Every organized sports league has countless people working behind the scenes to provide the best form of entertainment to their audience.

Today, we meet Laura, the LCK Global social media strategist, whose job is to bridge the league and its hordes of fans. Whether she’s translating native Korean content to English, providing LCK memes on Twitter, or even just modding the LCK Global Twitch chat, she’s the lynchpin between the East and the West.

From the makeup artists that pretty up the players’ faces to make them look good on broadcast to all the countless staff that strive to make the broadcast as seamless as possible, we at Inven Global wanted to recognize their efforts and wanted to showcase some of the amazing talent behind the scenes. Through our conversation with Laura, we were able to learn just how much work is put in by everyone in the LCK to provide nothing short of the best.

Can you please introduce yourself?

My name is Laura, but some people know me as Lounell, the moderator on the LCK Global Twitch chat, and some people know me as Genie. I am the LCK Global social media strategist.

I swear that part of the interview went like this (Source: NardwuarServiette on Youtube)

You became the social media manager for the LCK right when the league needed an English Twitter. What were you doing prior to all this, and how did your journey start?

Prior to starting with the LCK, I was working for a magazine in Seoul as the managing editor. I was always interested in video games and in competition as well, as I grew up playing every sport you can imagine. I grew up in a household that still plays a ton of video games to this day, and since I was also familiar with the competition, I felt that my experience was the perfect fit for this position.

I’m not sure when the LCK Global Facebook stopped updating, but I came in right when the LCK Twitter started. I set up and prepared everything for a month prior to the launch of it, so it’s been my baby since the beginning. I think I was their first big step in promoting the broadcast through social media, where it now has its own presence and autonomy.

I’ve known the LCK Global casters for almost five years now, and when Riot was looking for somebody to lead this project, I was kind of between jobs at the time. One of the casters thought I’d be great for the job, so the timing of it all was impeccable for me to come in and lead this project. 

What aspects of LoL Esports, especially LCK, did you find the most interesting? 

I always knew that working in a cubicle would be the death of me. Growing up, I never wanted to work in a stationary environment. I knew I wanted something more hands-on and on location. Getting to work with players and tell their stories and promoting the LCK as a league fit right in with exactly what I wanted to do.

Especially in esports, I feel that you can’t be specialized in one thing. You have to be good at translating, designing, analyzing data, and a whole plethora of other abilities; being so involved in everything is what I personally found the most interesting.

Can you go into detail about what some of your main responsibilities are?

It’s funny because I mentioned earlier that I’m a mod in the LCK Global Twitch chat, but that’s actually not part of my job description [laughter]. I just do it. We actually have someone else to do that job, but since that job requires you to also know the Twitch lingo, I just stepped in to do it.

My main responsibilities are with Twitter, where I make posts every day on the account. Updating content, trying to find what people are interested in, and creating all the English content is the biggest chunk out of my work.

It’s also just being an English-speaking team player. For example, if anyone needs a press release to go out in English, I’m there to help out. All the English content on our social media, and basically anywhere I’m needed, I’m there. I’m the advocate for all English-speaking communications. In doing so, not only am I working to elevate the LCK Global broadcast, I’m also pushing the Korean LCK broadcast to be more global.

Tell me what your typical LCK workday looks like.

My day actually starts much before the matches start, because I keep track of what’s happening outside of Korea and update my team if there’s anything major. So I wake up, check Reddit, read everything I missed while I was asleep through the TweetDeck I leave open all night. From the morning, my team updates each other on the content that needs to go out and the assets that we need.

LCK matches start at 5 p.m., so I arrive at LoL Park around 4 p.m. I set up, prepare all my graphics for the day, check in with other teams on whether or not they need something, whether that’s thumbnails or Youtube descriptions. All of this is done within the 1 hour time period.

When the games start, I’m bonking horny Twitch chatters… Can I even say this? [Laughter] Basically anyone that types something out of line, you know? If I see a good clip in the LCK Global broadcast that’s tweet-worthy, I clip it right away to tweet it out through the LCK Global Twitter. Just running Twitter the way it’s supposed to be. At least that’s the way I do it anyways.

During the matches, we’re collecting all the questions from the LCK Instagram, which we use to conduct our LCK Fanterview, which takes place after each match ends. We bring those to the players, and conduct the Fanterviews, where the theme this year is ten syllables. We wrap up around midnight to 1 am almost every day. 

How would you say the LCK social media presence is different from those of other leagues around the world?

I don’t know hard numbers with other leagues, but our demographic is a lot more global. More than people expect it to be. I think LCS viewers would be mostly from the U.S, with a hint of Europe. For LEC, it caters to a much larger demographic, but inside of Europe.

The majority of our demographic is centered around Korean viewers, but the LCK is also being broadcasted in other Southeast Asian countries as well, such as Vietnam. Then there are the fans in the U.S, who interact in entirely different ways with content than the Southeast Asian and Korean viewers. Trying to balance out and cater to all these demographics while trying to stay true to the LCK is what really differentiates us from other leagues. 

Since you’ve interacted with a lot of the players through the LCK Fanterview content, what are some fun player stories that you can tell me?

We once asked Peanut to speak Japanese. [Laughter] He told us that he was learning Japanese, and I presume he started watching anime, because he started talking about watching Attack on Titan and Demon Slayer. So last year, we asked him to greet people in Japanese, and he did it for us. Once we go back to edit it, we’re like, “Why did we ask him to do this? None of us speak Japanese! We can’t add subtitles to this!” [laughter] So we told ourselves that we can either scrap it, or find a Japanese-speaking person to help us out. We ended up finding someone to translate it, but it was one of those moments where we got so excited about an idea, that we didn’t really think it through all the way. Peanut was a champ though, since he pulled through for us in speaking Japanese.

I asked Ghost to speak English for us, because I heard that he interacted with a lot of foreign players at MSI and got complimented for his English. However, he was really shy about it, so it never saw the light of day. It’s still on my computer, and probably will never see the light of day [laughter].

There’s definitely contrast between the seasoned players and the rookies. Lehends, for example, is always fun to interact with. He’s a very friendly player. Obviously, rookies are shy, because they’re usually nervous. Which is completely understandable, because you know that these kids can be fun in a comfortable environment, and they’re just not used to interviews. Just like me right now, answering your questions [laughter].

Your job is critical in the growth of the LCK, but you yourself aren’t really "visible" to the fans. Do you sometimes wish that you were more visible?

Honestly, I’m more comfortable staying behind the scenes. However, I do see the need for fans to interact with more people from the LCK. Something I do see more in the West, especially the LEC is that a lot of the broadcast talent is interacting more with the community on Twitter. Same with NA too; both leagues have so many personalities to interact with and really get a feel for what the broadcast is about.

I recently made a little bit more effort in communicating with the community. Interacting with chat was the easiest step, but I’m taking more steps. If I can end up ultimately helping out the league by being more visible in the community, then it’ll definitely be a plus.

When are the most rewarding moments in your job?

One of the most rewarding moments, I’d say, is when the fans actually thank me for finding out something new about the LCK that they didn’t know. I knew that a lot of the global fans wanted to interact with content from the Korean broadcast, so I started translating some of it, most notably our Sunday Night League [SNL] content. A lot of the fans said thank you for the work I put in, and I think that was one of the moments when the job felt very fulfilling.

Sometimes, the job can feel very grueling, but I’m very happy with what I’m doing, because of moments like this. I feel like the agent within the LCK that’s always fighting what’s best for the LCK Global. 

Do you have any advice for those who wish to get into social media management in esports?

If you feel that you have a skill in the industry that you feel is unique and valuable, focus the approach on your skillset. Don’t be like, “Oh, I’m a professional coach. Do you know if there are any spots open?” but rather, “Do you need any analysis done? Can you give me feedback on the work I did?” Everybody, especially in this industry, is super busy. In order to get their attention, you have to be able to provide value in your content to get their attention. It’s just the way it works. 

One other piece of advice I’d give is that you never know who you’ll end up working with in the future, so don’t overlook any of the connections that you make. I’m essentially here today because of an earthquake in 2016. I’m here because I’m open to people and making connections.

What are some of your goals within the LCK, as well as your personal goals?

I have been here since the creation of the LCK Twitter, so it’s my baby. It’ll always be my baby, so I want to help it grow more than it is right now. [Is it a teenager yet?] I mean… Does having 80K followers make it a teenager [laughter]? My personal goals and growth align with the growth of the LCK and LCK Global. If my contribution to the league aids in its growth, whether it’s growth in viewership or in interactions, then that’s enough for me.

On a side note, it’ll also be kind of cool for the LCK Global broadcast to receive recognition for their production at like the Esports Awards. I realize that some of the content on the LCK Global side is piggybacked by the Korean content, but even if it’s translated, we have a lot of cracked content like the time when we parodied a K-drama and made CloudTemplar dress up like a woman.

Lastly, a word to the LCK fans?

Thank you. I’m open to feedback all the time, so you can find me on Twitter at @lck_genie, or you can just tweet @LCK! I read all the feedback from the fans worldwide, so any and all feedback is always welcome! Thanks for the continued support, and I hope you stay with us for a long time!