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Joystiq

Korean pro Warcraft player says 'zug-zug' to a half-million dollar contract

by Alexander Sliwinski on Mar 16th 2009 11:15PM

Korean professional gamer Jae Ho "Moon" Jang has signed a three-year, $486,500 contract to play with WeMade FOX in the Korean gaming leagues. His manager is working on introducing more quality players as there "aren't many first-class players in Korea." Um, if you're, like, really good at Warcraft/StarCraft ... now's the time to start learning Korean.

Best part: Jang isn't even the highest paid professional Korean player, just the highest paid Warcraft player. Top billing goes to his WeMade FOX teammate, Yoon Yeoi "NaDa" Lee, who signed a contract for $521,250 to play StarCraft back in 2007. Wow.

[Via VG247]

Source

Tags: blizzard, jae-ho-jang, jae-ho-moon-jang, korea, professional-gaming, south-korea, starcraft, starcraft-2, warcraft, warcraft-3, warcraft-iii

Reader Comments (41)

Well if they have televised games of Starcraft (not sure about Warcraft) I'm surprised they don't get paid more.

money

sorry

Wait....I spent 4 years in college...and I'm making how much....

::grumble::

.........and I thought I made a killing selling my account for $400 :(

uh....what? Which one were you?

They mean Warcraft 3, the RTS, not World of Warcraft, the MMO.

This guy will end up like so many guys that either played one year of major league baseball, or spent half a decade in the minors before giving up. Oh sure, he made a decent amount of money, but he's still going to end up working as a salary man. He'll be filing TPS reports before any of us know it.

Now....where can I pick up my 500k contract for playing Puzzle Quest?

....I'm waiting...

where's my 100k contract for playing patapon 1 & 2?

Not true.. I wouldn't be surprised if Moon is still a pro gamer 20 years from now. He's been playing (professionally sponsored) for quite a few years already.. first Starcraft, then 6 years ago switching over to WC3. When SC2 comes out, you can bet your ass he'll be a top player there as well -- and in whatever comes after that (wc4 or sc3)...

Blizzard RTSes are too deep for anyone to be professionally competitive without sinking 70+ hrs/wk into them. Only pros can dedicate enough time to remain pro: it's a cycle that doesn't get broken. About half the WC3 pros today were SC pros ten years ago.

Oh wow I guess my parents were lying to me when they told me secluding myself from others and living in a basement with no life playing wow all day would never pay off.....

No they were right, this article is about Warcraft 3.

I swear half the people that play WoW don't even know there were other Warcraft games...

"I swear half the people that play WoW don't even know there were other Warcraft games..."

Ugh, tell me about. It's painful because MMOs get all kinds of hate that can't really be directed at RTS games.

The thing is these guys have no life, the managers have them in their own dorms like housing and make them practice all the time. I'd hate just playing one or possibly two games.

If you work for a decent living, chances are you have no life outside work.

yea you may work really hard but you'll be able to pick any game you want to play, not be limited to a select few.

What do you even do in a WoW professional league? Just PvP and battlegrounds type stuff? Can you set-up private matches in WoW?

This is for Warcraft III: Frozen Throne RTS, not the WoW MMO.

It's actually Warcraft 3.

I don't think it makes any more sense than getting paid to play WoW, though.

Then again, maybe this is secretly funded by the Korean military to groom the best commanders to crush the world once all war machines are unmanned.

Ahh... gotcha. That makes much more sense. I see so much WoW news around these days that I see "Warcraft" and automatically think "WoW".

This is WoW without the Wo.

That's what happens when you come back to a tab 10 minutes later and push "Add Comment."

@Nick8708

I wonder what their style of play will be. The US already uses the zerg rush strategy...

It's crazy how much more rewarding it feels playing War3 than WoW. There's never a limit to how much effort you can put in.

Wait, is that $486,500 every YEAR or for all THREE years?
If it's for all three years, it ain't THAT zug-zug.

This doesn't include advertising endorsements, tournament purses or bonuses. That said, Yo-Hwan Lim was the original "pro gaming superstar" before he was drafted into the military.

More zug-zug than I'm seeing...

Its +400K over 3 years.

Either way, the money sounds great and all but i don't think it is worth the stress. Google pics of Korean Pro Gamers in RTS training...

Ashtrays full of cigarettes, energy drinks countless hours spent practicing since they are under contract and under pressure to do well. The fun is gone, its all stress and i can see right through the glass smiles as they hold up the Giant Check with the winnings during photo ops.

Because you get payed 150k+ to play video games

That guy's crazy. Crazy I say!

I'd rather kekekekeke.

While the money might be tempting, I really wouldn't want to be a professional gamer. I play games for fun. I come home from work, kick back, and play a game online with my friends. If that was my job, then what would I do for fun?

File TPS reports?

@munky: Yeah... about that...

my parents were wrong. there is money in playing video games. sigh.

Gotta understand that they actually have a sports league for starcraft and warcraft 3 in Korea. Tournaments usually bring in like 120,000 people to watch and cheer these guys play against each other like what you'd see at a physical sporting event. They call it e-sports, and it's the second most popular sporting event after Soccer. Much bigger than in the U.S. unfortunately =[

good hand-eye coordination/micro/macro FTW

As long as it isn't something as retarded as professional WORLDS of WarCraft, good for them. StarCraft is pretty hard to play (not $500,000 hard, but hey)

I think this is great for the industry as a whole it shows that this is a serious market that is willing to pay big bucks to sponsor. People to this day still think that video games are for kids. So kudos to Korea.

Top billing goes to his WeMade FOX teammate, Yoon Yeoi "NaDa" Lee, who signed a contract for $521,250 to play StarCraft back in 2007. Wow.

He deserves it. He's been the most consistent Terran (if not SC player) for years now. Good for him.

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Breaking News

Korean pro Warcraft player says 'zug-zug' to a half-million dollar contract

Reader Comments (41)

Posted: Mar 16th 2009 11:22PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 16th 2009 11:23PM Boomzilla said

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