As one embarks on that journey called life, one inevitably runs into some type of adversity. But there are many different ways that people fight through hardship, and many different results. There will be some that break down because they cannot fight through it, and some that will prepare for it by accepting their own shortcomings. And there will also be those that avoid the big mountain and take the side road. The futures of all of these different people cannot possibly become the same.

The player that we will meet today is one of those people who prepares before scaling that mountain of adversity. He looked upon himself objectively, and was in the process of fixing his shortcomings one by one, carving out stairs in order to scale that peak. It’s possible that someone will fail to understand. You can even say it’s a foolish attachment. He’s been given many chances to go around it, but he has a firm resolve preparing to scale the wall with his entirety.

Putting down everything he’s ever achieved, a man who’s going back to the beginning to make the leap once again. We introduce the story of the eternal captain, Kang “Cpt. Jack” Hyeong-woo.

Q. First, please introduce yourself and say hello to the readers.

Cpt. Jack: I’m a free-agent ADC, Kang “Cpt. Jack” Hyeong-woo. I’m very happy to see you.

Q. How are you doing lately?

Cpt. Jack: I’m practicing, primarily by playing Solo Queue. Still, as a way to objectively show that my individual skills are still okay, Solo Queue points are the objective indicator. I’m trying to work hard so that I can join a team.

Q. You didn’t have any offers from abroad?

Cpt. Jack: There were a few times that I was contacted by foreign teams. But starting next year I will have to attend university. First years cannot take leave, so I must be active within Korea. I am in the process of finding teams but it hasn’t been easy.

Q. Fans seem to think that you’ll be successful as a streamer…what are your personal thoughts about that?

Cpt. Jack: I do think that streaming is another good method. But I’d still like to be active as a pro gamer. I’m going to really do my best to find a team, and if the conditions aren’t very good, I’ll stream while going to school as an alternative plan.

Q. Being a pro gamer is a very difficult job. Practice is tiring, and you have almost no social life. And when your skills falter, you also receive a lot of criticism…Though there are so many difficulties, what’s your driving force to continue on this career path?

Cpt. Jack: The reason why I continue carrying on…In my case, after winning once in the very beginning, I haven’t been able to win anything else. I’ve also been able to in a few international tournaments, but never domestically. And, I’ve never been able to go to the World Championship. There are still many things that I have yet to achieve, and that I can show, as a pro gamer. And the thoughts I have of wanting to prove myself on those things is what drives me to continue, I think.

Q. Going to university while simultaneously being a pro gamer doesn’t seem like an easy task.

Cpt. Jack: I have a lot of worries about that, too. Right now, I keep thinking if college courses are really necessary for a pro gamer. If I was a true pro gamer, I would probably think that there isn’t anything for me to go learn at university. But if I am to think of my future, it will likely be a huge help.

If I attend school the amount of practice that I get compared to other pro gamers will definitely be comparative, and I won’t get to have a practice-friendly environment at school. Even if the school grants me as much convenience as they can, I still have to attend most of the lectures. Honestly, if it weren’t for university, I would have seriously considered debuting abroad. But, it’s my choice. I don’t have any regrets, but I do have worries. I worry a lot about whether I can stay competitive while going to school and do well as a pro gamer without falling behind all the other competitors.

Q. You also did well as an analyst, and it really seems like you were great in many aspects. Do you have any thoughts about wanting to become an analyst or caster?

Cpt. Jack: I did think about being an analyst as well. Of course, professional training would have to be my support. There were very few comments that said I had done badly. But I feel that I lack a lot, and only if I am able to get professional training will I be able to perform at a level that I could be satisfied with. Vocabulary, word selection, the completion of sentences, and thoughts all have to work and be expressed simultaneously. And the synergy between the other casters and analysts is also important. I’m lacking in that aspect, and if I am able to fix it by getting training, it’s a possible path that I am leaving open.

In the case where I’m unable to find a team, while streaming, I’m planning to find different things that I can do and try them. Being an on-camera analyst is certainly one of them. I also have the thought of making a Challengers Korea team and starting over from the beginning.



Q. When on the Jin Air Green Wings, despite your decent win rate, you weren’t able to start many games. Did you have any disappointment?

Cpt. Jack: As we’re conducting the interview now, I said that I wanted to continue being a pro gamer. I do think that there is a side where my mind goes ahead of everything else. The first thing to do is to prove that I’m not lacking in terms of individual skill. When I was playing in the league on the Jin Air Green Wings my gameplay and win rate weren’t bad. But, in regular practice matches, I was really inconsistent. Only when I’m able to raise myself to a level where I can perform consistently well, is when I think other teams will acknowledge me and I can continue being a pro gamer.

The times I wasn’t able to be a starter for, I believe there were good reasons why. I’m feeling greatly sorry about it, but I wasn’t able to plant confidence in the coaching staff by not showing a consistent performance during practices. The team must have felt worried. I did well in matches, but it must’ve felt like I was a ticking time bomb that could have exploded at any moment. Compared to that, Na “Pilot” Woo-hyung showed a great performance without inconsistencies. From the perspective of the team, it was a definite call.

Q. You’re also famous for being a player of Dungeon Fighter Online (DF) and World of Warcraft (WoW)?

Cpt. Jack: I’ve always liked games. Whatever game I play, I’m the type to play really diligently until I become the very best. For WoW, I fell under my friend’s lure and started in my 3rd year of high school. I went on raids a lot. I think my guild was Ground Zero? But for raids, I went with another regular raid party. I was a user where I enjoyed going hard on raids. When Wrath of the Lich King came out I cleared the 25-man hard raid, and during Cataclysm I defeated Ragnaros as a front line.

As for Dungeon Fighter Online, I started in intermediate school. I did take hiatuses here and there, and the reasons for that was the WoW expansion packs (laughs). For DF, I really liked the battle arena. After becoming a pro gamer I played during vacation breaks, and as that started to stack up my battle arena ranking became higher. The funny thing is that for the female slayer class, I’m #1 in arena ranking. Overall, I’m within the top 20 (laughs). I thought of participating in the action tournaments, but the class got nerfed. Right now I’m just really playing League of Legends.

Good looking?

Q. We can’t leave out your relationship to Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok. What’s the secret of getting his love?

Cpt. Jack: I would really like to know, myself. We haven’t really had a point of contact. When we meet in Solo Queue, the only feeling that I get is one of getting trolled (laughs). In reality, at the stadiums, we’ve never even had a conversation. Uh, actually, we did have one point of contact – at the national sports festival where we were invited to Jeju Island, I went to get water and brought a few cups, and gave one to him.

After the sports festival I went with all the other pro gamers to an arcade. I played Pump it Up, and the other players must’ve seen me and thought it was novel, because they all played it. At that time Faker played it too, but he was a total newbie. For personal possession, I have a short video clip of that (laughs). This is the extent of our point of contact.

As for the game, it must’ve started here – about 2 years ago I met Faker in Solo Queue and he suddenly said, “This is really OP” and picked Blitzcrank. In laning phase he missed all of his hooks and abandoned me to go roaming diligently elsewhere. I don’t even remember whether we won or not, but it’s definite that it was a hard game for me. I didn’t get mad. Is that why? After that, Alistar’s “Tearful Sacrifice,” happened and he purposely took a few kills as Bard that I could’ve gotten. He played well on Soraka but it’s clear that the other things are troll (laughs). There are a lot of games that we’ve won but it’s always so difficult for me.

Q. Christmas is approaching, do you have any special plans?

Cpt. Jack: I don’t have any Christmas plans. Most of the Korean teams right now are in a state of rebuilding. This Christmas, I think I’ll be spending it busily, practicing hard.

Q. At a past Riot Games Media Training event, you said that you’d like to purchase stocks…were you successful?

Cpt. Jack: It turns out that Riot Games isn’t a publicly traded company (laughs). If I had bought some in the very beginning, it would’ve been the jackpot…

Q. If you were to recommend a marksman champion to users in the pre-season?

Cpt. Jack: Miss Fortune is really hot right now, so everyone probably knows. But you have to play with her very distinctive weaknesses in mind. From what I feel, Kalista is still great, and I tried Kog’Maw recently and he seems good to play as well. If he gets one core item he’s the “Game King”, but I want to stress that it’s more difficult than you would think to get to the 1 core item. Miss Fortune, Kalista, Lucian are three best picks you could pick with ease, I think.

Q. Now, you’re considered being older by pro gamer standards – have you ever had the thought that your mechanics were falling behind?

Cpt. Jack: I know, right? I still think that I’m young, but there are a lot of pro gamers that are younger than I am. And definitely, there are times where I feel that my mechanics aren’t as up to par as they used to be. For ADCs, mechanics are especially important. And as the years pass, there are constant streams of good people that are coming into the scene. I have to try even harder so that I don’t fall behind. I was once an ADC that played very well, but to not get tied up in that group, I have to lower myself and play the game in a stance of learning in order for me to stay competitive and rise.

But…I do have a large amount of experience. In some ways I am a “veteran,” and if I am to put forth that experience as a weapon and work hard, I feel that I still have that competitive edge.

Q. It’s not easy for a player who has once reached the peak to abandon all honor and start over from the beginning. How was that possible for you?

Cpt. Jack: When I play matches, I focus more on my personal mistakes rather than blame someone else for theirs. When I do this, I can see “me” more clearly. If you watch the games of the really good ADCs right now, they don’t have very many mistakes. Comparatively, I make them quite frequently. To make up for that lacking skill, only hard work can do that. To not focus on making super plays, slowly lessen the mistakes and stabilize internally – if I do these things, I think I’ll be able to rise even higher. Honestly, I would get overly ambitious, but every time I did the results of it weren’t great (laughs). The amount of games played and objective feedback for yourself is necessary so that you don’t fall behind the other players.

Q. What period of time was the most enjoyable for you as a pro gamer?

Cpt. Jack: If we’re looking at it from an enjoyable perspective, it’d be when I was on the Jin Air Green Wings. I was able to live with my teammates in an enjoyable way, like we were brothers. That time I was on the Jin Air Green Wings Stealths and beat CJ Entus Blaze to get to the Quarterfinals was when I was enjoying it most and the most happy. But that’s the past, and it’s most important for me now to work hard, going up step by step.

Q. As a pro player, what was the most disappointing time?

Cpt. Jack: Even from before, even if people around me would console me, if I personally could not dissolve away the feelings, it would be difficult for me to shake off the distracting thoughts. Every time that would happen my spirits would be sagging. And if a problem would come up, I would be slow to solve them compared with other people. And because that would be so, whenever I would play Solo Queue and through win streaks, reach the top – once I started losing I’d fall all the way back to the floor again. To break a losing streak, instead of playing game after game, you have to stop and get your mind in order and focus. But because my competitive spirit would get the best of me, I wasn’t able to take care of my mental fortitude very well. The pent-up frustration of the previous loss would carry over to the subsequent games after it.

Now, as a solution to improvement, if I’m at a 2-3 loss streak, I go on a walk or give myself time to rest. All during this time, people had given me this type of advice. If the games weren’t playing out well, to rest a bit and then play. But my stubbornness would make me say, “No, that doesn’t really matter and I made a mistake, I can just play until I win.” I realized that as a pro gamer, having control over your mental fortitude is very important.

Q. Are there any last comments that you’d like to make?

Cpt. Jack: In the 2 years that I was on Jin Air, I had a lot of fun times. I’m sincerely thankful to my team who saw me in a good light. There were a lot of hardships during my pro gamer career, but when I was on Jin Air I enjoyed it a lot and felt happiness. I have now left the team, and am looking for a new team – but I still have the passion to continue this pro gamer path, and the ambition of wanting to succeed. I have plans to try even harder.

Even if right now things don’t work out and I’m unable to join a team, I think that it’s a period of time where it’s necessary for me to put in the effort. I’m going to think of it as a preparation period to run even farther and slowly work on stabilizing myself. I will not give up and work hard for the future that is to come. I’d like to update my fans here and there with updates on my current situation through streaming. Even if I’m unable to join a team, please don’t be heartbroken, and please continue cheering for the Cpt. Jack that will appear even better than before.

I also have another surprise event. I was invited to this year’s All-Star Event. I’ll be leaving the country around the time this interview is released. I asked Riot why I was able to go, and they told me that the #1 voted players are all going, and that the 1st place of all the #2 voted players was invited. Out of all the positions of the #2 voted players, I was 1st. I asked if I was the only one getting the special treatment, but they told me 1 additional player from all the other regions were also coming. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to play bot duo with Faker once I get there, but I’m planning to have a lot of fun.



Sayonara!



Original Korean Inven article here:http://www.inven.co.kr/webzine/news/?news=147939&site=lol

Photos courtesy of Inven.co.kr!

