Korea Wins Texting Champs

Australia loses the LG texting championships while Korea takes home US$100,000

Young-Ho Bae and Mok-Min Ha from Korea took home the title of LG Mobile World Cup Champions following the global texting competition in New York last week. The pair walked away with the grand prize of USD $100,000 after beating twenty four participants from twelve other countries, including Team Australia.

Team Australia comprised of Jian Li, from Sydney, and Paige Gallagher, from Brisbane, who were found during the local LG National Texting Championship in 2009. After proving their texting skills during the Championship’s Grand Final in November, Jian and Paige jet-setted off to New York to compete in the LG Mobile World Cup as Team Australia.
In the fierce competition held over four days in New York, 26 players from 13 countries were pitched against each other to showcase their texting skills using LG’s latest mobile phones the GW520 and New Chocolate Slide.

Morgan Dynda and Kate Moore from the United States took second place in the competition, winning US$20,000, and Juan Ignacio Aufranc and Agustina Montegna from Argentina took third place and US$10,000. In addition to the main competition, the players attempted to set a new Guinness World Records record for fastest texting. Pedro Matias, 27, from Portugal set a new record by typing a 264-character text in just 1 minute 59 seconds, shaving 23 seconds off the previous record set by Finland’s Arttu Harkki in 2005.

Competing in three rounds of five different challenges against the fastest texters from around the globe was never going to be easy. “All the other competitors were really fast at texting as well, so we really had to concentrate during the challenges,” said Jian. “It’s a shame that we didn’t win, but it was a fantastic experience. We are so happy to have been given the opportunity by LG to fly to New York and represent Australia.”

“It was great to be able to hang out with the other contestants and make so many new friends from all over the world,” added Paige. “The biggest buzz of the competition was seeing our faces up on the big screen in Times Square.”