Blizzard held Media Day in Los Angeles on January 9th before the regular season for the Overwatch League begins. The media conference with the Seoul Dynasty was followed by a brief announcement on League’s broadcast and skins via Twitch.
Kent Wakeford, the co-founder, and COO for the Seoul Dynasty came on the stage to give a brief introduction to the team and share their vision.
“Esports is currently in the process of growing. Millions of people are enjoying it as an entertainment. Seoul is playing against with players all over the world like London, New York, Shanghai, etc. Overwatch has truly become a global esports league. In order to support this global activity, Seoul Dynasty has located their office in 3 places including Seoul, Shanghai, and San Francisco.” said Wakeford.
He also said, “Seoul Dynasty is the team that had won twice in the APEX League. They have become the Overwatch team representing South Korea several times. Also, ryujehong, our team leader, is one of the top Overwatch players in the world. It is an honor to introduce such team in this place.”
Meanwhile, Seoul Dynasty has announced NetGear as their title sponsor. NetGear has announced their ‘Nighthawk x500’, the new wifi router at the world’s major tech show, CES 2018, and got their Nighthawk logo added on to the Seoul Dynasty uniforms.
Their head coach, Kwang-Jin Baek, commented, “We are trying even more harder during our preparation for all those fans who trust and support us. We started with results not so bad in the preseason, and we will try our very best to show even more amazing plays tomorrow in the League for our fans rooting for us.”
He also continued, “We will keep preparing for the League since the season itself is very long. Since the preseason was short, I think we need to come up with a rather systematic preparation plan in order to keep on playing in this season, which will take more than 6 months. We will make sure we bring the trophy home when we return to South Korea.”
Following is the interview with the Seoul Dynasty after the media conference.
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What do you think your strength is?
tobi: I think our biggest strength is that we have the same members who played in tournaments together for a long time. Also, we have amazing coaches, which is very effective when we are coming up with strategies. Moreover, I think that having only Korean players on the team does play a part in having good teamwork.
There are many Korean players, but you are the one representing Seoul and South Korea. How do you feel about it?
Wekeed: I think it is an honor to be the team representing South Korea, and we will try to do great to live up to it.
Your first opponent team will be Dallas Fuel; they are said to be one of the strongest teams. How do you plan on playing against them?
alwaysoov: We will be analyzing them thoroughly as we watch the matches, and then play against them. We can’t relax since they got great players on their team, but if we improve what we are good at, then I think we can win against them. I think it will be a great game, and we will return our fans support with good games.
There are many DPS players on your team right now. How do you plan on choosing the starting members?
Kwang-Jin Baek: We already chose our starting members for the first game. We will be announcing it tomorrow.
You will be playing in this season in one place over 6 months; how do you plan on keeping the team members in condition?
Kwang-Jin Baek: We’ve been eating more healthy with Korean dish than we have back in South Korea. We didn’t eat any hamburgers for a week now (laughs). Actually, nostalgia is the biggest aspect we are worried about. People say you get homesick about 3 months away from home, and we will try our best to keep our players from worrying about being homesick since it could be the biggest handicap on their performance. There are times they can take rest once in a while, and I do plan to let them go visit South Korea if needed. We are already taking good care of their diet and we plan on taking a thorough care of their workouts separately.
How do you players feel?
ryujehong: I almost feel like eating hamburgers since we ate too much of Korean dish (laughs). We haven’t talked about getting homesick yet, but I don’t think it will become a big problem since everyone is really close to each other. If it looks like we are going to get homesick, then we will be there for each other, and I think that we can solve the problem by hanging out together. It won’t be much of a problem.
We heard that there will a period when you can recruit additional players to your team. Is there anyone you are keeping your eyes on?
Kwang-Jin Baek: I think we’d need to play as far as stage 1 to find out. We are keeping our eyes on many players with an open mind.
Since you are seen one of the top teams, other teams will more than likely focus on you.
Kwang-Jin Baek: I am actually thankful for being regarded in such a way. Top teams cannot help but be singled out by other teams depending on their results or rank. If it can be said that team Seoul is in such a position, I’d like to say that we are ready for it.
6 months is a fairly long period; how do you plan on playing in overall in the League?
Kwang-Jin Baek: Of course, it will be the best if we can stay at the top from the start until the end. Although we will be trying our very best in every match, I plan to see it in a long-term. I think it will get so much better as the seasons pass since players will be able to build stronger bonds. I think we will make it to the finals just like we expected, which I think might be the best game ever.
Which team do you think is most threatening to you?
Kwang-Jin Baek: Actually, there aren’t any teams easy to play against. The most worrying teams would be teams with only Korean players or have many Koreans. We will be put in comparison with these teams even for the match results, which I find rather burdensome in aspects outside of the game.
Gido: First I think team London will be great since they are comprised of only Korean players.
Fleta: Personally, I think Houston Outlaws is the most threatening team. They got great DPS and have great teamwork, which is why I think they are threatening.
Munchkin: There is only one Korean team, but there two more teams made up with only Korean players (NY/London). I think these teams will be teams rather threatening for us.
What is your goal for this season?
Kwang-Jin Baek: It would very heartbreaking to lose. It’d be nice to have 100% win rate, but we don’t know what our team win rate will be since this is the first season. But we think we should win by 90%. I think it should be at least over 80%. Of course, Seoul Dynasty’s final goal is to win the championship.
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