Coach Da-hee "Crusty" Park is known for perfection. Last year, Crusty led a struggling Boston Uprising squad to the first perfect stage in Overwatch League history. This past stage, he once again guided a team with record-breaking performances as the San Francisco Shock became Stage 2 Champions and accomplished their 28-0 Golden Stage.





Crusty’s immense talent was recognized once again as he was voted to be the Head Coach of South Korea’s 2019 Overwatch World Cup team. Upcomer spoke with the legendary coach about the Shock’s recovery after a difficult start to Stage 3, his thoughts on the World Cup, and advice for prospective coaches.





Congrats on the major victory against the Seoul Dynasty! Is it difficult to prepare for them due to their multiple rosters?

Honestly, if Seoul changes their roster, it also shows us that either we’re going to play a DPS comp, or just GOATS. So it actually makes things easier for us.









Did you change anything about your coaching after the match against the Houston Outlaws?

We didn’t have a chance to scrim with a DPS team before Houston, we were more focusing on our GOATS against Sombra-GOATS. After the first map, all of our players’ mental was broken. So after that match, we focused on being more flexible and essentially we just put our hard work into that.









Also, congratulations on being named South Korea’s Head Coach! What was your first reaction when hearing the news?

First, I was very happy, like “Oh my God, I made it!” But after I felt a lot of pressure because South Korea always wins, and the former South Korea coach Pavane is very good. He is with NYXL, so I was worrying, can I do better than him, can I do as well as him? But after I became Head Coach, I just changed my thinking, like screw it! I’ll do what I want have no regrets, and work very hard.









South Korea has a massive talent pool, do you think narrowing this down to the top 12 within a month will be a challenge?

Yes, I think so.In 2018, that was a DPS meta, so people, even fans, can see who is a good DPS player and who is not. So even if teams didn’t pick a star DPS player, it was reasonable, people would be like, “oh this player might pick it up, he could be good at this hero.” But in this GOATS meta, if I just pick out players without testing, and think like, “oh he was really good in Season 1,” that’s not right. That’s not reasonable. So we’re going to use tryouts.





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San Francisco has a very specific style and has extremely strong synergy. When coaching the South Korean World Cup team, do you think you’ll be able to develop something similar?

Yes. First thing that I worry about is that my coaching style is about teaching the player, being smart. I worry about that because this is a project team. So I will just focus on Korea’s matches and help make the players more flexible and their knowledge wider. Even if different comps come out, I want myself and the team to be flexible.









What are the most important qualities in players? What can a player do to make you want to coach them?

I think the player needs to study Overwatch a lot. If they are just using instinct when they play, depending on the team you’re against, you might be countered. And that can be a lot to handle depending on the style. I keep talking about being flexible, that is key for every person of the team. It makes me think of the Stage 3 win streak with Boston last year, and also our Golden Stage in San Francisco.









You are a coach associated with perfection, leading Boston Uprising to their perfect stage last year and the Shock to, as you mentioned, a Golden Stage. What are ways in which you have helped your players achieve these goals?

I can’t that I did that perfectly, but every match we prepared as if we were a brand new team. But against the Outlaws we didn’t do that, we were just thinking that if we played our style we would win. And we didn’t have that experience against DPS comps, that’s why we lost. After that, we had great motivation and changed our mind. We prepare for every match as a new team, against a strong team.









Similarly, what would you say are the most important qualities of a coach?

That’s pretty hard, when you think of especially [traditional] sports teams, you can be really strict on everyone. But this is esports, so you have to understand the players, and you need to coach each player with their style, not just using my style for every player. For us, we keep focusing on every player, not just doing one thing together. That makes our team and every member stronger.









What are important ways for prospective coaches to improve?

Coaching is really hard, especially for the first time. There’s no study book, no guide, right? So, you need to make your own style. The coach makes the “color” of the team. Who’ve been the strongest teams, NYXL, Vancouver, all of those teams have their own style. Vancouver is aggressive, NYXL is passive but being perfect. If a team doesn’t have a color, that team will not have a good record.