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In 2000, the company held their first overseas casting auditions and discovered Han Geng in Beijing, China, who was chosen from among three thousand applicants.^[8] That same year, Yesung was discovered under Seoul's casting system. Sungmin and Donghae became trainees after jointly winning the first place in Best Outward Appearance in an S.M.-sponsored contest. In 2002, Heechul and Kangin were recruited along with Kibum, who was discovered in Los Angeles, California. Siwon was encountered in 2003 after being scouted at age 16 in front of his high school, and Ryeowook in 2004, in which the latter was discovered through the Chin Chin Youth Festival singing competition.^[9] In 2005, Shindong was selected. The last member, Cho Kyuhyun, was then discovered after winning third place at the Chin Chin Singing Competition in 2005.
Not long after boy band TVXQ's debut in 2003, news about Lee's unprecedented plans of forming another boy band quickly spread on the Internet. In early 2005, Lee confirmed the news and announced that an all-boy project group of twelve members would debut near the end of the year, promoting this singing group to be "The Gateway to Stardom of Asia."^[10] Lee announced that that most members in this group were chosen because of their performing experiences as actors, MCs, models, and radio hosts prior debut. Heechul and Kibum were already established entertainers, and most of the other members had already made various kinds of appearances on television and media.^[11][12][13] Highly inspired by the rotational concept of Japan's girl group Morning Musume, this group would also experience line-up changes, with new members replacing some selected members every year to keep the group constantly young and all-rounded. This concept was then newly introduced to the K-pop market.
For a while the group was rumored to be called O.V.E.R, the acronym for "Obey the Voice for Each Rhythm."^[14][a] However, before the group settled with their current name, S.M. simply referred to them as Junior, a representation of the members' young ages when they first became S.M. trainees.^[14] After the members' showcased their different talents to the company at a picnic, the company finalized their concept name to Super Junior. The group thereafter became officially Super Junior 05, the first generation of Super Junior.^[9] Leeteuk said on Star Golden Bell that "at first, Super Junior's name was S.M. Junior, but after Lee Soo Man saw our performance, he said we have super talent and quickly change our name to Super Junior".^{[citation needed]}
Super Junior 05 made their pre-debut on the Korean channel Mnet on September 11, 2005.^[b] At the showcase, they performed various styles of hip-hop dancing, where they danced to B2K's "Take It to the Floor". Han Geng, Eunhyuk, and Donghae also performed a separate dance away from the group, dancing to Usher's "Caught Up." However, the performance did not air on television until May 16, 2006, as a segment in the Super Junior Show, the group's first television documentary.

[edit] 2005–06: The Super Junior project

Super Junior 05 debuted on SBS's music program Popular Song on November 6, 2005, performing their first single, "Twins (Knock Out)". A digital single with "Twins (Knock Out)", "You Are the One", and three additional tracks were released online on November 8. A physical CD single was scheduled to be released the following week but a more complete album, SuperJunior05 (Twins), was released on December 6, 2005, instead. Their debut album sold 28,536 copies in the first month of release and debuted at number three in the monthly chart of December 2005.^[15][c] In that same month, they released "Show Me Your Love", a collaboration single with TVXQ. "Show Me Your Love" became the best-selling record of December 2005, selling 49,945 copies that month.^[15]
In February 2006, Super Junior 05 began performances for "Miracle", the second promotional single from their debut album. "Miracle" was the group's first single to top the online music charts of South Korea as well as the music charts of Thailand, drawing interest from international markets.^[16] As promotions for "Miracle" came to an end, S.M. Entertainment began selecting new members for Super Junior's second line-up project, Super Junior 06. The company even prepared a list of chosen members that were to graduate from the group. However, no members were taken out and a thirteenth member was added instead in May 2006. The line-up project has been abandoned since then, and the group became known as just Super Junior, without the suffix "05".^[17][18