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Ongamenet Starleague

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Starleague refers to the professional Starcraft championship run by Ongamenet in South Korea.

History of Starleague

Starleague started out as a program in Tooniverse, following the immense popularity of Starcraft in Korea, and the success of broadcast-gaming on other Korean channels. In 2000, Starleague was spun off into a gaming-dedicated channel, Ongamenet.

Starleague started out modestly, with a small prize sum and a few cult followers. In its seven-year history, it has evolved into a major "sport" in Korea, with more viewers than most professional sports. Recently in the related Proleague finals, 120,000 fans came out to watch the match between SK Telecom T1 and KTF Magic N's. Finals for Starleague now regularly attract more than 50,000 fans, and viewed nationwide on television by millions. Famous gamers like Lim Yo Hwan (Boxer) have more than 500,000 registered fans. Progamers are organized into teams supported by major Korean firms, and prizes, contracts, and endorsements are now huge in comparison to even 3 or 4 years ago.

Starleague started to attract major attention with the rise of the "Boxer Terran" in the HanbitSoft Starleague in 2001. Professional gamer Lim Yo Hwan swept the scene with a 3:0 victory against Jang Jin Nam, using a rare race at the time (Terran) and using the Terran dropship. Boxer continued to win the next league, Coca-Cola Starleague, and end up 2nd to Garimto in the 2001 Sky Starleague. By this time, first-prize was 20,000,000 Korean won, about USD 20,000.

Starleague became so popular that it began to attract several foreign players, including Elky from France and Guillame from Canada.

Starleague started to gain its own "color" with the 2003 MyCube Starleague, with a distinctive red, black, and white emblem and a much more polished opening. Prize money by this time was more than double the amount in the 2001 Coca-Cola championships, and regular games started to attract more people, with a refurbishing of the Ongamenet studio.

In 2004, with the rise of progaming teams, Starleague created a spin-off Proleague, in which teams play against each other for the championship title.

See also

Ongamenet http://www.ongamenet.com

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