Yeu-jin "Reignover" Kim is a League of Legends jungle player for Team Immortals. Formerly from Korea, Reignover made his first apperance on Incredible Miracles. Shortly after, he was scouted and joined Fnatic's 2015 roster, a roster that reached semi-finals at Worlds. Now, he's moved to the North American LCS to play for Team Immortals and has high hopes for the upcoming split.

This week you started off really strong with this weeks LCS. Immortals went 2-0 and look to be a contender for a top North American spot. How's it feel beating one of the most hyped junglers in NA (in Rush) this split.

Reignover: At the beginning of the game and even before we started, I was pretty worried because everyone was saying Rush is really aggressive and that he's a really good player. But when the game started, they triggered a lane swap so I knew that the game was not going to be super messy. It's not going to be focused on junglers because, normally when you do the lane swap, it's like... there's certain things you have to do as a jungler so you cannot really make plays. I was pretty... not sad but...I don't really know the word but.. pretty sad about the fact that we cannot really play against each other, what people really wanted to see. But the game went pretty one-sided. They made more mistakes than we made. I think we played pretty solid so I think we just win as a team.

That's pretty exciting. I understand the pains of having to deal with a lane swap as a jungler. It's not a fun feeling at all. Following that up, Immortals came into the split as a team that almost everyone thought would do exceptionally based on professional players talking about scrim results. And the roster itself, I mean your roster is composed of Huni, yourself, Pobelter, Wildturtle, and Adrian so you guys are pretty stacked. Do you guys think you'll be able to maintain your momentum for the rest of the split and onto Worlds?

Reignover: Our practice is going pretty well. I feel like we know the best way, at least in NA, the best way to win the games. You mean before Worlds?

Up until Worlds. The spring split, how do you feel you're going to be doing in the spring split and the summer split after that, all the way up to Worlds?

Reignover: Obviously, of course everyone wants to win. It should be super good if we were to win spring split and then win summer split. I think we have a really big chance to win this spring split. And maybe, if we win spring split, our form is going to be higher so we can aim for a better summer split. Like, it happened at Fnatic. We were not as good as our summer split at Fnatic when we were playing during spring split. But after we won spring split, we went to international leagues and then we gained a lot of experience and then we became 18-0 in the summer split. Maybe like, even Immortals, since now, we didn't play with each other for a long time. So I guess this spring split is... it's our time to know each other and try to make more team synergy together and having more experience with international leagues together. So I think this spring split is important but I think we're aiming for more. Like Worlds. But yeah, I think we have a really big chance to win spring split.

You mentioned that during the spring split in Fnatic you had a little bit of a rough time then you went 18-0 in the summer split. Do you think you can replicate that with Immortals? With the roster that you have?

Reignover: Yeah, I think. Me and Huni, we improved. Of course, every other team has improved since last year but I think me and Huni are better versions of like last split. Even our teammates have so much potential and everyone has high motivation to be better and better. So I think, yeah. Not super confident on spring split but I think if we keep working like we're working right now, it's going to be pretty much the same (as Fnatic).

You went from playing on a team that reached semifinals at Worlds last year in Fnatic and now you joined a rebranded North American team in Team Immortals. Overall, do you have similar goals in mind with your new roster? Are you hoping you'll get semis or even farther at Worlds? What's your end-game? Your big goal.

Reignover: The big goal should be, of course, winning worlds. But I should be realistic. I feel like as a team we play really well even though we've practiced for less than one month. I think if we keep up our practice and keep trying to improve and don't lose our motivation, I think we can definitely go through groupstages at Worlds if we successfully get to Worlds. And maybe if we perform really well, we can go semifinals... if we win the quarterfinals. And if we can beat some LCK teams, then we can go finals. Then maybe we can win worlds.

A lot of ifs, haha. Overall though, you've had a very exciting career so far. You've played with Incredible Miracles awhile back, then afterwards you got scouted by Fnatic, and now are in Immortals. So you've played in 3 different regions so far. What would you say are the main differences you've seen in each region when it comes to their attitude towards the game?

Reignover: My first league career was in Korea. I played with Incredible Miracles. That time I was super young. I was actually attending highschool at the time. I didn't really know what to do. I was not even mentally professional. That time, I don't really remember how the environment was because I was busy for myself. I was a super selfish player. I don't really remember a lot of things at LCK. I was super panicking the whole season. When I started at Europe when I joined Fnatic, I actually realized how you should be professional. Well, like, realized somethings about being a professional player because the organization was really great and the players and the coaches were super motivated. It was actually my.. I was thinking to myself that it was my last chance to perform because I was already having bad days so I was really tryhard at Fnatic. Even before I joined Fnatic, when I was outside of IM and looking for a team, when I was trying out for SKT, I was tryharding so much. So, I think it was from Fnatic that I actually play with a professional mindset like putting so much effort everyday.

For the question that you ask, I cannot really compare Europe to Korea because I don't really remember a lot of things at Korea. But Europe is... People are saying that Korea is like the best competitive country. I mean, best competitive place you can be as a pro gamer. But I think Europe, every team was actually trying really hard. I don't know if it was only Fnatic but, at Fnatic I felt like we were tryharding more than when I was at Incredible Miracles. I think that the [skill] cap of players who tryhard and are doing more work is pretty much similar at Fnatic [in comparison] to Korea. At Immortals, it's the beginning of the season so everyone is tryharding so much. We are practicing a lot. But I think it's a little bit less than Fnatic but it's still [tryhard]. People are saying that "If you want to enjoy like so much of your life, you can go to NA or Europe" to the Korean pro gamers. But I think it's pretty much the same. You also have to tryhard here. You also have to tryhard in Korea if you want to perform. So I think it's not that different. The differences are communication, language, and like foods.

So, let's change it up a little bit. Now you're in North America. How's your experience in California been so far? How would you compare it to Berlin?

Reignover: When I was in Berlin, I [didn't really] want to go out and do some activities. If it's not a really special day, we didn't really go outside of the gaming house. But at NA at Immortals, I'm trying to be more active. Even outside of League. I'm trying to get myself outside of the computer. For my health. We go out a lot, eating foods outside, and doing some activities outside as a team. We go to a lot of gym. At Immortals, I'm gaining better health. I'm being more healthy. I'm eating a lot of food and gaining weight.

Just having a better lifestyle overall. So other than that, you just mentioned that you have been going to the gym, getting healthy, and stuff like that. Have you been doing anything else during the off-season? Have you been visiting friends/family?

Reignover: Yeah, when I was in Korea. After Worlds, I had breaks in Korea and, even after I joined Immortals, I had Christmas break to go and stay at Korea. When I was at break, of course I stayed with my family a lot, just chilling out and preparing for the next season.

Let's change threads a little bit and talk about League of Legends overall right now. As I'm sure you've noticed with the new system being implemented, the dynamic queue system for ranked. The other day, I'm not sure how frequently you browse Reddit or if you browse Reddit at all but, there was that post about how you're entire roster of Immortals had to play against TSM in ranked dynamic queue. People right now are freaking out about it. A lot of pro players are commenting about how it's making the practice very underwhelming when they queue up for soloq.. duoq... pentaq, whatever. What is your personal opinion and what is your take on the dynamic queue system? Do you think it hurts the practice environment or do you feel that it's beneficial for League of Legends?

Reignover: Just for dynamic queue, I think... After the new patch, our team played not that much dynamic queue. Maybe like 5 as a team. But when we played, most of the games were against pro teams; CLG, TSM, Team Liquid Academy. Those are the teams that I remember. Instead of that, we played against normal players. What I've seen is that if we have a matchup against an actual pro team, then I don't think players are tryharding but I think it's maybe better quality than playing soloq because it's actually a team game. So if you are actually matched up as 5v5 team, then maybe you will have better practice. But if you matchup against other players, normal players, it's pretty not fair to the other players. It's just the beginning and it's not even the regular season yet so.. I think we just have to wait and see more.

Makes sense. Another question that I want to ask is more about jungling in general. Myself, I'm a high elo jungler and I want your opinion on this. Right now, I've noticed a lot of other junglers have been talking about how exciting the current patch is, or well the pre-season is, because there's a lot of different champions you can play in soloq and that are a lot of fun to play like Zac, Trundle, Dr. Mundo, Nidalee, Elise, Rek'Sai, Rengar, etc. I guess what I want to ask is, as a jungler, how do you feel about a massive jungle pool right now? Do you feel that it also affects your picks in competitive play as well?

Reignover: Even though there's a lot of champions that you can play right now, I think there's limited champions.. that you can play but you should play at competitive. I think, for sure, that there are a lot more, bigger champions that can be shown up on the actual stage. But it hasn't been a long time yet so I think every team and every player is still figuring out and trying it at scrims and practices. After like one month or two months, pretty much all is going to set up.

So no cheesy jungle picks that you want to hint at or anything? Is it just going to be like in the middle of the LCS and then suddenly, another Olaf pick is going to pop up and we're going to be like "Oooh, Reignover!"

Reignover: Olaf is not a cheese!

I know it's not a cheese! I agree, I agree hahah. Alright man, that's all I've got for questions right now. Do you have any final remarks or shoutouts that you'd like to make before we wrap it up?

Reignover: I just want to say thanks for the fans and to keep cheering for me and our team, Immortals.

Thank you so much for the interview Reignover! Thank you so much to all of Team Dignitas' sponsors and good luck to Immortals this season! We'll hope to see you guys at Worlds rocking it out! I'll see everybody later, bye guys!