Yes, hello. I am Lee “NaDa” Yoon Yeol, AKA the “Genius Terran.” I am a former SC1 pro gamer who was active with BW for a very long time. Through BW, I was able to stack up my career and my history within the StarCraft world. I was also actively a SC2 pro gamer for about two years before I had to enlist in the army. I have now been discharged and am currently active in the streaming business as a BJ streamer on AfreecaTV.

No, no, not at all. After I finished my military service, I moved to SuWon. Let’s see… I guess… It’s been about 3 months now?

Hmm… Uhh… (laughs) Well… I guess… Oh, SuWon is famous for their galbi (marinated short ribs). They’re really well known for their beef galbis… But they’re really expensive so I’ve been eating their pork galbi.

So there’s a place in SuWon called the KwangKyo Lake Park. That place is really beautiful. The sight is very pretty at night. People like to ride their bikes around that place in the daytime.

So the interview was conducted at my hometown, GuMi. I’ve lived there ever since I was little. In fact, my mother still lives there right now. GuMi was also where I went to the army. And the place where the interview took place was at a lake in the mountains called GuMi Geum Oh San.

Uhh… Well, first off, I was feeling a little overwhelmed that day. But I had fun since Canata just showed up out of nowhere. It was nice to see an old face again, and the staff members even treated me to a delicious meal. It was so great because I wasn’t expecting that kind of treatment after having been away from the esports scene for a while.

Well… The thing is, initially I just wanted a quiet discharge without attracting any attention to myself, so I had originally declined to do the interview. But a well-known hyung kept contacting me about the interview. And then I heard that Canata would be conducting the interview. So I thought to myself, “Well… Okay, I guess I can do it.” So about a week before the actual date they contacted me and the interview was scheduled.

Hmmm… I guess it would be… So there was a time where I had fallen all the way down the qualifiers. But I overcame my slump, grabbed my 3rd OSL championship, and was awarded the golden mouse. I remember it so well because I was able to win it front of my mother at that time. That was my happiest moment during my BW days; the moment of my highest accomplishment.

(laughs) No, that was just a myth. It was just something people said for fun. It doesn’t actually exist. OGN would go bankrupt if that was true.

Ahhh… Yeah… There was a time like that. Even though I advanced to the finals again right after I won the golden mouse, I ended up grabbing second place… It was really disappointing…

Haha, yeah I know it well.

Wow~ Really? I had no idea.

Hmmm… I would say that any opponent that I met in the finals ended up becoming my rival. In terms of greatest challenge, I would definitely have to say it was that 4th OSL championship that I let slip away. If I had just been able to win that fourth OSL championship then I would have been able to establish the highest record, you know? I know that I’m tied with Flash right now in terms of championships. But it really is disappointing that I couldn’t win that one final match when it mattered the most.

Well, first off, my style is very individualistic. And… Because I enjoy that type of individualism, I felt that I didn’t get stressed when I practiced. Of course, you do need to put in a lot of effort and all, but in my case, if I ever felt pressured mentally or felt uneasy then my games would not play out well. So if I ever felt like things were becoming difficult, then I would go off to the beach to clear my mind and stuff like that. Actually, the fact that I had a supervisor who would allow vacations like that was also a reason as to why I was able to establish such good results. Also… I remember times where I would perform better than I do for practice. Let’s say that I could only perform about 70% during practices. But when it came to actual tournament performances, I would end up performing at 120%. I felt that I was more confident when it came to actual games. In the end, because there’s such a large crowd of people who are watching me, I felt that I had to show them something, and that kind of mindset translated into my skills.

In my case, I think I always tried to learn from as many people as possible. For instance, even if an innocent bystander tried to tell me something about the game, I would listen to them and remember what they said. If a bunch of players said a certain thing, then I would try to find the merit in what they said. Something I always remembered was when someone would talk about how to properly catch lurkers. Another thing was when specific players would say “Oh, it’s better to go counter drop if you’re getting dropped, rather than just sit there and get hit.” It feels like certain things like that are probed into my mind one by one. So whenever someone said something important, I would remember it well. These things they would point out just kept stacking up within me and it helped me out during my performances because I would be able to recall what I had heard.

Hmm… Well… I was a professional player for such a long time that I don’t know which time period to talk about… I guess… It just depends on your fate you know? (laughs) I don’t think I can really pick out a specific player. So many players have come and gone you know? Just… The way I see it, those players just probably remember it as a certain time in their life. I’m sure they think to themselves, “Well, it was a fun time.” Of course, there are both players who didn’t perform well and players who established great results. But I don’t think that matters as long as each player had fun with what they were doing. Yeah, I really can’t just pick certain players for this one.

For terran, I would say Mind. For protoss, I would of course say it’s Bisu. And for zerg, I would say EffOrt. But EffOrt said that he’s not going to participate so… (laughs) Yeah, I think those three are the strongest in each race.

Meh… I think I’d lose to all three of them.

Well… For SC2, I really wanted to stand on the stage for a finals. But unfortunately, the closest I ever got was a semi-finals finish for the 2011 GSL May Code S. Of course, when I had my match against BoxeR, that also became quite a big deal… The fact of the matter is, back then, I had the ability to pull off showmanship performances often. I really felt that I was going to advance to the finals, but I ended up losing to InCa in the semis… I had a desire to win a championship for SC2 as well, so it was a little disappointing that I wasn’t able to.

During the time that I was still on a SC1 pro-gaming team, Proleague was going on. I felt a desire to participate in a lot more games but for some reason I didn’t get a spot in the roster when it came to the post-season matches. I think that hurt me a lot because I didn’t understand why I wasn’t being sent out. My momentum was good because I was on a winning streak and I knew that I was going to be able to perform well just as long as I got the chance to be sent out. So I had this flame inside me because of unfinished business. I was contemplating going to the army, but right at that moment, SC2 had been released. So I quickly headed over there because I wanted to try it out and receive recognition for SC2 as well. My body was fidgeting all the time because I really wanted to play the game more. But since that opportunity wasn’t coming to me for SC1, I decided instead to let SC2 be my form of outlet.

Hmm… I would say that I remember that comeback match against MarineKing well. During the early-game, I ended up losing a lot of workers. But then, a comeback that made no sense ended up occurring. That match and… Oh, the match against Leenock. Leenock pulled a 6 pool on me and I believe I lost that game. Because of that, I took off my jacket because I was enraged, and ended up winning the next games against him with a score of 2-1. I think that moment had gotten a good reaction from the overseas fans as well.

Huh… I think that match was during the regular seasons… Or was it the open seasons…? (laughs) I don’t remember very well. But it was definitely somewhere towards the beginning of my SC2 career.

Oh KeeN (laughs). KeeN was just the worst~ But I was close with him. My rivalry with him was fun. I felt that it was easy to get him all shaken up just by taunting him a little. And I would always feel confident whenever I went up against him. I enjoyed whenever I played against him. KeeN’s not a bad guy you know? He’s well-mannered. I got to become friends with him later on and now I value him as a friendly little brother.

I wouldn’t be very interested (chuckles). I’m not really a player anymore, and I’m also pretty advanced in age. Right now I am more interested in… BJ work and… YouTube? Things like that here and there are what I’m thinking about these days.

Of course there is. Where they differ would be… I guess you could say that they’re more passionate? So like… If you do a ceremony in Korea, then the fans are like “wow~” But if you go up on stage in an overseas environment and you’re all like “I AM NADA~!” Then the fans react like, “YYYEEEEEAAAHHHHH!!!” So basically, their reactions are really good and that excites the players. So I think that’s why other players also do ceremonies after they win. We all want to experience that kind of passionate cheering. I am really grateful to the foreign fans on that aspect because players love that kind of environment.

Of course I wanted to attend more overseas events. But unfortunately, my schedule just did not work out at the time. Even though I was a pro-gamer with the team oGs, I didn’t live in the team house. Because I was trying to attend college at the same time, I lived alone and practiced alone at home. I felt really sorry to my fans because I had to back out of many events even after saying that I would attend them… Oh right, also, I had a military age limit restriction placed on me. Since I hadn’t gone to the army yet, after a certain age, the country won’t let you leave. So even though I had several more opportunities to go to overseas events after MLG, I couldn’t go even if I had wanted to.

I know, I know… I really wanted to go but I couldn’t…

Hmm… Well, honestly, I haven’t really watched a lot of SC2 as of late… But I have been hearing a lot about Maru from people around me. They tell me that there are hints of genius here and there from him and that he plays free-style a lot. Since I was like that when I was young, I think he’s similar to me in that aspect. Also, since I did play SC2 during the early years, I would say that players like Polt and MMA were really good. I would also say DRG, even though he’s not a terran.

Hmm… I don’t think my nicknames will get stolen from me. If anything, people would probably call that player my nickname and then add junior afterwards (laughs). I don’t think my nicknames would get taken from me.

Of course I would have to say that I am interested in playing LotV. After all, StarCraft is such a big part of my life. I started from a very young age and I played both 1 and 2. I’m still playing StarCraft even as of now so… If Blizzard announces that they’re releasing something, then of course I’m going to want to play it.

Haha, I’m fine.

Well… I entered the army a bit late you know? It really wasn’t the generation of StarCraft when I got there. They didn’t even recognize my face at first. But then, once they saw my nametag, people were like, “Wait, weren’t you a pro gamer?” Afterwards, people started noticing me more and more. If you think about it, when people say army, they think of men. So since StarCraft was popular among men, I think being a pro gamer worked out for me since people did end up recognizing me. Eventually they started coming up to me and asking me for autographs and such. People gave me special treatment and such. For instance, you’re not supposed to receive drinks other than water while you’re training, but people would somehow sneak in drinks for me (laughs). I think my time there was actually rather comfortable.

(laughs) Nope. There are hardly any women in the army.

The hardest part about training was the feeling of having to start over. Instead of being a pro gamer on a fixed income, I had to transform into this army guy who was putting it all on the line for the sake of his country. The transition was rather difficult to be honest. I was also a little bit envious of other people who had entered the military way before I did. I actually felt a little angry at myself for entering the army so late.

Hahaha, that wasn’t really the case because you have to factor in my age. Most of the guys there were in their early 20s and I was already in my 30s. It was tiring and difficult. I suffered injuries and such.

Yes, I think so. I think that’s precisely the reasons as to why they stationed me in the computer section. I think they thought that I would be good with computers, but the fact of the matter is, I’m really not (laughs). Just because I’m really good at StarCraft and gaming, does not automatically mean that I’m good with computers. They misunderstood what I do (laughs). But honestly, I think in my own way, I was able to adapt well to my situation, even though I did have my tough moments.

Hmmm, well first off, I was fortunate enough to be enlisted under a special case. You’re normally supposed to sleep and live on-site, but they allowed me to go back home and commute to and from there. Of course I had to attend all business and training related happenings; I wasn’t exempted from those. But ultimately, I would say that military life and team house life are different. When I was a player in a team house, I had a leadership role and lived in a comfortable fashion, but in the army, you have to wake up at a certain time, and function according to their time table. It was nerve-wracking and my body was not in the best condition. Honestly, I almost died there (laughs).

Haha, let me clarify. I ended up catching a cold one time. But the others would always keep their fans on at all times. And it’s not like I can ask them to turn off the fans just for my sake. I couldn’t sleep well either. Because of that, I was like, “Oh man, am I just going to die here…?” But of course, I ended up surviving after all (laughs).

Haha, yeah… I really thought I was going to die. I joined the army during Korea’s hottest time. And Korea tends to get humid during the hot days. It gets really hot.

Yes, absolutely. If you go to the army, then you are bound to come back after having learned something. You learn about how to live a strict lifestyle, you learn about time management, and so much more that you can later attribute to a gamer’s success. You really learn how to take care of yourself. You figure out how much you’re lacking when it comes to stamina. Honestly, just by joining the army, you learn great things you can use to better your life even if you weren’t a former pro gamer.

(laughs) Yes. I want to say to them, “Hurry up and finish your military service before it’s too late!” People like MMA, Jaedong, Flash, and many others from the BW days, they need to hurry up and get it over with. My advice to them would be to make a ton of money, save it up, don’t needlessly spend, and prepare for the future. The fact of the matter is that choosing to live the life of a pro gamer means that you’ve pretty much given up on pursuing anything else. Because of that, going to the military is actually a relief. You don’t have to study and you don’t have to practice anymore. It’s a relaxing journey in the end.

Yes I do have thoughts about that. I want to become a streamer for MineCraft and StarCraft. I have an interest in becoming a YouTuber. I gave MineCraft a shot and it turned out to be a really fun game. And the thing is, I don’t want to be just a Korean streamer. I want to learn English so that I can become a global streamer. I’m sure that at first, I will have to use subtitles and such for the global viewers, but eventually I want to reach a stage where I can converse comfortably with my viewers and make it fun for everyone. I would like to accomplish this for my TL fans as well.

I think I am already accomplishing something similar to that through AfreecaTV. Honestly, it would be fun to meet YellOw hyung in that kind of stage setting. In a setting where we don’t meet because of a game scenario, but meet up because of a celebrity scenario (laughs).

Haha, I’m afraid my time has already gone and past. There are certain limits that I have to acknowledge. It’s also really difficult to start playing SC1 again after having trained for SC2. But as I’ve stated before, it is something that I am interested in. If players like YellOw and BoxeR participated in the next season, then I think that would make me want to play in it for sure. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to want to participate (laughs). But well… If the fans truly did want to see me play, then I think that I would take that support and utilize it so that I can make it to at least the Ro8. If I have the mindset that I will go as far as I can as to not disappoint my fans, then I think I could do it. In all honesty, in the past, I would compete in tournaments because I wanted to win championships. But that seems a little too difficult to accomplish in my current state. So I think instead, I would compete with the mindset of not disappointing my fans. I was contemplating competing in this current season actually, but I feared that the maps would be intentionally bad for terran this season since they ended up with a TvT finals last season (laughs).

Hmmm… If I did nothing but practice 24/7, then I think I could do it. After all, the BW players today don’t practice as much as they used to in the past (laughs). If I decided to halt my BJ activities, and just focus on nothing but practice, then yes, I believe I could pull it off. After all, when it comes to the actual matches themselves, I’m really strong in that area. So I can’t say that there’s no guarantee that I couldn’t make it to a finals again.

Hmmm… For me… I think that… I think that I’m really strong in the mind control area. Even though playing mind games with your opponents is important, rather than figure out build orders and strategies for the players, I would help out players and their mentality so that they could perform well. There are a lot of players out there who perform better during practice than they do in actual matches. You know, players like Sea who perform really well for Proleague but don’t do so hot when it comes to individual leagues. Hmm… Well, as you all know, I was the former team captain for WeMade FOX. And I think that if I had been able to coach that team, then it would have been really fun. I know all the players inside and out you know? Because of that, if I gave up on myself and just invest all I had into that team, then I think we would have done really well. I focused only on being a player during my time with WeMade… If I had invested into the other players more as a coach, then I think I could have really helped them out in the mind control area.

Mmm… Well, for SC2, I would want to coach the kind of players that are not performing really well as opposed to coaching for players that are doing well. What’s the use of me coaching a good player if he’s already doing well, you know? I’ll just end up becoming forgotten leftovers. Because I’m a very observant person, I can tell when someone has the potential to be great just by observing their hand movements. So things like apm and micro, I can see they have what it takes just by watching them from the back. So even though I can’t say for sure who I would want to coach specifically, I think it would be really fun to coach someone who is underperforming, but has what it takes to become a great player.

(laughs) I think that would be quite fun actually. Is MarineKing still on Prime?

Ahhh… Is that so? Huh… So then, who remains on Prime right now?

Oh wow, KeeN is on there?! Huh… BBoongBBoong… Yeah, I remember B4… And I know who YoDa is too. And did you say the last guy’s ID was TANGTANG? (chuckles) What an interesting ID. Hmm… Can they even participate in Proleague right now?

Ahhhh I see… So then, if they went to the ace match, then they could only choose from those four players…

I see… Well, all I can say for now is that I hope the players continue to remain strong in these hard times. Especially KeeN because he is a dongsaeng (little brother) I care about greatly. Oh man… Coaching… I think it would be really fun but there’s just nothing I can do about it right now (chuckles).

I think it is awesome for them. If you are a pro gamer for a long time, you can’t help but become exhausted. But the way I see it, being a caster/commentator is much more difficult than being a player. Of course, you can’t deny the fact that it’s less stressful than being a player though. Because you know… As a player, unless you’re the kind who wins championships all the time, then it’s just a really difficult road for you, you know? But as a caster, although the job also requires effort for sure, it’s still much more relaxing and fun. You set the mood with the things you say and regardless of who wins the match, if you’re the caster then you win in the end anyways (laughs). Honestly, I feel that organizations need to open up more roads like that for players in the future. Your options after pro gaming are just so limited. Let’s take a look at MLB for a second here. When the professional players retire, they have pensions to fall back on. I think pro gaming needs things like that in order for us to survive in the future. Think about it, we practically give up our education and our futures so we can pursue pro gaming. And because of that, what exactly is there for us to do after we get discharged from the military? Most of us will have to just go become factory workers or become part-time jobbers and things like that… I feel like right now is the time to pay attention to details like this and that the higher-ups, like KeSPA and other esports organizations, should be the ones who care enough to do something about it.

Mmm, I’m afraid not.

LOL! What?! MC, a caster?! That’s shocking…

Oh right. I think I remember seeing a picture of JYP as a caster before. Yeah, JYP being a caster is fine, he has a good voice. But… MC…? Meh… Maybe the overseas fans will like that (laughs).

Haha, I guess I could see that. He does have quite the likable personality after all.

Mmm… Okay… I can accept it if he just wants to cast. But if he wants to be the main commentator then… No… (laughs)

Hmmm… Well, at first, I had no thoughts about becoming a commentator. But with all my recent activities on AfreecaTV, I’ve been thinking more and more about it. I had a chance to commentate for an AfreecaTV program a little while ago, and that went pretty well. Meh, I think that if I practiced a little, I’m sure I’d definitely be better than MC (laughs).

Hmm, let’s see here… I’ve been playing a game called The Mark… I also play some Heroes of the Storm… When I was in the army, I played a mobile app game called Clash of Clans… I’ve been wanting to try out Hearthstone for a while now but… Meh, it looks kind of difficult since it’s a strategy card game (laughs).

Mmm… I played LoL for some time a while ago. That was a lot of fun since many people around me play it so much. Meh… Honestly, MOBAs are quite stressful so I don’t play them too much (laughs). When I played SC, I was free to do whatever I wanted in whatever way I wanted to go about. I like to try new and unique things when it comes to games. But in a team game setting, if I’m off on my own and trying new things, everyone just starts flaming me… They’re all like, “You dumbass, why didn’t you come with me?!” I guess you could say that MOBAs don’t really fit me well? (laughs)

Yes I do. I’ll watch LoL from time to time. I tend to watch Faker and other famous players like that. I also had a chance to talk with some of those players on the phone. I also found some interest in Dota 2. I heard that the prize pool for Dota was like… Millions? Right?

Oh man… Is that so…? Should I consider switching to Dota 2 now? (laughs)

Huh… Maybe I could gather some of the old BW pro gamers and we could form like an old school SC Dota team or something like that.

Of course I have thought about doing that. As I previously stated, my fans will probably start seeing me more and more through YouTube. I’m administering to a lot of things right now, including YouTube, BJ shows; basically offline stuff. I’m currently too busy to interact with my fans but I think somewhat toward the future, I’ll be able to travel to all kinds of esports events just so I can meet and talk with them. I think it would be really fun for me to go to parties and game-related events and such. But as of right now, the best way for me to interact with them would be through YouTube.

(laughs) I’ve heard about it a lot. Whenever I see that thread, I get the feeling that I need to hit the gym more and more. I mean… Of course I feel flattered by the existence of such a thread. How could I not be when the thread is titled after me? It feels like that thread’s purpose is to send a message to pro gamers that it’s not always just about gaming. You have to make sure you maintain a healthy body as well (laughs). For me personally, I’ve stopped working out right now, but I think later on I’ll have to hit it hard again, get a really nice body, and do a surprise attack directed at everyone in that thread.

Hmm… Well, for starters, most of your time as a pro gamer is spent on specific teams. And I wasn’t really the type of guy that was known for going out and drinking so… Of course I do talk to them on KakaoTalk. I also meet them at weddings and other places. I talk to YellOw hyung and BoxeR hyung on Kakao, and I also talked to Grrrr... a little while ago. In the case of SC2 players, I haven’t really met up with them outside. We just kind of talk to each other through facebook and send little notes to each other every now and then. I feel that I was closest with my former SC1 teammates. As one of the older ones on WeMade FOX, I feel that it is my duty to keep up with my younger hubaes (opposite of sunbae/senpai). Of course… I really haven’t found the time to do so yet (laughs). Hopefully we can find the time in the future so we can catch up.

Hmmm… Do we have to like, physically fight them?

I see. Well in that case, I would want to take MC. I would use him as a human shield because of his large stature. He’ll also be useful for taking on people who are his size. After MC, I would want… Hmm… I would take ToSsGirL with me. It would be kind of a sex appeal/seduction tactic. I’ll go up to the pirates and say, “I’ll let you shake hands with a real beauty, so in return, you guys let my family go. She’ll also give you an autograph if you’d like.” And lastly… Hmmm… I think I’d go with Jinro. I heard that he’s an MMA fighter now. So he would save us in times of crisis and he would take care of the bad guys for me since he can fight. So while those three are all throwing themselves on the line for me, I’ll use that opportunity to go and save my family (laughs).

For a long time now, I have always wanted to introduce myself to the TL community. But I think I’ve been far too distant all this time. But I am working very hard on my individual stream right now, and I’ve also noticed that my stream shows up on TL, so I hope many people will tune into my stream so that we can have fun together. I’m trying to reach out to my fans on a global aspect these days by utilizing YouTube so I hope people will take interest in that. Although I have no idea how much longer it will take, I will do my best to attend all kinds of events and tournaments in the future, so that I can personally meet my fans.