Petition to Defer Pharm D. Admission of Steven Kim

I agree with him he needs to be in the LCS. Hey bud faker wanna 1v1

SAVE MY NIGGA CALITRLOLZ!!!!

The sole reason i watch lcs is because of Steven. I grew up in an abusive household, struggling with my sexuality for 21 years. Then one Sunday, i tuned into the challenger series and saw Mr. Kim playing against world class top laners such as Ackerman. It was at that moment i realized i wanted to be with another man. 2 years later and i am happily married to my husband Peter Yiliang and it could not have been possible without Steven. Thank you.

Allow him to play in the LCS or I'll be forced to get my lawyer involved.

I just had an extensive conversation with my father,( fellow UC Berkeley alumni) and his views is its like signing to join a baseball team. Baseball players get 5 MILLION for a year, they can go back to college in a year and their risk is heavily compensated. Its like this for league. If you are getting payed a hefty amount of money (not necessarily that much) the risk is compensated. If you are getting payed say 50,000 its a complete risk and in his mind and mine the wrong move. its a huge risk. you are potentially losing the 10 years of long nights and hard work at your academics, for 1 year that may hurt the next 50 in the end. It also seems you want to be a pharmacist pretty bad too. the safer and longer term pick seems more smart. The popularity you get from a year of pro gaming wont be comparable to the help you will give people.

Competition in professional e-sports, like conventional sports, requires an extremely devoted, perhaps even obsessive, amount of practice and conditioning. In order to compete at the highest possible level, other professionals have been known to eschew all other aspects of life, some even dropping out of school or leaving their homes. While this elevates the level of competition, it also often leaves the professional gamer, like the professional athlete, with few other skills or career options following retirement. Steven Kim is an admirable counterexample to the "dropout gamer" paradigm. His admission to a Pharm D. program and his recent promotion into Riot Games's League Champion Series are both impressive achievements in their own right, but unfortunately they conflict. There are not enough hours in the day for Steven to pursue his degree in Pharmacy while simultaneously competing at a professional level. It is my hope, as the well as the hope of many other e-sports fans, that Steven will be allowed to compete in the LCS without jeopardizing his long-term career aspirations. Not only do I want to advocate for Steven so that he might be able to capitalize on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but I want to support a figure who might set a positive example for other aspiring athletes and competitors. Steven has achieved national recognition in the League of Legends competitive scene without compromising his responsibilities as a student or a budding professional. I hope that he will be allowed to continue, that he might pave the way for future student athletes and competitors of all kinds.

I completely understand the universities position on this; if nothing else somewhere out there a prospective student was denied admittance in place of Steven. But even reasonable institutional rules and standards sometimes need to take second place to human decent and empathy in extraordinary circumstances like this. They could argue the distraction would be harmful to Steven's future in the program after he retires; but the countless hours of work, the time spent honing interpersonal skills and relationships, and his own leadership position / critical and analytical evaluating role within the team are all skill sets that go beyond e-sports. I honestly do not think that argument has any merit unless they refuse to accept the reality of how e-sports have changed and that this is NOT just a student wanting to go play video games for awhile. It is up to Steven to make his own decision, but I believe and hope the university should at least allow him the freedom to MAKE that decision. They should not put a metaphorical gun to his future career's head; even if he does decide under those circumstances to remain in the program it could seed bitterness and sour his entire experience. And finally, the school should consider the thousands (already 12k signed and its been up what? A few hours?) of fans that have their weeks made a little bit better by seeing him play and his team perform. Not for nothing, that shouldn't be discounted entirely.

Team 8)

Today, League of Legends - professional gaming - draws more people to events than some established conventional sports. Having the experience of playing in a professional team in front of thousands of people every week will surely bring more benefits in the long term to Steven Kim than starting the Pharm D. Program one year earlier. He'll work in a very competitive, strategic and professional environment that will without a doubt teach him unique lessons that most of us will never have the opportunity to. I'm sure the program is full of smart hard-working people, just like Steven, but how many of them were also competitive gamers before starting? That's the kind of unique life experience I would look for when choosing someone out of thousands. Good luck Steven "CaliTrlolz".

I also graduated from Berkeley in 2013, play a similar pool of champions and main top (abet only at a plat level), and work in a similarly profitable field. But would 100% put it off a year to play in LCS, go CaliTrlolz!!

This extremely dedicated and skilled individual should get the chance to brighten his horizons and growing as a person instead of feeling pressured because of the eventual academic and financial cost of delaying his education.

team 8 is gr8 m8 i r8 it 8/8 apppreci8 calitrollz8 play making , some of the best plays to d8. Pharm school will have to w8 8^) Team 8 is gr8 and only gr8 with calitrollz8