At the 2015 Proleague grand finals, SK Telecom T1 head coach iloveoov gave a tearful, emotional interview that I thought was one of the best ever. Here's a translation and some notes (video on Youtube):

Q: You probably had some regrets after last season. Could you talk about what you're feeling now?

iloveoov: First, I want to tell Jin Air sugo (well-played, good game).

I've won a lot of championships a player or a coach, but as a the head coach -- it really drove me crazy because I couldn't get there.

It felt like I was the reason we were doing poorly, so I really tried everything there was to try. Really, I tried all sorts of crap. Now that we've won like this -- I've never cried once until now in an esports, StarCraft progaming tournament.

But this time -- even though I'm not the one playing, it's our players -- I was more nervous than when I was playing as competitor. It's really agonizing. It's great when you win like this, but when you lose you can't describe it with words. So I think that's why this moment is that much more joyful.

Q: I prepared some questions today, about key players to victory, the moment you knew you had won, etc. But seeing your tears now, it would be tough to ask those questions.

Running an entire team, deciding which player to send out and who to keep on the bench... you're a team of ten fingers, and what finger wouldn't hurt? You must have stressed over it a lot. As a head coach, hyung, and as a sunbae in life, could you say a word to your players on SK Telecom?

iloveoov: When you're a progamer, if you can't compete in the match, you have a lot of thoughts like "what the hell am I doing here?" or "am I just a part [in the machine]?" As a head coach, you want to make it so there's no players like that on the team.

It's essential to have players who can support your starters. But if they have no hope at all, those players just crumble at the bottom. And if they collapse, that team collapses. So for key players, Jihoon (Dynamite), Dogyung (Billowy), Hansol (Zoun), Joonhyuk (Impact)... the way these four were silently there for us without losing hope, I think they're as amazing as the other six.

And these guys, they're not gonna stay that way going forward, they're going to grow. So a day could come where Joonhyuk (Dream) here who doesn't practice, he's practice partner, and Hansol who practices hard is a starter.

Calt

Finland1140 Posts

October 12 2015 09:09 GMT

Awesome to see the passion, their championship was well earned! Also very cool to hear him giving the shout out to the practice partners. I too hope they do grow out to be as good as the main team (especially Zoun)!

Thanks a lot for translation!

bypLy

757 Posts

October 12 2015 10:44 GMT

did he really say dream doesnt practice (enough) ?

ETisME

12337 Posts

October 12 2015 10:53 GMT

On October 12 2015 19:44 bypLy wrote:
did he really say dream doesnt practice (enough) ?

I think he means that there will be a day where dream will practise less and becomes more of a practise partner

Waxangel

United States33234 Posts

October 12 2015 11:00 GMT

On October 12 2015 19:44 bypLy wrote:
did he really say dream doesnt practice (enough) ?

probably a semi-serious joke, he was laughing after that

Musicus

Germany23576 Posts

October 12 2015 11:04 GMT

Haha, that snide at Dream

. They seem to have a good relationship.

Jenia6109

Russian Federation1612 Posts

October 12 2015 11:16 GMT

It's kinda hard to realize all the players with Bo5 format though i like it.

LongShot27

United States2084 Posts

October 12 2015 12:08 GMT

Alot of people who have never played a sport probably don't understand the importance of being on top as a player. (iloveoov was probably one of the top 3 Terran's in BW, top 4 at the worst) and now he is literally the greatest coach in the world. To be able to say, "As a player I'm not useful to my team anymore, but I know so much about this game and its players that I can still be fucking amazing" is something few players in any sport can do.

Grusalugg

20 Posts

October 12 2015 12:32 GMT

I really wanted to know what was going on when I saw iloveoov in tears, thanks waxangel.

On October 12 2015 19:44 bypLy wrote:
did he really say dream doesnt practice (enough) ?

I think what he meant was (from english context I don't know korean), if a day comes if Dream doesn't practice enough, he won't be a starter (to be a player in the match) and if the other guy, who is waiting at the bench and mostly practicing with the players, couldn't find an opportunity to play in the match, becomes an actual player for the match and replace the ones who play atm.)

To sum up, the message was "Don't get sad if you can't find an opportunity to play, practice hard enough you will be the one on the stage replacing less practicing known names."

"Even if you didn't play you contributed a lot to the team."

"Work hard. Keep Practicing."

Lorch

Germany3673 Posts

October 12 2015 13:31 GMT

#10

I think he was trying so say something like: If one of our starter players declines, one of the others will step it up and become a starter. Meaning that even though the 4 he named are practice partners now, they could very well become key players in the future. I'm pretty sure he just picked dream because they seem to be on very good terms with each other, maybe dream is his new fantasy (afaik most of fantasy's builds used to come from oov).
As much as I wanted KT to win again, I'm very happy about the way this season turned out. SKT seems to have the biggest team and it really seems like everyone involved puts in a ton of hard work and they certainly deserve this championship. As much as I'll always miss Park and Boxer as SKT's head coaches, oov is just such an amazing person and I'm really glad that he finally got to win his first proleague as head coach. Also he lied about never crying before at a starcraft championship, pretty sure he was in tears when he beat boxer.

Makro

France16890 Posts

October 12 2015 14:13 GMT

#11

no wonder SKT is doing well