💡 New here? This is Article 5 of our K-Town Survival Guide series. So far, the Miller family — a nervous Ohio dad with his wife and three kids — has driven to Manhattan, met banchan for the first time, learned the word that summons a server, and watched their thirteen-year-old son lose a regional e-sports final to a Korean boy named Yoo-wan Ban. This article picks up three days after that tournament, back home in Ohio. If you're new, start with Part 1 , Part 2 , jeogiyo , and the tournament . 💡 Notice to Readers: This article continues the fictional Miller family scenario from earlier installments of the Survival Guide. Practical context follows in callouts. Tuesday Morning Tuesday started normal. Bob had spent Monday at his desk being a person who watched his son lose. Sunday had been worse — Ethan had stayed in his room until dinner, then asked, calmly, the kind of questions thirteen-year-olds ask when they are still processing: did you see the third game, the late p...
💡 New here? This is Article 4 of our K-Town Survival Guide series. So far, the Miller family — a nervous dad from Ohio with his wife and three kids — has driven to Manhattan, eaten at a Korean restaurant, met banchan for the first time, and learned the word that summons a server. This article picks up a few weeks later, back home in Ohio. If you're new, start with Part 1 , Part 2 , and the most recent installment about jeogiyo . 💡 Notice to Readers: This article continues the fictional Miller family scenario from earlier installments of the Survival Guide. Practical context follows in callouts. Far From Manhattan A few weeks after Manhattan, Bob Miller was sitting in a beige folding chair in a regional convention center in Ohio. There was no Korean food anywhere in sight. There was no corn tea. There was, instead, his thirteen-year-old son Ethan, two hundred feet across the room, sitting in front of a glowing monitor with three teammates, about to start the most im...