Earlier this week, Esports Heaven had the opportunity to ask Beoumjun “Bishop” Lee some questions. Previously an English speaking teacher in Korea and a player for the moderately successful team, KongDoo Panthera, he is currently coaching the well-known and beloved Western team Cloud9.

Hello!

Hello once again, RadoN, and greetings Esports Heaven!

How did you end up on Panthera? Have you played other games competitively?

Long story short, there wasn’t much going on in my life after finishing my time in the Korean army. Finishing up on college and teaching English consumed the bulk of my time, which I quickly found dull, considering I’ve been an avid gamer my whole life. Then, lo-and-behold, Overwatch got announced and I was instantly hooked! After playing on an amateur team semi-competitively, I decided that I would give professional gaming a try and eventually got signed to KongDoo along with Rascal and Panker. I would like to point out that it was a difficult process as I was turned down by several teams due to my age. Nevertheless, it was all worth it as the time I spent in KongDoo was one of the happiest and passion-filled moments of my life.

League of Legends is the only other game I have played competitively during the early seasons of 1 and 2 on an amateur team. On a less serious note, I remember competing in PC-bang (internet cafe) local LAN tournaments for CS1.5 when I was in middle school, haha.

As you might know, Western fans care a lot about personalities and they haven't had the chance to get to know too much about you yet. In couple of sentences, describe who Bishop is as a coach and who  Beoumjun Lee is as a person

I apologize if I’ve been too much of a lurker, haha. I prefer to let the players get all the spotlight! As a coach I like to think of myself as the 7th player on the team and be as non-authoritarian as possible. Having said that, I think I am the friendly type, but I guess this question would be best answered by the players themselves.

An interesting player you played with on KongDoo is Kyomin “EVERMORE” Koo. Recently, he stepped down from the active roster and despite his obvious talents, he never managed to have consistent impact offline. As someone who's played with him, why do you think that is the case?

[EVERMORE] is a very talented player who understands inherently how to effectively win games. His natural playstyle is a high-risk high-reward assassination Roadhog, which relies on precision timing and surgical removal of high priority targets. Furthermore, his shotgun mechanics minimize the risk factor of his play style, allowing for even trades when an assassination attempt fails. In my opinion, the primary reason his offline impact pales in comparison to his high skill level is due to the fact that several teams analyze how to play around his Roadhog and punish KongDoo when they can. I wish him the best in streaming as a former teammate and friend.

After APEX S1, you stepped down and decided to become a coach. Can you share with us some of the reasons why you decided to make the change, especially when your play wasn't the reason Panthera had a poor finish?

While being a professional player and team captain for KongDoo Panthera was one of the most exciting moments of my life, I felt that my skillset of game analysis and being bilingual (in a cosmopolitan sense) weren’t being used to the fullest degree. This lead me to naturally shift focus towards becoming either an analyst, caster, or coach in the western Overwatch scene. During the process, I was lucky enough to have Monte and DoA introduce me to Jack, CEO of Cloud9, and eventually become C9’s trial coach for Apex season 2 in Korea. I suppose a fair amount of ambition on my part to make NA teams stronger, ultimately made me pursue the role of coaching.

With the changes to the roster, a lot of fans might forget it, but C9 was the Western team that was the closest to making it out of the groups, from the ones that didn’t. How far do you think the team could have gone if you advanced to the Ro8 instead of AF Blue?

In all honesty, advancing to the quarter-finals was a considerable challenge at the time due to the lack of structured strategy and team based plays Cloud9 had. Even if we had an extra week to iron out weaknesses, I strongly doubt Cloud9 would have made it out of semi-finals. In all fairness though, given the short amount of time we had to bond, all the players made me proud. It would be fair to say that I saw a glimpse of what this team could accomplish with the right guidance.

A key change, other than adding two new players, was Gods switching to a tank position. How did the switch on his part come to be?

In my view, there are two types of players in competitive Overwatch: The mechanical “muscle” player, and the awareness “brain” player. Please note that this is a generic division of skill set which is often dictated by the role people play, and that players have some form of an overlap between the two skills, given the nature of FPS games.

Back to the question though — Gods is a unique player that possesses a large overlap between the two skills. What truly makes him special, however, is that his situational awareness, or for the lack of a better word, game-sense, is at a level which cannot be reached by simply grinding the game. It is one thing to understand where one needs to be during a teamfight based on the enemy composition, a completely different thing to predict probable outcomes and position accordingly without hesitation. While it is beneficial to have this specific skill on a DPS/Flex role, it is my opinion that the skill shines much brighter on a Main Tank role. Upon getting a better understanding of Gods’ thought process during matches through regular one-on-ones with him, it was my call to put him on the Main Tank role. Gods also has a very “whatever the team needs” attitude, which has made the transition smooth. I am constantly surprised at how he adapts to threats and does risk management on the fly during matches. I like to believe he enjoys being able to have much more control over initiating fights and overall tempo.

Cloud9 recently recruited xepheR and Selly. As they are some of the first Korean players joining a Western Overwatch team, besides yourself, please describe the process of selecting and recruiting them.

In the process of looking for new talent, it was natural for Cloud9 to reach out to the Korean pool with me as Head Coach. In a fast paced game such as Overwatch where communication weighs heavily on match outcomes, it’s a scary thought to bring not one, but two foreign players that speak little English. However, with experience teaching English — in the speaking department to be specific — I was confident that it wouldn’t be a problem. There wasn’t much reasoning behind why we selected Xepher and Selly into our new roster, as they are extremely talented players.

Other than them being strong Flex and DPS players, what should C9 fans expect of xepheR and Selly?

This is an easy question — explosive plays from Xepher, and reliable survival based hitscan support from Selly. Agilities from Immortals and Dafran from Selfless [are similar players who] come to mind.

As someone who has been in the Korean esports system, what do you think are the biggest differences that have caused Korea to become considerably better than the West in previous titles? Do you think it is already better in Overwatch?

First of all, the organization or “team” driven system as opposed to the “player” driven system. Second, the “hunger” that Korean players have to succeed as a professional gamer. Going to the Republic of Korea Army (ROKA), which is mandatory for all Korean male citizens, is inevitably equated with retiring from the pro scene. Being a professional gamer for an organization is a plausible reason to delay the military draft in South Korea at the moment.

An existing sentiment regarding the Korean esports machine, is that players can sometimes get taken advantage of by the organizations. If you could give an advice to the young Korean players who might be reading this, what would be it?

Be selfish.

Would you like to give us a prediction for C9's finish in the Overwatch Rumble?

First place.

The final words are yours to use as you wish.

I sincerely wish Mendo and Ryb the best.

You can follow Bishop on twitter at @B1shopOW. Selly, xepheR and the team itself can also be reached on twitter at @C9Selly, @C9xepheR and @Cloud9.

Photo credits: OGN

About the author: Hello readers, I go by the ID RadoN! My introduction to esports happened in 2009 and I’ve been following different titles within the industry ever since. Esports that I watch regularly are Overwatch, CS:GO, LoL, QL with the occasional SFV and DOTA2. If you wish to reach out, follow future content, or simply know more about my thoughts on esports, you can find me on twitter at @RadoNonfire.