Taewon Yun, the General Manager for Global Publishing at Super Evil Megacorp, will be a speaker at the first Inven Global Esports Conference (IGEC).

He has had a notable career in the gaming industry. He has worked for major game companies like Blizzard and Electronic Arts, and co-founded Red 5 Studios with Mark Kern and William Petras. In Wargaming, he worked as a general manager for the Asia region.

Everyone was surprised when they heard Taewon Yun was joining Super Evil Megacorp, a small mobile game company. He has been an executive for many major game companies; what made him want to join Super Evil Megacorp?

“I’ve looked at different games, and I knew this was the one when I saw the game. The only game that felt like this to me was World of Warcraft, which I saw back when I worked for Blizzard. I was captivated by the game, and did some research about the company. I found out that Super Evil Megacorp and I shared a common vision for mobile games.”

Super Evil Megacorp is now well-known for developing Vainglory, but back when Taewon Yun just joined the company, Vainglory was not a famous game. The impressions that Vainglory left were: the game has nice graphics for a mobile game, and the game is a hardcore game unlike other mobile games.

Vainglory was not a huge success. However, Taewon Yun and Super Evil Megacorp believed that while some people enjoy casual mobile games, there must be other people who want to enjoy more serious and dark mobile games.

And that hope proved true. After years of effort and improving its unique traits, Vainglory is now the best mobile MOBA game. This was not due to Vainglory being an authentic game with high quality graphics; it was because Vainglory was caught within the flow of Esports.

Vainglory is a competitive game, so entering the Esports scene was not hard for Vainglory. However, the success of Vainglory was not from pure luck. Vainglory was prepared for Esports from the very beginning, and did not miss the wave when the chance came.

Now Vainglory is ready to take another leap. Vainglory recently added a 5vs5 mode in an effort to become a major Esports game and not just a mobile Esports game. Taewon Yun has been the key player in this process.

The market waits for no game. Vainglory successfully debuted in the Esports scene, but there are many other games that Vainglory has to compete against. The Esports scene for mobile games in China and other Asian regions is growing, and the situation is different from when Vainglory first came out and the mobile Esports scene was at its infancy.

“ We know that Esports is a good business model for the future, and has the potential to grow bigger. But we still have a lot to learn. When we first launched Vainglory, we used to say that ‘mobile game Esports will be as big as PC game Esports.’ But now we know that popularity is not everything. We have to think of a way for Esports for be recognized more like traditional sports.”

As the general manager for global publishing, Taewon Yun is still working on expanding the base of Vainglory. Vainglory is now a game that represents mobile game Esports, but is seeking something beyond that title.

With his 20 years of experience in the game industry and his work on Vainglory, Taewon Yun has developed a keen insight that few have. He will be sharing this insight along with his vision for Esports at the IGEC-ESPORTS DEEP DIVE on May 1st, at UC Irvine, California.