So, I had the pleasure of working on WCS Signature Series for the second year in a row. If you don’t know what that is (wow, I’m really full of myself, thinking that people outside of the StarCraft II scene would actually read this), it’s a series of short videos commissioned by Blizzard to introduce the competitors at the WCS Global Finals, the grand finale to the yearlong StarCraft II esports circuit.

This is the best one, because we got to ride a boat.

I conducted all the interviews with the Korean progamers, which were each about 90~120 minutes long. The interviews were then cut up and arranged to create rough, four-minute stories (I did the storyline construction for Gumiho, soO, and INnoVation, while James “Mal” Song handled TY and Stats), which were then passed along into the magical hands of video editors who combined them with imagery and music to create polished, finished products.

A lot of content from the interviews got cut in the process. Obviously, most of the good stuff became part of the final videos, but there were bound to be some omissions. For example, the 2016 WCS Signature Series left out my favorite anecdote, where TRUE talked about how he was kicked out of SKT because he got demoted from gold to silver when he was first learning StarCraft II.

Anyway, here are some of the interesting things I learned about StarCraft II progamers that didn’t make it into the 2017 WCS Signature Series.

TY

I was amazed at how unremarkable TY made joining a pro-gaming team at age 11 seem. I figured he’d have been nervous when he made the decision to leave his home so early, and had pangs of homesickness throughout his early career. Yet, he seemed puzzled when I asked about having such moments. For TY, becoming a progamer and joining a team was what he had always wanted to do, and he dove in without any reservations.

In fact, the most bothersome part of TY’s first few years on WeMade FOX was that he had to go to school during the day (middle school is compulsory in Korea) and return to the teamhouse to practice in the evenings and afternoon, which limited his practice time. TY was glad to graduate and start practicing full-time, as his skill level increased rapidly once he could invest as much time as other pros.

Stats

Once Stats had achieved some moderate success as a pro, it inspired his younger brother to give progaming a shot as well. Stats didn’t really dissuade or encourage him strongly, but he did give him in-game advice when asked. His brother eventually decided progaming wasn’t his path after a year or so.

Also, it was really easy to make him laugh for the video by cracking extremely low-hanging jokes about Terran imbalance.

Gumiho

Back when he was in elementary school and before he got into StarCraft, Gumiho played the classic board game baduk/go competitively. He was actually quite good at it, even winning a regional championship in the youth division.

This earned Gumiho a spot at nationals, where he unfortunately learned about getting screwed over by awful tournament organizers far before he ever became a progamer. After ending up in a three-way tie during the group stage of the tournament, he was informed that the tournament policy for draws was to coin-flip in order to save time. It didn’t go his way.

Oddly enough, Gumiho said he never considered going pro in Go, or playing it more seriously. He mentioned that there were younger kids who were simply so much better than him, which perhaps made him feel it wasn’t a realistic option.

soO

Gumiho called being a progamer his dream, while Stats said it was his destiny. In soO’s case, he became a progamer almost by coincidence. He played competitively in his teens — to the degree that his parents asked him “you aren’t trying to go pro, are you?” — but it was never with the explicit goal of going pro.

Yet, he found himself tagging along with one of his friends to an amateur tryout, where he tested well enough to get an official offer from SK Telecom T1. Once soO had an official offer from a pro-team in place, his parents gave his permission to join without argument, regardless of what their prior concerns may have been.

INnoVation

I know there’s an ordinary human being hiding inside INnoVation, because I’ve seen him have normal interactions with other people. However, there’s something about talking to me that always seems to bring out peak-robot INnoVation. Signature Series allowed me to experience my most quintessentially ‘INnoVation’ exchange yet. I forget the exact wording of the conversation, but it went something like this:

Me: “So, where were you born and where did you grow up?”

Inno: “I grew up in Seoul, and I don’t know where I was born.”

Me: “Wait, you don’t know where you were born?”

Inno: “Nope.”

Me: “Well, wouldn’t your parents know if you asked?”

Inno: “They would, but I don’t know and I don’t care to know.”

Me: “…”

Well, I can’t think of a better story than that, so I think I’ll end on that note.