“Liiv SANDBOX” has been active based in Busan since July 14th, 2022. It made a regional agreement with Busan as the first domestic E-Sports club. Liiv SANDBOX keeps going as a club based in Busan, holding events such as fan-viewing parties and boxing day with Busan E-Sports Stadium Arena (BRENA) as the home stadium. 

“Channel PNU” met team leader Kim In-Ho and manager Gwon Yoon-Young (Dept. of French & French Literature, 16, graduated) of Liiv SANDBOX at Pusan National University and heard the story about Liiv SANDBOX and regional relations policy.

Q. Why did you introduce regional relations policy in E-Sports for the first time in the domestic market?

A. Team leader Kim: I agree that the cultural game has to become a sport first. That’s why I use the term “E-Sports” more than Game. Compared to the other examples, such as baseball and football, the main characteristic of sport is that it is based on the region and has a locality. I thought regional relations policy is fateful since localization is mandatory for sports industry expansion, not being a limited game industry.

Q. Why did you choose Busan as the region, although there would be many candidate cities ?

- Team leader Kim: I considered how the local government treats the game industry and whether the size of the city is big enough to ensure fandom. I tried to find a “win-win” point that we want and regional fans can enjoy when we take them to fandom. In that process, I thought Busan was the most suitable city. So I came to Busan after the final decision.

Q. Jung Hee-Yoon, the leader, once said, “We want to be a club like the Lotte Giants,” in an interview with Kookje newspaper (On October 24th).

A. Team leader Kim: Yes. Liiv SANDBOX is the third club next to Lotte Giants and Busan IPark, which selected Busan as its’ region. We keep communicating and interacting with officials of Lotte Giants and Busan IPark, and we hope to follow in their footsteps as  the youngest regional club.

Q. Most competitions are held in metropolitan areas, and most Infrastructure is in urban areas, though Liiv SANDBOX chose Busan as its region, and its head office is in Busan. What is the problematic point?

A. Manager Gwon: After choosing Busan, our original goal was that all of the team and employees come down to Busan. However, in the case of the League of Legends team or Kartrider team, competitions are held in offline stadiums, and all of them are in metropolitan areas. As there are one or two competitions in one week, it is impossible for all of the team to come down to Busan in reality. On the other hand, the Rainbow Six team or Wildlife team, who run competitions online, are working in Busan. If we found another group or the matches were held nationwide, the region would be activated.

Q. When you introduced your choice of region, there were criticisms that regional fans would not support Liiv SANDBOX if the game teams’ activities didn’t take place in Busan. What did you do to overcome this?

A. Manager Gwon: Rainbow Six team or Wildlife team are actually working in Busan. They have not done offline events yet, but we expect the Rainbow Six team will be able to hold a fan event next year.

Q. After the introduction of the regional policy, what became different about running the club?

A. Team leader Kim: We got much attention from the local government, citizens, and media as we enforced regional relations policy first. The first thing we did after coming to Busan was to hold a fan meeting which was usually held in Seoul. We did a “Kartrider group final match viewing party” in Busan E-Sports Stadium on October 8th. 200 fans in Busan came, and they said accessibility got better because it was held in Busan. We are now preparing a big event named “Boxing day” for fans.

Q. What was difficult with the process of introducing the regional policy?

A. - Team leader Kim: Manpower supply was not easy. In the process of hiring local talents, there were many people who liked E-Sports, but there were few people who could understand the industry itself. We made a MOU with Pusan National University and Donga University to solve this problem and supplied local talents.

- Manager Gwon: Other E-Sports teams are all in Seoul. As team members lived in Seoul and came down to Busan, they had difficulties with unfamiliar environments.

Q. What would affect the E-Sports industry with the introduction of an E-Sports regional relations policy?

A. Team leader Kim: I want to say that it is only the game industry, not a sports industry if it is concentrated in Seoul and metropolitan areas. EPL of the UK and MLB of the USA are based on the local regions. Successful sports should have a locality, and the regional relations policy is essential to be a sport, getting better from the game industry.

Moreover, many people say that only some professional gamers can survive, and the rest of them struggle with E-Sports. It is so important to get rid of these prejudices to be a “Life Sport.” Nowhere has life sports training institutions like Korea. As player Faker said, PC rooms can be the life sports training institutions since they are all over the country. If the game becomes a healthy life sport, preventing overindulgence or addiction, the negative recognition of the game can disappear, and it can be popular.

Q. Is operating the academy directly an effort for “live sport”?

A. Team leader Kim: Right. We have a big goal to nurture professional gamers as a club and to popularize the game. We operate the Busan E-Sports Academy, cooperating with Game Coach Academy in Haeundae Centum City. In addition, there were many cases in which professional gamers needed to stop studying because they had to go to Seoul. We are nourishing prospects in Busan for this.

We also work hard in the E-Sports industry in life. We are trying to expand the popular area based on the club of office workers and students. People interested in the field can pay attention to the job, and these two processes proceed together as two tracks.

Q. What do you think is the effort that government, local government, and E-Sports club should make to introduce domestic E-Sports regional relations policy?

A. -Team leader Kim: I had a talk with Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency which controls E-Sports, as we moved the head office. I felt sorry that most public officials do not have an understanding of E-Sports, although they are cooperative when it is related to the understanding of enterprising E-Sports. If public officials in local government have a high understanding of the E-Sports industry, it will help create other clubs.

- Manager Gwon: E-Sports Stadiums are built nationwide now. Not only related local governments but also game companies should make an effort to achieve this. All League of Legends competitions are held in LOL Park now, but Rainbow Six do the final match in the Daejeon Stadium. I hope we can compete in various regions someday.

Reporter Im Hyeon-Gyu

Translated by Lee Yoon-Se