MBC progamers sometimes like to go to the Han River at night for a stroll when they have the time. It's not an uncommon thing to do. On 18th May, Tiny uploaded these two pictures onto his cyworld.
The picture is quite blurry but it's Jaehoon, Koala (probably on vacation from the army) and Tiny.
This one is slightly clearer... Jaehoon and Tiny. I don't know who the fourth person was, the one who took the first picture...
Table Drop
I mentioned in update 1 that MBC fans on HERO Gallery raised over 470k Won for a supper drop for the team. Because of logistical reasons, the supper drop was postponed and changed to a table drop, which took place on the day of the MBC-ACE match. The fans really put in a massive effort for this drop, which they also call an SCV. The arrangement of food around the MBC bench is thus refered to as a 'simcity'. Cute.
The day before the match, the fans who organized the drop went to a supermarket to purchase all the food. They also created sticker labels to paste on the food items, made "thank you" certificates for Mumyung and Pusan, made a captain's armband for Jaehoon and repacked the fruits into containers for the players. The next day, they woke up at 5-6am in order to travel to Yongsan early to arrange the simcity. They even prepared drinks for the commentators. It was a great effort from them! HERO Gallery JJANG!
Here are some photos from the drop. I've not included all the photos because there were just too many...
Buying/preparing the food
Preparing the simcity
Pictures from the match
Let's put things into perspective
This week's update is shorter than usual mainly because Hyun stopped tweeting since the day before the Stars match. He also closed most of his cyworld homepage, which typically happens when he's upset with something. Fans always think of Hyun as a cheerful person but he also gets down on himself easily if things don't go well. In an interview he gave after qualifying for the MSL in late March, he mentioned that his parents were ill and in and out of hospital. So I hope his parents' health has not deteriorated or anything like that. I rather it be game related problems that's behind his current slump. Hyun fighting!
And so it's been a tough season for the players thus far. Besides Hyun's personal problems, the team has seen 3 players depart since October. Light's departure has been well-publicized but 2 rookies, Gwak and Bassen have also left to return to their studies (according to fans on HERO Gallery). Saint is pretty much near the end of his playing career and he knows this too. I've seen his reaction to losing games change from frustration early in the season, to anger in rounds 3-4 and recently, just acceptance. [Edit: Gwak has returned to the team. I will write a follow-up about Gwak and Saint's situation in updates 7 and 8. I've changed my mind about a few things]
That leaves us with just 4 players on the team who have been on the roster for more than 1 season & played more than 5 televised games- Jaehoon, Tyson, Sea and Hyun. These four haven't played poorly this round, Jaehoon is 6-2, Tyson 5-2, Sea 7-4 and Hyun is 5-6. But the team is struggling because the rookies aren't good enough to win games yet (except for the occasional zerg[kal] win). If just 1 of the four senior players loses a game, realistically, the best case scenario is a 7th set. That's the BEST case scenario.
Things are difficult right now for MBC. I don't expect them to reach the play-offs but it would be an incredible achievement if they do. Some things are just out of the players' control. If Jaehoon leaves at the end of the season, it would be bad for the team but it could also be a good decision for him personally. When he lost the game against Roro, I went to the message boards to check for reviews and I found a couple gems like these:
"I really hope you break your wrist"
"You fxxker, what the fxxx are you doing...
You should just retire, don't even bother going to ACE, just retire".
It's a lot of fun being a progamer sometimes. -_- Netizens, just horrible. But MBC fans' response to these netizens who slammed Jaehoon was: "you must have been betting on this match ㄱㄱㄱㄱㄱ".
Anyway, I think Jaehoon is more angry than upset at the moment. I hope I'm right about this, because who knows what's going on in the mind of the astral Kim Jaehoon. But he posted this on his cyworld diary (late night on the 18th) after the Fox match, presumably after going to the Han River with Koala et. al:
"I hate losing....
Yet I lost....
Next time I will get my revenge, see you in round 6"
Strong words from the MBC captain. I much prefer an angry Jaehoon to a depressed Jaehoon. MBC fans all know the rage is inside him, just got to bring it out more often.
MBC Fighting!