The guy on the left is Shin-Soo Choo. Shin-Soo Choo is a Major League Baseball player, and an extremely talented one at that. Aside from that, Shin-Soo Choo is something of an international hero, as he has been a chief member of the Korean National Baseball team that enjoyed moderate successes in tournaments such as the World Baseball Classic as well as the Asian Games. Shin-Soo Choo is considered a genuine five-tool player; he hits very well, he hits with power (read: home runs), plays excellent defense, has a great throwing arm, and runs very effectively. It is safe to say that Shin-Soo Choo is the most talented and successful Korean-born Major League Baseball player in history.
The guy on the right is Dong-Hwan Kim. Dong-Hwan Kim plays Starcraft for a living. He sits at a computer for a living, staring into a monitor, playing a video game. The only physical thing he really demonstrates is dexterity with his fingers, or as those in such a scene like to refer to as “Actions per minute (APM)” which is basically just how good a guy is at repeatedly clicking a mouse and a few keys on the keyboard.
South Korea has a nationwide law that states that every South Korean national-born male must serve a mandatory two-year stint in the Korean military before the age of 29. However, the motherland has in many instances, allowed for exemptions to the mandatory military service, typically going to individuals who, for lack of a better term, bring honor to the country, in varying ways.
The most known manner in which many have received exemptions has been through success in sport; the entire men’s national team in the 2002 World Cup received exemptions for being the most successful South Korean futbol team in history, going all the way to the semi-finals. The 2006 national baseball squad received exemptions for putting Korean baseball on the map, when they ran roughshod through all competitors before ultimately being eliminated in a questionable tournament format. And just about every Korean male Olympian who managed to make it onto the medal podium received an exemption as well.
Throughout the last few years, and I ask for forgiveness from the motherland in advance if my understandings are incorrect, but South Korea’s become vastly more stringent about issuing military exemptions over the last few years, this part I know. But the bottom line is that it’s to my understanding that anything short of ultimate victory no longer received exemptions. The 2009 World Baseball Classic squad, which actually performed better than the 2006 squad did not receive military exemption, because they lost in the championship game. Olympic medalists still received exemption, such as the Gold medal 2008 baseball team, and the Bronze medal 2012 futbol team, but pretty much nobody short of national accolade would receive any further exemptions.
Shin-Soo Choo’s early career was constantly mired with the hypothetical chance that he would have to leave Major League Baseball in order to fulfill his national military duty. Teams wanted to sign him to long-term contracts, but as long as two years of his career would be stripped away due to obligation, no team could ill-afford to take that chance. And it’s not like Choo wasn’t trying to get himself an exemption, as he was a member of the talented 2009 WBC squad that barely fell short, and his professional status made him ineligible for Olympic action in 2008. But in literally his last opportunity, as he was on the cusp of turning 27 and would have had to forfeit his MLB career and report for military duty, at the 2010 Asian Games, Choo led the Korean National Team to a gold medal victory, and finally earned his hard-fought exemption.
I don’t hide the fact that I love to make fun of the notion that in some convoluted way, professional gamers have attained the ability to gain the same type of visa status that professional athletes do, because they’re good at a particular video game, and there is a segment of people that really enjoy watching people good at a particular video game, play that video game. I’ll admit it, I sometimes do too, and it’s no secret that I’m a fairly regular League of Legends player in my own time. But when the day is over, it’s still playing video games, and it’s absolutely nothing at all like playing a sport.
I guess I’m an old fart that simply remembers growing up with my mom breathing down my neck to deter me from playing video games and to go outside and do something physically active. It’s absolutely the complete opposite of today’s scene, where not only is video gaming becoming a legitimate occupation, you know there are parents out there that endorse and nurture their children into it if they think that’s where they can achieve success.
That being said, I read this story about Dong-Hwan Kim, and how he hasn’t exactly gotten full exemption from his mandatory Korean military service, but was capable of procuring the type of work visa typically reserved for international athletes and professional sport players. Basically, because he plays a video game at a very high level, he’s allowed to come to the United States and play Starcraft as an occupation. Supposedly, the visa is good for up to five years, and guess what Dong-Hwan Kim is going to do when he’s not playing Starcraft? That’s right, try and become an American citizen.
I’m Korean by genetics, American by birth, and I think that this is a pretty absurd story as a whole. I don’t know Dong-Hwan Kim, but I basically think he’s a gigantic pussy for attempting to dodge his national obligation so that he can play video games for a living, and it’s even worse that modern society is accommodating it. I do believe that it’s getting a little too far out of hand with this lazy association of video gaming as some kind of professional sport, and that the kids playing the games are some sort of professional athletes.
I think Shin-Soo Choo had a legitimate rationale to try and earn a military exemption; he’s really good at baseball, and people who are really good at baseball have the potential to making millions of dollars. I get why he wouldn’t want to let that opportunity slip away, because the opportunity to financially secure not just his own life, but his family and his future family’s livelihoods is within reasonable grasp.
Not everyone is as lucky as Choo; there was once a pitching prospect in the Braves minor league system a few years ago, and he was steadily moving up the ranks on a yearly basis. But he got his start in the United States a little late in life, and went back to Korea to serve his two years of mandatory service. He was invited back to the Braves organization when he was finished, but the two years of non-practice had taken their toll on him, and he simply didn’t have it anymore. I have no idea what he’s doing today, but it’s probably not baseball.
Now Dong-Hwan Kim allegedly made a very upper-middle class wage playing Starcraft; but let’s not kid ourselves here; it’s definitely not professional sports money, and it never will be. Playing video games isn’t like any sort of athletic skill; dexterity with your hands and fingers is necessary sure, but at the core, video games are about understanding mechanics, and are still ultimately limited to the capabilities that are programmed into them. There’s far less of a chance for a gamer to lose his talent after two years than it would someone who played a professional sport, and probably a way higher chance for a gamer to pick back up where they left off as opposed to the former.
In fact, in a way, the mental toughness that most forms of military basic training wouldn’t probably be a bad thing when it comes to playing video games, I’d think.
Doesn’t matter though, because Dong-Hwan Kim, and everyone else who’s going to aspire to be like him are all taking the lazy way out, and in my opinion, lay down the groundwork for really bleak futures, by trying to find ways to skip out on military service so they can play video games.
If I were born in Korea, would I serve my mandatory two years? If it’s mandatory, then I most certainly would, unless I were also Shin-Soo Choo.
There are far more important things in life than video games, regardless if I enjoy playing them in my spare time.
