The top four teams of Korean League of Legends league LCK and Chinese LoL league LPL are to clash online on May 28, according to reports, but Riot Games has yet to make an official statement regarding the event. The top four teams of LoL Championship Korea -- T1, GenG, DRX and Damwon Gaming -- and the top four teams of the LoL Pro League -- JD Gaming, Top Esports, FunPlus Phoenix and Invictus Gaming -- will determine which region is on top. The Korean teams will play in LoL Park in Jongno, cen

Film May 10, 2020

Young artists are repopularizing songs from the ’90s as part of a newtro trend that has hit the music scene, along with a wide range of other industries in South Korea, influencing tastes in beverages, fashion and games. Spearheading the newtro music trend is the soundtrack from the popular tvN drama series “Hospital Playlist,” which has released songs from each of its episodes. “Hospital Playlist” centers on five doctors in their 40s who have been friends since

Performance May 9, 2020

While Americans take to watching Korean baseball as ESPN started streaming KBO starting with Tuesday’s long-delayed Opening Day, the unique baseball fan culture in Korea has yet to be shown, as the games are being played without spectators. The baseball fan culture in Korea is unlike anything that fans would find in the MLB. The first major difference is the cheering. All 10 Korean baseball teams have songs to support the teams, which are sung multiple times by the fans at each game.

Culture May 7, 2020

Celebrities joined the #ThanksChallenge this week via their social media accounts to thank the medical personnel who have worked tirelessly to fight the COVID-19 pandemic The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the start of the challenge during its regular briefing on the COVID-19 pandemic situation on April 16. The challenge consists of posting yourself showing the word “respect” in sign language -- placing the right hand with the thumb up on top of the left

People May 5, 2020

On April 7, League of Legends Champions Korea announced that it would be adopting a long-term partnership model for 2021. LCK is the last of the major LoL esports leagues to adopt the long-term partnership model, also known as a franchise model, with the Chinese league LPL and North America league LCS having adopted the system in 2018 and European league LEC in 2019. “We started looking into the franchise model in 2018. Back then, we had just built the LoL Park Arena and started broadca

Culture May 5, 2020

Thousands of people visited the zoo in Children’s Grand Park on May 1, when it reopened after closing down due to the spread of COVID-19. All the indoor animal exhibits are still closed and only around 50 percent of the outdoor exhibits are open, but that did not stop parents from bringing their children to the park over the long weekend. “On Saturday we had around 25,000 visitors and on Sunday we had 29,000,” said Chun Jin-woo, the head of operations at Children’s Gran

Travel May 4, 2020

NCSoft’s Lineage 2M and Nexon’s Fifa Online 4 have come under fire for updates that undermine the efforts of the players and require them to spend more money. Players criticized NCSoft when a new package item update for Lineage 2M was released on April 22. While Lineage 2M is a MMORPG mobile game that is known for multiple in-app purchase contents, updates are generally welcomed by players as they mean new content. But this time many of the items required purchases. Lineage

Culture April 29, 2020

The 2nd Pyeongchang International Peace Film Festival announced on Monday eight films nominated for its International Feature Competition. “A Distance Place” by Park Kun-young from Korea, “Dust and Ashes” by Park Hee-won from Korea, “Identifying Features” by Fernanda Valadez from Mexico, “Nafi’s Father” by Mamadou Dia from Senegal, “Negative Numbers” by Uta Beria from Georgia, “Tony Driver” by Ascanio Petrini from It

Film April 28, 2020

Cinemas that were closed due to the spread of COVID-19 will resume operations this week, with CGV announcing Friday that it is to reopen 36 cinemas. “We decided to resume business and revitalize the movie industry and local market in order to overcome the difficult times caused by COVID-19,” said CGV. The 36 cinemas set to reopen Wednesday include the Myeongdong and Daehangno branches in Seoul as well as eight cinemas in Daegu and the Gyeongsang provinces. Additional CGV cinemas

Film April 26, 2020

T1 continued its dominance over League of Legends Champions Korea with a 3-0 sweep against GenG in the 2020 LCK Spring Finals on Saturday, making them LCK champions for the third consecutive season. A total of 1,074,561 people, not including viewers from Chinese platforms, watched the finals online according to Esports Charts, setting a record for the highest number of viewers for this split. Compared to around 770,000 viewers for both summer and spring season finals last year, there was a not

Culture April 26, 2020

After a 3-1 victory against DragonX on Wednesday, T1 has punched its way to the LCK finals to play against GenG on Saturday, marking the two teams’ first clash in the domestic finals in seven years. While the playoffs were conducted online, the LCK 2020 Spring Finals best-of-five will see T1 and GenG battling for the prize money of 100 million won ($81,000) at LoL Park in Jongno, central Seoul, starting at 5 p.m. Saturday. The teams will be playing to an otherwise empty venue, with no au

Culture April 23, 2020

Runners were present on the tracks along the Han River on Tuesday despite the strong wind and the coronavirus pandemic. Since spring arrived last week, hundreds of runners have filled Han River Park. Running crews at the park mostly consist of people in their late 20s to mid-30s who must apply to join, but some crews are open to anyone. Members gather two to three evenings a week to run together, but many running crews took a winter break -- one that was prolonged this year with the spread of

Culture April 23, 2020

As the number of moviegoers hit a record low number not seen in decades last month, cinemas are hosting events in which they rent out the theaters for a fraction of regular rental fees. On Monday, Megabox announced an event in which individuals can rent movie theaters for private screenings. Each of the 47 Megabox branches will have a screen set aside for the event, with each theater accommodating a maximum of 15 people at a price of 100,000 won ($81) or 10 people for the boutique suite that b

Film April 22, 2020

The English Premier League’s Son Heung-min and a number of national team athletes are working with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to provide exercises that people can do at home. The “Week of Sports,” which falls on the last week of April, will be marked online this year due to the spread of COVID-19. In honor of the Week of Sports, Son Heung-min shared simple exercises to do at home using a soccer ball that can be viewed online at the National fitness Award (nf

Culture April 21, 2020

Logos send impactful messages, and many companies are tweaking their logos to encourage social distancing and convey messages of hope. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on Tuesday posted on the internet a cheer-up logo that can be used for free. The red, blue and black logo reads “Cheer up, Daegu, North Gyeongsang Province. Cheer up, Korea.” “We hope that this ‘Cheer up, Korea’ logo gives whatever small help it can give to the people suffering from COV

Arts & Design April 19, 2020