Bunny
Dave Wilson
posts : 148
| taken from an interview with lim yo hwan (slayers_boxer) currently one of korea's most horrible nerds.
krw 150 million annual income, the "terran emperor" pro-gamer lim yo hwan
"being number one is no joke ... 10 hours a day of forced practice."
by reporter/writer chung kwang jae
"just think of him as a 'god' in the gaming world. in baseball, i guess you would have [the korean major league baseball pitcher] park chan ho. everyone who’s a starcraft fan is in total awe of his skills and cheers like mad for the guy." this is how kim yang joong, lim’s manager, describes his player.
the “terran emperor,” lim yo hwan (22). anyone in their thirties or over may tilt their head in curious ignorance at the name. however, for those in kindergarten all the way up to university, lim is a genuine superstar. it’s the kind of star power that drove up the price in an on-line auction of a single promotional ticket to a head-to-head match with lim to over krw 800,000 [us $615].
the existence of some 70 fan sites devoted to lim just on the internet portal site daum (www.daum.net) attests to his popularity as a pro-gamer among netizens. lim’s own official on-line fan “café” [community], “lim yo hwan’s dropship,” which started in august, 2000, has over 97,000 members. a few of the more vocal fans are quite unreserved in proclaiming lim to be the greatest hero that korea’s gaming world has ever produced.
to say that lim had an "exciting” 2001 is a monumental understatement. it was one of the best years for anyone in recent gaming memory. after three unsuccessful attempts at entering university, he was finally given special acceptance into the computer gaming department at dong-ah community college to become a “university student.” he also won 12 of the 17 tournaments he entered and collected over krw 80 million [us $61,000] in prize money alone. he even published a book, “lim yo hwan’s dropship,” a book containing his strategies for the game, and saw it sell out its first printing in 2 weeks and become an instant bestseller among starcraft fans.
perhaps the biggest story, though, was lim winning gold for korea in the first world cyber games (computer game olympics) and leading the korean team to 1st in the overall medals standings. he was hailed as a “national hero” by game fans everywhere in korea.
2001 income krw 150 million
lim’s appearances in print and broadcast ads for korean computer mouse maker “k- tek,” as well as in various promotional events throughout the country have brought him over krw 70 million [us $53,000], bringing his total income over the past year alone to krw 150 million [us $114,000]. even after splitting his earnings with his affiliated pro-gaming agency “idealspace” (www.idealspace.com), lim’s income still comes to nearly krw 80 million [us $61,000] for the year, putting him solidly in the high-income bracket of the population.
lim got his first exposure to starcraft while studying for the national university entrance exam at his friend’s house in july, 1998 in his senior year in high school. it never occurred to lim in the beginning to become a pro-gamer. he was simply determined to best his friends, who had started playing the game before he did. lim’s skills quickly developed to the point where none of his friends (or any of their own friends) were even close to keeping up. his fame grew and gradually he came to take on the job of professional gaming.
“oh, yeah, they were against it in the beginning,” says lim about his parents. “they told me i should stick to my studies. but, they changed their minds when i won the sbs multigame championship in december, 1999. these days, they show up at every competition and tournament i enter and are, like, my biggest supporters.”
for the armies of teens who want to become a pro-gamer like himself, lim has this to say: “you know, a swan floating calmly on a pond only looks beautiful because beneath the surface its feet are constantly treading water … i advise them to look beyond the exciting appearances of this kind of life.” lim explains that, “you have to be prepared to train over 10 hours a day, every day … it’s a constant struggle with yourself.” after putting in so many hours of practice in front of the computer screen, lim’s vision score has deteriorated from a healthy 1.5 when he first began playing starcraft down to 0.9.
“i’ll keep training until people can say ‘lim yo hwan is the best’ when they think of pro-gamers. you know what they say about it being tougher staying a champion than actually getting to that position. i’m still only [22] and it’s a bit premature talking about retirement, but i’d probably want to use my experience playing games and get into game development at some point.”
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