I don't know why I find this so annoying, but I've been seeing it so often lately and I'm wondering if there are newer Atiny who don't actually know this fact.

Lately I'm seeing fans pushing the "KQ was unknown and broke before Ateez, they built this company from the ground up" narrative, and it's untrue. KQ entertainment was founded by Kim Gyuwook, who was previously known as the founder of Seven Seasons. This company still exists as a subsidiary under KQ, and they hold the remains of Block B.

Block B debuted in 2011 under a separate company called Stardom Entertainment, but they sued their company within two years and were able to successfully leave. (You can read up on this, it's some WILD stuff. This was also Topp Dogg's company, and they're a known dumpster fire. But anyway.) Block B were then signed to Seven Seasons, a company with no other artists, that had just founded that year.

Block B was a controversial group several times over (particularly Zico, he seems like an asshole), which might account for the CEO of Seven Seasons doing a "rebranding" by forming KQ and buying 7S up. Ateez might be the first "official" KQ group, but their company was never particularly small or poor. Ateez has been a huge asset to this company, that can't be denied, but they didn't "build them" from the ground up and they DID have some level of company privilege. I mean, they went on a world tour less than a year after debut. Broke companies with no money can't take risks like that.

It's a small thing, but it's something that bothers me when I see Atiny feuding with either bigger fandoms ("your group is privileged, our group came from nothing!") or smaller fandoms ("your group will never singlehandedly build a company the way ours did!"). This is no hate at Ateez, nor is it a lets-kiss-Block-B's-butt post. It's simply a common inaccuracy that bothers me when it's levied in arguments.