EPTInitial mistranslation edited. Section underlined. Thanks to namedplayer
The story of how the First Lady to the Emperor made the 'SlayerS Clan' an elite gaming unit.
The winner of the Supporting Actress award at the Daejong Film Festival, the love interest of 'Emperor' Lim Yo-Hwan is now dreaming of turning SlayerS into the strongest Starcraft 2 team.
This is only a part of both the past and present of Kim Ka-Yeon. Her straight-talking style and honest attitude makes her a hard-nosed interviewee, making me think that the interview would not be easy, even before our meeting. However, the more our conversation continued, I felt that these were all just prejudices.
As the interview progressed, she made each of these prejudices disappear. Her youthful looks would never betray that she is eight years older than her fiancée, and the charisma that she eminates manages to dismantle whatever defences are left. That's not all. The more we spoke, the more Kim Ka-Yeon seemed like a driven, agreeable person with a fiery passion; she is a dependable and strong woman.
![[image loading]](http://file.thisisgame.com/board/files/0/img/20110622220721_4034d345.jpg)
■ Golden Age of the SlayerS Clan
Recently, SlayerS has become one of the most successful teams in the StarCaft 2, recording two consecutive wins in the GSTL. On top of this, MMA, the Ace player of the SlayerS team won the MLG 2011 in Columbus, becoming a champion in the individual league for the first time. SlayerS then went on to field five players in the Ro16 and three in the Ro8, gradually becoming one of the elite gaming teams.
SlayerS Clan is beginning to become an elite Starcraft 2 team. What have you been up to these days?
I think that I've been more active recently than I've ever been in my entire life. I'm actually the type that doesn't like to move that much. I usually rest by being on the computer and eating, but these days I'm busy looking after Yohwan (BoxeR) and the SlayerS team members, as well as doing a variety of things in preparation for the future. Also, the game company that I'm working for recently started the closed beta test so it's been very busy.
Just yesterday, we introduced the new uniforms so I was busy ironing and storing away the old uniforms, and preparing the new ones.
So you won't be returning to your main occupation of acting any time soon?
I made an agreement with my manager. If I start doing dramas again, I would have to concentrate on only that and so I wouldn't be able to keep my promise with the players. That's why I gave up doing dramas and am keeping up with the entertainment industry by occasionally guesting on variety shows.
But you must be missing your main occupation of acting. How long do you plan to break for?
Now that we have started work with SlayerS, I want to concentreate on this for around one year. Maybe it will have to be the latter half of next year before you see actress Kim Ka-Yeon again? (Laughs)
Moon Sungwon (MMA) has become the champion at MLG Columbus. This the first individual champion for SlayerS, right?
MMA fell into a serious slump after being knocked out at the Code promotion matches. He used to be a joker and the life of the party in the team, but at some point he suddenly stopped speaking altogether. But around that time came the invitation to participate in MLG Colombus. BoxeR thought hard about who he should send but he then said, "I'm not in a good condition, so let's send MMA. If MMA wins this tournament, it will be good motivation for the other players".
So I called in MMA and told him "Go and win. If you don't win, don't come back" and he came back with the trophy and a lot of experience from America.
After coming back from MLG, he said that he felt that "a player can do nothing more than to concentrate on the game". In the future, we want to send a more players to more international events as much as possible.
You have recorded the first ever consecutive wins of the GSTL and individual performances are also good. I think it would be fair to call this the Golden Age of the SlayerS Clan.
It's an expected result but we still have a long way to go. We still have a lot of players we haven't been able to show you yet. Of course, MMA is the representative player for SlayerS but he is also the only player that has reached prominence and performing at his peak. Slayers Clan has far more players who have the pro mindset and explosive potential.
![[image loading]](http://file.thisisgame.com/board/files/0/img/20110622220824_321522b0.jpg)
■ From celebrity to the Lady of the Slayers Clan
SlayerS Clan began as "BoxeR's Team" or "BoxeR's Best Men". He, who increased the popularity of eSports through Starcraft began a new personal challenge by turning his attention to Starcraft 2. But there is a limit to how he can prepare for an event by himself.
There were many teams that offered BoxeR a place but he wanted one of his own and his girlfriend, Kim Ka-Yeon began preparations for the formation of his own team. This was the beginning of SlayerS Clan. However, people on the outside called them BoxeR's "Best Men"* or a rabble that had been rounded up to be his practice opponents. "You only need to diligently play the game. I will take care of everything else." However, Kim Ka-Yeon didn't form the team with that in mind from the start. She pushed aside her own celebrity activities to gather players, take care of the team's living circumstances, set and maintained the code of discipline and has made the SlayerS Clan grow into an established game team.
Could you talk about how you came to start the SlayerS Clan?
Last year, BoxeR participated in his first ever Starcraft 2 tournament [referring to GSL Open Season 2 of 2010] and did quite well against Terran and Protos. But he wasn't able to any practice against Zerg on the ladder. He needed to practise for the semi-finals against Lim Jaeduk (NesTea) but had a lot of difficulty finding a practise partner.
We did manage to find one on the day before the match, but the cause of the downfall was incorrectly preparing for NesTea during practice. Communication to the practice opponent regarding Zerg counter-strategies against strategies that seem to work came too late. So he did not get enough experience opposing Zerg. This led to him concluding that it would be impossible to go alone. We wanted to ask Wonki (FruitDealer) to help us, but his early exit from the competition meant that we couldn't, and so BoxeR was left knowing almost nothing about how to play against Zerg.
BoxeR was so lonely while preparing for competition and he had offers to join two teams which he was considering. But he was wanted to have a team of his own and was passionate about making his own team. That's why we prepared this team.
For a while there were rumors that the team was only being formed to gather practise opponents for BoxeR, and while the original intention could have been similar to this, but the result was different. Some of the team inductees may have begun as practice opponents for BoxeR, but we wanted to create a strong teamby improving them through him, to become top players of their own right.
How was the first recruitment process for SlayerS Clan and what were the members like?
We began with the top 128 candidates. Originally, there were over 300 applicants but we managed to bring this down to 128 with the first stage of the process. The first player that we accepted into the team was MMA. We took him in because BoxeR had his eye on him from SK Telecom days and he had potential as a player. Amongs online candidates Jang Kangwook (Frozen) came first, and we chose nine players including Hwang Dohyung (Min), Jeon Cheonhu (Tiffany), Cho Myunghwan (Golden), Yoon Sunghoon (Lots), Kang Sangwon (Special), Kim Kyoungsu (Regalmind). Among them, Frozen, Min and Golden remain.
I heard that there were some other recruitment of additional players after this.
Kim Dongwon (Ryung) came in during a Clan induction competition. Yang Joonsik (Alicia) was originally among the 128 who were eliminated but still joined the team.
Our team is divided into four levels. Our system is to have levels of 'Clan One', 'Second Army' (2 Goon), 'Apprentice' (1.5 Goon), 'First Army' (1 Goon). The Apprentice system tests whether the player can adapt well to the dormitory lifestyle. They live in with Second Army players and also with First Army for a month while being watched closely to determine whether they can join or not. One noteworthy member that made it to the First Army this way is Alicia.
BoxeR was playing on the ladder and he kept coming across someone with the username "Alicia". He had a real drive for winning no matter what and he made BoxeR think hard the most when playing. And so, every time Alicia logged on, he would always keep watch and pay close attention, and he watched even closer when he was one of the top 128 initial candidates. Thinking only about his game style, one would think he would be wily-looking, but he actually looks so innocent.He might look very naive and honest, but his game style is devilish.
So we watched him and thought that he was good, so while he was eliminated from the induction process, we called him in separately. We told him that we wanted to see how he would do as an apprentice in the dormitories. Having been eliminated initially, Alicia looked very happy when he heard this. After he joined and lived with us in the dormitory, we found that he wasn't wily at all but leads a model lifestyle, has great initiative and is a diligent person. Since he works so hard as a hyung [older brother], so the younger guys can't help but learn from him.
![[image loading]](http://file.thisisgame.com/board/files/0/img/20110622220952_e24f002d.jpg)
You were the first in GSTL history to win twice consecutively. Do you remember the first time you entered?
The first time we entered GSTL was within two weeks of the formation of SlayerS Clan. MMA recorded three kills, but fell in the Ro8. It was an obvious result but we weren't disappointed. We told the players that we would try harder next month.
Next were GSTL Season 2 and Season 3 and you won both. What is your secret?
At the time, many said "SlayerS Clan is nothing without BoxeR". The players used that a stimulus to work harder. The first map of GSTL Season 2 was "Tal'Darim Altar" and at the time, it was widely thought of as a Zerg-favoring map.
I am not in charge of managing the players within the team but selected Min. He was active in SK Telecom as Second Army, but he had no tournament experience. But because we know the mindset, the reason why he got into professional gaming, we selected him as part of the team. We told him, "put everything you have on Tal'Darim Altar". So we kept that a secret from everyone else and prepared him from two weeks prior. And we kept checking in on him for those two weeks. Min worked hard and we finally decided on having him participate. The day before, he said that he was so nervous because this was his first broadcasted match.
In fact, the day Min was participating in the opening match was the day his little brother was enlisting in the army. "Win this match, for your little brother and for your uncle who looked after you like a parent". In the end, Min's win was an incredible boost of morale for the team. It became a chance for the team to start integrating more, unifying with an incredible amount of effort. And having tasted victory, all the players completely changed.
For GSTL Season 3, just as we did with Min, we prepared two players from two weeks prior to competition, but Yoon Yeongseo (TaeJa) joined in a week later. We gave TaeJa the opportunity too and his name jumped out for us on the roster. We asked him, "If we put you into the first match, can you do an all kill?" and he replied that he was confident. So we trusted him.
Like we mentioned before, it was being called "BoxeR's Team" or "BoxeR's Best Men".
We weren't frustrated or hurt by that. Those were regular phrases for eSports commentators, right? "Yohwan's Danmul"**? [She laughs] I told them to forget all of that. "Just as eSports players and others before you, you will make that phrase your own. People who say that there is nobody in SlayerS but BoxeR or that you are BoxeR's Best Men are just jealous of you." I told them that in the end, results would prove everything to everyone: "Learn everything you can from BoxeR. BoxeR would be carrying you for now, but there will be a time when you will carrying BoxeR".
[[* Best Man as within marriage. The same word means either best man or bridesmaid depending on the gender of the subject. This refers to them as side-shows to BoxeR.]]
[[** 'Yohwan Danmul' is a parody of a recent scamming scandal involving a liquid sold similar to 'snake oil'. Thus, it translates to the team being a front, a scam made up with the players not being worth the name they are being sold under.]]
![[image loading]](http://file.thisisgame.com/board/files/0/img/20110622221005_29fda1ce.jpg)
There were rumors during the early days of the establishment of SlayerS, that a continuous career couldn't be guaranteed in the team.
I heard that too. With other teams, when they see anyone with potential, their first reaction is to bring them into their team. That's not how you should be treating players. You must give them an opportunity to see which team they would fit well into, and I hated that this doesn't seem to be doing that. That's why we introduced a "Rise-and-fall" system. The number of players that rise and fall may vary as the situation demands but the general idea is almost identical to the GSL.
I always tell the players "those who are following you are like charging infantry. Do not be content with what you have because you will become stagnant water. Never forget the fact that somewhere behind you, there is someone who wants what you have." I want to make them throw away thoughts like "I'm around average in SlayerS, so I could never get cut from the team". We do monthly calculations of individual performance and award 'scholarships'. It's a system of never-ending competition. The players must learn that if they cannot survive in Slayers Clan, they cannot survive in the outside world.
Even if some teams do not think favorably of this system, it's been of great help and the results speak for themselves. Training in our team isn't as difficult as it might seem at first. I think that it's the most professional image one can have. When we work, we work; when we play, we play.
You don't come from a professional gamer background or have management experience and you are a celebrity by profession, so how did you come up with this team management model?
I am working in a games-related company and in the online game I used to play, the clans and blood-alliances that I was part of were the best. My clan were always so good that people would speak badly of us. It's a war game and I am a general. When I command the troops in battle, there are those who fight, but there are also those who hide. I would go find the soldiers who were hiding and kill them myself. Just like in the real army, there can be no deserters. But to those that worked hard, I would never hesitate in distributing my own equipment, healthpacks and other things.
I thought that a game team would be similar. I think I came to that conclusion after ten years of playing games. The game world is just another world that recreates real life people and culture. And so I always say that "Those weaker than me may insult me behind my back, but they can't say anything to my face"
Your strong image has the adverse effect of making Coach Hong Seungpyo's (Cella) role look small.
I know that there are stories from the outside along those lines, but they are incorrect. I saw Cella's diligence and gave him the coaching duties. I told Coach Cella, "I will take everything outside of the game, so look after and develop everything inside the game together with the players, as a coach". SlayerS is a team that I made, so I feel responsible for everything. Coach Cella needs only to concentrate on helping the players to improve.
![[image loading]](http://file.thisisgame.com/board/files/0/img/20110622220959_3d1c099e.jpg)
Then is BoxeR a playing coach in SlayerS Clan?
Not at all. BoxeR just does not have that kind of time to teach anyone. [Laghs] BoxeR's role in SlayerS is simply being its reason to exist. As i said before, Coach Cella is responsible for leading the players and everything in-game, everything else outside of the game is my reponsibility. BoxeR is just the big hyung who plays games with them and is a role model player for all other players. BoxeR is always busy analysing his own game.
Is there a management method exclusive to SlayerS Clan?
We manage the team in a way much like the army. But these kids' parents have entrusted us with them, so we try to make sure they have the best living environment possible. For these players who are living away from home, I would hate to see them lose weight or become unhealthy. So I have set out chores and we all gather together to clean up. The timetable is also clearly set out. From waking up, to practising, to sleeping time, all things are done according to the schedule, and there have to be rules when living in a dormitory as a team. We are helping the team so that all players can be active altogether.
Many fans are curious. What exactly is Kim Ka-Yeon's position in Slayers Clan? Leader of the game team? Emotional support?
Rumors said that I was an "underling", right? At first, I thought I was meant to be the errand runner or something. "You guys just concentrate on playing the game, and I will take care of everything else for you" was on my mind the whole time. I told BoxeR this, too. But since the players are professionals, not amateurs, the situation made it inevitable that my role would expand a little.
I think I am like a mother to the players. Since the players have left home to board here, I scold them when they need to be scolded and look after them, so it feels almost like a family. After forming a bond with the players and some emotional exchanges, we all think of ourselves as one family. So they think of me as family, as noona [elder sister] or mom. So the players call me 'Great Queen of Nagging'. And I like to think that I am the team leader of SlayerS.
![[image loading]](http://file.thisisgame.com/board/files/0/img/20110622221011_70113de1.jpg)
■ How to live as the first lady to 'Emperor' BoxeR
When fans found that the 'Emperor' Lim Yohwan had a girlfriend, that girlfriend was Kim Ka-Yeon, they were not interested in her as a peron but the fact that she was eight years his senior and that she was a divorcee. In the end, a minority of fans did not look on her favorably, as someone who had stolen their Emperor from them and bad stories followed her.
But this woman made the momentous decision to throw away her own profession to support her boyfriend. Kim Ka-Yeon was taken aback by her boyfriend who one day became helpless, and did everything she could to help him do what he enjoyed doing.
Kim Ka-Yeon began work to support Lim Yohwan who had made the decision to take on Starcraft 2. Thanks to this, BoxeR became a competitive 30 year-old pro-gamer, and was able to fulfil his promise to the fans.
Was there a point when you decided you wanted solely to support your boyfriend?
From a personal, romantic point of view, BoxeR knows nothing but Starcraft. Even he admits it. When he was playing Starcraft [Brood War], he had a team and other people took care of everything for him so all he needed to was play the game. That's probably why he's so used to that.
When BoxeR first mentioned wanting to play Starcraft 2, it was right after the 광안리 대첩 [translated as Kwanganli Invitational, referring to Shinhan Bank Pro-league]. BoxeR had already stopped playing Starcraft [Brood War] for a very long time before those finals. He had already been beaten to tournament places by hoobaes [juniors] and also other reasons meant that he fell into a personal dilemma.
But then his team, SK Telecom, gave good conditions as his contract was expiring. One of the things that we are still thankful for is SK Telecom's team leader, Oh Kyoungsik. He gave conditions for a coaching position that stood up to the conditions of the coaches of any other team. However, BoxeR hated imagining himself content at his own position. That's why he decided to take on Starcraft 2 when he heard that it was being released.
But even though he did decide on taking on this challenge, he was still scared. Maybe like a middle-aged bread winner facing redundancy? I saw BoxeR in that position. It was a shock for me to see him so helpless one day, when he wouldn't practice and just sat still in a cafe and said "I... don't have anything I can do". That's when I made the decision. I was going to be the person that helps Yohwan return to doing what he wants to do.
So I began looking for individual sponsors and began discussions with several large companies. They responded favorably and after the first meeting with Intel, I told BoxeR.
I wonder how he reacted to hearing that.
At first, he wouldn't believe me. While deciding on sponsoring BoxeR at Intel, the intention was not "let's show BoxeR winning" but "let's make an environment so that which fans who want to watch see BoxeR compete, can do so". Recently, there was a certain special reporter who nonsensically claimed that "BoxeR's poor performance has made Intel's sponsorship weaken", but that's completely misinformed.
Intel are satisfied because, from the very start, the decisive reason behind co-operation [between us and Intel] was that they wanted to show BoxeR compete to the fans who wanted to watch him. The first meeting with Intel came after the 2010 광안리 결승전 and the expiry of the SK Telecom contract.
I still can't forget that BoxeR began practising Starcraft 2 on August 14th 2010. Making an account under his name would have raised a commotion, so he made the account 'manofoneway' under my name. After making the account, he started playing and he would not leave his chair. He actually wanted to compete in GSL 1, but the day before the qualifiers was two days short of the expiry of the contract, so of course he couldn't compete.
Do you remember the day of the first Starcraft 2 qualifiers?
Of course. BoxeR was just like a child the day before a picnic. He was so nervous that he couldn't sleep properly but he was in top physical condition. As I watched him sit in the arena and participate in the qualifiers, I thought to myself "Wow, I was so right to do this".
Back then, unlike now, I was looking after BoxeR and also my career at the same time. Seeing him like that made me think that I should leave my career and concentrate on looking after him. Since I was still doing both things, I used to bring my managers to the arenas. I felt so sorry for them and thought for the first time that there was nobody else in the world who could help him but me. I have never made meals more diligently than between that day until the formation of SlayerS Clan. [Laughs] It takes more effort to prepare side dishes for three meals per day.
![[image loading]](http://file.thisisgame.com/board/files/0/img/20110622221051_39daf4f6.jpg)
When it first became public that you were dating BoxeR, didn't a minority of fans react coldly to you? I imagine that you felt discomfort or sadness from their gazes.
I didn't feel sad or uncomfortable. When you think about it, there must be quite a large number of children among his fans and it was more difficult realising that there isn't much I can do to deal with these children. If they were a little adults or a little more mature, I could at least talk to them in person or fight it out if we can't agree, but there are many who are children who have yet to mature.
A certain web community spread a story that I had a fight with one of those fan, but apparently me identifying myself can be expressed as me picking a fight with them. And so over a hundred people left hate messages and so I reported it to cyber investigators but I learned that there really are many types of people. I thought hard over whether I was meant to punish them or to embrace them because they are all BoxeR's fans in the end. It was an incredibly difficult time for BoxeR, too. Seeing that, I realised that I should choose the latter. Having had experience as a celebrity, as someone involved in the gaming industry I just decided to tolerate everything.
You may have decided to embrace and tolerate every fan, but there must be things that you feel are unjust or sadden you.
There was once an accusation that I stole the front row seats of a competition venue. A certain media outlet reported that and so there was a misunderstanding which caused me incredble hurt. Not only that, some people still think that it's true and that it's still being spoken of really saddens me. It's common sense: who would do that kind of thing in this day and age? I understand that the reporter heard it from one of the event staff and made it into an article. That staff member was an SK Telecom fan and escorted me to my seat. But he told [the reporter] that that was how I would steal seats from fans. Allow me to take this opportunity to address the misunderstanding. Allow me to repeat myself that I am not that kind of senseless person who does such inappropriate things.
All the fans who opposed BoxeR and I dating from the moment it was revealed must have had their reasons, right? I was frustrated that instead of me being an older woman, that I am a divorcee, they had an excuse-like reason like me being a rude woman. When I went to the online community that was spreading the unkind story, there were even people claiming to have seen the incident with their own eyes. Reading that made me even more frustrated. At the time, BoxeR was quite disturbed by it, too. He found it regretful that people weren't trying to find out the truth but only trying to make me look bad from the outset.
Actually, weren't there fans who are cheering you two on?
Fans who supported our relationship have been discreetly sending us messages of support. People privately sent PMs or carefully sent us messages so that they wouldn't get caught up in the issue. I once wrote on an online community site that cheering on BoxeR no matter what as he plays his game is the true duty of a fan, but a minority of fans used this to make up a term "fake fan" to attack me.
I've been a celebrity myself so I know that whether it is a celebrity or a sports star, their true fans want to see their stars for a long time. Even BoxeR once said that people who are like that to the death are his true fans. BoxeR showed two sides to his character to the fans, and he advised his fans not to see only the outer shell.
![[image loading]](http://file.thisisgame.com/board/files/0/img/20110622221048_d1c7f1af.jpg)
[b]BoxeR may be practising harder than anyone, but he is now in his 30s. There must be times when there must be, what you might call, a small difference that is physically impossible to close.
Firstly, BoxeR's shoulder is not in a good state. It's almost serious... having tenosynovitis, he can't raise his arm properly. I keep telling him, "Even machines need to take time to be greased. Take a break from practising and rest" but he doesn't. The only resting time that BoxeR allows himself is when sleeps at night, eats his meals and plays soccer with the other players. He takes no vacations, no time to rest and just plays the game. I think he believes that "if I take a small break from playing now, I may never be able to play in the future". That kind of attitude brought on the shoulder strain. Thankfully, he took two days off after the recent NASL pool league, but that is everything.
If one assesses SlayerS Clan, BoxeR is ranked in among the top. I may not be a player of the game, but I do watch over them as an observer. Whether an opponent of BoxeR wins or loses is irrelevant and they will have something to talk about. If they win, they can talk about beating the great BoxeR and if they lose, they can talk about losing to the great BoxeR. That's why he feels a great amount of a different kind of pressure when he competes.
As someone who was that famous in Starcraft [Brood War] as a strategist, the way he thinks about new things is also different. That's why when he started Starcraft 2, he focused too much on the strategy instead of the basics. There are those that say "NesTea is also in his 30s, but he still manages to win", but BoxeR spent such a long time gaining experience and fulfilling achievements in Starcraft [Brood War] that he finds Starcraft 2 a difficult task. He could never perform how he wanted because it was difficult to abandon all the things he had gained in Starcraft [Brood War]. Meanwhile, NesTea had much less style to live up to and could freely compete in his own way. I think those starting Starcraft 2 can achieve more because they have less stubborn habits carrying on Starcraft [Brood War].
I think it will be important for BoxeR to abandon his Brood War style of play. Even he feels its limitations, and we did transition a lot in terms of management and change styles, but the ratio between strategy and management is about 50/50. But I don't think he can throw it all away. I still tell him to play like other Starcraft 2 do, but he perseveres with his style until he hits a limit from his own play.
When do you think BoxeR will be able to meet the expectations of his fans with great results?
It's difficult to put a firm date on it. He might be in a dilemma but he hasn't fallen into a slump. Some people have claim "BoxeR has been relegated to Code A", but those words are incredibly insulting. What about the players who are giving their all to qualify for Code A, what does that make them? What is important is that BoxeR is still able to be active with other players, not that he has been relegated to Code A. Whether it is Code S or Code A, what is important is that he is active as a player.
Fans hope to see BoxeR compete, BoxeR hopes to win the league, I hope to see him play games until the day he wants to stop. I don't think it's important for BoxeR to remain on top, but to remain active in the middle for a long time. No matter what the field of work, rising to the top after falling really is a difficult task.
![[image loading]](http://file.thisisgame.com/board/files/0/img/20110622221053_a9d06c92.jpg)
■ SlayerS Clan, taking the Korean flag on their breast!
SlayerS Clan have a Korean flag on their uniform. This was game team leader Kim Ka-Yeon's idea. She developed the system for SlayerS and plans for international activities.
To achieve this, she wants SlayerS to become an even bigger, and even more secure gaming team. Her goal is not only to have her players work hard to achieve results in the team leagues but also in the individual leagues, to lead them without leaving any player behind and take them abroad to let the world know about Korean gaming teams.
GSTL are you confident of three consecutive GSTL wins when season 4 begins?
We always intend to win three consecutively. We tell the players, "How SlayerS is rated as a team, what kind of position it will be in one years' time will depend on our performance now. So no matter what happens, we do our very best in our current situation". We will be working our hardest not just in GSTL but also in individual leagues, whether it be Code S or Code A.
Of the major Starcraft 2 teams, SlayerS Clan is the only team that is not part of the Starcraft 2 team. Many fans are hoping to see SlayerS join the Association, or even BoxeR become its chairman.
People who live with the responsibility of office in a specialist collective will know that if BoxeR gets the position, then he will be forced to think about this and take responsibility. But BoxeR really isn't in that kind of situation right now. It wouldn't be a problem if he was the type whose ability does not change when he practises less than other people. But he says that "if other players are practising 10 hours a day, I have to practise 20 hours a day".
If he had been given that opportunity when the Starcraft 2 Association first began, he said that he was uncomfortable with the position for those reasons. He hated that the situation would force him to lose concentration in his game and that he wasn't confident about carrying out the role. If there is a need for the figureheads of Starcraft 2 to gather work together, he wouldn't hesitate to participate but he thinks it's most important tight now to concentrate on his game as opposed to doing those kinds of duties from that kind of position.
I wonder what you dream for SlayerS Clan to become as a gaming team.
Baseball and soccer teams receive or establish sponsorships from major corporations and are never short of promotion, as well as audience fees and embarking on a variety of other ventures in a big scale. Starcraft [Brood War] tried to follow this, but it's like a 'frog in a well' [a frog in a well only knows its well and the sky, believing that it is everything about the world].
Starcraft 2 is far more popular [than Brood War] internationally. It's difficult for Korean players to be active internationally, but it's actually incredibly easy to get individual sponsorship from foreign companies if the players are well known. That's why I want to help all the SlayerS players to stay in the team and take them abroad.
Foreign players have never experienced a Korean gaming team's system. Our system of promoting Apprentices up to the First Army, I want to take that system internationally. Even now, there are many foreign players who want to be in SlayerS Clan, but we just don't have the capability to take them in yet.
That you included the Korean flag on the Slayers Clan uniform leaves a deep impression. Is there a reason for this?
There are many reasons why we added the Korean flag to the uniform. The first reason was to let foreign fans know about Korea and the Korean flag, and the second is to instill pride and a sense of responsibility in the players.
At first, only BoxeR's uniform was meant to have the Korean flag but when we were changing the uniforms we included it on all of them. We were thinking of putting a Korean flag on MMA when he went to compete in MLG Columbus, and I'm slightly regretting not doing it [laughs].
![[image loading]](http://file.thisisgame.com/board/files/0/img/20110622221108_3dae7aa1.jpg)
Intel, Razer and others are sponsoring you. Do you plan to expand on these sponsorships?
Of course we have to expand. For that to happen, Starcraft 2 needs to become even more popular in the mainstream in Korea. The main sponsors for SlayerS Clan are currently Intel and Razer, and the reason for their participation is more about the individual popularity of a star player "SlayerS BoxeR" as opposed to the general popularity of Starcraft 2. As an example, we were only able to get EXR as a sponsor for the uniform after contacting Ryu Siwon [Korean actor]. Starcraft 2 sponsorship began as a personal venture, not because of its current market valuation, and it only expanded after MMA's victory.
I understand that Razer sponsors a variety of things but that Slayer Clan currently receives the biggest amount. They will be much happier and expand their contributions as sponsors when the players begin to go international. In Razer's case in particular, I'm grateful to the CEO Min-Liang Tan who has offered to increase the scale of the sponsorship very soon. [Laughs] Aside from our main sponsors, Donga Otsuka provides drinks to our players and Hosan ENG provides the SlayerS players with Korean beef dinners and is responsible for in-team scholarships.
When is the happiest you have been recently?
I feel extremely happy watching BoxeR and the other players sitting down to talk about the game, discussing game strategies or in-game elements. That's the moment when Lim Yohwan really looks like BoxeR. In everyday life, he's just an average guy. But in the game, he is the Emperor.
Some media outlets are reporting that your wedding shall be in the Autumn. When is the marriage planned to be?
We're so busy that we don't have time to get married [laughs]. Even my friends in entertainment keep asking me when the wedding will be but we really are busy. We haven't got time to get married. You probably know that we have the next year entirely scheduled up with GomTV so there's nothing we can do. There's so much time needed for preparing the wedding, the wedding itself and the honeymoon needs to be at least 1-2 weeks... GomTV is the reason I can't get married [laughs]
![[image loading]](http://file.thisisgame.com/board/files/0/img/20110622221412_d3a3f71e.jpg)
Today's subject was about SlayerS. I would like to speak more about how you met BoxeR, your love life and about the marriage on the next time we meet. You'll let me have the first interview, right?
I understand. I'll let you know [laughs]
Original article: thisisgame
Translation: oniontaker @ kpopbros
Contact: oniontaker@soshified.com
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