In 2008, Shinhyung Lee debuted as a professional gamer at the age of 16. When he was about to raise his skills and rank with top-notch professional gamers, the StarCraft: Brood War league closed its doors and a new league started with StarCraft 2. At the time, no one knew that Shinhyung Lee had great talent in the new game. He then changed his name from "Bogus" to "INnoVation", and started to fly high with StarCraft 2.

Shinhyung "INnoVation" Lee has shown overwhelming performances and has always received the attention of StarCraft 2 fans. INnoVation was reverse swept by Minchul "Soulkey" Kim in his first individual league finals and had to drink to a bitter toast of being runner-up, but after a short time in the WCS season finals, he beat Yoojin "sOs" Kim with a 4-0 sweep. Since then, he has played in Proleague and individual leagues and has achieved a record of winning the team league and winning the individual league twice.

The year of 2016 was a year of disappointment for INnoVation, who had kept the Terran throne for a long time. He was a regular guest at BlizzCon but failed to bring his name to BlizzCon for the first time this year. However, he was resurrected with a zealous drive. He showed perfect adaptation to the major patch and became the winner of IEM, which was held in Korea this year.

Although the StarCraft 2 Proleague has been discontinued, the expectations of fans are still high. What is he thinking about now? He, who is always walking his way silently, who is always trying to inspire fans? Let's listen to his story now.

Hi. Please send a greeting to your fans.

Hello, this is Shinhyung "INnoVation" Lee. It's good to get to say hello to all the fans through this interview. It has been a while.

You seem to have perfectly regained your confidence through this IEM victory, how are you doing these days?

I certainly have had better performances these days. I think the latest meta seems well suited to me. The meta became monotonous and it’s quite easy for me to play in such circumstances. The games seem to end earlier and I like the fact that I don't have to play late games often.

It was hard to imagine BlizzCon without you. You must be frustrated to have failed to advance to 2016 BlizzCon.

I did because I went to BlizzCon every year except the last year. After seeing the winners from this last Blizzcon, I realized I really want to be there next year.

What was the reason for your slump in the 2016 individual tournaments?

I think it was because I neglected to practice for individual tournaments. There weren't many individual tournaments back then, and after missing a few opportunities, I didn’t have the chance to collect enough points.

Since Hyunwoo "ByuN" Byun rose up to the top, you stepped down from the throne of Terran.

When ByuN first came to the individual tournament, I never thought he would be that good. But he became the best player of the year before I knew it. I can learn a lot from him. Sometimes I watch his stream, and he seems to have great concentration and puts in immense efforts.

ByuN is known to be a big fan of you. How close you two in a real life?

We actually never had a conversation over the phone. But I talked to him when I was at BlizzCon for the event match. I told him to be comfortable because we were the same age, but ByuN told me, "If I do that, my attitude towards you as a fan will be ruined, so I can't do that."

What has changed since SKT disbanded?

I’ve felt some pressure since I don't receive regular paychecks. However, I'm more relieved that I can practice in a free environment. I feel responsibility and am doing my best since my performances solely depend on how I control myself.

Do you have regular contact with former teammates?

We sometimes talk in SKT T1's chat room. They felt more special to me since they're my latest teammates. I still feel like I'm in SKT when I see Yoonsoo "soO" Eo hyung, and Dou "Classic" Kim hyung.

You must be sad to see that the StarCraft 2 tournament scale has shrunk.

Though Proleague was discontinued, there are still individual tournaments and many professional gamers didn't leave the scene; they’re staying and doing their best. I wish you wouldn’t see it too pessimistically. If fans think that way, gamers' self-confidence will get lowered. I wish you would just think of it as one Proleague being discontinued and that’s all. 

What has changed since you started streaming?

It was hard to talk while I play the game because I have never had that experience. I tried hard to communicate with fans at first but it wasn't that easy since I’m introverted and not a talkative person. Lately, I’ve decided to show them good performances rather than talk a lot, so I focused more on playing. I'm a professional gamer rather than a streamer after all. I want to give a satisfying experience for fans who want to see my games or have questions about the game.

Do you plan to join a new team?

I want to be in a team when my performance is at its peak. I don't think I have many distinctive achievements yet. I'd like to join if a good team gives me an offer.

What do you think about the current StarCraft 2 balance?

Once I thought Terran was terrible, but since I've been doing good and I have had a high win rate when practicing, I started to get confused if it was Terran or me doing great. I'm not sure about what other Terran players think about it, though.

You chose to play Mechanic 5 times in a row against Park "Dark" Ryeong-u in the IEM. Do you think the Mechanic will dominate the Terran vs Zerg meta?

I think Ryungwoo “Dark” Park wasn't able to properly counter Mechanics since there aren't many solutions for this strategy. If they find the right solution, I think Zerg will start doing better again. They can use a variety of strategies including the cheaper Swarm Host against Mechanic plays. It definitely has a limitation. It's going to be hard to defeat Zerg If Bionic dominates the meta.

How about Terran vs Protoss?

I think they have an equal chance to win. Tempest's supply nerf needed to be done, but Adept's shade vision reduction didn't feel enough because, from Terran's point of view, we can't see their vision anyway. I still think the Adept is strong. I could beat Daeyeop "Stats" Kim hyung in the finals because it was a tournament match. Psychological warfare is important in the tournament.

What's the difference between you and other top class Terran players like ByuN and Maru?

ByuN has great mechanics and productivity. Maru is also good at mechanics and likes to play games centered around mechanics. I don't have better mechanics but I think I'm better at optimizing and using stable macros.

Are there mechanics differences among top players?

Every Pro-gamer has decent mechanics. I think optimization and judgment at the necessary moment separate the good and the bad. I always thought that I have good optimization and have bad judgment because I'm not smart. But when I saw other players' games I kind of thought that my judgment wasn't that bad after all.

Blizzard announced a new WCS plan. How will you prepare the upcoming tournament?

I just read that from the article but I don't know the details. For now, I will participate in every possible tournament. I'm not sure how the new WCS will work out, but I’m glad to have more competitions. Besides WCS, there were a lot more online tournaments than I thought when I looked it up. Recently, I had back-to-back wins in the Leifeng Cup. I'd like to participate in every online tournament if time allows. But since many professional gamers joined the online tournament, it had been really competitive. You may not be able to tell whether it's an online tournament or GSL by just looking at the bracket.

Can you tell us your plans and ambitions for the future?

For now, winning in GSL would be the most honorable achievement for me. GSL is harder to win than BlizzCon, difficulty-wise. So my goal is to win at least one of three GSL and secures the BlizzCon seed. And I'm going to Katowice because I won this IEM WCS; I'd like to win there. Of course, my final goal is to win at BlizzCon. I will control my condition and try hard in preparing.

Any last words for your fans?

I thank you for your unwavering support. It's hard to cook since I'm living by myself, but fans from 왕과 나(wangwana, note: king and me) dcinside gallery send me a packed meal every day through a box lunch delivery service. Thanks to that, I can eat in comfort. Again I thank you for your ongoing support and also appreciate that you watch my streams.

Photo by Nam "Juneau" Ki-Baek