The career of Austin “Gate” Yu has already been quite prolific. He had a nearly successful run through the North American Challenger Series in 2015 playing Mid for Final Five which renamed to Vortex. After the Spring Split, Gate left Vortex and joined Team Impulse as a secondary support to Adrian “Adrian” Ma.

However, shortly after Gate was to play support for TIP, Yu “XiaoWeiXiao” Xian was suspended. Thus, Adrian returned to his support role on the team and Gate returned to mid lane. They made it through playoffs to place fourth but failed to make it through the gauntlet for Worlds.

TIP restructured for the 2016 Spring Split and faced roster issues that not only led to a struggle to find wins but Gate finding wins consecutively three times all in different roles. Gate shows versatility as a player that is a rare trait but also a loyalty and true dedication to being the best teammate possible.

Gate took some time to reflect and look toward the future for himself and Team Impulse for the rest of the year.

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To begin at the beginning of your career, what got you into video games and League of Legends?

Like everyone else, I played a lot of video games as a child. I just went from game to game until I found League and then started playing it a lot more than my friends. I was playing HoN before League but LoL seemed more promising of a game than HoN.

I've never even heard of HoN until now. What drove you and inspired you to shift to play competitively?

Mostly just spent too much time on it. Just another student who played the game too much haha

Has your drive or inspiration changed now that you're in the LCS?

Mhm, it's really different playing in the LCS. I just want to play at my best and show a good performance.

I think it really shows. I always am like incapable of not cheering for you because something about you is very genuine I guess to me. It's really great to see.

What is the biggest challenge for you since you've become a professional?

I think last season I felt there was a lot of challenges for me. I struggled playing up to par with other NA LCS mids last season. I put a lot of hours in my practice but the results weren't showing in playoffs and the gauntlet. I felt really pressured to play well and qualify for worlds but ultimately wound up short and felt really sad about it.

How did you overcome that? The gauntlet was really devastating for a lot of teams and players it looked like. You've come back this season and, really, the improvement shows. It would have been easy for someone to be discouraged and give up.

I think I didn't really see it as the end of something. I really just wanted to keep playing League and do something in the scene. In the offseason, I just played non-stop and tried to be ready for the next season. I think the gauntlet was definitely a heartbreaker for me but I just knew I shouldn't think about it too much.

What are your hopes for yourself and the team in the future throughout Season 6? What do you think it will take to make it a reality?

Last season, I wanted to go to Worlds. I think it's the same goal this year; I feel good about this roster even though we haven't had too much success recently. I think we'll have to work hard in the summer split to meet that goal. New teams take some time to develop (e.x. TiP last year).

I really like the new roster and I know it's been really hard, but most of the time that's to be expected. With the Spring Split closed, and having a successful run and saving your spot in the LCS, do you feel like the team has finally found their footing and will be able to get off to a better start in Summer?

There's a pretty big break between now and summer split. I'm going to try to take this time and really learn the support role fully. I believe that we already solved a lot of our problems last split but perhaps it didn't translate well on stage. Definitely expect a stronger Team Impulse in the summer split.

Is there something that scares or worries you about being in esports?

Job security is a definite worry. Other than that, personal care and free time are big concerns too.

How do you deal with the worries of job security -- or do you kind of try and keep it out of sight and out of mind? Has balancing personal care and free time with the work become easier or does it feel harder and more stressful over time?

Job security seems to be a big issue in the pro scene. Really, there is no guarantee for anything. It's just all about playing as well as you can in every situation possible so there aren't any regrets.

During the season, there is almost no time to relax. You have to fit in as much practice as possible and sometimes it's easy to ignore distractions. I think personally, I've been stressed this split but not as much as the last split. Since this is something I love doing, the stress feels good too.

In conclusion, it has been a rough split but obviously a lot of growth has been seen from yourself and Team Impulse. Do you have anything you’d like to say to your fans who stayed with you regardless of difficulties?

There were actually a surprising number of fans that stuck with us since the middle of the season. I'm really grateful for them as it really motivated me to perform and practice as much as I could. Thanks a lot for the support and we'll show you our strength in the summer split.

If you enjoyed this interview, follow the author at @poetsanarchy.  Follow the player at @Tip_Gate.

Photo credit: @lolLotus