As the newest addition to the team, Hong “Pyosik” Chang-hyeon brought wildness into the DragonX roster. He was picked by head coach Kim “cvMax” Dae-ho for his remarkable mechanics. Even so, Pyosik was a lion, still in the process of learning tricks.

Pyosik had his debut as a pro player in the KeSPA Cup. He had his ups and downs during the tournament, but ultimately, he gained valuable experience. Now moving on from the tournament and going into the LCK spring season, Pyosik was doing his best to learn. 

How have you been doing after KeSPA Cup?

We started practicing and played scrims right away. We had about a 2-day break, but even during that time, I played solo queue.

You’ve been very outgoing even though you’re a rookie, such as winking at the camera before the match or showing exciting reactions. It looks really natural.

Those were spontaneous actions. I did it because I felt that the camera was shooting me; it wasn’t really planned or intended.

It seems that you’re the mood maker of the team. Do your teammates keep up with your excitement well? Is there a player that has a hard time doing so?

I think most of us have the same energy. Doran and Deft are a bit different. When other players get noisy, they just keep calm and let us be. If we’re too much, Deft is like, “uhhh” and Doran sometimes expresses himself by shouting something like, “for crying out loud!!” Each of us has unique personalities, but we get along well.

As your nickname, Pyosik, you’re famous for your Kindred, but you’ve played different champions on stage.

*Note: Pyosik means ‘mark’ in Korean.

When Kindred was first added to the game, I liked it so much, I named myself Pyosik. I think people think of me as a Kindred one-trick because of my nickname despite the fact that I also play other champions a lot as well. I still play Kindred often in solo queue, but it’s hard to play in scrims. However, if the comp is proper, she would be a good pick.

I enjoy playing aggressive champions, but I’ve also played all defensive champions to the highest mastery. The reason I don’t play defensive champions often is that I personally am less interested in it. If the meta changes and I need to play them, I’m confident to do well.

After playing in the KeSPA Cup, do you feel that the pro scene is really different?

I played three matches in Nexon Arena, but I wasn’t nervous at all at first because I felt that I wouldn’t lose there. From the second match, I felt that we could lose, and after that, I became nervous as well. By the time we played against DAMWON Gaming, I got used to it a bit.

In the next round, we played in Ulsan and the booth changed. The nervousness coming from the change of environment was bigger than I thought it would be. It was the first time I experienced the ‘white noise’ in my headset. I wasn’t used to it, so it was hard to concentrate.

The game against Afreeca was kind of like scrims. What was different was that I was rather careless. I should have played thinking of all the smaller details as well, but I wasn’t able to.

Your expression wasn’t very good after the match against Spear Gaming. Do you remember how you felt then?

I felt shameful. We did win, but my performance was very regretful. I usually don’t blame myself too much, but standing in that spot, I couldn’t help it. If I were to be in that situation again, I’ll try not to express it in the public and keep it to myself until later.

In the next match against DAMWON Gaming, you won and even got an MVP. Your opponents were Worlds quarterfinalists. Weren’t you intimidated by their title?

Not at all. I didn’t care who my opponent was. What was important to me was the environment around me. Since I had already played two matches there, the game against DAMWON was alright.

You had a very difficult match against Afreeca Freecs, and it was your first loss as a pro player. What did you think?

I was quite sorry to the team because I didn’t do well. I made several mistakes in that match and cvMax focused his feedback on me. I had become more confident as we beat DAMWON, but it was shocking that we lost 0-3. I felt that I still have far to go.

We heard that your confidence was quite affected by the loss, but you seem to be completely back to yourself now.

After the loss, yes, but I recovered quickly. Feedback is feedback and life is life. cvMax is also a person who clearly distinguishes feedback and life. When getting along with my team in the team house, it seems that the tiring hard parts are forgotten quickly. Currently, I’m storing the memory of the loss deep in my mind and concentrating on preparing for the new season. I’ll continue to do my best to show you good performances and to get results.

There should be a lot that you learned through the match against Afreeca Freecs.

Yeah. This isn’t a team game just because five players play as a team. There are times that you have to trust and rely on teammates or times where you have to play so that the others can rely on you. Maybe I was nervous that day and I underperformed and didn’t live up to my team’s expectations. I got to think more deeply about what a team game is.

What cvMax said was that “There was a lot to learn since we lost a game that we underperformed. This is a fortunate thing.” I agreed deeply. I now have experienced both winning and losing. I’ll think of this as a learning process and overcome it with hard work. I also became determined to show better performances during the LCK season.

As you said, you’ll be heading into the 2020 LCK Spring Split. What will you be focusing on?

I think the fundamentals are the most important. I’ll be reviewing and solidifying my fundamentals.

What’s the goal of pro-gamer ‘Pyosik’?

My goal is to win Worlds. I need to believe in myself and I think it’s possible if we all do our best. I haven’t been in other teams yet, but I do know that our head coach knows LoL very well. Since cvMax led Griffin to Worlds before. I believe that if I just follow him well, we’ll get good results.

All players have different personalities. How do you want to be seen?

I wish the fans can approach comfortably. When fans call Chovy, they treat him comfortably, just calling him ‘Chovy nim’. I also would like to have an image like that.