I started running GOs back in March of 2021, mostly with merch, because I wanted Yunho's birthday MD and running a GO was the cheapest way for me and my friends to get it. It wasn't until the end of Movement that I started running GOs for POBs, and I ran GOs for a year and half before I ever won a fancall.
I've written before about why I started running GOs and how I became a GOM, so this post is going to skip all of that and focus on information I think everyone who is interested in a fancall should have about fancalls.
I’m going to make this as beginning level as I can and take it all the way to the highest levels of knowledge, so feel free to skip to the relevant parts for you. Here is a breakdown of what sections I'm going to cover.
What is a fansign/fancall?
Where do I learn about fansigns/fancalls?
How do I enter for a fancall?
What are my chances on a given fancall?
Raffles vs buying direct?
What happens if I win?
How do I prepare for a fancall?
Questions from Instagram/Twitter
what is a fansign/fancall?
Fansigns and fancalls are opportunities for atiny to meet ateez hosted by stores that are trying to sell ateez albums. They are designed and run by stores as a way to make money. KQ has no control over who is chosen in a fansign (or a fancall), and KQ’s responsibility with a fansign begins and ends with them committing ATEEZ to participate.
Here are some stores who have held fansigns for ATEEZ in the past:
Everline
Soundwave
Fromm
Mokketshop
Makestar
Withmuu
Minirecord
Dear My Muse
Ktown4u
MMT
Most fansigns these days have two parts: 1) an in person fansign and 2) a fancall.
For most fancalls, you will have about 2 minutes to talk to your chosen member of ATEEZ. These video calls are usually done over KakaoTalk, but there are some stores who will use Line (Soundwave has done Line only video calls before, for example).
Some of these video calls will come with extra perks, like a signed album with “To. [your name]” or a set of special PCs. But it’s also possible that the video call will only include the video call and no other special perks.
You can find out exactly what the video call will come with through the announcements, which leads me to the next point.
how do you find out about video calls?
For ATEEZ, the best way to find out about a video call opportunity is through Twitter. The stores who are hosting the video call will tweet about the event first, usually with some sort of image poster, and ATEEZ’s official Twitter will always retweet the announcement.
Usually, these fancall announcements are accompanied by a picture of PCs that will be given to every applicant. For each album you buy, you get a special PC just for applying for the fancall.
Not every PC event includes the opportunity for a video call. To know exactly what the event is for you need to translate the announcement. Most of the announcements are on an image, and I use Papago to translate it. The Papago app allows me to upload the image directly and translate all of the text on it. You can also use Google lens or any other translator, but the important part is that you must translate it because you need to know what you’re buying.
Some PC announcements are LDs (LuckyDraws) and they don’t come with a video call opportunity. Some video call opportunities don’t come with applicant PCs (so you won’t get a special perk for buying). Some calls are actually voice calls instead of video calls. Each event is different, so you need to know exactly what you’re about to sign up for.
But most events that come with a fancall will say 1:1 somewhere on the announcement or in the tweet.
The announcements will also tell you what day the video call is to take place, when winners will be announced, and importantly, the entry period.
how do you enter for a video call?
It’s very easy. You buy albums.
You need to buy the albums from the link provided by the store.
Or at least, in theory it’s very easy.
Many of the sites don’t have a robust global site with good international shipping, and you need to have a Korean proxy order for you.
You cannot win a fancall by purchasing PCs from a GOM unless that GOM is hosting a fancall raffle. And believe me, a GOM will announce in big colorful letters if they are raffling off the fancall. If they’re not, you can assume that the GOM is entering themselves. You should never assume that the GOM will enter anyone other than themselves.
I know that may seem obvious, but I’ve seen people say on Twitter that they are going to start joining GOs to enter a fancall. And I am a GOM—I’ve had people message me questions about their fancall entry when they entered my GO, and I had to explain that the call wasn’t being raffled off. I’m always surprised when I get a message like that because my GOs always say I will offer free EMS if the fancall is won when I’m entering myself, and if it’s a fancall raffle, I have a lot of rules and procedures that are added to the form.
So here’s the thing: a lot of people get mad at GOMs for not “disclosing” that they’re entering themselves for the fancall, but as a consumer, you should also do your research and know what you’re buying. You should look at the event, and you should look at what price is on the event, and if there is a fancall attached. If there is, you should always assume the GOM is entering themselves unless they’ve clearly stated it’s a raffle or said they’re entering someone else. Always. A GOM of course has responsibilities to their joiners, but as a consumer, your responsibility is to know what you’re purchasing, and it is not a GOMs responsibility to tell joiners every detail of an event that the joiner could look up for themselves.
Back to buying albums. Most sites have a global version of the site, but also, at most sites, you will pay an extraordinary amount in shipping to get full albums sent to you.
This is where a Korean address or proxy comes in. With a Korean address/proxy, more sites, cheaper prices, and better shipping are available to you. I’ve written before about the proxies I researched before choosing my own, but for completeness, I will list them here again.
Kfriday
Paysable
Delivered Korea
Plus Korea
Mango: Korea Online Proxy
For various reasons, none of those were a good fit for me, and I ended up with Jungboxkr, whom I love with all my heart. I admit that their prices are a little higher, which means I often have to charge more for my GOs than others do, but the peace of mind is worth it for me.
So, when you’re ready to purchase your albums, either yourself or through a proxy, you will need to provide the site with information about you. (Proxies are very familiar with entering people for fancalls, and you will provide them with the information.)
The standard requested info is
Member you want the call with
Full legal name
Phone number
Email address
Birthday
Kakao ID / Line ID
Citizenship
For name, I always put my full legal name as written on my passport, which includes my middle name. This may not be necessary, but in my opinion, better safe than sorry. The sites request full legal name, and in the past (for the atiny membership card), KQ has instructed people to include their middle names, so I do.
For email address, you want to give them an email that you check regularly. This is how many sites will let you know that you’ve won or send you instructions.
They may also inform you through your Kakao/Line ID, which is also what will be used for the actual video call. Almost all sites I’ve encountered have accepted Kakao, so make sure you at least have a Kakao ID (different from your display name or email) set up. Soundwave has started requiring you to also have a Line ID. So at the time of writing this, they required you to have both. Though I have entered someone into a Soundwave fancall that only accepted a Line ID.
Almost all sites say they require a passport for foreigners. You can see that on their sites if you translate the page. However, I know that Minirecord, Withmuu, and Everline will accept a U.S. Drivers License because some of my joiners have used those as IDs during their calls. I have also heard that all sites will accept a drivers license, but I don’t know it to be true. I’ve always used my passport, and I’ve never had any issues.
Once you’ve given the site your information, you will need to purchase your albums to complete the transaction. Most sites will accept PayPal for international payments, which is what I always use. Do not, and I repeat, do not order as a guest. Make an account on the website because it will allow you to check your order, and also, some sites require you to give them your order number if you win, so you will need to be able to find it again.
When you buy a fancall album, it’s important to not order anything else because it could mess up your entry. So for example, don’t buy a 1:1 ATEEZ album and a lucky draw ATEEZ album from the same site in the same transaction.
what are my chances on a given fancall?
This is, I’m sure, what most people want to know. And truthfully, it’s the one where I will give the least definitive answer.
Your chances for any given fansign are based on statistics. And math.
Imagine I have an empty jar. Inside that jar, I put 100 pieces of paper with Jongho on it, and then 1 piece of paper each for the rest of the members, giving me 107 pieces of paper.
Now imagine that I need to pull 2 slips of paper out of that jar for my winners, and a single person can only win once.
So out of 107 pieces of paper, I have 100 chances to pull out Jongho. Statistically, it is much more likely that Jongho will be my first winner. The chance of Jongho being the first winner is over 90%.
But there are 7 pieces of paper in there without Jongho’s name, and I only need to draw 2. Is it possible Jongho won’t win and two of the other members will? Yes. It’s totally possible. But it’s not likely.
Now, imagine Jongho is my first winner. He can only win one time. So we would need to draw papers until we reached a different name. After Jongho wins, the rest of the members are all in the jar an equal amount of times, so everyone has an equal opportunity to become the second winner.
And this is basically how a fancall winner is chosen. Each album that you buy is like a slip of paper with your name on it in a jar.
All sites say that they hold a raffle in this way, so statistically, the more albums you buy, the more likely you are to win. That doesn’t mean you can’t win with one album, but statistically, it is less likely.
The difference is that there are a lot of factors outside of your control that will influence whether you statistically have a good chance.
the store
One factor that might influence your chances is the store. I have found it hardest to win with Makestar, MMT, and Minirecord. I think there are a couple of reasons for this, but one of them is that they have a very good international site that’s easy to order from and they have reasonably priced international shipping. This means that more people are likely to enter for it.
Think about it like this: when a makestar event is announced, you know that it’s easy to order from makestar, so you think, ‘okay! I know how to order from this site and the shipping isn’t bad. I’ll do this one as my fancall attempt because it won’t cost a ton.’ You’ve thought that, and literally so has everyone else.
So when you have a site that’s easy, it makes sense that more people are applying. The higher the hurdles to purchasing, the better your chances will be because there are fewer people willing to jump over those hurdles. Fromm, Soundwave, and Withmuu are sites that are slightly harder to order from either due to price, shipping, or website, and I’ve also had better luck with them.
the pc
Another factor is what the PCs look like. The cuter the PC, the harder it will be to win because bigger GOMs can get more sets filled, meaning they have higher chances. People who rarely order PCs will often come out and join GOs for something that is really cute. And imagine you’re a person who is not in the PC community. You’re not going to know how to find the small GOMs or people who are trying for their first attempt, especially with the way Instagram works now. You’re going to end up with a big GOM just because they’re easier to find and more accessible. And imagine that happening over and over and over again.
So it’s not that you wouldn’t be able to get sets filled for cute PCs—you probably can. It’s just that bigger, more established GOMs will get more filled, thus lowering your chances.
the timing
The timing of the fancall could also influence your chances in unexpected ways. Is it on the weekend? During the weekday? Beginning of the comeback? End of the comeback? Do they have 7 other ongoing fancalls at the same time (a not unlikely scenario for ateez specifically)?
During Outlaw, I had much worse luck at the beginning of the comeback than I did towards the middle. But that wasn’t true during Will, so it’s hard to know if that’s an across the board rule. I think they had opened more at the start of Will than they did for Outlaw, and that may have played into it since the rest of the fancall entries were spread amongst other sites. As Will is still ongoing, it’s hard to say whether my chances are improving or getting worse.
Truthfully, we don’t have enough data to say for sure whether start of comeback, end of comeback, day of call influences anything. Logically, I would suspect that calls that take place over the weekend have more applicants than calls that take place on a Tuesday. But without access to sales data, there is no way to know for sure.
the member
And finally, the member you’re attempting for will also change your odds. Some members have more entries—they just do. I don’t mean that to shade any of the members, but that’s the way it is.
Let’s say 10 people buy 1 album each for Jongho, and 5 people buy 1 album each for Hongjoong. Statistically, you have a 1 in 10 chance to win for Jongho, and a 1 in 5 chance to win for Hongjoong. You would be more likely to win for Hongjoong. Because of statistics.
our personal statistics breakdown
So really, there is no secret number. Someone once told me that there are people you can pay to tell you a secret number you have to order in order to guarantee a win, but I can’t imagine what a waste of money that would be. I have won fancalls with as few as 8 albums and as many as 88, and with all manner of numbers in between.
Here is a breakdown of what I’ve won/lost, with how many, and for which member by store. (Please keep in mind that not all of these entries are mine—many went to either raffle winners, or my GOM partner, or trusted friends.)
Dear My Muse
9 albums ordered, xikers Seeun, won
32 albums ordered, Wooyoung, won (Will)
Everline
16 albums ordered, Jongho, lost (Outlaw)
24 albums ordered, Jongho, lost (Outlaw)
24 albums ordered, Wooyoung, won (Outlaw)
24 albums ordered, Mingi, won (Will)
Fromm
24 albums ordered, Jongho, won (Will)
40 albums ordered, Yeosang, won (Will)
KNpops
16 albums ordered, Hongjoong, lost
Ktown4u
9 albums ordered, xikers OT9, lost
33 albums ordered, OT8, lost
Makestar
16 albums ordered, Jongho, lost (Movement)
24 albums ordered, Wooyoung, lost (Spin Off)
24 albums ordered, Jongho, lost (Outlaw)
32 albums ordered, Jongho, won (Will)
80 albums ordered, Jongho, won (Will)
Minirecord
16 albums ordered, Jongho, won (Outlaw)
8 albums ordered, Wooyoung, lost (Outlaw)
8 albums ordered, Wooyoung, lost (Outlaw)
32 albums ordered, Yeosang, won (Outlaw)
40 albums ordered, Jongho, won (Outlaw)
32 albums ordered, Mingi, lost (Will)
40 albums ordered, San, won (Will)
88 albums ordered, Mingi, won (Will)
MMT
32 albums ordered, Wooyoung, lost (Outlaw)
32 albums ordered, Wooyoung, lost (Outlaw)
32 albums ordered, Yeosang, lost (Outlaw)
Soundwave
48 albums ordered, Jongho, lost (Outlaw) - *this entry is an outlier, and I do think I lost because I messed up the order
16 albums ordered, Jongho, won (Outlaw)
24 albums ordered, Hongjoong, won (Will)
9 albums ordered, xikers unit, won
9 albums ordered, xikers Junmin, won
Withmuu
8 albums ordered, Jongho, won (Outlaw)
9 albums ordered, xikers Hunter, won
48 albums ordered, Mingi, won (Will)
There is some rumor that once you’ve won a fancall, it’s easier to win more. I don’t think that’s true at all. I think the people who win a lot of fancalls are the people who are just always buying the most albums. I’ve bought albums from literally almost every drop since Outlaw, and I normally buy a pretty consistent amount, so statistically, I have a better chance at winning more simply because I’m buying for more of the events.
The rumor that I do believe to be true is that the system favors Korean addresses. Perhaps it doesn’t, but practically speaking, if you win, they will mail your signed album separately at no cost to you. It cost the store less to send to a Korean address, and like I said, the whole system is about making money.
So make of all that what you will. There is, literally, always a chance when you apply because that’s how statistics works. The question is always what other factors are at play that might affect that chance.
Raffles vs buying direct?
Another way that people can win fancalls, outside of buying the album, is to enter raffles from GOMs. GOMs will, for a variety of reasons, occasionally raffle off a fancall.
This is a great way to attempt a fancall if you don’t have a lot of start up capital, and you aren’t interested in hosting GOs.
But the thing is, you have to play the statistics game twice. First, you have to win the raffle from the GOM. If you buy one POB, and then there are 40 other people who also buy one POB, you have a 1/40 chance of getting chosen in the GOMs raffle. But, many, many, many people will buy OT8 when they enter for a fancall raffle, giving them 8 entries to your 1. Plus, once you’ve won the raffle, you also have to win the fancall.
If your raffle win is with a larger GOM, you do have a pretty good shot, but there are some GOMs who will discourage you from entering for certain members in favor of members who are considered ‘easier’ to win, so that the call shot isn’t ’wasted.’
Like I said, if you want to leave it up to fate, and you’re not serious about collecting or winning a fancall, I do think this is a great option. But, if you are the type of person who collects everything and wants to win a fancall, I do think you’re better off running GOs, and just putting yourself in until you win.
But if you run a GO, don’t expect to get joiners right away. It takes time to build a following and get joiners. And it will cost you money. For a breakdown on what we’ve spent, you can read our transparency report from Will and my intro to GOMing from Outlaw.
What happens once you’ve won?
Perhaps a person with less anxiety would find winning to be only a very exciting experience, but I found the process of working with each site to be daunting at best, traumatic at worst.
I've talked about this before, but the very first time I won a fancall, I had not been attempting to win a fancall and had not seriously contemplated whether or not I would win it. In my mind, it was a forgone conclusion that I wouldn't be winning it. My only goal at the time had been to get the 16 PCs I needed.
But at this point, I or someone I've entered/helped get set up have had a fancall with seven different sites, and all of the sites have their own systems and require their own things, so I’m going to try to talk a little about how the process of working with the stores and having your ID checked works.
In general, you can find out whether you won a fancall by checking the notices on each site. Often, you need to use the Korean site instead of the global site to check these notices, and relatedly, often your phone will automatically take you to the global version of the website.
I used to rarely if ever wake up and check notices, and often found out I won through the email the site sends or other people telling me about it. But this comeback, I discovered that some sites don’t send an email or message immediately upon announcing the winners, so really, you should check the notice.
Usually, the site will send you instructions via email or your KakaoID. For some sites, the email comes in immediately. But when I won with DMM, I didn’t get an email until a couple of days before the call, and I found that pretty stressful. Eventually, I contacted DMM, and they were basically like “please. wait.”
These instructions will usually tell you how to confirm you are who you said you are and how to make sure the call can proceed.
Several sites (Soundwave, Withmuu, and Minirecord included) will ask you to send a picture of yourself holding your ID. Withmuu sends a helpful diagram on how exactly they’d like you to do it. They also usually ask you to send your winning number (this is your number on the winners list), the member who your call is with, and your legal name. Some sites, like Minirecord, will also ask for your order number, so make sure you’ve kept it.
Some sites will send an English version of these instructions, like Makestar, and for some, like Withmuu, you will have to run it through a translator. And once again, it’s so important that you translate this. Most stores will give you a deadline in which to send this information to them. I’ve had deadlines as short as 24 hours and as long as 3 days, but keep in mind that whatever deadline they give you is in KST.
Some stores will include a KakaoID for you to add as your friend, and then ask you to send the requested information to that KakaoID. Minirecord has you reply to their email, and then once they’ve confirmed your info, they will send you their Kakao ID.
Whatever they ask you to send and do, send and do it before the deadline.
Most sites will not send any confirmation that they’ve received your info or that it’s good. You just have to let go and let god.
But, I had a friend who didn’t realize she had won her call (didn’t check the notice, didn’t get an email because it went to spam), and Soundwave tried to contact her multiple times through Kakao to check the information she failed to send in, so I think if you don’t send the information correctly, you will hear from them.
Once you’ve gotten through the hurdle of giving your information, it’s time to prepare for the actual call.
How do you prepare for the call?
Figure out the time.
The most critical step in preparing for the call is figuring out approximately what time it will be. I’ve had calls anywhere between 3:00 AM and 8:00 AM my time. I have not encountered a single site that will give you a solid time for the actual fancall–they will tell you only that the fancall will take place after the in person fan sign. Some stores, like Makestar and Withmuu, will very helpfully tell you when the in person fansign begins. Some stores (Fromm) won’t tell you anything and you’ll have literally no idea unless you reach out to the store and ask or someone else on Twitter does and shares that information.
But once you know when the in person starts, you can pretty reliably guess that the fancalls will take place around 2.5-3 hours later. Some sites will do a test call either shortly before or during the in person, and they will usually give you an exact time for that, so it at least gives you a frame of reference for when to be ready.
The sites that I know do a test call are Minirecord, Makestar, and Withmuu. They also usually check your ID again during this call. Soundwave and Fromm do not do test calls, and they are also, frequently, the hardest to figure out a time for.
Set up your physical space.
In one of the Japanese logbooks, they showed a behind the scenes of the calls happening, and I’ve been haunted by that ever since. I had always assumed that ATEEZ, like me, just used a standard sized smart phone, which is pretty silly in hindsight. They actually have a fairly large tablet they’re looking at you through, so like, they will be able to see whatever it is that you have behind and around you.
So set up a space that makes you feel comfortable. I personally sit in a chair at my desk with all of my ATEEZ paraphernalia behind me. On my desk, I put the things I might need while I sit there and wait for the call. This often includes silly things, like my switch, and practical things, like my passport. I also usually keep the Jongho MD handheld mirror within reach to do a last minute face check and anything I might want to show or use during the call.
Part of the physical space is the equipment. The first fancall I won, I had less than 48 hours between finding out I won and the actual call taking place, which in some ways was good because I could only freak out so much, but it also meant all of the preparations were rushed, I didn’t really have good equipment set up, and like, just in general had no idea what I was doing. I didn't have anyone else to talk to about it because I didn't know anyone else who had won a fancall, and like, there was no where to go to find information.
My first fancall was with Jongho during Outlaw through Minirecord. I received the email Friday morning around 6:00 am on the day of the comeback, and the call was to take place sometime on Saturday night/Sunday morning, exact time unknown. During Outlaw, I was working at the Hello82 comeback events on both Friday and Saturday for like 8 hour days, which is always a crazy busy experience, and so I genuinely barely had time to get that picture of me holding my passport sent to them. And I spent a good majority of the time panicking that I’d done it wrong because I literally couldn’t believe it was happening.
After the Hello82 event on Saturday night, Cassandra and I panic went to a Best Buy on the way home at like 8:00 PM, and we bought one of those ring light, phone holder situations so that I could talk hands free and also have some lighting because at this point I still had literally not even a clue or a guess as to when this call would take place, but it seemed like middle of the night was possible. It’s been a while now, but I’m pretty sure they never told me. I just stayed up all night until they finally sent me a message at like 6:30 AM, at which point I’d been awake for well over 24 hours.
I am fairly positive that I was delirious when I talked to him. And the good news (maybe) is that I absolutely wasn’t prepared and didn’t record the audio, so whatever I said to him is lost to the sands of time. I do, however, have the video, and the first 30 seconds of it are just me silently staring at him clutching my cheeks. So perhaps it’s best that I don’t have the audio for it.
Which does lead me to my next point, which is recording the call. To record my calls, I use screen record on my phone for the video, and then I use my husband’s iphone to record a voice memo for the audio. After the call, I sync them up using the free version of the app Capcut.
Prior to my first call, I had successfully practiced screen recording while answering a Kakao call, but I did not verify, or even consider checking, whether the audio had recorded. There is a special setting on the iphone that does allow for the audio to be recorded in addition to the screen, but I didn’t turn it on, and honestly, it’s a little hard for me to set up when I’m trying to quickly hit all of my record buttons. So, I always just forgo that option.
Some of my friends with androids don’t have this problem, and their screen record automatically records the sound too. But this is something that you should check prior to the call happening.
As far as doing screen record, if you start a screen recording prior to the call connecting, it will turn off the screen record once the call connects. What I do is I hit screen record literally the moment right before I accept the call. The iphone does a 3 second countdown before it will start recording, so if I time it right, it means that it will start recording almost right after the call connects. Otherwise, you can just start your screen recording right after you answer the call.
So in summary, I use the following equipment for my calls:
A ring light with phone holder
Screen record
A second iphone to record the voice memo
And that’s basically it.
Think about what to say.
I already described the circumstances of my first call and how ill prepared I was. People told me to prepare a script, but I thought if I prepared a script, I would likely throw up from anxiety. I just couldn’t prepare for it. In the end, I think I just showed him everything I had sitting around me, like a weirdo, but it’s fine.
For some subsequent ones, I have thought more about what I would say or at least some high points I wanted to hit and wrote those on a post-it. My goal for what to say is always to say something or show them something that I think they would like to hear/see. I’ve told Jongho how happy his singing makes me and how his voice makes me feel like everything will be alright. I’ve told Wooyoung how much I enjoy his dancing and his attitude. I’ve told Hongjoong how he was the person who got me into kpop and how he changed my life for the better.
I’ve told them about my favorite song or favorite parts of songs. And sometimes, I’ve made things to show them or prepared something to show them. One of my favorite calls with Jongho was when I printed some pictures of me with other atiny at ATEEZ events and told him about all of the people in my life who also love him, including my husband and son.
ATEEZ is fairly fluent in English, but I do still try to make my stories and statements simple and easy to understand because I know we don't have much time, and it helps if they don't have to call over a translator. For the most part, I haven't had any trouble with them understanding me, but I do consider before hand how I will phrase the things I want to say.
So really, you just say whatever you want. Some people do prepare full scripts, and that's what works for them. A lot of people like to ask them questions about their process or their songs or things, but my personality is such that I can only imagine that being very awkward if I tried to do it. I’m an awkward person in general, which my friends can attest to. If I fight it, it’s pretty uncomfortable. If I just lean into it, it can come across as like, mildly endearing instead of painful, so I just have to say and do what would come naturally to me. And I think that’s really the only way forward with this.
Because no matter what, it’s going to be awkward. It’s a 2 minute phone call with a stranger. So just say the thing that feels natural to you. Part of ATEEZ's job is to make this a fun experience for you, and so no matter how awkward you are, they are going to be incredibly kind and charming and try to make you feel comfortable.
Expect the unexpected.
You may have planned exactly what to say, and you may be completely thrown off because they ask you a question first. Or you may have planned what to say and lost all the thoughts in your head because Hongjoong appeared with purple hair. Like, you can plan, but it's also just as likely your plans will be for nothing.
Technical issues are also a thing. In an almost incredible one, my husband took my son to school while I was on a call with Hongjoong, and my car's Bluetooth picked up the audio so that I couldn't hear him anymore. Hongjoong quickly realized something was up, and he called me right back, which fixed the issue because the car was far enough outside of range.
Another friend had audio issues in her call with Hunter, and same thing--they called her back. One of my raffle winners had audio issues in her call with Junmin too.
I've also had a call fail to connect, and they requested that I call them back, and my phone wouldn't do it. We exchanged a couple of chat messages, and eventually I was able to call them.
One of my friends left her phone on do not disturb, and she missed two calls from them. But in the end, she realized what the problem was and they got her connected.
I guess my point is that things can happen, tech can go wrong, it is what it is. Don't let it stress you out or ruin the experience. As long as you don't freak out, it'll be fine. The sites want these calls to go through because they know that the winners have given them a lot of money for this call to take place. You're a paying customer and they want to give you the experience you've won. So just, don't freak out.
What happens after?
When your time is over, they will say some sort of goodbye and hang up. And then you will sit there for a couple of dazed minutes thinking about what just happened.
And then this has been true of everyone who I have ever known who has done one, you will go through the recording and take screenshots and send them to your friends. Just multiple screenshots, over and over again, and then you will just bask in whatever silly smile you got, and this is the most delusional you will ever be.
I think your first fancall changes you on a fundamental level. After it’s done, there is a moment where you’re like, ‘yes, correct, this is my bias because they are amazing, and I will never leave them.’ Prior to my fancall with Jongho I was pretty adamant that I love all of my bias line equally, and that there is no ult. After my fancall with Jongho, well, I am changed.
I will always belong to Jongho.
Questions from Instagram
I knew that I wanted to make this write up useful for people and a resource so that everything seemed a little less mysterious. But because I’ve been doing this for a while now, it’s hard to know what it is that people have questions about. So I asked on both my Twitter and Instagram for people to let me know what questions they had for me to answer.
I received exactly zero questions over Twitter, except whether I would make a Twitter thread with this info, but this is 14 pages typed and that seems impossible. So anyways, these are the questions I received from Instagram:
Is there any preparations you like to do prior to the call. Ex: recording audio prior?
So there is a lot that I personally like to do before a call. There’s the sort of cosmetic stuff, like I always shower a couple of hours before the call, and put on makeup and fix my hair. I also have a shirt (it’s like a super cheap shirt that isn’t even really that cute) that I always wear for fancalls (and concerts where I have meet & greet or floor–basically any place where a member of a group could potentially perceive me) for no other reason than I don’t want to have to stress about what my outfit will be.
But as far as preparing my tech and my space, I always do a test call with a friend the day before. I have them call me on Kakao (or Line if it’s Soundwave), and I practice answering the call and recording my screen at the same time to make sure it works. I talked more about my personal tech set up in the ‘how do you prepare for a call’ section, but I always practice hitting record on the voice memo too to make sure it’s all working even though it’s the easiest thing in the world to record a voice memo on a phone. I just get nervous about it.
And really importantly to me, I turn both of the phones I’m using to “never lock”. I don’t want either of the screens to lock or go dark before the call comes in. I want them ready to go. I also will silence literally all notifications except for Kakao and Line in the couple of hours prior to the call taking place.
I also have my phone set up so that even during DND or sleep mode, messages from Kakao and Line will still come through.
Why do people say some stores are "easy" or "hard" to win from and is it true?
I think I mostly answered this in the “what are my chances” section, but yeah, it’s all about statistics. The easier a store is to order from, the harder it is to win in my experience. I don’t know that there is any truly easy store to win because nothing about it is easy. Like, yeah, if you order a lot of albums you have a good chance, but then.. you have to fill all of those orders and that’s for sure a ton of work. So I guess to me, none of it is easy.
And besides, all we really have are anecdotal experiences because most people won’t tell you what’s happening behind the curtain. It’s impossible to say for certain that you can order less albums from any specific store.
The most you've lost with and the least you've won with?
The most I’ve lost with was 48, but honestly, I think there were some extenuating factors with that order. I tried to cancel it after I placed it because I had accidentally placed it twice, and Soundwave didn’t really seem to enjoy that (I got a very confused and upset email back). They didn’t cancel the order, but I’ve often wondered if they canceled my fancall entry just because the numbers on it are such an outlier. Other than that, the most I’ve lost with is 32.
The least I’ve won with was 8 (and it was one of my first times to ever win).
The timing like how do u know what time u have to be on and everything KSJDJD
Like, I wish I could say they tell you, but so many of the stores just do not. Some stores do a test call, and I’ve found that stores that do a test call or ID check will usually give you a timeframe or reference. But some stores give you nothing.
I’ve talked about my experience with 3 of the stores in detail in my Outlaw write up, so you can read that for more details. But Minirecord during Outlaw was the absolute worst, and Soundwave was also bad.
This time during Will, Fromm also never told me a time until about 30 minutes before it was set to start. The only reason I had any vague idea was because I’d looked up the time of the in person on Twitter.
But the timing is for sure the most stressful part to me.
Also what do u even talk abt it seems so scary
Yeah. It super is scary. My best advice is that you should just accept it’s going to be awkward, and that you will be awkward, and then go from there.
I don’t know what other people talk about because I don't really watch other people's fancalls unless they're my friends and they sent them directly to me, but I usually spend the full time telling them how cool they are. Because I’ve had a couple with Jongho now, I have started branching out. I’ve shown him ATEEZ things I’ve made, pictures of me at ATEEZ events with other atinys, some of my collection. Mostly I just try to think about what would make them happy to hear and go from there. I talked about this in a little more detail in the ‘preparing for a call’ section.
do you know if drivers license is okay for id? i always see passport listed but dont have it
I mentioned this in the how to apply section, but I really don’t know. It probably depends on the ID that you have and the store. I have had friends successfully use a U.S. drivers license at 3 different stores (Withmuu, Everline, Minirecord), but I have also heard an anecdotal story of Makestar not accepting the government ID of a smaller country.
All of the events say that for foreigners they accept a passport, so I’ve always used my passport, and I haven’t really tried anything else.
how can you screen record during them? and If you manage to record your calls, what equipment did you use and how was the setup?
Most phones have a screen recording featuring built in, so I do just use that to record my calls. But, if you start screen recording and then receive a call, your phone will stop screen recording.
If you start the screen recording after the call connects, you should be able to screen record just fine. Some people will wait until they accept the call and then start screen recording, but I press screen record the second before I accept the call.
Screen record on my phone has a 3 second countdown, so as long as I answer the call immediately, it will start the actual recording after the call has connected.
To record the audio, I just place my husband’s iphone next to my phone and record a voice memo.
And then my ring light has a thing that holds my phone for me at the right height, so honestly my setup is pretty simple.
What stores are high buy versus random? Or are most a mix?
I sort of answered this in the ‘what are my chances’ portion. But, in general, I don’t know any stores that are either high buy or random. As far as I know, every store operates on the same statistics principles. The highest buyer for each store is the most likely to win. There is no store that is truly random because that would imply that every person has one entry.
There are rumors that the stores will always let the highest buyer in even if their name is not chosen in the raffle, but I think those are just rumors. For one, I’m pretty sure it would be illegal if it was true. I just think that if there is someone buying 100 albums to everyone else’s 2, and you have to pick a winner 15 times–the person who buys 100 is more likely to be one of the winners every single time. Add in the fact that most big GOMs open for everything, so they are putting their name in for everything.
And I don’t say that they open for everything as a judgment–I also open for everything. It’s what a lot of PC collectors want. But putting your name in for every fancall when you’re buying for a large number of people does increase your odds in significant ways. I wrote more about this on our transparency report for Will.
How to prep for the app uses as there are so many
The only way to prepare for the different apps is to practice.
In general, most of the sites will use Kakao, so that’s the one you need to practice with the most. You should become familiar with how to accept calls, how to reply to messages, how to record your calls while using it, how to add friends, etc. And you do that through practice. When we have a raffle winner win a call, I try to always offer to help them practice with it. But any friend you have irl or online should be able to practice calling you to make sure you’re comfortable with it. There are some parts that are intuitive, and there are some parts that are very, very, very different from what you may be used to if you've never used a global messaging program.
So practice.
This is also true for the websites in which you’d order albums too. Before I ever opened for any ATEEZ PCs, I practiced ordering during xikers debut so that I could familiarize myself with which websites are easy to order from, which take a long time to ship, which I should use my proxy for, which will offer a good exchange rate on the website (don’t order from Fromm in the US–they will charge you about $3 more than you’d pay if you order through a proxy). But all of that knowledge is just time and practice.
I hope someone out there finds this helpful and enlightening. If people have questions, both Cassandra and I are always happy to talk about our process and share what we know. You can find both of us on twitter or instagram (oldauntiny & fixin2fixon), or you can leave questions for us here!
