This would mark the first time since the inception of the Proleague that a non-Korean team would participate in the event with the collaboration between Evil Geniuses and Team Liquid.
Grospellier was one of the top ranked StarCraft players in the world, having placed second in the World Cyber Games in 2001 and continuing his career in South Korea in the years subsequent including a fourth place finish in an Ongamenet Starleague.
In July 2001, On-Media (then under the Orion group and owner of OnGameNet) and Viacom launched MTV Korea.