Unlike her courteous smile, the professional video game player Seo Ji-su is a strong-willed woman. Currently a member of the professional game team "Soul," which stands for "Starcraft of Unbelievable Legend," Seo is a well-known star in the cyberworld. She has 35,000 people registered with her fan club, and her name was acknowledged as the most searched word by a local portal sites this August. Hundreds of spectators gather around as Seo battles male gamers at the Starcraft game, and many Netizens try desperately to get video copies of her matches.

Seo modestly attributed her popularity to being a female gamer. But her fans say that her competitive and defiant attitude made her who she is now. To solely concentrate on games, Seo did not keep in touch with her friends for almost half a year. She thought that to beat the talented male gamers, who are physically stronger and more experienced, she must train twice as hard as thems.

A 19-year-old girl of fragile frame, Seo's obsession with games started when she was in her third year in junior high school. Her father taught her how to play Starcraft and this, she said, opened her eyes to a whole new world. In the midst of this, she saw a Starcraft game league on television, and suddenly the thought of winning the game came across her mind. She believed she could.

Seo began to play Starcraft all day long, developing new strategies. She said that she would skip class to go to a nearby PC room the moment a new game tactic popped up in her head. Even her father could not stop her.

All the hard work finally bore fruit as she competed at the World Cyber Games in 2001, representing Korea. That same year she joined professional game team, and made her dream come alive.

Seo said that a woman needs to have a professional mind to beat the men. Many female gamers, she said, easily give up when they think it's tough, but male gamers don't. Seo said that she needs to train herself to become more patient. She said that because this is the road she took, despite her parent's disapproval, she will not give up on it, but try her best to survive as a professional gamer. (Baik Seung-jae, whitesj@chosun.com )