PVP

> An organization that also exist in the **Super String Universe**.
>
> For the Super String version, refer to, PVP

PVP is the main organization of **"Hanlim Gym"**. It is a place where any high school student in South Korea can join to fight against each other to gain fame, power, money, etc until they graduated. Finally, with only the exceptional, they will be granted any wish that PVP will grant.

## Background

PVP is a South Korean national fighting competition exclusive to students with branches in 9 of 17 provincial-level divisions in South Korea: Seoul, Daegu, Busan, Incheon, Gwangju, Daejeon, Ulsan, Gangwon, and Jeju Island. The areas that don't have a PVP branch include: Gyeonggi, North and South Chungcheong, North and South Jeolla, North and South Gyeongsang, and Sejong. Each branch has its own manager with Seoul being managed by Charles Kim. Hundreds of fighters participate in PVP with the Seoul, Incheon and Busan branches comprising the most. Seongkyu Choi, vice-president of the Dowon Group, founded PVP as a source of underground income.

Aside from attending matches in person, many viewers steam PVP on black sites on the dark web. The membership fee is around 200 USD and members place bets on matches. Betting is what makes PVP big money. On PVP's black site, there is a community of traders who sell privately-made weapons. Additionally, it also serves as a platform for organisations to recruit fighters. PVP takes a commission and brokerage charge in these transactions. Overall, PVP has made over 100 million USD. Each player is assigned an amount of Battle Points or BP from the results of their first match. A player's BP increases when they win matches and decreases when they lose matches. Players are divided into 5 tiers by BP with the 6th tier, Champion, representing the peak of a branch. Oddly enough, the Incheon branch lacks a champion. Players progress from their current tier to the next in promotion matches once they have sufficient BP.

they can gain BP and move from one tier to another. Once a player's BP reaches a certain level, you can rise to the next tier through a promotion match. Tiers are divided 5 ranks based on BP and at the very top there is the Champion. Oddly enough, of the 9 districts, only Incheon does not have a champion. The BP tiers are as follow:

* Common (BP 0-999)
* Rare (BP 1000-2999)
* Epic (BP 3000-4999)
* Unique (BP 5000-7999)
* Legendary (BP 8000-9999)
	+ Challenger
* Champion

Upon reaching 9999 BP, a fighter is qualified as a “Challenger”, gaining the right to challenge the current champion for the champion position.

### PVP Black Site

PVP Black Site (1).pngWeapon ListPVP Black Site (2).pngThere are other aspects of PVP such as the Black Site where players can aquire weapons. With an extensive list and even private groups creating personal weapons by request. It also allows space for criminal organizations to meet with contendors. PVP charges commission fees and brokerage charge

### Income

Very few people watch the matches with the main source of income coming from the dark web. With a membership fee being 200,000 won, individuals can bet on matches on the dark web. In total, PVP raises 100 billion won annually.

### Sponsors

 File:PVP Sponsors.png
Most of PVP's money comes from sponsors (groups that fund the players), the biggest one being the Unknown group. The sponsors are the elite 0.1% of VVIPS that exert their influence over PVP, including arranging matches. In each branch there are sponsors which a fighter can affiliate with in order to gain allies, protection and other benefits. For fighters who don't affiliate with a sponsor, especially at the higher levels of PVP, they run the risk of being targeted by one or more sponsors for a multitude of reasons, whether that be for hindering their business or simply refusing to join them. In the case of Seoul's largest sponsor group, Unknown, if a fighter rebels or resists them, they use their power to match the targeted player against members of Unknown who will target certain parts of the body, weakening them over time. These coordinated attacks lead to the fighter either retiring from PVP due to their injuries or out of fear of future punishment.

Current Known Sponsors:

* Unknown - the most influential sponsor of Seoul PVP and of PVP overall.
* Royal - the second most influential sponsor of Seoul PVP.
* XMAS - a sponsor of Daegu PVP.
* Gold Rain - a sponsor of Gwangju PVP.
* Iljin - a sponsor of Busan PVP.
* The Host - *TBA*
* Jaroban - *TBA*
* FXDX - though only mentioned as a crew and not a direct sponsor group, as their No.1 fighter, Deathface, was a Challenger to Suho Kang, it's likely that FXDX is a sponsor rather than just a crew as it is mentioned that most fighters climbing up to be the champion need the support of a sponsor.

### Events

PVP doesn't have weight divisions and minimal rules. Players must abide by these rules, especially not revealing PVP locations as it will jeopardize its operations and those affiliated.

* **Regular Matches** - a match between two fighters on the same tier with the exception of special events.
* **Promotion Matches** – a match that is arranged for a player or between players who are qualified to progress to the next tier.
* **Agreement Match** - a match that is arranged following an agreement between two players that allows for players to even fight with a 1 tier gap. These matches also come with conditions that are agreed upon between the two parties.
* **Battle Royale** - a match between more than two fighters, usually 4 to 5, with the last person standing being declared the winner.
* **Exhibition Match** - a match between fighters representing the high schools in the branch region.
* **Series of Matches** - one of the bigger summer events as students are on vacation with fights arranged almost 24 hours-a-day. During the event, matches can occur every 2 to 3 days unlike the usual once or twice a week.
* **Fever Time** - it is an event that helps player whose BPs had plunged more than 5000 points due to unfortunate circumstances. Until the player or players participating recover their BP, they will have an unlimited amount of matches without a time limit. However, only 2 to 3 players benefit from the event.
* **District Event Match** - an event that happens once in a blue moon where legendary players from each district or branch gather to fight each other.
* **Championship** – the largest event in PVP with 64 rounds that occurs in December at the end of each year. Each district or branch has a set number of seats in proportion to the number of players in their district. For example, Seoul, which has the most players, 154, gets 23 seats while Incheon, which has the second most players, 71, gets just 11 seats.

### Championship

The Championship is the main focus of Season 2. As mentioned, players from all branches gather. The winner is awarded the "Black Card" which is grants the owner any one wish, ranging from money, fame, pretty much anything as PVP is an illegal organization under the "Dowon Group", thus there is probably no legal restrictions (i.e. murder, etc) unless it is becoming the president of Korea.

There are various rounds in the championship, each with it's own rules. For more details, please check out the Championship page:

Championship
## History

**MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!** The history of PVP includes information from Season 2 and thus may contain heavy spoilers. Please read at your own risk.

1. Seongkyu Choi establishes PVP.
2. PVP organizes the first Championship and Charles Kim becomes the first Championships' Champion.
3. PVP begins to form more rules and restrictions.
4. Suho Kang becomes the champion of Seoul PVP.
5. Suho Kang wins his first championship and obtains the Black Card.
6. Youngha Jeon joins PVP.
7. Because of player Goliath's incident, PVP officially bans the use of steroids.
8. Youngha participates in the PVP Championship.

## Structure

The specific power structure in PVP is not completely revealed, however it's the founder and Highest Chairman, Seongkyu Choi, sits at the top of the hierarchy. Each district or branch appears to have one manager, at least one PVP announcer, and a number of assistants and other staff.

### Fighters

This is a list of PVP fighters. On mobile, click on the characters' names to read their summaries and BPs. Also, some of the text is cut off if using mobile. For more explicit info, refer to the **Hanlim Gym Character** page (Note: Not all fighters are listed).

* By BP
* By District

This is a list of fighters by BP, not by district. Fighters whose BP are not disclosed are in the unknown section. Though there are many PVP fighters, only fighters mentioned by names are listed here with the exception of Seoul Ranked 23rd, as he is mentioned a few times. Furthermore, because Youngha and Kangyoon's BP continue to go up and down, they are listed in Legendary as that is their most recent development. Lastly, aliases are in "bold" where as non-bold names would be their actual names. There are cases where some characters only have aliases and vice-versa, some characters may have no alias (i.e Suho, Youngha).

This white space is allocated for to view the expanded image and description, or else they will get cut off by the Tabber template. For more explanation, read the Tabber documentation

This is a list of fighters by district rather than BP. Because Seoul has too many fighters, only fighters Legendary and above are mentioned.
This white space is allocated for to view the expanded image and description, or else they will get cut off by the Tabber template. For more explanation, read the Tabber documentation

Again, the list above is not exhaustive, but it includes most members that have made an appearance.

## Power and Reach

PVP's Highest Chairman Seongkyu Choi, is also the Vice President of Dowon Group. Seongkyu's influence as the Down Group's Vice President extends to PVP, allowing the organisation to hold a lot of power in the country, with law enforcement allowing PVP to operate and serious incidents being covered up through bribery. However, covering up serious incidents can be quite costly as was showcased when a warehouse housing a drug called pentakill, belonging to the Mapo Branch of Unknown, PVP Seoul's largest sponsor group, caught fire. As a result, Seongkyu spent a large sum of money to keep his and the name of everyone related to the warehouse and drugs out of the news.

He was so enraged over it that he murdered Seokho Kim, the largest distributor of pentakill who provided its recipe to Unknown's Mapo Branch out of rage with his name plate. Speaking of Unknown, it appears to be either an affiliate of the Dowon Group or a group which Seongkyu, as PVP's highest Chairman, can control due to the fact that their first-in-command isn't Seonggyu, despite him still being heavily involved in their activities.

Below are other assests that belong to PVP:

Apart from fighting rings, for the Round of 16 and onwards, the Athena stadium was built for the final battles.

## Plot Overview

### Get Schooled

PVP was mentioned by former player, Golden Mad Dog, as he fought Hwajin Na.

## Affiliates/Associates

Since the founder is Seongkyu Choi from the Dowon Group, PVP is most likely affiliated with the Dowon Group as another source of illegal income.

## Trivia

* The number of PVP is 010-1234-XXXX. The last digits are blank but in one panel, it was: 010-1234-789X.
* One of the few organizations to appear in Blue String and Super String.
	+ In the **Superstring Mobile Game**:
		- PVP is the equivalent of players in the game battle against other real time players. There are also ranks that will give players BP points to be used for materials and gene maps.
		- In Hanlim Lim and Suho Kang's skills, PVP is used as the background for their attacks.
* It is unclear if female players are allowed to participate. Considering the fact thta to date, there have been no female players, it is assumed that women are not allowed. The closest is perhaps "Blue Rose," a player with long hair that was briefly seen. However, it can be assumed this player is also male.

## References

1. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 1, Ep.44
2. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 2, Ep.13
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Hanlim Gym, Season 1, Ep.44
4. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 1, Ep.87
5. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 1, Ep.5
6. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 1, Ep.63
7. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 1, Ep.82
8. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 1, Ep.61
9. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 1, Ep.61
10. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 2, Ep.5
11. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 2, Ep.6
12. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 2, Ep.13
13. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 2, Ep.34
14. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 2, Ep.35
15. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 2, Ep.34
16. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Ep. 2