A Superteam Built on Donations, and the Sale
“Back in 2021, we lost eight whole wins because of COVID…”
“A strong team still had nothing to lose even if they caught it, though.”
In the second half of 2020, Hallelujah Robotics had shown the world a miracle without any cheering crowds. But starting in the first half of 2021, the team plummeted back into the middle-to-lower ranks. Miracles were never meant to last forever. Still, thanks to Sungtanhoh, they managed to stay out of the absolute basement.
Then came the second half of 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic delivered the worst season in the team’s history.
Dear RCLK member clubs,
A team has been found to have fielded a player infected with COVID-19. This constitutes a violation of the special COVID-19 rules. Therefore, the affected match will be recorded as a 0:3 forfeit loss.
Forfeit Match List
Hallelujah Robotics: 8 matches
● WIZ Game 3 (3:1), Game 4 (3:2)
● ORS Game 4 (3:2), Game 5 (4:1)
● IDS Game 4 (3:2)
● RTH Game 4 (3:0)
● 5EX Game 4 (3:2)
● SSR Game 4 (3:1)
LJ Ravens: 2 matches
● SSR Game 4 (3:2)
● 5EX Game 5 (3:1)
Team ORASTY: 1 match
● WIZ Game 3 (3:1)
Wizard Air White Witch: 1 match
● ORS Game 4 (3:2)
“Even if one or two players are out with COVID, the others can just step up and cover for them~!”
“Back then my team, RTH, was in a dark age but our roster was still solid.”
Some might wonder if a cult-leader’s team was simply more vulnerable to the virus. That was absolutely not the case—if it had been, the entire squad would have been infected. In reality, only pilot Jeong Su-won of Sungtanhoh caught it twice. The real problems could be boiled down to two things.
1. Hallelujah Robotics relied far too heavily on Sungtanhoh and Jeong Su-won.
2. When Jeong Su-won was sidelined, there was no replacement pilot capable of controlling Sungtanhoh.
If the team had even a moderately balanced roster, they never would have suffered eight forfeit losses. One absence could have been covered by someone else stepping into the gap.
After the forfeit penalties were handed down, Jeong Su-won eventually recovered from COVID-19.
Whether from lingering COVID symptoms or not, Jeong Su-won’s aim was completely off. The moment he allowed Ronos to close the distance, he was struck head-on. The result was a mangled wreck that looked like a tin can crushed under a truck.
“Whoa!! Sungtanhoh is completely twisted out of shape!!”
“5! 4! 3! 2! 1! Sungtanhoh KO! Ronos wins!!”
The damage was so severe that even the naked eye could tell it was catastrophic. Jeong Su-won would not be able to return for the remainder of the season.
“Hallelujah is in a state of emergency! Sungtanhoh is season out!!”
With Sungtanhoh out for the year, Hallelujah Robotics sank straight to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. It was a miserable collapse for the same team that had written a miracle the year before.
“Finishing dead last with a minus-119 point differential and still not coming in last place is honestly impressive.”
“Their win-count luck only kicked in at the absolute worst possible time.”
While talking about Hallelujah’s days in the RVGL, Kang Cheong-hyeon suddenly realized something. Even back then, a miracle had been followed by tragedy.
(Wait… this team has gone through miracle-then-tragedy twice?)
11th — HAL — 19 wins, 47 losses — -119
12th — KRE — 18 wins, 48 losses — -89
Thanks to going 5-1 against KILR, they avoided rock bottom. At the time, KILR was a weak team that had finished last three years in a row with a perfect 12-12-12 record. Even so, the historic -119 point differential remained. They had earned the most wins relative to their point differential, but when that differential was -119, it didn’t matter at all.
“I thought things would be different once they built a superteam, but it turned out worse than the second half of 2020.”
“They were basically a donation angel sprinkling luxury taxes across the whole league~!”
In the 2021-22 off-season, an enormous sum of donation money sitting in owner Jeon Kwang-hwan’s account was finally invested into Hallelujah Robotics. Keeping Sungtanhoh as the core, they recruited powerful robots from both domestic and international markets. The first superteam in RCLK history—nicknamed the “Donation Team”—was born.
Naturally, they blew past the salary cap and had to pay an astronomical luxury tax. Up until the middle and latter half of the season, their performance matched that massive payroll as they competed for first place. Their main rivals were two teams:
1. Team ORASTY, gunning for a fifth straight integrated title.
2. RTH Crown, which had escaped its dark age and become a championship-caliber squad the very next season.
Starting in the second half, their form began to slip and they dropped out of the title race. Still, the final standings weren’t bad at all.
1st — ORS — 48-18 — +91
2nd — RTH — 48-18 — +90
3rd — HAL — 46-20 — +87
They were only two wins behind first and second, and their point differential was a mere three points worse. In the first round of the playoffs, they chose to face sixth-place Cheongcheon Science Wings / CC. It was only the second time in team history they had reached the postseason.
CC had finished 31-35 with a -2 point differential—exactly a .500 winning percentage and not even a positive differential. The total payroll gap between the two teams was more than double. And so the first round of the playoffs began.
“Even after getting paid that much, Hokemoth still performed like that…”
“Losing to Sau, the notorious big-game troller, was pretty rough.”
The result was exactly as predicted: a Hallelujah victory. The surprising part was the 4:3 score. They had dropped three entire sets. In the process, they delivered what many called the worst playoff performance in RCLK history. One set in particular stood out as the cherry on top of that disaster.
Hokemoth was a horizontal spinner robot. It had once been called the pride of Japan, a non-IRCA member nation. Its form was classic: blade support arms running top and bottom, two drive wheels with open rear sections. Its sleek, majestic appearance evoked an eagle or falcon, and its solid performance had made it hugely popular.
The moment the match started, Hokemoth flipped. Yet it immediately seized control of the fight.
“The flip was just a hiccup—it’s starting to dominate!”
The big-game troller Lychodon was being crushed by Hokemoth.
“If this goes to a judges’ decision, Lychodon will win!”
“It needs to buy time until it can re-accelerate… whoa!!”
While trying to create distance to regain speed, it exposed its rear and was KO’d shortly after.
“5, 4, 3, 2, 1! Hokemoth KO! Lychodon wins!”
At the time, Hokemoth’s market value was the highest among all horizontal spinners in the RCLK, narrowly exceeding both Ronos and ORS_Blade. In contrast, Lychodon was valued at roughly the level of a weak team’s ace. Its tendency to break down at critical moments while with RTH in 2021 had caused its price to drop significantly.
“Despite that insane price tag, it got absolutely destroyed by RTH in the second round.”
“Luxury tax payer and RTH’s stepping stone to the finals! Thanks, Hallelujah~!”
Even after watching that kind of performance, Team ORASTY chose not to select Hallelujah. Instead they picked fourth-place IDUSOL Dreams, and it proved to be a fatal mistake. They suffered a reverse sweep, losing three straight then winning four in a row against IDS. Meanwhile, Hallelujah was crushed by RTH 1:4. That lone win had come from Sungtanhoh. Sungtanhoh takes Game 1, then the team loses 1:4. No one knew at the time that this would become the team’s tradition.
“In the second half they didn’t even make the playoffs.”
“They couldn’t even reach the qualifiers. All they did was pay luxury tax and go home.”
“And in the end, the team was sold.”
The poor form from the first-half playoffs grew even worse in the second half. They ultimately finished eighth and failed to qualify for the postseason. They also lost the points tiebreaker and missed the qualifiers. And so Hallelujah Robotics’ 2022 season came to a close. It was a hollow ending for RCLK’s first superteam—the Donation Team. At least by paying all that luxury tax, they had helped the entire league.
“I thought some decent IT company would buy them. What the heck was RVKGG?”
(Well, since it’s a game community site, you could technically call it an IT company…)
On the third day of the 2022 off-season, owner Jeon Kwang-hwan sold the team. The buyer was RVGL-Korea.GG, commonly abbreviated as RVKGG. RVKGG was nothing more than a single game community website. Naturally, it could not afford the Donation Team’s massive payroll. Nevertheless, they managed to re-sign a few key robots—including Sungtanhoh and Hokemoth—though only after significant pay cuts. They succeeded in building a roster capable of fighting for fifth or sixth place.
The new season’s catchphrase was extremely provocative: “Surpass God.” It carried multiple meanings.
“After the sale, they somehow managed to build a playoff-level team.”
“Back then, no one imagined that ‘Surpass God’ would actually come true.”