photo courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment/MLG Network/Twitch

It starts with Boston Uprising’s DPS player Jonathan “DreamKazper” Sanchez. He turns and high-fives main tank Noh “Gamsu” Yeong-jin, who turns to the team’s other DPS player, Kwon “Striker” Nam-joo. The high fives continue down the line after every point earned, and every map won. From DreamKazper, to Gamsu, to Striker, to Lucas “NotE” Meissner, to Park “Neko” Se-hyeon, to Kristian “Kellex” Keller.

A former professional League of Legends player in both North America and Europe, Gamsu is no stranger to hybrid lineups of players from around the world. Often this can cause team discord due to a cultural mismatch and also lead to in-game communication errors. Yet this Boston Uprising roster was formed by Head Coach Park “Crusty” Da-hee and President of Gaming Chris “HuK” Loranger with a specific team-oriented culture in mind.

From the moment they make their way onstage, the members of the Uprising are a goofy bunch. As the Blizzard Arena camera pans from player to player, NotE creeps behind his teammates in the background, making faces at the camera as he slowly rolls his chair down the stage.

“Huk thinks personality is important for playing together because it’s a team game,” Gamsu says. “With everyone, he looked for players for the team game without ego. That’s why we high-five and try to cheer each other on.”

Based on his demeanor while on Team Dignitas and Fnatic during his League of Legends career, I expected a fairly shy Gamsu to enter the interview room. Instead, he is tired yet confident. Every word is deliberate, even when he speaks of his own wavering attitude towards professional gaming. Perceived failure is constantly on his mind as something he’s experienced throughout his gaming career, beginning with League of Legends and Alienware Arena in 2013.

Running away from the failures in his mind nearly led him to quit professional gaming twice. Now it drives him forward. He uses this experience to help himself and his teammates.

“I just try to keep our team stable,” he says. “Sometimes players can be tilted or be upset, but I always try to help.”

I ask what the early days of OnGameNet’s APEX tournament were like, expecting a story about his team, CONBOX, adjusting to a new professional game and setting, or some comparison based on his League of Legends experience.

Instead, he pauses. After a few moments of silence, Blizzard’s press contact and I remind Gamsu that he can speak in Korean if he wants. He shakes his head vehemently.

“I can’t even answer in Korean too,” he says.

After another lengthy pause and a few chuckles, he looks at me directly and responds, “I just wanted to try hard, as much as I can. The team results weren’t that good. I still felt I did well because I tried my best.”

photo courtesy of Riot Games/lolesports

Most League of Legends fans know of the 2014–15 Korean Exodus: a flood of South Korean professional players leaving the glass booths of Seoul for stages in China and North America. Rumors of player trades and six-figure contracts backed by the deep pockets of Chinese streaming platforms reached the 2014 League of Legends World Championship stage well before confetti rained down on the five members of Samsung Galaxy White hoisting the Summoner’s Cup above their heads. Samsung White’s opponents, Star Horn Royal Club, already boasted two South Korean players: jungler Choi “inSec” In-seok and support Yoon “Zero” Kyung-sup. Royal Club’s experiment had worked, and other teams in China and around the world were about to follow suit. With two teams of top-tier talent and rumors that Samsung wanted to pull out of League of Legends entirely, the organization lost all ten of its starting players to Chinese organizations.

Most players discussed in tandem with the Korean Exodus are marquee names like Samsung White’s bottom lane duo of Gu “Imp” Seung-bin and Cho “Mata” Se-hyeong, top laner Lee “Flame” Ho-jong, or rising stars of the time like mid laner Song “Rookie” Eui-jin. Lesser-known players like Samsung White substitute AD carry Byun “Skatch” Se-hoon (now Gango), who was technically at that same world championship with the team, go unmentioned and are generally forgotten, despite making up a large portion of imported players.

A top lane substitute at the time for Samsung Galaxy Blue, Gamsu was one of these players, lost in the shuffle of the Korean Exodus.

Gamsu’s first international destination was North America’s Team Dignitas, where he arrived on the server as “Loopercorn,” a portmanteau tribute to former teammates Jang “Looper” Hyeong-seok and Choi “Acorn” Cheon-ju. In an offseason of wild rumors, when so many high-profile players were leaving South Korea, the in-game moniker led some to erroneously believe that Gamsu was one of the two former Samsung starting top laners before the team’s official announcement. He and the team’s other South Korean newcomer, then-AD carry Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in, debuted with the team at IEM Cologne, where Dignitas fell to Gambit Gaming. Neither player was a big name. They were simply talented imports from South Korea.

The 2015 NA League Championship Series spring split was a trying time for Team Dignitas and Gamsu. They won only six games during the regular season, and were bound for the promotion tournament and possible relegation. After reverse-sweeping Fusion to stay in the league, Dignitas fared a bit better that summer with a surprisingly strong start, which was able to carry them into the playoffs before they fell to Team Impulse in the quarterfinals. Despite Dignitas’ inconsistent play, Gamsu was regarded as strong talent, especially on his signature Gnar.

Throughout all of the turmoil and near-relegation that spring, Gamsu was admittedly homesick. He stayed up late to talk to his friends and family in South Korea, and thanked them for following his career at off hours. In a memorable piece of Riot Games video content that summer, which fans remember to this day, Gamsu mentioned that he took up cooking as a way to eat the food that reminded him of home — he couldn’t find it in Los Angeles — and it became a way to better connect with his teammates.

The most telling part of the entire piece is still his opening line.

“I hate making mistakes in game.”

In the 2015–16 offseason, Gamsu moved from North America to Europe, where he joined Fnatic in the wake of top laner Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon and jungler Kim “Reignover” Yeu-jin’s dominion over the EU LCS that past year. Similar results were expected of Gamsu and the team’s new jungler, Lee “Spirit” Da-yoon, who had spent the previous year on Team WE. Fnatic finished with a .500 record that spring and made it to the third-place match, but it wasn’t enough for Fnatic — an organization coming off of a record-setting year with Huni and Reignover — and it wasn’t enough for Gamsu, who saw it as another failure. Despite occasional moments of brilliance, Gamsu struggled on flanks and Teleport plays.

That summer, Gamsu was replaced by Mateusz “Kikis” Szkudlarek mid-split.

“My mindset wasn’t really good,” Gamsu says. “I was feeling my failures. And I was just running away from the league.”

Upon returning to South Korea, Overwatch had become the game du jour in Seoul’s PC bangs. Gamsu immediately gravitated towards the tank role. He played the game for fun. Drained from his League of Legends experiences, Gamsu created a self-imposed challenge.

“I was scared to play,” he says. “So I said if I get a top rank, I’m going to have to listen, and I guess I did.”

He laughs at this, as if he still can’t believe it.

photo courtesy of OnGameNet/Twitch

Gamsu was the first to lead his CONBOX T6 teammates onto OGN e-Stadium stage for APEX Season 1. Discussion from English-language casters Erik “DoA” Lonnquist and Christopher “Montecristo” Mykles began with Gamsu, the former top laner’s journey home to South Korea, and his Overwatch debut. They cited the ability to go from being a professional MOBA player to now a top-tier FPS player as impressive, noting that his tank prowess in the top lane has lent itself to strong ladder performances as a main tank in Overwatch.

When I ask Gamsu about making the transition, he says that he just loves tanks.

“Just in general, every game, even RPs, I always look for the shield.” He raises his arm slightly, as if it has a Reinhardt shield attached, while laughing. “I just use the shield and tank. I think it’s just my personality, I guess?”

In each of their appearances over four seasons of OGN APEX, CONBOX went through more than a few naming iterations (T6, Spirit), and a few roster changes, yet never managed to quite make it into playoffs. CONBOX was a second-stage team, but not a playoff team, overwhelmed by the likes of APEX’s best, like Lunatic-Hai and Kongdoo Panthera (later Cloud9 Kongdoo).

“After CONBOX, I almost quit gaming,” he says. “But suddenly, our head coach Crusty, he was looking for a main tank and called me. ‘You want to try out for this team?’ They liked me, and I decided to play once more.”

The move brought Gamsu back to Los Angeles a second time. Nearly three years after he first arrived to play League of Legends for Team Dignitas, Gamsu is no longer the same quiet individual, afraid to fail. He still abhors failure, but he turns that fear into motivation while leading his new team.

“He’s one of our bigger persons we looked up to because he was more experienced, and he’s more serious,” DreamKazper told Blitz Esports towards the end of Stage 2. “He keeps everyone in check and makes sure everyone focuses up and keeps us all calm.”

Currently, Boston occupies a similar position to CONBOX, an improving team just outside of playoff contention. Boston is also in the tough Atlantic Division, with Stage 1 champion London Spitfire and Stage 2 champion New York Excelsior. The team’s 12–8 match record places them fifth out of six teams in their division, but sixth overall in the full standings of both divisions.

Gamsu admits that they struggled a lot when the Mercy meta first ended after Stage 1, but thinks that they’re finally on their way to rebounding. Their struggles were exacerbated when Gamsu fell ill and then took a short break, prompting rumors of strife that HuK was quick to quash personally. Watching the team now, it’s difficult to believe they ever had any sort of internal problems.

In the waning moments of the interview, Gamsu yawns, sitting back in a grey armchair. I ask if he still cooks for his team as a bonding experience. He starts laughing loudly.

“Yeah, I still cook sometimes,” he says, pausing.

“But right now I don’t miss Korea a lot, so…”

He trails off into laughter. Gamsu doesn’t miss Korea a lot because he’s happy.

Two hours and five maps after they first enter the arena, the Boston Uprising defeat the San Francisco Shock on the tiebreaker map of Ilios. The LCD screen in Blizzard Arena lights up a brilliant royal blue, with the team logo and “Boston Uprising wins!” in a light blue font across the center screen.

Gamsu jumps up from his chair and hugs DreamKazper. He then moves down the line to Striker, then NotE, and so on. DreamKazper does the same. After reaching Kellex, Gamsu turns, leading the team across the stage to shake hands with the members of the Shock.

Both teams are smiling.