“What is in a name? What kind of person are they like? Who are they?” These are themes that litter pop culture in every facet. Whether it be fine literature or superhero fiction, learning about the person behind the mask is fascinating and mesmerising for readers. Today, we shine the Overwatch esports community spotlight on someone who painstakingly delivers messages from Korea. He imparts insight from Korean coaches and players alike.

Enter, Robin “TISrobin311” Kil.

Today we learn about the scribe who has gifted us with generous handfuls of content that many people in the West would undoubtedly miss out on. This is a look behind the shroud of the internet. This is Robin Kil, better known as “TISrobin311.”

You mentioned earlier that you're starting your exams, do you mind sharing what you're studying currently?

I’m currently majoring in Economics. I’m only a 2nd grader so I’ve only started with the basics!

If you don’t mind me asking, what about that subject interests you? Have you always enjoyed that or is it something more recent that you’ve enjoyed reading and studying?

I have always enjoyed reading news or journals regarding management/economic issues on entertainment and sports firms as a hobby besides gaming, but some warned me that ‘theory’ is not as entertaining as how it is applied in reality. However, the classes are generally quite fun and I don’t think I’ll ever regret choosing this major.

What brought you into esports? What about esports has captured your attention that you’ve stayed interested?

When I was young I was obsessed with Nintendo games as it was the most popular portable game console at the time. I still remember spending hours trying to crack all the stages for the Super Mario Bros before mom told me to go to sleep! I wasn’t that into esports at the time;  MOBA was 3rd person perspective and slow-paced so it was hard for me to get excited. Of course, that didn’t stop me from watching LoL worlds every year but I wanted a type of online game that was 1st person perspective and fast-paced just like Counter-Strike, and more fantasy-like, such as Team Fortress 2.

Then Overwatch came out. It was exactly my type of game and I realized that if improved in the right direction, it could become a massive esport that I can finally put my heart into. The ability of the pros to use the heroes in a way that I can’t is simply amazing. The reason that I became a fan of Ryujehong ever since Ana’s release was because I was an Ana main after all. How teams develop strategies around the game that I had never thought of is what gets me attracted to esports.

Would you consider it more of just a hobby at the moment? Would you consider actually pursuing this as a career at some point? Perhaps working for a company like OGN or perhaps SpoTV?

Right now, I translate articles/streams when I have the spare time. I am a student after all, and I can’t consider it as a priority when I haven’t even gone to the military, which I’m planning to sometime next year. Right now the future of Overwatch League is not certain and I’m not sure how it’s going to work out until we see Season 1, but I’m optimistic to believe that as long as the development team is quick on the feedback from the community, it will take the exact steps that LoL and Counter-Strike took for the game to become a massive global esport. So I think this will take about 4~5 years. Since I’m interested in learning about how esports organizations, teams, and gaming companies operate from a managerial perspective maybe one day I can make use of my major to be accustomed to it. When I come back from the military, and see how huge Overwatch has become, I might definitely consider committing to esports full time and apply to places like OGN as a staff member!

Have you ever thought about competing or playing a game competitively?

Yes, certainly, but sadly my hands wouldn’t allow me, Hahaha!

You’ve made quite the name for yourself internationally as being the unofficial spokesperson for the Korean Overwatch scene. Has that fame trickled over at all to the Korean scene at all? Do people just assume that you’ll translate their messages for western viewers?

I use the same nickname on Inven and I do the exact same thing over there - translating important Reddit threads and western streams that the Korean community needs to know.

Some of my contributions which I am proud of are translating Reinforce’s reflections he posted on Medium after Misfits finished APEX Season 2 and telling Modern’s message and conveying it to Blizzard Devs. These two posts haven’t received a single downvote (the red box on the right which says ???) and it tells how much the users liked it.

Because of the former post, Reinforce is now known as one of the most popular Western players in Korea for his competitive mindset, and the latter led Inven users to believe that all of us globally share the same complaints and opinions for Overwatch. Even on Inven, I’m one of the very few people who do this for users so I am known over there as the ‘Reddit spokesperson’ and everyone appreciates what I do.

So, I have to as the age old question; why? What drove you to start translating these articles that are pages long for the western audience? I think I can speak for the people and say that we are all incredibly thankful, but what was your reason for doing the translations in the first place?

I was aware that ‘LoL Reddit’ grew by constant support from Korean and Western volunteer contributors who shared all the information they could. However, despite the fact that KR Overwatch scene was beginning to grow and 1st generation talents were popping up starting with the BJ League hosted by Runner, nobody on Reddit was aware of it. Frustrated by this I decided to become the contributor who would spread awareness of Korean pros by posting information about them ever since APAC Premier Season 1 when Lunatic Hai made a name for themselves as the 1st Korean team to compete on the global stage. Initially, I only wrote things about Lunatic Hai players but my posts eventually expanded to other KR pros after the launch of APEX by OGN. This wouldn’t have been possible if I were 1 year younger - I would have been awfully busy preparing for the university entrance exam, and people who know about the KR education system would know just how hard it is to get into college. My hope is that by the time I come back from the military which will be in about 3 years more and more people will become volunteers in Korea who convey valuable content to global fans on Reddit.

What do you think is the biggest concern about Overwatch’s success in Korea? Is there something that still needs to be addressed?

The biggest concern in the KR community regarding Overwatch is not esports. In fact, esports development for Overwatch is progressing quite well and I think global fans are simply amazed at how endless talented teams that can compete on OWL level keeps appearing from APEX Challengers, such as Element Mystic. However, the users are also aware that this will not last long if casual users keep disappearing. The declining rate of Overwatch ratio in PC Bangs is not a trivial matter to Inven users and they have constantly posted complaints on the KR Battle.Net discussion forum asking for the improvement of competitive matchmaking and effective punishment of trolls. They were angry about the fact that nobody responded which led to Modern from Detonator KR personally asking me to relay his message to the global community. The ultimate objective for people in KR is to maintain the high ratio of casual overwatch users, and as long as this is possible Overwatch esports in KR will be successful long-term.

Now that we’ve added another “royal roader” to the history books, what are some of your APEX Season 4 closing thoughts? Was there something you wish could have happened that didn’t? I heard that some of the Korean commentators even mentioned that towards the beginning of the season GC Busan was “forgettable.” What has been the after effects of this teams rise to success?

APEX Season 4 was a season of underdogs. And I expected this because I heard that teams like Lunatic Hai and C9 Kongdoo were going through internal matters for the completion of the OWL contract leading the players to focus less on APEX Season 4. So, I had predicted that neither Lunatic Hai nor C9 Kongdoo will win the season, but another team will. I had expected that team to be Runaway and certainly did not anticipate that GC Busan would showcase themselves like this so stunningly by beating Lunatic Hai and C9 Kongdoo without dropping a single map.

Then again, they are the most sponsored team after Lunatic Hai in Korea as the coach had mentioned in the post-finals interview, so it makes sense how they solidified their teamwork in such a short amount of time since the group stages. GC Busan was relatively unknown initially, the attention towards them dropping even more when they lost to LW Red in the APEX S4 group stage. It is just surprising and ironic to see that 2 months later LW Red disbands and GC Busan becomes the best OW team in the world. They are definitely not ‘forgettable’ now - GC Busan, along with Runaway, are currently the two most famous teams in Korea.

We can’t talk about APEX without mentioning the Seoul Cup. Overall, what was your impression of the new additions to Lunatic-Hai?

Lunatic Hai needed a flexible DPS duo ever since season 2. In APEX season 2 the meta favored them drastically which allowed their tanks and healers to carry the whole team to success. In season 3 Gido’s Tracer play allowed Esca to use his comfort heroes which lifted the pressure for the tank/healer players and allowed the whole team to endure Kongdoo Panthera’s aggression. By season 4 there wasn’t a single team which didn’t know about Lunatic Hai’s play style from head to toe. When I saw them struggling against MVP Space and GC Busan I realized that Lunatic Hai was now too exposed. The opposing teams had VoDs that contained Lunatic Hai matches that ranged from APEX Season 1 to 3 while Lunatic Hai knew relatively nothing about GC Busan. If Lunatic Hai wanted to become a new team that other teams could not predict based on their previous tourneys, they needed a change. They needed new members that enabled them to make more diverse strategies, and those different strategies usually depend on the hero pools of the DPS players. Getting Munchkin and Fleta was the exact solution that Lunatic Hai needed.

Their composition which was almost only Tracer/Soldier(Sombra)/D.Va/Winston/Lucio/Zen previously is now expanded to almost every composition available due to Fleta and Munchkin’s massive hero pool. I asked Fleta how much they practiced with the new Seoul team before facing Miraculous Youngsters (MY), and he replied that they practiced 3 days. 3 days was what it took for them to build teamwork solid enough to beat C9 Kongdoo at the Seoul Cup. It’s simply amazing and I can’t wait to see how they will do in OWL, and I am definitely looking forward to a rematch between Lunatic Hai and GC Busan, which will be Seoul Dynasty vs C9 Kongdoo.

Could you shed a bit of light on what's is going on with KongDoo? They seem to be so good on paper, what’s your take on the situation?

Kongdoo was very good initially and it seemed like they were unstoppable in the group stages. But they were only going against weak opponents which rendered them unprepared for GC Busan’s aggression. More importantly, I heard from Fissure’s stream post-APEX that there have been some internal conflicts between Void and the coaching staff. Void, who was originally flamed for boosting his girlfriend (this is still unconfirmed), was apparently practicing Overwatch only on scrims and spending the rest of his time with his girlfriend when the players were supposed to be enhancing their individual mechanics! When this continued for weeks the managing staff decided to fire Void unilaterally for his lack of practice and only the rest of Kongdoo were signed for the Overwatch League. I’m presuming that they will only get better as long as their teamwork synergizes with the GC Busan members. Seeing Busan’s current dominance, however, I’m worried that Kongdoo members like Birdring will be on the bench for some time.

I’ve noticed that some of your recent Reddit comments have been centered around Mercy. If you had the chance to change her, what would you change about Mercy?

I definitely do not like the way Mercy is right now. Overwatch is supposed to be an hyper-FPS game which is supposed to reward players for their attempts to kill the opposing heroes with their aim and skill. Mercy denies that completely when her ‘resurrection’ becomes a skill. Imagine that a Tracer manages to successfully stick a pulse bomb onto a McCree, and Mercy revives him instantly with her resurrection. This basically means that a Tracer’s Pulse Bomb stick has equivalent value to a Mercy’s ‘skill’. This should not be happening. An ultimate should never have similar worth as another hero’s skill and the new Mercy right now destroys the balance completely. Some pro healers in APEX recently suggested moving Mercy’s Valkyrie to ‘skill’ (except the resurrection ability) and roll back the resurrection to ‘ultimate’, with a cooldown of 5 seconds in 20 seconds total. So basically her ultimate enables her to rez 4 people in 20 seconds presuming that she stays alive. Of course, this may need improvement depending on how she turns out on the live patch but I personally think it’s a good place to start. Recently Jeff Kaplan posted on Battlenet that they are planning on nerfing Mercy’s skill so I’ll wait and see the changes on PTR.

Last but not least, any message to leave for the community? Anything you’d like to leave off with?

Thank you to all Reddit Overwatch esports fans for appreciating my content and translations. I will continue to devote my time to the community as long as I can, and I sincerely hope that one day Overwatch esports will become the biggest esports there is!

If you would be interested in reading more of TISrobin311’s translations or content you can find them here or on his Twitter, @tisrobin331:

— Interesting Fatcts about Runner that many don’t know about

— Lunatic Hai Coach’s Analysis on Rogue vs Kongdoo Panthera APEX Season 3

— How APEX members Consider Winston as the Most Important Hero in the Competitive Scene

— Lunatic Hai Coach’s Analysis on Rogue vs Lunatic Hai APEX Season 3

— Lunatic Hai Coach’s Thoughts Watching Takeover 2

— APEX Caster’s Analysis on LW Blue vs Lunatic Hai

— Lunatic Hai Coach Recaps the Last 3 Weeks of APEX Season 3

— APEX Caster Yongbongtang’s Intake of Declining Overwatch Usage in Korea

— Lunatic Hai Coach A.M.A

— Lunatic Hai Coach Discusses Various Things with Fans After Finals

— Zunba on World Cup Observers

— Controversies in Korea - the Summary

— Inven Debate regarding Miro’s Winston

— Former Flash Lux Modern’s Statement on the Current State of Overwatch

Joseph “Volamel” Franco has followed esports since the MLG’s of 2006. He started out primarily following Starcraft 2, Halo 3, and Super Smash Bros. Melee. He has transitioned from viewer to journalist and writes freelance primarily about Overwatch and League of Legends. If you would like to know more or follow his thoughts on esports you can follow him at @Volamel.