Interview with Dear as he joins mousesports: "I'm both scared and thrilled."

This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

It is not an uncommon sight for top tier Korean players to join an established western team. We have seen it a number of times already this year with INnovation to acer, JaeDong to Evil Geniuses as well as many others in the past. The most recent transition is that of Baek Dong Jun, otherwise known as Dear, formerly of team SouL.

Team SouL was the only top tier professional team in Korea that was currently lacking sponsor support. After STX dropped the team, the players were on their own. As a result, team management kept the team running in order to help the players who wanted to continue their careers find homes. This week it was announced that Dear would find a home with the German team, mousesports. We caught up with Dear to talk about his transition, his desire to do well in the west, his thoughts on the game, and much more.

famsytron: How are you? How has the transition to mousesports been so far?

Dear: I’m just spending my days practicing. It’s my first time being in a foreign team so I’m thrilled.

famsytron: Where are you staying and practicing from?

Dear: I’m practicing at my house right now but I might move into other team house.

famsytron: Which team houses are you looking into right now?

Dear: I can’t say where but for now it could be the same place I practiced when I was in SouL.

famsytron: How has your family’s reaction been to your transition from a team with no sponsors, now to a foreign team they have probably never heard of before?

Dear: My family members don’t know much about gaming so I usually make all the decisions on my own. I just told them mouseports was a good team. I just talked to few progamers I know.

famsytron: Did your parents know about the team’s financial concerns while you were at Soul?

Dear: Yes. SouL was supposed to send me to a good team once good conditions were offered. So they knew that.

famsytron: So obviously those conditions were met, and SouL fulfilled its purpose. Why did you end up choosing mousesports?

Dear: Only few people knew I was leaving SouL so I assume most teams didn’t know either. Mousesports was one of the early ones that had good offers and I accepted the offer because I heard they are a famous team.

famsytron: From our last interview you showed great interest in foreign tournaments and foreign fans. Were you set on going with a western team no matter what?

Dear: Yes. Being in a Korean team is good too but being in a foreign team just looked nice. I would get to participate in foreign tournaments often and I will also get to learn English. These kinds of merits made me choose a foreign team. If I stay in a Korean team I would have to participate in Proleagues which would prevent me from going to foreign tournaments. Since WCS doesn’t conflict with foreign tournaments from my knowledge I will still participate in WCS Korea.

famsytron: You mentioned learning English. Is this something important to you? What will you be doing to help improve – possibly streaming to western fans?

Dear: Yes. I find learning English to be very important and I am willing to try hard. As for streaming, I will do it eventually but I can’t say when. I plan on starting once I improve both my English and gaming skills.

Young Won: How much of the English translations I’m writing right now (on skype) can you understand?

Dear: I can kind of make out what it means ㅋㅋ. Not 100% sure though.

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Discussing in English to ask him about how he plans on learning English.

Dear: Are you talking about “How I’m going to study?”?

Young Won: ㅋㅋㅋ Yes.

Dear: ㅋㅋ. First, I think I have to learn more vocabularies. You can get the gist of conversation if you know a lot of vocabularies. I’m learning words such as “Can” and “Will” right now. ㅋㅋㅋ. (His answer in English): I see English video every day. By the way I will go to English academy. Is that right?

Young Won: It should be “Also”, not “by the way”

Dear: Ah ha…

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famsytron: SouL has disbanded. Are you still in contact with your former teammates?

Dear: Yes. I was actually even at the team house yesterday.

Young Won: Oh. The team isn’t officially disbanded yet?

Dear: We are still living together… but I can’t say what’s going on exactly right now.

famsytron: You had quite the amazing stretch with back to back WCS championships during the course of two weeks. Since then you have had fairly decent results with Top 8 at WCS World Championships and then Top 4 at GSL HotSix. Many players rise up and have hot-streaks like this, then fizzle off. What are you going to do to try and remain a consistently top performing player?

Dear: I’m scared of that happening to me too right now so I’m practicing very hard right now. If I don’t get cocky and look down on others because I’m a winner and continue trying my best I believe that though I won’t win every game I will be able to win most of the games.

Young Won: Why do you think some players fall out after having hot-streaks?

Dear: I think some start practicing less. I felt it too after I won. Also, after winning a tournament your style gets public for others to study from. Also I’ve realized that trends of playing style changes a lot.

famsytron: A lot of players state in their interviews that they started the game for fun and now it’s just a job. Is Starcraft 2 still fun for you?

Dear: It comes and goes for me. To be honest I feel more desire to play from watching others play than actually playing. As I play I get the desire to play better and it starts becoming fun for me. On the other hand, if I start losing I get stressed out and it stops being fun. T_T ㅋ.

famsytron: A lot of players attribute these reasons as to why Starcraft 2 is on the decline. From your perspective, what can be done to fix this?

Dear: It’s different from person to person but I too get very frustrated when I lose. But because of my desire to win I keep playing even if it’s not fun. Then I start getting better and it starts becoming fun again because I’m getting better. I think RTS isn’t the right type of game for people who quit because they get frustrated. Big merit of an RTS game is that you can learn from watching others play. Also, unless you are a progamer I think it’s natural that you lose a lot. You play to get better so I hope gamers don’t get too stressed out from losing.

famsytron: So… in other words, “just deal with it”?

Dear: hmm ㅋㅋㅋ Aren’t people going to rage at me if I answer this wrong? Honestly, I think fixing the game won’t satisfy everyone anyway. Hmm. So I think the key is to not get stressed too much. Let’s play with an optimistic mind. This is my answer ㅋㅋㅋ. Even I’m getting stressed at PvP these days. I’ve changed my mindset to “if it’s not going to be patched anyway, I’ll try to find the answer myself”. ㅋㅋ.

famsytron: Speaking of practicing, what is your current daily schedule for practicing?

Dear: I don’t really set a schedule. I recently feel that I’m lacking in skill so I try to dedicate all my time to practicing.

famsytron: What skills do you think you are lacking?

Dear: Recently all the games have shown the same pattern. I like to play differently so I think I’m lacking in new strategies and control. So I’m trying to come up with new strategies. I’ve never been good at control to begin with so I’m trying to do better. ㅋㅋ; ㅠ.

famsytron: What process do you go through when coming up with a new strategy? You could spend hours trying to think of one and waste time. Do you think spending time to make new strategies is better than just mastering current trends?

Dear: hmm. When I try to make new strategies I just go on ladder and do whatever comes into my mind. As I watch the replay I try to see the pros and cons of that strategy to make a good one. For the past few months every game has been the same, which isn’t fun for me. So I thought it’ll be better to win using different strategies.

famsytron: A lot of Korean players have moved over to western teams over the past few years. Many people say it is because of the opportunities players have to earn more money compared to in Korea. In traditional sports, most professional athletes' salaries are public knowledge. Do you personally think this should be the case in eSports? Would you care if your salary was stated publically upon signing with a new team?

Dear: hmm. I’m kind of against making salaries public. No one has ever done it before and if I reveal mine others might be forced to reveal theirs too and that will cause a lot of issues.

Young Won: Why do you think traditional sports release that information?

Dear: Isn’t it to show the player’s value? Hm.. maybe it’s to give them pressure to play better because they are paid that much? I’m not sure about that either T_T.

famsytron: Some players in the past have spoken about earning money is their main source of motivation in professional gaming. Win as many tournaments and leave when they have made as much as they can. What is your main source of motivation in being a professional gamer?

Dear: During Starcraft 1, I thought progamers were cool as I was watching TV. I wanted to become a progamer to be on stage like them too. When everyone changed to Starcraft 2 I hated it for no reason at first because I wanted to be a Starcraft 1 player. Even though it’s the same series, they are different games and I thought it’ll be hard to get used to. But then once I started playing it was fun and it’s the game that made me get known to people. So right now it’s the most precious game for me. Money is important too but seeing how much fans are cheering for me due to my recent success I’m feeling that I should work harder. I’m thankful to my fans and I’m happy to get to know other gaming related people. I didn’t really make much money nor have any fans prior to Season 3. So I don’t really have an obsession with money. I feel that fame and money will follow if I perform well.

famsytron: Who was your idol before becoming a progamer?

Dear: Bisu

famsytron: hmmm. I think Boxer > Bisu

Dear: (in English) no. Bisu win. J

Young Won: What do you think of Bisu’s current state?

Dear: No comments about Bisu…. ㅋㅋ

Young Won: What’s your plan about your mandatory military service?

Dear: I plan on going after my progaming career is over. I will try to push back my enlistment date as much as possible.

Young Won: Are you able to push it back?

Dear: Well. I have to find a way. If I want to continue my gaming career haha;

famsytron: Dear, what are your current expectations for the near future (next 2-3 months). What do you plan to accomplish?

Dear: First, I think learning English is the important thing for now. I can’t understand anything when I go to foreign tournaments at the moment. Since I’m in a foreign team right now I would like to be able to communicate on my own. In 2-3 months there will be GSL and other foreign tournaments so I want to focus on English and Starcraft and hopefully catch two birds with one stone.

Young Won: Have you met any of your new team members yet?

Dear: No. I don’t think I’ll be able to see them in Korea. I’ll be able to see them in foreign tournaments. Right?

Young Won: Sure. Hope your first encounter with them isn’t a team kill ㅋㅋ.

Dear: ㅋㅋㅋ;

famsytron/Young Won: (In English) “Any final comments to your western fans?” Can you understand this?

Dear: uh…. “Final comments to the foreign fans”. Right? This is my first time in a foreign team. I’m both scared and thrilled. I think I had decent performance in 2013. I’m practicing hard for the next season and your cheering is a big moral boost for me. Please keep cheering for me, mousesports and Starcraft 2. Thanks to my sponsors (BenQ, GeIL, XMG, Razer, Thortech) too.

Translated by: Young Won Kim