Reader Peter sends in these scans of Counter Strike Source ads that ran recently in a Seoul, Korea free daily paper. Peter also explained the country's love affair with the game.

Here in Korea CS clones like 'Special Force' and 'Sudden Attack' are popular despite having sub-CS1 graphics. They are free and players can pay for ad ons. I guess CS Source here will operate in the same way. I found the layout of the ad to be amusing. The history of CS comming out of the clouds, the slightly oxymoronic '2nd premiere' and the sparse nature of the screenshot with only the pistol in screen. Be interesting to see if a free CS Source becomes huge here in Korea.

I wonder how The Orange Box would do there? Hit the jump to see the bottom half of this full page ad.

"Creating a CGS team based in Seoul is critical to our success as a true worldwide gaming league," said CGS Commissioner Andy Reif."It is widely known that Korea produces many of the best professional gamers in the world. With our partner, STAR, covering the action for fans across Asia, Seoul will have the opportunity to prove itself in head-to-head competition against top pro gaming professionals from Europe, the United States, Latin America, Australia, the Middle East, and elsewhere in Asia"

Members of the Seoul franchise will earn a base salary of (US)$30,000 and could earn more than (US)$100,000 in annual salary and bonuses. The team will compete in the upcoming CGS Asian Championship event, where they will battle against other Asian teams soon to be announced.

I guess it's a good thing the CGS games don't include StarCraft.

Championship Gaming Series Announces Seoul as New Franchise City [MCV]

It took a good day of calls and emails, but Blizzard just got back to us about the rumor floating around that Starcraft 2 will be announced next month during their World Wide Invitation in Seoul, South Korea.

According to a Korean website, StarCraft 2 is being developed in 3D with a new race and lots of changes for existing units. The site went on to say that additional details would be revealed during Blizzard's WWI on May 19th in Seoul.

When reached for comment today this was Blizzard's official response:

We do intend to announce a new product at the Worldwide Invitational next month in Korea, and we appreciate the enthusiasm and interest in getting an advance look at what that will be, but players will have to wait until May 19th to find out more. Also, we have a very strong connection with the characters and settings of StarCraft, and we do plan to revisit that universe at some point in the future, but we don't have anything new to announce in that regard at present.

So that's a yes on a StarCraft 2, eventually, and a yes to a product announcement next month. The only question now is are they one in the same. Brian Crecente