Former Starcraft 2 professional Ryoo Kyung-hyun, more commonly known as "SeleCT," has been offered an internship with Shopify– directly from the billionaire CEO himself. It started when SeleCT took to Twitter to ask his followers to refer him to any internship that pertained to software engineering.
Luckily for SeleCT, Canadian-German Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke turned out to be a fan of his, immediately offering him an internship with the company. When replying to SeleCT's tweet, Tobi made sure to note that his "Starcraft accomplishments are enough of a CV" and the spot was entirely his for the taking.
SeleCT had a short yet explosive career in professional Starcraft 2. He found a good amount of success through Starcraft 2's first full year in 2011, playing for team Dignitas as well as winning well over $15,000 in prize earnings – a decent chunk considering the RTS game's initial lack of heavy-hitting financial backing when the game first released. He gained a substantial following in North America upon putting up fantastic games in multiple Major League Gaming tournaments, most notably his 2nd place finish at 2010 MLG Pro Circuit Washington D.C. and his 3rd place finish at 2011 MLG Pro Circuit Dallas. SeleCT's biggest career win, however, was his $10,000 victory at the North American Battle.net Invitational in 2011, defeating TT1, Huk, and Sheth along the way.
SeleCT's talent aside, he was also known for his personality. He developed a reputation for using the "Sup Son ¯\(ツ)/¯" emoticon after his victories. It was eventually deemed his signature pose and even a KnowYourMeme page was created about it. Additionally, in the summer of 2013, he bet fellow Starcraft 2 professional Sjow $100 that he could reach the top spot in North America's Grandmaster Division (the highest possible rank) in less than one month. Judging by the tweet below, it wasn't much of a challenge for SeleCT to win the bet.
The public's reaction to the tweets have been nothing but positive, many praising the CEO for his decision and statement on the value of Esports accomplishment. Clearly, Tobi himself was quite entertained with the response he's received over the situation, tweeting his amusement over the fact that he was trending on Reddit.
It is nice to see that someone of major business influence finds value in Esports accomplishments, recognizing the hard work and dedication required to achieve success competing in the emerging genre. Hopefully the future will continue to yield situations where more employers both accept and seek out candidates who have strong Esports backgrounds.
Source: Twitter, KnowYourMeme