KeSPA chairman Jun Byung-Hun addresses the Starcraft 2 community in Korea

This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

The state of SC2 in Korea has become all the more apparent in recent times as teams fold, and players retire almost weekly. Even the winners of the 2012-2013 season of the Proleague, STX, who fielded two of 2013's most successful players in Lee 'INnoVation' Shin Hyung and Baek 'Dear' Dong Jun could not keep on justifying the team's expenses and folded shortly after their Proleague victory.

The close to nine month break between the two Proleague seasons also made fans of the franchise wonder if there even would be enough teams to participate in the next season of the tournament, and had it not been for the inclusion of Incredible Miracle, MVP and Prime on November 16th odds are that Proleague wouldn't have been on the KeSPA agenda come 2014.

In a personal letter to the Korean SC2 community-site pgr21.com, KeSPA chairman Jun Byung-Hun talks about how the tournament came to be after intensive talks with Nexon and SPOTV, how those talks eventually lead to the creation of the Nexon Arena and the 'SPOTV Games' tv-channel. He also states that following every round of the Proleague, KeSPA will attempt to address any issues that may be present in the tournament.

The full letter, which was translated by Team Liquid-user 'hjkim1304' can be read in its entirety below:

Hello PGR21 readers,

I am Byung-Hun, Jun, the chairman of KeSPA. I apologize for the late introductions. I know the weight of importance in writing in PGR21, so I am using the KeSPA ID to say hi.

During the last season of Proleague finals, KeSPA has invested a lot of time and money, and we were impressed by how many people showed up to the finals. But after the disbandment of the winnning team as well as the runner up, the remaining Starcraft II teams had to go under a lot of restructuring. We had to go through a lot to make the 2014 Proleague happen. KeSPA had to reopen a lot of our old connections, and we were in constant communications with the remaining teams.

I requested Nexon and SPOTV to invest, and thankfully, 'Nexon Arena' and 'SPOTV Games' was born. We constantly tried to think of the ways to involve as many players and teams to Proleague as much as possible. Broadcast times and Proleague structure was decided after very careful considerations. (We will try to address any tournament issues after each rounds.) KeSPA invests the most into Proleague each year. (That is also why KeSPA is not doing so well financially) Since there are a lot of investments, we have also prepared a lot.

PGR21/Starcraft II community, I humbly bring you Proleague as the chairman of KeSPA.

Please show up to the venue. We will also try to prepare many events to encourage this. (I hear there will be especially many gifts tonight. Show up and have fun tonight) I will also try to show up as much as possible and cheer with you.

Looking back, I think I have worked tirelessly over the past year. After being appointed this January, I have tried to achieve many things. (Opening Naver eSports page, hosting LoL World Championship, Team 8th sponsorship, solving financial issues, applying to Sports Accord etc.)

I wonder how you guys (PGR community) will evaluate our performance later on. I want to be more open and communicate with the community in the coming year of 2014. I believe that without your support, that none of this would have been possible. Even though there seems to be dark times ahead politically, I take comfort in the fact that eSports future seem a lot brighter.

As the head of KeSPA, I promise you that in 2014, the Korean eSports will grow, and there will be a lot more live events for the fans to enjoy. I want to meet you in a lot more live events in the coming year. I hope you guys enjoy the Proleague,and I will see you at the Proleague venue next year!

Thank you.

Image Source: inven.co.kr