I got a chance to hold the first extensive English interview with the coach of EG-TL, Sung Jin "trOt" Park. In this interview, he speaks to his start as a pro-gamer, his philosophy on coaching, working with the foreign players, Jaedong in the team house, the state of StarCraft II, and more.
Shiro: A lot has been talked about how motivation to practice harder is the biggest limiting factor to success. How do you motivate your players to work harder, or cheer them up after a loss?
Sung Jin: I always tell my players this: Don’t just look at the small tree in front of you. Look at the big forest. The players need to do well in Proleague to win honor and fan support, so the motivation is of course necessary. If a professional is having problems finding motivation, then would he not be an amateur instead? Shiro: What criteria do you use when determining the line-ups for Proleague (if you can say!)?
Sung Jin: I think this should be kept secret. One hint I can give you is that it is fair and everyone can get a chance.
Shiro: Most of the players on EG-TL have never played in Proleague before, or only played a few matches. Do you believe a lack of experience on the Proleague stage will hurt the team, or does the experience in other tournaments make up for it?
Sung Jin: Proleague is different from other events. Long time KeSPA teams have every aspect of their schedule set up to match the Proleague schedule. This means that Proleague is their Number 1 priority by far, but that is a little different for us. We also have many foreign events as well as streaming to think about, so we are at a small disadvantage in Proleague here. I think it is important to consider Proleague and other events as one thing in order to do well. I don’t think that our players are lacking in experience compared to KeSPA players to do well individually. The difference is practice method. We can be lacking in this area, but Round 2 and 5 are all-kill format, where our players have a lot of experience in. We consider those two rounds as our trump card.
Great interview, and am a huge fan of how Thorzain is like 6 inches taller than everyone else.
Not sure how the all-kill format is going to be their ace card though, as none of those players have been really streaky lately. Maybe hoping to bring Taeja back to his outrageous summer form.
I agree with the coach that the team is at a disadvantage in terms of focus. With so many other obligations, many of them not even in South Korea, I think they may end up losing several games this year because of that lack of focus. I think they'll still do well, but I'm worried how the shuffling of players as they travel will affect their consistency.
On December 21 2012 15:29 Fliparoni wrote: He says the only foreigner living in the EG house right now is Thorzain. I wonder where Huk lives.
I'm curious about that too. Maybe he's been spending time at the lair for foreign tournaments. It's always so hard to tell with most Koreans what they're really thinking due to the translation and how safe their answers usually are but his lack of modesty seems like a good sign, especially if he considers this to be one of his team's weaker rounds, which should improve as time goes on.
On December 21 2012 15:29 Fliparoni wrote: He says the only foreigner living in the EG house right now is Thorzain. I wonder where Huk lives.
I think Huk is on vacation at the moment, he left after like the day after the second proleague match. He may still not live in the house, but the coach may have just been listing only people there at the time. Someone else with more knowledge than me will have to chime in!
We can be lacking in this area, but Round 2 and 5 are all-kill format, where our players have a lot of experience in. We consider those two rounds as our trump card.
Shiro: A lot has been talked about how motivation to practice harder is the biggest limiting factor to success. How do you motivate your players to work harder, or cheer them up after a loss?
Sung Jin: I always tell my players this: Don’t just look at the small tree in front of you. Look at the big forest. The players need to do well in Proleague to win honor and fan support, so the motivation is of course necessary. If a professional is having problems finding motivation, then would he not be an amateur instead?
This guy does not mess around lol. He has a point though.
Well, EG-TL is currently doing really well in the Proleague for a first timer. So if he thinks that the rounds where they have an advantage on are still to come... oh boy...
Dodging the language barrier question as usual. Well, Thorzain already has the Slayers experience and Stephano is a standalone player anyway, so it should work out.
I've been waiting for this type of coach for a very long time, as I've come to the realization that the foreign scene just doesn't have any one that can fill in as a full time coach like the KESPA coaches.
This will really improve both EG and TL and hopefully the other guys who aren't in Korea now have a chance to participate in PL under this coach and structure.
On December 21 2012 19:26 Bayyne wrote: I've been waiting for this type of coach for a very long time, as I've come to the realization that the foreign scene just doesn't have any one that can fill in as a full time coach like the KESPA coaches.
This will really improve both EG and TL and hopefully the other guys who aren't in Korea now have a chance to participate in PL under this coach and structure.
I could be mistaken but I don't think TL players are living in the same house as the EG players. Again I could be wrong but I believe liquid players have a different house and thus won't have the coach there as I am assuming he is only in the EG house.
Again correct me if I am wrong.
Nice interview I am super jealous that foreign players will get to live and play with jaedong. God that would be such an immense honor to just play jaedong once in my life time.
My goal in hots is to face jaedong on the korean server
On December 21 2012 19:26 Bayyne wrote: I've been waiting for this type of coach for a very long time, as I've come to the realization that the foreign scene just doesn't have any one that can fill in as a full time coach like the KESPA coaches.
This will really improve both EG and TL and hopefully the other guys who aren't in Korea now have a chance to participate in PL under this coach and structure.
I could be mistaken but I don't think TL players are living in the same house as the EG players. Again I could be wrong but I believe liquid players have a different house and thus won't have the coach there as I am assuming he is only in the EG house.
Again correct me if I am wrong.
Nice interview I am super jealous that foreign players will get to live and play with jaedong. God that would be such an immense honor to just play jaedong once in my life time.
My goal in hots is to face jaedong on the korean server
I thought they said in the initial announcement that they have a joint team house? If they were in 2 different houses, the coach wouldn't mention how Zenio is in the team house probably?
Having them in two houses would just cause trouble arranging travel to PL matches too imo. That's my 2 cents.
On December 21 2012 19:26 Bayyne wrote: I've been waiting for this type of coach for a very long time, as I've come to the realization that the foreign scene just doesn't have any one that can fill in as a full time coach like the KESPA coaches.
This will really improve both EG and TL and hopefully the other guys who aren't in Korea now have a chance to participate in PL under this coach and structure.
I could be mistaken but I don't think TL players are living in the same house as the EG players. Again I could be wrong but I believe liquid players have a different house and thus won't have the coach there as I am assuming he is only in the EG house.
Again correct me if I am wrong.
Nice interview I am super jealous that foreign players will get to live and play with jaedong. God that would be such an immense honor to just play jaedong once in my life time.
My goal in hots is to face jaedong on the korean server
I thought they said in the initial announcement that they have a joint team house? If they were in 2 different houses, the coach wouldn't mention how Zenio is in the team house probably?
Having them in two houses would just cause trouble arranging travel to PL matches too imo. That's my 2 cents.
Enjoyed the interview though. Thanks!
Yeah, some of the TL guys are, if not living, then at least spending time/practicing in The Lab. Yesterday as JYP was streaming we saw HerO there, for example.
On December 21 2012 14:04 faiza wrote: Great interview, and am a huge fan of how Thorzain is like 6 inches taller than everyone else.
Not sure how the all-kill format is going to be their ace card though, as none of those players have been really streaky lately. Maybe hoping to bring Taeja back to his outrageous summer form.
LOL! The koreans are almost all the same height and the the thin white dude towering all over them haha!
Zenio tweeted that he chose to live and practice at the new EG team house. I think it is actually paying off for him.
TaeJa still lives at home, and Huk as well as HerO have their own place (with SuperNova and Jinro, it's not a Liquid team house). That does not mean they won't go to the new team house and practice there with their teammates.
I like Coach Park (who has a much better hairstyle now, too, than on that picture, haha!). He seemed really friendly with Thorzain on the Proleague stream recently. I don't think the language barrier is a big problem. Hwanni has really good English, and Coach Park as well as the other Korean players speak at least some English.
And yet another great picture of the team that day, and in this one HerO is actually looking bad-ass as well.
Sung Jin: Personally, I have high expectations from two of our foreign players, Stephano and ThorZaIN. It’s not easy at all for foreign players to achieve good results in Korea, but they are very hardworking and earnest, so I think that we can expect good things from these two players while they are in Korea.
Haha he thinks Stephano is hard working... He has a surprise coming.
On December 21 2012 14:04 faiza wrote: Great interview, and am a huge fan of how Thorzain is like 6 inches taller than everyone else.
Not sure how the all-kill format is going to be their ace card though, as none of those players have been really streaky lately. Maybe hoping to bring Taeja back to his outrageous summer form.
The reason it is where they will be successful is because it relies on raw skill, which is advantageous for the egtl players because they have played more sc2. The kespa players have been playing proleague for years and they know how to prepare for their matches while the egtl players don't understand yet how to prepare for proleague.
Sung Jin: Personally, I have high expectations from two of our foreign players, Stephano and ThorZaIN. It’s not easy at all for foreign players to achieve good results in Korea, but they are very hardworking.......
Someone is gonna get rudely awakened that's for sure :D.
Sung Jin: Personally, I have high expectations from two of our foreign players, Stephano and ThorZaIN. It’s not easy at all for foreign players to achieve good results in Korea, but they are very hardworking.......
Someone is gonna get rudely awakened that's for sure :D.
Doesn't matter as long as he brings results! Great interview, thanks!
Sung Jin: Personally, I have high expectations from two of our foreign players, Stephano and ThorZaIN. It’s not easy at all for foreign players to achieve good results in Korea, but they are very hardworking.......
Someone is gonna get rudely awakened that's for sure :D.
People really believe into the Stephano 4 hours of practice stuff still? He may have practiced 4 hours a day a year and a half ago, but most of that is just Stephano playing a character. I have a feeling every time he visits Korea he'll put in plenty of practice.
Sung Jin: Proleague is different from other events. Long time KeSPA teams have every aspect of their schedule set up to match the Proleague schedule. This means that Proleague is their Number 1 priority by far, but that is a little different for us. We also have many foreign events as well as streaming to think about, so we are at a small disadvantage in Proleague here. I think it is important to consider Proleague and other events as one thing in order to do well. I don’t think that our players are lacking in experience compared to KeSPA players to do well individually. The difference is practice method. We can be lacking in this area, but Round 2 and 5 are all-kill format, where our players have a lot of experience in. We consider those two rounds as our trump card.
Most obvious thing ever. Tell us something we don't know. Sorry, cannot do that. Okay then.
EPT
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