Last Friday, VentureSquare held its first VentureSquare Game League (VGL) event at Seoul Startup Center. Startups signed up as teams to take one another on. The game for the evening was Starcraft, a title that all Koreans are familiar with and one that most people have played at least once. Here’s a quick photo essay of how the event went.
Starting with a group of 64, games were played on the 10th floor of the center in the conference room. On display was a small mountain of prizes from our sponsors and partners.
Prizes up for grabs were an all-in-one PC, LG v30, 7.1 gaming headset, STCOM Geforce GTX 1050 and 1060 graphic cards, three rocket mice, 12 mousepads, two 24 inch gaming monitors, BB-8 Star Wars droid, five SoundFidelity soundbars and a powercube USB. Thanks once again to all the companies that provided prizes.
PCs were set up with headsets ready for players to battle it out.
On the opposite side to the meeting room there was also space where people could get mentoring from VCs.
Seoul Startup Center provided players and those watching with refreshments and sugar to keep people going.
As the first game approached, seats started filling up with players….
…and supporters too, who came along to cheer on their colleagues.
VentureSquare CEO Myung Seungeun opened up the event….
Though some players seemed a little distracted with their pregame routine.
But they seemed to have paid off, with this fellow winning the first game in the round of 64. According to the player he was using ‘mind control’ in the previous photo.
Of course, the VentureSquare team also took part.
Here is VentureSquare manager Taeuk Kang trying his best to win in the round of 64.
CEO Seungeun Myung keeps an eye on Taeuk’s game….
Maybe the pressure of having the boss looking over his shoulder got to him, but Taeuk ended up losing his first round. Or it just may have been fatigue from his business trip to Jeju Island the previous day.
Back to the other players…
Here is the second group of 64ers.
Some players brought their equipment…
Away with those standard keyboards!
One player had even removed his Windows key to prevent him from hitting it by accident. Personally, I would have just disabled it.
Some players also brought USB extension cords to plug their gaming keyboards and mic into.
You know when someone takes their watch off, things are about to get serious.
Soon enough it was dinner time. Once again Seoul Startup Center took care of the catering.
While most people used dinner time to take a break and talk with others, some continued to polish their skills while eating.
Teams for the round of 32 displayed
As intermission there was also a friendly match between VCs.
And then it was finally quarter final time!
Another friendly match also took place to ease the tension between competing teams.
From the semifinals, we moved to the staircase on the first floor. By that time it was already 9pm!
Prizes were handed out for those place 5th to 16th.
And for the final games, players were given top quality headsets.
The semifinals were also made more exciting by adding live commentary while everyone watched on the big screen. No doubt brought back memories of when Starcraft mania swept the country for many years.
In the semifinal startups LIVA and Woowa Bros went head to head. LIVA is a O2O service for amateur basketball, while the Woowa Bros are extremely well known for their Baedal Minjok food delivery service. Both players had plenty of experience playing the game many years ago.
LIVA ended up losing thanks to a strategic attack by the Woowa Bros in the first half.
The second semifinal match was between Kongdoo Company and IHateFlyingBugs. Kongdoo Company is a multi-channel network company specializing in games, and IHateFlyingBugs is a marketing and consulting service for mobile apps. Kongdoo Company’s Director Kang Han-seung said he received special training from colleagues, many of which used to be pro-gamers.
Nearly 10 hours had passed and the audience and players were starting to get tired. It was quite long, a bit like this post.
The 3rd and 4th place match took place
Above are 3rd and 4th place competing for rank.
Well-known game commentator Lee Seung-won joined us for the final match. Lee became known for a famous blooper where he couldn’t control his laughter during a live broadcast.
You can probably guess who won from the photo above. Choi Young-woong from Woowa Brothers (bottom image) took out first place.
By the time the final prizes were handed it was already 10pm.
We look forward to seeing more startups at the next event!
