SK Gaming

Last week news emerged from South Korea that KT Rolster player

Woo 'Violet' Jung Ho had been diagnosed with Acute Leukemia. The Protoss player had been suffering from symptoms of anemia and fatigue but after being checked out at the hospital the situation proved to be much more grave. Violet has since been away from the team and its Proleague schedule as he will be undergoing chemotherapy.

Lee Ji Hoon, KT Rolster's manager, had the following to say in an open letter:

"First, for all those who are keeping (P)Violet on their minds, I deeply thank you in place of KT Rolster and Violet himself.

To be honest... after the STX game, Violet was planned to be first up in the Woongjin game too. But after the STX game, his skin wasn't in the best condition, so we got his blood checked at the dermatologist..
We got signs that were suggesting leukemia so we got his bone marrow checked ASAP.

Obviously, the role of the lead-off player for the Woongjin game was replaced by Stats. Even then, we and the players were thinking that it was probably a mistake.. and that if the bone marrow results came out, that everything would be okay. On the day of the actual bone marrow test, because we had a game, someone from the office and (T)Suny went with Violet.

They said the results would come out this morning, so the person from the office and I accompanied him. We really had a positive mind, thinking that nothing would be wrong.. but the result turned out to be acute leukemia. I felt my eyes going black.. How would Violet feel? There are many different types of leukemia, but for now, it seems lymph-related. The precise disease name and the method for curing it will come out in the next 3-4 days.

Right now, there aren't any hospital rooms in which he can stay in, so he is being treated in the emergency room. All the players and their parents are staying by his side so hopefully he won't be lonely ^^
Violet is always so bright and positive, so I'm sure that he will be able to handle any type of treatment, and we'll help him as much as we can by his side.
I was so proud of my players... as soon as Violet was diagnosed, they all went to Kang-nam and gave blood. It really made me warm and fuzzy inside... I really feel like a lucky person to be working together with these amazing kids ^^
Violet's still fine. As usual, messing around, laughing, chatting a lot... beating up his teammates and cursing (-_-)

Even though when the chemotherapy starts and he has to go through different types of treatments, I'm sure he'll suffer...
On that note, the reason why we told the media immediately... is that rather than letting them know when he is having a hard time, we felt that it would be best to let everyone know when he's still doing okay and the news wouldn't hit them as hard. A lot more people than we expected are behind Violet and supporting him and worrying about him, so as his Manager, I feel infinite gratitude and I'm touched beyond expression..

Jung Ho is definitely going to be cured 100%.. and we'll have him return as KT Rolster's "Bread" Toss. (T/N: Bread = Shik Bbang = Korean for the F-word. He was caught cursing on camera after losing to M18M)
We ask for your continued support.

I know a lot of people are going to be curious.. so I'll let everyone know whenever we hear of any developments during the treatments.
Thanks for reading this so late at night, and take care of your own health too, because it's cold outside. Thank you."

Journalist NeverGG has started a "Messages for Violet" project where she will collect messages posted in the thread into a book which will be given to the sick KT player at some point in the future. The deadline for messages is February the 10th.

In honour of Violet an Australian TeamLiquid reader is taking donations for his participation in the Leukaemia Foundation's World's Greatest Shave program. He plans to first dye his hair Violet up until the weekend of the shave when he will have it all cut off.

Violet is 22 years old (24 in Korean) and was a key part of KT Rolster's step up from simply being KTFlash (a nickname earned by their over-reliance on the brilliant Terran player Flash) into becoming Winner's League and Proleague champions for the '09-'10 season. In the Winner's League final against MBCgame he scored a crucial victory over the opposing team's ace player Light. In the final of the Proleague itself he defeated SKT Telecom 1's Canata on the first map and his team would go on to win the championship itself.

Violet is also one of the most outgoing South Korean professional gamers as can be seen in his appearance on 'Hyungjoon Becomes A Progamer'. He also is one of the few players to say he reads TeamLiquid. He had been the captain of KT Rolster until the return of the legendary Reach from ACE.

Source: TeamLiquid

Thorin

@Thooorin on twitter.
http://www.facebook.com/Thooorin

Esports journalism

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