Ginni of SMORZ. Profile image via Kpopping’s sourced idol archive. Source.
Updated: May 19, 2025
Tea temperature: Warm. This one is less scandal and more “the elimination screen did not get the last word.”
The short version
Poon Wing Chi entered Girls Planet 999 in 2021. She did not make Kep1er. Four years later, Echo Entertainment introduced her as Ginni, the sixth member of SMORZ, and she officially debuted on May 19, 2025.
Survival shows edit a contestant’s life into a ranking. The ranking ends, everybody cries, and viewers move on to the winners. The trainee still has to wake up the next morning and decide whether she wants this badly enough to keep going. Ginni did.
What the receipts actually say
DongA reported on May 15 that the former Girls Planet 999 contestant was returning as a SMORZ member. Korea JoongAng Daily repeated that history in its debut report after the EP arrived. K-pop Wiki’s contestant tracking identifies her as Poon Wing Chi, C-Group rank 29, and records the May 2025 debut.
That is the factual part. The emotional part is obvious without inventing a dramatic quote she never gave. Four years is a long time to keep training while the internet remembers you as “eliminated.”
The RaeRae take
I am tired of survival programs acting like one lineup is divine judgment. A contestant can be talented and still lose because of editing, voting systems, screen time, timing, nationality, company power, or the producers deciding somebody else completes a prettier narrative.
Ginni did not magically prove the show wrong by debuting. She proved that the show never owned the rest of her story.
Where to go next
Meet Ginni, dig through the full SMORZ profile, then watch the debut in my “I want you to” reaction.