ESFI World

Fresh off the announcement that ex-MVP players Lure and the team's coach had joined Check Six Gaming, ESFI World's Samuel Lingle spoke with the managing director of x6, Curt "KeyHunt" Carter, about the acquisition.

MVP players have been in the news lately, specifically in regards to their players making exits from their Korean team and transitioning to join foreign teams. Most recently came today's announcement that GosuGamers signed Korean Zerg player Youngjun "galaxy" Yoo. Galaxy was one of the players who left MVP about a month ago, along with Lure and HwangSin. On July 7th, HwangSin joined North American team It's Gosu. Only a few days ago, Complexity Gaming added Zerg star DongRaeGu, as well as Genius, to form coL.MVP.

Carter told ESFI that the relationship between Check Six and the MVP duo began "quite some time [ago]". "Originally," he contiunes, "I was very reluctant to have a Korean on the team. I really didn’t want to just fall into the new popular thing to do. However, the opportunity sort of fell in our lap when one of our players (Maker) was contacted on the Korean ladder by [Lure, Leader] to see if we were interested. After speaking with them both (with the gracious help of Shadow), we determined they were a great fit for our team."

 CheckSix StarCraft 2

Leader (coach)	Zerg
Lure	Protoss
Shadow	Protoss
Arcanne	Protoss
Sinatra	Protoss
LagLovah	Protoss
ThisIsJimmy	Terran
Maker	Terran
ver	Terran
nEaNs	Terran
BoO	Terran
Mystik	Zerg
Mkengyn	Zerg
Cheesy	Zerg
Makoplux	Random

With Leader not being an active player but a coach, Carter told us that Check Six had not spoken with Leader on exactly why he decided to join Lure in coming to the team, or even why he ever left MVP. Carter was not sure if MVP had found a replacement as of yet to fill Leader's role.

Foreign teams are bringing on Korean players, but not all of them are bringing the players from Korea to compete or practice in a team house. For Check Six, it's no different. "Both Lure and Leader will be staying in Korea. However, we are not looking to start a Korean team. They are just two great additions to our current roster. They will be participating in leagues, tournaments, etc. as CheckSix and will also of course be trying their hand at GSL qualifiers when they roll around."

The deal, for now at least, will see Check Six's Koreans compete only in Korea-based competitions. "We most certainly hope to get them to foreign events as soon as possible," said Carter. "However, for now they will be representing us only in online tournaments, leagues and GSL." Lure and Leader will be treated no different than any other player on the Check Six roster, and will be supported as such. "That might include salary, gear, fees, etc. Eventually, foreign events might come as well, but at this time it is not in their contracts."

Carter then told us that this move was in no way a response to what other foreign teams like FXO, coL and EG have been doing with bringing Koreans onboard. "StarCraft 2 is ever-expanding and it will be hard for organizations, sponsors, staff and, for that matter, community members to keep up with it all. In the end though, we decide not to let others influence our decisions. We had a great set of players fall in our lap and we decided to jump at it while we could."