▲ EnVyUs' heroic last-minute substitute, Pongphop "Mickie" Rattanasangohod

Congratulations on advancing to the semifinals. How are you feeling?

There aren't any professional Overwatch tournaments in Thailand, so even coming to the stadium today was an exciting experience for me. I'm just awed at having won my first game.

I actually visited Korea seven years ago to play another game at e-Star Seoul, and left with great memories. I hope Thailand can one day enjoy this level of eSports infrastructure.

How popular is Overwatch in Thailand?

Not very. Pay-to-play titles are too expensive for many people. Most tend to stick to free-to-play games, such as FIFA Online.

Will other Thai players will follow in your footsteps and join the international scene?

They are definitely good enough to represent our nation, but their English is not good enough to play on multinational teams. I would have been in the same situation had it not been for a Chinese female friend of mine who I could only converse in English with.

Several of my World Cup teammates have started streaming on Twitch to improve their English skills. Perhaps one day we will see them playing on foreign teams.

You were reported to have caught EnVyUs' eye at the Overwatch World Cup.

There was this metric at BlizzCon that went up as you got kills, and I got a lot of kills. I guess that made EnVyUs notice me. I think the key factor was the commentators' and analysts' praise.

Many fans took a liking to you after you were caught on camera smiling brightly after a loss.

I had made a decision to never look dejected on camera, because I wanted to only emanate positive energy to people around me. We all were very sad once we got to the hotel.

Do you think you will stay on with EnVyUs?

I'm not sure. I will keep playing Overwatch, but I think I'll return to Thailand after APEX ends. If a foreign team makes me an offer, I'll decide based on how much they'll pay me! [laughs]

You pulled off a beautiful Self-Destruct today on D.Va. Did you play her often?

My FPS background is in Point Blank, so when I picked up Overwatch, I never played tanks. My favorite hero is actually Widowmaker.

When our team for the World Cup was put together, however, all six of us were DPS players, so some had to make sacrifices. I decided to play tank - Zarya and D.Va. This patch significantly buffed D.Va, so I'm using her a lot nowadays. Graviton Surge charges up too slowly now.

How do you plan to prepare for the semifinals?

I plan to practice at least seven hours of D.Va every single day until our match. Trying to build up teamwork in such a short amount of time has been rough, and my D.Va isn't performing well enough in organized play. I am improving, though. We beat Lunatic-Hai in a scrim yesterday!

Any last words?

Love, D.Va! [laughs]

As transcribed by Inven Irro