Startale welcomes Febby; Gandhi leaves due to motivation loss



Febby sporting FXOpen brand a few months back. Image by FXOpen.

Startale, champion of Nexon Sponsorship League Season 1 told us earlier today that former fOu player Yong-Min 'Febby' Kim will be joining the team to replace Jae Song 'Gandhi' Ik who has lost his motivation to play.

The news came after Startale's visit to Poland on the 7th of December to compete in the offline playoffs of EMS One Fall. The Korean team arrived in Tychy expecting to not take a single game but surprised many when they gave Fnatic a run for their money and took down ONE in the loser bracket before getting eliminated. Jeffrey 'Tenbeezy' Yi, leader of Startale, told us that timing for the addition is perfect considering they are lacking on the carry position.

Kim has been reported to have arrived in Startale's gaming house on the 14th of December. The team is currently deep in training for their next appearance at Asian Cyber Games in Singapore on the 26th of December in which Yi said, "We are still finding our team's colours after Febby's arrival in the gaming house. I think we are still behind top tier South East Asian teams but we will try our best."

The tournament will be Kim's debut under Startale's wings. Kim said, "I am excited to play with Startale and although we may not show immediate results, we plan on showing the world that we mean business."

Kim dramatically left fOu two weeks ago after their elimination loss against MVP Phoenix. In William 'Blitz' Lee's blog entry, Lee stated that Kim claimed he no longer believes in his teammates which caused a public outrage accusing Kim to be the one who threw in the games against Jimmy 'DeMoN' Ho and co. Lee further explained that Kim has been in talks with another team, presumably Startale, prior to their loss in NSL season two.

However, Yi defended Kim and explained that while he does feel bad for Lee, Kim was clearly unhappy playing with fOu and it is merely a matter of time before it erupts. Kim also told us he regretted his actions and during that time, he acted on emotion more than anything.

Startale team roster:

Jeffrey 'Tenbeezy' Yi

Yong-Min 'Febby' Kim

Noah 'MP' Pyo

Tae-Young 'Wangjyu' Kang

Yong-Kyu 'YK' Park