Editing K-Pop Alliance

A post-Whiteout count of pixels directly controlled by K-Pop groups was estimated to be around 43,000 pixels.

TWICE, Kep1er, IZ*One, and Enhypen would be erased for building onto the Belgium and German flags, and another small block of groups would be erased approximately 40 hours into r/place. Only Blackpink, BTS, and LOONA would continue standing until the Whiteout.

Immediately after the First Expansion, the TWICERS (the r/place division of TWICE) would develop and create a new TWICE logo underneath the German Flag (1558, 852) and develop an alliance with r/MFDOOM due to being direct neighbors, the latter eventually declared an honorary K-Pop group. These two would found the largest group of K-Pop fandoms called '''Girl Group (GG) Alley'''. A region dedicated to all female K-Pop groups and named after it's original, narrow size. Many fandoms would have multiple locations of representation across the r/place canvas, including inside GG Alley.

====='''Boy Group (BG) Valley (also known as Boy Group Plaza)''' =====

Founded by BTS Balloon (1971, 212), the Outlying Regions is the combined representation of any non-organized or remote K-Pop related builds across the entire canvas (mostly composed of BTS and LOONA). The Outlying Regions ended r/place with over a dozen builds.

Two sub-regions to GG Alley would develop as space allowed. These regions were not limited by gender.   

Located to the Southwest of GG Alley and part of the greater GG Alley area, this sub-region contained representation from 24 individual K-Pop groups, and 10 to 12 allied communities. It would receive irreparable damage during the Spanish Streamer Raids, erasing 65% of the K-Pop groups in South Block.

After reclaiming East GG Alley in the aftermath of the Kobe Void, additional land was claimed for unrepresented groups. Several unaffiliated communities are also peacefully located here with non-aggression pacts.           

While not counted as a region by the K-Pop Alliance due to being incomplete, the inability to recapture the entirety of South Block led Alliance members sought new locations to relocate destroyed builds. North Block was subject to a territorial conflict and would never become fully realized due to The Whiteout.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The K-Pop Alliance managed to maintain vast swaths of their territory during r/place, with many close calls. The Alliance was not immune to incursion, however.

These conflicts are listed in chronological order (and occurred after the 1st Expansion), though several locations will not appear on the Atlas<ref>https://place-atlas.stefanocoding.me/</ref>, either partially or in whole, due to not being in the final screenshot. Please refer to the canvas timelapse on r/place<ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/place/?cx=1735&cy=301&px=160&ts=1649043407221</ref> for any historical reference and progression of these events.

Due to an active void actively targeting purple builds (according to Alliance intel), Kep1er, (G)-Idle, and IU in East GG Alley changed their backgrounds from purple to yellow or red in attempts to evade targeting. The backgrounds were changed back to purple after the threat subsided several hours later.

A West GG Alley ally, GFLClan was a common target for griefing during r/place. These griefings eventually sent Alliance members on high alert when they discovered attackers were attempting to convert GLFClan into the N-word (hard R).

The attackers were only successful for several minutes before an Allied response could be initiated.

Roughly an hour after the N-Word Crisis, a small group of individuals began trolling nearby communities by extending the nose on a portrait (1725, 899) as far as possible, eventually cutting through Moonmoon territory and making its way North, to East GG Alley.

An Allied counter-op diverted the nose away and ended the issue after several hours.     

Due to a quiet agreement between GG Alley and the streamer Myth, a non-aggression pact was formed and a gold colored border establishing territory was to be maintained by both groups.

Several members of the Alliance would inform Myth of the situation, leading to a quick and effective fixing of the issue and a K-Pop/Myth joint operation to reclaim territory he had lost overnight.

A brief neighbor to GG Alley. A plot representing the controversial streamer Vaush repeatedly encroached into K-Pop territory. A representative of the K-Pop Alliance was sent to negotiate with the Vaush community, ending in a truce.

Immediately after the 2nd Expansion, GG Alley found themselves in a position to expand without facing stiff resistance due to extreme proximity to the fresh canvas.

Agreements and alliances formed with new and old neighbors allowed for rapid acquisition (baring un-associated or un-established communities) of the South Block sub-region while releasing minimal claims.

A combined effort between Mizkif and xQc to create a Kobe Bryant tribute was initialized with a large, defined, black void to form a blank canvas. Dozens of builds were erased, including several in East GG Alley. The damage may have been much more severe, but was mitigated due to the K-Pop Alliance's association to Myth and Zoil; both friends of Mizkif and xQc.

East GG Alley was reclaimed and expanded into a small sub-region called the Lower East Side, housing several K-Pop groups and third parties with non-aggression pacts.

Post-Kobe Void, XQC and Mizkif were still actively griefing the entire canvas. A final act in their campaign was a "meteor" targeting r/mylittlepony (1650, 251), originating from the top of the canvas (1441, 32) and destroying 70% of BG Valley and several allies due to being in the direct path of The Meteor.

An angered Alliance countered with a protracted defense (many Alliance members were offline for the night), successfully entering a battle of attrition and stalling out the efforts of the attacking streamer.

In the closing hours of r/place, multiple Spanish streamers targeted South Block as a location to immortalize themselves. Attempts by the Alliance and their Allies to re-capture the area failed due to a combination of high viewership between the streamers, estimated to be over 30k, extreme vigilance from viewers to maintain the area, and alleged botting.

=====The Eternal War for North Block=====

As a final effort to recover from the loss of South Block, an agreement between Good Mythical Morning (GMM) and the K-Pop Alliance saw GMM release claims on an unused part of their territory (1296, 368) for Alliance use, naming the region North Block, in memorial of South Block.

One of GMM's neighbors, Lovejoy, entered into an agreement with the K-Pop Alliance to split the area between the two. During negotiations, Ottawa Senators (having lost representation elsewhere) swept in to claim the area for themselves, forcing Lovejoy and the Alliance into a joint war against Ottawa.

====== Central Territory ======

 

 

 

 

*A Post-Whiteout analysis of the streamers' chats around the time of the raids identified express aggression towards K-Pop by some viewers, possibly influencing the streamers final decision to target South Block.

The pink fairy creature (1711, 1105), built by the TWICERS in the hours before the Whiteout, was intended to be a lifeboat should GG Alley and TWICE logo be lost, a plausible threat at the time.  

* Based on community estimates of pixel count using the Atlas<ref>https://place-atlas.stefanocoding.me/</ref> and this chart<ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/place/comments/txkpg0/the_top_30_communities_with_the_most_pixels_on/</ref>, K-Pop communities as a whole would place in the Top 15 with roughly 43k pixels combined. This total includes the BTS Takeover of the French Flag, which was not caused by BTS fans, but by Spanish Botters attacking France.

Though GG Alley is defined as the focal point for K-Pop representation on r/place 2022, the details of its origins remain largely obscure.