal, Boxer goes back to all Terran. In either case it's more entertainment for us.
Finally, I have a question for those residing in South Korea. Is there a magazine or newspaper that publishes the salaries of gamers? I understand pro-gaming is lucrative if you're say, the Mac Daddy King Boxer, but I'm curious if other gamers make a decent living as well. (Note: Mensrea's awesome interview already detailed Elky's estimate for 2002 at $60,000!)
Thanks for reading 
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EPT
