It is not an uncommon site 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.
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.
On December 22 2013 09:19 JustPassingBy wrote: A dominant player like Dear on mouz is really a site to behold. Thanks for the interview, ongamers is really a nice websight.
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.
On December 22 2013 09:19 JustPassingBy wrote: A dominant player like Dear on mouz is really a site to behold. Thanks for the interview, ongamers is really a nice websight.
Corrected, thank you.
You're welcome.
Dear said something about foreing tournaments in 2-3 months, right? That means that Asus Rog is out of the picture.
On December 22 2013 09:19 JustPassingBy wrote: A dominant player like Dear on mouz is really a site to behold. Thanks for the interview, ongamers is really a nice websight.
Corrected, thank you.
You're welcome.
Dear said something about foreing tournaments in 2-3 months, right? That means that Asus Rog is out of the picture.
I was told there was no explicit road map, that they are working on it right now. The only thing that would have been for certain was IEM, but he failed to qualify, hence why I didn't bother asking about IEM.
On December 22 2013 09:19 JustPassingBy wrote: A dominant player like Dear on mouz is really a site to behold. Thanks for the interview, ongamers is really a nice websight.
Corrected, thank you.
You're welcome.
Dear said something about foreing tournaments in 2-3 months, right? That means that Asus Rog is out of the picture.
I was told there was no explicit road map, that they are working on it right now. The only thing that would have been for certain was IEM, but he failed to qualify, hence why I didn't bother asking about IEM.
He could still get the invite from wcs points though, right?
On December 22 2013 10:25 goody153 wrote: so they still live in the same teamhouse .. but who funds their food and other necessities ?
Ive heard from two sources so far that everything is currently up in the air. We asked Dear, he said he isn't able to talk about it just yet. As it says in the interview, he might go to a new team house, or just stay at the SouL house, but what the SouL house will become, is another question entirely...
Really nice and informal interview from both sides - some atypical/friendly questions and a lot of candid and non-rehearsed responses. This interview made me like Dear more. Thanks.
Interesting to hear he specifically did NOT want to participate in Proleague so he could go to more foreign tournaments. I guess that rules out the chances of a Mouz partnership letting him compete with one of the teams.
That was a great interview! I'm not a Dear fan, or even watch much SC2 anymore, but it's great to see such candid responses from a Korean pro for once. This was a pleasure to read, thanks!
Thanks for the interviews. A great read and nice to see his insight into the state of the game. I agree with what he said lol. Having said that, this part was pretty funny: "Young Won: Sure. Hope your first encounter with them isn’t a team kill ㅋㅋ.
On December 22 2013 18:48 HolydaKing wrote: Wait... isn't the "by the way" as used from Dear totally correct? I'd probably rather have added "an" before English Academy. Haha, whatever!
Thanks for the interview!
you're right. It can be used but I think he needed to fix the grammar mistake for the sentences to make sense lol. Needs a comma as well
On December 22 2013 20:43 AxionSteel wrote: great interview.
I tried a new style this time, can you tell me what you liked about it? Or was it just all of Dear's answers ?
I know this question was directed at someone else, but what I liked about it was that it was so hard-hitting compared to most interviews of pro players that I see. You made him cover some material that he was uncomfortable with and seemed to have trouble answering, but you got answers from him all the same. It's really nice to see them think on their feet and give well-thought out answers to complex questions.
On December 22 2013 20:43 AxionSteel wrote: great interview.
I tried a new style this time, can you tell me what you liked about it? Or was it just all of Dear's answers ?
I know this question was directed at someone else, but what I liked about it was that it was so hard-hitting compared to most interviews of pro players that I see. You made him cover some material that he was uncomfortable with and seemed to have trouble answering, but you got answers from him all the same. It's really nice to see them think on their feet and give well-thought out answers to complex questions.
The difference between this one and others (ones that I do I mean) was that we were able to do it live rather than via sending packages of questions, and hoping they answered in detail. So we spent about two hours on skype going back and forth and were able to ask whatever. Also having interviewed him not too long ago, and getting background info from the team manager about what topics we could explore, and which we couldn't was a big help.
Ill try to keep these up in the future. Right now Im just not really sure who to interview, unless it becomes a very general one. I want to interview Trap again, but we will see...
Really good interview, nice questions and I like his answers. Dear is actually quite optimistic guy, and I like players with that mindset. Really hopes he does well with Mouz.
The only players who can stop Dear are Protoss Juggernauts like Rain, Parting, and CJ Entus Hero. He can deal with Taeja and end his reign in European competition
EPT![[image loading]](http://static.ongamers.com/uploads/scale_medium/0/21/3213-255.jpg)
