When Bakery retired, it was personally quite hard because he had been such a close friend of mine for such a long time. He was pretty much the guy that got me into the Heroes scene and I always felt a lot of loyalty to him because of that.

It all started when I met him while he was on SK Gaming in early 2015.

We ended up forming the team that became Dignitas and from that point onwards we were always a strong part of the roster. Every team that I’ve wanted to be a part of has just kind of aligned under the Dignitas banner.

While his stepping down was sad, I knew it was coming. He had been struggling and had medical issues so we knew it was inevitable he would be stepping away, he was just trying to figure out the right time to do it.

It was really hard to lose a really good friend I was playing with competitively but thankfully he didn’t really go anywhere as he’s on managerial staff now, so I don’t feel like I completely lost him.

When he left I really had to take over the mantle. Becoming the captain was just the way it had to be.

No one expected anyone else to become the captain. We have JayPL, who isn’t confident in his English, Zaalia and POILK were still new to the scene, and Wubby is quite shy and doesn’t like the camera too much.

As soon as Bakery stepped away we knew what the lineup would be and I was just like ‘okay I’m going to be the captain of this team’.

I remember at BlizzCon I was talking to Meph and I said ‘So I guess I’m going to have to step up and be the captain now’ and he replied ‘I was actually gonna ask you if you were gonna be okay with that’

Originally Bakery did everything but Dignitas didn’t really like that, so I was already trying to take more interviews and be on camera when I got the chance so that by the time I had to officially take over I was already pretty comfortable.

Because I’ve been with Dignitas for so long I think I’ve really become a staple of the team so the public adapted to it really well when I took over as captain. It was very easy for me to just establish that Bakery is gone, and this is our new era now.

I’ll admit, there was a little bit of uncertainty of knowing if the next lineup would have the same level of success as it did with Bakery.

We really lucked out because I already had good friendships with strong players in the scene so when we made the new team it wasn’t as hard to adapt as it could have been.

I think our current roster is the best shot we’ve ever had to take an international event. At the Mid-Season Brawl, we were like six or seven months into the new rosters and we literally lost the game by a 1% core.

It was a surreal experience but I think it’s just a case of the fact that we’ve never had the talent all in one place with the drive and motivation. We’ve had three or for more months to grow before BlizzCon and we’ll be at our peak level by then.

I got the opportunity to commentate live super randomly. Basically, I got DM’d: ‘Hey would you be interested in working in the Eastern Clash?’. Commentating was always something in the back of my mind of what I could do after esports.

I’m actually really nervous about casting because I feel like my voice doesn’t suit broadcast.

It definitely gave me a new perspective on things like how hard it is to stand there and be animated all day. You have to be smiling and use your body because otherwise, it looks really stiff on camera.

It’s surprisingly draining to stand there and talk all day. I never really appreciated how difficult that would be but it was definitely fun and exciting. It reaffirmed to me that it’s something that I’d want to do someday.

Of course, I want to play and compete for as long as I can, but when that one day comes to an end, I still want to stay involved in esports in any way that I can.