I was introduced to TS via the hardcopy boardgame, and I started to make my own modifications of the game to one boardgame copy. I'm not a professional game designer and I'm still tweaking the cards, so any suggestions will be taken onboard.
Here are the cards I've changed. Most of the changes are purely to the text (and sometimes name) of the cards - I generally have not changed the OP values.
Card "allegiance": US, USSR, or "Bilateral" (usable for event by either side)

Early War cards:

US/Japan - Amended the amount of US influence added. "US gains 3 Influence in Japan, and gains 2 Influence spread across countries adjacent to Japan. USSR may no longer make Coup or Realignment rolls in Japan."

Meta: the original no-coup/realign power was rarely useful in normal games. The Influence add was imbalanced and basically served as a trap for beginner players, making a soft-lock for experienced players. The power was so weak the US would rarely ever want to play it, rather having the USSR play it for them. The new power means the US gains contestable control of Japan if they play it for the power, and can also break South Korea or shore up Taiwan.

Red Scare/Purge - Unchanged normal text, but added an extra line: "This event cannot be played against the same player twice consecutively. This event's first target is immune to this event until the other player has also been targeted."

Meta: Pretty much what it says. This means you can't hit the same player with RSP until the other player has also subsequently been hit. This can sometimes prevent T3 reshuffle consecutive hits, but also can prevent truly messed up situations like headlining RSP, then playing Star Wars and retrieving it, to hit them again for a cumulative -2 (not that this happens all that often, but it's an edge case that can kill a game if it does).

Romanian Abdication - Changed name and power. "Exporting the Revolution: Gain 3 Influence in any non-battleground square adjacent to the USSR superpower."

Meta: Why should Romania get all the fun? Now the Soviets can menace Afghanistan, Finland, and the Chinese Civil War as well. (Note that this also requires a change to the power of Independent Reds, below.)

Independent Reds - Broadened power to: "Add sufficient US Influence to any non-battleground country to equal USSR influence."

Meta: Could be a nice card to headline or play AR7 to create a map crisis.

Formosan Resolution - this is now a recurring card. "Taiwan shall be treated as a Battleground country for scoring purposes, if the US controls Taiwan. when the Asia Scoring Card is played or during Final Scoring at the end of Turn 10. Taiwan is not a Battleground country for any other game purpose. This card is deactivated for the remainder of any turn where the US player uses The China Card."

Meta: The current effect of Formosa is so temporary that it usually never makes a difference, since Taiwan is a 3-stab territory which makes it expensive to grab, and The China Card becomes increasingly important to manage DEFCON suicide and hand hold cards. This implementation means Formosa sticks around until the end of the game, although it gets turned over facedown if and when the US plays the China Card (and it gets turned face up at the same time as the China Card for a neat symmetry).

The Cambridge Five - power is unchanged, with the following addition and following limitation: "If US has no scoring cards, USSR may add 1 Influence to any territory where it already has at least 1 Influence. Cannot be played as an event after The Iron Lady."

Meta: In the current game state, C5 is an all-or-nothing gamble that the US has a scoring card. (And if the US headlines its sole scoring card at the same time the USSR headlines C5, the USSR still gets nothing.) Given the extreme damage that the Cambridge Five actually did in history, I thought it better to give it a minor effect if you gamble and lose - the Soviets get to shore up one point in one country. This is still a card that the USSR would need to think about before using, since a swing-and-a-miss basically converts a 2 OP card into a 1 harmless Influence.

Nuclear Test Ban - power changed to mirror the 1989 Dawn of Freedom card Samizdat. "Player may set aside one card from their hand and draw a new card from the deck. The set-aside card returns to the hand before drawing new cards."

Meta: The actual VP award of the original card was rarely played (since either way you were losing 4 OPs, and the only time you'd get max 3 VPs was when DEFCON was at 5, which rarely happens). More usually, it was played to ~~lower~~ increase DEFCON by 2 so you could get a breathing space of one DEFCON-degrader on your next turn (though your opponent could potentially counter this by just degrading DEFCON twice - e.g. Soviet coup in a BG with either Duck and Cover or First Lightning). This "set-aside one card" mechanic buys you a bit more time, by letting you worry about it next turn (perhaps during a headline) or hoping to draw UN Intervention or simply getting the China Card back from your opponent.

NATO - Conditions changed - now can be triggered by only one card, Marshall Plan. NATO triggers Warsaw Pact, not the other way round. Power changed to read: "US controlled European countries are immune to USSR coups, realignments, or Brush War. At the end of any AR where USSR adds, or US loses, Influence in Western Europe, US may reapportion up to 3 Influence among Western European countries, adding no more than 2 per country."

Meta: NATO is a very high OP card but the power seems to be underpowered for its OP cost, apparently reflecting an early beta version of the game where each nation had a civil stability and a military stability, and coups/realignments were evidently supposed to be a much greater threat than in the final ruleset. This revised power operates like a mini-Destalinization for the US in Western Europe only, but it reflects the NATO concept that any Soviet aggression against one member will be treated as an aggression against all. It allows the US to reallocate some of their OPs around W. Europe and dulls the effect of Socialist Governments, Suez, etc.
It also means that cards like De Gaulle and Willy Brandt now actually do something important when they deactivate NATO for France and Germany respectively, since the US can no longer destalinize to or from those nations. (Tear Down This Wall can counteract Willy Brandt, but De Gaulle is forever.)
NATO is probably the most wonky 4 OP card in the game and it's clear the Optional cards tried to reaffirm its usefulness. I'm sure the above design needs further refinement.
Also, Warsaw Pact in history was formed as a response to NATO, so this change reflects that.

Warsaw Pact - precondition changed to "Play after NATO." Power retains base effects.

Mid War Cards:

Willy Brandt - added extra power. "USSR gains 1 VP. USSR gains 1 Influence in West Germany and discards a card from US player's hand at random. (Prevented or canceled by Tear Down This Wall)"

Meta: The "discard a card from US hand" power now could cut both ways. It could be played by the USSR in an attempt to make things inconvenient for the US. Alternatively, the US could play it on AR7 in order to discard an inconvenient final card (much as USSR can already do with Five-Year-Plan or US can already do with Aldrich Ames).

Quagmire and Bear Trap - these cards now give an increasing bonus to escape. Text now reads "As next action round, US [or USSR] player must discard a card worth 2 Ops or higher and roll, adding the Ops to the roll result. Event is canceled on a 5+. Each failure adds +1." (Remainder of text starting with "Repeat..." is unchanged.)

Meta: It's still conceptually possible to get stuck for multiple ARs (especially if Red Scare/Purged) but the chances are much more remote. Each failed roll gives you a further +1 to escape, meaning as long as you have enough 2+ OP cards, you will eventually be assured of escaping. In my variant, a higher Op card also increases your chance of escape - if you immediately throw away a 4 OP card, you are guaranteed to escape (unless RS/P'd) since 4+1d6 automatically meets or exceeds 5.

Summit - changed to "Chinese Border War", Bilateral. "If your opponent has The China Card faceup, you may spend 4 Ops in Asia immediately. If played by the USSR with 3 Influence in the Chinese Civil War space, USSR gains 1 VP."

Meta: Summit's power was cumbersome to calculate and the payoff was too swingy to be worthwhile. Now its power is sometimes useful, either to counter a China Card play last turn, or to counter Ussuri/Cultural Revolution.

Cultural Revolution - Additional powers. "If the US has The China Card, claim it face up and available for play. If the USSR already has it, gain VP equal to the amount of USSR influence in the Chinese Civil War space. No event can remove the China Card from the USSR for the remainder of this turn."

Meta: CR is a nice China Card stealer like Ussuri. However, the rest of the power is underwhelming. I added a power to "lock down" USSR's hold of China Card for the remainder of the turn so it cannot be stolen (although it can still be played and handed over that way). The VP award is now 0 VP to 3 VP depending on how much USSR influence there is in the Chinese Civil War square, making it somewhat comparable to OPEC in power but less powerful than, say, Colonial Rearguards.

Other cards I'm thinking of changing:

Fidel. Much as US/Japan is frustrating to handover control of Japan to one side unilaterally, Fidel is similarly disheartening for the US player who pushes influence into Cuba. Perhaps a simple "gain 3 Inf in Cuba" and possibly another Inf in an adjacent country may work better. That way, the US could play this card, pushing its 2 OPs as influence into Cuba and keeping it competitive.
War Cards. The current mechanic (whereby the winner consolidates influence of both sides) is pretty variable - it can result in 0/0 influence if that was the starting state of the AR, or it can result in a 10/0 state flipping to 0/10, which is usually pretty demoralizing to a player midgame (as well as thematically difficult to wrap my head around).

Considering changing this to give the winning side Influence equal to the stability rating of the nation. That way, the losing player could still shore up the nation to reduce the "winner takes all" outcome (by putting in 2x stability Influence).

The Iron Lady: it feels too harsh that the USSR can play this card and take over a 2/0 Argentina in one AR. Perhaps the US can choose 1 Inf to remove in South America, or the OPs value of the card can be reduced to prevent the USSR from simply pumping Influence into Argentina. Also, C5 is now made unplayable by this card for a minor boost.

Thoughts on other game mechanics:
Possible ways to mitigate the swinginess of dice rolls and card OP values. TL;DR:

Dice rolls - once per turn, you can burn a card to set a die roll to match the OP value of the card. If it's an enemy card, then your opponent chooses whether or not they want the power to happen first or your die roll to happen first.
Card drafting - split deck into Low Deck (SCs, 1OP, 2OP) and High Deck (3OP, 4OP) and each player draws their cards in alternating order from low to high to low etc. While this doesn't prevent you from getting a worse hand than your OP, it does reduce the OP variance (since if you drew three very low OP cards like 3 Scoring Cards, as happened in an international TS final, at least you drew three cards worth 3 or 4OPs guaranteed to counterbalance it instead of three cards worth 1 OP).

Space Race could probably benefit from a +1 to roll if burning your own card, and +1 to roll if you've tried and failed at this stage before. (Similar to 1989's Tiananmen Square track.)

Thanks for reading!

The above is posted for review and suggestions. In all honesty, I'm getting to the point where base TS' swinginess in dice rolls and (especially) card drafting is turning me away from the game and I'm trying to reduce this element on a per-game basis (since I don't really have the time to "play lots of games so it evens out in the end").
I appreciate gentle suggestions in advance. For any feedback basically consisting of "I would never play this game using your proposed changes" (or similar vein) you can probably safely assume I know that already.

This is primarily a rant about the 2 biggest local publishers, Asiasoft and Garena.
Asiasoft started off with popular Korean MMOs like Maplestory, CABAL, AIKA etc.
While Garena primarily does League of Legends.
The issue is that these publishers buy the rights to publish the game locally and in the South-East Asia region, and I believe they also pay a hefty sum to the original publishers to impose an IP Block on local players if they try to access worldwide servers (NA, EUR etc.).
This prevents us from playing on a Global Server, which is less likely to die off as compared to our local servers. The main issue comes when the population dies, and it's no longer profitable to host the local servers, and they close the servers. The IP Ban still exists, and we are left with nothing to play except for Private Servers or trying to wrap our heads around VPN.
Additional problems come from the ineptitude of our publishers. A prime example is MapleSEA. Due to lack of staff or budget, they frequently Google Translate (admitted by the game staff) the latest updates from Korea, often resulting in Engrish. While it can be said to be applicable to our local culture, it does not seem that professional or enjoyable after awhile. Other translations are half-assed and incomplete and NPC Texts are often ??? because not everyone has Hangul installed on their system. Garena is also notorious for only coming up with literally back-to-back events to encourage people to spend money to gamble for skins, unlike the other servers.
In addition, I'm not sure as to what happened to Nintendo, with regards to the E-Shop on the 3DS/Switch. Many of my fellow Singaporeans have complained that they have to switch to US/Canada in order to buy games. Some have also been banned trying to buy using a Singapore account. I think something similar is occurring there.
I don't think anything can really be done, as this is beyond the power of a common man to change, which is why this is more of a rant post.

Favor for the GTA Reddit of the day.
Kudos to - www.wizardslots.com and various Redditors for input. I have removed those fields that are just for 'Land Based' as they should allow online gambling alright. Some have very odd laws and will need tested.

Afghanistan
Algeria
American Samoa
Argentina
Azerbaijan
Bahamas
Bhutan
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Belarus
Brunei
Cambodia – gambling is illegal for natives, but land-based gambling is legal for foreign visitors
Cayman Islands – land-based gambling is illegal, and online local casinos are banned, whereas foreign slots are not
China
Costa Rica
Cuba
Cyprus – online sports betting ok with a license
Czech Republic – majority of online gambling is illegal (except online lottery and online sports betting)
Ecuador
Greece – some online gambling is illegal
Iceland – online casino gambling and online poker illegal – offline gambling is legal
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Jamaica
Jordan
Kuwait
Lebanon
Libya
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg – illegal online other than sports betting and online lottery
Maldives
Mali – only legal for foreign visitors
Mauritania
Malta - gambling services need a license from the government, this is up to R* to apply for
Malaysia - note: seems to work for some and not for others. No clear reasons why so far.
Montenegro
North Korea
Oman
Pakistan
Paraguay
Peru
Poland – everything but online sports betting is illegal
Portugal - gambling services need a license from the government, this is up to R* to apply for
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Somalia
South Africa - online gambling is illegal
South Korea
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Syria
Thailand - everything but Horse Racing and the Government Lotto
Tuvalu
United Arab Emirates
Vietnam
Venezuela

Notable edits - Originally the USA was added to this, it is illegal to gamble in Hawaii and Utah for example but the casino seems to function as normal there. There are a few countries as well that have gambling laws but again GTA's seems to duck underneath these. I'm not an enforcer of the law, nor am I a solicitor but common sense would lead me to say if GTA is allowing you to do it then you shouldn't have to worry about anything. If you cannot access the Casino games, VPN's are a known work around but this could net you in trouble. I won't be assisting players on where to find those (various comments have so far) but be warned it is to be used at your own discretion.

CALLS

Count: 33
AMC 100C 4/17
AMC 5c 4/17
AMD $40c 01/21
AMD $60c 01/21
AMD 40c 01/20
AMD 40c 01/21
BAC 29c 4/17
BAC 4/17 $29c
CCL $14C 4/17
CCL 5/15 25c
COP $37c 04/24
DEO $145c 4/17
EURN $10C 8/21
FRO $10c 5/15
HYG $95C 5/15
LW 85C 10/16
NKE 95c 5/15
RGR 65c 7/17
SPY 285c 4/13
SPY 290C 5/1
SPY 300c 4/17
SPY 315c 5/1
SPY 315c 5/1
SPY 315c 5/1
SPY 320c 5/29
SPY 4/17 1601c
SPY 4/17 280c
SPY 4/17 280c
SPY 4/17 300c
SPY 5/15 250c
SPY 500c 5/1
V 5/15 $185c
VIX 80c 5/20

PUTS

Count: 35
GLD 140p 05/09
LQD 115p 4/17
M $6p 4/3
MCS $10P 8/21
NCLH 12p 4/24
SPY $150p 6/17
SPY $170p 4/20
SPY $200p 06/21
SPY $200p 6/19
SPY $220P 5/15
SPY $230p 4/17
SPY 200P 06/30
SPY 200p 4/17
SPY 220p 11/20
SPY 220p 4/27
SPY 220p 5/15
SPY 220p 7/17
SPY 230P 09/04
SPY 240p 5/15
SPY 244p 4/20
SPY 250P 05/15
SPY 250P 5/1
SPY 250p 5/15
SPY 250p 5/15
SPY 4/17 160p
SPY 4/17 220P
SPY 5/15 220P
SPY 5/15 220p
SPY 69p 4/20
TSLA 4/17 200p
TSLA 570p 4/17
USO $6p 4/17
ZM 120P 8/21
ZM 4/17 100p
ZM 4/17 100p
source code
Don't see yours? i can only catch plays in a specific format. These might have plays in them:

Posts containing dates ^not perfect

4/1, 5/1, 4/7, 4/1, 12/1, 3/20, 04/17, 5/2, 4/1, 4/7, 24/7, 5/1, 5/15, 4/17, 04/17, 12/18, 5/15, 5/15, 4/17, 4/1, 12/20, 4/24, 4/17, 4/17, 24/7, 6/1, 7/10, 4/20, 5/4, 4/16, 1/1, 2/3, 4/17, 5/1, 9/1, 5/1, 6/1, 5/1, 4/1, 7/17, 6/19, 7/17, 4/17, 5/1, 1/3, 10/10, 6/19, 5/1, 3/4, 1/3, 24/7, 4/1, 2/3, 4/20, 5/1, 10/10, 50/50, 8/2, 6/9, 5/1, 5/1, 4/17, 5/1, 7/15, 9/18, 6/1, 04/17, 5/15, 5/15, 4/1, 6/1, 06/19, 06/19, 3/20, 5/15, 4/27, 8/2, 1/20, 05/15, 4/17, 04/17, 4/9, 7/22, 4/1, 4/29, 4/13, 50/50, 4/20, 4/17, 5/1, 5/1, 4/24, 3/6, 5/15, 3/2, 5/1, 1/10, 10/10, 1/20, 4/17, 4/17, 5/1, 7/17, 4/1, 4/21, 4/13, 3/20, 4/18, 3/2, 4/17, 4/20, 5/1, 4/15, 4/17, 5/1, 4/20, 4/17, 10/20, 5/15, 20/30, 5/1, 4/17, 75/80, 4/20, 4/17, 1/10, 04/22, 5/1, 4/17, 6/1, 7/17, 5/15, 4/3, 5/15, 4/17, 6/16, 5/15, 4/15, 6/9, 5/06, 9/18, 5/15, 4/24, 4/27, 1/5, 5/20, 99/10, 4/6, 1/2, 04/20, 5/15, 1/3, 4/9, 4/22, 4/17, 4/17, 80/28, 50/50, 3/15, 30/40,

Posts containing strike prices

54c, 6P, 1p, 46C, 88c, 8p, 2C, 2c, 8c, 13P, 180P, 3000c, 6c, 7299c, 250p, 9C, 5p, 1c, 386c, 2C, 0c, 20p, 1p, 538c, 4c, 155p, 4162c,

Hello, I have been looking around to find information about gaming in Vietnam. There seems to be little to no infomation. I tried looking up searches for "retrocomputing in vietmam, "internet in vietnam", "computing in vietnam", and "gaming in vietnam".
The only information I can found out was that most use internet cafes and smart phones. I know about gaming in china, japan, and Brazil. There is not much about Vietnam. The only thing is the supercomputer that predicted the war. The reason I am asking is because china saw a rise in gaming after it industrialized. Now Vietnam is realy industrializeing thanks to the costs rising in china. After seeing westons video it got me thinking...Why do we know nothing about the gaming sceen in Vietnam. Most counties don't have much info about there gaming sceens and so I got currious and I hope you don't mind indulging me.

Most articles just talk about smart phones and internet cafes being populer, but that is it. No info about what OS's they use or why. For example Korea took a liking to apple clones durring the Mac OS 7 erra. Japan had the pc-88, FM-towns, MSX, PC-98, and the IBM PC latter after a lot of money was spent by IBM. Brazil just had clones until PC's and the Zeboo. The UK had way to many computers. Did you guys have your own machines or was it that imports were common. I heard your guys learn basic english at 3rd grade. What did you guys think of the MSX? Was it even populer in this region? Did the goverment allow computers are did they try to block them like Russia did and the UK did to Russia unless it ran CP/M? Were there clones of computers like the spectrum or the Commodore 64? What were the thoughts on computers back then? How about "computes" from china like the subor and the subor clones with the close import of games from china in latter years.
What was the view on Video game consoles? Most of us have parents that ether don't care about video games are hate them. most don't know much other then how to use facebook and other web sites now. I know chinese parants hated video game consles for a view reasons. The first is the CPP thought it could influance kids into accepting american, japanese, and UK ideals during the 8bit generation. Then you had the mindset that it was just like gambleing some thing that has been contriversal for a LONG time. Then you had the whole made in japan issue that prevented companys like Nintendo and Sega entering most asian markets because the whole WW2 thing. Yet Vietnam is not the same as most others. It was never conqured by Japan so those raceist and totaly justified predijucess don't apply. So why did consoles not take off? Was it just do to cost or was it infrustuchure damage? Were Video games demonized back then like in china or did they do a ban to preserver communisum like in china? I know you have modern systems,but how about older ones. Did systems like the gamecube come out there and what was the response to consoles up to know. Do you guys like older consoles or do you like modern ones? What do most gamers think about retro gaming/retrocomputing? How populer was it there. Do younge/mid aged vietnamese want retro stuff or do they only like modern stuff?
So what about culutre. I quess I should clarify. What launge do most Vietnamese perfere for games English or Japanes.e as from what view topics here are about gaming it seems kids just learn what ever it takes to play the game? Also what is considerd offensive? In america we are ok with blood, violance, and gore while in japan they are ok with highly sexualized and hate violance and blood. What do your guys find offvensive and did you buy those games/movies/anime any way? Also what about religon in games? It is common and tooken strieght in the US, but in many asian games it is just sceen as another relgion (expect china) and thus more lude and "offensive" religous games are made there. Is there some thing like that in vietnam? What group doe most people fall into? Also what type of controler types do you like big like western controlers like the xbox or small controlers like japan? Also what do the vietnames think of amercian products that have an "american" feel like the Xbox? Also what about hand helds in Vietnam? Are they populer like most are in japan would most prefer high end options?
What about online gaming and MMO's. It sounds like many game with MMO's like in S. Korea. What types of MMO's or populer there? Also would they be interested in console MMO's like PSO or .hack//fragment? If cafes offered the ability to play mmos's on the dreamcast/ps2/xbox would they be interested? Also how about local gaming like LAN partys? Were those ever populer and if so what ones? Also do you guys have local servers or do you you require ones hosted elese where? Also how is the internet there other then it is everywhere and cheap? I mean who provides it? Is is cable company's, or others? Is dial up still used like it is in the US? HOw about other forms like DSL and wimax?
How do people there learn to program? I have read that the goverment helps kids learn IT and SEARN stuff, but yet not how? In the US it was ad hock until the 90's when MS and Apple began druging the schools. They would invest heavily into schools to help get the kids addictied to there products. Before that you had to learn from a manual you bought with your micro or you went to univeristy. The UK had the BBC computer litercy project. They had 4 alone just for the BBC mico. The only show we had was the computer chronicles on PBS. How did this work in Vietnam?
How populer was piracy in Vietnam then and now? In the uk is was off the charts just on the amiga alone. Then you add the ST, PC, and c64 pircay was very, very high. In the us it was high in some areas but low in others depending on what you had and what every one else had. How bad is/was computer software piracy in vietnam? How about bootlegs are they common like in china/japan? We did get some bootlegs but most were made after the 5th gerneration 1993-1998 with the playstation. You did have the famicom disc system bootlegs in japan. Did Vietnam get the famicom clones like Brazil and Africa did? Weston (sperantzila (china bloger) advchina) was in three videos with a subor that was sold in africa that he brought with him when he moved to china. Were they populer in Vietnam? Did you guys have things like the CD dr? Also how about homebrew in vietnam? How about arcades did they exist in Vietnam? What do you guys think about them? Do you want them in Vietnam?
What are the power and Video standards for Vietnam? Is it NTSC, PAL, or PAL-M (brazil)? Also what voltage do you use? Do you need to use power converters in order to use them? How many devices can you fit on average? How many people do you know that have HD/flat screen TV's and what standards do they use?
What about Steam? Do you guys have it or is it banned? What about lootboxes you love em or hate them? What about DLC is it common there? What type of games are populer there/generes that are populer there? How about DVD games and board games are they common and how do people feel about them? How about TCG's like Magic, yugioh, Pokemon TCG, Digimon ect? Do you have trade shopes like we do or are they not common yet and if not why/why not? Also how do you guys game? do you take breaks? Do you eat and game like us fat amercians do (come guys most of us or fat (high risk for cv19 and higher risk of death) moving on.(I am super fat (and infected (and peeing my pants). Do younge teens get additicted like in S Korea and japan? How common does it lead to being a NEET? Do you like to game together like in japan or alone and online like in the west? Also what do you guys think of pong?

With so much uncertainty right now it would be a good time to take some time to go over what happened recently and how to invest moving foward. We've seen a peak bubble at around 850 billion total market cap in the first week of January, consolidated down to $750 billion and have now just experienced a 40% correction.

What's happening now and how bad will it get?

First of all you should realize that there is a January Dip that happens every year, when we see a roughly 20-30% decline around mid January. This year its been much more severe though for several additional factors that have compounded on top.
Different theories exist on why this happens (its actually the mirror opposite of the "January Effect" that happens in the US stock market), but the two major theories are:
1) Asian markets pull into fiat because of Asian New Year spending needs
2) People in the US sell in January to defer their capital gains tax liability an extra year
While this cyclic event has lead to a healthy correction in the last few years, this year we got these new factors making more fear as well:

Yet more scary news on China cracking down on crypto exchanges
Korea regulatory uncertainty
European governments talking about regulations
BTC futures contracts are now expiring this week, and possible manipulation there with contract hedging pushing the price down
Bitconnect Ponzi finally collapses
We had a new breed of speculators come in during the NovembeDecember timeframe after media made cryptocurrency mainstream following the Bitcoin 10K landmark. While cryptocurrency markets have always had too much hype, the latest rise wasn't just over-enthusiasm in fundamentally sound cryptocurrencies like Monero and Ethereum, but mass inflows of fiat into vaporware and complete nonsense without any use case. Many people came in to essentially gamble on symbols on an exchange, and are thus short term oriented and quick to sell on any slight downturn, which such further adds to selling pressure.

So in essence we got a storm of scary news along with the usual cyclic downturn. Currently I don't see this as being a systematic crash like Mt.Gox was that would lead to a long term bear market because the fundamental ecosystem is still intact, and I suspect that after about a month we should consolidate around a new low. All the exchanges are still operational and liquid, and there is no breakdown in trust nor uncertainty whether you'll be able to cash out. What range the market trades in will all depend how Bitcoin does, right now we've already broken below 10K but I'm seeing a lot of support at around $8000, which is roughly where the long term MA curve settles. We don't know how bad it will get or what the future will bring, but as of right now we shouldn't be in a bear market yet.
What should you do if you recently entered the market?
If you did buy in the last few months at or near ATH, the very worst thing you can do now is sell in panic and lose your principal. You shouldn't have more money in crypto than you can afford to lose, so it shouldn't be a problem to wait. You have to realize that 30% corrections in crypto are relatively common, just last fall we had a 40% flash correction over more China fears. Unless there is a systematic breakdown like we had during Mt.Gox, the market always recovers.
The other worst thing you can do is unload into Tether as your safety net. If there is one thing that could actually cause a long term destruction of trust within the cryptocurrency investment ecosystem, its Tether having a run up on their liabilities and not having enough reserve to cover the leverage. It would not only bring down exchanges but lead to years of litigation and endless media headlines that will scare off everybody from putting fiat in. I don't know when the next Mt.Gox meltdown will occur but I can almost guarantee it will involve Tether. So stay away from it.
What should long term investors do?
For long term holders a good strategy to follow each year is to capture profit each December and swallow the capital gains taxation liability, park a reserve of fiat at Gemini (whose US dollar deposits are FDIC-insured) and simply wait till around late January to early February to re-enter the market at a discount and hold all year until next December. You can keep a small amount in core coins in order to trade around various Q1 opportunities you anticipate. Others may choose to simply do nothing and just keep holding throughout January which is also a perfectly fine strategy. The cyclical correction usually stabilizes toward late January and early February, then we see a rise in March and generally are recovered by end of April. Obviously this decision whether to sell in December to profit on the dip and pay tax liability or to just hold will depend on your individual tax situation. Do your own math sometime in November and follow suit.
Essentially revaluate your positions and trim your position sizes if you don't feel comfortable with the losses.

How to construct your portfolio going forward

Rather than seeing the correction as a disaster see it as a time to start fresh. If you have been FOMO-ing into bad cryptos and losing money now is a time to start a systematic long term approach to investing rather than gambling.
Follow a methodology for evaluating each cryptocurrency
Memes and lambo dreams are fun and all, but I know many of you are investing thousands of dollars into crypto, so its worth it to put some organized thought into it as well. I can't stress enough how important it is to try and logically contruct your investment decisions. If you follow a set methodology, a checklist and template you will be able to do relative comparisons between cryptocurrencies, to force yourself to consider the negatives and alternative scenarios and also sleep comfortably knowing you have a sound basis for your investment decisions (even if they turn out to be wrong).
There is no ideal or "correct" methodology but I can outline mine:
1) Initial information gathering and filtering
Once I identify something that looks like a good potential investment, I first go to the CoinMarketCap page for that symbol and look at the website and blockchain explorer.

Critically evaluate the website. This is the first pass of the bullshit detector and you can tell from a lot from just the website whether its a scam. If it uses terms like "Web 4.0" or other nonsensical buzzwords, if its unprofessional and has anonymous teams, stay away. Always look for a roadmap, compare to what was actually delivered so far. Always check the team, try to find them on LinkedIn and what they did in the past.
Read the whitepaper or business development plan. You should fully understand how this crypto functions and how its trying to create value. If there is no use case or if the use case does not require or benefit from a blockchain, move on. Look for red flags like massive portions of the float being assigned to the founders of the coin, vague definition of who would use the coin, anonymous teams, promises of large payouts...etc
Check the blockchain explorer. How is the token distribution across accounts? Are the big accounts holding or selling? Which account is likely the foundation account, which is the founders account?
Read the subreddit and blogs for the cryptocurrency and also evaluate the community. Try to figure out exactly what the potential use cases are and look for sceptical takes. Look at the Github repos, does it look empty or is there plenty of activity?

2) Fill out an Investment Checklist
I have a checklist of questions that I find important and as I'm researching a crypto I save little snippets in Evernote of things that are relevant to answering those questions:

What is the problem or transactional inefficiency the coin is trying to solve?
What is the Dev Team like? What is their track record? How are they funded, organized?
Who is their competition and how big is the market they're targeting? What is the roadmap they created?
What current product exists?
How does the token/coin actually derive value for the holder? Is there a staking mechanism or is it transactional?
What are the weaknesses or problems with this crypto?

3) Create some sort of consistent valuation model/framework, even if its simple
I have a background in finance so I like to do Excel modeling. For those who are interested in that, this article is a great start and also Chris Burniske has a great blog about using Quantity Theory of Money to build an equivalent of a DCF analysis for crypto.
Here is an Excel file example of OMG done using his model. You can download this and play around with it yourself, see how the formulas link and understand the logic.
Once you have a model set up the way you like in Excel you can simply alter it to account for various float oustanding schedule and market items that are unique to your crypto, and then just start plugging in different assumptions. Think about what is the true derivation of value for the coin, is it a "dividend" coin that you stake within a digital economy and collect fees or is it a currency? Use a realistic monetary velocity (around 5-10 for currency and around 1-2 for staking) and for the discount rate use at least 3x the long term return of a diversified equity fund.
The benefit is that this forces you to think about what actually makes this coin valuable to an actual user within the digital economy its participating in and force you to think about the assumptions you are making about the future. Do your assumptions make sense? What would the assumptions have to be to justify its current price? You can create different scenarios in a matrix (optimistic vs. pessimistic) based on different assumptions for risk (discount rate) and implementation (adoption rates).
If you don't understand the above thats perfectly fine, you don't need to get into full modeling or have a financial background. Even a simple model that just tries to derive a valuation through relative terms will put you above most crypto investors. Some simple valuation methods that anyone can do

Metcalfe's Law which states that the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system (n^2). So you can compare various currencies based on their market cap and square of active users or traffic.
Another easy one is simply looking at the total market for the industry that the coin is supposedly targeting and comparing it to the market cap of the coin. Think of the market cap not only with circulating supply like its shown on CMC but including total supply. For example the total supply for Dentacoin is 1,841,395,638,392, and when multiplied by its price in early January we get a market cap that is actually higher than the entire industry it aims to disrupt: Dentistry.
If its meant to be just used as just a currency: Take a look at the circulating supply and look at the amount that is in cold storage or set to be released/burned. Most cryptos are deflationary so think about how the float schedule will change over time and how this will affect price.

Once you have a model you like set up, you can compare cryptos against each other and most importantly it will require that you build a mental framework within your own mind on why somebody would want to own this coin other than to sell it to another greater fool for a higher price. Modeling out a valuation will lead you to think long term and think about the inherent value, rather than price action.
Once you go through this 3-step methodology, you'll have a pretty good confidence level for making your decision and can comfortably sit back and not panic if some temporary short term condition leads to a price decrease. This is how "smart money" does it.
Think about your portfolio allocation
You should think first in broad terms how you allocate between "safe" and "speculative" cryptos.
For new investors its best to keep a substantial portion in what would be considered largecap safe cryptos, primarily BTC, ETH, LTC. I personally consider XMR to be safe as well. A good starting point is to have between 50-70% of your portfolio in these safe cryptocurrencies. As you become more confident and informed you can move your allocation into speculative small caps.
You should also think in terms of segments and how much of your total portfolio is in each segment:

Core holdings - BTC, Ethereum, LTC...etc
Platform segment - Ethereum, NEO, Ark...etc
Privacy segment - Monero, Zcash, PivX..etc
Finance/Bank settlement segment - Ripple, Stellar...etc
Enterprise Blockchain solutions segment -VeChain, Walton, WABI...etc
Promising/Innovative Tech segment - Raiblocks, IOTA, Cardano...etc

You should also think about where we are in the cycle, as now given so much uncertaintly its probably best to stay heavily in core holdings and pick up a few coins within a segment you understand well. If you don't understand how enterprise solutions work or how the value chain is built through corporations, don't invest in the enteprise blockchain solutions segment. If you are a technie who loves the technology behind Cardano or IOTA, invest in that segment.
Think of your "circle of competence"
This is actually a term Buffet came up with, it refers to your body of knowledge that allows you to evaluate an investment. Think about what you know best and consider investing in those type of coins. If you don't know anything about how supply chains functions, how can you competently judge whether VeChain or WaltonChain will achieve adoption?
This where your portfolio allocation also comes into play. You should diversify but really shouldn't be in much more than around 12 cryptos, because you simply don't have enough competency to accurately access the risk across every segment and for every type of crypto you come across. If you had over 20 different cryptos in your portfolio you should probably think about consolidating to a few sectors you understand well.
Continually educate yourself about the technology and markets
If you aren't already doing it: Read a bit each day about cryptocurrencies. There are decent Youtubers that talk about the market side of crypto, just avoid those that hype specific coins and look for more sceptical ones like CryptoInvestor. If you don't understand how the technology works and what the benefits of a blockchain are or how POS/POW works or what a DAG is or how mining actually works, learn first. If you don't care about the technology or find reading about it tedious, you shouldn't invest in this space at all.

Summing it up

I predicted a few days ago that we would have a major correction in 2018 specifically in the altcoins that saw massive gains in Decemebeearly January, and it seems we've already had a pretty big one. I don't think we'll have a complete meltdown like some are predicting, but some more pain may be incoming.
Basically take this time to think about how you can improve your investment style and strategy. Make a commitment to value things rather than chasing FOMO, and take your time to make a decision. Long term investment will grant you much more returns as will a systematic approach.
Take care and have fun investing :)
Edit March 2018: Lol looking back I'm regretting starting the title with "Why we won't have a long term bear market" now, I was more karma whoring with that catchy title than anything. We recovered up to 11K from this post, but then crashed again hard later in February-March because of a slew of reasons from Tether subpeona to unforseen regulatory issues.

For the ICT industry, the US blockade of Huawei is actually a gamble.
Most of the global ICT manufacturing industry chain and brands are concentrated in East Asia. There are five global chip buyers in the East Asia region (Samsung, Huawei, Lenovo, BBK, Xiaomi). Among Apple's 200 largest global suppliers, 139 (almost 70%) are from East Asia. At the same time, for the 807 factories of Apple's 200 largest suppliers worldwide, only 62(7.7%) in the United States. while 605 in East Asia (China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan), accounting for 75%, of which China accounts for 47.76%. USA is actually marginalized in this manufacturing field. Beyond the East Asian industrial chain, the United States is like an isolated island, so it must remain open, participate and integrate into the East Asian industrial chain.

Most of the components manufacturing involved in the ICT industry have long gone in the United States.
It is difficult for this industry chain to return to the United States. Currently the unemployment rate in the United States is not high, so the manufacturing industry can only attrract talents by offering higher salaries. At the same time the demographic changes in the United States are also difficult to support large-scale manufacturing employment.

The biggest advantage of Americans lies in the semiconductor designing and the manufacturing of some semiconductor products. The United States is far away from East Asia, which is the center of ICT manufacturing, and this is a natural disadvantage.

Because the component suppliers and down stream product brands are gathered in East Asia, they have their own will to purchase semiconductor products. In other words, If I am a customer, I have my own choice, I can buy from you or buy from others.
Currently, American companies have advantages in the semiconductor technology, so the downstream companies have no choice, they have to buy from USA to participate in the division of labor to obtain profits.

The United States promoting the blockade of Huawei, in fact, is promoting China to invest more at the core advantages of the United States, and once China catches up in this area and finds that it can fully realize the internal circulation of the ICT industry, without the need to purchase from US companies thousands of miles away, then the US semiconductor industry, being far away from the East Asian industry chain manufacturing center, will only be gradually replaced.

This story has happened a lot. an example is Shenzhen Huiding Technology. The world's largest fingerprint identification company is in Europe --- Sweden's FPC, and when Chinese companies found that Huiding's domestic fingerprint identification chips are also capable enough, OPPO, VIVO, Huawei, and others have all switched to Huiding, so there are no opportunities for similar companies in Europe and the United States anymore, they have to gradually withdraw from the industrial chain.

In this sense, USA is playing with fire. If USA insists on blocking Huawei for one or two years, then for the United States, those American technology companies with weaker technology will be affected first, because one year later, They will find out that they have been replaced by local Chinese suppliers permanently, because the US government's crackdown on ZTE and Huawei has given Chinese local chip companies that did not have the opportunity to participate in market competition.
Once you are replaced, it is very difficult to enter the East Asian industry chain again. This is why it is so important for Americans to return manufacturing and the industrial chain to the United States.

This is a competition in which China is scrambling for technological advances in the semiconductor field,
while the Americans are striving to maintain the advantages of semiconductor technology while get the industry chain returning to the United States.
At present, China already has a large number of global brands, China's industrial chain also have a large number of component manufacturers ---- camera modules, CMOS sensors, mobile phone processors, OLED display panels, mobile phone lenses, glass covers, metal processing, FPC and circuit boards have successively made breakthroughs and being shipped on a large scale. SMIC's FinFET 12nm process, YMTC's 64 layer Nand Flash, Changxin's DRAM4 is about to be mass-produced in a few months.

If the industry chain is firmly in the hands of China, then only the semiconductors will be left for the United States.
Once Chinese companies made technology breakthroughs, there is no need from the US companies. As long as the technology is on par for the two countries, the US products will be replaced soon, and once replaced, it will almost never come back.

For Huawei, ZTE, OPPO, VIVO, and Xiaomi, since they can buy it in Shenzhen, why should they buy it from the United States?
The ZTE incident in 2018 lasted for almost three months from April to July. The US chip share has been permanently reduced in ZTE's procurement process. ZTE has increased its procurement of self-produced, domestically produced, and other non-US-based chips, which is a permanent loss for US semiconductor companies.

Huawei's capacity is seven times that of ZTE. It is one of the only three billion-dollar electronic technology companies in the world. In 2018, Huawei's global semiconductor purchases reached US$21.131 billion, an increase of 45.2%. This is also why the US semiconductor company's stock has plummeted after Huawei received a ban.

This also makes the United States face a situation:
If the ban is persistent, not only the semiconductor suppliers in the United States will be affected, after all, it is very painful to lose a large customer; At the same time, Huawei's customers around the world will also be affected, including the United States. The impact is global.
Even if this ban is revoked in the future, the share of US semiconductor companies in Huawei will be permanently lost or reduced, which will actually weaken the advantages of American semiconductor companies. In other words, once this decision is made, the United States will suffer a lot loss, whether or not the ban is lifted.

On the other hand, If the Chinese government suddenly announces a ban on Samsung or Apple, China's domestic component suppliers cannot sell to Samsung or Apple. they will inevitably suffer severe loss. Once they were kicked out of the supply chain of Apple or Samsung, it would be difficult to join again. So Chinese government would not do that.

The Trump administration is willing to bear this loss, indicating that they are very determined to weaken China's scientific and technological progress.

Hi Bitcoiners!
I’m back with the 30th monthly Bitcoin news recap.
For those unfamiliar, each day I pick out the most popularelevant/interesting stories in Bitcoin and save them. At the end of the month I release them in one batch, to give you a quick (but not necessarily the best) overview of what happened in bitcoin over the past month.
You can see recaps of the previous months on Bitcoinsnippets.com
A recap of Bitcoin in May 2019
Adoption

A local convenience store accepting bitcoin (1 Jun)
The ₿ symbol is now available on iOS, Android and Microsoft services (4 Jun)
Wasabi Wallet does its first ever 100 person CoinJoin (6 Jun)
Asking shops to accept bitcoins when buying online (10 Jun)
South Korea gets its first bitcoin ATM (13 Jun)
Bitcoin passes 1 million daily active addresses again, like in November 2017 (15 Jun)
A bitcoin update from Venezuela (17 Jun)
A gas station that accepts bitcoin (21 Jun)
Someone receives a letter from their 88 year old father who started investing a few years earlier (25 Jun)
Buying coffee through the Lightning Network at a Bitcoin conference (29 Jun)

Development

Security

Mining

A reminder of a report on how 74$ of Bitcoin mining is powered by renewable energy (9 Jun)
The block reward is halving again in under a year (12 Jun)
A reminder that cloud mining ventures are scams (16 Jun)
Bitcoin’s hashrate hits another all-time high (20 Jun)

Business

Research

Education

Regulation & Politics

Archeology (Financial Incumbents)

Price & Trading

Fun & Other

Jia Zhigang
Recently, I have seen some fake news on a CCP website to defame me, saying that I was “disappeared” and was “controlled” by a religious group. It also said I was indifferent about my family and I didn’t go back home or pay a visit to them. The news made me furious.
Not soon after, I heard that the CCP once again spread rumors and defamation about me, and that they coerced my relatives from mainland China into coming to South Korea for false demonstration, in an attempt to have me repatriated.
I have been busy filming the human rights documentary. For this reason, I didn’t respond to the news before. However, I strongly protest and condemn the CCP’s repeated harassment of the Christian refugees in South Korea and its slander on my belief.
I was an actor from mainland China, and had slipped from the radar screen since my mother passed away at the end of 2006. Some people may still remember me, but others may have forgotten.
In the late 1990s, I played Hongli, who is known as the Qianlong Emperor, in the Chinese historical TV series Yongzheng Dynasty, and Emperor Renzong of Song in the TV series Young Justice Bao 1. After that, I played some roles of emperors in ancient China in several television series. Those who support me call me the emperor specialist. Actually, I am just an ordinary actor.
Stage photo of Young Justice Bao 1

![img](oei0cvsg1xc31 "Stage photo of The Honest and Clean Official Yu Chenglong ")
Maybe many people do not know me, so I will tell my story from the beginning. I was born in an ordinary working-class family, and lived in poverty from childhood. My mother was born with asthma. We raised some livestock to support our family, so I had to do some dirty and tiring farming works. Growing up in poverty and struggles, I developed the character of being persistent, competitive and ambitious.
Thanks to God’s care, my efforts paid off. I was admitted to an art school and later to a film academy. After graduation, I became an actor, played roles in some TV series, and made some achievements.
When I gained some success, every day I threw myself into social activities and maintaining my personal relationship. Gradually I noticed that there are lots of temptations in the show business and you will easily fall into it.
Many famous artists live a weary, inhuman life due to gambling, taking drugs, indulging in lust, or becoming a puppet of the politicians. I felt sympathy for them, and I was aware that indulging in entertainment, fame and gain, and having decent appearance doesn’t indicate that a person lives in happiness. I often pondered this question: why my heart was filled with unspeakable emptiness though I became rich and had a car, a house and fame?
The friends in my circle all knew that I was a Budhist since my childhood. At that time I worshiped Budda as a true God. I was religious and often visited well-known Buddhist temples in Qinghai Province, Beijing City, where I participated in Buddhist preachings, ceremonies, and other activities. I often prayed for my career and safety of my families. My friends’ prayers for fortune and fame was often answered and their divinations were accurate, but unfortunately I didn’t receive much from what I prayed.
The turning point of my belief could be traced back to the changes of my family. I was a religious Budhist, but my mother was in poor health, and she had asthma, which often acted up. In 1999, I bought a house in Beijing and asked my mother to live with me in 2000, so that I might take care of her personally.
When I was playing a role in a TV series Towards the Republic, the news that my mother was in a critical condition struck me. So, I got a leave from the film crew and hurried to the hospital in another city where my mother was undergoing an emergency treatment. The film director intended to reserve that role for me, but considering the severity of my mother’s illness, I decided to quit the role. After a severe medical treatment, her life was saved, but my mother’s condition was deteriorating. Every year since then she would be hospitalized at least once for severe illness. Her condition kept worsening to a point that she got pulmonary fibrosis and lost the ability to breathe. In order to ease her pain, I bought her oxygen concentrator in helping her breath. To take care of her, I quit my work as an actor, and spent most of my time looking after her at home. Many times I wanted very much to save her out of misery, but there was nothing more I could do. In the end of 2006, my mother left me.
My mother’s death, left me, a middle-aged man, for the first time, a deep grief of losing a beloved one. Her suffering became a unerasable memory, which taught me how fragile and short one’s life is. A man’s life, several decades, passes in the twinkle of an eye, and what awaits him will be illness and death. So what on earth is the value and meaning of living in this world? Where does a man come from, and where is he going?
After my mother’s death, I went to many temples to inquire about my mother’s destination after death from living Buddhas. They gave me different explanations which didn’t dispel my confusion.
Later on I chanced upon some Christians from The Church of Almighty God (CAG). They testified that the Lord Jesus has returned, that God has become flesh again to do the work of judgment starting from the house of God, and that He will purify and save mankind completely and bring them into the beautiful destination!
I investigated Almighty God’s words carefully and found that Almighty God has disclosed the mysteries in the Bible that people have been unable to unravel. Besides that, He has revealed many mysteries to mankind like how God created the world, how God manage this mankind, what men’s destinations are, and how God control and manage this world, etc. By reading Almighty God’s words, I understand that God indeed controls the fate of mankind and that God rules and arranges man’s whole life. The reason why we live so miserably is that after being corrupted by Satan we have strayed from God, betrayed God, and lost the care and protection of God, thus fallen into Satan’s domain, fooled and harmed by it. I also realize that it is because of Satan’s affliction that we live for face, vainglory, fame and position, and fleshly enjoyment. God allows us to encounter such sufferings in order that we can pray to God and seek the truth to rid ourselves of such fleshly sins and live by God’s words. Praise be to Almighty God! His words explain clearly our puzzlements in daily life that none can answer before. Not only did I get the answers to my questions, but I had deeper understandings of many things and found the right path of human life. Conquered by Almighty God’s words, I formally accepted the kingdom gospel of Almighty God.
At that time, I heard that this church was labeled as xie jiao by the CCP government. But I was not bothered by that at all. Having lived in China for so many years, I know the CCP very well. As an atheist party, the CCP has been persecuting religious beliefs in its 70 years’ rule. Muslims in Xinjiang, Tibetan Buddhists, and many dissidents have been subjected to the CCP’s cruel repression, arrest, and persecution, not to mention its persecution of Christians. The CCP has no bottom line in persecuting Christians. It has labeled all the religious groups it doesn’t recognize as xie jiao (which means heterodox teachings in the West but is misinterpreted by the CCP). That’s the way how the CCP treats its dissidents as always.
After accepting Almighty God’s work, I attended worship meetings every week. My life became more fulfilling and I gradually understood some truth. Later, I started to perform my duty such as preaching the gospel and transporting church-related books.
Since Beijing hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 2008, the CCP intensified its persecution on religious groups and dissidents in the name of maintaining a safe and secure environment for the Olympic Games. During the time, I was responsible for transporting church supplies in Beijing. I always saw a bunch of armed police with submachine guns in the tollgate out of the city stopping and searching vehicles. I would be arrested or even persecuted to death if I was checked by the police. In China, if you are found to have a book of Almighty God’s words, you will be arrested. Some brothers and sisters who performed the same duty as me had been arrested and even some of them had been tortured to death.
During that time I teamed up with my church friends to preach the gospel, we were hunted down by the CCP police many times. One time in a village, we were targeted and surrounded by the police. Two sisters from the local church were arrested but I fled. Later I got to know that the CCP launched a large-scale arrest operation across the country in 2008. Many church leaders and co-workers, brothers and sisters were arrested. Since I was targeted by the police, I had to leave my home in Beijing and hide in the house of other brothers and sisters. I was frightened to go out and stayed in the house all day. Once something unsafe was found, I had to move quickly to another sister or brother’s house. Under that situation, I felt great pain to believe in God in China and personally experienced how it felt to be unable to go back home due to the CCP’s persecution.
In 2014, the CCP shifted the blame for the Zhaoyuan case onto The Church of Almighty God (Scholar’s academic research has proved that the case was committed by another religious group) and launched the One-Hundred-Day Battle to start a nationwide arrest once again. There is always news about dozens or hundreds of Christians arrested in this or that place. The CCP suppressed and persecuted unarmed Christians so frantically that I felt very indignant. And I had to think more about my situation: If I continue practicing my faith in China, I will not only lose my job but be arrested, sentenced and imprisoned sooner or later. Without any choice, my family of three decided to flee to South Korea to seek political asylum.
After coming to Korea, my family and I were finally able to enjoy the freedom of belief. I decided to continue my acting career and started to direct some gospel films and documentaries that expose human rights persecution. Chronicles of Chinese Religious Persecution in China, the series of documentaries I participated in have won awards at multiple international film festivals.
Christian Video | Chronicles of Religious Persecution in China | "To the Brink and Back"
Poster of To the Brink and Back
Living overseas, I busy myself day and night for human rights documentaries instead of rushing about seeking fame and fortune, but I don't feel tired. In the past, I did everything for fame and fortune. Now we make movies about gospel and human rights which are for non-profit use and nobody pays for us. I believe it’s a righteous course for us to use movies to testify the Creator and spread God’s kingdom gospel of the last days, and make documentaries to help people see clearly the CCP’s evil deeds of murdering Christians, and bring a beam of hope and light to Christians who have no rights under the dark oppression. Such kind of life makes me feel very enriched and is very meaningful to me.
During the shooting, I had encountered difficulties and often showed arrogance. By reading God’s words I had more knowledge of my corrupt disposition. In the past, I was very arrogant and often showed off myself, sought fame and fortune, pursued to have status in the minds of others, and often showed an arrogant, conceited and self-righteous disposition. After experiencing Almighty’s work, I started to practice the truth, pray to God and rely on God to have my corrupt disposition transformed, pursuing to be an honest person who God loves and walking the way of fearing God and shunning evil.
In performing my duty every day, I had some spiritual gainings in life experience. We three lived a happy and enriched life in South Korea.
However, the CCP did not let us go but continued hunting us and frequently harassed my family members. The police officers from the National Security Brigade, the State Security Bureau, and the Provincial Public Security Department repeatedly went to the home of my older sister and my wife’s younger brother to instigate and coerce them into coming overseas, and force them to join the false demonstrations under the control of the pro-CCP activist, in an attempt to extradite us back to China and then sentence us to prison.
In February 2018, the CCP plotted the “seeking relatives” farce for the first time. At that time, I was filming in my Church. Suddenly I got a letter from the Korean Foreign Affairs Police Department in my residential area, saying that a person with the Korean citizenship reported to them in the name of being entrusted by my family. The person said that we, a family of three, were missing Chinese and controlled by the CAG and he asked for the Korean police’s help to find our whereabouts.
The police asked our Church if this case was the truth. My wife and I went to the police department to get the facts straight that we are not controlled by the CAG and we are practicing our faith freely in Korea. Facing this shameless lie, I find it incredible. Before I came to South Korea, my older sister knew it very clearly, and after we came here, we also had contacts with her. Then how could they say that we are missing people? It must be the CCP who pulls the strings with an ulterior motive.
In the middle of March, my sister came to South Korea accompanied by two Chinese plain-clothed police officers (we knew that by observation and inquiry). Under the help of the Korean police of foreign affairs, she found our Church. When I met her, I found the two Chinese plain-clothed officers were with her too, one a Chinese with Korean citizenship who reported me to the police, and the other one who claimed to be my sister’s close friend from the National Security Brigade.
I told my sister about my situation of freely living and practicing my faith in South Korea. During our talk, I found that my sister could not express herself freely as if she was controlled by someone. Without my agreement, the two officers took pictures of me and lied to me that they did so only to let my friends know that I was doing good. But later the CCP brought shame to me through those pictures on the negative websites, which is a terrible invasion of my image rights.
After the meeting, my sister told me: You are already an adult, so you have your freedom of belief. As long as you are doing good, we will not limit you. Seeing us enjoy a free life in South Korean, which was not like the CCP’s words that we were missing and controlled by the CAG, she left and went back to China without any worries.
Later, I learned through my friends in mainland China that the officers from the police station of my registered residence in China met my family for a talk about my fleeing overseas to practice my faith. My sister came to South Korea to look for me, which was not her will. She was completely incited and manipulated by the Chinese Ministry of State Security. And they also intimidated, threatened, and enticed my family and promised to afforded the air ticket and helped arrange the hotel for her. Because the CCP bothered and disturbed her over and over, as a result of which, she had no choice but to come to look for me. My friend told me that people from the police station wanted to meet my family members maybe because my fleeing abroad for belief in God have been placed as a criminal case, and suggested me to be much more careful.
I’ve also got accurate news that after my older sister went back to China from South Korea, she was taken away by agents of the Ministry of State Security as soon as she got off the plane. I have no idea about my older sister’s situation now, nor dare I make a phone call to her, because I’m afraid that this will cause her trouble.
At the end of August 2018, my family was coerced by the CCP into coming to South Korea for a second time. A family search group consisting of CAG Christians’ 11 relatives (including my wife’s younger brother) was arranged by the CCP to arrive in South Korea. Under the manipulation of the CCP, South Korean pro-CCP activist, Ms. O Myung-ok (오명옥) organized them to stage a five-day false demonstration at the Blue House (Cheong Wa Dae, the executive office and official residence of the President of the Republic of Korea), the CAG church in Onsu, and some other places, on the pretext of “seeking for relatives.”
On September 2, Ms. O brought them to the CAG premises to stage the demonstration, claiming they wanted to see their family. Actually, I called the police before the demonstration and demanded to meet my brother. But Ms. O rejected my request and refused to answer my call. I later learned that our relatives were told that they were not allowed to meet us until they finished all items on the itinerary. During the demonstration, they used megaphones and speakers to loudly insult and abuse both the CAG and Almighty God. They stopped a vehicle returned to the church at the entrance, beat at the car’s windows with all of their strength and lay down on the ground in front of the car to make a scene. Their rude yelling and actions seriously disturbed our worship service and church activities.

Ms. O (second from right) etc. in the false demonstration at the entrance

Ms. O etc. in the false demonstration at the entrance
On September 3, we reported to the police demanding to see our family. Under the police’s arrangement, some of us finally meet our relatives. When my wife and I met with my brother-in-law, all of us were very happy to see each other. After knowing that everything went well with every one of us, we all felt at ease. When I asked him about how he came to South Korea, who had organized the demonstration, and why he searched for us in that way with pro-CCP activist Ms. O, he, however, wouldn’t give straight answers and intentionally changed the subject. I smelt a rat in the matter, wondering how they, who came from different provinces of China, gathered together and came to Korea. It must be the CCP who is behind the scene.
From the file of seeking for relatives we got from the police, we found my brother reported to the police that his older sister and I lived a happy life before believing in Almighty God and became unsociable, eccentric and indifferent to relatives after the conversion, that we had sold our house to give offerings to Almighty God and went abroad to devote ourselves to evangelism, and that I didn’t go back to China to take care of my mother-in-law when she was ill and also ruined my young son’s bright future, etc.
Those made-up rumors made me feel very indignant. I retold to my brother-in-law about those contents after meeting him and asked him how he reported to the police. He denied them without hesitation and told me they were made up by the CCP. It was not until then did I realize that all the rumors were actually fabricated by the CCP.
Actually, the CCP’s sayings are totally different from the facts. They were simply distorting facts and calling the white black. They declared that we didn’t return to China to visit my mother-in-law when she was ill. As a matter of fact, she had already passed away even before we came to South Korea. They also proclaimed that we had sold our estate to make offerings to Almighty God. However, when we met with my brother-in-law, he even had no idea whether my house had been sold or not. This is CCP’s another blatant lie. The CCP also spreads that I ruined my young son’s bright future. This is absolutely groundless. My son receives good education in South Korea and he has been at school. The CCP is full of lies and utterly shameless. To discredit, extradite, and imprison us Christians who freely worship God in South Korea, the CCP tried every means possible to make up lies.
On July 21, 2019, the CCP’s secret agent in South Korea Ms. O came again with more than twenty relatives of Christians, including my wife’s father and younger brother. I’m very indignant at this news. According to my knowledge of my father-in-law, he wouldn’t come overseas but for the CCP’s endless harassment at home. Although my father-in-law is of advanced age, he was forced to be involved in the false demonstration and present at such fierce situation. To slander and discredit the Christians having fled overseas, the CCP completely disregards my family member’s health, not caring about their life and death. The CCP is so base and evil!
Here, I want to express my strongest protest against the CCP’s frantic persecution of Christians, violation of human rights, and deception of the world. The CCP’s crimes of abusing human rights are worldly recognized. The persecution destroyed my family and forced us to flee overseas, making us unable to take care of my elderly father. I couldn't even go back to China to see him for the last time when he was dying, because I have been on the blacklist since long ago and will be arrested as soon as I return to China. Experiencing the loss of a loved one for a second time, I felt terribly bad and guilty about his death. The CCP is the culprit.
It is right and proper for me to seek religious freedom and follow my heart to pursue the truth and walk the right path of human life. The CCP, however, regards me as a criminal, discrediting and hunting me without restraint. It has repeatedly extended its dark hand overseas, attempting to extradite me to China. Why does the CCP hate me so much? Why does the CCP hate Christians to the extent that it wants to kill them all and totally ban them? Considering the CCP’s evil intention and base means, I must voice the strongest protest and condemnation.
The CCP keeps condemning and discrediting me and trying to extradite me to China by coercing my family into coming to South Korea over and over again. I will continue to unmask its lies and tricks and bring truth to the light. Thank you all for your concerns!
Keywords: human rights issue; Chinese society; religious belief; religious persecution;

https://www.reddit.com/Rainbow6/comments/fo4q43/im_parker_interro_mackay_pro_league_caste

Question	Answer
Hey! Asking on behalf of PablosScripts who couldn't make it here: > I can't make it due to time zone. Can someone please ask him what his thoughts are on an in-game eSports viewer? (like other esports games have where games are broadcast in the actual game engine itself, so players have full control over cameras). > Does he think this would help with the esports scene? Cause I think I'd watch a TON more esports if I could manage the camera for myself. Sometimes I want to stick to just 1-2 players to see how a particular strat unfolds but I can't because the caster is zooming all over the place. > I can't help but think this is the missing link between popular Siege esports and explosive Siege esports. How many extra viewers would there be if there was a new icon right there in the game menu that you'd just have to click? LINK	Siege is easily one of the most challenging esports to watch at the moment so the ability to control your own spectating experience would be a massive boon for viewers. I'm not quite sure if our engine is capable of handling it, though, so I fear that this excellent idea is currently out of reach. I'm not a dev though so I'm just guessing here. We've made good strides toward making Siege more watchable (the new UI is a huge step in the right direction) but the amount of actions being carried out by all 10 players at any given moment makes for a massive challenge when spectating. I think our esport is definitely trending in the right direction but making Siege easier to watch would unequivocally elevate our esport. Excellent question. LINK
Ubisoft said that if pros are disliking the play tests and potential new ops, it means they're going in the right direction. Could you please explain what they were trying to say cuz I just can't wrap my head around it. LINK	Having read the article where this quote was pulled from I think it was taken a touch out of context. I think the point that Leroy was trying to get at was that status-quo, while beneficial for the Pros, doesn't really do much to push the boundaries of the game. Comfort is often the enemy of progress and the Devs are obviously invested in keeping Siege fresh and current. That may mean introducing new mechanics and/or new ideas that require a shake-up in how Pros tackle certain obstacles. Truthfully, I don't know about any upcoming content so I can't speak with any certainty but I can say that I've attended playtests before and the Devs have always been very receptive to our feedback. Given how robust the recent workshops have been I'd guess that they are as concerned as ever with how the Pros feel about the game. I'll also add that while I can see where the Pros are coming from (and are right to be apprehensive about any potential uncertainty concerning their career) that not all Pros have brilliant ideas on how to balance this game. I've heard some ideas put forward by Pros that I've felt would be bad for the enjoyment and balance of Siege. Pros have an extraordinarily strong understanding of Siege and should be consulted in regards to balancing but they should not be the sole perspective that the Devs seek. LINK
As an ANZ PL caster I am interested to hear your thoughts on what the new region format may mean for APAC and if you think it will continue to develop the region and integrate it better in to the rest of the world. :) LINK	APAC's greatest struggles have always been geographical. I think combining the best teams from Japan, Korea, and SEA into one region will produce a higher level of competition while allowing for greater growth due to teams facing better opponents week-in, week-out. Out of all the changes happening next season the APAC changes are the ones I'm most looking forward to watching unfold. LINK
Hey Interro, bit of a serious question. What's your thoughts on team houses? Personally I'm not a fan of them. They feel like a way for Orgs to squeeze more work time out of their players that's not necessarily being paid for. They also mean that being dropped by a team or your org imploding means you not only lose your paycheck but also your home. Personally I'd rather see teams have a dedicated office that they go to to scrim/dry run/strat etc like a real job and if orgs want to help with accommodation they can throw the player some more cash. Less serious, why doesn't APAC ever get the respect it deserves. It feels like anytime an APAC team beats someone the general opinion of the team they beat is "well they now suck". Aerowolf beats Giants it's well Giants can't play on lan, not Aerowolf great planning and execution on taking down a top team. Fnatic beats Empire, well Empire's been found out and they're done, not great comeback from Fantic learning from their mistakes and 200IQ hiding a map for when it's needed. What's it going to take for an APAC team to get credit for winning internationally? Finally, Fnatic today showed why having a 6th player is so critical with Acez slotting back in and performing plenty fine. With injuries, sickness (corona/regular sickness) passports/visas and players leaving for greener pastures, why don't more teams run with 6 players? LINK	Really great question with a couple angles that this could be attacked from. First and foremost: I think separating work from leisure is absolutely paramount in any industry but especially in something like esports which is already seen as playtime rather than a "real job." Living with your teammates, eating with your teammates, working with your teammates... I think it's just too much. Having space to relax, be on your own, decompress, and mentally escape from work is so crucial in an industry as stressful and demanding as ours can be. I like the idea of having a team or office facility where the players all meet once a day. Imagine it like commuting into work. The players can live where they'd like, on their own dime and in their own preferred units, but they still have to be at work in a shared space that is designated purely for work. For APAC: they are both broadcasted at tough hours for most of NA/Europe but also struggle with being so isolated. Plus they're the newest region so they don't have anywhere near the same experience as EU/LATAM/NA. APAC still has growing to do. Some teams put on good performances but the region, overall, trails behind the other 3. When it comes to a 6th player there's just simply no need. Roles aren't as rigid or inflexible as a game like OW where certain players specialize with their hero pools. LINK
I Interro, love your casting and I'm watching your stream right now! I only have one question: What would you recommend to be changed about Clash to make her still fun to play and viable, but not frustrating to play against? I know I have some thoughts on the topic, but I would love to hear your input. LINK	Clash is an operator that is inherently frustrating to play against if you lack suitable counters or simply fail to plan ahead when dealing with her. The biggest issue with Clash is that you often require solid coordination to take her down -- coordination being something lacking in lower ranks and in higher ranks where people are solo-queuing. Frankly, if you expend all of your utility ahead of time without taking into account the enemy running a Clash then that's a problem with your team and not with her as an operator. I know that may be a bit simplistic because while she has no shortage of counters (Zofia, Capitao, Buck, Thatcher, etc) enemy teams can bleed you dry with Jager, Wamai, Castle... but then we go deep into the rabbit hole that is Siege counters/utility usage and could discuss this all day. My main point is that while Clash is an annoying operator, even two people can effectively take her out if you pinch her or bring the right utility. It may be an unpopular opinion but I don't think Clash is in that frustrating of a place right now. LINK
Crunchy or Smooth peanut butter? LINK	Smooth peanut is for smooth brains. LINK
Do you think the new g2 superteam had potential? LINK	They absolutely have potential but being good on paper means nothing if you can't be good on game day. I'll be intently watching how they slot in their roles and if there'll be any movement between players as they don't really have a dedicated, experienced hard-support like many other top teams. Pengu is probably the closest but he's a supremely talented flex player so it'd be a shame to see him move off that role. Regardless, G2 has experienced a fairly solid fall from grace but are still a talented team through-and-through. Don't count them out. LINK
Hi Interro, Q1: Why did you decide to move and live in Poland? What are the pros/cons of living in Poland from a perspective of someone who isn't a native Pole? Q2: I believe you studied some Politically related subject before becoming a full-time StreameCaster. Why did you decide to choose to study that path? Q3: What was your favourite event in Rainbow 6 Siege both In-game and Offline? Q4: What future do you predict for the game? Keep on being yourself! Thank you for the AMA LINK	Q1: Our Pro League studio is based out of Katowice, Poland, and we're required to film on-site during the season. ESL has a regional office in Poland and Katowice is often cheaper in comparison to other Polish (and European) cities. Q2: I've been fascinated with politics since I was a kid. I feel we have a huge capacity to affect change in the world and that ideas are worth discussing and debating over. I was drawn to the exchange of ideas and very much enjoy being able to dive into political theory. Q3: Favourite event will probably always be my first Six Invitational. It was smaller than events that followed but it felt both intimate and epic. In-game would be Rainbow is Magic -- ludicrously fun. Q4: I suspect the sky is the limit for R6. I'd still love to see some changes implemented, in terms of operator balancing and in the game format (like solo and team queue playlists), but this game has come a long way from where we were at the end of 2018. LINK
Hey Parker, My girlfriend is a type 1 diabetic and has been since she was 9 years old. Obviously she has had a long time to get to grips with it, so she can manage it better than most. Nevertheless, she fairly regularly has moments of going too high or too low. Besides making her generally feel like shit, this also effects her ability to work, finding it harder to think clearly and interact with people. + I was wondering if, since your diagnosis, you have found that unexpected diabetic complications have affected your ability to work? Obviously, a lot of your job is heavily linked to the chemistry you have with Kixstar (etc) and your ability to think quickly. Is this ever effected by your highs and lows? + If so, do you have your own ways of mitigating such problems? Especially since when you work you have to continue for long periods of time + Does ESL help in any way with you coping with diabetes? + Does diabetes bring any challenges to casting, or your work otherwise, that we might not notice as viewers? Love watching you cast and stream, keep it up! :D LINK	Outstanding questions and I'm happy to answer them all. I'm still somewhat new to being a diabetic as I was diagnosed as type 1 back in late September 2019. I'm very fortunate to be Canadian so my diet, medication, and clinic visits are all well managed. 1) The catering at most events is very carb heavy since carbs are cheap and inexpensive. I'm not currently on meal-time insulin as my diet is regulated enough to not need it yet. The problem with that, though, is that when confronted with a buffet of solely carbs I have to eat them and then suffer the consequences mid-cast. Mud brain, as it's called, is very real and I often find myself grabbing for words, phrases, or stats that are out of reach. Sometimes I find my thoughts jumbled. I also have to monitor my energy levels since avoiding carbs can lead to a crash and lack of energy mid-game. Not ideal when part of my job is maintaining a certain pace. 2) Whenever we work events I'm very upfront with our talent manager about my dietary needs. They've all been very accommodating and have brought me food to eat between matches or during breaks should I need. 3) When I was first diagnosed and told not to travel by my doctor, ESL went out of their way to give me all the time off I needed while I dealt with my health. They were extremely compassionate and understanding which was a relief as I feared they may have a meltdown after telling them I couldn't work for two months. Outside of that ESL isn't really hands-on with our health. They provide us with healthcare in Poland and bend over backwards at events to provide Mzo and I with meals we can eat. 4) Diabetics tend to pee more often than your average person. When I'm casting I tend to drink an inhuman amount of water. You do the math. LINK
why is FABIAN so fucking HOT, that man is almost irresistible. Every time i see that man i instantly nut in my pants. Can someone tell me why this happens? LINK	No. LINK
Hey Parker! Huge fan of you for a while, you’re easily the best caster in ESL imo, and I love your banter with KG and Fabian on Twitter! What would you say was the funniest thing or weirdest (in a good way) thing that happened to you in a live LAN event like the invitational for example? Edit: also it’s my birthday today so if you were to wish me I’d be the happiest man alive :D LINK	Funniest would probably be the gigantic cutout of my bald head that someone brought to SI2020. That or the "Parker's Sexy" chant. Weirdest would be someone trying to chat with me while I was just finishing up at a urinal during SI2019. LINK
How have your friendships and partnerships in the siege community affected your personal life, and relations with others? Do you think your "people oriented" job has changed your outlook on others? LINK	I've met people in this community that I expect to be friends with for many, many more years outside of R6. Casting is, in many ways, like any ordinary job: you have colleagues you like, colleagues you tolerate, and colleagues you won't miss when you move on... except these colleagues are pros, content creators, streamers, devs, casters, etc. LINK
Long time fan and fellow Canadian! You and Big-Bad-Nadian (Troy) are the main reasons I've stuck with this game and follow Pro League so closely. 2 questions for you: 1) Leroy, the new Game Director after Remy got shuffled eslewhere, recently had an interview where he said when Pros are angry at proposed changes to Siege, it means the devs are doing something right. Source to not twist what he said. From the way Leroy describes the upcoming Y5 and Y6 content, and with what we've seen at SI 2020, is his "hammer" approach to future content the right direction for Siege in your opinion, compared to the way the old development did things (seemingly cautious, careful and scalpel-like)? 2) I'm a 4th year Journalism student and I've had several discussions with my professors and a few people from CBC about the lack of Canadian media that covers Siege content. We have The Score Esports based in Toronto, who do a great job covering the stories in PL. As you're one the premiere casters on the core casting team (shoutouts to KiX, Emzo and Milosh) who are also Canadian, and with Troy now getting his 2nd World Championship, on top of the game being developed by a Canadian brand; do you see this lack of coverage changing? Is it important to the competitive scene's growth to get that coverage? Thanks again for being you! Keep up the great work you and all the casters do! LINK	Always a pleasure to meet a fellow countryman! 1) I go back-and-forth when it comes to fine tuning Siege. Part of me feels small adjustments are preferable but then I also see operators that are very strong and in need of being hit with a nerf hammer ASAP. Overall I'd usually rather err on the side of caution since there's a lower likelihood of throwing something completely out of whack. 2) Media coverage of esports is very peculiar since gamers tend to differ from traditional sports fans. Most sports fans can throw on ESPN or SportsNet and absentmindedly watch highlights from hockey, golf, and basketball whereas gamers don't have the same interest in other esports. Someone who loves CSGO won't necessarily care about LoL, or OW, or SC2, so media often ends up splintered, catering specifically to one game rather than a broad cross section. Hell, even theScore gets flak in the comments of their videos from people complaining that they're covering the FGC or not reporting on DotA enough. I think we'll definitely see greater interest in esports as the industry continues to grow but I'm not sure if we'll break from the specialized coverage that exists esport to esport right now. LINK
Do you think we need a newcomer guidance ingame? Like when you play the game, the game gives you tips and highlight the walls need to be reinforced, rotation holes need to open and where to put gadgets? (Be sure to wear medical masks!) LINK	Siege desperately needs a proper, fully fleshed out in-game tutorial. The situations no longer cut it for new players. There are simply too many things that new players need to be made aware of that aren't taught to them. Having players hope for the best in the Newcomer playlist isn't ideal. I'd happily help record a tutorial for basic things like reinforcing, droning, gadget usage, etc, if Ubisoft were interested. As it stands right now, our game is tremendously complex and that can be very daunting for new players to grasp. LINK
hi interro! I'm a 13 year old high gold/low plat player and later in life i want to play siege professionaly, do you know any tourtments I could partcipate or any tips you could give me? LINK	I wish I had more info for you but sadly I'm not as in-touch with the T3/T4 scene as I once was. I'd strongly recommend looking up CCS Esports and [joining their Discord](discord.gg/ccs) asking around. Many of the people will likely be far more knowledgeable about the amateur scene. The sky's the limit and you've got plenty of time to master this game -- good luck!! LINK
Hey Parker! You and KiX are hands down my favorite casting duo and I'm constantly amazed at how you manage to succinctly describe complex R6 topics mid-round in a way that even a silver player like myself can understand. My question is: what has the experience of using your platform as a prominent esports caster to weigh in on political issues been like? I've really appreciated hearing your voice in this way but I've seen that others have not, and I'd love to hear more about this part of your life. Thank you for doing this AMA and I hope you stay safe and healthy in these trying times! LINK	I'd originally promised myself that I would keep politics off of twitter as my platform was for (and from) video games/esports. But having spent most of my adult life working or volunteering in politics I just couldn't abide by my own rules and ended up slowly speaking out on issues that are important to me. It's definitely a gamble. I never want someone to dislike my casting due to my personal or political views but I also feel that anyone with a platform has a sort of responsibility to stand up and speak out for people that aren't fortunate enough to have an audience. Lately I've been trying to keep politics confined to Twitch since it allows for much greater expression than twitter. I enjoy it a lot more as I can engage with people in real time. LINK
I'm still pretty new to siege but I will say that I only bought the game because I saw the amazing commentary between you and kix and it made me fascinated with the game. My question however is what advice do you have for someone who is attempting to become a caster for esports game in general, not just siege LINK	That's a huge honour to know that our casting compelled someone to get into Siege. Thank you so much for the compliment - it means a lot. As for getting into casting: I wrote a post a while back with some pretty good basics. They're mostly Siege specific but they should give a thorough and helpful starting place -- link here LINK
Hi Parker, Do you prefer the old BO1 map ban system or the new ban system?The new ban system allows the teams too much to have limited mappools in my opinion, such as Team Empire, which can now perma ban Theme Park and Villa along with a targeted ban every playday. Or is this more a problem with the maps themselves and not with the ban system? LINK	I much prefer teams having full control of which maps they ban rather than have maps auto-banned based on whether they were previously played. I like the change. As for teams having auto bans: in a BO5 the team with the bigger map pool will have a significant advantage. LINK
Hey Parker, how are you? Hope you are safe and sound. Coming to my question, what are some changes you would like in Pro League that would help make it more accessible and known to Casual community of players? I feel like Pro League doesn't get the recognition and views it should be getting because of our large community. Something is holding it back and I don't know what. LINK	I'd love to see deeper spectating tools where a person could control the camera themselves. Or a proper theatre/replay system where you could go back and watch the match yourself. Also, I'd love to see a beginnenewb-friendly companion stream for big events. There's a lot going on in-game so having a stream that was being casted in a casual yet informative manner, explaining why and when certain operators were using their gadgets, would really help people figure out the ebb and flow of Siege. LINK
What's up Interro? You're one of my favourite casters just because of how off the cuff you are sometimes, yet still managing to follow the big plays and being the voice over of some of the most iconic clips. Really good work and I hope you the best. A couple questions: Firstly, what is your opinion of the change in narrative of the actual game itself. I don't know how into the lore you are, but do you think this shift from the White Mask story to more of a character driven (or rather operator driven) storyline will help to improve the game itself? (in terms of the events and character balancing. For example, if Vigil got nerfed there would be a cinematic of him complaining to Blackbeard, with him going "First time?" I know weird example and weird idea but IDK you probably have a better idea about this, you've been involved in the scene longer than I have) Secondly, are we experiencing an old guard/fresh face era as we move into Y5 on Pro League? We saw the new blood of Beaulo, Pino and Muzi showing up in SI whilst the venerable G2 roster failed to show up. Do you think we are approaching a time where the big names from Season 1 are getting washed up or are they still here to stay and take names (as seen by Canadian's performance) Finally, what do you think the map pools should be? Should they increase or decrease the number of Pro League maps? Should ranked have the same map pool as PL? Should any map be given the Bartlett University treatment? (saved on a hard drive, smashed to pieces with a sledgehammer and having the remaining shards ADS'd out of existence) Hope you have the time to answer my questions. If you don't, I don't really mind, just answer everyone else's. LINK	To be honest I'm not much of a lore guy. I've really cared about the backstory about any characters in any game I've played. Lore doesn't really register to me and isn't something I really pay attention to. I think it's great that people can invest in the story and it makes for better art (comics, paintings, cosplay, so on) but it's just not my scene. So long as it doesn't influence balancing then I'm all for people fleshing out the history of characters in-game! I made a bold proclamation on Velly's On The Flank podcast a few months ago saying that by the end of 2020 that about half of the people who had played in 2018/2019 would have been cycled out. I'm not sure if it'll be quite that stark but we're definitely approaching a period on Siege's lifespan where talented players are very much replacing "the old guard" as you put it. We've been way overdue for fresh faces so it's nice seeing more come in. Personally I'd add Bank and Oregon to the 7 maps, bringing us to a 9 map pool. That'd be my dream. Ranked should mirror the PL map pool as I believe familiarity is key at the top level of play in-game. LINK
How does one become so incredibly handsome as you? LINK	A strict diet of black coffee and avocado toast. LINK
Hey Interro! I love your casting and had a blast watching the past season of pro league, Six Invitational, and the Raleigh Major. Anyways, here are the questions. Q1: Once SSG won the Six Invitational and after Empire beat G2 at Raleigh, you delivered some truly great lines, such as "The Empire Strikes Back" and "The hammer head back to orbit, but it's home." Do you come up with these on the fly or do you save them up from the previous day or even before the tournament? Q2: What is your favorite esport to watch other than R6? LINK	Q1: Depending on my schedule I usually try to work on them before the match. "The Empire Strikes Back" was one I had in my head right after Empire lost SI2019 and was fairly low-hanging fruit. The SSG line is one I'm not particularly fond of. I overthought it and ended up hastily putting it together during the match. I think in the future I'll try to be less rehearsed while still having something in mind for the final call. Q2: CSGO is by far and away my favourite non-R6 esport to watch. Smash is second. LINK
Hey Interro! You have got to be one of my favorite casters along with KiXSTAr. Both of you work extremely well. Anyway, my question is what are your thoughts on the future of Siege and where Ubisoft plans to take it during the next 2 years, and possibly even further? Do you like what they're doing with the game or no, and if you want to change anything what would it be? LINK	I'd like to see some minor balancing tweaks to a variety of operators while making some changes to the format of the game (plus more promotion for esports, please!) but overall I'm decently happy with how far Siege has come. I will agree that the defence has an over abundance of utility at the moment and would prefer to see some of it scaled back but I have no clue if that's likely to happen. LINK
How did this chance with KiX change your life? What would have you done if all of this didn't happen and you'd graduated at the university you were attending? Love to hear your voice almost every time I analyze a game to instruct my team on what we could understand and get better at by looking at Higher level matches, even tho we are in the little tournaments for now. Cheers! LINK	Were it not for KiX I'd have graduated with a degree in Urban Planning and would either be pursuing a Masters or working away in some municipal planning office. One thing's for sure: I'd probably use Twitter way less than I do now. LINK
What are your plans with POWERHAUS Gaming? Are you thinking about making a Siege team for CL/PL? Edit: If you have one, who is your favourite operator? LINK	POWERHAUS was founded to be a community hub, of sorts, similar to the old school Battle.Net clans from the StarCraft, Diablo 2, WarCraft 3 days. At one point we had aspirations of maybe seeing if we could turn it into a proper org, competing across multiple titles, but I feel more comfortable with our place as a T3/T4 community than trying to be world beaters. Every org wants to be the best so why compete with them? I feel there's far more value in giving people an opportunity to grow, gain responsibility, get recognition, and build their brand within our community as they move onto bigger and better things. All of the people running POWERHAUS have a deep love of helping others so our mission is simple: boost those around us so that they can be the best version of themselves. It sounds like a cliche (because it definitely is) but there's a lot of truth to it. It's our way of giving back and saying "thanks" for all the opportunities we were given as we grew up online. LINK
What do you think is the hardest part about siege to learn? LINK	The flow of a map/map control. Learning the map is one thing. Learning how operators work is another. Learning how to drone, push together, refrag, use utility, execute or deny a plant -- these are all tough to learn but doable. Now put all of that together while managing the 3 minute clock effectively. That understanding of a round is far and away the most crucial aspect of Siege to learn. LINK
What was your least favorite meta in Siege? Personally, mine was when Glaz got thermal, Ash and him had 3 smokes nades a piece, and you were able to kill everyone without being seen in 1-2 shots. LINK	The Ying/Glaz meta was far and away the worst meta we've casted. The Lion meta is a close second but it was at least unpredictable and exciting to inexperienced viewers due to the fast action. Ying/Glaz was literally the same multi-smoke execute where Glaz just slaughtered people from afar. LINK
Do you ever find yourself to be biased towards a team when casting a match? I imagine you'd be neutral towards most teams ( correct me if I'm wrong) but has to be hard to not cheer for a team during an amazing upset or underdog story. LINK	I always cheer for the story and sometimes that may seem like I'm cheering for a team but I feel there's enough of a difference. Sometimes the narrative will change mid-match (see: NiP vs SSG at the most recent Six Invitational) and that can alter how you pace the match. Bias is something I try to consciously avoid as I think it can lead to lacklustre casting. Our job is to cast the match for everyone, not just one fanbase, so we have to make sure we're being fair with how we tell the match's story. Unfortunately, no matter how careful we are there will always be people accusing us of bias so we need to try our best to be balanced. LINK
Hey there Parker, I absolutely love your casting, I have a question for you, Did you choose kix as your co caster or were you guys just kind of assigned to one another? LINK	I reached out to KiXSTAr upon recommendation from Talon (former Pro player from oS and Ronin) as I wanted to put together a 10-man tourney and knew KiX had ran a few somewhat recently. KiX and I became fast friends and after hearing my casting asked if I was interested in uprooting my life to cast Pro League in Poland. I was in a very unique spot where I was largely free of commitments so I said yes. LINK
Hey Interro, I love your casting, your voice and delivery is fantastic and the insight your provide along with Kix is usually super beneficial when translating it over to my own playing. Do you believe any operators should receive a buff to make them more viable, not just for PL, but for casual play as well, and if so, who? (Also out of basic curiosity, we just received a Tomb Raider crossover Elite skin. Any other operators you’d personally like to receive a crossover Elite?) LINK	Honestly I don't see any operators that are in desperate need of a buff at the moment. I think Glaz could be in a better spot as he's still largely ineffective but he's awfully hard to balance. Finka being reworked would be ideal, too, maybe to more of an attacking Doc? I'm not too sure. As for crossover content: I've always wanted Sam Fisher in-game and Jackal seems like he'd be a great operator to have it. LINK

BURNING MOLKA ARCHIVE WIKI will contain all future updates for this listing.
This post was last updated on 190915 at 6:55PM KST

This is a compiled list of all the significant figures involved in the Burning Molka scandals. It is our attempt to make an easier-to-read breakdown that focuses on the Who's Who of these cases and what they did.

⚠ TRIGGER WARNING: This will be the only warning in this post. The contents of many of these stories and notes may be triggering. If you are sensitive to straightforward mentions of criminal activity, especially regarding sexual assault/rape, do not continue. ⚠

There are two primary threads to follow in this story. One thread is Burning Sun and the general club culture of Gangnam. This includes illegal activities (drug use and dealing, gambling, entry of minors, sexual assault, illegal hidden cameras set up to film sexual abuse, tax evasion, embezzlement) and police colluding to cover up and/or participate in these activities. The other is the celebrity members of chatrooms sharing molka (illegally filmed videos, especially sexually exploitative in nature). They are intertwined as they involve some of the same people.
The ever-growing web of these stories are happening concurrently with a widespread spy-cam (molka) epidemic (hidden cameras in hotel rooms, public restrooms, etc) as well as a feminist movement (#MeToo) where awareness is being raised of the patriarchal culture of South Korea, which has facilitated sexual harassment and abuse of women as a 'norm'.
Throughout all cases, there are authority figures (police, politicians, celebrities, chaebols) committing crimes. Due to their wealth, power, and the entrenched corruption of those that could bring them justice--they get away with it.
(190503 Expansion) The two primary threads of Burning Sun and molka-sharing chatrooms have split into a few further threads through the investigations. As it stands now, there are essentially five threads.

Exposed through Seungri investigations: Burning Sun and the Gangnam club culture. Tax evasion, embezzlement, drugs, gambling, entry of minors, prostitution, sexual assault, illegal hidden cameras, and the truly horrifying information regarding officetels connected to clubs that serve VVIP customers (human trafficking, extreme sexual abuse, torture).
Exposed through Jung Joon Young's chatlogs: Members of Kakaotalk chatrooms sharing molka, bragging about sexual exploits, talking about women in dehumanizing ways. Shared video, photos, and conversation provide evidence of chat members drugging and raping unconscious women with some regularity.
Through Burning Sun investigations: Hwang Hana's drug use and distribution as a frequent club-goer, which led to Park Yoochun, her ex-fiancé, being investigated for similar drug use and distribution allegations.
In the context of powerful figures getting away with crimes related to sex abuse, Jang Ja Yeon's decade-old case was brought forward again along with a re-investigation of alleged abusers like Kim Hak Eui and Yoon Jung Cheon.
Through each branch of investigations, police corruption is evident. This thread is less visible still, but many officers have been charged with participating in crimes in various ways. Reporting indicates there will be more focus on this once the other cases are nearer to resolution.

CedarBough T. Saeji wrote an excellent piece introducing these threads and the ways they are connected within the larger cultural context of South Korea. Highly recommended reading!
KOREA EXPOSÉ - South Korea’s Corruption, Exposed by the Burning Sun

(see footnote in comments about all the Kims and repetitious names)

Directly involved:

Seungri/Lee Seung Hyun (BIGBANG and executive director of Burning Sun):
- Admitted to charge of sharing illegal/pornographic imagery (it's unknown if this was molka he was re-sharing from somewhere else or just a random image).
- Laughed in reaction to seeing illegal photos being shared in chatroom.
- Admitted to tax evasion at Monkey Museum.
- Embezzled funds from Monkey Museum and Burning Sun (tens of thousands of dollars). Charged for occupational embezzlement.
- Alleged to have facilitated escorts for foreign investors at an event in Seoul in July 2016, at Club Arena in 2015, a Christmas party in 2015, and his Philippines birthday party in 2017.
- During his pre-trial detention hearing, Seungri confirmed he had personally solicited prostitution.
- Seungri left BIGBANG. Was released from his contract with YG Ent. Retired from the industry. Was largely removed from YG Ent. website and BIGBANG merchandise.
- Will be sent a draft notice after June 25th at which point he will decide to enlist or postpone. If Seungri's case goes to prosecution, it will not have any affect on his enlistment unless he is arrested/detained at some point.
- Forwarded to prosecution on 7 charges including: prostitution solicitation, prostitution mediation, embezzlement (from Burning Sun), embezzlement of attorney fees, instigating destruction of evidence, violation of the Food and Sanitation Act, and violation of the 'Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes'. (190625)
Jung Joon Young (singesongwriter, band Drug Restaurant, TV personality):
- Charged with 11 counts of filming and sharing molka of him having sex with women. Arrested. Trial begins May 10th, 2019.
- Suspected of soliciting prostitution while filming abroad in Germany (2016).
- Jung Joon Young had 23 chat rooms, with 16 people involved.
- Make Us Ent. terminated his contract.
- In 2016, he was accused of illegally filming a sexual encounter with a woman without consent, but the charges had been dropped. With the present investigation, it was discovered that police who had been investigating that case in 2016 went to the forensic company working on Jung Joon Young's phone, asking for them to announce that the phone's files could not be restored. The files were never turned over for further investigation.
- Jung joon Young admitted to all 11 charges of filming or distributing molka at his pre-trial hearing (190510).
Yoo In Suk/Mr. Yoo (Yuri Holdings CEO):
- Resigned from his position as CEO of Yuri Holdings, which is the company founded by both him and Seungri in 2016. It operated multiple businesses, including the Burning Sun club.
- Embezzled funds from Monkey Museum and Burning Sun (tens of thousands of dollars). Charged for occupational embezzlement.
- Facilitated prostitution
- Helped to cover up Choi Jong Hoon's DUI
- Implicated Superintendent Yoon during investigations.
- His wife, Park Han Byul (actress/model), also claimed she received K-Pop concert tickets from Choi Jong Hoon
- Provided details about soliciting prostitution with Seungri in 2015. They paid for two prostitutes at Seungri's apartment. Yoo In Suk stated their intention was to 'test their quality' ahead of Japanese investors they would be entertaining the following day. The two women confirmed they had been sent to the apartment by their madame.
Choi Jong Hoon (FTISLAND):
- Bribed police for assistance in covering-up DUI (offered $9,000). Charged with 5 counts of distributing molka and one charge of filming molka himself.
- Departed from FTISLAND. FNC Entertainment officially terminated his exclusive contract. Retired from industry.
- Arrested.
- Forwarded to prosecution with a recommendation of indictment for group sexual assault on two occasions in January and March of 2016 (190516).
- Indicted on charges of sexual assault (190603). (The previous week he had filed a habeas corpus petition in objection to his detainment, requesting the courts re-review his case. Judge Lee Il Yeom rejected his petition.)
Yong Jun Hyung (HIGHLIGHT): Was in a 1-on-1 chatroom with Jung Joon Young. Admitted to participating in inappropriate conversations about molka. Departed from HIGHLIGHT. Enlisted for military service (190402).
Lee Jong Hyun (CNBLUE): Confirmed to be in chatroom where molka was shared. Admitted to participating in inappropriate sexual conversations degrading women. Currently in military service. He's 'deeply reflecting' and still supported by his agency, FNC Ent. He announced his departure from CNBLUE through FNC Entertainment, apologizing for bringing harm to the members and disappointment to fans. (This came after a strange private interaction with a YouTuber Park Min Jung on Instagram while serving in the military, which she made public. She apologized and removed the post after it hit the news.) (190828)
Mr. Kim (Burning Sun merchandiser): Employee at Burning Sun. Known as Jung Joon Young's "hidden camera mate". Set up hidden spy cams to film illegally in the club over 10 months. Uploaded molka of himself raping a woman to the group chatroom. Arrested. Indicted for sexual assault while overseas.
Eddy Kim (singesongwriter): Was in a chatroom with Jung Joon Young where molka was shared. He admitted to uploading one sexual photo from the internet.
Roy Kim (singesongwriter): Was in a chatroom with Jung Joon Young. Booked for sharing a photo (unconfirmed if molka). Graduated from Georgetown University, but did not participate in the ceremony.
Jung Joon Young participated in a temporary group chat along with cast-mates for JTBC's 'Hitmaker' (variety show). Reportedly, he took photos of a flight attendant's body (nature unknown) and shared them in the chat. Other cast members present in the chat were Kangin (Super Junior), Jeong Jin Woon (2AM), and Lee Chul Woo (model). Investigation determined these three did not share molka themselves and police stated they had no plans to investigate them further, referencing them only as witnesses present in the chat.
Kwon Hyuk Joon (SNSD Yuri's brother): Kicked out of group chatroom after being caught doing drugs (marijuana?). Mr. Kim (Burning Sun employee) reportedly filmed Kwon raping victim B and shared the video to the chatroom. Arrested on sexual assault charges. Forwarded to prosecution with a recommendation of indictment for group sexual assault (190516).
T: Member of a Jung Joon Young chat where there was discussion about sexual exploits, women were degraded in a variety of vulgadehumanizing ways, and drugging and raping a woman was described in some detail. Two women were described as being like comfort women.
P: same as T
K: same as T
Senior Police Officer Superintendent Yoon: Booked for violating the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act for taking bribes/gifts in the form of BIGBANG concert tickets (from Seungri), a meal and a golf game (from Yoo In Suk). Removed from his position. Fowarded to prosecution for obstructing rights when providing confidential police information to Yoo In Suk about possible suspicious activity at Monkey Museum. Yoon was cleared of charges regarding receiving bribes from Seungri and Yoo In Suk because the total amount ($2,250) was less than the threshold ($2,518) of the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act. But he will pay a fine and the Inspection Department will determine how he should be disciplined.
Senior Inspectors A and B: Both forwarded to prosecution. 'A' for helping to convey confidential information to Superintendent Yoon and 'B' for violating confidentiality for revealing police information.
Superintendent Kim (resident officer in Malaysia): Associated with Yoo In Suk and Park Han Byul. (Likely the figure who accepted bribe from Choi Jong Hoon to cover up his DUI.)
Mr. Kang (former Police Detective): Known as the 'Nighttime Troubleshooter' in Gangnam. Supposedly received regular bribes ($2,000/month or $5,000 for bigger issues). Allowed entry of a minor at Burning Sun. Received bribes through Choi, who was part of club Monkey Museum's crew.
Mr. Lim (Arena club's CEO): Arrested for tax evasion (evaded 16.2 billion won from 2014 to 2017).
Mr. Kang (Arena club's owner): Arrested for tax evasion (evaded 16.2 billion won from 2014 to 2017). Believed to have lobbied tax agencies during the tax investigation to Arena last year. He operated 16 clubs in Gangnam.
Mr. Jang (Burning Sun Director): Participated in the assault of Kim Sang Kyo along with security guards. Forwarded to prosecution on charges of assault.
Jang (Burning Sun security guard manager): Participated in the assault of Kim Sang Kyo along with security guards. Forwarded to prosecution on charges of assault.
Lee Moon Ho (Burning Sun co-CEO): Investigated as a suspect relating to drug use (more than 10 times) and distribution. Police seized his home and banned him from leaving the country. His initial arrest warrant was rejected despite testing positive for drugs. Arrested on suspicions of drug use, distribution, and destruction of evidence (190419). Transferred to prosecution. Sentenced to 3 years probation and 200 hours of community service. He would receive 1.5 years in prison if involved with any further criminal activity. (190822)
Lee Sung Hyun (Burning Sun co-CEO): Former board member in association with Le Méridien Seoul hotel. Testified in court that he bribed Mr. Kang (former Gangnam station police officer) to cover up the illegal entry of minors to the club (July 2018). Lee stated that he informed his co-CEO Lee Moon Ho of this, but not Seungri.
Anna (merchandisepromoter for Burning Sun): Interrogated by the police under suspicion of selling drugs to VIP clients at Burning Sun. Tested positive for methamphetamine, ecstasy, opium, marijuana, and ketamine. Request for arrest warrant regarding drug distribution, denied. Her case was transferred to prosecution.
Mr. Ji (Seungri's former manager): Was paid a salary of about $2,645 every month through Burning Sun, even though he was an employee of YG Entertainment. YG Ent. supposedly learned of this in February and fired Mr. Ji. This is still being investigated. It's not known if Mr. Ji was only getting salary from Burning Sun or he had double salary from both.
Yang Hyun Suk (Founder of YG Entertainment):
- MBC's program 'Straight' aired with an in-depth report claiming that YG Entertainment's CEO Yang Hyun Suk mediated prostitution for foreign investors. A dinner he hosted in 2014 was specified where 8 men were being entertained. 25 women were present, allegedly most of which were prostitutes. Most of the guests and women moved on to Yang Hyun Suk's club NB, where later the investors selected from the women to be entertained privately. YG Entertainment made a statment confirming Yang Hyun Suk was at the dinner, but denied he mediated prostitution for VIPs. (Allegedly, Hwang Hana was also present at the dinner.)
- JTBC's 'Spotlight' program included information about a staff member at YG Entertainment keeping a drug kit to test company artists for drugs so that they could take proactive steps to cover it up if anyone tested positive. Yang Hyun Suk responded to the program by stating he was directly involved in routinely monitoring the artists with drug tests himself every two months. He explained that, following G-Dragon's case, he took responsibility with testing as a preventative measure to keep artists fearful of using drugs at all. Yang Hyun Suk also claimed B.I's drug test had been negative.
- Resigned from position in YG Entertainment as a result of his involvement in multiple scandals.
- Booked for suspicions of prostitution mediation based on expense reports that indicated possible sexual services during the 2014 Europe trip (190717). The investigations into prostitution are ongoing.
Yang Min Suk (CEO of YG Entertainment/brother of Yang Hyun Suk): Resigned as CEO as a result of his brother's involvement in multiple scandals.
PSY: Called up for questioning on the 23rd regarding the prostitution mediation Yang Hyun Suk is suspected of providing for Jho Low and another Southeast Asian investor in July of 2014. The questioning reportedly took approximately 9 hours. Both PSY and Madam Jung's testimonies are being collected as a part of the ongoing investigation into Yang Hyun Suk's case.

Victims speaking out:

Informant/whistleblower: Person (woman?) who gave Kakaotalk chats to Lawyer Bang Jeong Hyun.
Kim Sang Kyo (non-celebrity):
- Filed the original assault case at Burning Sun, which triggered all of the media attention and investigations of Gangnam clubs.
- Claimed he saw a woman being sexually harassed. Sought a security guard for help and then was beaten by Mr. Jang and security guards. When police came, they also beat him. He was arrested and beaten again at the police station.
- Wrote about the incident on Bobaedream (online community) and sent a petition to the Blue House about it. Later requested anyone harmed at Burning Sun to contact him through Instagram. Posted multiple stories of victims sharing what happened to them (sexually assaulted, drugged with GHB).
- Three women accused him of harassment at Burning Sun (includes Anna and a 'Kim', who were later revealed to have ties to Burning Sun staff.)
- (Kim Sang Kyo Statement and background)
- Forwarded to prosecution on charges of assault, interference with business, and sexual harassment based on testimonies and CCTV footage.
A (informant): Two new chatrooms were discovered due to informant 'A, from her boyfriend, Mr. Kim. Participants of one include actors Shin and Han and a model Jung. The other includes the son of a former Samsung executive, a merchandiser for club Arena, and an entertainer. It contains more than 100 videos and pictures of shared molka and pornographic content. (Note: This is not the same 'A' as the 'A' below and we do not know if this 'Mr. Kim' is the same as any other Kim mentioned in this list.)
A (friends with members of the group chatrooms):
- Testified she was sexually assaulted by five members of the group chatrooms. This includes Jung Joon Young and Choi Jong Hoon (may also include Heo and Mr. Kim (Burning Sun)).
- 'A' contacted lawyer Bang Jeong Hyun when seeing everything in the news and suspected she may have been assaulted while she was part of the chatroom associated friend group.
- Corroborating the date of her suspected assault with Bang Jeong Hyun and the chat logs resulted in seeing conversations, a voice recording, and six photos that indeed indicated she had been sexually assaulted while unconscious.
- 'A' will file a lawsuit against those who assaulted her and an investigation will follow.
B: Last week, 'B' filed a complaint that Mr. Kim (Burning Sun employee) filmed Kwon (SNSD Yuri's brother) raping 'B' and shared the video to the chatroom. Her statement matches the content of the chat logs.
Lee: Came forward in relation to one of the first chatlogs that was made public. A 2016 gathering overseas included Seungri, Roy Kim, Mr. Kim, Yoo In Suk, and a group of women who had been invited. Lee was friends with one of the women. They all had dinner together, but Lee lost consciousness. She was left to rest in another room. She was found later in a different room, undressed, and her friends said it was extremely difficult to rouse her from sleep. Her testimony aligns with the content of the chat where Mr. Kim had filmed as he assaulted her and shared it with the other members. Lee's uncharacteristic loss of consciousness will also be further investigated for the possibility she was drugged at the party.
Multiple women came forward regarding a gathering at a resort in Hongcheon (January 2016). Five men were involved, which included Jung Joong Young, Choi Jong Hoon, and Mr. Kim (Burning Sun). Seungri did not attend but responded to chat conversations about what happened there. The women claim they lost consciousness after being served alcohol by the men. Again, the chatlogs and media shared indicate the women were sexually assaulted and recorded.
Seven women have come forward so far to file complaints in regards to being sexually assaulted by members of the Jung Joon Young chatrooms. The ones we know about in detail are listed above.
Informant Jeon (guard at Burning Sun):
- Came forward with information about police being paid off during club inspections long before this whole scandal took off. Drugs were openly used in Burning Sun. He recalled an unconscious woman who his team was supposed to remove from the club, but looked like she had been drugged when he tried to wake her. The leader of Jeon's guard team was instructed to keep police out of the club.
- Jeon was present when Kim Sang Kyo was assaulted. When Sang Kyo publicly stated he was seeking information about the club, Jeon contacted him, despite being threatened by his team leader.
- Claimed he never saw sexual crimes himself, but that servers and guards would say he should go watch the CCTV for a (VIP?) room, and he assumed there were sex acts happening. He said it was almost always celebrities or chaebols who booked that room.
Another victim of Kim Hak Eui and Yoon Jung Cheon who was present at the Wonju Villa in 2008 came forward. Choi has medical and psychiatric treatment records that may be used to apply charges to the men. Her testimony was provided back in 2013, but she was never called in for further questioning/investigation at the time, further indicating the investigation was not handled responsibly. (The two victims more recently associated with this case are Choi and Lee/A.)

Indirect connections:

Seo Hyun Deok (nephew of Choi Soon Shil): VIP guest at Burning Sun. Confirmed first assailant against Kim Sang Kyo. Grabbed him by the hair. Forwarded to prosecution on charges of assault..
Kim Hak Eui (Former Vice Justice Minister: (Article linking KHE with multiple sex abuse cases). Arrested. There is not sufficient evidence to charge Kim Hak Eui specifically on sexual assault (he has other charges pending still). Yoon Jung Cheon had a 'mental damage' charge applied for assaulting 'Lee/A' three times and coercing her to be sexually involved with Kim Hak Eui.
Yoon Jung Cheon (building contractor):
- Hosted sex parties at his villa in Wonju, where Kim Hak Eui is suspected to have drugged and raped women (between 2006-2007). With investigations re-opened and widened surrounded Kim, Yoon Jung Cheon was booked for fraud and misappropriating funds while head of a construction firm between November 2017 and May 2018.
- Was transferred to Seoul Eastern District Prosecutor's Office. Prosecution is determining if they want to seek an arrest warrant for Yoon.
- Arrested.
- The Past Affairs Committee called for an investigation of the relationship between Yoon Jung Cheon and high-ranking prosecuters regarding bribery and unfair treatment (ex-Attorney General Han Sang Dae, ex-official Yoon Gap Geun, and ex-assistant prosecutor general Park). There is also the possibility that more videos exist aside from the well-known 'Kim Hak Eui video' taken by Yoon Jung Cheon, which he may have used to habitually blackmail five more victims.
SBS reported on Businessman Choi, who is being investigation for real estate fraud/embezzlement and involvement with Kim Hak Eui. Choi's two sons are the 2nd largest stockholders of Choi's company and are suspected of participating in the fraud. One son is the vocalist of JANNABI (a band). Choi claims his sons were never involved in management of the company
President Moon Jae In issued emergency orders to thoroughly investigate the scandals that have surfaced: Burning Sun, Jang Ja Yeon (actress who took her own life that was sexually abused, as facilitated by her agency), and Kim Hak Eui (former justice minister who was accused of taking sexual bribes, with at least one woman who did not consent). Their commonalities are in privileged individuals participating in criminal activity and sexual abuse while colluding with people in places of power (ie. police, politicians) to cover up and/or take part in said activities. Jang Ja Yeon's case was nearing the statute of limitations, but there was an official extension of two months to continue the investigation.
Shim Min Ji (Madame Shim): Founder and CEO of the luxury fashion brand L’inoui (Koreaboo article all about her connections to powerful figures and suspicious cases of suicide)
Madam Lin (Taiwanese investor): Signed investment contract for Burning Sun after meeting Seungri in 2017. Accused of laundering money through the club. (Koreaboo article all about her.) Forwarded to prosecution on charges of money laundering and embezzlement. (190625)
Madam Jung (Adult Entertainment Industry Businesswoman (?)):
- Allegedly instructed through 'CEO Kim' of YGX and Yang Hyun Suk to bring 10 women entertainers to two events with YG Entertainment's foreign investors in July and October 2014. One was a dinner and one was a trip to Europe.
- Instructed to send photos of 10 women to Yang Hyun Suk's friend. The friend paid her about $170,000 a week before the Europe trip, which may have been supplied by Jho Low. Yang Hyun Suk then personally gave Madam Jung directions on how to distribute the money to the women--half of the total to be divided between the women and the other half going to Madam Jung herself.
- She decided to reveal this information on MBC's 'Straight' program after her frustration seeing Yang Hyun Suk claim he didn't know why Madam Jung brought the women for the trip when he was the one that gave the order.
- Madam Jung has been questioned by police six times so far.
Hwang Hana:
- Chaebol of Namyang Dairy Products (is also the ex-fiancée of Park Yoochun(JYJ)).
- Arrested (190404). Trial will begin 190515.
- Frequent visitor of Burning Sun. Drug-dealeuser, but has never been punished when caught due to preferential treatment from police (she may have bribed someone she used with, Cho/Jo, to take all the blame).
- Friends with Choi Jong Hoon, Lee Moon Ho, Seungri, and Madam Lin.
- May have distributed molka and used videos to threaten others/victims. A relative of Park Yoochun claimed Hana blackmailed him with nude photos of him she had taken while he slept.
- Was known to host house-parties at high-class villas where wealthy friends would be invited to take drugs and 'play'. There are indications she provided drugs for her family and possibly for two employees in her father's company (or worked with them to attain drugs).
- Indicted on additional charges of drug use. She was charged with using methamphetamine a total of 10 times, Her first trial will be on June 5th.
- At her second hearing on June 19th she submitted a 14-page apology letter and admitted to all charges against her regarding use of methamphetamine except for one. She challenged a statement by Park Yoochun that they had used drugs together in March of this year (12th-13th). Hwang Hana claimed Park Yoochun took the drugs by himself. Her next hearing will be held on July 10th.
- Was sentenced to 2 years probation and a fine of about $1,878 (2.2mil won). She was released from detention and made a public statement of apology, saying she would self-reflect. (190719)
Park Yoochun (JYJ, ex-TVXQ):
- Ex-fiancé of Hwang Hana. While she was being questioned she claimed a celebrity friend coerced her into taking drugs. This friend was speculated to be Park Yoochun.
- Police conducted a search and seizure of Park Yoochun's home, car, and phone, along with taking a hair sample for testing.
- He tested positive for methamphetamine (Philopon) and confessed to seven(?) instances of using. Six times with Hwang Hana and once on his own since 2018.
- His case was forwarded to prosecution on charges of violating the Narcotics Control Act (190503).
- CJeS, Yoochun's agency, terminated his exclusive contract. Yoochun cancelled all schedules and retired from the industry.
- Park Yoochun's lawyer, Kwon Chang Beom, resigned from work on his case.
- Officially indicted with detention after admitting to charges of drug use. His first hearing has been scheduled for June 14th.
- References to Yoochun have mostly been removed from JYJ's social media accounts.
- At his first hearing, he admitted to all charges of using methamphetamine (Philopon), six times between September and October 2018, and also for purchasing 1.5 grams of the drug three times with Hwang Hana between February and March 2019. Prosecutors asked for Yoochun to serve an 18-month prison sentence and pay a fine of approximately $1,180. His final trial is set for July 2nd.
- After 68 days of detainment during his trials, Yoochun was sentenced to 2 years of probation. If he is found to be involved with any further criminal activity during that time, he will serve 10 months in prison. He was also sentenced to pay a fine of about $1,200. (190702)
B.I (iKON): Dispatch revealed Kakaotalk messages from 2016 where he attempted to purchase marijuana and LSD from Han Seo Hee. Departed from iKON. YG Entertainment terminated his exclusive contract with the company. Suwon District Prosecutor's second deputy director, Lee Soo Kwon, explained that prosecution would not continue investigating B.I. since there was no evidence of criminal activity beyond the Kakaotalk conversation and Han Seo Hee testified that she never gave drugs to B.I.(190618).
Han Seo Hee (aka. Informant A): Exchanged Kakaotalk messages with B.I relating to purchasing drugs. She was questioned once, but was too emotional for the questioning to be productive. She testified she did not deliver drugs to B.I. Han Seo Hee also claimed she was coerced into changing her testimony under threat by Yang Hyun Suk. There are suspicions about timing with her August 2016 drug case. Police had requested a drug test on her, but before the results had even been recieved, her case was forwarded to prosecution. However, a source from the prosecution team claimed there were no records of this early transfer to prosecution. Additionally, Dispatch reported Han Seo Hee was encouraged by Yang Hyun Suk to go overseas to the US in December 2016 during the lead up to Big Bang's promotional period. In her opinion this was to prevent any risk to TOP in relation to his marijuana use. She was further told by the company to stay longer in the US, which she believes was timed intentionally to wait until TOP had enlisted in the military. These allegations were all denied by Yang Hyun Suk in an official statement.
Kangin departed from Super Junior, apologizing for the problems he had caused in an Instagram announcement. (190710)
Kim Hyung Jun (SS501): Accused of sexually assaulting a bar employee in 2010 (the alleged victim came foward when seeing this whole scandal in the news). He denied the allegations.
SHAUN (solo artist and member of band The Koxx): Enlisted for his military service. He hasn't been accused of anything, but he was a resident DJ at Burning Sun, so received negative attention for the association.
Choi Jung Hoon (JANNABI vocalist and son of Businessman Choi) posted a public letter via Instagram (Soompi's article w/full translation). He stated his father's business failed in 2012 and the singer had been financially independent ever since. He allowed his father to use his name/good credit score to help rebuild the business, but had nothing to do with it otherwise. He also said he knew his father and Kim Hak Eui were friends before he was born, but has no other association. JANNABI's various scheduled appearances are being cancelled following the reports about Choi Jung Hoon's father.
A PD for the variety show 2 Days & 1 Night (2D1N) was implicated in a chat where gambling was discussed with Jung Joon Young. Cha Tae Hyun and Kim Joon Ho (members of the 2D1N cast) were also in the chat and are revealed to have gambled while playing golf (gambling is illegal in South Korea). They have both stepped down from all programs they are involved with. 2D1N is now on indefinite hiatus and unavailable for replay. The investigation over the gambling came to an end with no charges filed against either of them (190524).
BC Holdings (in Hong Kong) was founded in 2016 by Seungri, Yoo In Suk, and Ryu (head of a consulting firm). It is believed to be a shell corporation. It was apparently operating on $8.8 million of investments, but the initial investment of these men was only about $35. Hong Kong authorities are investigating for tax evasion. The BC Holdings Korean office and Ryu's consulting firm are both located at the Yuri Holdings office.
Robert Holley (Lawyer, TV personality): Arrested for possession and use of methamphetamine. Megathread compilation for articles related to him

Further investigations:

While investigating Burning Sun, Police seized 58 phones.
Commissioner of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency held a press conference and revealed the following in relation to the club scandals: 103 people have been booked, 13 people have been arrested/imprisoned. 53 people were booked for drug-related charges (15 booked and 4 arrested for using/distributing drugs at Burning Sun), 9 booked and 1 arrested for distributing GHB.
Another Gangnam club (not named) owned by Mr. Kang was found to have allowed minors to enter in December 2017. Broker Bae bribed two police officers, Lieutenant C/Yeom and Sergeant D, to cover it up. All three were booked. Lieutenant C/Yeom admitted to accepting bribes and was arrested. The arrest warrant request for Sergeant D was denied.
A program aired on MBC called 'Straight', which dug into some staggeringly evil stuff. A number of Gangnam clubs including Arena and Burning Sun set up officetel rooms for VVIP customers. There are indications of drug use, human trafficking, underage prostitution, rape, torture, illegal filming, and the presence of a professional team to destroy all evidence of what goes on there.
17 women were booked for prostitution or prostitution mediation. It is believed they are all linked to Seungri's parties.
In a press conference on April 29th ('19), the SMPA Commissioner stated action had been taken against 23 suspects in relation to drug use, distribution of molka, and sexual assault. 7 people total were booked related to embezzlement at Burning Sun including: Lee and Choi (Jeonwon Enterprise chairman and CEO), Burning Sun's two CEOs, Yoo In Suk (Yuri Holdings), Ahn (Madam Lin's guide), and Seungri. The SMPA stated their next focus for investigation will be police corruption and collusion at Burning Sun and related cases.
From earlier reporting, there was a chatroom with 200 members, mostly reporters and directors, who were sharing media from all of these investigations--molka, pornographic material, and private information related to the sexual assault victims. SMPA's cyber crime team launched an investigation into this chatroom and its members, along with three more chatrooms that have similar material being shared.
Seoul Central District Prosecutor's Office performed a search and seizure on Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA) relating to prostitution night club crack-downs. The investigation focuses on a 'Lieutenant Park' who allegedly took bribes in exchange for secret information and possibly running prostitution businesses. This is indirectly related to the Burning Sun c ases, but the raid was performed on the same day the Burning Sun investigations were wrapped up and findings announced. Many found the timing suspicious.
Investigations into possible collusion between Burning Sun and the local police (Yeoksam Patrol Division) were concluded. 72 cell phones of the officers, call histories of 706 club staff members, and bank records of 36 higher-ranked staff members were analyzed. It was determined there was not evidence of collusion between the club and police.
Regarding Jung Joon Young's old August 2016 sexual assault case, SMPA forwarded 'Lieutenant A' to prosecution for abandonment of duty and falsifying documents as well as accomplice 'Lawyer B' (Jung Joon Young's lawyer) for hiding evidence. Together, they are suspected to have hidden Jung Joon Young's cell phone at the time, claiming it disappeared, keeping the evidence of his molka videos a secret. Lieutenant A also attempted to coerce the digital forensics company to put on record that the cell phone data could not be recovered, which the company refused to do. When the company said the data recovery would take less than 24 hours, Lieutenant A told his superiors it would take 2-3 months. Lawyer B is also suspected of trying to reset Jung Joon Young's phone before handing it over to police in the more recent case, March 2019.
SMPA's Intellectual Crime Division stated that Seungri, Yoo In Suk, Madam Lin, and Burning Sun co-CEOs Lee Sung Hyun and Lee Moon Ho are suspected of embezzling more money from the club than previously reported ($451,000). The new total of embezzled funds is reported to be approximately $1.5 million, of which $850,000 was embezzled by Seungri, Yoo In Suk, and Madam Lin. The remaining funds were allegedly embezzled by the co-CEOs. There are no plans to request additional warrants against those involved based on the changed amount of embezzled funds. (190619)

People on the case:

Oh Hyuk Jin and Noh Seung Il (Choi Soon Sil case): Political journalist and assistant, reported Burning Sun.
Lawyer Bang Jeong Hyun: Received chats from informant. Sent to the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (as opposed to the police). Shared them with Kang Kyung Yoon.
Kang Kyung Yoon: Reported Kakaotalk chats of Seungri and Jung Joon Young. Received chats from lawyer Bang (as requested by informant). Investigating Seungri since 2015. In communication with molka victims. (Watch her interview where she describes her process with the case)
Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA)
Metropolitan/Provincial Special Detective Division

10 Things You Didn't Know Are Illegal in Korea | 10 Magazine

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The Who's Who of Burning Molka: A comprehensive list of the names involved

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Indirect connections:

Further investigations:

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why is gambling banned in korea video

why is gambling banned in korea top

Why Did Korea Split in to North and South? - YouTube

10 Things You Didn't Know Are Illegal in Korea | 10 Magazine

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Early War cards:

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Other cards I'm thinking of changing:

Thanks for reading!

The Issue about Local Video Game Publishers

PSA: Countries and their gambling bans

Here are all positions posted in the last 24 hours

CALLS

PUTS

Posts containing dates not perfect

Posts containing strike prices

What is the statis of computing and gaming in Vietnam?

Why we won't have a long term bear market, and how to systematically pick your future investments in crypto

What's happening now and how bad will it get?

How to construct your portfolio going forward

Summing it up

US ban on Huawei is a gamble.

I need marketing help like in detail of what to do and how to increase exposure (Lengthy post)

r/Bitcoin recap - June 2019

How the CCP Defames and Hunts a Chinese Mainland Actor

I'm Parker "INTERRO" Mackay - Pro League caster, streamer, and content creator. Ask Me Anything! | SUMMARY

https://www.reddit.com/Rainbow6/comments/fo4q43/im_parker_interro_mackay_pro_league_caste

The Who's Who of Burning Molka: A comprehensive list of the names involved

⚠ TRIGGER WARNING: This will be the only warning in this post. The contents of many of these stories and notes may be triggering. If you are sensitive to straightforward mentions of criminal activity, especially regarding sexual assault/rape, do not continue. ⚠

Directly involved:

Victims speaking out:

Indirect connections:

Further investigations:

People on the case:

why is gambling banned in korea video

why is gambling banned in korea top

Why Did Korea Split in to North and South? - YouTube

Posts containing dates ^not perfect