Top Amateur Batooer Seo Jeongin leads "Group of Death"!

World Batoo League Season I

 Top amateur player Seo Jeongin emerged to lead Group C after a knockout victory against Teng Cheng of China in Round of 16 of the World Batoo League (WBL) Season I.

As Seo Jeongin, Park Jieun and Teng Cheng scored one win and one loss each, the fate of Group C will likely be decided depending on Lee Changho’s performance in the coming matches.

With 300 million won up for grabs as prize money (150 million won set for the champion), the WBL is a global competition of the strategic mind game – Batoo.

Matches are to be aired live on cable channel Ongamenet on Fridays (1:00 p.m.) and Sundays (9:00 p.m.) of August and Thursdays (1:00 p.m.) and Fridays (1:00 p.m.) of September and October.

 Seo Jeongin, a top amateur Batooer, has emerged as the No. 1 player of Group C, dubbed the "Group of Death," in the Round of 16 of the World Batoo League (WBL) Season I. He is competing with such prominent players as Park Jieun, Lee Changho and Teng Cheng.
 Seo, who suffered a regrettable defeat in the first match against “Yeojeonsa (Amazon)” Park Jieun (2:1) in the full-league competition that opened last week, conquered Chinese participant Teng Cheng in a 2:0 knockout match to emerge as the No. 1 of the group. On the other hand, Park’s enjoyable start with the victory against Seo was discolored with her defeat against Teng Cheng. As a result, Seo, Park and Teng Cheng all scored one win and one loss. But, at the moment, Seo is ranked at top since he gained more points by winning more sets. Consequently, the fate of Group C is to be decided depending on the performance of Lee, who has not yet played a match in the Round of 16.
 Seo dominated Teng Cheng, who joined the Round of 16 after crushing Korean professional player Park Jinsol in the Korea-China Round last May, without vacillation. He won the first set as he, though his hidden was completely blocked by the opponent, came from behind to record a draw (when a game ends in a tie in Batoo, the first attacker loses the game). In the second set, he took the initiative from the early stage and put the Chinese counterpart into the corner to have the opponent give up in the middle.

“As far as Batoo is concerned, I am not even scared of Lee Changho. A good Baduk player is not necessarily a good Batoo player,’’ Seo said right after the victory, letting off his confidence to advance to the quarterfinals. “I could not show 100 percent of my ability in the first match against Park, as I could not adapt myself to this new environment yet. But, I will not be under pressure in Batoo, as long as it is one from external environment.”

 On Aug. 14, in the meanwhile, Lee Jaewung,6p who has experienced the largest number of games among professional Batoo players earned his first victory in Group B against Sohn Changho, a Korean player who topped the amateur seed competition.

Players are playing “best two out of three” series in each of the four groups in the Round of 16 full-league competitions of the WBL Season I, where a total of 300 million won is up for grabs (half of the total prize money set for the champion). All the matches are staged at the e-Sports Stadium of iPark Mall in Yongsan, central Seoul.