Susie "LilSusie" Kim is an eSports personality who's been around in the scene for well over a decade. Having made her start in Broodwar, Susie has had stints in casting, interviewing, and translating in the Korean scene. She's most notorious for being referred to as the "eSports mom" and helping Western teams assimilate themselves into Korea during bootcamps. Since then, Susie has now found herself working at Twitch. Novalas managed to catch up with her at BlizzCon 2016 for a few words.

How are you enjoying Blizzcon?

Susie: BlizzCon has been really fantastic. I actually came to the very first Blizzcon in 2005 and again in 2007, but then I never actually went to another before this one. It's kinda cool to see how much it has become in 10 years of me being here.

Yeah, a big shift in focus from World of Warcraft, now it's shifting into a ton of esports. On the topic of esports, so Overwatch the Grand Final just ended (Korea took it all). Was that really expected?

Susie: I think so because South Koreans are try-hards no matter what. I know this was supposed to be a fun exhibition match and obviously there are teams like France who brought in streamers instead of the top pros... and even like Team Canada; they brought in Poke who is a good, fun player, but not a professional. Those kind of differences, I think, really made the difference. Korea of course brought in 6 professional players, who all play really extremely well and they were able to dominate everything. So at the end of the day, yeah, you give the Koreans a tournament and they are going to try-hard and they are probably going to win.

We are currently having the Heroes of the Storm tournament going on, MVP Black actually just lost, it was an upset, Fnatic taking them down and currently there is the series going on between Team Dignitas and Ballistix, which I believe is in game 4 right now. Coming into BlizzCon, people were saying that similarly to League of Legends the Koreans are going to be unstoppable, but it looks like even gods can bleed in this case. In the context of that, did you get to watch a MVP BLACK game? How did you feel about that?

Susie: I walked past the stage a couple of times and I saw when MVP Black took game 3, which was really exciting. I didn't think that they were going to win it all at that point. It's interesting to me because I'm so used to see Korea winning and, of course, I'm rooting for them at all times because I know most of the players and I enjoy cheering for the guys I care about and have conversations and relationships with. Definitely an upset though and ya know, at the end of the day, may the best team win. Because of that, I’m not really upset that Korea lost. Of course, if another team is going to win then I'm happy that they are able to play to that extent and get to that supreme level where they deserve that trophy at the end of the day.

Have you heard any details about League of Legends teams not wanting to go to Korea to bootcamp (after the TSM leaks) and due to the way some people in the community feel about the way Koreans handle things?

Susie: I have been trying to stay away from League drama more and more recently, but my personal opinion is, when in Rome you do as the Romans do. If the Koreans conduct themselves in a certain way and you are in their country, I think it's best if you respect that. In terms of teams not going to Korea to bootcamp anymore, or whatever that is about, I still think that Korea still has the best solo queue environment, so whether you are going to scrim against the best teams or not, it’s good to just be there. It’s also a mentality thing, like when you go to any camp at all, so whether it's for League of Legends or for Basketball, etc, you go with the intent of "This is what I'm trying to achieve and I'm just going to practice it".

I also think that a change of atmosphere or environment really helps the psyche of a person to obtain their goal, and so going to Korea with that mindset, plus having the best solo queue available, would help a player get better. At the end of the day, it comes down to the players themselves. Are you good enough to win? Is your team good enough to win? Do you have the strong mental fortitude to be able to get past tilt and continue on and even win a game when you are down 10k gold? I think it all comes down to that. I don’t think scrim results mean anything. SKT had a mediocre season in summer 2016 but then we saw them get to Worlds and just turn on their winning mindset. There’s something about an individual’s mental fortitude, the will to win and the control over their emotions - I think that is the much bigger portion of it, whether you bootcamped in the right place, or had enough scrims with the right teams.

So you say that the Korean dominance in eSports is due to their willpower and mental strength more so than scrimming?

Susie: Yes. I think it's very cultural. I think Koreans are very, very competitive. I'm not saying that Westerners are not; they are as well, but it's kind of bred into us. For example, our parents compare us to our siblings from a very young age. When you get to school, the entire school system is based on a ranked system; you are either first place, or last place and you know exactly what rank you are. They really just put you up against each other. There is no "We all have A's, we are all great" it's more like a "you’re 97%? I got 96.5%. I'm second to you, so I'm going to take you down next time" It's so competitive.

We also have kind of addictive personalities, so when a Korean player is like "I'm going to master playing Ryze, and I'm going to do it fast”, they can sit there and play it for 15 hours or whatever to make sure that they get that one little thing down. It is also cultural that we are very obedient. Again, that's kind of something our parents beat into us, literally. So when a coach tells you "You know what? I want you to master Miss Fortune as a support" or you know like, whatever it is, usually Koreans are built to say "Okay". Coach says "I don't want you to pick that, I want you to play this"? They'll just go with it, even if they disagree, because they trust the coach that much, and I think little things like that, the infrastructure, the obedience, are just the way that Koreans are. Our culture, I think, is what makes us the best.

So the other thing I wanted to ask you about is TSM's Weldon, who recently came out with a statement attacking the Korean mentality instead of complimenting it, calling the Koreans too nationalistic; the Korean coaches, Inven, basically everyone in the Korean scene was in an uproar over the unprofessional remark. Would you agree that it was a very provocative statement?

Susie: It was a bit ignorant. I think that would be my word for it. I normally take very non-political stands but I will say it was ignorant. He’s right that we are very nationalistic. We have to be, we’re this tiny little country that has been constantly invaded by Japan, China, Mongolia, and whoever else in the world. We’re just this tiny little country but a proud one. For someone to come in and spend a minimal amount of time here and then make a broad sweeping, judgement call like that… I can understand why people were upset.

Moving past that and going on to just BlizzCon in general, which announcement from the opening ceremony appealed to you the most?

Susie: I'm really excited about the Overwatch League coming out. I think it's about time that Blizzard does something on a more grand scale, but it is very ambitious and we are going to have to wait to see how it pans out. How it starts is a really important part of it but I know that there is a lot of support going into this; a lot of people are working on this incredible project. I really hope it does well for the sake of eSports and for the sake of the players. I want the players to have a place where they are able to go and know that they are being taken care of with set salaries and benefits. With more structured teams coming into this space, I want a world where a hopeful new player who is aiming for a career in eSports can feel assured that he has a secure and stable future when entering a team.

What’s your role here at Blizzcon?

Susie: For Blizzcon? Actually, it’s pretty interesting. I just came as an audience member; I just came to have a good time. While hanging out, I basically wanted to do a small written piece about the Overwatch guys so I contacted ESPN and just asked "Hey! You don't mind if I write for you right?" and they just said "Well, would you like to be on our desk instead?" and I just said "Okay". LOL. That’s how I ended up doing on air segments on the ESPN eSports desk here at Blizzcon. I got to talk to a lot of important and prominent people who are here from various eSports: Starcraft II, Hearthstone, Overwatch - I don't know if we actually had anyone from Heroes, but you know, it has just been very awesome to talk to people in general, enjoying Blizzcon and really just being a part of everything. The team I worked with was great and I had a great time co-hosting the show with Arda Ocal.

I can definitely see why they would invite you on the desk; you’ve been around for a long time now, your title’s basically the "The Korean Mom". You have been in the industry for more than 10 years. Did you ever anticipate the growth to be where it is in 2016?

Susie: Absolutely not, I enjoyed eSports when it was bare bones where tournaments were held in tiny little rooms and the community was a lot smaller. I used to get players and fans together for meetups and things like that. This is really amazing to me, to see something I love grow as much as it has, and I know this isn’t the end. It's just the beginning and in Korea we had a headstart, but with America? The possibilities are much greater and so it's going to be really awesome to see where it will go the next 5, 10 years.

Any Final words that you’d like to say?

Susie: Thank you for this interview. I tend to do a lot more backend stuff so people don't usually interview me that much but it's nice to know that people have actually followed my career over the years. I hope to continue to be a part of esports as it grows, on or off camera. Maybe just steer from the backend and make sure that everyone is taken care of and find their place in the industry correctly? Either way, I’m thankful that people enjoy my work and I’m grateful for all the positive support I’ve gotten along the way.

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