the company on his behalf in terms of business regarding the contract and ultimately was unable to reach an agreement. In result, Mino left to pursue his career elsewhere. Starting from scratch, Mino joined and trained under Y2Y Contents Company for nearly two years before making his debut on July 27, 2011 as a rapper under the stage name "Tagoon" in the ballad boy band BoM. While promoting with the group, despite writing five songs among their releases, the executive of the company did not register nor credit Mino's contributions for copyright and instead forged another person's name to receive royalties. Mino reported that he made as little as ₩10 won ($0.09) during his time at the company. BoM disbanded within two years of their debut in March 2013. 2013–2014: Debut with Winner and rising popularity In 2013, YG Entertainment reached out to Mino upon discovering a video of him covering Big Bang's La La La in his March 2012 appearance on Channel A cable drama The Strongest K-POP Survival. After a successful audition, Mino was accepted by the agency and joined as a trainee. That same year, he appeared on Mnet survival program WIN: Who Is Next as a contestant under "Team A". Initially, he was appointed as the leader by Yang Hyun-suk during the first episode of the show, however, due to an injury part-way, he was replaced as leader by Kang Seung-yoon. Seeing the synergy and improvement in performance, Yang Hyun-suk made the change permanent in benefit of the team. On October 25, during the finale episode of the survival program, Team A was announced as the winners of the show. Team A was set to debut under the name, Winner. Winner officially made their debut on August 17, 2014 with the studio album, 2014 S/S and the double A-side singles, "Empty" and "Color Ring". The ten-track album also featured Mino's first solo release titled, "I'm Him", which peaked at number 15 on the Gaon Digital Chart. Upon their debut, the quintet shot to instantaneous success with "Empty" topping all South Korean charts including Gaon, earning them the title "Monster Rookies". Their unprecedented success earned them multiple awards that year including Top 10 Artist (Bonsang) at the Melon Music Awards and "Most Popular Korean Group" at the Tudou Young Choice Awards. The group also went on to becoming the fastest act to win on a televised music