After their 3-0 victory and first win of the season over the Houston Outlaws, Florida Mayhem’s General Manager Albert “yeHHH” Yeh sat down with me to discuss the Mayhem’s new direction for the 2020 season. For the both of us, it was no secret Florida has had an abysmal time in the Overwatch League. “I don’t think it’s a stretch to say, that we've had the most miserable two seasons of any of the franchises” he put bluntly. There’s no way to paint around that Florida was the worst team in the previous season, and Albert graciously granted some insight on what it was like to be a part of the worst team in the Overwatch League.

Firstly, let’s talk about your role on the Mayhem, what do you do as General Manager? It's a little unique in that, there's an all Korean staff under me. It’s a little bit more difficult to communicate, everything’s a little more formal. Luckily Kuki is bilingual so that helps out a lot, I can just have a one on one conversation with him, no issue. But, my job is to make sure they [the players] don’t have to worry about anything besides playing Overwatch. If they have no other worries on their minds, I’ve done my job. That involves telling our team mangers of where we need to be, handling all the logistics, like team housing. I searched all offseason to find the team housing, where they’re going to live, getting the facilities set up, it’s a big area. What’s the dynamic between you and Kuki? Ultimately, he's the head coach, I give him that power. He decides who's starting, who's sitting, who gets playtime and who doesn't, that’s his wheelhouse. My job is to understand the pulse of the team, it’s his job to control it and the performance of the team is up to him.

What’s been the process of putting this roster together? We looked at the [2019] roster, decided who to keep and who to cut. Our team was last place last year, so everyone was up for discussion. I decided that ultimately, I kept the best parts of our roster. The vision was to cut the people we thought who weren’t performing and who weren’t going to help us get to the next level and keep the pieces that we thought have potential. After that it was strategizing, taking a look at all the talent available, looking at who we could realistically get, who are our ‘reaches’. Once I saw Runaway was going to be the best option, I figured out the coaching staff first, and it was nice that he [Kuki] could bring two Runaway players with him… Read more: Crafting the Defiant - An interview with General Manager Jaesun Won We were going to be a full Korean roster, it didn’t make sense to go back on that direction, like ‘hey now were going to be a mixed team again.’ So, I thought that was a purposeful choice to remain full Korean. Being on the Mayhem since 2018, what were the mistakes made that you saw and are making sure you don’t repeat for 2020. I think I learned a lot about what not to do and what doesn’t work. Before I got on Mayhem, I know it’s cliché, but you don’t really know what it feels like to lose until you lose a lot. Now it’s like I’m more nervous when were about to win. I think ‘How do we find a way to lose this? What are the ways we can lose this?’ That’s how I think now. Maybe its PTSD from two years on the Mayhem, but this whole time it’s been that. This is the first year where I feel like we're up 2-0 and we can finish the map. I have confidence in the team, confidence in where we are. The past years have been a long journey of growth. You can see growth in the results, and my personal growth too.